Happy Birthday, Cancer! Your gift of gab and convincing manner set you apart. Depending on your mood and intent, you can be compassionate and inspiring - or a slick verbal saboteur. Your ability to capture the essence of people and events in an amusing, unique style makes you a fascinating conversationalist or journalist. You have an uncanny gift for slashing through deceit and pretense and exposing the truth, no matter how damning or enlightening. And you're not afraid to voice your opinion! Others may wilt under scrutiny and hide from confrontation - but not you. You're on a mission to interpret, record, reveal and expose. In turn, others may respond by prying into your personal life and well-kept secrets. Although you have a number of excellent loyal friends, you also attract a fair amount of competitors eager to settle old scores. Some have you pegged as a standoffish snob. This couldn't be further from the truth. You are painfully sensitive beneath your veneer, and may cobble a thick protective wall around your heart, just to keep yourself immunized to hurt. You do not give love easily, nor do you quickly forgive those who harm or disappoint. You generally overwhelm adversaries by outgunning or simply wearing them down over time. Your sense of righteousness will not permit you to reward anyone you perceive as wrong. Although bright and talented, you may not have been an ideal student. Your attention span or processing skills may make traditional learning a chore. Throughout life, you may be defensive or argumentative if you suspect others are trying to denigrate your intelligence or legitimacy. It is so important to carefully choose companions and activities with discretion, especially if you're in the public eye. No matter what you say or do, your intent is to help, rescue, or assist others. Very protective of friends and family, you feel somehow responsible for others' welfare and care. At times, you feel imposed upon - even martyred - because you work hard but your efforts are not consistently acknowledged. You need to feel in control and may take a lot of heat for being bossy, autocratic, or manipulative. Behind every decision you make is the desire to preserve safety and security. Your intention is never to deliberately harm another, although some may view it as such. You're a realist who understands the value of consistent hard work and sacrifice. You're able to go without vacations, personal time, and other niceties while building a career. Once you set your mind to it, you're able to hammer out a successful, prosperous life that sustains you and those you care about for years to come. Your success may have a substantial price tag. Your personal life is likely to take a secondary role to career ambitions and your tough-minded work ethic. It's so important to work on improving friendships and other important bonds with as much fervor as you give to material pursuits. Very few people can outperform you once you're committed to a goal. Just don't allow personal happiness to be a casualty in your drive for excellence. You are highly competitive - especially with yourself. You set lofty goals and standards, and then endeavor to exceed them. Yes, you are your own toughest taskmaster. A lot of responsibility may be entrusted to you. You may find yourself shepherding large projects or groups of people. Because of your dedication, you rarely let others down. You have a deep-seated need to express yourself, no matter how shy or self-conscious you appear to be. Many of you are writers, storytellers, or musicians. You find a way to reach out and tap on others' closed minds; and you're so seductive that others eventually stop resisting. You have wonderful, soulful, "I've been there" eyes that draw others in – hook, line and sinker. There may be a note of vulnerability or sadness in your eyes that makes you both poetic and appealing to others. You also have a gift for capturing others' fantasies and secrets with your words and/or music. People often think that you're writing or singing specifically to them. Because you're so responsive, you need to consciously choose companions with great care. You sometimes take on the mannerisms and characteristics of those around you, and tend to be a reflection of your environment. Besides your sexy, soulful side, you can also be a controversial, myth-busting iconoclast. At times, you seem reckless, self-absorbed, and arrogant. Once you've gotten this phase out of your system, you generally return to a more modest, shy, hard-working and long-loving friend. You're certainly not a one-note cliche. You're very complicated, often moody, and extremely talented. Sometimes you rebel. You reject self-discipline, rules, and prior commitments, and abruptly go your own way. Because you're an artist at heart, you feed off of emotional extremes, even if they sometimes hurt you or those nearby. Part showman, part magus, and drenched in deep emotion, you’ve been known to suffer for your art. As long as you don't allow self-destructive urges to take over, you can become a luminary in your field. Born this weekend are Tom Cruise, Edie Falco, Marc Cohn, Shirley Knight, Robbie Robertson, Tom Stoppard, Dave Barry, Dorothy Kilgallen, Ken Russell, Montel Williams, Stavros Niarchos, Betty Buckley, George M. Cohan, Laura Branigan, Gloria Allred, Paul Barrere, Fontella Bass, Vince Clarke, Mike Corby, Thomas Gibson, Damon Harris, Kevin Hearn, Stephen Pearcy, Faye Resnick, Jan Smithers, Jay Tarses, Hunter Tylo, Franz Kafka, George Sanders, Tommy Tedesco, Samuel de Champlain, Lamar Alexander, Abigail Van Buren, Ann Landers, Gloria Stuart, Meyer Lansky, Michael Milken, Louis B. Mayer, Leona Helmsley, Geraldo Rivera, Stephen Collins Foster, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Neil Simon, Sir George Everest, Giuseppe Garibaldi, Calvin Coolidge, Louis Armstrong, Lionel Trilling, Eva Marie Saint, Gina Lollobrigida, George Steinbrenner, Ron Kovic, Bill Withers, John Waite, Tokyo Rose, Rube Goldberg, P.T. Barnum, Jean Cocteau, Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr., Warren Oates, Georges Pompidou, Huey Lewis, Julie Nixon-Eisenhower, Arthur M. Blythe, Michael Gismondi, Katherine Helmond, Fred Young, Robert Fitzroy, William Stead and David Farragut.

July's Full Moon/Lunar Eclipse in Capricorn arrives on the 7th, shortly after after Uranus goes retro until the end of November. Mercury moves into Cancer on the 3rd, and Venus moves into Gemini on the 4th. Mars follows Venus into Gemini on the 11th. Mercury scoots into Leo on the 17th, followed by a New Moon/Solar Eclipse in Cancer on the 21st. The Sun enters Leo on the 22nd. Jupiter, Neptune and Pluto remain retrograde.

All lunations are in Eastern Time.