Buckle your seat belts: the Big Basket has arrived!
Between the 15th and 25th of July, we have six major outer planet aspects forming an unprecedented Basket aspect pattern with Jupiter, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto. Its upside potentials are off the charts, and I’m here to help you make the best use of them!
This is the second of my three July forecasts. I already posted the forecast for July 1-15, and will post the forecast for the rest of July — except for these outer planet aspects — in the next few days. What I discuss here is so momentous and unprecedented that it deserves an episode of its own!
The written forecast is a condensed version of my video and podcast. The written forecast gives you the bottom line, while the video and podcast give you the full depth and nuance of my interpretations.
Watch the video.
Listen to the podcast.
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A Once-in-a-Lifetime Aspect Pattern
One of the most important astrology events of our lifetimes happens in July 2026. Four of astrology’s slowest and most influential planets form a mostly harmonious aspect pattern known as a Basket or Cradle.
These planets all make exact aspects to each other July 15 through 25, creating an almost perfectly aligned aspect pattern. At its peak on July 20, with all four planets very close to four and a half degrees of their signs, none of the planets’ aspects to each other are more than seven arc minutes from exact. That’s about one-eighth of a degree!
You will be most strongly impacted if you have sensitive natal planets or points between one and seven degrees in air or fire signs. Planets and points in that degree range in earth and water signs will also receive potent stimulation.
I cannot imagine anything more powerful than having all three outer planets aspecting the same natal point at the same time!
Jupiter departs the basket on August 3, but the remaining planets, the gods of change, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto, continue their three-way connection — called a Minor Grand Trine — through late April of 2029. By the time they’re done, almost three years from now, your life and the world you inhabit will be profoundly transformed.
I’m going to put some emphasis on the underlying pattern without Jupiter, which is called a Minor Grand Trine or Mini Grand Trine, with Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto. That to me is really the heart of the matter. Jupiter is helpful because it has come along, and in Leo, no less, the showman, to really shine a lot of sparkly light and sequins all over this.
However, the real story is Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto — the “gods of change” — who I’ve already done annual forecasts about and are now coming to the peak of their power. As it turns out, what they’re doing here in the second half of July is their tightest and strongest connection of the decade! It just so happens that Jupiter is coming along to form a fourth member of the pattern just as they’re doing this.
It’s as if the universe is saying, “Don’t ignore this. We’re putting a big spotlight on it.” I’m going to dig into the archetypal possibilities that you can use with the combination of Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto.
We’re going to start there, and then I’m going to add Jupiter to show what’s temporary. Because this Jupiter connection with the Basket only lasts about a month. And this pattern with Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto is lasting most of the decade! But I’m glad Jupiter is giving us massive emphasis and amplification. Jupiter is really good at expanding things.
Let’s get into this methodically.
Why This Minor Grand Trine Matters
When three outer planets come together in a tight pattern, it’s really rare.
We haven’t had a configuration of these three outer planets this tight since around the time of the American Revolution. That was about 250 years ago here in the U.S. So very timely that that’s been very much in mind lately as we’ve had our 250th July 4th celebration here in America.
At that point, the three planets were making a Grand Trine. They were all in an equilateral triangle with each other. So this is the strongest connection these planets have made since then. These planets will not come together again this strongly for another 170 years!
So this Minor Grand Trine is literally once-in-a-lifetime energy. These outer planets move so slowly, and it’s so rare that they align in a manner like this, that it’s a really big deal when they do.
And what is a Minor Grand Trine? It’s harmonious aspects. There are two sextiles, which are 60 degrees, and a trine, which is 120 degrees. So fundamentally, it’s a harmonious setup.
Now, that doesn’t mean all the effects will be harmonious. But the potential is certainly there.
If ever there was a time for the whole global society to make a significant breakthrough for the better, this pattern really opens up that opportunity. What we do with it, of course, is up to us.
I first talked about this in my 2024 annual forecast. At that point, it was still fairly loose. It was just starting to come together.
It got quite a bit closer in 2025. And it’s peaking now.
I talk extensively about this pattern in those two forecasts, where I discussed the historical precedents for these energies coming together. So I’m not going to do nearly as much of that here.
My focus now is: what can you do with this? What can we collectively do with this? One thing about this Basket is that we’ve never had this aspect pattern before. We astrologers have searched back thousands of years, and we literally can’t find it.
This is a new pattern. This configuration of Jupiter, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto, as far as we can tell, has never happened before. So that suggests this can be something brand new.
We don’t have to be bound by history and precedent. We’ve got a brand new energy.
The Saturn-Neptune Conjunction
Another thing that is not part of this pattern, but is very relevant: earlier this year, we had Saturn and Neptune conjoining in the very first degree of Aries.
This apparently hasn’t happened since the rise of the agricultural age, thousands of years ago, to have those two come together at the Aries point, the very beginning of the zodiac, where things start. So that’s also a huge energy that’s in the background.
Saturn and Neptune are still in Aries. They’re no longer close together, but are still conjunct by sign. So the energy of that momentous thing is also with us in the background. And of course, there are many other factors as well.
I don’t want to overcomplicate this, but that event was too important not to mention.
Nearly Three More Years
One other thing I need to tell you is this Minor Grand Trine will be impacting us through about April of 2029. So we have almost three more years of Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto still working their energy.
You have plenty of time to still work with it, but it’s never again going to be as strong as it is this month.
