Your curious stargazers, Curtis and Jane, welcome you to this month's Cosmic Weather Forecast. May we be blessed with the ability to decipher the messages inscribed in the luminous night skies surrounding us.
Colorized Wood engraving of Celestial Exploration, from L'atmosphère : météorologie populaire, Camille Flammarion, 1888
Houston Physicist, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
The wheel of yearly transformation has come round to the Leo interval of the seasonal cycle, which brings us heightened inner heat, fiery personal relations, peak summer plant growth, intensified sexual tensions, and electrifying moments of sudden release in every aspect of our lives.
Life force energy is at its peak in plants, animals and humans, while dramatic thunderstorms mirror the inner elemental landscape of all sentient beings.
Ancient Romans called July-August, when the Sun is in Cancer and then Leo, the diēs caniculārēs, or “dog days” of summer.
This is the season of the Sirius-Sun conjunction, when we can see two Suns rise in the dawn sky.
The combined energy of the conjunction of the two brightest stars in our sky was thought to create sweltering heat so intense it could drive dogs to madness. It is true that this period is often the hottest part of the year in the Northern Hemisphere, and today we associate this period with intense heat and humidity.
This is the time of year when farmers, gardeners and those attuned to nature's cycles experience the outpouring of Universal Life Force energy throughout the entire web of life on Earth.
Sirius pictured in the Constellation Canis Major, screenshot from my SkyGuide app
That energy surge drives the plants to the culmination of their life cycles, producing flowers and fruits in abundance.
That same energy surge impels hordes of birds, rabbits, deer, foxes, bees, butterflies, moths, caterpillars, worms, ants and beetles to feast upon the ripening fruits, vegetables, seeds and flowers.
In the garden during the Cancer-Leo interval of the yearly seasonal cycle, we feel the same sense of connection to Universal Life and the vastness of the Cosmos that we achieve through meditation during the winter interval of the year, when initiates connect to the stars moving inexorably through the immensity of interstellar space, to the Christ Consciousness, and to the infinity of mirrors constituting Indra's Net.
Those stars, that energy, and the element of Akasha, or Space are the womb and source of all life.
Sensing this Cosmic connection, we also connect with our ancestors, who venerated the Dog Star, Sirius, the most prominent star in the Constellation of Canis Major, at this time of the year, the star most sacred to the Goddess Isis, bringer of fertility.
Saitic Isis by J. Augustus Knapp, 1926, from The Secret Teachings of All Ages by Manly P. Hall, J. Augustus Knapp, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
For the ancient Egyptians, this event, the season of the heliacal rising of Sirius, coincided with the Nile river's flood season, a crucial moment in the agricultural cycle when additional valuable fertile black river bottom soil was deposited on the flooded fields, creating the conditions for a successful planting season in the months and years to come.
For this reason, the Egyptians called Sirius the Star of Isis, she who was venerated as the goddess of fertility.
To read more about this mysterious, magical moment in the seasonal cycle, please read our blogpost entitled Sirius Rising -- The Dog Days of Summer and the Mysteries of the Great Star Goddess.Aquarius Full Moon, Leo Solar Festival Cosmic Weather Forecast
This Aquarius Full Moon is conjunct Pluto and both planets trine Uranus in Gemini, creating a hypersocial atmosphere.
Nervous systems could be hyper-sensitive. Emotions will be running high.
Whatever happens, we will find ourselves compulsively sharing our take on it all with friends, family and social media.
There will be much to gain from social interactions this week, and throughout the month to come as this energy continues to energize social media feeds and messages pile up on our smartphones.
However, this aspect also supports efforts to utilize mass communications systems for purposes of mind control and propaganda.
It will be all too easy to succumb to the astral glamours that enthrall us, reinforcing the pressures generated by groupthink, reducing our ability to discern the true nature of events unfolding all around us.
Full Moon in the Clouds, Photo by Ganapathy Kumar on Unsplash
For those who make the effort of will required to exercise discernment, these aspects create some extremely positive energy for our social relations.
Communications with others can stimulate us to develop creative solutions to our personal and collective problems, and provide crucial pieces of information that will enable us to reach our material and spiritual goals.
This set of planetary aspects supports the exploration of the Plutonian subconscious drives animating Uranian collective consciousness during this time of global wars, planetary climate emergency and civilizational transformation.
We may find that our intuitive view of complex geopolitical events, which we have felt was unique to us, or only held by a small minority, actually resonates with the perspectives of many, many others.
This discovery of a collective awakening can produce a sense of empowerment that leads to constructive action designed to promote goodwill and improve living conditions for the majority of suffering humanity.
Communications with others can stimulate us to develop creative solutions to our personal and collective problems, and provide crucial pieces of information that will enable us to reach our material and spiritual goals.
This set of planetary aspects supports the exploration of the Plutonian subconscious drives animating Uranian collective consciousness during this time of global wars, planetary climate emergency and civilizational transformation.
