New Moon in Cancer, Grand Cardinal Cross

The New Moon in Cancer, has already entered the sign of Cancer, and forms a Grand Cardinal Cross with Uranus in 8 degrees of Aries, Mars in 7 degrees of Libra, Pluto in 7 degrees of Capricorn. Late this morning (Tuesday, July 17), the ongoing Uranus/Pluto Square, came into a square aspect with Mars in Libra and an opposition with Uranus in Aries. 

The powerful energy of these aspects coupled with the sensitive nature of the Moon in Cancer, expressed itself, as I’ve described in earlier articles on the T-Square, as mounting pressure, edginess, and tension coupled with the urge to take action or get something accomplished. At the same time, the pressure and stress of these aspect can feel exhausting. With Mars exerting pressure to act, mounting frustration and a sense of feeling unsettled is countered by the Moon’s presence in nurturing Cancer.  

The Moon in Cancer appeals to our sense of compassion and empathy towards others as well as toward ourselves. We can channel any pent up energy, frustration, or edginess into creative efforts and physical and spiritual practices. We are all going through a powerful awakening and transformation, having experienced challenging and upsetting times. In the process, we have shed some of the beliefs, practices, conditions, relationships, and habits that no longer belong to us.  Much as the Crab itself (symbol of Cancer) loses it’s shell through a molting process, so too have we as individuals and as a collective whole gone through major evolutionary shifts in the way we are living, working, and perceiving the world in which we live. 

Summer Sunset                                                                                                                                                      Catherine Al-Meten

The period during the Dark of the Moon, the Moon’s entry into Cancer and the Grand Cardinal Cross prior to the New Moon on Thursday, may leave us feeling vulnerable and exposed, wondering how we are going to have what it takes to move forward.  With several planets in retrograde motion and others changing signs, it is part of the natural ebb and flow of life right now, to feel we might need some time and tenderness to make us feel more rested and cared for.  The nurturing Cancer Moon moves us to be more supportive, caring, kind, and loving helping make others feel appreciated, taken care of, and affirmed.  Cancer Moon reminds us that in caring for others we set into motion the reciprocal acts of loving kindness that do more to support ourselves and others than nearly anything else.

Quite literally too, we need to be taking better care of ourselves, body, mind, spirit, and emotions. Harmony is part of an active process of balancing our different desires, needs, and responsibilities so that we can maintain a sense of walking in presence. As spiritual beings traveling on a physical journey, we sometimes forget we need to practice presence in very simple, basic ways.  While many of us feel ready and in fact, well on our way to creating and living out the new plans, dreams, goals, and lives we’ve begun to embrace, we nevertheless may feel more called to simplicity, rest, and pausing in between...we may feel we are between acts, waiting for the next cue to go forward.  

Those in-between places are where we can drop down into the depths of soul consciousness and awareness. When we let go of the need to rush on, resolve, finish, or start out on a new leg of the journey, we may find that a longer period of rest and stillness be more beneficial than rushing about or filling in time and spaces. In meditation and yoga, the practice of intentional presence and releasing, falling into the simple patterns and rhythm of your breathing, your heartbeat, the stretch and release of your body’s muscles, skeletal system, and internal workings.Taking time to notice where in your body you are holding onto pain, stiffness, aches, or tightness, can be useful for beginning to address issues that are affecting your health and well being. 

By Thursday the New Moon in Cancer marks a time when we step out into the light onto a path that is free of obstacles. We begin to feel as though we have awakened from a long sleep, that is unless we have not given ourselves the time and rest we have needed. The New Moon always marks a time in our lives when we can begin anew. New Moons mark the turning point for the lunar months, the seasons, the balancing dance between light and darkness, and the times we are reminded to plant seeds for the future. 

Cancer, a water sign, is also a cardinal planet. Key in the powerful effect brought about by the Cardinal Cross, the Cancer New Moon rushes like a flowing river through all areas of our lives, moving stumbling blocks out of the way, propelling us along with the flow of the rivers and streams of our lives, filling us with creative, compassionate, and loving energy that can be expressed, shared, and used to create beauty, harmony, and a sense of centeredness in our lives right now. There is a sense of longing to feel more at home in our bodies, and more grounded in our sense of what really matters. 

The power and energy alive within us during this time, calls us to be clear about what it is we really want and then to pay attention to how our intuitive insight and Divine wisdom is guiding us to act from the center of our own being and to express through clear and concrete action, some intention that speaks from the core of our being and can be of support to others in healing and providing something of meaning and value. 

This morning I was reading Dana Gearhart’s article on the Cancer New Moon in MoonCircles. She mentioned that if we feel ourselves caught up in fear and frustration, desperation, anger, or jealousy, we may be acting out of Cancer’s Dark Mother. You might know her as Smother Mother or the Looming Evil Witch who holds sway over our good intentions with the threat of doom and gloom. When we act out of this unhealed part of ourselves, we tend to be fearful. There is a tendency for us to project what we find unacceptable, uncomfortable, or unfamiliar in ourselves onto others in the form of projections. From what I've been hearing from people, the energy that is pent up within people is coming out in some pretty unhealed, hurtful, and violent ways. When we find ourselves operating from fear and anger, we need to consider working to eliminate such thinking, behavior, and emotional responses.  From pain and anger, turn to lifting of our spirits. Turning our attention from that which drags us into the dark places of our minds, emotions, pain, and fear, we can seek brighter, uplifting activities, inspiration, and company. 

Seek to lift your consciousness, live in gratitude for the present, and learn to love yourself and others in ways that support the simple acts of nourishing your body, taking care of your health and safety, enjoy and tend to your home, and be present in your wholeness of being, in the present, neither trapped in the past nor lost in the future. 

Be the best you can be where you are, and celebrate the start of a new month, a new day in the rest of your life. Take time for prayer, solitude, meditation, quiet, and sacred time to honor the gifts that you use be at home with yourself and at peace in the world.  Adding a post script on Wednesday as I observe the news of major areas of conflict and violence, urging all to pray and act for peaceful ways to live our lives and solve our problems.