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.
    
    

Gibbous Moon: Citrinitas

golden light

Gibbous Moon in Aries
November 24, 2012

Today's Gibbous Moon, which arrived first thing this morning, shines light on where we are in the alchemical soup. The waxing Moon is brighter in the sky, leading into the Full Moon and lunar eclipse. This eclipse will complete the two-week intensity from eclipse to eclipse we're now in, the last eclipse of this calendar year.

What do we see now we didn't see before?

Alchemy continues to be an apt framework for this magically mysterious Scorpio New Moon cycle. In the ancient system, the next stage is the citrinitas, the yellow or golden stage. New light dawns, the solar light within. Something inside lights up; we see things in new ways.

A few days ago, the Sun moved from Scorpio's depths into the optimistic glow of Sagittarius. Today's Gibbous Moon shows the Sun trining the flames of Uranus in Aries, while sesquiquadrate (a square and a half) the Moon also in Aries. A lot of Fire!

During eclipse times, information flows––messages from the outer world, secrets uncovered, inner realizations are all heightened now. The Fire of this Gibbous Moon pushes us to look at where we are. Is there something we need to embrace? Is there something we need to face up to?

Later alchemical texts often omit the citrinitas, moving directly from black to white to red. Jung, however, associated citrinitas with the archetype of the senex, the wise elder. This Gibbous Moon, our citrinitas, focuses our attention on the senex who in astrology is Saturn.

The Grand Trine in Water still flows. At this Moon, we see Ceres in Cancer trining Neptune and Chiron in Pisces, trining Saturn in Scorpio who now is joined by Venus. Underneath the solar brightness of Sun, Moon and Uranus in Fire, the depths of emotional, ancestral and intuitive knowledge sustains us.

So, another question asked at this time is, how's our relationship with the wise elder, both within and without? Where have we become fixed, sedentary, pedantic, or heavy handed? Or, where are we encountering maturity, wisdom, the voice of experience, the awareness of time ... and are we listening?

If we need an additional reminder (or push) to look at our relationship to wisdom and authority, the asteroid goddesses form another pattern: While Ceres participates in the Grand Water Trine, we see Juno, Athena and Vesta in a T-square.

Juno, who stands for the strength of family bonds and commitments, is in philosophical Sagittarius. She opposes Vesta, keeper of the hearth at the center of each home, in Gemini. Both are squared by Athena, who raises the standard for learning, tradition and the rule of law, now in visionary Pisces.

Each of these three goddesses embodies a certain kind of relating, a way to understand who we are in society (Athena), in our extended family (Juno) and in the center of our homes (Vesta). Venus conjunct Saturn in Scorpio hold up a mirror, asking us to look at our relationships, how we define them, and whether they're working well.

This exploration of alchemy and archetypes might seem esoteric and theoretical. It sounds nicely mysterious, but what does it mean? Here's an example:

I'm living with Saturn in a serious way. My second Saturn return arrives in two weeks, which means, among other things, that my Saturn is in Scorpio and has been receiving aspects from everyone else moving through Scorpio these last weeks.

Living alone for the last several years, I've been working with Pema Chödrön's approach of staying with discomfort to learn from the very things we normally try to ignore. I don't do this every day, mind you, but I do give it a try.

For a variety of reasons, I've been feeling very alone lately. Not lonely, exactly, but alone. I like to think I'm mostly OK with this. I am, after all, introverted and generally happy in my own company. This morning, I realized (while doing my morning tai chi, so, out of nowhere, more or less) that I am most uncomfortable being alone as I fall asleep at night, and as I wake in the morning. This explains, in a new and interesting way, why I often feel compelled to get online first thing in the morning, even when I know I have other priorities and Facebook is a great evaporator of time.

Not an earth-shattering insight, and perhaps even a "duh" moment––but it tells me something about myself I didn't know before, that illuminates my behavior and opens a space for change. This is about my relationship to Saturn as senex, the hermit living alone. For what it's worth, I'm here blogging this morning, but haven't yet checked any of my other online accounts.

The Full Moon is on her way. Illuminations now, major or minor, comfortable or un, help us prepare for the greater illumination to come.
    

