A Bagatelle

Time stood still. The tuning ritual had ended, almost abruptly, and the conductor was about to enter the concert hall. The program will begin with a bagatelle, a short, light and usually whimsical piece. Probably the most famous bagatelle is Beethoven’s No. 25 in A minor, titled “Für Elise” (“For Elise”), composed around 1810 but not discovered or published until 1867, many years after his death. The exact identity of “Elise”, to whom the piece is presumably dedicated, remains a mystery; although historians speculate she might have been Therese Malfatti, to whom he proposed in 1810. The opening is built on an easily repeatable chromatic trill and arpeggiated chords which have made it incredibly popular.

Setting the Stage

Before we look at what we will have in the remaining of the lunation—in a short, light and perhaps whimsical manner—let me set the context with a quick recap of what happened during the waxing phases. You may recall that the new moon encouraged us to shed extra baggage with its symbol of large palm trees being pruned. We pointed out that, due to what we called a “pseudo-feral” nature of the new moon, such energies were broadly available, as opposed to focused on one field of experiences.

Other energies included a background “tone” of Uranus forming a T-square with the nodal axis, which is a configuration that would normally bring many unexpected and perhaps violent events. Thankfully, those have been kept to a minimum, perhaps because Uranus is “focused” on its supporting role within the Neptune-driven Minor Grand Trine. About the only event that was perhaps unexpected to some was the, admittedly one-sided, “deal” between the United States and Iran, which sees the latter as the clear winner of the conflict.

Mercury was also discussed during the waxing phases. In particular, it allowed us to communicate feelings that would have gone unshared otherwise. Once again, we should note that it has been transiting through its retrograde shadow since June 13 and that it will begin three weeks of retrograde motion just before the full moon, as we will see shortly. In practical terms, this will mean opportunities to reflect on, and perhaps later revisit, those emotional communications.

Cancer and Capricorn

Mercury’s entire retrograde shadow, the degrees it will visit three times, is in the sign of Cancer. We haven’t talked about the Day and Night forces lately, but they are at maximum strength at the solstices which begin the signs of Cancer and Capricorn. Therefore, those signs are able to express the best, and also the worst, of the two integrating forces.

The Day Force, you may remember, is responsible for integrating our individuality and Cancerian people tend to rely on themselves, even if they don’t often express their self-confidence. The reason is that the Night Force is at its minimum and, being arguably the most psychic sign of the zodiac, they sense such “weakness” and prefer not to deal with society at large. Cancer is a cardinal sign, so its energy is eagerly spent in a linear manner; it is also a water sign, which implies that such energy is an emotional one. The combination is like a stream searching for a river, going over small obstacles and around big boulders. Water signs are concerned with the fourth dimension, what physicists call “time” but in reality is a measure of the rate of change in Space.

Human beings are eminently sociable, a feature that has allowed them to be “kings of creation”. The integration of individuals in sociocultural groups is impulsed by the Night Force, which reaches its maximum at the winter solstice, the beginning of Capricorn. For a Capricornian, the obvious way to solve a problem is by organizing a group of people to tackle it. This is not to say that they lack self-confidence, they simply don’t see the value in trying to solve everything by themselves. And this is despite being an achieving sign that can become overambitious and ruthless when the shadow aspect is cultivated. Capricorn is also a cardinal sign but its element is earth, which is mostly concerned with the second dimension of organization and planning.

Full Moon in Capricorn

Any full moon is a good time to become conscious of the sign-polarity in which it occurs. Thus, the full moon in Capricorn will bring energy to gain awareness of how much we rely on ourselves versus look for others to help us. This year’s full moon in Capricorn will happen on June 29 at 4:56 p.m. in California, 5:56 p.m. in Mexico City, or on June 30 at 1:56 a.m. in Central Europe. The exact opposition will have Sun at Cancer 8°15′ and Moon at Capricorn 8°15′ as seen in the following chart:

As always, let’s start by looking at the aspects formed by the Sun–Moon opposition. In the chart, we can see two T-squares: one with Neptune (Aries 4°24′) and the other one with Saturn (Aries 14°09′). Even though neither one is particularly tight, the Saturn–Neptune midpoint, at 9°16′ of Aries, is only 1°01′ from forming an exact T-square. Briefly, all of the Saturn–Neptune energies we have explored in the past year-and-a-half will be present to help us understand the full-moon polarity. Recall that, in Aries, the two planets are able to give form to our dreams or structure our feelings of compassion. When trying to make sense about our desire to be a lone individual versus a member of a sociocultural community, these energies can be quite useful.