We may find that our intuitive view of complex geopolitical events, which we have felt was unique to us, or only held by a small minority, actually resonates with the perspectives of many, many others.
This discovery of a collective awakening can produce a sense of empowerment that leads to constructive action designed to promote goodwill and improve living conditions for the majority of suffering humanity.
According to many astrologers, the quintessential astrological aspect governing the potential for a collective awakening of humanity is the configuration known as Barbault's Basket, which is a set of outer planet aspects that are shaping humanity's hive mind this year, and will continue to do so for several years to come.
This Aquarius Full Moon we see Neptune, the planet of spirituality, group minds and Unity consciousness, occupying the midpoint of the Uranus-Pluto trine -- and this is the signature of Barbault’s basket, which we discussed in last month’s newsletter.
This flowing Neptune-Uranus-Pluto aspect supports spiritual evolution, techno-optimism, and Utopian idealism.
Many will experience a felt sense of being guided by a Higher Purpose.
Neptune, which is currently the focal point of this historically important set of astrological aspects, expresses the energy of the Sixth Ray of Devotion and Idealism, which governs religious instincts and impulses.
Neptunian, Sixth Ray devotion and idealism can produce the focused concentration of the practicing mystic and feed the creative imagination that produces emotionally and spiritually uplifting art, poetry and music.
The activity of Neptune’s Sixth Ray energy also creates polarized emotional states of group consciousness.
Under the influence of the Sixth Ray we find the saint, the bigot, the martyr, the inquisitor, and the religious fundamentalist warrior.
Louis VII Fights the Saracens during the Second Crusade, 14th Century French miniature anonymus, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
“All religious wars or crusades have originated from Sixth Ray fanaticism,” explain Alice Bailey and Dwaj Kuhl in Esoteric Psychology. “The man on this ray is often of gentle nature, but he can always flame into fury and fiery wrath. He will lay down his life for the objects of his devotion or reverence, but he will not lift a finger to help those outside of his immediate sympathies.”
In politics the Neptunian influence creates blind devotion to the Great Leader and/or to an ethnic, religious or political group.
In such cases, an all encompassing ideology divides the world into warring camps.
With both Saturn and Neptune currently retrograde in Aries, ongoing religious and resource wars that have been simmering for some time may escalate and we may see reruns of the previous peaks of intense conflict surrounding control of oil and gas reserves and infrastructure, associated with Neptune, and with the Neptunian flow of oil and gas around the world in giant tankers, in railway cars, and in highly vulnerable trans-national pipelines.
Map of Iranian Ballistic Missile Ranges (2019), Defense Intelligence Agency
Defense Intelligence Agency, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Defense Intelligence Agency, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
On every side of the world's current cold and hot wars, Neptune retrograde in Aries could create a tendency to glamorize the warrior mentality, to scapegoat all those outside the magic circle of true believers, and to make increasingly hard and fast distinctions between those who are included in the group and those who are excluded.
In addition to all these ongoing epochal outer planet astrological influences, Sol and Jupiter, the two brightest, biggest luminaries in our Solar System, are conjoined at the moment of the Leo Solar Festival.
This Sun/Jupiter in Leo conjunction is sending a power surge of epic proportions into the already highly charged collective consciousness.
The Sun/Jupiter conjunction directly amplifies the energy of Barbault's Basket, generally, and potentiates the influence of Neptune in particular, which is the focal point of the Basket formation.
At the time of this Aquarius Full Moon, both the Sun and Jupiter conjunct in Leo will trine Neptune in Aries, expanding the influence of retrograde Neptune, and increasing the importance of any and all conflicts surrounding maritime traffic, oil, ideology and religion.
Constellation of Leo, from Prodromus astronomiae" by Johannes Hevelius, 1687
Johannes Hevelius, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Johannes Hevelius, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
At the time of the Full Moon and the Leo Solar Festival, the intense Sun/Jupiter conjunction in Leo opposes Pluto, planet of atomic transformation, which is conjunct the Moon in Aquarius.
In last month's newsletter, we discussed the meaning of the current Jupiter in Leo transit, and of the Jupiter in Leo opposition to Pluto in Aquarius."Seven of the last 10 transits [of Jupiter in Leo] resulted in a 4-year or greater cyclical trough in the Dow Jones Industrial Average," warns Financial Astrologer Pouyan Zolfagharnia . ". . .The opposition of Jupiter to Pluto in early Leo is also indicative of an abrupt bursting event. Therefore, I am looking for the 18-year market crest and trough to occur within the upcoming transit of Jupiter through Leo."
A Jupiter/Pluto opposition aspect has historically generated volatility in financial markets and is associated with highly destructive acts of warfare, droughts, and macro scale damage to crops.
To compound the financial uncertainty, with Saturn in Aries newly retrograde, financial astrologers tend to see losses looming in the near future.
