Insights for Cancer

June 20
Sun enters Cancer 04:50 PM EDT
Before the Sun leaves Gemini today it will square Neptune. You might reflect upon the transition from spring to summer, from air to water, to the cycles or maybe the carousels of time.
Cancer is the sign of Mother: Not Mother Earth but Mother Moon. Maybe it’s the Grand Mother. She pulls the tides, the tides of our oceans but also the tides of our emotions. She is there in the womb when we float, weightless inside our mothers. We learn about her from our mothers.* This is problematic in a culture which has done all it could to sever the relationship between Mother and child. To understand this sign we need to understand the difficulty of the nuclear family as a container for raising healthy children. We nod to this when we say, “It takes a village”. And we are slowly but surely working our way back to a wider view of what a family is. In the northern hemisphere Cancer is the sign of summer. Perhaps we celebrate this archetype when we work collectively to nourish and sustain people around us, when we become part of a hive of activity producing nourishment. Cancer is symbolized by the bee hive with a queen at the center. Much better than a crab.

(*Click on the link above for a lovely movie about the mother. The Dalai Lama is a Cancer and his mother is his reference point.)

In 2024 the Sun in Cancer will trine Saturn and Neptune – two very different planets. Saturn assures us that there are consequences to all our actions, good ones as well as not. Neptune has a more high, wild and free vibe as it knows no boundaries and aims at transcendence. It will also square Chiron and sextile Uranus (see below!).

June 21
Full Moon: 01 degree Capricorn: 11:07 PM EDT
Mercury sextile Mars
We latch onto life at the beginning. We are compelled and motivated to continue our whole lives long, drinking from the bounty of Our Mother who generously gives us so much. Even better when we reciprocate through our efforts to sustain and share such abundance. A good day to be witness to all the ways this is and isn’t working in your life and to look for ways to adjust and adapt to a rapidly changing world.                    

June 26
Mercury trine Saturn
If sustainability is important to you, today is a great time to evaluate (find the value) in practices that enable your life to be one that adds to sustainability on our planet. Your planet. A practice is a habit we choose.

June 28  
Mercury square Chiron
Tender, fragile and fierce: this is what it is to be human. Tender and fragile can make us feel sorry for ourselves or for others. Fierce leads to all sorts of terrible consequences. If we hold back a bit, tender and fragile can transform into compassion. Once that happens fierce can be awesome.

June 29
Venus sextile Mars
Saturn stationary retrograde
Mercury sextile Uranus
A gentle approach yields the best outcome. We all want to be cared for and about. If your privilege leads the way it won’t do much good. Some may be better off than others but if you investigate this even superficially you understand that privilege is not because we deserve it. In fact it’s likely a set of conditions that gives a person what they have. Imagine if you had been born in South Sudan or Rafah recently… It’s such a mysterious thing, who gets to eat and who doesn’t.

July 2
Neptune stationery retrograde
Mercury trine Neptune
Mercury enters Leo
Venus trine Saturn
Neptune and Saturn stationary retrograde within a few days really underscores the suffering of and on our planet. Perhaps the greatest agent of change is ‘applied compassion’ which can only start with a willingness to look at the truth of things. Where in your one precious life can you do such a thing? Neptune is a gatekeeper at the very last degree of Pisces. Perhaps Mercury makes an offering of awareness as it leaves Cancer and enters Leo. Do something kind for someone you don’t know. Venus supports this.

July 3
Mercury opposite Pluto
It’s a story: Mercury bows to Neptune as it leaves Cancer. It engages Pluto as it begins its journey in Leo. What is love? Why does self-expression matter? It’s a good time for a debate. Not the win/lose kind (Pluto cannot be beat) but the kind that will sharpen your wits.

July 5
New Moon: 14 degrees Cancer: 06:57 PM EDT
Mars sextile Saturn
Imagine yourself as the keeper of a well of sweet water which sustains many people. If you make intentions at the New Moon (after 6:57 PM today or any time tomorrow) consider which resources support your task. To use them wisely is your intention.
If you’re not the sort that makes intentions, that’s fine too. You might consider your actions and impulses as intentions. We are, all of us, held in the Great Round.: The only dance.

