on high simmer
july divination journal 2026
Greetings ~
Casey Zabala here, with your July Divination Journal for 2026. This month offers high drama, high magick, high tension. This missive gives astrological narrative to the energetics, with some magical self-care suggestions woven in.
After sitting with the energetics of this Summer, I’m called to share more maps of the soul, give shape to spirit and share ideas for unpacking our purpose. I believe we all have an assignment — and that we all flourish when we each embody our authentic genius. July invites us to let go of what keeps us trapped in other people’s webs of perception, and to daringly embrace our individuality.
Book a session with me for support in this work!
Read on below for insights and spiritual grounding:
I had to lay down on the floor of my studio, calling down the angels to anchor me into the task of illustrating the mythic threads of these high summer days. The energy of July 2026 is precarious, cresting, and ready to split us into surprising and novel timelines. We are simmering in the crucible of transformation. So, this monthly divination journal will be an attempt to give language to the energetics of this precious and precipitous month, as well as offer magical self-care tools to forge your path through the thorns.
In the undergrowth, the brambles are buzzing with bird song and pollinators, branches drooping with ripening fruits, while the buzzards circle overhead. Our world is rife with the emergent scenarios with potentially violent outcomes. In our own magical, enchanted, purpose-aligned lives, how might we balance out the path that leads to destruction, with our own reconstruction of care?
July’s overall assignment is to accept our soul work.
MERCURY RETROGRADE:
Tensions and tides are rising as we enter the heat of Summer, July. Mercury is retrograde in the sensitive and oft tearful world of Cancer, tracking a deep yet elusive longing until it is forced to retreat and rest. Our words might come out coded or laden with past wounding. Our triggers might lead to feelings based choices. Mercury retrograde here will be offering new insights into the areas of our lives where compassion is accessible, craved, or lacking all together. Identify the ways in which you are seeking more tenderness, support, or healing, and attempt to adjust towards nurturance. While Mercury is retrograde in Cancer, it might be a difficult time to make decisions that affect your long-term plans for the future. You are moving through a cycle of revision, recommitment, and resetting of expectations. Make no firm or binding propositions until later in the Summer season, when the air is crisping back into Autumn.
Mercury stations direct 16° Cancer on July 23rd.
DARE TO FEEL: Mercury in Cancer is for vulnerable emotional insights.
If you are having trouble with overwhelm - specifically when it feels difficult to identify your feelings at any given moment - this is a great time for slowing down your emotional process and learning what feelings you are experiencing. When overwhelm creeps in, notice what you are doing. Are you at work, on your phone, deep in your inbox, with your partner or alone? Stop and take three deep breaths, noticing where the breath feels stuck or heavy in your body. Next, ask yourself what your overwhelm is protecting you from feeling? Wait and listen for any intuitive insights from your body, spirit, or mind. Take note of your findings somewhere where you can track your feelings over time.
Perhaps you will realize that a habit or activity is causing unnecessary stress. Maybe you will realize that there is something needing to be communicated or processed through. Set aside time to address your emotional needs. They are valid and important for your health and wellness!
MARS-URANUS CONJUNCTION:
Mars slides closer and closer to Uranus at the beginning of the month, with a conjunction (or collision) perfecting on July 4th. Mars Uranus conjunctions bring about aggressive bursts of action, potent releases of pent-up energy, or surprising outcomes that expend massive amounts of fuel.
There are so many important implications of this transit for the collective. We are primed to witness escalations of war, outrageous power grabs by unfettered fascist leaders, or worse. Here, I am going to focus on how this transit might land for you personally, especially when the world at large can disempower our sense of authority. Big picture vision, this year is a great time to: prepare your emergency go-bag, know your community’s emergency planning provisions, and have an emergency plan with your nearest and dearest.
If you have found yourself burning the candle at both ends, the Mars-Uranus conjunction may relieve your personal limitations - limitations that are designed to be honored. We cannot continue to give all of our energy away to others, and expect to cultivate a rich, meaningful and fruitful relationship with the world.
If your field has become filled with static energy, or your inbox is overflowing with newsletters, offers, and updates, it may be time to reset your information centers to hone the flow of input you are receiving. Mars-Uranus could reveal the areas in which we have information over-load, that is causing interference in our own inner spiritual landscapes. Return to moments of pause and silence, for the answers you seek.
If you have a debt of pent up frustration, rage, or aggression, you are going to want to find a safe way to release your fire. The Mars-Uranus conjunction can cause an eruption of unprocessed desires to flood our system. Take note of all the ideas, projects, plans, that you have wanted to actualize but haven’t had the room for. Instead of taking out your tension on others, acknowledge the ways you have been holding your own spirit back from its full radical expression. Dance, shake, run, or scream out the tension that you are carrying around with you. Find a big, or small, outlet for your freedom.
MOON MAPPING:
July’s lunations offer profound opportunities for our conscious co-creation and deepening of our self awareness. The Moon leads us into a connection with the divinity of our mundane experience; it connects us with the tides, the swelling of the earth, the morphic field of our cultural experience. July is an important month for facing emotional truths and stepping into a new elevated practice of emotional regulation.
🌑 Cancer New Moon July 14th (conjunct Mercury)
~ This New Moon is a dark and still reflecting pool, a sentient scrying mirror, ready to reveal coveted soul material to those who ponder the glassy surface long enough.
🌝 Aquarius Full Moon July 29th (with a Jupiter cazimi and Pluto-Moon conjunction!)
~ Oppositions illuminate powerful opportunities for growth and integration, and this Full Moon is a power house for collective ritual. Release what is holding you back with an abundance of optimism for the life you are calling into reality. May we step into a paradigm centering the needs and care of all living beings!
JUPITER IN LEO: coaxing your purest form to the surface
Thoughtfully abandon those parts of yourself that keep us tame, small, or afraid of our creative potential. Leap onto the dancefloor, dare to be noticed, relish in your authentic expression.
July’s grasses are high and golden, the Sun is saturated, the call to embody your wildest notions is dialed up and crackling through the stereo. While the world around us burns and tensions roil, learn how to walk on the embers. Our innately human creativity and genius is in our sensual experience of Eros, grief, rage, and all the experiences in between.
When stress rears its demonic head, ground back into the sensual. Smell a sun baked rose, stretch your body like a lazy cat, or ask someone to hold your hand tight. Re-attune to the mundane yet magical moments of connection that keep us present to the miraculous nature of being.
Major activations are coalescing as we move through the month of July. Timelines are ending. New chapters are being initiated. You may be surprised or perplexed by where you find yourself. The central quest of this month, simmering with intensity, is to further align with your soul’s purpose here on this precious planet.
A SPELL / A PRAYER :
“I ask for my beloved helping spirits to conspire benevolently to illuminate and actualize my soul’s calling. I release attachment to any behaviors or beliefs that are clouding my vision or occulting my purpose. I am ready to live in alignment with my soul’s path. ”