Full Moon in Taurus: Beautiful Mother

the feast of life

Full Moon in Taurus
October 29, 2012

Tomorrow brings the Full Moon in Taurus, our yearly northern hemisphere reminder, as nights grow long and winds sharp, that the Earth is a place of abundance.

It's time to prepare for the lean season, so the cosmos sends a message––our bodies need feeding, homes need heat, children need warm coats, people need safety in winter storms, and the Earth will provide with our help.

Taurus is the sign of patience, perseverance, and nurturing; the sign that loves the precious physicality of life. Taurus also understands how the world works––systems have cycles and some include loss, so each of us needs to step up for all of us to enjoy the good things of life.

The loaves and the fishes may have appeared miraculously, but they came in answer to a recognized need––someone who noticed, then said out loud, wow, there's a lot of people here who haven't eaten. And all that plenty didn't distribute itself––people came forward to carry, hand out, make sure everyone got some, and collect the leftovers. Pot luck supper where everybody helps, not the miracle drive-thru where someone hands you a bag and you're gone.

Taurus sticks around.

Across from the Taurus Moon, we find the Sun and Saturn in that other sign of great staying power, Scorpio. Here we experience the deeper reverberations of our physical life.

In one framework, we could see Scorpio (especially with Saturn right there), as the big stick behind the carrot, the hellfire consequence of failures of virtue. Scorpio as darkness with a capital "D," as the things we run from.

In another, Scorpio becomes the messenger of the unseen, the one who knows what is not obvious, the one who understands the deeper meanings of our simplest actions. At this Full Moon, the unseen but deeply felt is especially strong:

The Grand Trine in Water still flows, as the Sun and Saturn together trine Neptune and Chiron in Pisces, and Ceres in Cancer. This pattern connects strong energies of dreaming, manifesting, healing and abundance, bringing them all closer to our conscious awareness.

With the Moon opposite the Sun (as always at a Full Moon), this Taurus Moon becomes the apex of a wide kite, receiving sextiles from Neptune and Chiron, and from Ceres. Pluto the Alchemist trines the Full Moon, and sextile the Sun and Chiron.

Meanwhile, Venus has entered her home sign of Libra, and sextiles Mercury in generous, optimistic Sagittarius. Mars is also in open-handed Sagittarius, opposite Sag's ruler, Jupiter the Sage, still reflectively retrograde in Gemini. Uranus, too, is part of the picture, as he semisextiles the Moon and forms an inconjunct to the Sun, edgy as always.

Much can be illuminated at this Full Moon. Look at your birth chart to see where the Full Moon will fall, as issues related to this part of your chart will be in the spotlight. For all of us, the Full Moon in Taurus will ask:

• Where am I feeling well provided for in my life? Where am I feeling deprived or left out? What actions do I need to take, to feel and experience more abundance?

• What deeper motives support (or interfere with) my actions? Where do I need to look below the surface at what's really going on in my life?

• How am I connecting with intuition or guidance in its many forms? Am I listening to compassionate voices seeking my highest good? How can I deepen my most positive, life-enhancing connections?

• Am I a glass-half-full or a glass-half-empty kind of person? What are the consequences of that? If I am less happy than I would like to be, where can I invite conscious, deliberate optimism into my life, and express that to others?

You'll notice that each of these areas end with "what can I do?" kinds of questions ... Saturn is strongly present in this Full Moon, and he doesn't like to see anyone sitting around, wasting time and resources. On the other hand, this is the Taurus Full Moon, and appreciating the wonderful things of life becomes a responsibility too, one we embrace now.

So, sitting around worrying about what's going wrong? Not so much. Resting in the abundance of our Earth Mother, savoring the good things of our lives and sharing them with others––that's a responsible, as well as responsive, way to live this Full Moon.
     

Gibbous Moon: It Was a Dark and Stormy Night ...

into the woods ...

Gibbous Moon in Pisces
October 25, 2012

"Gibbous" is an odd word, don't you think? It makes me think of gibbons ... gibbering gibbons.

Its origins are equally odd. Gibbous means something convex or bulging, but comes from the Latin gibbus, a hump or hunch. In the fifteenth century, "gibbous" meant hunchbacked.

