Your July 2021 Horoscope Wants You To Rethink Your So-Called Brand

It was around this time, last summer, when everyone you know started to really spin out. In the midst of a global crisis, and in a void of immediate attention, the ego hits went down hard, as many of us tried and failed to reinvent ourselves. Should I go to grad school? Should I dye my hair platinum? Should I work at a social media firm in Paris? With Mars, Venus, and the sun entering the golden halls of Leo this July, you’ll consider what you’re putting out into the world, how you are seen and received, and what makes you unique. Reinvention is once again on the menu, but only you can confront whether the “new you” is part of something bigger, or just another pig for the flophouse.

The rebirth must take place in the cover of darkness. Escape the reverberating noise of Gemini season, which has now grown deafening, and seek healing and realignment in Cancer’s caves, at the ocean, in the mountains, or with the window unit blasting in your bedroom. Over Gemini season, you gained definition with every hit of social impact, but as Venus and Mars move into Leo, you find yourself emerging from the inside out, inhabiting your body for what feels like the first time. You’re behind the wheel now. So let's ride.

But what, or whom, does this reclamation threaten? Do the current detours into pleasure, peace, and possibility threaten the rigidity of your so-called brand? Who will keep up the image of your life while you’re living it? Over the first week of July, Mars and Venus, both loafing in Leo’s heavenly embodiment, oppose Saturn, god of obligation, rules and timelines. In Aquarius, which rules interconnected social networks, Saturn calls for accountability to a bigger community. But under the pressure of surveillance, staying relevant, and avoiding cancellation, you may preemptively cut yourself off from your own originality.

If this is not to be a misguided, myopic makeover, you’ll have to fight for it. Before the sun can claim its throne in Leo, it faces off against Pluto, the underworld planet and dark domain, on July 18. Where Saturn forces a reconciliation with the world around you, Pluto plunges you into the shadows of the past; namely, the relationships and rules to which you’ve bound yourself, and the history which you’ve made into an identity. Confront your relationship with authority, and the moments you were punished for expressing yourself. You’re not expected to conquer your fear of mommy and daddy, but by understanding it, you can accelerate your apogee.

With the sun entering Leo and a full moon in Aquarius on July 23, the personal reboot realigns with a global awakening, and the budding facets of self fit into a vast new mosaic. Suddenly, you’re no longer reacting to the circumstances of a busted society and doomed planet; you’re now a voice, and a player, in what’s to come. Embrace your gifts now — we’re going to need them in an uncharted new decade.

ARIES & ARIES RISING

Cancer season gives you a chance to catch your breath, and relax into your creative process. As you get into the work, the inevitable questions will arise. How you want to make money, and who is your desired audience? Use this time to think constructively about what your work represents, and who you want to deliver it to. What do you want to be praised for? What are you really about?

TAURUS & TAURUS RISING

The clamor and clangor of your social life slows down enough for you to make the bed, hang up the new frames you bought two months ago, and clean the refrigerator. Treat your home as your creative generator. Right now, you need a break from the noise, and time to observe how you would want to fit back into it. Sleep late, have good sex, and, as you observe your friends’ posts from the weekend, be objective: How does your social currency compensate you? What are you getting out of your career? Slow down, sit back, and start calling the shots. This metamorphosis belongs to you.

GEMINI & GEMINI RISING

A panoply of planets pass through your third house of self-expression, and you meet the opportunity to hustle, show up, and be seen — with aplomb! But an influx of money and attention doesn’t excuse you from the bigger work you initiated over quarantine. You’ll only be able to fake it for so long, so schedule extra therapy appointments, family dinners, or consultations with the Rabbi in advance. Welcome outside perspective as the solar power that gives your work longevity. This isn’t another phase. Give yourself structure so you can make lasting changes.

CANCER & CANCER RISING

You’re feeling like Cher, on her way to the opera in Moonstruck: freshly confident, free, and ready to make demands. And, like Cher in Moonstruck, you’re dead terrified of what your family will think. How will your significant other, your exes, and the “empty-shell people” you know react when you come out of yours? Now is the time to lean on your chosen family, for insight and balance. Observe who does and doesn’t judge you through multiple incarnations. Who do you have to downgrade to be yourself?