Staying with Saturn and Neptune, both are slowing down to soon begin a period of retrograde motion in their current degrees. In fact, Neptune is moving at less than 20% of its normal speed and it will only advance one more minute of a degree before changing direction. Those two will keep on dancing together, as they have done for a long time, and will be only six degrees apart in mid-December, when they will end their retrograde motion almost simultaneously. Their cycles will have been intertwined for over two years by then!

And speaking of planets going retrograde, at 26°15′ of Cancer, Mercury will be inching backwards, at 1.6% of its normal speed, while still in the same position where it was stationary six hours earlier. Mercury was featured in the previous article, when we foresaw the lunation to be awash with emotional communications. The waning phases will allow us to reflect on how those exchanges went, perhaps with old friends, family or partners, before we are offered the opportunity to do it all over again.

Sabian Symbols

The symbol for Cancer 9 (Sun) has the image: “A tiny nude miss reaching for a fish”, which Rudhyar expanded as the first naïve quest for knowledge and for an ever-elusive understanding of life. Being unclothed, the young woman is representing the innocent and spontaneous mind, unencumbered by the fears and inhibitions that often lead to failure, as she attempts to satisfy her curiosity. Its key phrase is: Purity in Understanding.

Right across the zodiac, the image of the Capricorn 9 symbol (Moon) is: “An angel carrying a harp”, further explained a the revelation of spiritual meaning and purpose at the core of any life situation. Diana Roche and Rudhyar give it the same keyword, Attunement: to bring into harmony or to make aware or responsive. Rudhyar reminds us that angels “are to be considered personalizations of various aspects of this life, and totally subservient to its rhythms and purposes”. For Roche, the symbol speaks “to the cosmic symphony behind all manifestation” and the ability for people to tune into what others need for encouragement.

Taken together, and as the culmination of the waxing phases, they seem to encourage us to let the lightening of our baggage—the pruning in the new moon symbol—be guided more by our intuition and less by our reason. Having a spontaneous mind will help us to be in tune with the spiritual meaning and purpose of all life situations.

Jupiter in Leo

Just six hours after the full moon, Jupiter will enter Leo; there is no need for a new chart, for little will have changed since the full moon. With such an entrance, all the non-personal planets will be in Yang signs for at least a year, until July 2027, when Jupiter will move on to Virgo. You may recall that, when viewing the zodiac as a sequence of signs representing the phases of a process, they should be grouped as six operating couplings, each consisting of a root symbol, a Yang or “masculine” sign that sets the tone for the coupling, followed by a confirmation symbol represented by a Yin or “feminine” sign. Having the social and transpersonal processes in root symbols means one thing: changes are afoot.

As soon as Jupiter enters Leo, it will form a wide opposition with Pluto (Aquarius 4°54′) that will be exact on July 20; we will talk about it in the next article. Perhaps more significantly, Mars will have moved to the 1°01′ of Gemini and form a powerful sextile to energize Jupiter. Mars will be aided by Uranus (Gemini 3°39′), with which it will already form a conjunction.

Conjunction of Mars and Uranus

Indeed, on July 4th, the 250th anniversary of the United States declaration of independence, Mars and Uranus will form a conjunction in the 3°52′ degree of Gemini, as shown in the following chart:

Since the Minor Grand Trine will be practically exact, the conjunction of Mars and Uranus will not be acting alone. It will form a nearly exact trine with Pluto (Aquarius 4°48′) and a similarly tight sextile with Neptune (Aries 4°25′). The latter will have slowed down to just 8% of its normal speed and will be considered stationary.