Real world events unfolding in America right now are synchronizing with the signals from the stars.
NASA/US Forest Service Map of Wildfires in US, July 27, 2026
As we all know, America is in its worst drought in decades, wildfires have engulfed half the country in toxic smoke, and farmers are struggling to save their crops throughout the Pacific Northwest, the Midwest and the Southeast.
Meanwhile, bond prices and interest rates are rising, inflation is moving higher, markets believe the Fed will have to increase interest rates, and tech stocks are looking anemic.
The Strait of Hormuz is still closed.
The Yemeni based Houthis have closed Red Sea shipping lanes to Saudi oil tankers.
The Yemenis have also blocked the Saudis from using the strategic Bab el-Mandeb Strait—the narrow chokepoint linking the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden and Indian Ocean.
"Lloyd's of London, the world's leading insurance market, has informed the Saudi maritime industry that it is suspending the underwriting of war risk insurance for vessels associated with Saudi Arabia navigating the Red Sea," according to ABC.az news.
Now 25% of global fossil fuel shipping has been interdicted, and there is no way of knowing when these vital maritime fossil fuel arteries will return to normal. It will probably not be anytime soon.
Crucial fossil fuel infrastructure in the Gulf States is being degraded every day.
In recent days, in response to Saudi drone attacks, Houthi forces in Yemen launched ballistic missiles and drones that struck Saudi Arabia's Jazan oil facilities, and targeted the largest Saudi Aramco oil crude oil processing facility in Abqaiq.
Saudi Aramco has now shut down its 400,000-barrel-per-day Jazan refinery following these attacks.
.jpg){kind=link}
.png){kind=link}
Ukraine has dedicated itself to taking out Russian oil facilities and shipping capability.
It is clear that both sides fighting in the Iran and Ukraine wars are focused on destruction of the enemy's fossil fuel production, refineries and supply chains.
As a result, the prospect of a crushing global energy shortage looms larger every day these wars continue.
And these wars are not just continuing, they are expanding and escalating.
Neptune, we must remember governs oil, liquid natural gas and fossil fuels generally, which all are based upon petroleum, so with Neptune retrograde in combative, fiery Aries, shortages of fossil fuels go hand in hand with resource wars, which we see unfolding all over the world.
Escalating resource wars, worldwide droughts and floods, potential large scale crop failures in the US, Europe, and Asia, looming global fuel shortages, shaky financial markets, and potential adverse outcomes of frontier, next-gen, bleeding edge technologies appear to be creating the potential for a genuine PolyCrisis, involving multi-factorial causation.
Global Risks Report 2023, Graph of Global Risks Landscape, World Economic Forum
To top off all this good astrological news, on the Full Moon night, Venus in Virgo will form a tight square to Mars in Gemini, inciting all manner of emotional upheavals and lovers' quarrels.
Beware of nit-picking, over analyzing and uncharitable assumptions about others.
Financial astrologers say that this Venus/Mars square could indicate renewed international tensions resulting from tariff wars.
Donald Trump speaking with attendees at the "Build the Red Wall" rally at Dream City Church in Phoenix, Arizona, April 2026, Gage Skidmore, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
.jpg){kind=link}
Synchronistically enough, Donald Trump has just announced a new round of double digit tariffs on countries around the world, to replace the illegal tariffs he was forced by the courts to undo, resulting in billions of dollars of reimbursements by the US Treasury to companies around the world.
Under the influence of Mars/Venus square and Trump's new tariffs, Mr. Market will most likely be extremely impulsive, overly emotional, and sometimes paranoid.
You don't have to believe in astrology to intuit that Mr. Market's mood swings could translate into volatile market movements in stocks, bonds, currencies and commodities over the next couple of weeks.
To me, it sounds like a good time to reduce risks in every area of life where that is possible, at least for the next few weeks until we see how this all shakes out.
Curtis and Jane, Selfie, Downtown Winston Salem Art District
Jane and I send you all love and light, and we affirm that we all receive the grace and guidance that we require to manifest our spiritual and material goals!
Meditation Moment: Karma, song lyrics by Outsized
All Buddhas of the past, present and future
Buddha of compassion
Please hear my anguished words of truth
Karma, in an ocean of joy
They are drunk with demonic delusions
What is right and what is wrong?
What is right and what is wrong?
Bodhisattvas, an ocean of measureless qualities
Let the might of your compassion rise to bring a quick end
To the flowing stream of the blood and tears.
Buddha of compassion
What is right and what is wrong?
In an ocean of joy
What is right and what is wrong?
Our most cherished and long felt desire
Karma
Karma
Buddha of compassion
Please hear my anguished words of truth
Infallible lasso Avalokitesvara is a powerful savior who uses his infallible lasso to capture living beings drifting in the ocean of suffering and settle them on the shore of Liberation. Public Domain, Courtesy Wikimedia