Cancer II, the realm of Hekate, welcomes the Sun to a Moon-administered desmene on July 12, 2022 at 4:31 am EDT. Austin Coppock called these ten degrees The Overflowing Cup, which are correlated with the four of cups in the Rider-Waite-Smith Tarot deck: a young man seated beneath a tree, arms folded in impatience while a magical hand presents him with a fourth cup to match the three he already has. The third decan is administered by the Moon, in the anaretic (last) degree of Sagittarius — she’s almost debilitated, but not quite; there’s some fire left in her, after all, despite being on the verge of having her least-powered full moon of the year.

With the Sun below the horizon, we’re in a night chart — lending additional strength to Venus and Mars and subtracting power from Jupiter and Saturn, as well as from Mercury who is playing for the wrong team this week. Additionally, we’re in a situation in which householders see the economic issues that affect themselves most clearly: both Luminaries are below the horizon, and the experts (Mercury) are with them too. However, all the other planets are above the horizon, making big policy decisions that have little effect on the common person. You may be getting help from outside eventually — but it won’t be this week. The Imum Coeli in the third house urges you to look to your closest friend and extended family for help and comfort, and indicates that you’ll find happiness closer to home than on long trips elsewhere.

The residents of ancient Alexandria looked to Hekate in this ten-day season of the year: the three-faced goddess of the three-way crossroad, the mother of black dogs, the carrier of the torch, the one who collects the fat from the hangman’s gallows, the one who keeps the keys of heaven and hell. Did they look to her because they feared her, and needed magical assistance to get through the summer starvation window? Or did they celebrate her because the magic worked, and here they were on the other side of spring as this year’s fresh food started to adorn the dinner table? It may be worth noting that this decan is associated with one of Hekate’s symbols, the friendly black dog — and that the Sun is riding close to two stars in the sky right now, the dogs Canis Major and Canis Minor, especially signified by the stars Sirius and Procyon. . The Sun and Sirius conjuncted on July 6 — literally the two brightest stars in Earth’s sky. On July 18, at 1:38 pm EDT, the Sun will conjunct Procyon at 26° Cancer 05′ — one of the top-ten brightest stars in our night’s sky. Thus, between those two dates, July 6-18, the Sun will walk arm-in-arm between the two Dog-Stars, both of them lost and blacked out in the brightness of our solar system’s own Torchbearer. We should find ourselves wondering what the ancients were thinking of, dedicating this time of year to Hekate — are we doing apotropaic work, to keep the Sun and his companions from striking us down in the dog days of summer? Or are we celebrating the extra burst of heat and light that gives power to our work as three of the brightest stars in the sky go walking together, our own brilliant home-star and her two black dogs out for a walk? It reads true, either way, especially in a pandemic year.

The Full Moon of July 13 will put the Sun and Moon in mutual reception, each in a decan ruled by the other, with the Moon making its monthly conjunction with Pluto. It’s a season for unusual self-insight, one in which you know your emotions are in the driver’s seat but choose to let the irrational side of yourself take the wheel to bring about significant change. Magic has been described as the art of changing consciousness in accordance with will, and there’s something to that idea here — Hekate helps us make the decisions that allow us to set a new course, and the Moon and Pluto amplify that decision.

The dodecatemoria or 12th-parts of this decan are Pisces, Aries, Taurus and Gemini — a story that starts off with duality and ends with duality, yet duality of a new kind. The duality of Pisces is contradictory, with two fishy opinions swimming in opposite directions. Yet in Aries a new kind of fire arises, one which quickly takes physical shape, and which presents a kind of intellectual compromise, one in which there are two opinions but no expectation of disconnection, contrariness or confusion between them.

Planetary Positions

The Sun and Mercury are both in Cancer in the first house, below the Ascendant. The herald takes their joy in this first house, and lends speech of caring, nurturing and compassion to all that we undertake these next ten days — but be cautious, for this applies equally to friends and rivals; your hardest enemy is capable of sweet-tongued commiseration, though their opinion of you remains unchanged. Attend to the light in the eyes as they speak.

The Nodal Axis dumps its junk in the fifth house, in the decan called The Crow. A transition to a new decan is coming in a few days, but for now there’s a sense of “hold on to all the shiny things that give you happiness” — and that urgency echoing back as trouble. Not all the shiny, happy things that bring us pleasure are genuinely good for us right now; be on guard against casual habits that bring you joy but also secret kinds of trouble. The North Node, the hunger of the present moment, is retrograde in the third decan of Taurus The Prayer Beads, indicative of our desire for circumstances to return to normal routines, particularly the ones that bring us pleasure or connections with others. For now, the message of the two nodes is to be cautious about the hunger, for the diarrhea that follows is likely to erase the comforts that are founded in the routine.

