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.
    
    

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.
    

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 Creative Structures: Saturn in Water

bumblebees can't theoretically fly ... and do

For lots of reasons, I'm thinking about Saturn these days. I am also moving a bookcase. A heavy one. One really too big for me to move alone. But, like the bumblebee, I won't look at limitations and so I'm doing it.

Then I heard a voice saying, "Mary, what are you DOing?" It was my father's voice––in my head, but quite clearly his, and if anyone who knew him reads this, I'm sure you're getting the intonation exactly right.

Because of course I'm not moving this bookcase in the way my very Saturnian Dad would have done it: Carefully clearing everything out of the way, taping, securing, protecting edges.

I'm just, you know, doing it. There are books in piles all over my apartment, and I had to walk the d*#n thing around dressers and tables I did not move first.

When I heard the voice, I thought, well, what am I doing? And what would the sky say about it?

Right now, the Sun and Neptune are conjunct––expressing creativity, deepening spirituality, and doing things in loopy ways.

Mars is just past a flowing trine with Saturn, both in Water––taking action to create structures to support Piscean and Scorpionic stuff.

Venus is conjunct my Descendent, trining my Mercury-Neptune conjunction, both in Air––wanting to support my creative thought and writing in ways that work for me, valuing my own unique process.

The Moon in Cancer is trining the Sun-Neptune conjunction––aligning home and emotions with creativity and spirituality.

I'm moving this bookcase because I decided a few days ago that I need a different space to write. I need a dedicated space that says "writing" to me. My main computer and desk have been in my bedroom, and while I sometime write in bed, it's not the most structured, professional way to do it.

I don't have quite this many books, really...

So, this bookcase is moving into the bedroom so the 'puter and desk can come out to the "library" which is a wall with two other bookcases.

As a side benefit, I will now see a bookshelf from my bed, one of those odd things I find comforting. (Venus in Aquarius conjunct the Descendent = quirky things about me.)

I'm also emerging from a period of being not in 100% health. Feeling my energy coming back, I felt a surge of agency––by gum, I says to myself, that bookcase ain't gonna move itself. Sometimes a girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do.

For the record, in case my Dad's actually worried about this (or anyone else is), I moved the bookcase carefully. I didn't lift it, I walked it. I put an old towel under it to make it slide. And I've been working on this for hours, with rests in between.

And once it was in place (yes, books are still stacked all over, but hey, it's progress), I decided to look at the charts and write about it.

This is how Saturn retrograde in Scorpio might look, in the presence of a ton of planets in Pisces: Doing something tangible and specific to support other more nebulous and hopefully creative things happening. And, oh yes, Saturn is retrograding through my 3rd House of writing.

May something magically creative happen today for you!