Insights for Cancer

These insights are offered as contemplations on the astrological aspects of the moment. As we consider and contemplate what we might call writing in the sky, we invite the muse. No two astrologers see the same thing but each and all are awakened by the same images. That’s why astrology is art…

June 20

Sun enters Cancer (Summer Solstice in Northern Hemisphere):  11:32 PM EDT
Jupiter stationery retrograde

Astrology is about time. When we are aware of our relationship to the sky and its intersection with earth we are able to predict things, things we can count on, such as the rising of the Sun each morning, the phases of the Moon each month and the turning of the wheel of the seasons throughout the year. Knowing such things helps us to figure out other things such as when to plant and even when to travel or even how to get where we are going (using the stars to guide us). It is a natural progression for humans to think that the ability to predict fluctuations at one level extends to other levels: When to buy a house or sell a business, when to marry and even who to marry. Astrology also gives us insight into the ‘how’ of things such as how to navigate the waters of our emotions or health concerns, even our relationships. To some this seems ridiculous, to others it makes a kind of instinctive sense.

And so we come to the longest (or shortest, depending which hemisphere you live in) day of the year. A time of culmination or nadir of light. Our ancestors approached this day with reverence for the reliability of the rays of the Sun hitting the stone exactly where predicted. We might do the same.

Cancer is a time to gather people and resources together. To build a hive of activity that will produce nourishment for a later time, which is also predictable. There will be a later time. Winter will come bringing scarcity of light if nothing else. Cancer is a time of flow but ebb will certainly follow.

This year the Sun in Cancer will square Chiron, Sextile Uranus, trine Jupiter and Neptune, oppose Pluto as well as conjunct and oppose the Moon (which it always does of course).  Overall we might consider how it is this abundant planet has so much scarcity for so many people. Even if you think ‘It has always been thus’ times are changing. We could do it differently. The soul of nature is an ever-present reality in all things including the self. Start right where you are. See below as each of these aspects occurs.

Jupiter can point and blame. It can even demand that we question our right to live. It can also bless and bonify. Today would be a good one for counting blessings, making amends if you’ve hurt someone and for a bit of mirth and reverence in celebration of the turning of the wheel as we stand on the threshold of the new season.

June 21
Venus trine Neptune
What is your deepest, most intimate longing? You can tell yourself. Go ahead. Is there actually someone who could fulfill this for you? It is said we can’t really engage with life outside our perception or concepts about it. We must feel within ourselves that which we would have without. Love what matters most to you, with all your senses. Offer this love which is also longing, to the Universe. Then see what happens.
 

June 22
Mercury stationery direct
What happens now? Does Mercury Direct really make it easier to think freely, to be understood? Do we have some kind of celestial permission to sign the contract, to close the deal? Give a quick review to the last month. How clever were you? What did you learn? How do thoughts create reality? How does that work collectively as well as on and in an individual life? Mercury loves a good question.

June 23
Sun trine Jupiter
Venus opposite Pluto
Blessings everywhere, littering the streets, scattering like rainbows all over town. Each one attached to a warning, a consequence. Why should it be otherwise? How is it we could possibly be born and not expect there would be consequences? Are we, perhaps, simply, profoundly a consequence of other people’s actions?

June 24

Full Moon: 03 degrees Capricorn 02:39 PM EDT
Saturn sextile Chiron
Everything astrologers see and interpret in the sky looks a bit different depending where you stand on earth (our circumstances). This is why no two astrologers interpret exactly the same way. And why twins are the same, yet different. There really is no ‘last word’.
Full Moons suggest it’s time for seeing in the dark. This is quite different for city dwellers surrounded by light all night, every night and those who live where night is truly dark. Meaning can be found within ourselves as well as through an actual experience of seeing moonlight through the trees or on the water. Either way the heavenly prompt for this Full Moon suggests we think about winter, the inevitable turn of the wheel six months from now. What do you think can can’t and must be done to help us get through the winter? Practically speaking.  

June 25
Neptune stationery retrograde
Possibly the collective soul that we share with all living things is holding its breath; waiting for the drop of a shoe. If this was true for you what is it that you are waiting for at the pause between inhale and exhale? (Planetary stations can be felt at least a week before and after.)

June 27
Venus enters Leo       
Whatever the word ‘creative’ means to you, it matters.

