Healing Waters: Moving from the Full Moon to the New

Supermoon over Washington, DC

Disseminating Moon in Aquarius
June 26, 2013 12:12 pm EDT

Last Quarter Moon in Aries
June 30, 2013 12:54 am EDT

Balsamic Moon in Taurus
July 4, 2013 12:01 am EDT

Saturn turns direct
July 8, 2013 1:12 am EDT

New Moon in Cancer
July 8, 2013 3:14 am EDT

The echoes of the Full Super Moon still reverberate, as amazing images of her giant, glowing face over beautiful landscapes show up all over the 'net.

This image of the Full Moon rising behind the Washington Monument points to how important this time of year is for the USA astrologically. Born on July 4, the USA has a Cancer Sun, and political astrologers have had much to say lately about where things are going for the nation.

My focus is on the personal realms, and much is happening here as well. We're now in the waning half of the lunar cycle, a time of looking at what's been brought to light, appreciating our achievements, sharing the results, and letting go of what's finished.

The ongoing Grand Water Trine dominates this waning cycle, with Neptune and Saturn staying tightly coupled, and the third point continually activated by the Sun, Jupiter, Lilith, and the Moon. Deep emotions will continue to come up to be experienced, explored, healed, released.

Throughout the cycle, we're offered support for the emotional work we're invited to do. Specific energies of thinking and action will shift into place, tossing us spars to hold on to, then pulling the lifeboat alongside and helping us climb in.

The New Moon to come is in the heart-centered sign of Cancer, castle of the Moon and home of homes. When we reach it, we'll have the chance to renew our hearts from a place of understanding and insight––if we've accepted the invitations offered along the way.

Tomorrow, June 26, we reach the Disseminating Moon. This is the day Mercury turns retrograde in Cancer, which might leave us feeling mired in messy emotions. And here's the Moon with an invitation to insight: She's in cerebral, objective Aquarius, conjunct fair-minded Juno and flowing energy in trine with Mars and Pallas Athena in Gemini.

With the Moon and Mars, Juno and Athena, in Air signs, we get perspective, movement, ideas. New ways of seeing help sort out murky feelings. Pay attention to heart and mind both; they need each other.

June 30 brings the Last Quarter Moon, and a jolt of energy. This Moon's in fiery Aries, joining revolutionary Uranus. No chance to stay stuck here! What needs to change? Got it? Let's change it!

This Last Quarter Moon squares the Sun (that's what the Last Quarter means) and also squares Pluto the alchemist, who is opposite the Sun. More push to change! Transform!

With the Moon and Sun activating the Pluto–Uranus square, we could see big events happening on the world stage. Yet these are strong personal energies too: We're called to reinvent ourselves, to align with what is.

With the Balsamic Moon on July 4, the push to make significant changes continues.  The Moon is in patient, grounded Taurus. A Taurus Moon can be stubborn, so there might be some feeling of not wanting to let go, of needing to hold on to the past, the way things have been.

Let's look again: this Moon's key aspects are two quintiles, an unusual aspect that brings creativity. Those quintiles reach out on either side to Venus in Leo and Chiron in Pisces. What does this pattern offer us?

The Balsamic Moon is THE time to let go of what's finished for us. With all the deep work we've been doing lately, this could feel hard––even impossible. Yet here is the Moon in Taurus, the sign of self-nurturing, creating a crucible of healing and personal expression with Chiron and Venus.

This pattern calls out for a ritual of release, a personal creative act that acknowledges all we have been through, honors all we have felt, and gently lets go of whatever needs to move away from us. Nothing harsh, something loving.

The New Moon in Cancer will bring many openings, which I'll write of later. What you need to know now is that less than two hours before the New Moon arrives, Saturn will turn direct after what seems like another forever-long retrograde.

Saturn is slowing down now, preparing to stop and turn. This places him in a powerful position, adding to the emotional depth and weight of these next weeks. At the New Moon, the place of beginning, he'll be direct in motion again, ready to create and build.

This is a time to go with the flow, knowing light and fire and air will be there to keep our heads (and hearts) above water. We can explore the depths, find our treasure, and carry it safely home.
    

