There are a couple of new moons this year that bode well for us to dive into some deeper meditations. On Wednesday, July 15th at 6:24 PM PST the new moon in Cancer will arrive and it is definitely one of them.
Cancer is a water sign known for its emotional power, its need to nurture and its ability to crack open the most shutdown of hearts with a torrential flood of feelings. A sign that forgets nothing and forgives seldom, Cancer is nothing if not attuned to the subtle, unconscious undercurrents, moods and behaviors of those around them.
If any sign holds the story of our human history it’s this one. Cancer is the embryonic fluid of humanity, the waters that carry the DNA of the beginning of time, the waters that hold the creative energy that gave life to all.
Cancer is the one who gives birth, the portal from which we all come from, the mother of all mothers. Cancer is undeniably powerful in its effect as it rules our need to feel at home, our need to feel familial connections (kin or kindred), our need to know that there is a place in the world where we will be loved just as we are.
Cancer governs our emotional responses to life. Cancer holds the memories of being accepted, rejected, received, denied, beloved and betrayed. Famous for its uncanny ability to shed a tear or a tsunami of water works, Cancer can just as easily turn its hard shelled back on the outward expression of sentiment and act like its a tough tomboy.
Until it gets home and cries over a bag of cookies and a pint of ice-cream.
Since 2008, Pluto, the planet that governs underworld journeys, subterranean reconstructions and arduous but long-lasting psychological transformations, has been in Capricorn, the sign that opposes Cancer. This opposition has acted as an opportunity for deep purgations for many Cancers (and Capricorns). Pluto always teaches us about our power and how we use it. Subtle to obvious abuses of power arise when Pluto is in the frame, a necessary process when wanting to properly transform a structure. If we don’t locate, name and resist patterns of abuse, corruption, greed and exploitation, no amount of positive-self-help-affirmation-sparkle will ever truly address our wounds.
The moon in Cancer is strongly placed and strongly felt on an emotional level. Pluto in Capricorn speaks of the societal structures that need a massive overhaul from their roots to their tips. This opposition from Pluto can beg the question: how and what do we transform on a personal level in order for or in tandem with the societal reconstructions that need to happen?
The conjunction of the sun and moon (what occurs on a new moon) is not the only one taking place in Cancer. There is also a conjunction between Mars, the warrior, and Mercury, the messenger, in Cancer exactly opposing Pluto at the time of the new moon. To say that this configuration could extract the evils that ail us is an understatement.
Mars likes to make mayhem, start wars and run head-first into battle. Mercury is always tempting us with its tongue in cheek tricks. Mars/Mercury in Cancer opposing Pluto in Capricorn can have us communicating sentiments that take lifetimes to repair. The sun and moon have also just finished opposing Pluto and squaring Uranus in the past week, urging us to take note of structures too unstable to continue as they are. Saturn is also involved in the configuration of this new moon, lending a stabilizing trine from its last walk through Scorpio. Support from Saturn can give us the structure that we need to succeed. Saturn asks us to slow down and appreciate the time and effort it takes to accomplish something.
It’s a good day to take a silent retreat.
Wherever you are and whatever you might need to do on this day, you might want to practice the art of saying less and paying attention more. Especially to how you feel. And how what you think makes you feel. And how what others think, say and do makes you feel.
There is no magic formula to get out of these moments, but there is a profound invitation to witness both internal and external inequities, abuses of power and manipulations. There is a profound formula brewing in the skies that can help us alchemize and extract the toxins from our water ways. But this can’t be done if we are actively engaging as part of the problem. This can’t be done if we are being pulled to and fro by forces outside of us that are only distracting from the real issue. This can’t be done if we aren’t willing to look injustice in the face and call it what it is, at least to those that we trust, at least in safe spaces and at the very least to ourselves.
We’re doing something a little different this month. Instead of just looking at the astrology for the new moon, we’ll look at the astrology for the next lunar cycle. Starting today, you can purchase Emotional Clearing: New Moon in Cancer and the Astrology of the Lunar Cycle from July 15th – August 14th and it will be available until August 14th. In this call we will do a ritual to help understand and clear the more difficult aspects of our emotional makeup as well as looking at the month ahead. This next lunar cycle contains some of the more impactful astrological points of 2015 and we will outline each of them together. We will detail all the potentially auspicious days to work with as well as ones that could be potentially problematic.