This week, the second Mercury retrograde of the year begins in the cardinal water sign of Cancer. Mars enters Gemini, where it's joining with Uranus, and we also have a groundbreaking Capricorn Full Moon. Jupiter also enters Leo, where it's staying for an entire year. Let's dive into all of the cosmic details; all dates and times are in EDT.
Cosmic Headlines
The most important astrological events of the week.
Sunday, June 28: Mars enters Gemini
Mars, the planet of action, drive, war, and conflict, moves into the mutable air sign, Gemini. Mars in Gemini brings mental speed, sharper words, quicker reactions, and a stronger urge to move, speak, decide, and do something. This is not slow or steady energy. It is restless, curious, social, and highly stimulated. Collectively, this can lead to more heated conversations, rapid developments in media and communication, and a faster pace of everyday life. People may feel more impatient, more reactive, or more eager to say exactly what is on their mind.
At its highest expression, Mars in Gemini is excellent for writing, speaking, selling, marketing, media, networking, short trips, and getting multiple moving pieces off the ground at once. It can help you think faster, act faster, and say what needs to be said. But the shadow side is scattered energy, gossip, arguments, mental burnout, and trying to do too much at one time. Because Gemini is dual and ever-changing, Mars here can also bring inconsistency, mixed signals, or conflict through miscommunication. The key during this transit is discernment. Do not waste your energy fighting every battle, proving every point, or chasing every distraction. Focus your mind with intention, because where your attention goes, your momentum will follow. This is also initiating the first Mars–Uranus conjunction, which I discuss in more depth in the Sky Notes section below.
Monday, June 29: Mercury retrograde in Cancer
Mercury stations retrograde in Cancer as the week begins. This is a 4-week period when the planet that governs communication, thought, transportation, and local travel, moves backward in the sky. While this is an optical illusion, the effects of Mercury retrograde are very real, and it will affect Cancer placements the most this time around. This lasts until July 23, with the post-retrograde shadow period continuing until August 7.
Mercury retrograde in Cancer can bring up ancestral healing, revisiting familial themes from the past, or the desire to travel back to your hometown. Cleaning the home, restructuring your space, focusing on beautifying your sanctuary, or even deciding to move may come up. Prepare for old friends you consider family to return, or for exes and old lovers to resolve past matters. Expect travel delays, especially locally, so always leave room for miscommunications and errors.
It's important not to be afraid of Mercury retrograde. Yes, it can cause miscommunication and confusion, but it is also meant for much-needed revisits. Some basic do's are not to launch something new; instead, revising old projects and past initiatives is the way to go. If you can pause on important meetings, conversations, interviews, and contracts. Of course, I know that life goes on, and sometimes we need to make a move forward. I recommend waiting until after the post-retrograde shadow period. If you can't, take your time, read the details, and be ready to hit the redo button once Mercury stations direct!
Full Moon in Capricorn
The same day after Mercury stations retrograde, the Full Moon in Capricorn activates at 7:56 pm EDT. The Capricorn Moon is opposing the Cancer Sun in the sky, giving us the round and bright Moon that we know and love. The Moon is in its detriment in Capricorn and is also forming a hard aspect, astrologers call a square, with Saturn and Neptune in Aries. Translation: this is a Full Moon full of revelations of a harsh truth, shedding light on what must be released to step into the new start coming in August. This could be around ancestral patterns or family-related areas of life that are blocking your progress. It's time to let go of the past. Or you may be releasing a home, a location, or items that were once sentimental but must be cleared from your space to welcome the new.
Tuesday, June 30: Jupiter enters Leo
Jupiter, the planet of luck, growth, and expansion, enters the fires of Leo for the first time in 12 years. This is ushering in a year-long period of good fortune, especially for Leo placements. If you have Jupiter in Leo, this is your Jupiter return, and where you'll experience growth and progress the most. Think back to the year 2014; this can indicate a bit of what's in store for you now. Jupiter comes along to build on the expansion you experienced back then in a positive way. This is also laying the groundwork for the transformative Leo Solar Total Eclipse coming up on August 12. Stay tuned and sign up for email marketing for an announcement on my upcoming semi-annual Shadow & Light eclipse season workshop.
Zodiac Sign Horoscopes
Read your Sun, Moon, or Rising Sign.
♈︎ Aries
This week speeds up your mind, Aries. Mars entering Gemini activates communication, writing, local travel, short trips, and how you assert yourself through words. You may feel sharper, more opinionated, and more ready to say what has been building. At the same time, Mercury retrograde in Cancer and the Full Moon in Capricorn are bringing deeper attention to home, family, and career. Something may need to be revisited privately before you make your next public move.