Getting a Different View: A Tale of Jupiter and Mercury

light in the watery depths

Jupiter enters Cancer
June 25, 2013 9:40 pm EDT

Mercury turns retrograde in Cancer
June 26, 2013 9:08 am EDT

Mercury turns direct in Cancer
July 20, 2013 2:22 pm EDT

Thinking and feeling are sometimes said to be opposites. Emotions make thinking unreliable, murky, confused. And logic is cold, an enemy to the heart.

Is that true? Overwhelming emotion, especially in traumatic circumstances, can interfere with clear thinking and accurate memory. There's evidence, though, that emotion helps both thinking and memory: We don't solve problems we don't care about; we don't remember things of no importance.

More importantly, the combination of feeling and thinking leads us to personal insight. Bringing reflective thought to our emotions, while allowing those emotions space for expression and understanding, takes us to a place of greater understanding of our own character.

Why is this important right now? Because we've entered a time of deep emotion, and we're being offered the thinking chops to make something out of it, that's why.

Here's the astrologically geeky part:

For the last several months, Jupiter's been hanging out in Gemini, where he doesn't much like to be. Jupiter is an accommodating, friendly sort, and brings good luck wherever he goes, but he's a deep thinker, a philosopher who likes to include everything, get the big picture ... and Gemini? Well, Gemini is all about the details where the devil lives, and dancing off after the next bright shiny.

Jupiter's been a good sport, but he's ready to make a shift. Which he will, on Wednesday, when he moves into the sign of Cancer. In this Moon-ruled sign of cardinal Water, Jupiter is exalted.

"Exalted" is astro-speak for very, very happy. Jupiter likes being in Cancer. He has scope there, the deep memory of the ancestors and the body. There is soul in Cancer.

When Jupiter steps into Cancer, he will add his expansive liberality to the Grand Trine in Water currently activated by the Sun himself. We will continue to have a Sun–Jupiter conjunction flowing lots of energy in trine with Saturn in Scorpio and Neptune in Pisces.

Sometimes trines, even Grand Trines, get missed because all that easy flow is just, you know, there. Not this one! Jupiter will make sure of it. He wants to understand this confluence of emotional depth; he wants to make something of it.

Meanwhile, the very next day, Mercury turns retrograde in Cancer. Mercury retro is generally thought of as bad, a time when stuff breaks and delays happen ... yet the real message of a retrograde time is to sllllooooooooowwwww down. During retro times, we go for the "re" words: review, reflect, remember.

Summer can be frenetic. Even when we're on vacation, we can feel impelled to cram as much as possible into every single minute so we don't miss any opportunities for fun.

This is an invitation to press the pause button and look within.

When we tune into our emotions instead of ignoring or repressing them, we find out there's a lot going on. It can feel scary, even overwhelming, to give space to all that stuff we've been stuffing. But not with Jupiter around. He's a very reassuring guy to have around, big enough to take in everything that comes along.

And Jupiter brings another gift: He's got big fire going on, good mojo in these watery times.

Classically speaking, fire and water don't mix. But I'm with the ancient Celts on this one, who saw the combination of fire and water as the ultimate in creative fusion. In Celtic myth, poetic inspiration and magical power are represented by a fiery energy hidden in, contained in water.

In this context, Jupiter offers great art as well as solid philosophy. In Cancer, Jupiter has the power to light the creative fire under us all. There's time to explore this, too: He doesn't reach the peak of his powers in Cancer until September 6, at 15 Cancer, the midpoint, and remains in Cancer until July, 2014.

All artists know that the greatest work reflects deep emotion. Jupiter is poised to usher in an time of emotional exploration that can result in creative flowering. Mercury's retrograde begins the process by turning us inward.

It's time to go with the flow ... allow yourself to be moved, to feel deeply, and to explore the meaning of the feelings that emerge, their substance, their power, and what they want to express. It won't all be pretty, but it will be beautiful.
    

Bright Beacon: A Full SuperMoon in Capricorn

light across the waters

Full Moon in Capricorn
Sunday, June 23, 2013
7:32 am EDT

Feeling a bit damp these days? The Water element reigns: Sun newly in Cancer conjunct larger-than-life Jupiter; Mercury, Venus and Vesta very close together in Cancer; Neptune and Saturn continuing to flow energy to each other from Pisces and Scorpio; Chiron the wounded healer in Pisces; North Node in Scorpio.

We're in a time of deep dreaming and strong feeling. The annual conference of the International Association for the Study of Dreams opens today, and I'm imaging this conference will be an intensely wonderful experience for all there.

