Written and published exclusively for Drink Droplet.

Leo season is always about the tension between pride and shame. Venus, the planet of desire and love, enters the sign of its fall in Virgo on July 21st. And Mars, the planet of decisive action, follows suit on July 29th. Mars in Virgo is an amazing strategizer and troubleshooter. While Venus in Virgo struggles with feeling worthy of adoration and worship, it makes itself useful in service of the cause. 

In contrast, the Sun enters its home sign, Leo, on July 22nd. It’s all about unabashed glory and self-love. But of course, nothing is ever that one-dimensional and straightforward, especially with the Full Moon in Aquarius on July 23rd, making that tension between feeling deserving and neglected that much palpable. For this Full Moon, take note of whatever seeds you’re sowing since February 2021. The New Moon in Leo on Aug. 8th is square Uranus so expect surprises and plans likely going array. The key is about being flexible.

Mercury is back at full speed and moves through the signs Cancer, Leo and Virgo. Jupiter stations retrograde back into Aquarius on July 28th. And for a sweet finale, Venus enters its home sign Libra on Aug. 15th. Read your horoscopes for some gentle guidance.

It's highly recommended that you primarily read the horoscopes for your Rising sign. If you don't know your Rising Sign, you can read for your Sun (if born during the day) and/or Moon (if born at night) sign. Read it all if you like, and take what resonates. To figure out these placements, enter your birth date, location and precise birth time into an astrology app like Time Nomad or online at astro.com. For more guidance on how all of these play together, visit charmastrology.com.

Aries: Nothing like shame to limit your potential. Shame obstructs your self-perception of your worth and prevents you from learning about yourself through different kinds of experiences. This month, think specifically about what shame is blocking in your life. Find out how shame is different from fear, though at times, they can go hand in hand. What happens if you shed your shame? What if you were the shameless person you admire? 

Taurus: Right now, you may be in the mood to reflect on how you want to preserve the private parts of your life from the current cultural pressure of digital oversharing and overexposure. There are issues about visibility and the dynamics of that kind of relating that may bother you, and one way to understand it is to draw the curtains closed. Step back a bit to help you feel more grounded and less troubled by the lack of internet-based relationship ethics.

Gemini: Make a list of places you want to visit more of in your day-to-day life. List subjects you want to learn and rituals and routines you want to make a habit of. Think slow living versus big dreams. In a way, you are at a turning point where macro-level life events are coming to a culmination. Allow yourself the pleasure to reimagine and reinvent how you want to feel at home, wherever you may be. Just keep exploring.

Cancer: It’s time to get to work on the material domains of your life. Money problems? Figure out solutions! Own too much stuff? Time to declutter! Hate your job? Find out how you can find your happy medium while still making enough to sustain your life. Deep psychological, financial issues? Emotionally process them with someone, please. Be generous and kind to yourself as you examine how to acquire a level of opulence you most definitely deserve. 

Leo: Often, during Leo season, you’re feeling rejuvenated and hyper-focused on all things you! After some time in the literal or metaphorical cave of your mind and memories, you’re ready to step into the sun. You’ll be pondering questions about who you are, where you’re headed, and how you want to express and embody your relationships. The month ahead is also a good reminder about your willingness or refusal to ask for help. Lean into practicing what feels harder.

Virgo: The next month ahead will hopefully be an inspiring time for you to reimagine health and healing for who you are today. Not the you of the past, but the you of the present. Basically, you’ll be shedding layers. It’s important that your approach includes a multitude of disciplines and modalities. You more than anyone likely believe that there are often multiple and simultaneous truths, reducing yourself to a singular strategy is probably not the best way to go about things.  

Libra: You’ll be bursting and spilling over at the urgency you’re feeling about collaborating and creating. However, it’s also vital that you recognize how rumination, incubation and contemplation are also essential parts of the creating process. Make a point to internalize more this month ahead. Hopefully, this will help you reframe the value of rest in the overall outcome of your projects. Towards the end of the month, you’ll be doused in pleasant feelings of self-empathy, hopefully.

Scorpio: Sometimes you start off aiming one way and end up on the other side, the inside out, the upside-down. While you may be enthused (or anxious tbh) about all the new changes to your overall life plans, expect some unforeseen, non-linear and unreliable outcomes. Just remember, nothing is ever really permanent. The month ahead is a good lesson in reframing your experience by adjusting your reactions. It’s all about how you manage a crisis more than the crisis itself.

Sagittarius: You’ll be experiencing the tension between your mixed-feelings about public visibility and your desire to hole up in your study-cave to shut out life’s performance pressure. Often you vacillate between being empowered to contribute a respectable presence out in the world and the need to just be as obscure and mysterious as possible. The point is that there is no one truth and you’ll likely continue to figure how to stay balanced.

Capricorn: The month ahead is an excellent time for taking inventory of your collaborations. Are you sharing with folks and groups that are aligned with your own values and beliefs? This moment of introspection will inspire you to either clean out your alliances or strengthen them. In a way, there are losses to emotionally process and endings to tend to. You may find that this will help you move forward with less feelings of worry and the crushing weight of burden. Only say yes to responsibilities you wholeheartedly believe in.

Aquarius: As usual, during this time of the year, the topic of the month centres around you and other people. You might be going through illuminating realizations about who you are in the context of your different kinds of relationships. Perhaps there are new connections to tend to or new dynamics with older ones that need soft hands. Whatever situationship you find yourself in, there are emotionally charged issues that require your diligence, care and and warmth. Even if it’s hard, but especially because it is.

Pisces: ‘Tis the season for new work, project ideas and enthusiasm for life. Or perhaps, it’s because this exciting energy is lacking that you are that much more aware of your need to add spunk in your day-to-day. This month ahead, be brave. Challenge yourself by going after what you think you don’t deserve. Go talk to people you think are out of your league. Work through the sources and stories that narrate how you’re unloved. Gather evidence to the contrary because no matter how much you think you are unworthy, everyone deserves to feel, at the very least, that they’re enough.