Looking Back at the July 2024 Full Moon

Looking Back at the July 2024 Full Moon

Astrologer Maureen Richmond, Ph.D.

The July Full Moon took place on July 21 at 5:17 am CDT, with the Sun at 29 degrees of Cancer and the Moon at 29 degrees of Capricorn. As with all Full Moons, this one was powerful, bringing to a dramatic climax many trends already in place.

Chief among these was the announcement ostensibly made by U.S. President Joe Biden on X, formerly known as Twitter. A mere 10 hours after the exact Full Moon moment, Biden’s X account posted a brief statement which informed the world that Biden had abruptly decided to withdraw from the presidential race, a race which for months he'd vehemently vowed never to abandon.

Celebrated independent journalist Alex Berenson describes the event this way. “Biden spent the weeks after his June 27 debate disaster insisting he would not possibly withdraw. His repeated that position even as Democrats spoke against him and his polls worsened. His closest confidants backed him. On Friday, his campaign manager told MSNBC:

He’s absolutely in it. He’s got to show that he is fighting for the American people. He’s done that day in and day out since the debate.

That statement turned out to be less than completely accurate. At 1:46 p.m. on a sunny Sunday afternoon in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, Joe Biden publicly announced his withdrawal from the 2024 Presidential race. He did so by posting a letter on X at X.com/joebiden, his verified account. Only his closest aides received more than one minute’s notice.

Twenty-seven minutes later, he (or whoever controls his X account) posted another statement on X announcing his ‘full support and endorsement for Kamala to be the nominee of our party this year’ and attached a fundraising post.”

As journalist Berenson makes clear, Biden’s sudden withdrawal from the U.S. presidential race flew in the face of adamant statements made both by him and his public relations representatives over the last few months. Still, the dramatic reversal of position occurred, and was subsequently verified and validated by a White House live-streamed broadcast on the evening of July 24, a stunningly brief, 11-minute monologue by Biden in which he confirmed his exit from the U.S. presidential race.

Of interest is the chart set for the exact time that Biden’s X account first registered his decision to no longer seek a second term. That chart shows Venus in Leo conjunct the Midheaven, strongly suggesting that the impetus behind the making of the announcement was fundamentally bound up with an ambitious female leadership figure. Also angular is another feminine indicator, the Moon, which at 4 degrees of Aquarius was conjunct the Nadir at 8 degrees of Aquarius. Indeed, the Moon had just passed the Nadir point in the minutes before the announcement was posted on X, perhaps even suggesting a female person made the post in Biden’s behalf.

At any rate, the chart strongly bespeaks influence from an ambitious (Leo) and well-connected (Aquarius) female figure (Venus, Moon). That figure could easily be Jill Biden, Hillary Clinton, Karine Jeanne-Pierre, Kamala Harris, or others. However, the announcement was at the very least aimed at the promotion of Kamala Harris for president, a proposition confirmed when Biden went on to endorse Kamala Harris for president in both a post following his original announcement and his subsequent 11-minute speech to the nation made on July 24. There can be no doubt on an astrological basis that the influence, will, wishes, and determinations of a female at center stage figured strongly in the bringing of this announcement to the world.

Of far greater import, however, is the 29 degree Cancer/Capricorn placement of the Full Moon axis and all that it implies. As many in the astrological community have observed, 29 degree placements clearly indicate the final phases in a process, or even straightforward endings and terminations. Certainly that was the case here, since the Full Moon position fell precisely at 29 degrees of Capricorn. Yet, there is more of even greater portent. That 29 degree Capricorn position is just one degree off the Pluto position for the July 4, 1776 date of the U.S. Declaration of Independence. On that date, Pluto stood at 28 degrees of Capricorn in retrograde motion.

Obviously, the July 2024 Full Moon activated the U.S. natal Pluto with a vengeance, stirring up all the positives and negatives associated with that placement. Pluto in Capricorn is not an especially forgiving position. It tends, instead, to bring out all the corruption, ruthlessness, and predatory instincts lingering in the cold stone facades inhabited by corporate entities and government bureaucracy. A Full Moon wallop in that direction was sure to slap the public with a dose of unpleasant realities.

But an accent to that position in the inception chart for the U.S. is only part of the story, for in fact, the July 2024 Full Moon could be said to have highlighted the ongoing Pluto return of the U.S., which began in 2022, continued throughout 2023, and is again in effect in late 2024 when retrograde transiting Pluto returns to the final degrees of Capricorn in September, October, and November of this year.

In short, the July Full Moon let the Pluto return genie out of the bottle, and it will never be stuffed back in where it came from. Throughout the Pluto return of the U.S., the image of the aged governmental leader has stalked the American landscape. The media has tried to act like it could find no problem with doddering behaviors unsuited to the fast-paced nature of world government. The July 2024 Full Moon ripped the scales from the eyes of America.