Waning Moon in Cancer

I begin writing this morning while the Moon is between-time, Gemini's scintillating energy now behind us. Before I finish, she will emerge into her home sign of Cancer, in the last waning phase of this lunar cycle. We are moving into a powerful window of change, the New Moon Solar Eclipse in Cancer, happening tomorrow afternoon. The influence of solar eclipses extends in all directions, so we may already feel we've walked through a gateway.

Astrologer April Elliott Kent works with eclipses, and offers two posts worth reading now. She writes of this New Moon Eclipse as a kind of vacation, not just as a trip to the seaside but as a vacating of our lives as we know them that brings a new perspective. And she writes of the experience of eclipses throughout our lives, times when the world as we know it can change utterly and completely.

The waning lunar cycle is a time of reflection. We embrace an ending and consider what we've learned. The word reflection is built on the root word flexion, and means to flex again. Can we regain the flexibility we once had? Can we stretch into a new way of seeing, feeling, and being? Our lives are full of cycles, small and large. The difference between spiraling through them in widening, joyful arcs and spinning in repetitive patterns depends on our ability to remain pliable.

With the Sun and Moon in Cancer, we may want to pull inward, staying home with the drawbridge up and all we care about safely inside. This protective side of Cancer supports meditation, looking inward, and appreciating what we have ... but is not always flexible. As we sense a portal opening in this time of change, perhaps we can be move into knowing we are not one alone but part of a larger community.

Perhaps this eclipse is a time to realize we are all one family, linked in a tribe that includes not just people, but all sentient beings. This might be a big stretch, pushing the limits of Cancer's circle of care. And yet, doesn't every news story show us how true this is? Having created a global village, we now must learn to live in one.

In a holographic universe, each small part reflects the whole. Maybe this is the time to consider ... con + sidere, with the stars ... how deep our connections are, and open our hearts to embrace all that is.

Images from WikiMedia Commons: A water drop by Sven Hoppe; a mud muddle in a wheat field by Jerry Seagraves; and water drops on a spiderweb by Luc Viatour