Our Place: The New Moon in Cancer

group hug!

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

We're swimming in deep waters these days, wondering whether our water wings will keep us afloat.

As the New Moon draws near, it's time to take a breather, float a moment, and check in.

Mercury retrograde's weird challenges are showing up with a murky, where-did-that-come-from? quality. In the midst of strong emotions and mixed messages, remember that Mercury retro's main message is to sloooooow down.

When odd things come up, asking "Where did that come from?" is actually a good idea, especially when we focus less on the event and more on our reaction. Something unexpected happened ... where did my anger/ fear/ sadness/ irritation come from? (Probably not primarily from the unexpected something.)

As we roll into the Balsamic Moon, the waning Crescent, we have the chance to let go, let go, let go.

The Balsamic Moon sits close to the end of patient, careful, and sometimes stubborn Taurus. We can hold on to the past for dear life, or we can relinquish what's over and done, secure in the bone-deep knowing that change is inevitable and right.

Vesta, goddess of renewal, is poised at the very end of nurturing and tribal Cancer. A fierce protector of home and hearth, she also knows that cycles of time and chance keep spiraling. We can all be made new, again and again.

As we are about to be––made new, that is––with the New Moon in the Moon's home sign of Cancer.

The sign of Cancer is all about family love, in all its forms: the tender love of a mother nursing her baby, overprotective love that keeps the toddler away from mess and dirt, controlling love that wants to create safety where none can be guaranteed, sacrificial love that works two jobs and goes without so others can have, heart-burstingly-proud love that lets someone grow into new roles and ways of being even when it means they also grow farther away.

This is the place of nurturing, where families form and break, where tribes create unbreakable bonds.

We cannot be human and wholly alone. Even hermits in their caves relate to the world left behind. We grow up in tribes, big and small, groups that shape us, protect us, define us, and sometimes send us into exile. Who we perceive ourselves to be is created in the the context of the groups we inhabit.

Am I saying we are nothing more than our group memberships? Not at all. We have our own personalities, predispositions, histories, and experiences. But how we interpret who we are on the inside is shaped by how we are seen by others on the outside.

This is tough for us to see clearly. Like fish, we can't see the water we're swimming in. At this New Moon, we'll have the chance to see the water.

The New Moon in Cancer arrives with not one, but two Grand Trines in Water. The first is the Saturn–Neptune trine that's been around for a few weeks now, activated into "Grand" as different planets moved into early Cancer. At the New Moon, this first trine will be Saturn–Jupiter–Neptune.

finding family

Saturn and Jupiter are the "social planets," bridging from the inner personality to the outer world. Neptune is the dreamer, the mystic, the poet, and (of course) the ocean.

This first Grand Water Trine lets us know we're in waters that connect the social and the cosmic, the ability to dream and to make it real.

The second Grand Water Trine includes the New Moon itself plus Mercury, trining the North Node of the Moon in shadowy Scorpio, and also Chiron the wounded healer in visionary Pisces. This Grand Trine makes the social into something very, very personal. Here we have the two lights in the sky, plus the planet of mind and communication, flowing energy with a powerful healer and mentor, and the arrow pointing to our karmic path.

At this New Moon, we get a new view of our emotional, familial and tribal waters. At the same time, we're offered a path of healing that also creates meaning.

This is a New Moon for making wishes and setting intentions in the arenas of family, tribe, relationships, and how we experience and manage the complex emotional landscapes that accompany them.

Just in case we're missing the importance of relationship, Venus in passionate Leo holds a key position at the New Moon.

Venus sits at the apex of a yod (also known as a Finger of Fate) ready to balance pushy energies from transformative Pluto and Chiron the wounded healer. She's also receiving a flow of fiery trine energy from revolutionary Uranus. Last but not least, she's squaring the Nodes of the Moon.

So making the most of this New Moon is not all about endless sacrifice (a Cancerian specialty often accompanied by extra helpings of guilt). This New Moon is also and importantly about our own passionate and creative hearts.

friends forever

At this New Moon we might wish (for example) to find our tribe, the people who will support our creative gifts and the place where we can be who we truly, uniquely are.

We might set the intention to begin shining within the family we already have, to bring our creativity and passion into play in ways that strengthen and enliven the ones we love.

We might set intentions for healing old family and tribal wounds, and releasing old emotional patterns that get in the way.

We are social animals. All of our complexity––body, mind, soul, spirit––exists in relation to others. At this New Moon, we have a window in time through which we can see how we are held in relationships, and then act on what we learn. May our actions support all of us in loving ways.