If you were expecting some kind of sun sign nonsense, forget about it. This is real astrology for the real world. If it's real astrology for yourself that you want, you can get it by phone or in print. And if you need help deciphering the astrological glyphs in the graphics accompanying this article, see Astroglyphs: Astrological Symbols Guide. Please note: this forecast is expressed in terms of Universal Time (UT). Also please be aware that, while I never change a forecast once it's published, I do post errata to acknowledge typographical errors and the like.
There is something in omens.
-- Ovid
 

July is another focal point for the Great T-Square of 2010, as potent a window in time as there is in this year of social, political and economic storms. As above, so below: this month it means that major celestial alignments accompany a growing rift in the business as usual, status quo time stream. The changes accelerate, and here and there burst through, in the way of social, political, cultural and economic disturbances, shakedowns and breakdowns – including panic in the markets and riots in the streets.

Up above, Saturn is within a few degrees of opposing Jupiter and Uranus and squaring Pluto the whole month long – with Mars joining in at the Saturn end of the opposition for most of the last week in July. To top all that off, the opposition from Saturn to Uranus is exact on the 26th, and the Ringed Planet aligns with the Red One on the 31st. And there’s more: Uranus and Jupiter both make their retrograde stations in July (on the 5th and 23rd respectively), spending the whole month within a degree of their station points. Here below, the tension between what could (should?) be and what is, is reaching a snapping point. Debt, default, bankruptcy: these are key issues under this kind of alignment. And they’re way bigger than usual. Personal and corporate bankruptcies, central banks and governmental agencies going into default (including cities and states, entire nations even): these are growing concerns this year in general, and this summer in particular.

The global financial crisis is a major focus of this theme for 2010 as a whole, as noted in my 2010 World Forecast Highlights; and July is one of those months when it all comes together and runs us down from behind. We keep trying to outrun it, and it keeps catching up again – as in January-February, as in May-June, per my forecast. And now again in July . . .

It’s more than money, of course. This is after all the fifth and final apparition of the 2008-2010 quintuple Saturn-Uranus opposition, the one that I described years ago as a celestial signature of "panic in the markets, panic in the streets, people in need of rescue, just a whiff of revolution in the air." There’s panic in the markets and in the streets here and there all month long . . . but especially around the time of the total solar eclipse on the 11th, and the full moon on the 26th; probably the latter period in particular, falling right in the thick of Great T-Square as it does. Watch for significant turbulence in the major equity and currency markets from about the 2nd through the 16th, and from the 23rd through the end of the month – and corresponding disturbances in the streets, what with the "whiff of revolution in the air" and all. (Watch the whipsawing that takes place in the currency and equity markets during the week of the 12th, what with the Moon’s alignments with Mercury, then Venus, then Saturn on the 13th, 15th and 16th respectively.)

My regular clients know this, but I’ll mention it in passing here and now for the benefit of newcomers: never make a fetish of exact dates. There’s enough quantum flux in the Universe, and enough silliness and vanity in the human ego, to make exact anything a fiction. Decades of practical experience has taught me to allow three days either way of a full moon or a regular new moon, and seven days either way of a solar eclipse, to see its manifestation. (Likewise, a degree or two at least coming into and leaving a major planetary alignment.) Practically speaking, this means that pretty much all of July is firmly in the grasp of the 2010 T-Square – but most especially the last half of the month, containing as it does several exact major planet alignments as well as the full moon.

Another point well known to regulars but worth emphasizing to newbies is that no one should expect Armageddon during the turbulent times of July. (After all, the June 26 lunar eclipse brought a triple-digit drop in the Dow – a profitable event if you were short the DJI, certainly not the end of the world.) Long before the CNBC talking heads caught on to the "new normal" paradigm, I’ve been saying that the current recession is part of a secular shift that won’t be accomplished until 2020 at least. Likewise, long before the card-carrying pundits started talking about a "double-dip" recession, I’ve been saying to expect, not a V-shaped recovery, but "a W (or double-W)". So don’t look for a phantasmagoric collapse to precipitate zombies and call forth Mad Max and the Road Warriors this month or next; or a miraculous turnaround and return to the salad days of years gone by. The salad days will come again – after 2020, and it will be a very different salad then. For now, this is just another settling of the soufflé, a time to step aside, make sure you’ve got a cash stash and a go-bag ready just in case, and meanwhile short the major markets while keeping a sharp eye out for good stocks at a discount.

