Due to its retrograde travel, Mars will tenant the sign of Aquarius through the middle of November. In general, Mars in Aquarius is one of your better transits for hitting the refresh button, for personal/lifestyle/social reinvention. Although Mars in Aquarius is built for speed, thanks to the retrograde cycle, you’ll have extra time to figure yourself out and/or to come up with something new. A pull back, time-out, and rethink is an ideal way to make use of the transit. You can also find yourself occupied by a temporary involvement, project, or sidetrack.

Are you feeling or craving a bigger disconnect from the outside world or your everyday reality? If so, you are plugged into the workings of Mars retrograde in Aquarius. On the surface, Mars retrograde, is well aligned with a summertime kick-back. On the deeper level, through the staging of circumstances, Mars retrograde creates a window of opportunity to self examine and to break a chain of subjective replay so new pathways can be forged regarding how you identify with yourself and your creative process. Mars retrograde gives you time to observe yourself/the action from a different vantage point. The intention is to stoke the inner rebel, to rework your instincts and impulses so that you act or get involved in ways that are progressive and liberating, that are in keeping with the cutting edge you, not the old you.

Mars retrograde is in full swing now and gaining extra turbo through the end of the month. Take a vacation. It’s an ideal transit for a change of pace/scenery. Clear extra time to explore the workings of your heart and mind. An added degree of separation between you, it, them, and/or more of the same can only do you good.

Eclipse month is upon you. it could be a life-altering month or few, especially so if your birthday is on or near July 12, or the eclipses make a dynamic aspect to personal planets.

The solar eclipse on July 12 is a partial eclipse and a super moon. If you are born on or near July 12, you have likely already felt the workings of this eclipse for the past few weeks. There’s a lot to reflect on; the eclipse puts you in touch with the past and the workings of your subconscious. It can prompt the re-surfacing of long forgotten memories or buried emotions. If you wonder why it is difficult to keep emotions under good control or find that you are the target for another’s displaced emotions, it is because the eclipse is triggering the unfinished business of the past. A personal or health relapse is within possibility too. Despite a replay that you may not want to deal with, this new moon solar eclipse brings you to the finishing stage of a lengthy life chapter and the launch of a new one. Moving past the past is the ticket for moving into the next phase of life. Aim to lighten the load in whatever way you can. Downsize, forgive, hold yourself accountable, do your part to the best of your ability.

Have you been thinking lately that you have better places to be, better ways to spend your time, money, and heart? Quality over quantity, Mars retrograde can be put to best use when you consciously choose to a pull yourself away from the marginal, and the time and money wasters. At the very least, take a vacation!  Gift yourself with more fresh air/more oxygen/more breathing space. A refuel can only do you good.

Beyond a good time to take a vacation and to enjoy the season’s best, the eclipse of July 12 can prompt a significant breakthrough regarding a long-standing issue from your past. The eclipse can prompt a release of long buried emotions and resentment. You could fast track into a new lifestyle and/or get a fresh handle on a new you. A significant relationship can move to a new or next level. That could mean a goodbye or hello. You are likely to feel a strong sense of fate or karmic destiny at play. Of course, an eclipse must make direct contact to your chart to be of significant impact, otherwise, you’ll experience the impact as an indirect or outer world influence, or as only slightly stronger new moon or full moon.

In general, Mars in Aquarius is one of your best Mars transits. Due to its retrograde tour (June 26 to August 27), you stand to gain from Mars through the middle of November. Mars in Aquarius boosts your social life, creativity, desire for independence and freedom. This Mars transit makes more of a risk taker, innovator, explorer, and rebel. A think for yourself transit, while Mars travels retrograde, it creates a wider degree of separation between you and another, between you and it or them. Mars retrograde prompts you to put yourself/your wants and needs first, to think more in terms of “me” instead of “we”.  Noting that the Libra archetype often has an issue with enmeshment or co-dependency, that can be a good thing.  Making it too obvious to ignore, Mars retrograde turns up the spotlight on an issue, objective, or involvement that needs review and reformatting.

Jupiter in Scorpio ends retrograde on July 10. Since March, the transit has likely kept you well occupied with tracking down more and/or getting yourself further ahead. Perhaps these past few months have kept you buried deep in product development or occupied with a specific matter. No doubt you have become more conscious of your internal process and have found yourself questioning your motives, ambition, investments, or involvements. Perhaps trust issues have been chipping away at you. Such is the nature of Jupiter’s self improvement, soul searching or confront yourself mission.

Feeling less interested in socializing or subjecting yourself to outer world bullshit? Feeling as though the air has been let out of your tires? Mars retrograde can see you (or it) lose steam. It’s is an ideal transit for an unplug. It is not the best transit for making new inroads or for forging ahead, at least not in the same direction you were heading before the retrograde began.

Saturn and Pluto have been travelling retrograde through Capricorn since the end of April. Both transits could make you feel that you are being held up or back, but see their influence as buying you time instead. Saturn has just surpassed the half way mark of its retrograde cycle, Pluto will do so on the solar eclipse in Cancer, July 12. It’s a partial eclipse and a super moon, a “high tide” influence. You will feel the transformative effect of this eclipse the strongest if your birthday falls on or near January 10.

Mars, now travelling retrograde in Aquarius, is on an internal combustion ramp-up. It will reach a peak of potency by end of July when it will shine its brightest in the evening sky. The red planet is travelling closer to the earth than it has in two years. It is also travelling in its closest proximity to the sun since 2003. Noting this fact, expect Mars to supply significant added fuel to the total lunar eclipse on July 27. You will feel the catapulting effects of this total lunar eclipse the strongest if your birthday falls on or near January 23 to 25. You can feel Mercury retrograde – or the effects of the eclipse in a Mercury retrograde type of way – if your birthday falls on or near February 12.

Whether you take an official vacation, or you hang around right where you are, more quality time spent with loved ones – including yourself – is a healing balm. The partial solar eclipse in Cancer on July 12 can be shaping or re-directing in some significant way, especially so if it makes direct contact to your natal chart. Emotional floodgates can open. It can remove a block, the resistance, or the low hanging ceiling. Putting you better in touch with yourself and with those who have your heart, the eclipse finds you highly attuned, sensitized, and/or readily triggered. You’ll readily tap/draw from a deep emotional reservoir. Emotionally or otherwise, it’s a full circle journey. The past serves a major springboard for what comes next.