New Moon in Cancer and Grand Trine in Water

Blackberry Blossoms                                        Catherine Al-Meten

"Tis midnight now. the bend and broken moon, batter'd and black, as 

from a thousand battles,

hangs silent on the purple walls of Heaven."

Joaquin Miller, Poet of the Sierras

The few days of the Dark of the Moon leading up to the New Moon in Cancer, can be a time of darkness and stillness, something we may not always be comfortable with, but nevertheless, a time to reflect and turn inward as we approach the turning of the seasons and the new lunar cycle. This New Moon cycle ushers in a very sacred time for us all, and a time when we can more greatly honor and connect to the spiriutal truths of our lives and being. For Moslems worldwide, the New Moon in Cancer ushers in the holy month of Ramadan. Ramadan is a month-long holy time when all able-bodied Moslems fast from sunrise to sunset, in order to purify themselves and draw closer to God. Fasting consists of not eating, drinking, smoking, or using negative language. It also is a time of deep reflection and fasting of thoughts, habits, patterns of belief, and behavior.

This New Moon in Cancer is a time of deep spiritual reflection on all humans everywhere, regardless of religious creed or spiritual orientation. All life is sacred, and each moment of life is a gift. What we do with the gifts we are given depends upon whether, in the words of the Deuteronomist, we choose life or death.  "You have before you the gift of life and death. Choose Life!"

New Moon  Monday, July 8 at 3:14 AM EDT/12:14 AM PDT.  New Moon cycle in Cancer as we leave the Gemini lunar month. The New Moon at 16/18 Cancer makes the strongest impact in the area of your chart/life that is within 12-20 degrees of the Cardinal signs (Capricorn, Aries, Cancer, Libra).  The New Moon triggers a number of planets also in Cancer including first Mercury at 8/18 Cancer, exact conjunction with the Sun at 16 degrees Cancer, then Jupiter at 2/47

Cancer.

The New Moon in Cancer makes some stressful or challenging aspects to the Retrograde Mercury at 8 degrees, Uranus at 12/29 Aries, and retrograde Pluto in Capricorn at 10/8 degrees. As the New Moon is aspecting  Mercury retrograde in Cancer, it would be wise to examine the attitudes, perspectives, and ways of communicating that are preventing us from moving forward. What is blocking, stopping, or holding you trapped in past patterns of through or behavior and stopping your growth and ability to discern what is ahead? Are we busily trying to figure things out, holding firm and trying to be ‘right’, or clinging to some unfulfilled desire, wish, or dream at the expense of seeing the gifts that are ready to be accepted?  

What we put forward at the time of the New Moon, can help establish the way forward and the blessings that are ours when we are open, receptive, and willing to step out into the path before us.  For many of us, we cling to past roles, relationships, and ways of being and knowing, or we focus entirely on setting out a master plan that has nothing to do with what the Divine plan has already laid before us. Time is now to be open to following the messages and guidance of the Creator as we pick up the tools, lay down the foundation, and begin creating the next level of our journey. We can participate consciously, mindfully, and in full awareness, or we can insist on hanging on to our own shadowy attachments, and be dragged forward seemingly without direction or hope.  Waking up to what we require to live from our center of our emotional body. In an article about the New Moon in Cancer, Simone Butler describes the ancient Mayan belief that there is energy that connects us to the sacred, the Divine. This energy roughly translated means Blood Lightening.  During the lunar cycle from July 1-14, we unite body, mind, emotions, and spirit with the Divine Creator. We ground ourselves in our earth bodies, and allow the sacred to animate our entire being. We open our hearts, minds, souls to be filled with the Holy Spirit, to be hit by the spiritual lightening, and to be profoundly shaken and formed for the service, the love, and the life we were called here to live.

The beautiful Grand Water Trine that is now forming (not quite in full alignment yet),  brings  Jupiter in Cancer, Mars (soon to enter Cancer), Saturn in Scorpio, and Neptune and Chiron in Pisces in a powerful and emotionally enriching alignment. Between July 17-22, the Grand Trine will be in its full expression, however we already feel drawn by the powerful energies infusing us with energy and deeper need to experience the full expression of ourselves as spiritual beings living out a rich and bountiful physical experience. Time to honor our calling and find ways to express the beauty that is meant to serve, help heal, and lift ourselves and other.