Jupiter entering Leo is one of the brighter points of this week for you, opening a new cycle of growth in romance, creativity, pleasure, and self-expression. This is a reminder that not everything has to feel heavy right now. Let the Full Moon show you what needs to be released, and let Jupiter remind you that more joy is coming.
♉︎ Taurus
Mars leaving your sign may feel like a relief, Taurus. As it enters Gemini, your focus shifts toward money, self-worth, possessions, and the practical side of security. You may feel more driven to make financial moves, ask for more, or think more seriously about what you are building. Mercury retrograde in Cancer can bring old conversations, contracts, and issues with neighbors or siblings back around, so take your time with details and do not rush important decisions.
The Full Moon in Capricorn is illuminating beliefs, international travel, education, or a broader life direction that may be shifting. At the same time, Jupiter entering Leo begins a year-long expansion around home, family, and your emotional foundation. What is changing now is helping you create something more stable and more aligned over the long term.
♊︎ Gemini
Mars entering your sign gives you a noticeable surge of energy, Gemini. You may feel more motivated, more visible, more restless, and more ready to act. This is a transit that puts fire behind your words and momentum behind your choices. But with Mercury, your ruler, stationing retrograde in Cancer, the week is not asking you to move recklessly. It is asking you to move with awareness, especially around money, value, and the emotional subtext behind your decisions.
The Full Moon in Capricorn is bringing culmination around intimacy, shared resources, debt, or emotional entanglements. Something may be ready to leave your life so that you can move more freely. Jupiter entering Leo is excellent for your mind, message, writing, speaking, and visibility. You are entering a season where your voice can carry much farther, but first, make sure it is rooted in truth.
♋︎ Cancer
Mercury retrograde begins in your sign this week, Cancer, and that means the spotlight is on you. You may feel more inward, reflective, nostalgic, and aware of what needs revisiting from the past. This is not the best time to force a brand-new direction. It is a time to rethink, revise, remember, and reconnect with parts of yourself that need your attention. Mars entering Gemini can stir hidden anger, anxiety, or mental overstimulation, so rest and spiritual boundaries matter.
The Full Moon in Capricorn activates your relationship sector, bringing revelation, release, or a reality check in a one-on-one dynamic. Jupiter entering Leo begins a new year-long cycle of growth around income, self-worth, and financial opportunity. This week may feel emotionally intense, but it is also preparing you for something much more abundant.
♌︎ Leo
There is a major shift in tone for you this week, Leo. Mars entering Gemini activates friendships, community, networking, and future plans, making you more socially engaged and mentally activated around what comes next. This can be a great transit for launches, collaborations, and reconnecting with people who energize you. Mercury retrograde in Cancer may pull some of your focus inward, though, asking you to spend time with what is unresolved beneath the surface as the new is coming in.
The Full Moon in Capricorn brings attention to work, habits, health, and the systems that hold your life together. Something may need to be released or restructured. The biggest news is Jupiter entering your sign for the first time in 12 years. This is the start of a major new chapter of growth, confidence, visibility, and expansion. Your light is getting bigger.
♍︎ Virgo
This week puts pressure on your public life, Virgo. Mars entering Gemini activates career, reputation, leadership, and visibility, which can bring more momentum professionally but also more stress if you are trying to do everything at once. Mercury retrograde in Cancer brings old friends, networks, and long-term plans back into focus, asking you to rethink where you belong and who is actually aligned with your future.
The Full Moon in Capricorn illuminates romance, creativity, children, fertility, pleasure, and self-expression. Something may come to a culmination here, especially if you have been denying yourself the joy and pleasure in life that you deserve. Jupiter entering Leo begins a quieter, more internal year of growth, healing, and spiritual protection. Not everything expanding for you now needs to be visible to everyone else.
♎︎ Libra
Mars entering Gemini can feel energizing for you, Libra. It activates travel, higher learning, publishing, spirituality, and the bigger vision for your life. You may feel more ready to make bold choices, speak your truth, or move toward something that expands your world. Mercury retrograde in Cancer, though, asks you to slow down professionally. Career plans, contracts, or public decisions may need to be revisited before they are fully ready.
The Full Moon in Capricorn brings something to light around home, family, roots, or your emotional foundation. A private truth may be impossible to ignore. Some of you may restructure your home or return to your hometown to re-explore your roots. Jupiter entering Leo is excellent for friendships, visibility, collaborations, and the future you are building. The right people are becoming more important, but first, make sure your foundation can hold the next version of your life.
