Image: EARTH TO MOON, oil painting by Kimberly Boulon, one of St. John’s fine artists. See more of her work at www.kimberlyboulon.com.
GREAT MOTHER MOON
The JULY 8 NEW MOON at 16 CANCER
(3:14am EDT, 12:14am PDT, 8:14am GDT)
is a turning of the tides. Feelings run high as the intensity of change sparks intuitive glee along with a deep need for sanctuary and sense of safety as refuge from sinkholes of insecurity in unstable times. Chaos theory reigns, as we seek the heart seed of a new pattern that will unfold like a lovely blossom.
Mercury retrograde stands in the heart of this New Moon, offering special intuitive insights. We may feel the need to rethink our plans based on rearranged circumstances, unexpected developments or new information. The Messenger of the Gods invites us to carefully feel out what is nurturing and safe. One problem of Cancer is a tendency to fall back on the familiar old patterns. This does not offer the new blossom that Cancer truly seeks. We feel our way. The old patterns don’t and won’t work in these times of extraordinary change. Something else is needed.
This Cancer New Moon plugs into the powerful, over-arching Uranus-Pluto square, seriously turning the wheels of global change with no fooling around. We each feel our way forward and find our way of contributing to the redesign of a game plan larger than ourselves. The intelligence of the heart is our guiding light.
Revolutionary Uranus, instigating initiatives not previously considered, dynamically impacts the New Moon. With they work? Pluto undermines strategies that don’t meet its Earth-honoring directive for sustainable restructuring. Take that into consideration. No doubt there is some issue in your life up for renewal, necessitating some kind of makeover.
Personally, my Cancer Moon has been revealing its wisdom amidst some discomfort. A sinkhole feeling of a lack of support took me by surprise. I am well-supported, as I well know from experience. This was a leftover artifact activated by a sense of insecurity in front of such big times and sense of imminent movement. I’m sure I’m not the only one feeling this. A guiding theme has arisen from that, thankfully brief, black hole of insecurity: to give more of what I have to give, allowing a fuller flow of giving and receiving. Mutual support is a theme of the times, a way forward that brings families closer and knits communities through bonds of caring and sharing.
Many of us these days may be feeling a deep lack of support in some way in the midst of current global instability and transformation. Are you aware of any such feeling? Feel out what you really need. Ask in a way that you open your arms to the wider sky. It’s not just about more money, but having opportunities to give what you have to offer. As you offer, the Universe supports you in direct ways. Open to receive the blessings and magic possible in each and every moment. The Mother of the Universe is ready to pour out her cornucopia of riches, of resources, of love and delight.
We long to feel cared for, safe and secure. One lesson of the current opposition of the several factors in Cancer with Pluto in Capricorn is that safety and security comes from the inside out. We can’t look to outer circumstances to provide what we are not experiencing within ourselves. Places inside are opening up to reveal empty, unfulfilled spaces that need attention. It’s like mothering our inner child. The feeling of support and care comes from our connection to something greater than ourselves. We tend to our inner hearth and home, inviting the higher power, however we call it or feel it, more fully into our lives. That presence is what the Bible calls the Comforter.
As we will continue to note, 11-16 degrees Cancer is a highly activated band of the Zodiac this month, a doorway opening wider in this New Moon cycle. This sector aligns with the Sirius, the brightest star we see, at 13-14 Cancer, known to Egyptians as the Star of Isis, the Great Goddess. For Vedic Astrologers this sector of the sky is the Moon Mansion wherein dwells vast and limitless Aditi, Heavenly Mother of the gods, She of Boundless Potentiality.
This mansion plumbs deep inner resources of limitless potential. The Great Mother gives what is needed. She also urges us to tune in to what it is that we really need, what is needed—not from neediness, but from an invitation to feel the fertile ground of growth potential. This is personal, but also on the larger scale, as we are all connected in the web of life.
In my well-worn copy of Mansions of the Moon: The Lost Zodiac of the Goddess, author Ken Johnson outlines favorable activities for this Moon Mansion, starting with “Get out of your chart and do something!” It’s a good month for: learning and studies; literature, philosophy and celestial sciences; health regimes and healing; travel; purchases, including lottery tickets and new cars (you might wait until Mercury turns forward on the 20th). We might keep in mind the Cancer motto, “what is needed,” so we don’t go overboard.
This coming month brings a tidal shift that carries us forward. Trouble comes if we resist and try to paddle upstream in the rushing river. Things seem to be moving so fast, one tends to want to back pedal a bit. At these times, we may need to slow down, calm down and feel out the way forward, heeding the wisdom of the Buddhist saying, “Proceed as way opens.” The security Cancer seeks comes from the inside, as we tone up our spiritual core.