July 1
Mars opposite Saturn  
You could say we have two choices: to act with selfish pride or courageous love. We make choices about our actions even if we can’t control circumstance. Kindness and courage live on unto the 7th generation more productively than selfish pride. Seems obvious. The best of a Leo/Aquarius opposition is seen when kindness and courage motivate behavior.

July 2
Mars trine Chiron
This particular emphases on love, courage, pride, kindness and consequence culminates on the 13th with a Venus Mars conjunction. We have time to awaken the courageous heart beating inside our chest, time and situations to practice doing what we do on behalf of the heart’s wisdom. Sometimes, of course, doing nothing is the right action.

July 3   
Mars square Uranus
It’s only human to want control, to try and live an ordered existence. Wisdom teaches us that change is the only constant. Change looks, feels and smells a lot like chaos when we aren’t in control of it. Be steadfast at the center even as you know the world will turn as it does. Chaos is change in manic mode. Or perhaps as Tom Waits suggested, “there ain't no devil, there's just God when he's drunk”

July 4
Sun square Chiron
What to do with all the suffering of individuals that you can’t touch. There is no way to hold it, even just in your mind, without feeling it. Our feelings connect us to everything else that feels, all that lives. How we feel makes a difference. Every breath is an offering.

July 05
Sun sextile Uranus
Change is good and offers opportunity. Allow the sparks of potential to ignite your fondest dreams. It’s an up-and-down world, not just a down one.

July 06
Mercury square Neptune
Venus opposite Saturn
Doubt, disappointment and despair are most definitely forces to contend with. There is no point in astrological whitewashing. Making so-called lemonade isn’t necessarily an option for everyone. But where astrology is concerned, things are always open to what we call interpretation. We could look at these same aspects and say that making every effort to stay grounded and to accept reality as it presents itself without telling yourself an ‘always’ or ‘never’ story is a worthwhile endeavor on a day just like today.

July 07
Venus trine Chiron
Everybody matters. Every. Body.

July 08
Venus square Uranus
Reactive indignation springs eternal from the human ego. Call it pride (not the good kind, not self-esteem) ‘I’ matters but ‘I’ is also the matter, the problem. Watch out for pride as it collides with unalterable circumstance. It goeth before a fall when it’s an inflation of the ego, it engages the noble heart when it arises from self-esteem.

July 09
New Moon: 18 degrees of Cancer: 09:16 PM EDT
Six months from now (January 2022) there will be a full moon in Cancer. Cycles unfold within cycles. We plant seeds at the New Moon, we harvest them at the Full. A mighty seed for this NM might be the aspiration to feed everyone: To beat our swords into ploughshares. It’s not like we haven’t been aware that it’s the right thing to do for a really long time, at least since around 720 BCE.

July 11
Mercury enters Cancer
Time to think about feelings. How real are they? How do we create reality with them? What do we project from them?

July 12
Mercury trine Jupiter
Here is love. Transcendent and pure. In search of expression. A good time to ‘wear your love like heaven’ or at least make art.

July 13
Venus conjunct Mars
Passion: Pure and simple. (Is it ever really simple?) Only we can decide if it consumes us like a fire or glows with radiant light.

July 15
Chiron stationery retrograde
Sun trine Neptune
Reach not grasp. Flow, not flood. Feelings not emotions. There are great wisdoms to be had in these distinctions.

July 17
Sun opposite Pluto
It can be scary to take the measure of our own needs against the backdrop of a world so full of others who have needs that are even greater. It is also liberating to allow ourselves to fully acknowledge such a thing and then to see what shifts. Because, shift it will.

July 19 & 20
Mercury square Chiron and sextile Uranus
It takes compassion for ourselves as well as others to get any perspective on the difficulties we are faced with on Planet Earth. It takes curiosity and an open mind to learn from it. Some seem to delight in making things much worse than they have to be. At the same time, even on the same day, there are seemingly endless opportunities to offer help and support to those whose need comes into your awareness.

July 21
Venus enters Virgo (soon to oppose Jupiter)
The Science of Mind tells us that we construct the world by how we think and feel about it. Not the other way around. Cutting through delusion requires practice and more practice. I think of Venus in Virgo as an invitation to fierce compassion which might look like tough love. What matters is keeping the heart open even as we demand truth and reconciliation. It’s a long and arduous process possibly the pinnacle of human achievement.