Don’t get tunnel vision about this month, either. It isn’t just about panicky markets, currency gyrations, sovereign debt defaults and subsequent rioting in the streets. There’s more to July than that. Consider that the Saturn-Uranus opposition part of the current T-Square was around back in 1873-1875, during the quintuple alignment of these two planets that coincided with the Panic of 1873 – what Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman recently called the "Long Depression". That this same alignment has been up there in the heavens again since 2008, during the onset and development of what’s being called, for now, the "Great Recession," may suggest that this is strictly the cosmic signature of social, economic and political upheaval. But sometimes things happen in a roundabout and rather involved way.

Consider, for example, that this same alignment was beaming down in 1918-1920, the last time Iceland’s Katla volcano erupted; as well as the last major outbreak of swine flu. Another Saturn-Uranus alignment, another swine flu epidemic, another eruption – just like the present Eyjafjallajökull eruption. Likewise, the 1783-1784 eruption of Iceland’s Laki volcano – under the aegis of the 1782-1783 Saturn-Uranus opposition - gave rise to climate changes that caused crop failures in parts of Europe and Asia, which are estimated to have killed over two million people around the world. Those European crop failures have been attributed by historians as a contributing factor to the French Revolution some years later. Sometimes a volcano is just a volcano. Sometimes it may end up signifying "a whiff of revolution in the air."

Curious, how it comes together: the eruptions, the whiff of revolution, the economic collapse, the Saturn-Uranus opposition. But wait, there’s more! All three known eruptions of Eyjafjallajökull in the past 1,000 years have been followed by major Katla eruptions. Following the 2010 eruptions of Eyjafjallajökull, Icelandic President Ólafur Grímsson declared that "the time for Katla to erupt is coming close . . . it is high time for European governments and airline authorities all over Europe and the world to start planning for the eventual Katla eruption." Obviously, with the Eyjafjallajökull volcano erupting under the aegis of the current Saturn-Uranus opposition series, and the historic connection between Eyjafjallajökull and Katla eruptions, it’s a sobering thought that in terms of size and violence of eruptions, history shows that Eyjafjallajökull is to Katla as a fuse is to a truckload of C-4.

I fully expect more notable storm and seismic activity this year, with headline earthquakes (magnitude 5 and greater) and volcanic eruptions (including Iceland’s volcanoes), as well as powerful storms with damaging winds and heavy precipitation. I do think that the next really big batch of such disturbances will likely hold off until around the time of the August SuperMoon alignment. But that doesn’t mean July will be uneventful in a geophysical sense.

The second total solar eclipse of the year occurs on July 11, and it sets the tone for the first half of the month. Falling at 19° 23’ Cancer, at a time when the Great T-Square of 2010 is still very close to exact, this one of course suggests more turbulence in the socio-economic and political arena breaking out in early to mid-July. The July 11 total solar eclipse belongs to Saros Cycle 146, which began in 1541 – at a time of Islamic expansion into Europe that saw Muslim armies take Hungary. See any signs of an expanding sphere of Sharia law, perhaps?

As is typical for solar eclipses, this one comes with a very wide geocosmic stress window, stretching from the 1st (in advance of the Moon’s northward crossing of the celestial equator on the 2nd) all the way through the 18th. This is another one of 2010’s extreme lunations, coming just 48 hours after the lunar north declination maximum. Consequently, look for headline-making powerful storms and moderate-to-severe seismic activity (e.g. magnitude 5+ quakes and volcanic eruptions) during the indicated stress cycle – most especially from about the 9th through the 15th.

