During the first half of June, I saw lots of lesbians, and that’s always a good thing. I saw lesbians of all sizes, ages and shades, and they were all beautiful. A few womyn’s events are really good for the soul.

Now I’m back in the burbs of DC again, in the bosom of my family. There are four generations of us here, and we mostly have pretty enlightened politics, although I shouldn’t assume anything about my granddaughter. Let her learn to talk first, and she can tell me what she thinks.

Mercury has been retrograde for the last half of June, slowing everything down, bringing up whiffs of the past. It’s not surprising that the Immigration Bill was optimistically revived only to be shot down again. It’s also not surprising that the CIA is exposing some of its old secrets. This is the time when we clean out the closets, even though it’s not always easy to face those moldy bits.

As July begins, Mercury is still moving slowly retrograde, so you can expect things to inch along until July 9. On that date, Mercury stops, looks around, and asks, “What I am doing here, submerged in the past?” and then starts going direct again.

Of course, retrograde movement is an illusion. It has to do with our human perspective here on earth. If we lived on the sun, every planet would move forward all the time, and we would never have to revisit the things we thought were finished. But earth-centered astrology echoes our human stance, reminding us that we always see everything from our unique position in history. There is no knowledge without assumptions.

During Mercury’s retrograde motion, our assumptions loom larger than usual, and can sometimes even become visible. When Mercury goes direct, we will be in too much of a hurry to notice these underpinnings. We will be making up for lost time, organizing events and forums and projects.

However, July is a pretty watery month, although there’s a fiery undertone. It’s a time when attachments are strong, and attachments imply a shared history of some kind. So we won’t jettison the past completely. Memories will still pop up, along with old beliefs and values – some still useful, some not. We’ll swim in a sea of feelings and impressions and associations.

Mercury will stay in the watery sign Cancer all month, and the new moon on July 14 will be in Cancer. Cancer is the sign of family, home, nurturing, and emotional allegiances. It’s the most tender, sensitive and sympathetic sign in the zodiac, the sign of pushovers and care-givers and stuffed animals and comfort food. If you’ve always wondered who keeps circulating those cute kitten photographs on the Internet, you can blame people with planets in Cancer.

Cancer is also one of the most protective and cautious signs. A strong Cancer influence gives sympathy for those you consider part of your family – whether that means your immediate family, or those who share your ethnic identity, or the whole human race. Family is interpreted very differently by different people. It doesn’t have to imply the existence of outsiders, but often it does. There’s the rub.

The USA was born with a Cancer sun, and the sun has to do with the way you see yourself. And so the identity of this country is bound up with mom and apple pie. At our best, we see ourselves as one big happy family, and at our worst as one big dysfunctional family with a dry drunk daddy.

Like so many people, the USA experiences some dissonance between its sun sign (identity) and its moon sign (actual emotional needs). The country’s Cancer sun focuses on security and domesticity, but its Aquarius moon is much more adventurous and freedom-loving. The need for lots and lots of open space comes from the Aquarian moon. So does the ability to assimilate many diverse populations.

Studying the US birthchart is fascinating. Its pattern is the see-saw, with a sharp division between the planets in the east and the planets in the west. The experimental moon in Aquarius is in the east, while the conservative Cancer sun is in the west.

Pluto, the planet of power, is in the 2nd house, which deals with money and resources. But Pluto opposes cautious, protective Mercury in Cancer, showing that economic power has always challenged our basic beliefs in home and family. The wolfish qualities of capitalism are not conducive to caring for the weak and the hungry among us.

But this month, the Cancer side of the US character is stimulated. Red, white and blue flag-waving is one side of that, but the other side is the desire to feed the hungry, protect the weak and care for the helpless.

July looks a bit confusing, though. At the new moon, the sun and moon will be in the 12th house (of hidden things) making an inconjunct aspect to Neptune, the planet of ambivalence and indecision. US foreign policy is making everybody feel a little crazy and out of control, and this won’t change in July. In fact, things will probably get a little more knotted and convoluted.

But July also looks like a good month for lesbians, and for all women. Pallas, the asteroid that has to do with women’s strength and wisdom, will be conjunct Uranus, the planet of change. Does this have to do with Hillary Clinton? Could be. In Hillary’s chart, Pallas stands higher than all the planets, and it trines her sun. But it could also be about all of us.

The Cancer new moon is good for women’s issues – children, food, home, family, nurturing. But it doesn’t necessarily change anything. Women could keep on filling the gaps, taking care of the forgotten, doing without so that others can survive. But with Pallas stimulated by Uranus’ lightning energy, the gentle warrior could spring into action. While the men are stumbling around in the confused fogs of July, women could take over. We can do everything by feel.

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