The challenge is figuring out what to do with all that emotion. The Water element is life-giving when it's flowing, circulating, bringing in nutrients and carrying away toxins. When Water stops, though, we get stagnation, brooding, stuckness. Let's face it: when water stops moving, we get mold.

Overnight Saturday (tomorrow), the largest, brightest Full Moon of this year arrives. This Moon will be the closest to Earth she'll be all year. Where skies are clear, we might feel we can reach up and touch her luminous face. Don't miss a chance to see her, and dance in her golden glow.

This Full Moon channels Capricorn, the Earth sign that puts its shoulder to the wheel, never gives up, never surrenders. This Moon is widely conjunct Pluto, the alchemist who leaves no stone unturned. This Moon is pragmatic, hard working, and has her eyes on the prize.

This Full Moon sits at the point of a kite formation that draws the Saturn–Neptune trine right into the Full Moon energy. With Jupiter in the final, anaretic degree of Gemini, and asteroid Lilith right between the Sun and Jupiter, this is a powerful combination.

Shining her bright beacon on the intense waters we're swimming in, this Full Moon asks: What are these feelings about? Are we stuck or moving? Where's the goal? How do we get there?

And, of course. where are the life vests and can we all fit into the boat?

We'll all make it to shore as long as we look to the light and follow its path across the water. Lighthouses are built with powerful lenses that serve to focus light so it carries across long distances. This Full Moon, so close to the Earth, has the power to shine through any storm.

Eric Francis has an intriguing take on 29 Gemini, the spot we'll find expansive Jupiter shining from at this Full Moon. He sees that final, intense degree as uniquely suited to giving us the big picture, offering the ability to put things into context and see how they connect.

The thing is, sometimes light shows up things we'd rather not see. This Full Moon could be like that. If there's stuff in our psyches, in our families, in our relationships we've been looking away from, this Moon could illuminate it inescapably. This Moon ain't for sissies.

focus!

The gift this Full Moon offers (and it's a great gift) is that same illumination. Those places we've felt stuck, the personal stuff we've been working on and just can't quite see clearly, the missing piece of the relationship puzzle: all those might be highlighted. Oh! we'll say ... is THAT it? I can work with that. Big shifts possible.

Another big theme for this SuperMoon is ancestry. Cancer is tribe as well as family; Capricorn is tradition as well as authority. The involvement of Neptune, Saturn and Pluto take us into deep territory.

This will be a powerful Moon for connecting to our ancestors, working with them, learning from them. Old issues may come up for healing, and new directions brought to light.

Full Moons can make us all feel a little crazy, and this one could be loonier than most. With all this emotional intensity, we'll want to be prepared. Connect to your tribe. Find a place where you feel emotionally supported, at home, loved. From that place, we can follow the Moon's bright beacon to see what we need to see, learn what we need to learn.

May it be so for you.
     

Grasshopper Kung Fu: The Summer Solstice Chart

the balance

Summer Solstice
Sun enters Cancer
Moon in Scorpio
June 21, 1:04am EDT

The Summer Solstice arrives overnight Thursday (very, very early Friday). One of the great hinges of the year, this apex of light in the Northern hemisphere is celebrated as Midsummer––a time of magic, lighthearted fun, and a bit of madness.

Grasshopper time, when fields are green, skies are blue, warm breezes caress the skin, and merriment is rife––like the Saucy Solstice Burlesque Cabaret scheduled for this Sunday in Nottingham, UK.

And why not? What's wrong with forgetting care and having a bit of fun? Nothing, really. Except turning points are just that: Reminders we've reached a culmination and now turn toward something completely different.

In ancient times, the bonfires of Midsummer blazed for protection. Cattle were driven through twin fires to protect them from disease and magical interference. Charms of protection were made, and worn, by those out and about at this thin time of year. Elaine Kalatarian of Blue Moon Astrology has posted a lovely essay exploring these traditions.

The Chinese symbol of yin and yang shows a small dot of white in the black, and likewise black in the white. When we are most deeply in yin, yang is born. When we are most deeply in yang (as we are at Midsummer), the yin of winter begins to stir. Carl Jung pointed this out as well. Each quality, when most in its suchness, potentiates its opposite.

Sometimes, grasshopper behavior is denial. We will not look at what's around the corner, hidden in shadow, down the lane, in back of beyond. We don't want to know.

