Weekend Entertainment Guide 7/4/25
How 2024 USA solar return turned out; what 2025 USA solar return foretells
I have definitely felt Jupiter’s departure from finger-in-every-pot Gemini effective June 9, 2025. Shortly after that, Jupiter at 1° Cancer squared Saturn at 1° Aries on June 15, 2025.
As with the previous hits of the Jupiter-Saturn square in August 2024 and December 2024, something had to give — my energy was not infinite. I needed to take a break from regular Substack posts to finally get a handle on distributing contributor copies of Changing of the Guards: Pluto on the Precipice. That task is not 100 percent done yet, but I’ve made enough progress that I can start getting back to my regular routine.
July 4 marks the annual solar return of the United States of America, so that at least gives me an obvious topic today.
Review of 2024 USA solar return comments
In Weekend Entertainment Guide 6/28/24, I said the following about the 2024 solar return of the USA Sibly chart:
Mars conjunct the Descendant is a little ominous, perhaps representing the possibility of conflict. This chart has a broad Mars-Uranus conjunction in the 7th house. Natally, the Sibly chart has an even broader Mars-Uranus conjunction straddling the Descendant, with Uranus on the 6th house side and Mars on the 7th house side.
The solar return chart also has a Pluto-Mercury opposition at the beginning of Aquarius and Leo. This is similar to the Sibly chart’s natal opposition between Pluto at the end of Capricorn and Mercury at the end of Cancer. In other words, many of the problems the United States will face this year are the problems it incarnated with. It won’t be totally new stuff that we don’t have experience dealing with — we will just be a more extreme version of ourselves.
The solar return chart also has a tight square between the Moon at 29° Gemini and Neptune at 29° Pisces. Political campaigns could play on our emotions and not necessarily be totally truthful. A prominent Neptune can also be involved in problems with immunity and the spread of disease.
On the positive side, the solar return chart has both the Sun and Venus in Cancer forming a trine to stabilizing Saturn in Pisces. I am reminded of a saying commonly but erroneously attributed to Winston Churchill: “Americans will always do the right thing, only after they have tried everything else.”
I am glad to have been wrong about the comment on Neptune that hinted at another pandemic. Fortunately, the chatter about bird flu never really got off the ground in terms of humans getting sick on a substantial scale.
I think the bigger health issue in the United States over the past year turned out to be the idealization of health, which also makes a lot of sense for the Moon-Neptune square. Donald Trump received support in the 2024 election from Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and others associated with the Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) movement. This shift from his approach in previous elections likely played a crucial role in his 2024 win.
Many in the MAHA movement were motivated by concerns about the safety of the COVID-19 vaccines. They accepted Trump’s substantial baggage in exchange for the prospect of their concerns being addressed. However, as Trump’s presidency has unfolded, the COVID-19 vaccines remain on the market in the United States.
Meanwhile, Trump’s surgeon general nominee Casey Means has drawn criticism for her biometric data-heavy approach to health — as in, who’s ultimately going to wind up with access to everyone’s sensitive personal data? More recently, Kennedy himself told the House Energy Committee in June 2025, “We think that wearables are key to the MAHA agenda of making America healthy again. My vision is that every American is wearing a wearable within four years.”
I don’t have anything against anyone wearing a glucose meter of their own volition, but I also don’t think that goes anywhere near the central grievance that built MAHA.
’s contention that Casey Means and her brother Calley Means, in the course of brokering the Kennedy-Trump alliance, intentionally lured Kennedy into a broad focus on health in order to get him off the specific scent of corruption surrounding Anthony Fauci now appears very believable. This diffusion of a formerly clear focus also makes a lot of sense for the 2024 solar return’s Moon-Neptune square.2025 USA solar return
Like the 2024 USA solar return, the 2025 USA solar return has Mercury in Leo opposite Pluto in Aquarius. This time, however, the Moon in paranoid Scorpio is T-squaring that opposition, potentially providing a boon to conspiracy theorists and an exhausting atmosphere for everyone else. With Trump and Kennedy disappointing even some of their supporters with their turn toward Big Tech, many Americans are likely to conclude they aren’t getting the information they need from official sources. On the positive side, efforts to censor controversial content will likely be thwarted by the sheer intensity of the demand for it. However, consumers will definitely need to use their own brains to sort through everything they take in.
This year, the United States is having a Jupiter return at the same time it is having a solar return. The natal Sun-Jupiter conjunction in Cancer is therefore likely to be an especially prominent part of the United States vibe this year. In any sign, a Sun-Jupiter conjunction can be boisterous and overbearing, so that would be something to watch regarding the US role in international relations.
In caring Cancer, however, a Sun-Jupiter conjunction could become absolutely smothering. Americans may need to be careful about gifts from their government with strings attached — or wires, or Bluetooth, or whatever it is those wearables use. Using Placidus houses, the solar return has the Sun in the sixth house; with whole sign houses, both Jupiter and the Sun are in the sixth house. This sixth house emphasis could certainly be relevant to a government’s efforts, real or purported, to improve the health of its citizens.
However, all this talk about making America healthy again is an awkward match for the bill Trump pushed for and signed into law today, which includes substantial cuts to Medicaid funding. In the solar return chart with Placidus houses, Saturn and Neptune are in the money-oriented second house, and Jupiter squares both Saturn and Neptune. The controversy over the Medicaid cuts is not likely to end quickly; any associated financial savings could turn out to be more trouble than they’re worth.
Finally, I am intrigued by the Venus-Uranus conjunction on the IC of the solar return chart. A Venus-Uranus conjunction is a reshuffling of the deck, which can be bad for someone who’s totally satisfied with the way things are and good for someone who really wants to get out of a rut. When the COVID-19 lockdowns began in March 2020, Venus was conjunct Uranus; though there were definitely many tragedies associated with COVID-19, some people also benefited from associated circumstances like being jolted out of jobs that weren’t right for them anyway or building new relationships over Zoom.
I would say regarding that, especially with Venus now being in of-two-minds Gemini, that it’s okay to have a complex emotional experience. Whatever happens in the United States over the coming year, it’s okay to be happy about the good parts and sad about the bad parts.