Insights for Cancer
June 21
Sun enters Cancer: 10:57 AM EDT
Mercury sextiles Mars as well as Chiron
Better than clockwork is the fact that each and every year on or about the same day, the Sun enters Cancer. Which is to say that it’s the longest day and the shortest night of the year in the northern hemisphere. We call it the summer solstice because it appears from the perspective of Earth that the Sun stands still for about three days. Of course, nothing stands still but that’s another story… This day is totally predictable. We can count on it. We know what to expect up there in the sky. Even if the sky is dark with ash, and rain is scarce it’s still the solstice, the same as it was for our parents and their parents, all the way back to our original parents. Through feast and famine, fire and flood, loss and gain we can count on the heavens to fulfill their cycles of movement. I could wax on (as I do) regarding what this means but better you do it for yourself. What does it mean to you that you live beneath a sky that holds us in a predictable pattern of cycles? How can you use this to orient yourself? Does it have anything to teach you? What will you do with so many hours of daylight?
Mercury, Chiron and Mars are playing tricks of the best kind up there. Reminding us that we can predict the movement of the Sun, Moon, and planets above us, but down here anything can, and does, happen. Some things change, some stay the same. We are the same and yet different than we were at the last summer solstice. Everyone is in on the joke.
June 22
Mars trine Chiron
We are impelled to act on behalf of a troubled world full of troubled individuals. There is only so much one person can do. But this only-so-much can make a big difference in the life of one person which ripples out to all of us. Seemingly small kindnesses can reframe what seems troublesome into possibility, prevent crime, inspire a game-changing idea or simply ease life or circumstance for someone who is needs it.
June 25
Mercury square Neptune
Resist the urge to be conned, to believe everything you read or see. We long for a simpler world even as this one becomes more and more tangled with experts, pundits, and grifters whose main goal is to steal our attention. A little time-out goes a long way.
June 26
Mars square Uranus
Mercury enters Cancer
When an irresistible force meets an immovable object there is hell to pay. When we hold back on reactions and offer ourselves to the powerful forces of change something else can happen. Listen to the sound of your feelings without immediately turning them toward action. It’s a practice worthy of cultivation.
June 28
Sun trine Saturn
When we listen to our feelings; when we aren’t afraid to feel grief for all that has been lost, personally as well as collectively, we more easily allow for the feelings of others. Such is the root of compassion, the door to connection with all that will die because it lived.
June 29
Venus trine Chiron
Well into the shadow of Venus retrograde we are reminded to cultivate wisdom along with compassion, to learn from the wise ones who have come before us and to listen to what comes from the mouths of babes. Great wisdom can often be found in the greatest innocence.
(Venus will do what she does three times over the summer: once in the shadow before the retrograde – June 19 to July 22. Once during the retrograde – July 22 to September 4. Once in the shadow after – September 4 through October 7. Perhaps it’s true that the third time is the charm…)
June 30
Mercury trine Saturn
Neptune stationery retrograde
One moment it’s extinction and the next it’s electric cars and solar panels. Awash in these paradoxical tides it can be difficult to recognize our truths, the things we know in our guts: things that connect us to cycles and tides of becoming, losses and gains, birth and death: a world of mystery beyond comprehension: a world in which a mighty tide invites us toward compassion and connection, come what may. Could this be the human super power? The one you don’t often see enacted unless there is a catastrophe? Is this why we hurl ourselves at catastrophic conclusions? Are we seeking the one that changes everything?
July 1
Mercury conjunct the Sun
Mercury sextile Jupiter
Sun sextile Jupiter
Savor the texture and value of your world. Smell the coffee. Share the bounty. Cultivate growing things. We bring the world into being collectively. We live in a global village.
July 2
Venus square Uranus
Venus, in the shadow holds human selfishness up to the light of awareness. Nowhere is this more obvious than in the way we consume things we think we have to have and could easily live without. Possibly greed is our fatal flaw as a species. Look east at sunset and see the Moon rising. Look overhead as it culminates a few hours later. If you’re awake at dawn look west and see the Moon setting. Give deep consideration to the difference between need and want.
