The New Moon says
"For us, by us"

Hey, Reader! My parents, Bren & Ken, just hit 50 years of marriage. 🥳

Yes, fifty! They tied the knot back when Gerald Ford was president, Farrah Fawcett's flip was flipping, and Stevie Wonder released his classic album, Songs in the Key of Life.​
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So I've spent the last couple of weeks planning a family getaway to celebrate them and raise a glass in their honor. And when I sat down to look at the month ahead, I realized this is what it's about.

On July 14th, the Sun and the Moon will have their monthly tryst in the sign of Cancer, and Cancer is family. Roots, home, the people who raised you, and the ones you don't play about. The Sabian Symbol for this chart's ascendant is...

There’s a need for people to come together to make commitments and vows to each other.

The degree of this New Moon (19 Cancer) also lines up with the 3 of Cups in tarot, which is associated with celebration, sharing good ideas, communication, and enjoying the presence of like-minded people. Awww. Warm and fuzzy, right?

So, go ahead and call your folk. Show up to the thing.

But you may want to read this before ya head off to the cookout...

🦀 The circle and who's outside it

The instinct that pulls your people close is the same one that builds a wall around them. I love the Cancers in my life, but from a mundane (worldly) standpoint, I don't love it, and this is why.

No matter how you dress it up, a white picket fence is still a fence. "This is ours" becomes, "and you can't have it, so get off my lawn (before I call the cops)." Protective love curdles. It's giving "Worst Neighbor Ever". (Psst... Hit me up if you watched the docuseries and want to debrief.)

But yeah... you'll feel this vibe on the world stage this month. The chart keeps smudging the line between the neighbor and the enemy until they're the same face. For the U.S., we can expect beef with neighboring countries.

🏛️ The rot at the top

The country's leadership is sitting under a heavy fog of deception and illness. There is a planetary combination that means the mob, and it is highlighted this month.

And underneath the fog, things somehow get even shadier. Expect (even more) corruption in the halls of power. Government money tied to backroom dealings. Real trouble in ruling circles, the kind that ends with a seat suddenly empty and a second-in-command doing their best "I did not want this job, but here we are" walk to the podium.

It all keeps pointing at the same room. The people at the top look sick, crooked, or halfway out the door, and the chair itself is wobbling like it's got one leg shorter than the rest. If a big name in power goes quiet this month, this is the weather it's happening in.

🔥 Sudden fire

The chart holds a signature for something sudden and explosive: fire in the literal sense, firearms, and a public that's tense and ready to go off.

There's a heavier note tucked into this moment. Expect sexual violence in the headlines, and be on the lookout for stories around militant women.

What to do with all this

This month is a mixed bag, so here are some thoughts to get us through.

• Pull your people close.
• Shake sumn!
• Ask yourself whether your walls are keeping people safe or just keeping people out.
• Don't get swept into the fear-of-the-outsider current running through the news. When the whole world is playing us-versus-them, that's exactly the moment to stay clear-eyed about who the actual danger is.

🃏 Big Deck Energy

The question I'm asking on our behalf this month: What's the difference between protecting our people and shutting the world out?

Temperance, reversed.

Upright, Temperance is the sweet spot. Two cups, filled with life, easily pass the life back and forth between them. Reversed, that flow just stops. The cups go empty.

The difference between protecting your people and shutting the world out is force. Protection has flow in it. You hold what matters and you let the rest do its thing. Walling things off requires effort, a deathly grip, and bulldozing your way to safety -- leaving yourself exhausted.

Temperance reversed looks like competing interests, everybody arguing, the exhausting sensation of shoving a boulder uphill while the universe stands there asking why you're making it so hard.

The card also flags messier stuff: corruption, bad advice, and people splitting up, which tracks with what we saw in the chart.

Reversed, Temperance points us back to the Death card, reminding us that the wall won't work because you're trying to force an outcome without letting go of the old shape of things first. You have to put something down. Something like the grudge, the version of the story where you're always under attack, or the rigid idea of who belongs and who doesn't. Nothing new flows in until you do.

So the read for us this month: guard your people, absolutely. But if protecting them has turned into a full-time job of keeping the whole world out, you've moved from Mama Bear to Maleficent. Loosen your grip. Let a little life back through.

P.S. If this month has you wondering where your own gates are, that's the kind of thing a reading is good for. I'll pull up your chart, and we'll look at where you're holding on too tight and where it's safe to fall back. Book a reading.​