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| Summer Solstice, 2014 Catherine Al-Meten |
As the week begins, this is where the planets line up.
Sun 1 Cancer 12' 5"
Moon 7 Taurus 36'55"
Mercury 27 Gemini 2' 1"r
Venus 29 Taurus 2' 6"
Mars 15 Libra 17'53"
Jupiter 24 Cancer 49' 7"
Saturn 17 Scorpio 16' 4"r
Uranus 16 Aries 9'42"
Neptune 7 Pisces 33' 5"r
Pluto 12 Capricorn 34'47"r
TrueNode 26 Libra 24' 2"r
Chiron 17 Pisces 45'24"r
The Summer Solstice, and the Sun’s entry into Cancer occurred over the past weekend. This week we build up to the first New Moon of Summer on Friday, June 27. The New Moon in Cancer trines Neptune in Pisces opening the doors of perception to intuition, imagination, creativity, dreams, and illusions. We have had a lot of experience with the unconscious, watery energies with Saturn in Scorpio, Neptune and Chiron in Pisces, and Jupiter in Cancer. On a number of different levels of our unconsciousness, we have been awoken from whatever deep slumber or illusions we may have been living under. This New Moon gives us yet another opportunity to acknowledge what our desires, dreams, and decisions require us to release, respect, and embrace in order for personal and collective fulfillment.
On Sunday, June 22, the Moon in level-headed, beauty-seeking Taurus grounds us to emotionally focus our attention on appreciating our lives and gifts, and in taking some practical and concrete steps toward expressing that appreciation and using those gifts. Simply being more mindful in your daily routine, or on your daily walk, can help provide simple ways of noticing how this Taurean energy affects your emotional stability. The Moon stays in Taurus for another day or so, and the week gets off on an even keel as a result. How we begin and end things, our first and last impressions, and how we envision and create are examples of what we need to remember as we frame the life we live and make sense of it for ourselves. This seems crucial at this time as we are struggling, as a whole and individually, to walk in harmony while respecting our path and those of others.
From Sunday on, the Moon will transit Taurus and Gemini before the New Moon in Cancer on Friday. Notice how your emotional stability is affected by these three different energies, and you will learn something important about how the lunar energy changes daily. Notice what is going on around you―other people, the tides and weather, animals and birds, and the general energetic feel. Rather than having any expectations about this, simply notice and see if there is anything useful in what you learn about yourself and about the general milieu in which you are living.
On Sunday, the Moon in Taurus makes some minor aspects to different planets: two sextiles, one to the Sun late last night and one to Neptune this morning. Sextiles offer a pleasant connection between two planets, the Sun, or Moon, making things flow more easily. There are also two semi-squares between the Moon and Chiron and Mercury. This adds a little urgency or conflict to the mix. The Moon’s trine to Pluto in Capricorn this evening provides positive energy to whatever areas of your life are involved. In the flow of energy from the Summer Solstice, Sunday provides a pleasant day for tinkering, tootling, and trying out new recipes―putting our ideas into some kind of meaningful and practical action. Sunday is also the last day for this year’s transit of Venus in Taurus. Notice what you might feel the need to pack up and put away for now.
Monday, June 23. The night may be a little difficult to get a good night’s sleep as the energy is a bit edgy. The Moon semi-square the Sun and in opposition to Saturn in the middle of the night (early morning in the East of the U.S.) makes for a rough night. Notice your dreams and/or night time thoughts and energy. By 5:30 A.M. PDT, you may feel the shift of Venus entering Gemini. Venus in Gemini is lighter, less grounded energy for Gemini than it has been in Taurus.
On Monday, the Sun in Cancer forms a seisquiquadrate to Saturn in Scorpio making this a difficult time to feel like we are accomplishing much or being appreciated for the work we do or the gifts we have shared. This aspect occurs just before noon. Watch how you respond to this, and keep your focus on doing what you do for your own sake and interests. Jealousy, envy, and neediness may be the shadow sides of this aspect. When we do not feel ‘enough’, we tend to expect others to fulfill us, or at the very least, appreciate us. When we act with the expectation of receiving accolades, praise, or recognition from others, we set ourselves up for disappointment. We need to do what we do for the sake of doing it, and then when and if we receive recognition, it comes as icing on the cake; not the main course. This presumption is based on the idea that we need to like what we are doing, and do our best at all times regardless of what response is. Today with this aspect, this is how we might find some philosophical peace.