July 3
Full Moon: 11 degrees Capricorn: 07:38 AM EDT
Back before summer was synonymous with vacation it was a time to make provision for winter. The Full Moon in winter’s sign offers us that very reflection. As summer becomes the season of fires, you might shudder at the thought of winter or you might do something now that could ease the way then. Likely we can do this with satisfaction if not outright joy. But joy is good too.
July 6 - 10
Mercury square Chiron,
sextile Uranus,
trine Neptune and
oppose Pluto
Mercury is busy stitching the outer planets together, telling the story of interconnectedness, the inevitability of change, the existence of the soul and our capacity to turn the lead of suffering into the gold of awareness. We may feel at the mercy of a world spinning out of control or simply caught in the machinations of the Great Wheel of Time doing what it always has done. Think about everything as if you are part of it, not outside, looking in.
July 10
Mars enters Virgo
This placement of Mars was made for healing and organizing. It can be sharp and exacting. When it is not in service to kindness it can be cruel and cutting. Virgo at best seeks to integrate that which is diverse. At worst it lacks empathy which encourages cruelty. Fierce compassion might be its finest manifestation.
July 11
Mercury enters Leo
There are many possible futures. An open-hearted curious approach could be a good idea. Our genuine self-expression in the present creates the finest future, the one we are anticipating with so much angst.
July 12
Sun square Chiron
Sometimes it seems as if so many people are so very wounded and need so much care that the planet will never get to the end of insanity. We are all, by now, traumatized by the relentless assault of information (false or true) as well as the incessant attempts to control our attention. The minute we understand this, shift happens. Awareness lifts us out of reaction and into wise action.
July 14
Sun sextile Uranus
As the potential for collective change dawns we can get down to the business of turning chaos into change. it is easy to make an ‘Us vs Them’ scenario in our minds about our planetary problems. But humans are a cultural species. We share an over-mind, a zeitgeist, and this mind has a mission which is to know itself as connected not separate. There are definitely bad actors. In Dune we are told that ‘fear is the mind killer’. Actually greed might be the real culprit. of course there is no mistaking the notion that fear gives rise to greed. People who think their elite pod can survive while the rest suffer are supremely deluded with a mind sickness which we all have the potential to catch. Consider this deeply over the next few days as the Moon wanes and we are called to inner work. You might want to do this from the awareness of your W.E.I.R.D. (Western, educated, industrial, rich, democratic) bias.
July 17
New Moon 24 degrees Cancer: 02:31 PM EDT
Mercury square Jupiter
We all have wants. Some of what we want we actually need. Some, we don’t. New Moons remind us that we create this world in collaboration with other forces. Before you make an intention see if you can untangle wants and needs in your own mind. Needs should be met. Wants are another story. When one is collaborating with the Universe it helps to have clarity.
July 20
Sun trine Neptune
Mars opposite Saturn
You can consider the lilies who neither toil nor spin. You might alternatively consider the squirrels and the birds who are always hard at work moving toward or away from something we (observers) usually see. We are animals too and animals are generally engaged in the making and unmaking of their lives. Where is the joy or flow in the tasks of living? How do you make your life?
July 21
Sun opposite Pluto
The clock ticks time. In the old days clocks showed circular time. In the digital era time has become linear. Perhaps time is better understood through the ebb and flow of cycles such as the ones we observe in the heavens. From this we learn two things: Change is inevitable and what goes around, comes around (again and again). When the Sun opposes a planet it shines intense light at it. The opposed planet is revealed for a few days. Pluto doesn’t like to be seen above ground, so the story goes. Today we might catch a glimpse of something secret, something we didn’t know or didn’t want to know. Could be frightening or liberating. Or both. Approach with mercy rather than judgment if you can.
Tomorrow Venus goes retrograde and the Sun will enter Leo. Revel in the mystery of impermanence. Our lives are always becoming. Life is a verb, not a noun.
