Waning Moon in Cancer

muffins!

The Moon continues in her home sign of Cancer today. After yesterday's challenging aspects, she's ready to pull on her most comfortable clothes and bake muffins this morning, enjoying the best of being at home.

Venus and Mars continue traveling together in balanced Libra, linking our values and our actions in harmony. With flowing trines from these personal planets to the ongoing Neptune-Chiron conjunction, intuitive guidance, healing, and creative inspiration flow easily as we relax into a secure and nurturing Moon-in-Cancer respite.

Connecting with this flow of creativity and intuition is good preparation for challenging squares the Moon forms with Mars (exact at 6:49pm EDT) and Venus (exact at 1:18am Sunday) later on. We again need to find that point of dynamic balance between heart (Cancer) and head (Libra), wanting to remain safe and secure within our refuge (Cancer) and reaching out to others (Libra).

Maslow's Hierarchy

The Moon's last aspect in Cancer is a flowing trine to revolutionary Uranus overnight (4:31am Sunday) that begins her time-between-times. If today, we feel deeply into our home place while accepting whatever creative and healing guidance comes our way, we may then be open to the outside-the-box messages from Uranus.

You might remember Maslow's Heirarchy, one of the underlying themes of developmental psychology: We need to have our most basic safety needs met before we can develop our psyches. Today we revel in the Cancer Moon's love of home, feeling gratitude for what we have and establishing that feeling of security, so that tonight when Uranus calls us to become who we truly are, we can listen and take the next step.

Waning Moon in Cancer

portcullis at Cahir Castle

The Moon entered her own castle in the sign of Cancer overnight. This is where the Moon feels most secure, most nurtured, and most connected. It can also be where she feels most embattled, prepared to raise the drawbridge, lower the portcullis, and deny entry to one and all.

At 4:06am EDT, the Moon challenged Jupiter in the warrior sign of Aries. Can Jupiter's expansive, pioneering spirit find a home today with a protective Cancer Moon? These two share a love of tradition and a connection to the ancestors, but one is off on a quest and one wants to stay home. Today you might feel like Frodo, given a journey when he wants only to sit by his fireside, or like Eowyn, forced to tend the home fires when she's ready to take up her sword and do battle.

At 7:46am comes an opposition to transformative Pluto in determined Capricorn. Once again, the dialogue is between the safe harbors of home (Cancer Moon) and the call to walk our talk in the world and face its perils (Capricorn Pluto). Pluto's challenges are ignored at great cost, so perhaps the Cancer Moon needs to think in terms of preparing a secure home base before striking out on the path to adventure and achievement. What do we need to have a safe place somewhere?

At 8:35am, the Sun and Mercury reach their conjunction within Mercury's retrograde time. This is the New Mercury, when we turn a corner in our thinking and communication, reconsider old ways, rethink past decisions, review our goals, and strengthen what is best and brightest in our mental habits.

By 10:34am, the Moon challenges Saturn in square. This is the last point the Moon touches today, within the Cardinal Cross still active in the sky. Saturn, planet of tradition, has much in common with the Cancer Moon. The challenge here is between Cardinal Air and Cardinal Water ... does thought come first, or feeling? Practicality and logic, or intuition and emotion? Head or heart? We need both, of course, but finding the dynamic balance here is not always easy.

A Priestess

Later in the day, the Moon flows energy in sextile with Mercury, retrograde in Virgo. Perhaps Virgo's practical approach, focused on service, can help the Moon channel emotional energy in healing ways. Mercury retrograde feels safe within the circle of Cancer's loving concern, finding a respite from the pressures of the world.

Today's last aspect is a sextile with the Sun at 10:44pm EDT. Nearing the end of the lunar cycle, this flow of energy in sextile offers a time of insight and understanding.

The Cancer Moon prefers home, establishing strong boundaries within which she can protect and nurture her family and her tribe. Today brings challenges from other planets reminding us that the world is always with us, and whether our challenges are outside or within, the call to adventure will come.

Waning Moon in Gemini, Moving toward Cancer

Today's Picture of the Day

The Moon continues networking in Gemini, the bright butterfly, making connections with a number of transiting planets. Gemini is the multitasker par excellence, so today's multiple connections feed this Moon's love of asking and answering questions. As we continue in the waning half of the lunar cycle, we look to understand and integrate our experiences.

The Moon flows energy in trine with Venus at 12:30pm EDT, with Mars at 6:46pm, and the Neptune-Chiron conjunction at 9:26pm. Since we begin with Venus, today you may feel the urge to communicate with those closest to you (Moon-Venus in Air signs), take action on what you learn (Moon-Mars), and gain intuitive insights about creating the relationships you long for (Moon-Neptune).

Venus and Neptune are also wonderfully creative planets, so as bright new ideas flow easily (Moon-Venus), take action to express them concretely (Moon-Mars), and the results may touched by the magical, numinous hand of the Muse (Moon-Neptune).

Oh, and Venus is also a money planet ... so if innovative business ideas pop up (Moon-Venus), do something concrete to figure out if those ideas have legs (Moon-Mars), and you might connect with a flow of intuitive guidance to take things to the next level (Moon-Neptune). Who knows? With a Gemini Moon, relationships, creativity and finances could all be part of your day!

Redon's Muse auf Pegasus

However you choose to work with the Gemini Moon, a challenge in square to innovative Uranus will push for one more view of the situation, something unexpected and outside the box. This square comes exact at 1:40am Friday, and sends the Moon into her time-between-times. She steps into her home sign of Cancer at 2:50am.

In Cancer, the Moon's qualities are intensified, so tonight's dreams may be rich and full of feeling. Place paper and pen close to your bedside, and a faint light, so you can record any messages from the lunar realms without leaving the Moon's embrace completely. Enjoying today's flow of bright Gemini energy will give you lots of new material for dreams, and closing aspects to Neptune, Chiron and Uranus open the way for intuition to flow.