Waning Moon in Cancer

The Moon transitions now from bright, outgoing Gemini to Cancer, the Moon's home sign. As I write, she's between-times, having made her final square to Uranus at 6:37am EDT. With aspects to Neptune, Chiron, Jupiter and Uranus ushering the Moon into her reflective void-of-course, I'm looking for more reports of powerful dreams among the PsiberDreamers at the annual conference. Last night was the Mutual Dreaming event and I dreamt this morning of King Kong ... definitely something BIG!

Broadway Tower, England

The Moon will enter her Cancerian home at 9:46am, so don't be making key decisions or starting new projects first thing this morning. Sometimes when the Moon transits Cancer, we start baking, filling the house with warmth and the aroma of comfort foods like chicken soup and chocolate chip cookies. Today's aspects might make this transit of Cancer feel more like a time to retire to your tower in silent meditation. Once you're sure the family's safe and accounted for, you may even raise the drawbridge.

Pluto and Saturn make their presence felt today, and while the gifts they bring are considerable, they are not a light-hearted pair. The Moon's first aspect in Cancer is an opposition to Pluto, Cardinal Water and Cardinal Earth face to face. How do we balance the inner world and the outer? Our commitments to home and family, and our role in the world? Our need for safety and security, and the call to follow our star?

These weighty questions are emphasized as the Sun and Saturn reach conjunction today, in Libra, sign of relationships, creativity and balance. The Sun illuminates our Saturnian issues of responsibility, limitations, the need for hard work and patience. Saturn works hard but is not very social; associated with the archetype of the hermit, he can leave us feeling a deep need for solitary reflection, and a bit grumpy if we don't get it.

hermit crab

Even as the Sun and Saturn join together, they square the Nodes of the Moon, the karmic path in the sky leading from what we've already mastered to what we are called to do in this lifetime. By this evening, the Moon will join the South Node (exact at 10:36pm). The South Node and Moon together in Cancer may create a powerful pull to the past, or at least open wells of memory we haven't plumbed for a while. The Sun-Saturn square to the Nodes asks us in yet another way to look at where we are in our life path.

If you're sketching this pattern in your head (or looking at today's chart), you'll have realized the Moon is also squaring the Sun and Saturn, aspects that come exact at 11:40pm (Saturn) and 11:52pm (Sun). The Sun-Moon square ushers in the last quarter of this lunar cycle, the time when we need to assimilate what we've learned, fitting together the pieces of recent experiences and insights.

To channel these powerful energies into productive reflection, give yourself alone time today. If Saturn asks you for effort, clean up the garden, add to the compost pile, or make sure you have what you need to winterize the house. Today it will feel good to strengthen our foundations.

Waning Moon in Gemini

Today's note covers the Moon's transits today and tomorrow, Tuesday and Wednesday.

Today, the Moon and Sun reach their waning trine, a time of understanding during the disseminating phase of the lunar cycle. This trine happens in Air, the Moon in bright, communicative Gemini and the Sun in balanced, harmonius Libra. Saturn in Libra is nearby, conjunct the Sun, lending his gravitas to the meeting.

Puck by Arthur Rackham

Connecting with energies of Air––thinking, planning, communicating––we have a bit of a reprieve from the intense emotions of last week's Full Moon. The Mars-Venus transit through Scorpio is still stirring the pot, revealing the hidden and bringing up issues for review, and here again today's Air trine can help keep things in perspective.

The Moon's trine to the Sun comes exact at 12:27pm EDT, the trine to Saturn at 4:16pm, so feel the fresh Air blowing the clouds away (metaphorically speaking ... it's pouring rain here!). Writing, networking, planning, talking, texting, blogging all have the potential to move you forward toward your goals.

The energy of communication continues Wednesday with a challenge in square to Mercury. This challenge is not the contest it might appear, as Mercury rules Gemini and fully supports communication in all forms. With Mercury in practical Virgo, this square is likely to feel more like an echo of Tuesday's trine with Saturn ... a reminder that our thoughts and communications can drift into 'airy nothings.' A touch of Earth gives them 'a location habitation and a name.'

Waning Moon in Taurus

As the Moon traverses the late degrees of Taurus, our attention is drawn to the Nodes of the Moon as they receive squares today from Saturn and the Sun in Libra. The Nodes of the Moon are not bodies in the sky, but points marking where the path of the Sun and the path of the Moon intersect. Yes, we know scientifically this doesn't happen, but remember astrology maps the sky from our point of view here on Earth. As we watch the Sun and Moon circle overhead, tracking the paths of the two luminaries, lights in our psyche as well as the sky, we see where they touch each other.

English garden path

The Nodes mark a karmic path from the South Node, skills, abilities and habits we walked in the door with, to the North Node, what we're meant to move toward in this lifetime. We each have this path in our birth charts, where the sign and house placements of each (always directly across from each other) tell us something about this life's meaning for us.

In the sky right now, the South Node is in protective, nurturing, home-based Cancer, while the North Node is in determined, outwardly directed Capricorn. What are we meant to bring from within (Cancer) to share with the world (Capricorn)? With these Nodes receiving a challenge from Saturn and the Sun today, this is the question being illuminated. What are we meant to do in this world? Are we walking our talk, manifesting our purpose? Libra is a sign of harmony, creativity, and relating ... how can we creatively move toward our goals, developing the relationships that allow us to be who we're meant to be in balanced and beautiful ways?

The Moon makes a square of her own, to the Neptune-Chiron conjunction in late Aquarius, that comes exact at 7:13pm EDT. Taurus and Aquarius can each be set in their ways, Taurus standing firm for patience and tradition, Aquarius pushing for speed and innovation. Perhaps the Moon and Neptune, planets of dreams, visions and intuition, can find a path of healing with Chiron that combines the best of the new and the old.

The Moon's final aspects in Taurus echo this theme, as she creates a flowing sextile with innovative Uranus and expansive Jupiter in visionary Pisces. These sextiles, exact at 9:27pm (Jupiter) and 11:03pm (Uranus), begin the Moon's time-between-times.

Digital image by Massimo Barbieri

Tonight will be an excellent night for dream incubation, with the influences of Neptune, Chiron, Jupiter and Uranus all present as the Moon enters her reflective time. She pops into communicative Gemini at 2:10am Tuesday, making connections and bringing messages from Hermes.

And the PsiberDreaming Conference began yesterday! Two weeks of online papers and workshops exploring the world of psychic dreams, with an amazing community of powerful dreamers. If you've ever had a lucid dream, wondered about dreams that come true, experienced powerful, visionary dreams, or simply want to learn more about the magical place of dreaming, this conference is a wonderful way to connect ... and Gemini is all about connection.