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).

July's significant Mars action (the opposition to Neptune) delivered as advertised: "danger, stress, and conflict." The prime example, of course, is the Middle East, where Israel and its neighbors have been going mano a mano since Hamas attacked an Israeli military outpost and took IDF soldier Gilad Shalit hostage on June 25. This was followed by hundreds of rocket attacks by Hamas into southern Israel. What had been a minor skirmish verged on a full-fledged war after Hizbollah, the guerrilla group which is backed by Syria and Iran and is part of Lebanon's government, seized two Israeli soldiers and killed eight in a cross-border raid on northern Israel on July 12. (You may recall that I had specified late June through mid-July as the Mars-Neptune 'red zone'.) Ever since, hundreds of rockets have been launched into Israel from southern Lebanon, and the Jewish state has launched relentless air and artillery attacks that are fast reducing Lebanon to rubble. Hundreds are now dead on each side, in a prime example of what to expect when Mars aligns with Neptune - as I wrote in my forecast, "fires, explosions, oil and chemical spills, crashes, crime and military or paramilitary threats and strikes (including terrorism)." This isn't World War III, let alone Armageddon, as some are saying. Rather, it's just one expression of the Mars-Neptune opposition: a tragedy, but not the end of the world - except for the hundreds of victims.