A Year with Astrology and Parts of Our Bodies: Heart-Opening Yoga, Solar Plexus Practices, and the Nervous System's Capacity for Heat
New Moon: July 14, 2026 | Full Moon: July 29, 2026
If you were practising with us in June, you may have noticed the body's willingness to soften. Cancer's practices gave the nervous system permission to regulate downward. July holds Cancer through the first two weeks, then hands the season to Leo on July 22. Cancer governs the soft front of the body we instinctively protect. Leo governs the heart and the upper back that supports it. The elemental shift from Water to Fire is felt across multiple astrological traditions including Chinese astrology. Cancer taught you to receive, and Leo generates heat from what was received.
The practices for July open the chest with increasing demand, build the nervous system's capacity to tolerate intensity, and close with a supported inversion that brings the heat back down. The new moon on July 14 is the last Cancer lunation of the year. The full moon on July 29 falls in Aquarius, prompting us to extend this radiance relationally.
July: From Water to Fire
June was preparation. July deepens the demand. Leo's body zone is the heart, the upper back, and the circulatory system, where chronic holding accumulates most visibly in people who spend long hours at a desk. Heart-opening yoga in Leo season addresses both the structural and the held. Lion's Breath activates the vagus nerve and releases muscular tension in the face, jaw, and throat, places where stress accumulates until it becomes chronic.
July's Zodiac Focus and Body Placement
Cancer (Water): Chest, breasts, stomach, ribs, lower lungs, lymphatic system (through July 21)
Leo (Fire): Heart, upper back, thoracic spine, circulatory system (from July 22)
Practices for July: Heart-Opening Yoga, Solar Plexus Work, and Breath for Nervous System Regulation
Solar Plexus Tapping: Stress Relief and Nervous System Regulation
Purpose: Solar plexus tapping is a percussive self-massage technique applied to the soft triangle just below the sternum, where the ribcage divides. The solar plexus (technically the celiac plexus) sits at the junction of the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems, and in yogic tradition marks the third chakra, the seat of personal agency and the capacity to act from one's own centre.
Tapping here stimulates vagal tone and engages the enteric nervous system, making it a direct entry point for stress relief and nervous system regulation at any point of acute overwhelm during the day, not only within a formal practice. It also improves circulation to the digestive organs, which matters in Cancer season, as our stomachs so often gets affected when we have a lot on our minds.
Nectar at Home's August classes open with solar plexus tapping as a grounding practice before moving into the month's sequence. Built as an extension of the Nectar Experience so you can enjoy yoga for stress relief and other nourishing somatic practices in the comfort of your home, the membership is designed to fit into every rhythm of your day, with monthly and annual membership options.
How-to:
Stand or sit with the spine upright. Bring both hands into loose fists or flat palms.
Place the hands just below the sternum, at the soft V where the ribs meet.
Begin tapping firmly but not forcefully, alternating hands in a steady rhythm. Think of the quality of a drum rather than a knock on a door.
Continue for 30 to 60 seconds, breathing naturally. If the breath deepens or the jaw releases, let it.
Pause and place one flat hand over the area. Notice what has changed in the quality of breath or the sense of space in the torso.
Repeat once more before moving into the practice.
Focus: The solar plexus holds more than people expect it to. If there is a catch in the breath when you begin, or a tenderness in the tissue, that is information. Tapping does not force anything open. It reminds the tissue that movement is available.
Supported Bridge Pose with Block: Chest and Upper Back Opening for Nervous System Regulation
Purpose: Supported Bridge differs from active Bridge in one essential way: a block or folded blanket under the sacrum holds the body in mild spinal extension without muscular effort, so the chest opens and the thoracic spine decompresses through time and gravity without the need to force it.
The mild inversion quality of the pose, heart lifted above the level of the head, stimulates the baroreceptors in the carotid arteries and aorta, signalling the brain to reduce heart rate and shift toward parasympathetic dominance. It is a body-safe way of triggering the rest-and-digest state without the conditions that make full inversions inaccessible. As a mid and upper back exercise it aso relieves the compression that accumulates in the thoracic spine through prolonged sitting.
How-to:
Lie on your back with knees bent and feet flat on the floor, hip-width apart.
Press into the feet and lift the hips. Place a yoga block on its lowest, medium, or highest setting under the sacrum (the flat triangular bone at the base of the spine), not the lumbar vertebrae above it. Start low and adjust.
Let the hips settle fully onto the block. The arms can rest at the sides, palms up, or extend out at shoulder height.
Allow the chest to soften open toward the ceiling without pushing. The work is in letting go of the muscular bracing across the front of the chest, not in lifting higher.
Hold for three to seven minutes. Breathe into the upper chest and sides of the ribs, letting the Three-Part Breath from June's practice inform the quality of the inhale if that's accessible.
To come out, press into the feet, lift the hips slightly, remove the block, and lower the spine slowly, vertebra by vertebra.
Focus: The block height matters; too high creates compression in the lower back; too low gives the chest insufficient opening to be felt. If the lower back is uncomfortable, reduce the height. If nothing seems to be happening in the chest after a full minute, try one level higher.
Lion's Breath (Simhasana Pranayama): Breathing Exercises for Stress Relief and Jaw Tension Release
Purpose: Lion's Breath is Leo's most direct correspondent in the pranayama tradition. The forceful exhale through an open mouth, tongue extended, eyes wide, activates the vagal brake and shifts the nervous system toward parasympathetic dominance, while the deliberate release of the jaw and face interrupts the holding patterns where stress most reliably accumulates. Research on jaw tension release identifies the masseter and other jaw muscles as among the most common sites of stress-related muscular holding, contributing to headache, neck pain, and disrupted sleep. Lion's Breath addresses that pattern directly, and can be practiced independent of any other movement.