This year's solstice chart suggests denial will not be a viable option.

The newly-Cancerian Sun triggers the Grand Trine in Water anchored by Neptune in Pisces, Saturn in Scorpio, and Lilith in Cancer. These are oceans of dreams, visions, illusions, the subconscious, our fears and our deepest desires.

Since all three anchors are retrograde, these are deep, deep waters indeed. I picture the Cancer Sun putting a toe in the waves and wanting to pull back. Nope, uh-uh, too cold ... looking around for sunnier playmates.

But with Mercury, Venus and Vesta conjunct in Cancer, and Ceres there as well, the pull of the waves is undeniable. The Scorpio Moon flows easy energy with these four planets in late Cancer. Dreaming will be very strong on this night.

Yet, we're not being drawn into a well of emotion just to wallow about. Signs point to action. 

Mars in grasshopper Gemini might feel ripe for distraction and fun, except he's conjunct Pallas Athena, the ever-cerebral protectress of civilization. And ... hmmm ... Mars is point man for a yod (that awkward, pushy pattern that demands adjustment) with the North Node and Pluto––nothing lighthearted there. Then, wow, the North Node is at the apex of another yod with Mars, Pallas, and Uranus at its base.

Last but never least, Jupiter clings to the end of Gemini, conjunct the Sun and therefore part of the Grand Water Trine. This year, we're meant to think, connect, and act. Get out the swim goggles, pull on the fins. We're heading into deep emotional territory and we're meant to dive in with eyes open for the opportune moment.

If your life feels overfull of challenge and turmoil, remember that Gemini Mars keeps us light on our feet, and possibly light-fingered as well. This is the trickster, the one who dances away from danger with the prize hidden in his pouch.

Think of whistleblowers, of dancers in gas masks, of children speaking up to CEOs of huge corporations. These are the Mercurial heroes and heroines now, the ones seemingly without power who still find a voice and a way to act.

Our lives these days can seem filled with challenge and turmoil. That same Mars catches a square from Chiron, the healer and mentor. What do skillful means look like now? How can we finesse this situation? How can we be both effective and safe?

At the Summer Solstice, we hold this paradox. We celebrate, we sing, we dream ... and we remember those who suffer, we know it's not all fun and games. This knowing brings poignancy, brings depth, and the courage to stand and say yes to the whole catastrophe, YES to life.
    

Good Questions: Listening to the First Quarter Moon

deep listening

First Quarter Moon in Virgo
June 16, 2013 1:24 pm ED

Today's First Quarter square between the Sun and Moon brings BIG energy around communicating with precision, analysis, and possibly excruciating detail. The Moon and Jupiter are conjunct, so if you find yourself talking nonstop, take a deep breath and slow down.

If you find yourself listening to someone else talking nonstop, take a deep breath and tune in to what's being communicated on all levels.

Listening on all levels will be key in the next weeks. Today's Virgo Moon could go with some fairly detailed critiques of what's being said––but Virgo is also a grounded, compassionate healer, with the ability to tune in and really, really listen. So, lose the critical voice and go with deep listening.

Early this morning, Chiron the wounded healer stopped in his tracks and then turned backwards. This is a powerful moment for any planet, and brings focused attention to the idea that sometimes we get hurt. Then, we find that when something bumps up against that old hurt, it hurts again, worse. Ouch.

As we mature, gaining insight along the way, we can get some perspective and learn how to understand and integrate those hurt places. Since the broken places are where the light gets in, those same wounds become sources of healing for ourselves and, potentially, others.

In an intriguing synchronicity, the asteroid Lilith stopped less than half an hour before Chiron, and turned backward in a one-degree trine (easy flowing connection) with Chiron.

Chiron's in Pisces, Lilith is in Cancer. And here's Venus in Cancer just one degree away from Lilith. Mercury, who rules both Gemini (where the Sun and Jupiter are) and Virgo (where the Moon is), sits in Cancer just three degrees on the other side of Venus.

What's coming up includes deep emotions, female power in relationship, sexuality and power, delusions, illusions, Shadow, and how we talk about all that. Yep, the easy stuff (not).

This is the crossroads of what we think we think, what we think we're supposed to feel, and what we actually, really feel deep down. Today's energy could bring up how far apart those are in us, or in those around us.