Even with a big alignment like this, all the big stuff won’t happen while they’re in alignment. Typically with a strong pattern like this, you’ll have aftereffects that will last for years.
A classic example is the 60s. Uranus and Pluto made five conjunctions from 1965 to 1967. But the biggest stuff in the 60s didn’t happen until later in the decade.
Uranus and Pluto set the initiation energy, but things take a little time to roll out. The effects aren’t always immediate. So just understand if July comes and goes and the ETs don’t all show themselves, or whatever huge development you’re anticipating hasn’t happened yet, it doesn’t mean it won’t happen at all.
And of course, what does happen will have a lot to do with us and where we each put our individual consciousness. I’ll be talking a lot about that as we go.
Now I want to dive into these archetypes. I’m going to go into the planets and the signs they’re in, and then how they can work with each other.
There’s so much energy here that you can pretty much do anything you want! You’ve got a massive turbo boost on pretty much anything you want to do. So having a clear intention about where you’re going and what you’re trying to accomplish is really helpful here.
Pluto
Pluto: Wealth
I’m going to start with the slowest planet. Pluto is the eighth astrological archetype. Two of the things he rules are wealth and power.
One of the potentials here is the amplification of wealth. What is wealth? Most people think of wealth, oh, that’s money, that’s stuff, that’s possessions. And of course that can be part of it.
However, wealth can be anything that makes your life valuable. So basically wealth can be translated as anything that’s better for you. So for me, the most important wealth I have is divine consciousness.
That’s my ultimate value. Service capacity is a wealth for me. So you decide for yourself, what is your wealth?
Obviously you’ve got to have, in this world we live in, some money and some material things, but what is it that really gives value to your life beyond the obvious stuff? Pluto is so potently amplified by all these other planets. Think, what is the wealth I want?
Pluto: Power
Another key Pluto theme is power.
Power comes in two basic flavors. The Law of One channeled material that I’ve studied so extensively talks about service-to-other and service-to-self.
That’s dark power and light power. So a dark power would be, I’m going to use power to dominate, control, manipulate, get what I want. Everything around me, I really don’t care about it. I just use it as a means to the end of what I desire selfishly.
So that’s dark power. There’s plenty of examples of that around if you want to look.
However, the power I like is what the Law of One calls service-to-other, which is power that uplifts everyone. It’s the rising tide that lifts all the boats. Some examples of this kind of power through history would be Jesus Christ, Mother Teresa, Martin Luther King Jr., Nelson Mandela, people who were very powerful people. Their goal was to uplift the many, not just concentrate power for themselves.
It’s good to be clear in your own mind, what kind of power are you playing with? Are you just seeking selfish power where you just want more and more and you want to dominate and control? Or are you into the power where what empowers you is also automatically empowering others? Are you in it for yourself or are you going to help other folks? So it’s good to be clear, with Pluto so strong, what kind of power you’re playing with.
Pluto: Shadow Work
Pluto is also the classic lord of shadow work. He’s lord of the underworld. All that trauma we buried that we’re not ready to work with yet stays down in his realm. And he has some say over when it comes up to be processed. He doesn’t let it come up until you’re ready to deal with it.
This gives Pluto a strong shadow work theme. As a shaman, shadow work is my natural territory. It’s good to have some good shadow work tools. In case you don’t know what shadow work is, that’s facing trauma, old emotional pain, and skillfully and effectively healing it.
Ideally, you want a shadow work technique that doesn’t just put a Band-Aid on it, but heals it once and for all. As I’ve said many times on my podcasts, I was blessed to receive some invocations, over 15 years ago, where you can actually have your higher self do this for you.
One is the Healing Invocation. You can say eight words to your higher self, then relax, and it will get in there and stir up and flush away that heavy stuff that’s causing your problems. Now it may not heal absolutely everything, but it’s so effective in so many ways. It’s really good for emotional and psychological healing.
Many people have had physical healings too. Maybe it’s worth a shot. If you want to learn more about that, you can go to the link in the show notes, or you can visit https://www.astroshaman.com/invocations/ to learn more about the Healing Invocation.
Of course, there are so many awesome healing work modalities. I’m a trained Shamanic Breathwork facilitator. I also use Internal Family Systems Therapy in my client work. That’s a fabulous modality for getting in there to those wounded parts and getting them unburdened and reintegrated. And of course, there are hundreds of other wonderful shadow work modalities.
Shadow work is a major part of this process. I will say just broadly, if you are a consciously evolving person, if you have any interest in improving yourself personally or spiritually awakening, then shadow work is almost certainly going to be a part of your process.
Even those of us who have cleared a lot of our own stuff, often we’re given the opportunity to start processing for our lineage. Or we’re processing for the collective. I know a lot of people who are processing heavy energy for other people and beings who aren’t yet in a space to do it for themselves.
Pluto: Shadow Work ➡️ Awakening
The beautiful thing about shadow work is that once you’ve cleared something, you get a reward, which is deeper awakening. My experience in doing over 20 years of ayahuasca work is that every time I’ve had a really big healing, I, as an automatic part of that, had a deeper spiritual awakening.
I’ve had so many awakenings, I’ve literally lost track! And I’m not boasting, because I, for years, hardly had any inner awareness. I was the slow student. However, what I discovered through all these healing experiences is that you can’t have a really powerful healing without a corresponding awakening.
