Cancer - flow with the tides

The sign of Cancer speaks to us about those life activities where ebb and flow are relevant. Breathing out and in again, the beat of the heart, sleeping and waking - to the degree that we are ever fully awake! The ebbing tide as a mood could be experienced as ‘a glass half empty’, and the tide flowing in as ‘a glass half full’ - the moods swinging as naturally as breathing. Sometimes there are especially high tides, where the sea surges up the beach, the emotions surge through the body. People who have a strength in Cancer do tend to have moods that sway like this, and it’s generally unnecessary to try to lift their mood when it’s down. In a healthy person, the mood will swing back naturally in its own time.

The Moon rules Cancer, and the changes can be clearly seen in the moon’s waxing and waning, seeming to fill with light and empty out again. Most people prefer the full times: being awake, breathing in, filling up with life, love and possessions. So this next month, following a Cancer New Moon, could be used to deliberately notice the emptying out times that have to precede the filling. There is a wonderful relief in relaxing and allowing all that has happened so far to just flow away, while we wonder dreamily what will flow in when the tide turns - a good mood to face the ‘not knowing’ that is prevalent.

Own your own needs

However, this month is liable to bring a certain amount of anxiety (Sun/Moon squares Saturn). In the last New Moon letter, Gemini, I talked about the 2012-planetary aspects that are even now adding a sense of looming disaster about the unknown. This month of the Cancer New Moon is where we are liable to find those emotions rising in dreams, and moments of vague mental chuntering. Since 18 June, you may have found this happening more than usual, as Mercury made its way through Cancer - by 2 July it moves into Leo and the mental field lightens. But from 4 to 28 July, Venus makes her annual journey through Cancer, so these emotions are more likely to rise through our relationships, especially within the family, where we have expectations around nurturing.

The degree of this New Moon is 9 Cancer - if this falls on one of your natal planets, that part of your character will be in the spotlight for the month. As this New Moon is a partial eclipse, the experience could be emphasised.

The most noticeable planetary connection it’s making is a tendency to conflict with Saturn in Libra. This translates into our emotional needs being at loggerheads with what is coming from our relationships. To achieve harmony, it is Saturn we need to listen to first - the facts about people’s feelings and behaviour need to be accepted for us to properly experience our truth, and respond from there. We tend to block the truth by wishing things were different. Recognising your emotional needs, does not imply that they will be fulfilled through your relationship, or even that they should be. We are each responsible for dealing kindly with our own personality, knowing that others have their needs, too, which we were not born to fulfil either. Our needs tell us about ourself, they belong to us; they are not just to be got rid of, or fulfilled, but to be known.

Light and friendly communication works best

In the chart, Venus is still in Gemini, so it’s our style of expression that helps or hinders harmonious relating. Sensitivity, empathy, openness to the Light, all support gentle communication (trines to Neptune/Chiron) - whereas, trying to get the other to see our point of view, to feel obliged or guilty, to support or nurture us, all these are more likely to result in sudden loss, cold exchanges, errors of judgement, and pain (squares to Uranus, and from Mars to Neptune/Chiron).

Mother Nature loves us

Wonderfully, we have a guardian angel hovering very close right now, supporting our good and kindly use of emotional sensitivity (Jupiter in Taurus sextiles Neptune/Chiron and also Sun/Moon). Remain in touch with how your body feels. The flow of emotions can be sensed through the physical body - this is where we need to direct our first care and nurture. From caring for our own well-being first, we have the patience and awareness to be truly responsive to others’ needs. Our physical body craves contact with Nature, its true mother, so make sure you give your body some time close to earth, water and sky, even if your mind is off on its own adventures, or chatting with a friend (Mercury trine Uranus). A contented body is more likely to allow the mind to receive inspiration that can be grounded.

Acknowledge, accept, and let go

There is, in this New Moon chart, a pattern not often seen, very background - Mercury and Saturn are exactly one fifth of the circle apart, and both of them connect by two-fifths of the circle to Chiron. These planets are three corners of a five-pointed figure, a pentacle or pentagram. The quintile, as a fifth of the circle is called, is said to promote creativity, spirit in action. My feeling about the five-pointed star is that it describes the journey of the human spirit from birth to completion, from virgin spirit to totality, Oneness. So Mercury, Saturn and Chiron in combination this month could be indicating the nature of the hurdle that humanity is confronting at this time.

Given the signs they occupy, and that Chiron is retrograde, I would say it’s about communicating in a caring and responsible way so that the wounds of the past can be seen, acknowledged and let go. Gaston St. Pierre, father of the Metamorphic Technique, who recently died, had a neat saying that ‘the energy within any situation, person or problem, is enough to transform/heal it’. All we need do is acknowledge it, accept that it is so, and let it be. Letting something be and letting it go are really the same thing, in that you don’t ignore it, but you don’t interfere with it either. There is no judgement, and no attempt to change. The transformation that follows is a natural process of growth within anything that has life.

. . . one last little bit of astrology

Mercury in this chart exactly trines Ceres in Pisces. Ceres represents the mother who nurtures us, the sickle glyph is for reaping the harvest, and also the sickle Moon, indicating the round of seasons, and the ebb and flow of natural life. Mercury represents understanding through being in communication - may our thoughts and words be kind this month.