Feelings are indicators to remind us what matters. Feelings are normal; they remind us what matters and are the automatic expression of truth to us. Though we cannot control what we feel, we can control our expression of them. Just because you have a feeling doesn’t mean it needs to be expressed or used as a weapon. Use it to learn something about yourself; something that needs to be accepted, changed, or expressed in positive ways. When we repeatedly complain about our lives, but never do anything to make necessary changes, our real desires often come out in the form of negative expressions―explosions of passion, anger, frustration, spite, or fear.
Tuesday, June 24. Tuesday is a day when some harsh aspects highlight some of the struggle that may have been going on for the past month or so. The Moon moves into Gemini in the early morning hours, and forms a seisquiquadrate with Pluto a little over an hour later. Our emotional tone is affected by the hard lessons that transition and transformation have brought into our lives. Even when we have made the choices that were necessary, the pathway has not been easy, to say the least.
Venus is seisquiquadrate Mars in Libra on Tuesday and Wednesday. Relationships may be volatile at this time, and again, we need to look within to see what it is we need to do to respond to the changes, needs, and desires we have. What do our relationships mean to our happiness? What do we expect, of ourselves and of our spouses or partners? How do our relationships provide for healthy growth? Am I able to both give and receive love in relationships? This may be a challenging time in the area of romance, marriage, and intimate relationships of all kinds. Venus’ aspect to Mars today is tied into the bigger picture and Mars’ ongoing transit through Libra and approaching opposition to Uranus.
Impulsiveness and/or the desire to have our needs met, regardless of the consequences, are two very outcomes of this aspect. Energy is high, competitive urges are great. Feeling the need to act, we may find ourselves creating problems that are greater than we imagined. This is a volatile time; use discretion and restraint. Back off and get some distance from strong and powerful feelings and desires.
The Moon in Gemini, conjuncts Venus in Gemini on Tuesday night. Emotions and desires are fueled by thoughts, possibilities, and powerful drives. Anything within our personality that is not conscious or is unhealed, now seeks contact and may result in inappropriate or undesirable behavior and conflict.
Venus forms a semi-square to Uranus in Aries on Tuesday, just before 6:00 A.M., PDT. This sets off a series of impulsive and odd attractions. Relationship issues including freedom versus independence are challenging right now. Whatever relationship issues you have been dealing with on Mars’ transit of Libra, now come to a head. If unresolved, we may feel the urge to act without restraint or to make rash decisions. Whatever has been repressed, now bursts through the surface to be acted upon. Those who make denial their main mode of emotional transportation, may face some very difficult experiences. Facing what is true for you is crucial now. Acting without through or consideration for others and the long-term consequences, is not. Something quite unexpected may catch us off guard, in the area of relationships.
Wednesday, June 25. Just past midnight, Mars in Libra forms a powerful and challenging opposition to Uranus in Aries. Part of the Grand Cardinal Cross that has been affecting us throughout the year, this opposition between Mars and Uranus brings us to the boiling point where pent up and unexpressed or unhealed grief, anger, and frustration can boil over or explode. If we look at this on the personal level, we may understand feelings that have been welling up within us, especially in areas related to our relationships and our need and desire for personal fulfillment and freedom. If we look at this with the collective of all humanity, we can see that unresolved wounds, issues, grief, and hostilities may be ready to erupt. What we can do on a personal level is attempt to be clear with ourselves about who we are, what we expect and need in our relationships (family, marriages, friendships, intimate connections, and whatever area Libra/Aries rule in your chart.
You probably don’t need a chart to tell you where pressure is building in your life. If you have been working with this energy, this time might not be bad at all. When we are paying attention to how we are tending to our emotional, psychological, and spiritual gardens, we are able to avoid the crises that are triggered. For example, if you have been dealing with an ongoing technical problem that relates to how people relate to technology, this may be a time when you recognize that the system that was designed for one purpose, is flawed and not appropriate for another. If you are in a relationship related to work and your physical health, you may find that you have pushed yourself too far, and now will need to deal with the collapse of your physical system and work style or place. If you are dealing with first and seventh house issues, you might see that your public persona is at odds with your marriage.