July 6
Venus square Chiron
Think back to June 28th when ‘tender, fragile and fierce’ was the theme: the human condition. We love and we are vulnerable to all sorts of losses because we do. Is this a flaw in the divine design or simply a condition that enables the getting of wisdom? Love and grief are the front and back of each other, even if we pretend otherwise. Takes courage to allow that it’s just the way of it. But, it is.

July 8
Venus sextile Uranus
Mercury sextile Jupiter
No matter what the conditions, love and curiosity will at least attempt to find a way. This too is a human condition. Trust your curiosity, be creative as you do. Let it guide you to the very place where your love might bring change and open possibilities, for the good of all.

July 10
Sun trine Saturn
Try on, at least for the day, what it feels like to know you are competent, capable and that you do what you do as well as you know how. Dominator culture works hard to reserve this feeling only for those at the top. This delusion is breaking apart at the moment. It’s not easy to feel capable in chaos but most likely you, like a lot of others are living your life the best way you know how. Let it sink in, even if only for a day, or maybe for one day at a time.

July 11
Venus trine Neptune
Venus enters Leo
As Venus makes ready to leave Cancer and enter Leo it’s like this: We acknowledge the notion that beauty is not extra, that it is necessary to support the soul of Nature which is our soul. We move forward with creativity and as agents of beauty in this world. Beauty brings value to all that we do. Look for Her in the western sky after sunset: Beauty indeed.

July 12
Venus opposite Pluto
Everything we desire will ultimately be lost. Perhaps the one exception is awareness. Who can say? Or perhaps the trouble is in the fact that we see ourselves as separate. Imagine your desire as an herb or spice in a soup, cooking over time and throughout generations. Loss begins to look more like a continuous thread: A shape shifting legacy. One life seems a piece in the puzzle of a much larger life which we can’t actually see or quite understand. If you are touched by such an awareness how might you give it expression? Use your art, whatever it is to offer your glimmer of awareness. It will make for a tastier soup.

July 15
Sun square Chiron
Mars conjunct Uranus
Something exciting is afoot. Of course in the ‘high, wild and free’ zone, these days, are a lot of unstable people telling a lot of damaging stories, as they gather people together like snake oil peddlers at a carnival. Stories of enemies and the need for violence. Stories of what you, as an individual do and don’t deserve. Beware the sudden flash that moves you to action. Think twice or thrice about how easy it is to demand and defend violence when you have been treated unfairly in the past. Grievance is best acted upon collectively.

July 18
Sun sextile Uranus
Mercury trine Chiron
Here is an exact amelioration for events of the 15th: Opportunity to do things differently – and it harm none, a deeper understanding that comes only to those who refrain from impulse long enough to act in awareness of what they are doing.                  

July 20
Mars sextile Neptune
Mars enters Gemini
Mars engages Neptune the gatekeeper on its way to a new sign. Gemini where it will soon to conjunct Jupiter. In Gemini, Mars can be madly off in all directions or hot on the heels of a good story. Expect some journalistic feats (given the US election this is no surprise and doesn’t need an astrologer to suggest it…). In our personal sphere, it depends. The placement can be stressful for the Virgo/Pisces folks, challenging for the Sagittarians, exciting and energetic for the Geminis, Aquarians and Libras. Everyone else is on their own. There is a sucker as well as a story born every minute. In fact, each and every experience we have is a story. Some more interesting than others, true, but stories nonetheless.

July 21   
Full Moon: 29 degree Capricorn: 06:17 AM EDT
Mercury square Uranus
Sun trine Neptune 
Mars trine Pluto
Like bookends there have been two Full Moons this (astrological) month: One at the beginning (June 21st) and now this one. We could call it a ‘Blue Moon’ because it’s rare. The beginning and end of signs are different. One promises ‘more to come’ and the other asks us to look back, take stock and let go. Of course, at the end of everything is the beginning. Honor this by imagining yourself standing at the center of a circle around which you can see everything. What is ending for you? Maybe it’s a stage of life, a road you have travelled, even a way of life. When we pause in awareness of thresholds we invite a grace-wave to carry us along to the next stage of the journey. It’s like the moment between exhaling and inhaling. Fleeting, sacred, profound and sustaining. Nothing that will interrupt the flow of your day.

These insights, are contemplations. Astrology 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.