Planet Waves astro news reporter Eric Francis offers an interesting perspective, that this New Moon is conjunct the Asteroid Atlantis, highlighting themes echoing the contemporary environmental destruction caused by corporate greed and misuse of technology. Many of us carry an ancient memory of Atlantis. Perhaps we can tap into the bright consciousness of those times, especially in light of the strong water element in the planetary pattern now. Will Atlantis rise at last? Can we make new life-giving choices?
One of the most intriguing line-ups in Cancer is the continued conjunction of wisdom planet Jupiter with mysterious, aetheric Black Moon Lilith that moved in tandem across the June Solstice point. This is “crazy” wisdom, as I’ve been writing, a radical opening as we bungee jump through a momentarily glimpsed sparkling hoop. If we are open, the most amazing possibilities can open up. Be ready to take a leap.
The intensity of world events is a mirror to the state of our collective unconsciousness as it is called into fuller consciousness by incoming cosmic waves of light. Global tragedies, economic suffering, extreme weather events and earth shaking and quaking evoke despair or desire for transformation. Many are keeping an eye on solar activity, which translates galactic input to its satellites. The whole solar system is evolving, messy though it may seem.
No longer on the outskirts, the social media is spreading news we don’t hear on standard, corporate media. Acts of heroism, call to revolution, underground news, Internet activism and petitions,
The crescent Moon smiles alongside Venus in playful Leo on Wednesday after sunset. Take a look. Astrologer Gary Caton is tracking the rise of Venus as Evening Star. Listen to his Goddess Podcast for inspiration.
SATURN turns to direct motion on this very day, signaling time for taking steps and manifesting changes that reflect the revitalization process at work. Like a snake, we are each wriggling out of some old skin, feeling rather raw but ready for renewal. We clear the desk of old business and set our face forward under the New Moon. Let’s be resolute in resolving issues that arose last fall, particularly in October-November as Saturn entered Scorpio. Saturn’s timing is impeccable, as its turn-around to direct motion clearly indicates stepping forward on the path of inevitable change. Since January, Saturn has given us time to take stock of our situations and engage in an intense transformational process of releasing old stuff, literally and in our psychic closets. Changes can now proceed based on the results of this inner process. Are you on board with new developments in your scenario? Continue your clearing process with firm resolve as Saturn unfolds circumstances that nudge us forward. There are certain circumstances we just cannot fight. If our experience is a mirror of our inner, largely unconscious, state of being, we can gain information by using Mercury retrograde in Cancer as a gateway of questioning.
GRAND TRINE IN WATER SIGNS
Water and more water. With the New Moon, Mercury retrograde, Jupiter/Black Moon in Cancer as well as Saturn in Scorpio, we just need Pisces to complete a “grand trine,” a complete triangle of planets around the sky in water signs. NEPTUNE, the God of the Sea, and CHIRON, the Quantum Shapeshifter, are both in the sign of The Fish. This grand trine is very strong well into August and operative into next summer. Water tunes into the feeling experience. Water and feelings are not rational, rather tuned to quality of experience, connections and bonds, what FEELS right. Water is more psychic than logical, coming from the heart, our most intelligent organ. Listen to your heartbeat. There is the answer.
MARS raises the stakes when it enters Cancer later this week, on July 13. It’s time to rev up for action, check the operating systems before making moves. Mars in this family-oriented water sign is the warrior defending home and hearth. We need to feel safe, a feeling which comes from the inside out. Let us support our children to give them a strong start in life. Mars enters the thick of the Uranus-Pluto square by the end of this month.
URANUS turns retrograde on July 17, another turning of the tides indicator during this Cancer Moon cycle, calling attention to the global revolution. At a turning point, a planet is called “stationary.” The late great astrologer Richard Idemon once likened the experience of a stationary planet to holding an open palm over a candle flame. We feel the intensity of its heat. We’ve gotten to a certain point in making called-for changes. Let’s work it, free up the energy, so we can take the next steps later in the fall. If you were born on the 2nd to 7th of January, April, July or October, you are especially aware of the fireworks. The Uranus in Cancer generation is also really feeling it, especially those born 1951-52 (You are invited to take advantage of my Cancer special, see below.)
MERCURY finally turns direct at 13-14 Cancer (that Sirius degree) on the 20th, just as the Moon is coming to full. Mercury plugs right into the global change agenda, generating plenty of news, both personal and global. If you have any planet at 9-15 of Aries, Cancer, Libra or Capricorn, you are on the leading edge of moving forward on your life path. This could relate to a situation that began in early June. By this time, we have chewed the cud, felt things through, contemplated and considered. Now we are more ready move on with the business of life. Let’s use this energy carefully and well to nurture others, the Earth and ourselves.
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ASTRO-SPECIAL for CANCER good until the 22nd (also for the 1951-52 Uranus in Cancer natives as mentioned above). A full hour consultation, recorded as usual, during which we explore the planetary patterns, so thick, rich and creamy, in your chart. Where are the potentials arising for you? $120 instead of the usual $150 fee.
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