Planetary in scope by definition, there are nonetheless a few hints as to where the July 11 eclipse will make its seismic and atmospheric presence felt most strongly. There’s the zone of visibility for the eclipse, for example: mostly out in the South Pacific, although it grazes the southern end of South America at its eastern extremity and comes very close to Tahiti at the western end. Turning to the astro-locality map, the western US and Canada (close to, but not limited to, the Rocky Mountain range) lie in one longitudinal risk zone that crosses the poles to traverse Central Asia (centered on Afghanistan, in this instance). There’s also a horizon arc running northeasterly from the northwest coast of Africa across Western Europe and the north of Russia, before turning southeasterly to cross eastern China, Japan and the South Pacific to make landfall again in New Zealand. Some of the biggest storm and seismic action for the July 1-18 period are likely to touch these areas of our home planet – including, I suspect, the formation of an Atlantic hurricane within a few days either way of July 11.

Another briefer but quite intense bout of storm and seismic disturbances will likely make headlines from the 21st through the end of the month. It starts off in advance of the south lunar declination extreme on the 22nd, and melds into the full moon on the 26th, winding down in the wake of the Moon’s northward equatorial crossing on the 29th – most intense between the 23rd and 29th, I believe. As always, this being a planetary phenomenon, it’s planet-wide in scope. However there are a few astro-locality hints as to areas of special vulnerability. These include a horizon arc running northeasterly through central Mexico, across west central Texas through Oklahoma and through the Midwest (near Minneapolis) and western Ontario; to cross southern Greenland before turning southeasterly along an arc from Scandinavia on across Moscow and the Middle East (through Tehran). A couple of longitudinal arcs are also worth noting, one passing through Greenland and Iceland, through the Atlantic Ocean to emerge off the east coast of Australia, through the Pacific, crossing over the Kamchatka Peninsula. Keep a weather eye on the sky, have your go-bag and emergency kit ready just in case.

A couple things worth noting in closing, I think, have to do with the last week or so of July. This is an intense period in so many respects – particularly in view of the Mars involvement in the Saturn-Uranus opposition. Mars is opposite Uranus on the 30th and conjunct Saturn on the 31st, all the while being within just a few degrees of its August 4 square to Jupiter and Pluto. This much Mars activation, in the midst of the already edgy T-Square, suggests a strong potential for violence at many levels – from the individual to the collective. The Mars Max cycle that ran from September 2009 into May 2010 ushered in the sinking of a South Korean warship, the major offensive in Afghanistan and rising tension over Iran’s nuclear program. All of these flash points are subject to being revisited in late July and early August. Remember too the interpersonal violence (workplace shootings, etc.), civil strife and the rash of fires, crashes and explosions that broke out during Mars Max – including for example BP’s Deepwater Horizon explosion and subsequent disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, during a time when my forecast was calling for "fires, clashes, crashes and explosions . . . a disruption in the oil and natural gas supply chain." (The Deepwater Horizon blew up on April 20, in one of the particular Mars Max risk periods described in my online forecast for that month: "around the 22nd when the Moon aligns with Mars."). Again, a similar outbreak is possible as July turns into August.

Mars activations of this sort apply to all of us, but most especially to those born with significant natal placements in the area of the Red Planet’s transit; namely Virgo and early Libra in the late July-early August time frame. I’ve already mentioned President Obama as a case in point, and suggested in my April forecast that his "security detail might want to be extra vigilant around late April into early May, what with the Mars Max transit across the Sun in his natal chart then." As the record shows, during the Obamas’ late April trip to Asheville NC, an armed man who “wanted to see the President” was arrested at the airport where Air Force One was taxiing on the runway. As described in my Facebook note some months ago, a similar ominous Mars transit to the President’s natal chart occurs around July 17. I think there’s something instructive for all of us in this: the Presidential risk periods to date have come and gone with threats only, rather than real harm. May he and we all be so fortunate this month. Just remember: the President has one of the world’s best security teams taking care of him, while you and I are pretty much on our own. So let’s be careful out there!

In closing, it’s time to start planning for August, when the next Mercury Max (intersolar) cycle begins on the 6th. Start getting things straightened out and organized now, get ahead of schedule as much as possible. It won’t get easier next month. (Transatlantic air travelers take note!)

SPECIAL FEATURE: This month's birthdays of the famous and infamous (with astrological birth charts)