My experience of awakening is endlessly incremental. It just goes deeper and deeper and deeper. I’m not sure there even is an endpoint!
When I talk to other people I know who are pretty deeply awakened, in my opinion, they say the same thing. It’s incremental. It just keeps going deeper.
And it may not even be possible as a human to hit the final awakening. The tricky thing is that every awakening is a surprise. You can’t anticipate the next awakening in line.
And therefore, it can be really hard to know, is this the last one? Or are there more?
I remember back when I had my lock-in awakening in 2012, which was in a big one-month ayahuasca process in the jungle, I had the awakening and it finally locked in. It didn’t go away overnight like the others had before it. And it was so ecstatic, I thought, man, did I just hit the whole jackpot? Am I fully and finally awakened? I had no idea, because it was a bliss beyond anything I’d known. But, as it turned out, I was barely off the starting line.
It’s gone so much deeper since then. And if I can do it, as difficult as it was for me, as little consciousness as I had, then my belief is that anybody can do it who has an interest in awakening.
I’m not sitting here boasting. I’m saying, hey, you can do it too. And there are so many beautiful paths.
The free invocations I offer for healing and awakening have helped a lot of people take their awakenings deeper. But there’s so many great tools. Just feel what you’re drawn to and move in those directions.
That was a riff on a Pluto theme. Pluto rules shadow work. And since effective shadow work, healing old traumas, automatically deepens your awakening, you can actually look forward to the next time you get triggered! Because when you deal with that effectively, you’re going to be rewarded with a deeper awakening that will become your new baseline — until the next awakening comes in and it gets even better. Your motto becomes, “It always gets better than this!”
Pluto: Sacred Sex
Pluto is also sacred sexuality, which is not just the physical pleasure of sex, but blending light bodies with your lover.
And I don’t want to go too into that. This is more of a PG forecast. But just know that, if the best you’ve ever had is just purely physical pleasure with the five senses — if you haven’t had the experience of actually soul blending with your lover, where your energy fields come together — that is a bliss beyond anything the physical body can offer.
If you’re interested in that, you can research tantric sex or sacred sex. And there’s tons of stuff out there on how to cultivate that if you’re interested.
Pluto: Release & Transformation
Pluto is also about transformation: death and rebirth processes.
When I’m in an intense process, I sometimes say to my divine allies, “I now release everything that does not serve highest good.” And when I say everything, I mean everything. The more willing you are to let go of whatever doesn’t serve highest good, the more smoothly transformation can unfold. I leave that decision to my higher self and my divine allies, because they know better than Benjamin does what that is. Benjamin’s consciousness is limited. Theirs is far more vast and comprehensive.
The willingness to release what doesn’t serve is really helpful. Again, with awakenings, you could not have imagined what it was like until you’re there. And you may not have a clear understanding of what it’s time to release.
You can have clues. You can say, well, this is feeling stagnant. It feels old and I’m not really excited about it anymore. That’s a pretty good clue that something needs to be either released or transformed or tweaked up somehow.
When you’re really on track with what you’re doing, it’s electrical, it’s exciting, it has vibrancy, it really attracts you. It still makes you want to get out of bed in the morning and do it.
Just notice what’s gone stale in your life and ask, does this need to be released or transformed? And Pluto can definitely help you with that.
Pluto: Shared Resources
On a more mundane level, Pluto is basically joined energy. It’s the opposite sign from Taurus.
Taurus is “my stuff.” You solely control this money or these possessions or these objects. But the Pluto/Scorpio side of the polarity is a shared resource.
That’s why Pluto also rules investments where you’ve got some other entity or person who’s helping you decide what to do with the money. It’s about taxes, which is you sharing your money with a larger entity. Inheritance, which is where money might be coming to you from some other place.
The Pluto energy might also affect some of those areas in some way for you.
Finally, Pluto is like a massive battery. There’s so much power is in this planet. Pluto’s effect on the other planets is to put tremendous energy into them and empower whatever they’re doing.
Pluto in Aquarius: Radical Transformation
Now let’s look at the sign Pluto occupies. Pluto is in Aquarius, and will be for roughly 20 years.
Pluto came in just recently. And let me mention on a side note, this is the only time in this Basket that we have a double emphasis on an archetype. Pluto is in Aquarius and Pluto is trine Uranus.
In astrology, we have something called the astrology alphabet. There’s a planet, sign, and house that all mean pretty much the same thing. Aquarius and Uranus are the same archetype.
This is the only time in this whole pattern that we have an archetype doubled. So the Aquarius/Uranus theme is really big.
Pluto in Aquarius is about big change now. The best example I can give of these energies together is the 60s, when Pluto and Uranus were conjunct, as I mentioned earlier. All across the planet, this was a massively revolutionary decade. Technically, the Pluto-Uranus conjunction was in orb from roughly 1960 to 1972, and there were massive upheavals that a lot of people didn’t see coming.
Now Pluto is in Aquarius, which echoes the same combination. It’s not quite as intense as two planets coming together, but the nature of the transformation is still Aquarian. And remember that Pluto is also trine Uranus
Aquarius
Let’s talk about the energy of Aquarius.
The keywords for Aquarius and Uranus are the same. So when I eventually get to Uranus, I won’t have to emphasize those quite so strongly.