LEO & LEO RISING

Venus and Mars show up in Leo to vibe, loaf, and light the sparks of your creative expression. You still got it! But to clear the runway for your arrival, you must confront any dark passengers weighing you down. Before Leo season begins outright on July 23, a sun-Pluto opposition on July 18 calls for a visit to your underworld. Invoke any demons from past relationships, give them form, and exorcise them. Draw hard boundaries, and consider the ways your relationships could be more equitable and generous for all involved. By working on your needs now, you’ll secure a victory lap for when your birthday rolls around.

VIRGO & VIRGO RISING

All the planning is paying off, and you’re out like you haven’t been in ages. As Mercury cruises from Gemini through Cancer to Leo in the span of a month, you may feel like your public life is outweighing your private needs. Take any opportunities to travel, and make sure the vacation house is filled with your favorite people. Think about how and where you want to be seen, and what kind of affirmation keeps you going. What can your closest confidantes tell you about the way you work and how you take care of yourself? This doesn’t have to be another one of your classic spirals into neurotic isolation; it’s a chance to put the pieces together, and a means of relieving your tunnel vision.

LIBRA & LIBRA RISING

It would be so easy to soak in the attention right now, to go with the flow of your expanding social scene, especially after all those months of behaving in isolation. But finally, you’re being seen again, and there’s a semblance of community orbiting around you. And yet, who exactly are these people? How do they align with your creative identity? Do they get what you’re about? Do you? Ensure that the people around you can hang while you continue to evolve, and grow with you in tandem. Resist the urge for a hollow fandom.

SCORPIO & SCORPIO RISING

After spending half the year building yourself up again from the foundation, you’ve come to cultivate, and enjoy the applause in your career life. But you’re not done baking, and you’ll still have questions about how the internal evolution affects the outer presentation, and vice versa. Enjoy the career rush, but lean on your close friends and lovers to ground you, and remind you of the real work you need to be doing. Take stock of how much of a base you’ve created for yourself since quarantine, and test the structures of support you’ve cultivated in your life. You’ll need them for the big launch.

SAGITTARIUS & SAGITTARIUS RISING

June’s eclipse season has wrought a maelstrom over your home, ripping apart the assumed standards and balances which held your life together. In the ruins, Neptune’s retrograde may instill a souring of purpose, and an ambivalence where there was once excitement. But there’s no need to grieve. Right now, you need to collect new influences, and expand your spiritual and intellectual framework. Cultivate your originality through rituals, private adventures, and any travel opportunities which come your way. You’re refilling your cup, so that soon you can rebuild your base. Everything is data for a richer and more sustained inner life.

CAPRICORN & CAPRICORN RISING

The review over how you make money continues, but this month, you’ll begin to question the why of it all. What lessons about earning, duty, and stability are you ready to shake up? How are your recent creative awakenings challenging the plan laid out for you? Independence doesn’t necessitate a silent coup: Recruit your partners and collaborators in the reclamation. Despite all your desires to go it alone, you may find that the right support could make all your dreams come true.

AQUARIUS & AQUARIUS RISING

Haven’t you done enough processing over the last few months? When do you get to ditch the developments of your internal evolution, and lose yourself in somebody else? Leo season will tempt you to embrace a newfound confidence and lack of inhibition, and though you deserve a break from all the interior labor, you’ve come too far to forget who you are. Avoid false idols — in false lovers — who embody the freedom you desire, but lack the ethos you require. Honor your limits as they make you into someone worth honoring.

PISCES & PISCES RISING

As both of your ruling planets— Neptune and Jupiter — go retrograde, you’ll feel the presence of the other fish taking the reins, halting external progress and initiating a swim backwards (and even upstream) into the deeper recesses of your awareness. This is a period of review, renewal, and reflection, but when the journaling gets stale, embrace sex and any physically engaging creative processes to reconnect with your body. You’re redrawing the lines and limits of your definition. Consider this a final check in the mirror before stepping out into the world.