Jupiter in Cancer is the archetypal reflection of how we honor the emotional truth of who we are within, in relationship, and through the way we live out our Divine purpose. Learning to identify a higher calling and purpose, that which is beyond our own ego gratification needs and ego-centric desire to control and manipulate, is a major lesson we are learning at this time.  Jupiter shines its energy and light into the areas of life where we can make the greatest contributions and create meaning, purpose, and wholeness. Saturn, the Great Teacher continues in its journey through Scorpio, to awaken us to the unconscious and intuitive voices that are speaking through the lessons we have yet to learn from the lives we are living out. Whatever is making its way to the surface for your awareness, or is manifesting in the world around you, speaks to you on a deeply emotional level during this time, making it nearly impossible to know that something special and vital is stirring within you. Something to pay attention to, to sit with in stillness, and to absorb into yourself through prayer, meditation, contemplation, and discernment. 

Neptune in Pisces awakens the Divine within and makes us more receptive to how the sacred acts upon us and infuses us with what we need, through grace, gifts, and goodness. Chiron, the Wounded Healer, also in Pisces, is making us more aware of how our healing can be found in the woundedness that needs to be healed. Service and concern for others, brings us out of our self-conscious and self-pitying places into compassion, empathy, and connection with those who need our attention, assistance, or acknowledgement.  

The water signs, Cancer, Scorpio, and Pisces, archetypes of the unconscious, Collective Consciousness, and the heavenly and earthly connections with the Sacred Oneness, can be felt in some area of each of our lives.  Look to the houses where the water signs find their home in your life.  

The New Moon in Cancer ushers in the new plans, energy, and movement to discover our homes, to safeguard that which is sacred to us, and to help us protect and connect to one another, especially within our families and close intimate relationships. Refer back to the article I wrote a number of weeks ago about house rulership, and determine for yourself where the New Moon and the Grand Trine in Water is most potent now. We can make great headway, receive abundance and achievement, and experience the Divine grace of God throughout the month. Be receptive, open, and discerning, and as the New Moon approaches. Saturn is stationing today as I write, turning direct after a retrograde phase that began February 18. Today, July 7, Saturn stations, and it is a good time to  spend in quiet reflection, giving gratitude and being emotionally honest with yourself about what you have learned over the last 6 months that you now can carry forward with you into the New Moon phase. We may have found over the last 6 months that we have had to go over a lot of old business, in order to prepare for the journey forward. 

Look to the area where Saturn in Scorpio has been transiting. No doubt you will feel it even if you are uncertain of your chart. Look to that one major area in your life where you have been trying to resolve questions, undo old patterns, or ridding yourself of what no longer is needed for your life journey.  What patterns of behavior, thought, belief, or emotional response have you discovered to be outdated or no longer relevant in your life.  Be clear and true to yourself here, for only when we are able to see ourselves. warts and all, can we act with greater authenticity, clarity, creativity, and even righteousness.  Until we are working as hard on healing, fixing and mending ourselves as we are on trying to figure out others, fix them, or understand how ‘they’ could affect our lives so greatly, do we have a chance of making progress and of taking responsibility for our own life purpose and actions.

Using this New Moon in Cancer as a time to be intentional and focused, it might be a great time to design a New Moon ritual of prayer, meditation, and setting of intentions. I highly recommend Dana Gearhardt’s Mooncircles and Mountain Astrologer astrologer and writer as the source of excellent ideas about how to prepare a ritual for the New Moon.

Whether you use Gearhardt’s rituals or develop one that fits your own beliefs and traditions, it is now an excellent time to sit in quite stillness, reflect, and seek answers and direction. Use your time to pray for those whom you love, for those who need your prayers, and for whatever you feel moved to pray for. Prayer comes in many forms. There are formal prayers, or the simple act of calling out to God, the Creator, Spirit, the Divine, Allah, the Sacred in thanks, in pleas for help, in cries of lamentation, in joy and exaltation, and in the simple request to feel and experience the Presences of the Spirit within.  However you are moved at this holy time, receive the gifts that Spirit awakens within you and calls you to pay attention to in those who are around and near you. Be grateful for the place where you are now, and for the bounty you have. Sit in gratitude for gifts of health, home, family, friends, peace even in chaotic and difficult times, and for the blessing of being here on Earth together at this time.  Welcome the energy of the New Moon in Cancer and the Stellia of planets in water during this midsummer time in the North and the midwinter time of the South. Look to the heavens, walk on the earth, swim in the waters, and feel the wind upon your face. Honor the elements in and around you, and live in perfect peace in this moment.