Response choices includes everything from distraction, denial, dismissal, 'correcting' what is said, to taking that deep breath I mentioned and diving into something way more vulnerable and real. And this can happen with those close to us, or in our own internal dialogue.

We're heading into an intensely emotional and personal time, astrologically, as the Sun and Jupiter prepare to shift into Cancer. Our Cancerian sojourn will include a Mercury retrograde in this sign too, beginning right after the Full Moon. With Neptune and Saturn continuing to flow energy together in Pisces and Scorpio, there's a whole lotta Water goin' on.

At this First Quarter Moon, we're invited to step into this realm of deep feeling with our mind in an open, attentive state. There is much to learn here, much to be healed. There are gifts of depth, insight, creativity, spiritual connection, and relationship.

In the midst of ongoing transformation (ok, yes, also turmoil), stepping into the shadowy spaces of emotion is a good thing. When the mind is running the show, we miss a lot. We're more interested in what we have to say than in listening to what anyone else says. We can fail to ask the right questions.

Today's Moon asks, are we asking good questions, of ourselves, of our loved ones, of our world? And (this is the important part) do we listen to the answer with our hearts as well as our heads?
     

Creating Meaningful Connections: Growing with the Moon

fractal connections

Crescent Moon in Leo
June 12, 2013 2:55 pm EDT

First Quarter Moon in Virgo
June 16, 2013 1:24 pm EDT

Gibbous Moon in Scorpio
June 20, 2013 2:28 pm EDT

Full Moon in Capricorn
June 23, 2013 7:32 am EDT

Today, we rest in a dark moon time after the New Moon.

Seeds in the ground, we've begun a new cycle of growth. Already, we're pushing against the boundaries of our wrappings, sending out rootlets and wondering what lies ahead ... because we can't. quite. see it. (yet)

If you haven't made New Moon wishes, today is perfect. The Moon is strong in her home sign of Cancer, ready to listen and lend her nurturing support. This cycle looks to be busy, with lots of bright energy for getting stuff done, so, best to be prepared and focused!

The Theme for this Waxing Cycle: Making Meaningful Connections

This waxing (growing) lunar cycle began with the New Moon of June 8 and culminates with the Full Moon of June 23. During these next weeks, the Sun remains in Gemini, moving closer and closer to Jupiter, the guy who makes everything bigger, brighter and buzzier.

Mars and Pallas Athena remain together in Gemini too, energizing a connection between thought and action, helping make sure at least some of those ideas lead to something concrete.

LOTS of energy for connecting, communicating, networking, exploring, crafting, brainstorming––and, yes, flirting, laughing, lighthearted trickstering, and getting distracted. At this time of year, playfulness is a good thing! Possibly hard to stay on task, easy to get carried away by whatever arrives in the moment, so keep your goals in mind.

At the Crescent Moon of June 12, the Moon in creative, passionate Leo channels that shiny Gemini into personal expression. Make sure your unfolding intentions reflect your own style, your own heart light.

This cycle is not all about fun, games and butterflies, though. Mercury, ruler of Gemini, has moved into nurturing, emotionally connected Cancer. Venus, Ceres, Vesta and Eris also move through Cancer now. Venus and Mercury, in fact, stay close together throughout this cycle.

This Cancerian energy links our emotional selves into the scintillating thinking of Gemini. We want our connections and communications to reflect our values and feelings. We want to know where home is, to protect what means the most to us. We want to feel safe.

This pulls our attention to meaningful connecting, not simply whatever shows up in our perceptual field. Between now and the Full Moon, pay attention with your inner as well as outer radar.

This is absolutely the time to make new connections––to people, ideas, organizations, projects, whatever––but before allowing yourself to be distracted, check in with how it feels.

Ask: Does this new bright shiny feel right? Is it aligned with my values? Does it resonate with my heart?

This can be a tricky balance, one we'll be exploring. Gemini keeps an open mind, ready to consider any and all possibilities. Cancer is much more reserved, preferring the tried and true. Which makes this cycle a wonderful time to explore our set points and triggers in this area.

Ask: Where do I feel I can boldly go, exploring new areas fearlessly? Where do I feel a need to pull back, stay safe, not take risks? Are those places good for me at this time in my life, or do I need to expand in some areas and maybe pull back in others?

Opportunities for Healing

This is a time for building meaningful connections, not necessarily easy ones. It's true, Gemini tends to prefer easy––and there are other energies out there.