The Moon is in the sixth house, cadent in Sagittarius, and in the anaretic degree. This is also the Twenty-first Mansion of the Moon, “The City” — a place associated with the coming-together of church and state forces, and the separation of wives and husbands. The stage is being set for a number of divorces, and the foundation of several marriages are likely on the rocks, as traditional or historic forms of leadership around the world crumble — or as religious and political leadership systems either conjoin or collide, first in casual ways, and then in lockstep. This need not be a permanent state of affairs, but the relative strength and fragility of family systems of political systems will be stress-tested in the next ten days.

The Lot of Fortune and Pluto are both in the seventh house, in Capricorn. The place of the Others in our lives — spouses, business partners, rivals, foes — is strongly emphasizing the first and third decans of the sign, called The Headless Body and The Throne. The first is associated with having fun and not paying attention to the things of the spirit, or paying no mind to the long-term issues. The third is associated with the fulfillment of the will of higher-order powers. The decan between them is called The Pyramid, and it’s associated with oppression — being squeezed between one’s own wants and needs, and the powers of those above you that can coerce, cajole, or threaten you into meeting their expectations and demands. The vise will clamp hard in the next ten days, and you may wish to do a thorough review of your wants and needs… and focus more on the second than the first.

Saturn remains, as he’s been for nearly two and a half years, in Aquarius. In this chart he’s in the eighth house and the third decan The Knot, a place strongly associated with the idea of unraveling and with entropy. Administered by the Moon from a separating dexter sextile, she’s both breaking free of the Grumpy Old Man’s influence, and hamstrung by his decree that things must break down a bit more before the end. Saturn has one more retrograde to go in this decan before leaving for Pisces in March 2023 — we’re not at rock-bottom yet, friends.

Both the Midheaven and Neptune are in Pisces in the ninth house. Fame and fortune are far off for most influencers, of late, but more and more of the capacities of the academic establishment are washed away, or subject to the dissolving forms of zealotry. Zealotry can take many forms, but it’s almost always a political or social opinion without nuance. Be cautious about publishing either your hot takes or your more nuanced responses right now — they’re unlikely to land well, or be seen as an appropriate solution to anything.

Jupiter is lonely in the tenth house, in Aries’ first decan The Double Bladed Axe. We may find our professional abilities are valued most of all for discernment and for cutting through the confusion, making broad and expansive choices that have long-lasting consequences.

Mars, Uranus and the North Node are in Taurus in the eleventh house. The obvious ‘hunger’ in the present moment is a desire to ‘get back to normal’ with friends, family, and other social relations in theaters and restaurants, yoga studios and gymnasiums. Unexpected processes and argument overturn expectations — people will continue to insist on autonomy even if it kills them, and it’s entirely possible that it will. As a special note, Mars will be in Taurus until August 21 (conjuncting Uranus on August 1-2, which is likely to be an ugly surprise). Then he enters Gemini; and it will be in Gemini until March 2023 due to its once-every-two years retrograde period. These periods when Mars is in a single sign for long periods are usually pretty difficult; plan accordingly based on where Gemini is in your chart.

Horoscopes by Rising Signs

The Horoscopes are made available to the public when the Sun is in the first decan of each sign; Horoscopes of the second decan are made available to my Patreon supporters at the $3/month tier and higher, or to supporters through Ko-fi.com. Horoscopes for the third decan are made available to Patreon and Ko-Fi subscribers, and to subscribers to my email list.

Colophon

I have a Patreon account for those who want to support this column as it continues its third year. I use Patreon funds (as well as my own funds) to support artists and artisans and thinkers that I regard as contributing to the well-being of the world. if you don’t want to become a regular patron, you can also buy me a Ko-fi in $3 increments, and any column I write after receiving a Ko-Fi donation will be open to the public.  You can also schedule an appointment with me using Accuity Scheduling, for a natal or solar return consultation.

I use iPhemeris for my charting software, and screenshot it to make charts. I want to thank the team that develops iPhemeris for the addition of Terms and Decans to their charts, appearing here for the first time! I use Hugh Tran‘s Physis typeface to craft logos for this blog, as well.

I use Christopher Warnock‘s The Mansions of the Moon as the basis of my Moon placement delineations, and Austin Coppock‘s 36 Faces as the basis of much of my planetary delineations. Neither gentleman endorses me. My own book, A Full Volume of Splendour and Starlight, is now available as PDF download from my Etsy website, as is my Almanac for 2021. Any errors in these columns are my own.

If you’d like to schedule a consultation with me, you can find additional information on the Services and Classes page.

If you want to read some of my other astrologically-oriented poetry, To the Mansions of the Moon is a collection of hymns to the angels of the Mansions mentioned in these columns. For the Behenian Stars is a collection of hymns to the first/brightest sixteen stars. The Sun’s Paces are hymns to the thirty-six Hellenistic-era deities and ascended souls of the Greco-Egyptian Decans-calendar. While not astrological, Festae contains hymns to some of the older Roman gods and spirits from the calendar created by Numa Pompilius, the second ancient King of Rome.