Another interesting feature is the conjunction of Moon and the North Node that will occur at Pisces 0°42′ about an hour after the Mars–Uranus conjunction—in the chart, Moon is still in the final degree of Aquarius. I have mentioned several times that Moon and Mars are the two primary triggers in mundane astrology. The fact that Moon will be conjunct the North Node, where we expect “life experiences”, just an hour after Mars is exactly conjunct with Uranus may imply that this will be an eventful Fourth of July.

In fact, in the chart for the July 4, 1776 declaration of independence, Uranus is located at Gemini 8°55’—about five degrees from this conjunction—and every return has coincided with important conflicts, like the Civil War and WWII. There are at least three, and often four, Mars–Uranus conjunctions while the latter is in Gemini and one of them is always near its position in the US chart. During this cycle, the closest Mars–Uranus conjunction will happen on June 23, 2028 at Gemini 11°25′, just 2°30′ from where Uranus is in the US chart.

Last Quarter in Aries

Three days later, the Last Quarter phase of the lunation will arrive with Sun and Moon at 15°42′ of Cancer and Aries, respectively:

Once again, Moon will form a tight conjunction with Saturn (Aries 14°27′) which may act as another trigger. This will be compounded by the exact semi-square it will form with the North Node (Pisces 0°44′), which implies an equally-exact sesquiquadrate between Sun and the North Node—in reality, both aspects are 0°02′ from exactitude. Given that the Last Quarter symbolizes a crisis of consciousness, these aspects may end up propitiating events that evoke a sudden realization of what the full moon wanted to reveal to us.

In the preview for 2026, we bracketed July 7 to 31 as the period when the three transpersonal planets—Uranus, Neptune and Pluto—would be in the fifth degree of their respective signs. Right on cue, Uranus is shown in the chart at 4°02′ of Gemini, which completes the exact Minor Grand Trine with Pluto (Aquarius 4°44′) and Neptune (Aries 4°25′). The latter was stationary a few hours earlier and will be inching retrograde at only 0.95% of its average speed. Finally, at Gemini 6°23′, Mars is still in an operational conjunction with Uranus and thus energizing the entire configuration.

Discussion

True and meaningful change is finally upon us. When all is said and done, we will likely look back to this July as the month when the tide clearly turned. The exit of Jupiter from Cancer wraps up decades of previous attempts at waking up a new consciousness in mankind; as far back as the Second World War. The energy will no longer be wasted in what has obviously failed. It is time to turn the page and move on.

The first notes of the prelude to the Age of Aquarius were played by the last Jupiter–Saturn conjunction in the first degree of the sign at the end of 2020. After allowing earth-centric paradigms to gracefully pack their bags, which few did, the prelude began to take shape in late 2024 with the definite entrance of Pluto in Aquarius. Even though it could be seen in 2025 that changes were inevitable, those in power doubled down in their selfishness and continued their policies of extraction. Indeed, we have reached levels of inequality simply unsustainable, not to mention the total disregard for the health of our planet.

Once Neptune entered Aries in late January, joined by Saturn shortly thereafter, the true (and sad) state of affairs could no longer be hidden. When Uranus, the ruler of Aquarius, moved into Gemini and began to communicate the truth being uncovered by Pluto, the prelude took an unmistakable form which, as the name implies, predicts the future disregarding our wishes. Jupiter in Leo, opposing Pluto in Aquarius, is like trumpets heralding that change is imminent. That will be the topic of the next article.

Wrapping Up…

At the risk of repeating myself too much, there will be energies to reflect and perhaps revisit the emotional communications we may have made in the past two weeks.

The full moon will encourage us to reflect on how little we seek help from others. However, the full realization may not come until events that will occur a week later.

The entrance of Jupiter in Leo, a day after the full moon, will initiate a year of many changes. I will be much more explicit in the next article but I want you to be as aware as possible.

Enjoy the bright moon this weekend.

Always Love. 🌹🙏💖