Cancer, the Mommy sign, and Leo, the Daddy sign, govern July.

The first part of July is dominated by the sensitive, emotional sign of Cancer. We are concerned with the home front, family reunions, security, patriotism, and all things near and dear to our hearts. Perhaps as the Sun’s light begins to diminish we feel a need to draw closer to the hearth. In the Southern Hemisphere, the deepest winter can spark a similar urge.

As the month moves on, radiant fire-sign Leo begins to shine, and we rise renewed from that family hearth, ready to express the flame that shines within us.

In cardinal Cancer we reach for comfort and security. In fixed Leo we hold our ground. Leo wants to be king/queen of the mountain, and because it does not give way it is more prone to conflict. Many baby boomers, including our last two presidents, were born with strong Leo energy which will now be stimulated.

All Cancer Sun signs now start their new solar year. This includes a hefty contingent in the Western hemisphere—the United States, George W. Bush, Canada, Venezuela, Vicente Fox, and Donald Rumsfeld. Afghanistan and Iraq also have their Suns in Cancer. The beginning of any new cycle is most active, so we can expect emotions to run high, and many security concerns to come up in July.

As Leo energy moves in towards the end of the month, conflict will arise about who’s in charge, and their manner of dominating.

One of the underlying themes of the month is working out how to use aggression in a way which nurtures us.

Ceres, the Great Mother, is especially important during Cancer time. She will be in mid-Aries for the entire month, where she will nurture by encouraging self-assertion and martial actions. This is a great opportunity to learn to use our anger as a fuel for positive change.

Ceres relates to the entire food cycle, including labor and labor problems. We can expect strikes and labor disputes to come to a head now. Ceres will also encourage demonstrating and speaking out against those people and groups whom we consider non-nurturing. Long-suppressed family conflicts may also emerge.

The U.S. government will be challenged, for Ceres opposes both the U.S. Saturn—authority—and the U.S. progressed Mars—military and police action.

In addition the U.S. natal Mars, and transiting Mars, are featured from the very start of the month. The natives will be restless.

The other underlying harmonic of the month relates to the resurrection of technology for the future.

The other month-long aspect is Pallas Athena opposing Transpluto. Pallas Athena is now in Aquarius, where she is the voice of the future. She conjoins Uranus, who incites revolution, progress, and reform. Pallas is the strategist, Uranus the inventor, and in Aquarius science and technology are the means.

Pallas is also the defender. With the company she is keeping now, she pertains to missile defense and all defensive measures to assure future security, including everything from a world in which social justice prevails to a police state. In the mental sign of Aquarius, defense can include everything from adherence to a code of human rights and democratic procedure to development of remote viewing and mind control. Telepathy and all ESP are also enhanced.

Transpluto is traveling in the opposite sign of Leo. Transpluto is the principle of earthy resurrection, and since its entry into Leo in 1939 has been resurrecting world leadership—i.e., Leo energies. Transpluto moves slowly, and will enter Virgo in 2011, just in time for the target date for vibrational change of December 21, 2012. In the meantime, tussles for king-of-the-mountain continue.

This opposition indicates the resurrection of technology for the future, particularly in regard to defense. Special insight, inventiveness, and innovation are extraordinarily keen now.

We can also resurrect our lives in a new form, particularly in regard to connection with our hearts, ruled by Leo.

The Leo planetary energy now entering Earth’s field will help us with this rediscovery of our heart centers, and our ability to infuse our lives with love.

Black holes add turmoil and unpredictability to July.

There are no planets giving us the excitement of changing direction this month. There are no eclipses. Also, there are very few squares, which are the challenging, stressful (and most creative) aspects. In the ephemeris this looks like a very peaceful month.

But the month is loaded with planetary placements conjoining Black Holes, which are very high energy vortexes that suck in everything in the vicinity. Black Holes depict areas of susceptibility to dramatic, intense, sometimes violent and usually unsuspected shifts in the status quo reality. Alex Miller-Mignone has written about black hole influences, and I find his work very sound.

Alex says that the basic essence of a black hole is change, especially sudden, dramatic reversals of the status quo reality. What has gone before is no more, and bears little, if any, resemblance to what will come.

Black holes are metaphoric of major life passages, passing from one state of awareness to another. They are also metaphors for where we feel trapped, or disempowered, and suffer a loss of energy.

Finally, says Alex, black holes stand for the alienation we experience in modern society.

Here is one example of Black Hole action. At the time of the 9-11-01 attack, Black Hole Nemesis, along with Mercury, was rising on the East Coast. The term "nemesis" originally meant "due enactment," but it has come to mean divine vengeance.

Nemesis’ role was to step in and exact punishment when some favored mortal had boasted of his good fortune without giving due thanks, and properly giving of his largesse to public charity. It was Nemesis’ task to intervene and humiliate the offender, sometimes depriving him of all he had to make her point.

Now in July, Black Holes Kali, Parvati, Apsu, Hecate, Pele, Inanna, and Durga all fall on critical degrees. Mythology buffs might like to check out their stories to get a feel for this month’s reality shifts.

In general, July is when we begin to solidify our eclipse changes, which have everything to do with connections, information, business, and relationships. We do this through striving for our own security, creating forms and boundaries in our lives, and reconnecting with our heart energy.

Gemini, the Twins, is the dominant sign for this year. We will have many choices before us. Our major choices this month involve those options which truly make our lives more secure.