This month, Mars enters Leo on July 20! Mars is the fiery planet of passion and of fighting spirit, and Leo is the sign of pride and warmth. Combined, these energies create an environment of massive achievement, the type that leaves the old way of doing things behind in favour of shining new opportunities. This is combined with heaping doses of the type of self-understanding that finds others opening unexpected doors for you, as your personal magnetism attracts what’s good for you and repels what’s not, in one way or another! Mars in Leo makes your personal darkness unbearable, in such a way that all you can do is avoid it and seek what and who you do like to be around, all for your own betterment overall, as there’ll be no time for laziness once it’s time to rebuild those old structures that are about to get shaken up!

I’ve recently started using the Thoth Tarot, and was really feeling it and its astrological symbolism for this post — I’m testing out the readings now available as subscriptions/rewards on my Patreon page! This reading falls under the $35 Planetary Transit tier, which also includes a one-card monthly kickoff reading, a 5-card reading every time the Sun sign changes (next is Leo on July 22!), and 3-card readings for the New and Full Moons. Each reading involves three decks (2 oracle and 1 tarot), and focuses on how you personally can best make use of the planetary energies that affect us all. For this reading I chose the Isis Oracle and Crystal Reading Cards, the first because the Thoth Tarot has lots of Ancient Egyptian symbolism and the second for its bright colours to enhance the Thoth’s. Both oracle decks were happy to be included, as each produced a jumper card during shuffling!

Jumpers: Tanzanite | Clarity + Scales of Balance Oracle cards: Clear Quartz | Purification + Eye of Horus Tarot card: XIX – The Sun

Yes, it looks like Mars’s time in Leo — it enters Virgo September 5 — will ultimately be a time of regaining your balance and more fully realizing your own potential. I gasped when I turned over The Sun card, because the Sun is Leo’s power planet: looking back at the cards for Mars and Leo, it looks like The Sun is shining on Strength this month! Anything that’s destroyed is part of a greater purification process, as your life visibly starts to come together and what’s left to be worked on is clearer than ever too. In realizing what you can do right now, you open yourself to receiving the team that will help you grow even more, drawn to you by the sheer sparkle of your own flame when you’re lit up by doing what you truly love. Major shifts are occurring, but it’s safe to allow change, as we’re all doing the same sort of inner work right now. What’s meant to fall away will, leaving you lighter and freer to fly on and come that much closer to realizing the next part of your destiny — the next step on the path is about to become crystal clear!

You’re ready to build something great, in large part because you stayed where you were needed for as long as you could. You maintained that by holding a beautiful vision of what “next” might look like, and now an opportunity is being presented to bring that bubble out of the “dream” category and very much into stunning reality. This is something that will work, and you have the strength and energy to do it now! Be excited, and let any fear act as a fuel to get you closer to what you want, in turn propelling you away from whatever would stamp out your flame — nothing can stop you now! Trust that you are protected when the going gets tough: nothing great can be born without some labour pains. Know that the seed is already planted for a splendid result.

Decks used:

Crystal Reading Cards. Rachelle Charman. Sterling Ethos, 2016.

Isis Oracle. Alana Fairchild. Illustrated by Jimmy Manton. Victoria, Australia: Blue Angel Publishing, 2013.

Tarot Mucha. LWB: Lunaea Weatherstone. Artwork: Giulia F. Massaglia. Torino, Italy: Lo Scarabeo, 2014. © Lo Scarabeo Italy.

Thoth Tarot Deck. Aleister Crowley. Illustrated by Lady Frieda Harris. Stamford, CT: US Game Systems, Inc., 1983.