I’m an Aquarius Sun. I also have Uranus early in my first house, about two degrees in, and it loosely opposes my Sun. So I’m very much into this 11th archetype!
First off, the energy of Aquarius says, be your authentic self. Fly your freak flag. Don’t be afraid of being odd or unique or different or weird or outside the box. Aquarius loves that stuff. So Pluto is empowering that idea.
In my client work, I’ve found that this has two levels. First, can you privately accept what’s different about you? A lot of people have unique qualities, but suppress them and try to deny them. That’s not healthy. So whatever is different or unique about you, say, yep, that’s part of me. Whether you like it or not, it’s part of your wiring.
Internally accept what’s unique or different and then ask, okay, of all these unique, special, one-of-a-kind things, which of these could be helpful externally?
How could these help me in my career? What am I excited to do? How could I be of service with these things?
Typically the Aquarian process is, at first, you do the unusual thing just because it electrifies you. Electrification, lightning is another keyword of Aquarius. You’ll be lit up by it and do it for that reason. And if you do it enough, you get good enough that it can be helpful to others too.
Aquarius: Intuitive Hits
Embracing what’s unique and then externalizing it is one level of the Aquarian energy. The second is intuitive hits.
An intuitive hit is where you just know something out of the blue. My belief is that your intuitive hits come from your higher self. it has to give you free will to do or not do what you want, but it is allowed to drop hints.
I believe your higher self set up your human incarnation. It’s constantly there with you, watching, dropping hints, trying to help you out, and hoping you’ll do what it set you up to do as a human.
How do you know it’s really an intuitive hit and not just another passing thought? I’ve discussed this with hundreds of clients over many years. First off, when an intuitive hit actually drops in, there’s absolute certainty. The instant it arrives, you just know it’s true.
The confirmation is somatic. The body knows. And there’s three phrases you hear a lot in reference to intuitive hits: “I know it in my bones,” “I have a gut feeling,” and “I got a full-body yes.” So basically, there’s certainty. The instant it hits, the body just knows.
There’s nothing mental about this. You don’t know it’s true because it’s logical or you thought about it. There’s just an instant knowing. That’s how you can tell it’s really an intuitive hit.
One way you can track this back in your own life, as I often do with clients, is to think about when you got an intuitive hit about something to do, a call to action. Think about the times when you did them or didn’t do them.
Which worked out better? All of the hundreds of clients I’ve asked about this say it went better when they followed the intuitive hits.
The same is true for me. So if you get an intuitive hit and it’s a call to action, I would follow it. If it’s information, I would trust it.
Your higher self really knows better. One of the most dramatic examples for me of this was many years ago, just before the stock market crashed.
It’s the only time my higher self ever woke me up screaming at me, saying, “Sell your stocks now!”
I wasn’t that spiritually advanced then. I didn’t really trust my higher self, and didn’t sell right away. But I did sell them three days later, after they had dropped several tens of thousands of dollars in value! And I so wish I had done what my higher self was urging me to do.
Again, it can’t force you. It can only give you the opportunity. So that was a very painful lesson for me of what can happen when you don’t follow your intuitive hits. I’ve been following them much more since then!
Aquarius: Serve With Your Special Gifts …
The third Aquarian idea is much simpler to describe: serve others with your special gifts and talents that you most love to use. Notice not just any talent you have, but one you actually enjoy. You feel called to it.
Sometimes you have talents that come online for a while, then fade back. Something else comes forward. There are phases.
Ideally you want to be serving in the way that really lights you up now. It doesn’t mean you can’t do ordinary service anyone could do. But if you’ve got that special something, then there aren’t that many people who have that gift to offer. So it makes sense you would want to offer that gift, not only because you have a unique contribution to make, but because it feels better to you.
Aquarius: Group Connection
There’s also the Aquarian energy of your group, your tribe, your affinity group, the larger group of people you resonate with. So with Pluto in Aquarius, it’s a good time to be connecting with your tribe and getting mutual support in whatever you do with those people to help each other out.
Pluto in Aquarius: Challenges
Pluto in Aquarius can have some, challenging sides as well. You already know about the dark power part of Pluto, dominating and controlling. Aquarian energy in its darker aspect can be chaotic or insane, like a pinball bouncing around, jangly, nervous, agitated, anxious.
If you’re finding that happening for you to a significant degree, ask yourself, could I use this 11th archetype, this energy of Aquarius and Uranus, more skillfully? Could I put it to work on the high side?
Again, could I accept what’s unique about me and express that uniqueness into the world as appropriate? Could I follow my intuitive hits better? Could I serve others with the most special gifts and talents I most love to use?
Pluto in Aquarius: Breakdown & Breakthrough
Globally, Pluto in Aquarius is the rise of the common person. Aquarius represents the collective, humanity in general, society.
Pluto, in this case, could be the breakdown of the old order, which is definitely happening. It’s hard not to notice what’s happening in America right now. A lot of old structures are breaking down — in fact, the entire world order!
Since Trump took office for the second time, the world has learned that they can’t trust America. Even after Trump leaves office, who can say another equally chaotic and unreliable person won’t take his place?
A stable world order had existed since World War II, the Pax Americana. For decades, America was the acknowledged global leader, and the world could depend on America behaving in a certain way. That’s no longer true.