♏︎ Scorpio
This week is intense, but clarifying, Scorpio. Mars entering Gemini activates intimacy, shared resources, debt, trust, and emotional entanglements. This can bring stronger desires, sharper instincts, or conflict around money and power if something has been simmering beneath the surface. Mercury retrograde in Cancer may also stir belief systems, travel plans, education, or a larger vision that now needs reconsideration.
The Full Moon in Capricorn highlights communication, contracts, writing, important news, or a conversation that changes your perspective. Jupiter entering Leo is a major career blessing for the year ahead, bringing more visibility, growth, and opportunity in your professional life. This week may ask for release, but it is also opening a much bigger door.
♐︎ Sagittarius
Relationships become much louder this week, Sagittarius. Mars entering Gemini activates your one-on-one partnerships, which can bring more passion, more chemistry, more directness, and in some cases, more conflict. Mercury retrograde in Cancer asks you to move slowly around intimacy, shared finances, and trust. Something from the past may need closure before a new dynamic can move forward cleanly.
The Full Moon in Capricorn brings focus to money, security, and self-worth, showing you what needs to be released or restructured. Jupiter entering Leo is a welcome expansion for you, opening growth through international travel, spirituality, education, publishing, and a greater sense of possibility. This week may be emotional, but it is also helping you widen your life.
♑︎ Capricorn
Mars entering Gemini shifts your attention to work, routines, health, and the pace of everyday life, Capricorn. You may be busier, more mentally active, and more motivated to get things moving, but the risk is that you overextend yourself. Mercury retrograde in Cancer is bringing relationship matters back around, which means important conversations with partners, clients, or close connections may need to be revisited. Exes, old lovers, or past business partners may come back around, too.
The Full Moon in your sign is one of the biggest moments of the week for you. It can bring clarity, release, and emotional truth around your identity, body, and the version of yourself you are ready to leave behind. Jupiter entering Leo begins a deeper cycle of growth around intimacy, support, shared resources, and transformation. Something important is ending, so something more meaningful can begin.
♒︎ Aquarius
Mars entering Gemini is a strong transit for you, Aquarius. It activates romance, creativity, pleasure, children, and self-expression, bringing more fire and movement to life's pleasurable aspects. This can be excellent for editing or revising a creative project, dating, or reconnecting with what feels exciting. Mercury retrograde in Cancer asks you to slow down around work, health, and daily routines, especially if something has become chaotic or unsustainable.
The Full Moon in Capricorn works more quietly, bringing endings, closure, spiritual insight, or something private to the surface. Jupiter entering Leo is one of the most important shifts of the year for you, opening growth in love relationships or business partnerships. Love, business, and one-on-one connections are entering a new cycle of expansion.
♓︎ Pisces
This week pulls your attention toward home, family, your living situation, and your emotional foundation, Pisces. Mars entering Gemini can stir more movement or tension in domestic matters, while Mercury retrograde in Cancer brings old romantic themes, creative ideas, or matters involving children back into focus. Something from the past may need a second look before you can fully move forward.
The Full Moon in Capricorn illuminates friendships, networks, community, and long-term goals. You may be releasing a social dynamic or seeing more clearly where you do and do not belong. Jupiter entering Leo begins a new year of growth around work, well-being, routines, and practical improvements to your life. The week may begin with emotion, but it is leading you toward greater order and support.
Oracle
The Black Moon Lilith in Capricorn oracle card is all about elevation, due to your own ambition, drive, and work ethic in the face of a glass ceiling or other invisible barriers. When this card comes up in a reading, it indicates that a breakthrough and recognition are on their way. It's also speaking to the Capricorn Full Moon occurring this week, and encouraging you to finish the final release of everything that's holding you back, so the road will be open once the universe drops the breakthrough in your lap. Utilize this week to do shadow work, write down what you'd like to release, or even to a physical purge or cleanse of clutter from your home and work space. It's time to get clear, so the universe has the space to provide!
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Sky Notes
The major planetary aspect.
Saturday, Jul 4: Mars ☌ Uranus in Gemini
As the month kicks off, Mars, the planet of action, war, conflict, and drive, will form an exact connection with Uranus, which brings shocks, surprises, and sudden events, in the sign of Gemini. This is the first Mars–Uranus conjunction we’ll experience in Gemini during its seven-year cycle. Gemini is ruled by the planet Mercury, governing your local community, short trips, communication, and thought.
On or around this day (especially during Mercury retrograde) it’s important watch out for accidents while commuting locally, triggering through text, or explosive verbal conflict. This could be a day that we see some widespread violence in the United States. I plan on staying home during Independence Day celebrations, and based on the astro-weather, I'm advising my clients and readers to do the same. Not to fear-monger, but just be mindful as you navigate this! This will quickly pass once Mars begins to separate the next day.
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