Grace McGrade is an intuitive astrologer and priestess based in Los Angeles. She is the co-founder of ASTRAL ORACLES and author of Palpable Magic; a website exploring prose about sex, love, Los Angeles and the occult. Her sessions include natal chart readings, energetic clearing and activations, and tarot readings.

We begin July in tender and sensitive Cancer season, particularly reflective and slow due to Mercury retrograde. As always in the sign of Cancer, we are pulled to tend to our living spaces, to follow a nostalgic sense of safety and seclusion that gives us room to feel more. Matters of the home, family, our roots, childhood and femininity are highlighted.

Despite our desires to curl up and hide away in our shells, a catalysing Capricorn Full Moon Eclipse on July 5 has us confronting our relationship to power dynamics, carefully examining where our duties lie in the world at large, particularly in times of global and personal adversity. This push and pull between our responsibilities and our increasing sensitivity may have us teetering a little off balance.

We are learning to better anticipate when we need to nurture ourselves, and when we need to suit up and show up for our worldly duties. The integrity of our experience living in the present moment on our planet is emphasised, as we look to those in power for greater honesty and compassion in leadership.

In our personal lives, we are granted the opportunity to use our emotions as guides, and follow the feelings that feed us. We are seeking emotional reciprocity, empathy, and safety.  The pace quickens on July 12, when Mercury in Cancer goes direct, making us more clear headed and cognisant of what we say and to whom we say it to. Our physical energy is ignited by Mars entering Aries, and we end the month with an appetite for theatrics, as the Sun glides into golden Leo.