How-to:
Sit comfortably with the spine tall, in any seated position that lets you hold the posture for several rounds without strain.
Place the hands on the thighs, fingers spread wide, pressing down firmly. This activates the hands as part of the posture.
Inhale deeply through the nose.
On the exhale: open the mouth wide, extend the tongue toward the chin, widen the eyes, and release the breath with a forceful "ha" sound. The exhale should feel complete, not held back.
Inhale again through the nose. Repeat three to five times.
After the last round, close the mouth and breathe normally for several cycles. Notice what has shifted in the jaw, the throat, the face.
Focus: The temptation is to do this quietly, which defeats a significant part of the purpose. The sound and the full facial expression are the mechanism, and should not be skipped. In a home practice, where no one is watching, there is no reason to hold back.
Full Moon, New Moon, and Reflection for the Month of July
Astrological Tarot Correspondences
July begins with The Chariot, the new moon on July 14 landing in Cancer's last lunation before Leo season begins. It is a moment to consolidate rather than initiate, to notice what the Cancer weeks have clarified about where your directed will is actually pointed.
Then Strength arrives with Leo on July 22. Strength in the Major Arcana is typically depicted as a figure in calm mastery of a lion, the mouth open, held without dominance. The Tarot card depicts the capacity to be present with something intense without collapsing, knee-jerk reactivity or closing off into numbness.
Leo season, for all its brightness and appetite for centre stage, is fundamentally about this inner quality that gets expressed outwardly. The performances Leo is associated with are only sustainable when there is composure underneath. Strength is not a card of effortless ease. It’s about staying engaged throughout all the Tarot archetypes from the Fool onwards.
The Chariot (Cancer): Before the new moon on July 14, where is the directed will you identified in June actually pointing now? What are you still holding together by will that the Cancer weeks may have shown you can be let go?
Strength (Leo): As Leo season opens after July 22, what intensity in your current life is asking for composure rather than resolution? Where in the body does the effort to stay present with that most visibly live?
Journalling for July
The new moon on July 14 is the last Cancer new moon until 2027, a completion point for what was begun in June's Water season before Leo's Fire takes over. The full moon on July 29 falls in Aquarius, asking where the steadiness and openness developed through Cancer season is being offered outward, and whether the container for that offering is sound.
Five minutes of Lion's Breath (above) before journalling this month unlocks things that the polished face keeps managed.
New Moon (July 14): What from Cancer season am I ready to carry into the heat? What was received in the past weeks that I had not been expecting?
Leo Season Opens (July 22): What would it mean to be fully present in something difficult without needing it to resolve quickly? Where in the body does that ask feel most unfamiliar?
Full Moon (July 29): What have I built that is ready to be shared?
Practise with Nectar at Home
The practices in this post are designed to be accessible at home, with minimal equipment. If you want to practise them within a guided sequence, with cues for breath and transitions that the written format cannot fully convey, Nectar at Home offers a full library of on-demand yoga and breathwork classes that follow the seasonal and astrological arc of this series through the year.
JULY OFFERINGS
Nectar Retreat not only offers multi-day retreats and 2-night bed and breakfast style stays, we also offer classes that are easily accessed through a 20-min ferry ride from Vancouver. Some upcoming classes:
July 12 - Evening Sound Bath and Acupuncture with Kim Juneja and Andrea Clark
An immersive evening of acupuncture, sound healing, and guided breathwork designed to bring the body into a grounded, balanced state.July 18 - Stoke + Soothe, A Breath + Body Ritual For Inner Radiance
A two-hour practice blending solar plexus tapping, heart-opening movement, and Lion's Breath to regulate the nervous system and activate the solar plexus and heart.
About Nectar Yoga Retreat Centre
Nestled in the heart of a temperate forest, Nectar offers British Columbia vacation packages with 2-night stays on Bowen Island, nourishing vegetarian breakfasts, and daily guided yoga and meditation. We host mindfulness and meditation retreats, yoga retreats, sound healing, and other wellness practices with experienced instructors in holistic practice. Alongside our sister brand, Mist Thermal Sanctuary, we welcome guests from Vancouver and the lower mainland of BC, Victoria, Seattle, and beyond, to relax and renew the mind, body, and spirit.
References
Chinese Astrology for June 2026:
https://shopceremonie.substack.com/p/june-will-burn-you-openResearch on vagal nerve stimulation and parasympathetic activation: https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychology/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2017.00874/full
Solar plexus / celiac plexus anatomy:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK482337/Jaw tension and stress (temporomandibular): https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5400767/
Yoga inversions and heart rate variability: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4959333/
Thoracic spine mobility and upper back health: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6122068/
Diaphragmatic breathing and parasympathetic nervous system: https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychology/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2017.00874/full
Astrology and body correspondences:
https://bonniegillespie.com/astrology-body-parts-ruled-by-signsTarot Major Arcana correspondences:
https://benebellwen.com/Forest bathing and cortisol:
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00484-019-01717-x
Disclaimer: This content is for informational purposes only and does not replace medical guidance. Please consult a healthcare provider before beginning any new wellness practice, particularly if you are pregnant, or if you have health, physical, or mental health considerations.