Now it’s increasingly every country for itself. So the destruction, Pluto, of the societal order, Aquarius, is very much in play, and that’s part of the breakdown. You could say that’s a bad thing. Or you could say, well, we’ve got a lot of old structures that need to go away. There’s a great global awakening happening. We need some destruction of the old structures so there’s room for the new structures to come up. That is all happening dynamically now.
A certain amount of unexpected or chaotic destruction, Pluto in Aquarius, is happening. This can happen in your own life as well. I know many people, myself included, whose lives are in a certain state of disruption and chaos right now. Things are being remade, and there are opportunities for greater consciousness, but we have to go into those transformations.
This would be a good time to bring in some Pluto imagery. These include the phoenix burning to ash and resurrecting out of the flames. It’s the snake shedding its skin. It’s the caterpillar creating its chrysalis, melting down to goo, and –who knew? — emerging as a butterfly.
It’s a good time to be willing to let go of everything that doesn’t serve highest good and see what comes next. There’s no way to know precisely what comes next. You cannot fully control this process.
The nature of awakenings, as I said, is that they’re unimaginable. You come into the next phase, and didn’t know it would be this good!
This takes a certain amount of trust, a certain amount of just letting go. You might have some sense of what’s coming next, but you might be surprised.
Here’s a brief example of that from my life. I had my first big shift where I left behind 20 years of sales jobs living in Oklahoma and moved here to Asheville, North Carolina to follow my dream of being a singer-songwriter. I released a whole lot of old structure!
Since then, things have happened that totally surprised me. It turns out I wasn’t going to endure as a professional musician. I became an astrologer instead. Plant spirit work, including ayahuasca, and San Pedro, came into my life and transformed me utterly. I became a shaman, and then started my Awakening Plus online membership.
When you’re willing to let go of the stuff you’ve outgrown, then it’s good to have a direction in mind, if possible, and move toward that. But be willing to say, “Oh, something even better showed up! Let me do that instead.”
I’m 66 now. My life is an example of how to let go and let things move in the way they want to for highest good.
Neptune
Let’s move on to Neptune. This is one of my favorite planets because its first definition for me is spiritual awakening, which I adore.
It also rules inspired creativity. You might first think of artistry, dance, music, and all the obviously creative stuff. But inspired creativity can happen in any way, shape, or form. You are constantly creative in every moment because you are creating your human life.
You’re making choices about what to do and creating your reality as you move along. So creativity is not just for the artistic. Inspired creativity can happen in any area of life. If you say you’re not creative, then I’d have to disagree because you’re still breathing!
Neptune is also about flow state or being “in the zone.” People often experience this when they’re doing creative work or playing sports, anything that gets them out of themselves.
It’s like time disappears. It’s less doing and more being done. Hours seem to go by in seconds when you’re in this flow state. It’s a pretty awakened state.
Neptune rules dreams. This could be conscious dreaming. It could be dream interpretation, anything to do with dreaming or fantasy work.
Neptune also rules unconditional love and compassion, which I’ve experienced to be automatic by-products of certain states of awakening. You can try to cultivate that, but my experience is they come naturally as part of the package when you hit a certain level of awakening. So it’s one of the many reasons I recommend spiritual awakening for those who are interested, whatever path you choose.
Neptune Challenges
Neptune has a low side as well. That can include addiction, substance abuse, aimless drifting, playing the victim, being foggy and confused and uncertain.
As I said earlier, give it something better to do. If you put strong focus on spiritual awakening or inspired creativity, working with dreams, flow state, developing unconditional love and compassion, then you keep your Neptune active on things that are life-affirming. It doesn’t have as much energy to go to the low side.
However, if you get into addiction, that can be really hard to get past just by thinking, “Oh, I need to do Neptune’s high side instead.” So if you’re experiencing the low side of any of these archetypes and you’re not getting it done solo, please reach out for help. That’s really important.
Outer Planets in Air & Fire Signs
Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto all recently moved into fire and air signs in the last year or two. Pluto’s in Aquarius, an air sign. Neptune is in Aries, a fire sign. Uranus is in Gemini, an air sign. Even Jupiter is in Leo, a fire sign. So air and fire are very strong right now.
These are the masculine archetypes. Air and fire go out and make things happen. The feminine elements, earth and water, are more passive and are acted upon more.
That’s another reason we’re in such a dynamic time. Fire and air stirs things up! If you imagine fire and air, that can be like a forest fire, a conflagration. That’s a little more of the energy we’re experiencing now.
Aries
Neptune is in Aries, the first sign of the zodiac. One of the things it represents first is starting new stuff. It’s the pioneer, the initiator, boldly venturing forth.
Aries is the warrior. If you’re not into violent imagery, you can say one who strives for a worthy cause. I like that even better.
Aries is the entrepreneur, the one working for themselves. Aries is the energy of sex. I talked about Pluto as sacred sex, that divine soul blending. Aries just wants sexual pleasure, and is perfectly content with a purely physical experience.
Aries on the low side can be violent and impulsive. I talked earlier about acting from intuitive hits, which is divinely guided, but Aries can be impulsive from the wounded ego. Such actions may not serve you well in the long run, or even the short run!
Aries can also be violent. It can be associated with war and doing harm to other beings.
Neptune in Aries
Neptune in Aries lets you put a lot of fiery initiatory energy into anything Neptunian.
