Next, there will be 2 new Moons in Cancer, with an unusual 3 (2 lunar and 1 solar) eclipses in July and August. Eclipses end and begin new cycles of growth. Every 12 to 18 months the lunar cycle flips and it begins with either a double new or full Moon, because there is a 13th lunar month we have to integrate into our modern solar calendar. The last doubling up of full moons in one sign occurred in May 2008. When it happens, we get a blue moon – two full moons in the same zodiac sign in the month.
We’ve just come through the part of the larger cycle where the new Moon comes before the full Moon in the lunar cycle. Then when the cycle shifts at the 2nd new Moon in Cancer on July 21, the next full Moon will be in an incompatible sign (Cancer/Aquarius instead of the usual Cancer/ Capricorn), So that Aquarius full Moon now comes before the Leo new Moon! That’s the part of the cycle we’re shifting into this astrological month. It changes your perspective – you get to see yourself from a different angle. It’s not always comfortable because it’s an adjustment period. So take it slow.
With 2 new Moons in Cancer this month, the cosmic story is telling us to plant well and often, and to water your new life from the vast ocean of the collective unconscious:J know what your heart wants, so later you will use your talents to get it; nurture what’s important to you, and love it so well that it grows and blossoms; be aware of your feelings, both ‘good and bad’, then drop the judgment and just listen to what they tell you about yourself and the world; be open to images and visions and be creative with the answers you receive.
Trust yourself! When the Sun moves into Cancer, the Great Mother appears again to enrich the new life growing within you. It’s a time for family and home. With Pluto traveling through the opposite sign of Capricorn, we’ll re-discover how important family and home really are as our cultural structures get renewed. Perhaps we’ll finally pay mothers and fathers to stay home and raise their kids well.
Cancer is attuned to the Moon and to the oceans and tides, the vast surging waters that originally gave us life. It is attuned to the soul. We treat our souls like we treat the oceans, not seeing its real value, polluting it with toxic ideas and images. (Holllywood, it’s time to go green and stop polluting our psyches!) Now we have dead zones of plastic garbage, larger than the state of Texas, floating out in the Pacific. Isn’t it time we stopped using plastic? Isn’t it time to stop being afraid (Cancer does have security issues) and start trusting that you have the answers inside you? Your soul wants you to pay attention and nurture the seed ideas, the newborn projects, with care and devotion.
As someone with a natal Cancer Moon, I can say truthfully that there’s nothing so wonderful as a well functioning Cancer Moon, for it gives you vast resources and the instinctive wisdom of LIFE so you can nurture other life-forms. Who doesn’t need a really good mother once in a while? We’ve forgotten to respect the archetype of ‘Mother’ or see its sacred function.
That’s what the Summer Solstice is all about. If we lived within the cycle of the seasons, we’d know that Summer Solstice marks the culmination of the building, outgoing, light yang energy and the beginning of the ingoing, reflective, dark yin energy. The Mother mediates the transition, just as She does at Winter Solstice when She gives birth to the Son/Sun.
This is a time for women to be honored as Lover and Mother, desired and valued for her fertile wisdom. And just as the Sun sends his light, strong and full, to be received by the Earth during these days to ensure the harvest, it is time for men to show us their higher consciousness, their awareness of how important LIFE is to them. This is the time of the Sacred Marriage between Heaven and Earth. On a human scale, it is a time for men and women to honor each other and find common ground, and for individuals to unite their masculine and feminine energies.
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