Giving added weight to the realm of emotions, Chiron the wounded healer continues to flow energy to Mercury and Venus during this cycle. So, emotional buttons may get pushed, which opens up opportunities to make internal connections. When we gain new insights into our inner landscape, it releases energy and opens doors.

And then, we've got Saturn in Scorpio and Neptune in Pisces continuing to flow energy together. They will be players in the coming Full Moon, so don't count them out. (Actually, never count Saturn out, and keep an eye on what Neptune's up to as well.)

These two, Saturn and Neptune, will make sure we don't stay in shallow waters too long. Scorpionic Saturn pulls us deep within. Cosmic Neptune expands our connections outward.

At the First Quarter Moon of June 16, the Moon in Virgo asks whether we're paying attention. If we've become too distracted from important goals, this Moon will gently guide us back. Well, she can be gentle. If the inner critic pipes up, move to a more compassionate place as you refocus.

By the time we reach the Gibbous Moon of June 20, the mood could feel a bit more serious. The Moon's in Scorpio and she's tightly conjunct the North Node, the path into the future, the place we all have approach-avoidance issues with.

The Gibbous Moon will be a checkpoint. Are we on track, on task, moving in a good direction? Where are we missing important stuff? Look into Shadow for the answer to this, because Scorpio is all about the things we'd rather not see.

The lightheartedness of Gemini is still around, still potent. We're reminded of the old stories in which a bit of humor, some trickery, clever strategy at the opportune moment, were what saved the day.

If we've made those meaningful connections, within and without, we'll be ready.

A Serious Supermoon

When the Full Moon arrives, she'll be in pragmatic, serious-minded Capricorn. This Full Moon of June 23 will be a Supermoon, the largest of this year. She's be at her closest point to Earth, looming large in the Summer sky.

Arriving just after the Summer Solstice, this Full Moon is a yin reminder in the midst of high summer yang. Winter will come. We can't be grasshoppers all the time. I'll be writing more about the Solstice and the Full Moon, so this is just an early head's up: Gather ye rosebuds!

We're in summer now. It's good to kick back, relax, vacation, celebrate. It's wonderful to explore, connect, and communicate. And we remember this season is one turn in an ongoing spiral. We remember who we are, where we're heading, and what we need.

This cycle is about the balance between the serious and the playful, the inner and the outer, the bright and shiny and deep and shadowy. We celebrate them all!
    

New Moon in Gemini: The Council of Me

New Moon in Gemini
Today (June 8) 11:56 am EDT

When the noon siren goes off today in my town (yes, we still have one), it will welcome the New Gemini Moon.

Already, the tribe is gathering––the Moon's emerged from her long void-of-course time in Taurus, waking from her rest deep in the quiet Earth. She's connected with Pallas Athena and Mars, and draws near to the Sun.

With both luminaries, the Sun and the Moon, in Gemini, along with Mars and Jupiter, Pallas and Eris, attention focuses in on me. What am I connected to? Who and what are in my networks? What information is at my fingertips? Where can I find more?

On a national level, everyone in the US who uses a cell phone is wondering how they're connected to the NSA via their metadata.

On a global level, we're chapulling, connecting to the people of Turkey as they connect with each other to stand up against violence and tyranny, and fight for their rights.

This is also a very personal New Moon. We look to see where we're connected outward, even as we're drawn inward.

Mercury, ruler of the New Moon has moved into home-based Cancer, trining Chiron the wounded healer.

How do connections and networks become tribe and family? Does my time looking outward (cruising the internet, say) bring me more security, more nurturing? Or am I dissipating my energy in a search for novelty?

Venus, also in Cancer, activates a Grand Water Trine with Neptune and Saturn. Sometimes trines are so easy, we don't notice them.

But this one includes Saturn in Scorpio connecting to Neptune––together, these two carry strong manifestation mojo––connecting to Venus, goddess of relationships and creativity. I don't think we'll be able to ignore this amount of energy pouring in.

How do my networks support and nurture my creative passions? (Or maybe the first question is, do they ... ?) How does my style of relating and connecting foster deeper, more personal relationships? (Or maybe, does it ... ?)

Sitting with one foot in Gemini's world of bright and shiny, and Cancer's world of soft, safe, and secure, we look through both sets of eyes to see how each supports the other.