You can start or put fresh energy into your spiritual awakening, into maintaining flow state, into developing unconditional love and compassion. If you’re getting a lot of inspired creativity, in any area of life, put a lot of good, strong, assertive energy into that. Just putting that assertive, get up and make it happen Aries energy into spiritual awakening and/or inspired creativity would be enough to make really great use of Neptune.
That’s all I’m being inspired to say about it at the moment.
Uranus
Our third and final player in the Minor Grand Trine is Uranus.
As I said earlier, everything I said about Aquarius applies to Uranus. I’ll briefly recap.
Accept what’s unique and special about you, externalizing that as appropriate. Follow your intuitive hits. Serve others with your special gifts and talents you most love to use.
Uranus is also the energy of surprise, shock, paradigm shift, and sudden change. It’s like a lightning bolt striking. As soon as that lightning bolt strikes, everything is different.
Uranus in Gemini
Uranus is in Gemini, the sign of mental activity.
It’s thinking, learning, teaching, writing, communicating. If it’s information, it’s Gemini! This is a really exciting energy.
Mental energy is naturally airy, and Uranus is innovative and forward thinking. So it’s not a coincidence that AI is growing by leaps and bounds with Uranus in Gemini.
And who knows? It’s the kind of thing you can’t even anticipate. A lot of people didn’t think it would be mainstreaming so fast. I’m really into AI myself, and I’m very excited about its potentials.
I found a podcast that allows me to keep up with it. It’s a little technical, but you should be able to keep up with it if you have a genuine interest. It’s called The AI Daily Brief.
I really love that podcast. Again, a little technical, but this guy keeps up every single day, seven days a week, with what’s going on with AI. And there’s just so much happening right now!
Beyond that, Uranus rules high technology of every kind. It rules forward thinking, cutting edge things, high-tech things, and space. Anything futuristic is Uranus and Aquarius. So that energy is very much in play as well.
Conditional Beliefs
One good thing to do with Uranus in Gemini is to be flexible with your thinking. Uranus in Gemini is especially good at having you think differently.
There were times early in my life when I was arrogant and I thought, “Oh, I know everything about that. I know what’s right. Absolutely. “
And it turned out I was absolutely wrong!
Now I don’t hold absolute beliefs. I only hold conditional beliefs.
You can’t really function as a human without some kind of belief. But I said, “I’m going to hold this as a working belief so I can function as Benjamin here in the physical world. But I’m willing to release or revise any belief I hold at any time if it becomes clear to me that it needs adjustment or release.”
With Uranus in Gemini, it’s good to be light on your mental feet. Be willing to open to new ideas and think in a different way.
Gemini is related to the thought process of the human. Uranus is more like the divine mind.
Intuition: Uranus vs Neptune
Uranus in Gemini is a time when it’s easier to get more intuitive hits from your inner guidance. Neptune comes into play here too.
Let me put Uranus and Neptune together. They are the two planets of intuition, but work differently.
Uranus is the occasional flash. Neptune is more like a constant waterfall, flowing in divine energy and information constantly when you’re connected.
In the Minor Grand Trine, you have both intuition planets working. Flashes tend to be more common when you’re earlier in your spiritual journey. Once you connect into a deeper awakening more consistently, it becomes more of a flow.
Some people are just wired up for flow from the git-go, people who have strong 12th archetype energies in their charts: a strong Neptune, a lot of Pisces energy, or a strong 12th house. But it’s something that comes online, broadly speaking, more consistently as you awaken more deeply.
Uranus as Alien
Another key word for Uranus I haven’t mentioned yet is alien. Other related words are exile and outsider. (It’s interesting that Steven Spielberg’s Disclosure Day came out very close to this pattern peaking.)
It could be that while Uranus is in Gemini and lit up by these other planets, that there will be more actual disclosure. I’m pretty sure that aliens are real. I definitely saw a UFO when I was a teenager. And in my ayahuasca ceremonies, I’ve had lots of internal contact with ETs. So I’m pretty convinced it’s real stuff. And the ones I’ve been communicating with are all totally benevolent.
I think the vast majority of ETs are looking out for our welfare. They’re just wondering, when are these humans going to finally be ready to join the galactic civilization? Alien is definitely a Uranus keyword, so we may see more things along those lines.
We have increasing disclosure from the government. I think there’s a lot they still haven’t told us that they know about. That should open up in interesting ways while this Minor Grand Trine is still in effect.
This Is A Redo
What I’m doing here is just going with the flow. Actually, I had gotten the whole script ready, and I had recorded it. And it turned out, my God, this thing’s an hour and a half long! And it didn’t feel quite right. I thought, wow, I just need to riff it. The script wasn’t working. So I’m going more with the Uranus and Neptune flow here and giving it to you this way instead. It feels more authentic to me.
Minor Grand Trine Summary
So that’s the Minor Grand Trine. Again, these energies are peaking this year in 2026.
They were also really strong in 2025, and they’ll still be pretty darn strong in 2027. And then the couple of years after that, 2028, and then about half of 2029, they’ll start fading out.
The Minor Grand Trine will come in and out of connection. But the nature of patterns is they’re not really done until the final connection is broken.
Whatever you want to do with these energies, you’ve got some time, but not forever. If I were you, I’d be all in as quickly as I could!
As I mentioned earlier, this is once in a lifetime energy. Unless you somehow extend your life another 170 years, you won’t experience an alignment like this. So I definitely recommend doing what you can.
