Insights for Cancer
These insights, are meant as contemplations of a sort: Each one fashioned using the astrological aspects of the moment. Astrology can be thought of as a kind of sky writing which invites the muse. No two perceptions are exactly the same but any of us can find insight through the images if we look. These are mine, happily offered for you to reshape and fashion into something of your own. Follow the links, where you find them for further musings on the planetary aspects.
June 21
Sun enters Cancer: 05:13 AM EDT Summer Solstice
Venus trine Pluto
Cancer is about housing. And therefore homelessness. Such themes inspire a bit of ranting…
I used to wonder why those born in the sign of Cancer didn’t have more children, bigger families. In a world where women were waking up to the fact that they were fully human, a world in which children could be considered ‘illegitimate’ (I wondered this in the 1970s…) there was less and less incentive to be fruitful and multiply. Along with the tendency in western culture to blame mothers for all the ills and perceived inadequacies of their children not to mention the systemic mistreatment of children in institutions and as a demographic. Our social fabric which has become rather tattered and weak is more concerned with selling products and interactions to children. It ravages their minds with screens and the images that jump out from them. Access to nature is greatly diminished for many children and having children requires money: Not just enough but more than enough. Cancer is a sign that wants security, not just for themselves but for their hive, for the ones they are connected to. How we treat the children tells us everything about how we treat our planet.
On this first day of summer in the northern hemisphere we enter the season of fire and rain not simply the season of vacations. A day to remind ourselves that how we treat each and every child of the ancient, eternal, generative Mother of Us All matters. And that’s not just humans…
As the Sun journeys through Cancer it will square Jupiter and Chiron, sextile Uranus, conjunct Mercury, trine Neptune and oppose Pluto; reminding us to be cautious not rash, compassionate not ruthless and to take every opportunity to listen for new ways to nourish the land, the children their parents. We are a planetary hive.
June 24-25
Triggers to Saturn semi-sextile Neptune
The interesting thing about a semi-sextile which is not really an aspect (planets in neighboring signs) is that while one planet makes a difficult aspect often (not always) the other one is ameliorating that stress. Also true is that if a planet (or in today’s case) an asteroid is square to one of them it can be trine to the other. Maybe it’s a ‘good cop, bad cop’ kind of thing.
Saturn says, “You must”. Neptune says, “You can, but only if it calls to your soul. Only if it feels right”. Saturn requires effort, Neptune wants flow. Pallas-Athena (the asteroid pulling them together at the moment is squaring Saturn and sextiling Neptune. Pallas reminds us to stand up for our truth, to protest injustice most importantly on behalf of the disempowered. Whatever it is that requires you to take a stand it may appear like an impossible task. Call on your guides, your dreams and the expression of your soul through art or music.
June 27
Mercury sextile Chiron
Mars sextile Saturn
Everywhere you look there are opportunities to learn or teach in ways that heal or build something. This world breaks apart even as it comes together.
June 28
Neptune stationery retrograde
Sun square Jupiter
Venus sextile Jupiter
New Moon: 07 degrees Cancer: 10:52 PM EDT
For ages we have believed in some kind of divine law which is superior to the laws of the natural world. But divine law must draw from the natural world or it is not divine. We struggle to accept such simple and profound wisdom.
If you need an intention or affirmation for the New Moon let the starting place be that this planet is our home, our temple, our hive, our one and only. It belongs to all living things. Whatever we do or create, may it be in harmony with nature’s organic urge toward sustaining and lasting life.
July 1
Mars square Pluto
A day of fireworks here in Canada, a celebration of the nation, underscored by explosive and colorful materials banging, popping and bursting over our heads, just for the fun of it. What are we celebrating when we explode fireworks? Perhaps we are celebrating no danger, no war. At least not here, not now. Mars and Pluto love a good explosion. On a personal level, stand back from the ignition, slow down. It’s too easy to trip over untied laces or misplaced marbles. Thoughtful actions, the kind that respects consequences for generations to come, are best today.
July 2
Mercury trine Saturn
Mercury square Neptune
Here’s that semi-sextile again… It’s probably a waste of time to try and reason with chaos. Negotiating while in a state of high anxiety or with those of evil intent is a bit delusional. The alternative might take us along a path of steadying and focusing our own mind, finding center and drawing sense from internal awareness rather than attempting to change external circumstance. Circumstance has a tendency to coalesce in synch with our inner awareness.
July 5
Mars enters Taurus
Mercury enters Cancer
Mercury sextile Mars
A shift in perspective dawns: from breakthrough to building and from curiosity and distraction to concern. These two things together remind us to create a world worth inhabiting. Here. Now.
July 6
Venus sextile Chiron
Words that carry wisdom on their expression are preferable to the bon mot, charming and irresistible as it may be.
July 8
Sun square Chiron
If indeed the pen is mightier than the sword or the bomb for that matter, then words can harm as well as help. They can twist our understanding and cause us, in our confusion to do harm. Like HHDL said, “Be kind whenever possible. It is always possible.”
July 9
Mercury square Jupiter
Just because it’s clear to you that someone did something they shouldn’t have it is also painfully and paradoxically possible to despise the action even though we continue to love the person. Better to grapple with the paradox than to turn your back on love.
July 10
Sun sextile Uranus
Whatever you care about matters. If it matters it’s worth thinking about in a new way for a new world. Time to seize every opportunity to consider the problem from a new perspective. How else will we ever shift from the old age to the new?
July 13
Full Moon: 21 degrees Capricorn 02:37 PM EDT
Mercury sextile Uranus
We know the drill: How important it is to approach old problems with new perspectives. Although we know that this should empower us as familiar systems collapse around us, it’s not easy. In fact, it takes a village. We can’t really do it alone.
July 14
Venus square Neptune
Honor the impossible longing, the unrequited loves. Watch out for the cure, the lie, that suggests we can feed and thereby satisfy our cravings. For they simply cannot be satisfied. To be human is to stir the pot of longing at least from time to time if not all the time. We are not called to wake up, once and for all from the dream of reality. Rather we keep waking up, over and over again, all the livelong day (and especially in the night if you happen to be awake at that time.)
To awaken from the dream of life is an oxymoron, a paradox, a glorious impossibility, a rainbow…
July 16
Mercury conjunct the Sun
Six times a year, in the geometric pattern of an almost perfect Star of David, Mercury listens, is blessed and renewed in the fire of the Sun’s heart. It’s not literal, none of astrology is. Astrology is a mighty metaphor. Only you and your lived life makes it real or useful. Today is for listening, for allowing sound to land on the shore of awareness just as it is: Buzz and chirp, clang and screech, melody and harmony, cacophony or symphony. Just listening is enough. Hearing and understanding are also possible.
July 17
Mercury trine Neptune
Sun trine Neptune
Venus enters Cancer
A day to celebrate water in all its manifestations: for drinking, for washing, for growing and for all the ways it connects us. Life needs water. Cherish it.
July 18
Mercury opposite Pluto
Think back to June 3 when Mercury went direct. It was a call to determination. What was yours? What did you set your mind to accomplish? How is it challenged today? What can you do about it? Why do you want to?
July 19
Mercury enters Leo
Chiron stationery retrograde
Sun opposite Pluto
Given that we are only here for now as we close in on the very end of Cancer we might consider the difference between a human and a Terran. Whose planet is it? Why are we (humans) having such a hard time reconciling ourselves to the simple truth that we have come to the end of the time when greed is acceptable as a motivation for action? What kinds of alternatives might drive the change we know, we sense, is happening within and without us?