And (this is a BIG 'and'), our most vital connections and relationships are within.

The smallest amount of reflection quickly reveals the many voices within our psyches. Whether we think in terms of inner critic, inner child, inner parent; or balancing seven chakras and their various needs; or dialoging with archetypes; or using an astrological lens to connect to our Sun, Moon, Mercury, everyone, we experience ourselves as many.

At this New Moon, I will be setting an intention for a stronger, clearer, more balanced relationship with my own inner council. These last lunar cycles have showed me how impossible it is to ignore the reality of my own inner experience, the memories and patterns stored in my body, the stories (good and bad, true and not so true) that help define my experience of life.

Stepping into the life I want for myself, the one I hope for, calls me into connection with all that I am.

Ancestry, personal history, and life in all its dimensions and realities are within and around me. The strong Gemini energy helps me see my personal web of life, and how it connects to the whole.

Overwhelming? Kind of. And yet, there's power here. Opportunities. Movement. The resources to strength the present connections I wish to keep, and forge new ones as well.

As we move toward the New Moon, where are you feeling connected? Where are things lighting up for you? Look there for the new ideas that can carry you into the next bright shiny time of your life.
    

New Moon in Gemini: Seeing Through New Eyes

a scene from the film Small Change

New Moon in Gemini
June 8, 2013 11:56 am EDT

We've turned the corner, sliding home toward Saturday's New Moon in Gemini.

Tomorrow's Balsamic Moon (4:25 am EDT) in fiery Aries gives us the energy boost we need to keep going, letting go of whatever's in the way.

What will this New Moon be like? New ideas, new connections, new perspectives, lots of energy. Coming in at 18 Gemini, tightly conjunct Mars and widely conjunct Jupiter, the New Moon is also flanked by Pallas Athena and Eris at the beginning and end of Gemini.

Over these last weeks, our world's been turned upside down, more than once. If we're paying attention (as opposed to, say, keeping our heads in the sand), we can't possibly be seeing life exactly as we were before. This is a good thing!

You can never solve a problem at the level at which it was created. ––Albert Einstein

So, at this New Moon, wishes and intentions focused on seeing the world anew will be strongly supported. I encourage everyone to take a new look at your birth chart. Where is 18 Gemini? That's where you will see new ideas and connections popping up––or where you may be most in need of an update.

This New Moon falls in my Tenth House, which is career and who I am in public, and aspects my Mercury–Neptune conjunct in my Third House of communication.

Time for me to rethink how I present myself to the world (... as an introvert, marketing is not my strong suit).

Also time for new connections between my inner and outer worlds, where ideas and inspiration come from and how I communicate.

Gemini is also craft––our skills, how we work with our hands, sleight of hand magic. Gemini is youth and enthusiasm, puer rather than senex. Gemini is humor of the lightest, punniest kind, the trickster at work. Gemini is transactions, exchanges, and deals.

Any and all of these can become the focus of wishes and intentions. Where do we need a lighter touch? Where have we become stodgy, tired and out of date? Where do we have tricks up our sleeve we've been hiding, even from ourselves?

Gemini New Moon energy can point to anything from realizing it's time to get a new cell phone, to suddenly seeing the world in completely new ways. Either one. Or both.

Planets shifting into emotional territory

And ... there's something else important going on here, something we're already feeling, "feeling" being the key word.

Even as the New Moon energies focus strongly in light-hearted, playful Gemini, planets are shifting focus into the emotional territory of Cancer. Mercury led the way, entering Cancer on May 31. Venus joined him yesterday, June 2.

Already, our thoughts are turning toward home and hearth, tribe and ancestry, relationships. The shift brings our emotional connections into the mix, alone side our thoughts and ideas.

Emotions are heightened by Saturn's ongoing retrograde through Scorpio, and Neptune and Chiron in Pisces. Right now, in fact, Venus and Mercury are triggering a Grand Trine in Water with Saturn and Neptune, a pattern that continues through the New Moon and beyond, as planets continue shifting in the Moon's home sign.

So another aspect of this Gemini New Moon focuses attention on how we think about feelings.  Do we listen to our emotions? Do we heed their messages? Do we repress or deny them?

That Grand Trine, especially the presence of Saturn in Scorpio, will make repression and denial increasingly uncomfortable, if not outright impossible. Best to update our emotional life as needed, embracing any changes that are called for, however painful it might be in the short term. As I've written before, Karla McLaren is my go-to author on emotional stuff, check her out!