This Moon phase, which peaks as the Sun and Moon form a square-and-a-half (a sesquiquadrate), is like hitting a bump in the road. We've met the First Quarter square challenge, we can see the Full Moon reward looking ahead, and––wait ... what? I just fell over something.

This Gibbous Moon is the log you trip over on a foggy night in the woods when you've made a wrong turn, the compass needle spins crazily, the matches are wet, and the flashlight battery's low.

The Grand Trine in Water I've written about earlier in this lunar cycle is still with us, emphasized by a Sun–Saturn conjunction in Scorpio, trine Neptune and Chiron in Pisces and Ceres in Cancer. With the Moon also in Pisces, we're going to have a tough time getting our bearings. These energies are filled with glorious spiritual connection, and the cruelest of illusions. Healing and wounding, clarity and confusion, innocence and decadence, light and shadow.

At times like these, rational logic goes out the window. It just doesn't work. The choice point is, are we driven by fear? Or do we tune in to intuition?

Let's not dismiss the fear option out of hand. When I look at the world, our situations politically and ecologically, the treatment of all people in any way disadvantaged, I am afraid. Fear feels like a realistic assessment.

So maybe the question is, what's the purpose of fear? And, beyond that, what do I do with fear? Where does it lead me? Are there healthy ways I can experience and work with fear?

Karla McLaren describes fear as the mood state evoked by change, novelty, and the possibility of physical danger. Oh, snap. "Novelty" seems like a weak word indeed for the level of change coming at us––even "change" doesn't evoke the speed-of-light flows of information, innovation, and transformation swirling around.

Karla sees emotions as moving, calling us to action. Fear, she says, leads us into our instincts and intuitions, the ways we know, outside of logic, what to do right now to stay safe––sometimes by freezing or running away, but often by orienting to the coming changes and flowing with them.

Fear and intuition are not opposite choices. When experienced well, fear connects us to intuition.

Today, intuition is often glossed as "inner knowing." We think of tuition as teaching, and in as inside, so, intuition is an inner guide who tells you stuff.

The origin of intuition leads back to the Latin teuri, a word so old its origins are lost, which means not teacher, but guardian and protector.

Intuition is the guidance within that keeps us safe, activated when we feel the emotion we know as fear. Nature intended this to work seamlessly––the inner alarm bell goes off, we correct our course of action, the alarm bell goes quiet.

This is not a case of "feel the fear and do it anyway" when the action we're choosing makes the alarm bells get insanely loud. Neither is it a call to stick our heads in the sand because this momentarily reduces panic. This is about learning how to respond in ways that make us safer, by accepting, understanding and responding accurately and effectively to our circumstances.

This is the beauty of a trine, especially a Grand one: Trines flow easily.

Even as this part of the lunar phase leads us into the dark, misty forest and lays a log in our path, the energies out there are standing by to offer powerful, easily accessible experiences of how well intuition can work.

Seriously, with a Grand Trine like this one, plus Mercury conjunct the North Node in Scorpio, if we can't get in touch with our inner guidance now, when can we?

OK, that was a bit Scorpionic and snarky. How these transits affect you will depend a lot on your birth chart and how your life's been going lately. At the same time, we really are offered a chance to experience intuition at work (and at play) this week.

Watch for synchronicities. Remember your dreams. Dust off the runes, I Ching tiles, Tarot cards. Watch flights of birds. Listen to the wind.

Important safety tip: Choose ways of working with intuition that keep you safe and in contact with trusted guides who have your best interest at heart. Plan for invocations, prayers, or blessings.

If fear comes up, try not to immediately shy away. Look for a calm space within. Watch where the fear leads you. Listen to what the message is. Take effective action that increases safety.

Blessings for all of us.
    

Moon into Sagittarius: Finding Our Center

Tuesday morning through Thursday morning
Eastern Daylight Time

Tuesday, March 13
Moon semisextile Saturn (Libra) 12:23am

slow and steady ...

