The Astrology of Queer Spirit 2026, by Capella
The astroweather gears up this Leo season as a lot of planets are in cardinal signs. Cardinal is a modality that reflects the beginning of a season, it therefore gives an association of initiator. Forward momentum is felt through Mercury now having turned direct. On the 12th of August we have our first solar eclipse across the axis of Leo and Aquarius. Venus moves into Libra on the 6th August, Mercury into Leo on the 9th, and Mars into Cancer on the 11th.
This Leo season Venus and Mars make hard aspects to Neptune. The current social disharmony brings our awareness to how far we are from recognising shared humanity and collective belonging. We are angry, so angry at the destruction of the earth, at the dehumanisation and violence to a people, particularly black and brown people, and yet Mars, waterlogged in cancer, gives a sense of feeling ill equipped to fight.
Significantly, the nodes change signs this month on the 27th July with the South node now entering Leo and the North Node in Aquarius. This takes place whilst Jupiter supercharges the Pluto, Uranus and Neptune configuration from his seat in Leo. Woahhh!
The nodes quick guide: These are projected points in the sky that mark the path of the Moon, tracking eclipse cycles. You may see western astrologers talking about the nodes as the dragon’s head and tail, this comes from the Vedic astrological tradition. The North Node magnifies and the South Node excretes. Since ancient Mesopotamia eclipses have been extensively monitored and correlated with the rise and fall of nations - becoming an omen.
Truth be told I am slightly apprehensive about Queer Spirit taking place a day after the solar eclipse during the eclipse period window. This is not a time to practise manifestation as this will be tainted with eerie unsettling eclipse energy. An unravelling of the world around us, and vital solar energy being blotted out. Yet in a way eclipses are inherently queer. They literally queer the light of our surroundings to experience something other, bringing an uncanniness. Eclipse omens are primarily about power structures failing and don't us queers need it?! So perhaps Queer Spirit is a good time to focus on the powers that need undoing within and without.
The festival opens as the moon applies in a square to Uranus. Uranus has been associated with the Promethean fire by Richard Tarnas, and features in cycles of history of mass movements towards social liberation. Uranus is about finding different ways of doing things, enabling innovation and unorthodoxy. Karl Heinrich Ulrichs, the German sexologist, used the term Uranian to resituate sodomy as way of being, rather than a criminalised pathology. And so as the moon draws down Uranian energy for Queer Spirit, what new ways of being do you yearn for?
As the South Node moves into Leo what can we start saying goodbye to? Leo the bestial sign of the lion. A lion roars, a lion is king of the jungle, a lion is gold. Gold is often hoarded, in western myths by dragons. Leo is the home of the Sun. A celestial body that has us all orbiting around it, a centralised form of power.
Andy Burnham the new UK prime minister has pledged to decentralise the government bringing power to the north, and declared intentions to put energy and water back into public ownership. Interestingly, he also plans to scrap the digital ID scheme (a Pluto in Aquarius trine Uranus in Gemini matter) to fund this. I don’t want to give a one sided pictured of Burnham as our deliverer into socialism, he also plans to reverse the ban on North Sea oil drilling which will further contribute to our devastated climate.
A group of UK millionaires have signed an open letter to Burnham asking to be taxed for their wealth. This has been framed as a patriotic motivation as they ‘love this country and want to see it succeed.’ Patriotism often has a misdirected racist ideology that overlooks the underlying fundamental need: a sense of belonging to land. Could this open letter be a seed of realisation towards collective responsibility of resource sharing towards a common goal?
So do we get it? Do we finally get to see the last of billionaires and patriarchy? Or at least a re-balancing of power during this new nodal season?
How would you herald the death of a king? Would you conduct a solemn ceremony or clown it up? What words would you use and what story would they tell?
This Leo season, few planets are in earth signs.
I call for the soil to carry out the death process, breaking down the hoarding of greater power into tiny new life forms bringing intelligence and nutrients into the mycelial network. I call for the mycelium to collect this dispersal of power and whisper it to the forests and woods and older mother trees. I call on them to help restore the burnt ones.
One last thing – beware, corrupt power is much harder to identify once it is dispersed.
I’m going to be giving two workshops at Queer Spirit, Queering the Planets and Walking the Starry Sky. If you enjoyed this blog, I send out a monthly newsletter exploring the astroweather of each solar season which you can find at qwyrd.carrd.co