Emotional excess?

Although we're urged to 'live from the heart,' our modern culture doesn't tolerate emotions well. Tears are only permitted at certain occasions, and only from a few people, for a brief time. The modern pose tends to be detached, objective, ironic, cool. This New Moon will ask, how's that working for you?

In a letter to a young writer, Anaïs Nin championed emotion as a gateway to creativity (quoted in an essay by Maria Popova):

Permit yourself to flow and overflow, allow for the rise in temperature, all the expansions and intensifications. Something is always born of excess: great art was born of great terrors, great loneliness, great inhibitions, instabilities, and it always balances them. 

Check also where the sign of Cancer falls in your birth chart. This is a place where emotion is strong, and where the New Moon will also be pouring energy. We're not meant to live on the sidelines all the time. Sometimes we're called to wade into the depths and dive deeply.

When we see a confluence of Scorpio, Pisces and Cancer––all three Water signs––we're looking at all levels of emotion. In Cancer, we have personal emotions: Our connections to family, ancestry and tribe; our feelings about home, hearth, and personal security. We want to protect those we care about and feel responsible for. We want to nurture them, and be cared for in return. This is a sign of the personal mother, the one who loves us as individuals.

In Scorpio, we enter emotional depths. Scorpio is the place of the subconscious, the primitive, atavistic underpinnings of feeling. Scorpio is where we are deeply connected in ways we can't articulate, the place where we can be hurt the most. This is the Shadow, what we don't want to see or acknowledge.

In Pisces, we connect with all-that-is. This is unconditional love, the heart center, the teachings of the great spiritual traditions. Of course, Pisces is also a place of confusion and delusion, depending on how discerning we are. Getting to the high side of Pisces calls for discipline and honesty.

As the personal planets move through Cancer (with Mercury and Venus already leading the way), we'll have the chance to explore how we connect to the subconscious and the infinite through the personal. This is not always easy. No one pushes our buttons like family.

If you think you're enlightened go spend a week with your family. ––Ram Dass

The emphasis on Cancer's personal emotional sphere will be just as intense as the other zodiac gatherings we've experienced so far this year. Just before the New Moon, Neptune stations and turns retrograde in Pisces, an especially powerful position.

Later in June, Mercury begins his second retrograde of the year, in Cancer. Jupiter will also enter Cancer in late June, bringing his expansive emphasis into that sign. And Saturn continues his stately progress through Scorpio.

This New Moon initiates a process of emotional updates. We can accept with grace, or we can resist. I'd go with the grace option, myself.

The intersection of Gemini and Cancer

When these two energies interact, we can become childish. The eternal youth, the puer, does not handle feelings well. He wants what he wants when he wants it, dancing away from anything uncomfortable. Peter Pan is allergic to responsibility of all kinds.

Or, we can reawaken our childlike hearts through loving and protecting what is young, tender, and in need of care.

One of my favorite films of all time is Trouffaut's Small Change. It's French title, L'Argent de poche, means "pocket silver," a very Gemini kind of image for things that are small, close to hand, and vulnerable. 

This is a film about children and their lives, a series of short, poignant, sometime hilarious scenes that weave together families in a small French city. I was going to link to the Wikipedia article, but it gives too much of the plot away, and makes it sound like a rather boring documentary. Instead, I suggest you watch it––or watch again, if it's been awhile.

In the film, children live the lives of children, and the adults do the best they can to keep up. Towards the end of the film, a schoolteacher who has just become a father makes an impassioned speech about how the rights of children are vital for all of us. This is where family, personal emotion, and society come together.

Turkish emigres in London

In the news now, ordinary people in Istanbul march together by the tens of thousands against brutal police, an action that began to protect trees and grass––an open park slated to be bulldozed. A small action to protect what is tender, expanding into something the world is watching.

As in other people's actions in recent years, we see the importance of new connections (Gemini) between people fostered by new technologies that are not controlled from above, accompanied by an upwelling of feeling for what is near and dear, and the willingness to take protective action (Cancer).

At each New Moon, we're invitation to step into something new. This very Gemini New Moon, accompanied by emotional depths, offers new connections between thinking and feeling. Solving the immense problems facing our world will certainly require both. Perhaps now we can begin with the personal and expand beyond.