I want to once again emphasize its broad potential. We’ve got Pluto, the eighth archetype, and Aquarius, the 11th archetype. We have Neptune, the 12th archetype, and Aries, the first archetype. We have Uranus, the 11th archetype again, and Gemini, the third archetype.
We have a lot of energies to work with out of the astrological spectrum. And of course, all the other energies are there, just lit up in different ways at different times.
This can support anything you want to get out and do. Pluto will empower it. Uranus will inspire you and give you the intuitive hits to do it and help you break through into new areas. Neptune can give you a flow of creative energy and inspiration to do it with.
There’s just so much amazing potential here, for whatever you’re inspired to do.
I love what Bashar says. He’s an entity channeled by Darryl Anka. And he’s constantly saying, follow your passion! Do what excites you. And I could not agree more.
So while we have this extraordinary wind in our sails, in your life, I would recommend this: whatever you’re passionate about, go do it. This is not the time to play it safe and toe the line and let others’ opinions or structures hold you back from what you’re really here to do. If ever there were a time to go for it, it’s now.
I would strongly recommend that if you possibly can. And if you don’t think you can, you might look a little more creatively and see if maybe there’s a way anyway!
Basket: Jupiter
Now that we’ve covered the long-term picture, let’s consider the current stimulator: Jupiter.
Let me also explain how I classify planets. The three slow planets, Pluto, Neptune, Uranus are stage setters. I also count Chiron as a stage setter, although he’s not really part of this pattern. Jupiter is a trigger planet.
Jupiter and Saturn are called social planets. They’re midway between the personals and the outers, and they can have a mixed role.
They can function as stage setters a little bit, Saturn a little bit more, because he can be in a spot for up to about 10 months if he’s going back and forth. But in this case, Jupiter is very much acting like a trigger and not a fundamental part of the pattern. Like I said, Jupiter is only part of this pattern for about a month, while the three-outer-planet pattern is active for most of the decade!
Jupiter’s important, but he’s a temporary member. However, while he’s here, let’s definitely explore what he can offer.
Anytime you have an aspect pattern, typically you think of the quicker planet being influenced by the slower planets. So we would think of all these energies focusing to Jupiter.
It does work the other way too. The nature of Jupiter is to expand whatever he contacts. So while Jupiter is connecting to the three outers, Jupiter’s energy is expanding them and making them more potent.
But let’s look at the outers affecting Jupiter. As it happens, Jupiter has more archetypal meanings than any other planet!
The ninth archetype, which is Jupiter, Sagittarius, and the ninth house, is full of variety.
First, Jupiter represents religion, philosophy, and the meaning of life. It’s a great time to figure out, what the heck does it all mean? Go into the mystery of existence itself.
Jupiter also represents higher-level studies. Technically Jupiter rules college and higher levels of education, but it can be anything meaningful or profound. Jupiter can also help you act as a philosopher, guru, or professor—the dispenser of higher wisdom.
Jupiter rules foreign countries technically, but more broadly it rules that which is foreign to you. Even if it’s next door, if it’s something you haven’t experienced before, it can be new territory.
In the past, you had to travel to a foreign land. Now, with the internet, almost everything is available to you via your device. So you can definitely do a lot of learning and expanding in that way.
Jupiter is questing and adventure. It wants to expand endlessly into new areas. This could be external, where you’re doing things out in the physical world or internal. For me, with my ayahuasca work, the best journeys I take are the ones inside myself in altered states.
Jupiter also rules big, fiery emotions like passion, joy, and celebration. He would support you if you’re at a rave or dancing ecstatically or things like that. So it can be a big celebratory energy.
Now through August 3, which is when Jupiter really begins to separate out from the Basket, those potentials are very much lit up.
Basket: Jupiter In Leo
Jupiter is also in Leo, which it entered recently.
The two main outward expressions of Leo are the performer and the leader.
Leo is the sign that has the sequins and the dazzling Broadway lights. As I said earlier, Jupiter in Leo is putting a big spotlight on the Basket and Minor Grand Trine, partly because it’s in Leo. So if you want to get out there and be more of a leader or entertainer, it’s a great time for that.
Leo has other meanings too. It rules children, including giving birth to them. Or it could be you connecting with kids in some other way. They don’t have to be your biological offspring.
It could be your inner children, letting that more playful part of you come out. Leo also rules rest, recreation, fun, and chilling out.
Using the Basket
When you get information about something, you’re more likely to act on it if you do it right away. You’re even more likely to benefit if you keep doing it.
While we have this kickstart from Jupiter in Leo, if any of the above archetypal possibilities interest you, get moving and develop them in whatever way you’re called to.
There’s a lot of ways you could turn with this. Just figure out what feels best. What makes the most sense? What do I feel called to? In fact, probably what you feel called to is more important than what makes sense right now.
I would recommend moving into gear on that as soon as you can. I think this is the most extraordinary aspect pattern of our lifetimes! If you just learn about it but don’t do anything with it, you’ll receive limited benefit. If you make plans and put them into motion in alignment with the archetypes, that’s going to be a lot more helpful to you.
Jupiter is going to be in Leo for about a year, though only aligned with this Basket for about a month. So Jupiter in Leo is available for a while. But my main excitement is with the three outer planets, Pluto, Neptune and Uranus, and their massive potentials.
