Love nurtures all

The emotional energy this month is likely to be colossal, with all the positives and negatives that come to mind with free-flowing psychic/emotional/spiritual energy (Sun/Moon + Mercury/Mars all in Cancer). We are likely to be drawn to re-examining our childhood, our families, our personal need to be cared for, and whether we care enough about others. The sign of Cancer breast-feeds humanity, but also represents humanity’s need for nurture. As individuals, we tend to lean to one side or the other of this duality, either expecting life to provide for us or feeling obliged to take care of others. When these two pulls are balanced, we become whole people who want to provide caring for other without obligation.

We need to be taking care of our own neediness so that we can show up as adults when present needs appear, like the woes of people in disaster areas calling for our help (Sun/Moon trine Chiron in Pisces). Some of these present disasters are happening in our own families, some may even be happening to you personally. If you find yourself needing help, don’t hesitate to ask for it - we are not meant to struggle on alone.

Create empathy rather than defence

Complaining about circumstances is simply ranting about things not being as one would have wished - it comes from a mental judgement, and creates resentment and anger inside and out. Often perhaps, beneath the judgement, is some emotional distress or pain about the perceived wrong, but it doesn’t help the situation to rant about it. Asking for help, for ourselves or others, requires that we express how we really feel emotionally, in order that those we turn to can empathise with us. Empathy is necessary if we are to work together to do what is required.

Sometimes, as you will have experienced, all it takes to heal a situation is a true expression of how we are emotionally affected by it. So expressing the truth of how we feel when in difficulty is the adult caring thing to do, even when those feelings seem to come from a suffering child place within us. And when moving forward to help another in difficulty, the best help may be to listen to, and accept, an emotionally expressed story, enabling the person to touch their own needy place and rise up into the present, well able to handle their own problem (Sun/Moon trine Saturn in Scorpio).

Honesty clarifies our intuitive centres

This New Moon chart emphasises communication from the solar plexus, the seat of emotional reactions from birth onwards - any old emotion left over from our past untouched, probably unconscious, is likely to triggered and erupt into present situations (Mercury conjunct Mars in Cancer). The good news is that the solar plexus will become clearer as a result, and that means we will be able to access the intuitive correctness of our empathic instincts: we are working towards greater accuracy in understanding what we are picking up in the present, and how to differentiate between our emotional reaction and someone else’s (Mercury/Mars trine Neptune).

This work automatically attracts spiritual assistance, perhaps because it is the on the path towards a more evolved human expression. The more you can tune in to your finer emotions, like compassion, kindness, kin-ship, the more you will know what to do and how to be (Venus enters Virgo on 18 July). The more we involve ourselves with making necessary changes at this time, the more connected we will feel to the greater angelic movement to bring disparate situations into a global wholeness: spiritual wings will be at our back (Mercury/Mars exactly opposite Pluto who sextiles Neptune). These changes could be within huge group circumstances in the world, or within your own personal or family circumstances, now or in the past.

Forgiveness is required, which simply means accepting what has been and is now, rather than continuing to resist it, resent it, or trying to change it. Recognising ‘what is’ our own inner and outer experience, and letting it be that kindly, without critical judgement, creates a peacefulness within the emotional body that allows movement, and change unfolds naturally.

Being kind to yourself, no defence is needed

BUT - all these wonderful results can only come from working on, and within, difficulties that are likely to arise from just being ourselves, happily expressing our individual wants and needs before checking to see how that is likely to affect others (Venus/Jupiter trine Uranus and square Saturn in Scorpio). This is not the time to try and stop this happening by ‘walking on eggshells’ around people.

We have to go ahead somewhat blindly in our relationships, in order to discover who the other person is. The moment to take care is when facing of another’s reactions to us: this is where the patience and acceptance of another’s experience come in. A dialogue can then follow that is dynamic and fruitful, as long as the old defensive positions are recognised as no longer appropriate. It is our self-protection that separates us from others: our vulnerability is our human connection, the umbilical cord to human nurturing.

A community of friendship

We may well need time out from working on all this emotional difficulty. Have fun, too! Invite friends to share your home with food and talk, sharing also your love and gratitude to be in touch. Cancer is nurture, the food we need, physically, emotionally, and spiritually. Let’s go for that sense of family, and enjoy our closeness without pressuring each other (Full Moon in Aquarius - Sun in Leo, and Venus back into Leo, on 31 July). As human beings, we each need contact with a community where we are appreciated for our individuality. The connection need not intrude more than we can tolerate, but a sense of contact within the womb of humanity as a whole is fundamental to our aliveness and ability to grow.

Just before the next New Moon, Jupiter enters Virgo until September 2016, focussing our growth in the areas of health, and appropriate helpful action to support others in caring for themselves. We will feel more in touch with rightness when we sort out our messy corners and clean up our act. It will be interesting to see how this energy shift ripples through the decisions of those in power, and through the world of advertising.

Anything is possible . . .

Until then, we have the continuing battle to remain positive in the face of hard facts (Jupiter in Leo square Saturn in Scorpio), a tight place where we need to be optimistic for a positive future without knowing how that is to be achieved. Perhaps we are moving towards being able to share the difficult jobs, and find enjoyment within companionable work.