HOT and lush and unhurried, as if the world has earned the right to just be for a while without justifying itself. The Buck Moon rises golden and slow just as the male deer's antlers are growing in velvet right now, soft and blood-warm. July doesn't ask much of you by way of structure. It asks for presence instead. Long evenings. Slow mornings. The particular kind of attention that only becomes available when urgency steps back.

July opens under Cancer and on the 23rd the sun crosses into Leo. The month is largely a Cancer month, with Leo energy arriving near the close.

Mercury returns direct on July 23rd, having been retrograde since June 29th. The first half of July still carries the shadow — hold off on final decisions until after that date, then move forward with clarity.

DEEP immersive work suits July better than new beginnings. Meditation, trance, anything requiring sustained focus all find good support in the still, heavy air. Water magic comes alive in the heat - rivers, lakes, summer storms that arrive from nowhere. If you work with herbs and plant medicines, this is prime harvest time for many of them. Work with what's fully expressed right now.

The mid-summer lull is not stagnation. The year has been doing a great deal since Imbolc and July is when it digests that. Don't push through it, rather, be in it.

• Jul 14th New Moon
• Jul 23rd Sun enters Leo
• Jul 23rd Mercury Direct
• Jul 29th Buck Moon (Full Moon)