Jupiter (Taurus) trine Pluto (Capricorn) 12:43am
Moon enters Sagittarius 1:53am
Moon square Neptune (Pisces) 5:18am
Moon trine Uranus (Aries) 9:25am
Moon square Chiron (Pisces) 1:38pm
Moon trine Mercury (Aries) 2:10pm
Moon conjunct the North Node (Sagittarius) 6:18pm
Moon inconjunct Venus (Taurus) 6:30pm
Moon semisextile Pluto (Capricorn) 6:44pm
Moon inconjunct Jupiter (Taurus) 6:58pm
Moon square Mars (Virgo) 7:24pm
Venus (Taurus) trine Pluto (Capricorn) 9:27pm

Wednesday, March 14
Venus (Taurus) conjunct Jupiter (Taurus) 1:54am
Venus (Taurus) trine Mars (Virgo) 3:27am
Mars (Virgo) trine Jupiter (Taurus) 5:50am
Mercury (Aries) semisextile Chiron (Pisces) 12:52pm
Mars (Virgo) trine Pluto (Capricorn) 8:23pm
Last Quarter Moon:
Moon square Sun (Pisces) 9:25pm

Thursday, March 15
Moon sextile Saturn (Libra) 3:35am
(begin void of course)
Moon enters Capricorn 6:24am

The Moon enters welcoming, optimistic Sagittarius early Tuesday, inviting us to relax into an abundant, benevolent time. Sagittarius is mutable Fire, Jupiter's sign, a place of learning, of journeys, of embracing the world as a place of wonder and adventure, and of wanting to know life deeply. The Sag Moon opens the doors of our perceptions and feelings, as we look at what else is happening in the sky.

There's a long list of Moon aspects for Tuesday, but look first at the trine for Jupiter and Pluto that opens the day, and the trine for Venus and Pluto that closes it. Very early Wednesday, Venus and Jupiter reach their exact conjunction, and trines with Mars will follow. This is a Grand Trine in Earth, and an especially lovely one.

The trine is an easy, flowing aspect, one third of the circle, that typically connects planets in the same element––in this case, Earth. Things unfold easily with trines, so easily we can take them for granted. This is where the Sagittarius Moon helps us, bringing our attention to what is going well, where things are deeply right, where we feel confident, where we experience abundance and well being.

an Earth's-eye view

This Grand Trine in Earth joins powerful planets. Venus and Jupiter in Taurus, which Venus rules, are the two "good luck" planets, the ancient benefics, the bringers of all good things.

Pluto in Capricorn is the alchemist who has great wealth within his gift. And Mars is the actor, the one who gets things done. What more could we ask for?

And yet ... and yet ... Mercury just turned retrograde in Aries, Saturn continues retrograde in Libra, and Mars himself is retrograde in Virgo. Isn't this a bad time to start new projects? Aren't we being asked to wait?

Maybe, maybe not. Perhaps this Grand Trine is cueing us in to what is already happening in our lives and our world. Perhaps this is a time when we can sense that underneath the turmoil, the challenge, the violence, the injustice, the grief––underneath all that, life is still vibrant, powerful, and full of magic.

Mercury, Mars and Saturn, all retrograde, ask us to reflect, find clarity, and move slowly. The Earth element is no speed demon anyway. This is the race when the tortoise wins. This is a time to find our center and act from that place.

On Tuesday, the Sagittarius Moon contacts almost all the planets. Sagittarius is tireless in the quest for knowledge, although having a tendency to believe he already has all the answers. Within the series of easy and edgy aspects, we see the Moon asking questions, debating the responses, having to recalibrate understandings, and learning––always learning.

Heading into Wednesday, when the Grand Trine comes into crisp focus, the Sag Moon may catch a glimpse of something fundamental. This is a waning Moon, heading toward the new beginning of the New Moon in Aries and the Spring Equinox. The day closes with the Sun–Moon square of the Last Quarter Moon, a time of letting go. One gift of the Grand Trine might be a sense of peace, easing our transition from the old astrological year into the new.

In the late 1300's, the Englishwoman we know as Julian of Norwich had a series of visions during a serious illness. Later, she wrote about her visions, and became an anchorite, dedicating her life to contemplation and prayer. Her experiences showed her that while we are all challenged, we are also supported.

Underneath it all, she said "all will be well, and all will be well, and all manner of things will be well."

Early Thursday, the Moon gets down to work in Capricorn. During this transit through Sagittarius, we breathe, we look, we walk, we learn, we experience peace.