How Your Healing Serves the Collective
If you want the world to be a better place, change yourself first. Based on my experience helping over 12,000 clients as a shaman and astrologer, it’s an inside game. As within, so without.
We’re all connected to everyone and everything else. The Hindus call it Indra’s Web. Scientists call it the butterfly effect.
Everything affects everything else. You doing your own process of healing and awakening the best you can will radiate that potential out to everyone else. If your own healing and awakening is all you have energy for, just making progress with that will radiate the potential of that progress for everyone else.
Once you clean up enough of your own stuff, you’ll have some space open to be more actively helpful externally. That’s when your intuition will start giving you little service opportunities. Not assignments because you’re not forced to do anything on a path of love and light. But you’ll get a nudge: if you could serve in this way, that would be interesting. Would you like to do that?
When you’re ready, those opportunities will start showing up. And the more deeply awakened you are, the more interesting the opportunities get. As your consciousness expands, so does your service capacity. You can work on a larger scale if you’re open to doing that.
So please know that it’s not selfish to just work on yourself if that’s all you have space for. In fact, it is the necessary prerequisite to being of service to the collective in a more meaningful way.
The Fate Of The Earth
I’ve heard a lot of ideas about what’s happening planetarily right now. Some people think there are shifting timelines. Some people think the people who are more conscious are going to shift to a more peaceful and loving Earth. Those who are not are going to be stuck on an Earth that’s a little more dark and challenging and difficult.
I don’t know if that’s true. It makes perfect sense to me that there are timelines and alternate universes, but I don’tthink we have to come to a definitive conclusion about that.
I’ve even wrestled with the Law of One idea that Earth is inherently designed to be challenging. It’s not ever destined to be a paradise. We come here to make the crucial choice between service-to-self or service-to-other. Then, once we finish that lifetime, we graduate to levels beyond 3D Earth.
I’d love it if Earth really could become a paradise. But whatever the setup, you getting serious about your own path of healing and awakening will help you either way. It can only be good for you and the collective if you’re awakening and healing more effectively.
Breakthrough Time!
I want to return to the idea that this particular Basket has never happened. T me, that suggests major new start energy!
As I mentioned earlier, the Saturn-Neptune conjunction earlier this year happened in the first degree of Aries, at the Aries Point. And the last time it happened apparently was when human civilization became agrarian. It was a massive cultural shift.
I believe we’re at a beautiful breakthrough point,and your unique experience of that will be crucial. That’s because we don’t see the world as it is, but as we are.
We all see the world with some level of distortion. Your consciousness, the degree to which you’ve awakened, the degree to which you’re still filtering through old trauma and pain and unresolved things, is going to distort how you see the world.
Is it time to get serious about cleaning your window, clearing out the old stuff, the old pain, the old trauma that’s making you feel bad and limiting your possibilities? The more you move into a more deeply awakened state where there’s more clarity and knowing what to do and bliss and joy and ecstasy, that’s going to dramatically change your experience.
And what we all do collectively will shape the fate of the planet. The more of us that are in a more awakened and flowing and beautiful state, the higher the planet’s vibration will become.
I’m going to assume that if you were drawn to this, and you’ve stayed with me this far, that you have some interest in awakening and going to the next level. So I encourage you to find whatever does that for you and follow your passion.
I offer free healing and awakening invocations and personal services that many people have found helpful. But do what works for you. The best thing is the thing that’s most effective for you personally.
Again, it’s an inside game. We have huge changes happening. The old global structures are changing rapidly. I encourage you to be a positive part of this change by transforming yourself.
Pawn Or Chessmaster?
A lot of people think of astrology as fated. “I’m a pawn on a chessboard. Astrology will tell me how I’m going to be moved around.” I prefer the idea that you’re the chessmaster!
What benefit can you gain from Pluto and Neptune and Uranus and Jupiter and the signs they’re in and the connections they’re making to each other? What will you choose to make of that? Why not co-create as a chessmaster? I encourage you to focus on your own evolution as you’re so inspired.
Remember that it’s an as within, so without game. The more awakened, the more conscious, the more healed you are, the more beautiful your actual human experience is going to be.
It’s both a challenging and exciting time to be alive. I really believe we’re in a breakdown period, out of which a more amazing reality can blossom. I encourage you to be a part of that co-creation by personally blossoming. Then you’ll be shown how you can support the larger blossoming of the world around you.
More Minor Grand Trine Insights
I first talked about this in my 2024 annual forecast. At that point, it was still fairly loose. It was just starting to come together.
It got quite a bit closer in 2025. And it’s peaking now.
As noted above, I give additional insights about the Minor Grand Trine with Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto in my annual forecast videos for 2025 (the first 45 minutes) and the first 26 minutes of my 2024 annual forecast.
Still Coming In July
My third and final July episode will cover everything else in the second half of the month, including the Sun aspecting the Gods of Change, Saturn stationing retrograde, Mercury stationing direct, an Aquarius Full Moon aspecting the Gods of Change, and more. Watch for that as I complete my July trilogy.
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Whatever your Sun Sign, my forecasts can help you make the best use of the current astrological energies.
All dates and times are in the U.S. eastern time zone. Events are most powerful on the dates listed, but their influence will be active for at least a week before and after.
Everyone is affected by these global transits. However, you’ll be most powerfully impacted when moving planets activate sensitive points in your natal chart. Discover how these transits will personally affect you by booking a session with me.
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