July’s Last Quarter Moon: Renewing Righteousness

Tomorrow, Sunday, July 15th, we’ll be heading into the last quarter moon, back towards the inwardness of the dark, integrating whatever experiences have happened during the last three weeks of this lunar cycle.
This moon will be conjunct Eris, the goddess of chaos, strife, and discord. Close by, Uranus is squaring Mars, who is getting eaten up by the Sun. Venus is squaring Neptune and forming a fluid trine with Jupiter. Jupiter is leaning deeper into his square with Pluto, and Saturn is pretty much sitting stationary in the sky.
Mars going combust the Sun heralds a new phase in expressing masculine heroism and athleticism. This new cycle will begin on July 26th, ending a cycle that started in July of 2015. In a square with Uranus, there might be a sense that some great quantum leaps might be possible. We might sniff the presence of some electric, synchronistic change. With Mars dying into the Sun, though, there might be feeling that a neat conclusion needs to occur before this new, clear impulse to action can be fully expressed. This might feel like the end of a battle—maybe giving up the fight, finding a diplomatic synthesis, or integrating the fruits of some separating quest back into the ground it came from.
This last quarter moon conjunct Eris brings a feeling that some sort of cosmic rebalancing might be necessary as a part of this new direction. Eris is a trickster, a subversive whistleblower, and warrior for social justice. She does this through overturning established, static manners of doing things, embracing chaos and change as necessary nutrients for strong and dynamic systems. These might be external traditions or our own stubborn aloofness. As we enter the dark of the moon with Eris in the next couple days, you might listen to what radical yet compassionate cues she’s left for you. What feels funny and righteous? What do you feel would return the world to a state of equilibrium?
Eris is also in a nice trine with Saturn, who is stationing retrograde. Here, we might consider that we are retracing our steps, digging inwardly to discover and build a new structure that will support and contain our next forward push. Saturn will be going direct at the end of August, and until then, you might consider his connection with Eris. How might we get we unite our sense of discipline with a desire for justice?
In the week leading up to the new moon, Venus will be activating, harmonizing, and beautifying another set of planetary interactions. At the moment, she is making a smooth, easy meeting with Jupiter, opening the door for creative connections and expansive interactions. Think teamwork, benefactors, and lessons in living an artistic life. Jupiter is also in a square with Pluto right now, reworking the way we navigate the darker dimensions of life, and so with Venus around, we might stay tuned for a guide to help us transmute some shadowy, emotionally frozen energy.
Venus is also in a square with Neptune, which invokes divine or otherworldly romance. We might contemplate a lover that comes to us in a dream or a nearly erotic desire for something beyond the mundane. Venus and Neptune can also speak to the birthing of dreams and the aesthetic expression of our imagination. As with any Neptunian encounter, we have to guard against delusion or glamor. Are we in the play (in-ludo) with life, or are we stuck in an isolating identity?
This next lunar cycle will be exciting, featuring our two eclipses for this half of the year. The one on the 21st will be particularly cool—it’s the first time an eclipse will make landfall exclusively in the United States since 1776! Day will suddenly turn into night, and I’m trying to figure out if I can make it to a place to experience it.
Astrologically, this eclipse will be happening on the North Node, opening a portal towards the destiny we are hungry for. As we dip into the new moon, Mercury will be transiting this North Node, giving us an opportunity to conceptualize and contemplate what we might like out of this opportunity before it manifests a few weeks later. Mercury’s next retrograde cycle will also end right where the Sun is on this eclipse, giving us a chance to really stew on the energy after its inception. Just as Mercury goes direct, on September 5th, Mars push past it, giving our minds a nice, fierce and physical tailwind in which to follow. All in all, it’s a pretty rad sequence of events.
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