Where opposition and violence seems to be pushing at your or triggering disruptive and crisis-ridden problems, one way of meeting this energy is with peaceful resistance. I think of Tai Chi movements that meet oppositional energy and movement with the release and movement away from the incoming blow. We can fight with peaceful resistance and creative solutions and alternatives. We can walk away from a situation, and release our connection to that energy. We can stop the fight. I recall my mother telling me when I was in the heat of battle with my sister, “It only takes one person to walk away.” At some point, fighting is a losing battle, and walking away is an answer that stops the battle. We have to be willing to give up the need to control, ‘be right’, or win.
This is a time to choose your battles, and opt out of the ones you just can’t win. It is also the time to recognize that if you are unhappy and unfulfilled, you, and you alone need to do something differently. Your unhappiness or lack of fulfillment is an inside issue; not the problem of where you live or what you do. Find ways to live more peacefully with yourself. Stop doing and being what you are not. Find some peace within, and learn to appreciate what is rather than what dreams you have yet to fulfill, or expectations you desire someone else to fulfill. It’s within you to create peace within, and where you are. That does not mean you might not want to move, change jobs, get into or out of a relationship. It means that ultimately, whatever you do, you have to be at peace and content with who you are. That travels with you everywhere you go.
The energy that has been building to this point, is not something to be feared; it is instead a call to us each to do something about that which we can affect―ourselves. If we have bottled up feelings, lived according to someone else’s dictates, or fooled ourselves about how we have dealt with old wound, grief, or anger, we will probably find this a difficult time. It’s still a gift. Notice who you blame for your unhappiness, and then try to see how that person is like you somehow. What has trapped you in old wounds, past losses, or unfulfilled desires? What has stopped you in the past, and what is stopping you now? What can you do about what has built up? For many of us, whatever has been suppressed, comes out in illness, depression, negative addictions and behavior, or explosive upsets, or any combination thereof. This week provides us with ample time and experiences to notice how this type of energy affects not only others but also yourself. Time is now to try out some new ways of responding to suppressed feelings and uncontrolled behavior. Before you make grand sweeping changes, do some good soul searching, recognize what within you has triggered the pain, anger, frustration, or disappointment you feel, and then take a long walk, get some sleep, eat a decent meal, and spend some time connecting to what is working in your life.
As the New Moon at 5 degrees of Cancer peaks on Friday, we all will have had a long week in the shadow of the lunar month of Gemini. What has dropped away, risen to the surface, and shown itself as needing healing, tenderness, care, and more love? This New Moon in Cancer with its trine to Neptune, allows us to finally get some intuitive insight on what has been going on for quite some time. The disruptions, disappointments, and digressions of the last few months, now begin to lessen. The New Moon in Cancer is a special new moon that highlights our need for personal security, peace, and well being. Coming in close proximity to where Mercury went retrograde in Cancer, all the themes, issues, and connections related to Mercury’s retrograde come to the foreground. The aggressiveness of Mars and its opposition to Uranus in Aries, requires that we learn the lessons within and before us.
This New Moon has the water trine of Neptune in Pisces, Jupiter in Cancer, and Saturn in Scorpio. This New Moon triggers all the lessons we have been learning with these major planets. With Neptune, we absorb, discern, and better understand the power of our intuitive gifts and the areas of illusion and denial that stop us from using our gifts. Saturn in Scorpio is releasing and burrowing through all the deep-seated unconscious memories, desires, drives, and wounds. What is released is in the process of being sorted through, healed, and used to shape a more fully formed you.
Jupiter in Cancer provides optimism and creative and abundant ways of approaching our search for fulfillment, safety and security, nourishment, and a sense of being and feeling at home―with yourself and in whatever place feeds your soul.
One of the most important questions you have to ask yourself at this New Moon in Cancer is this: “What feeds your soul?” Whatever the answer is, set your intentions, make your plans, and envision yourself receiving the greatest and highest good from the Universal Source. Sit in peace where you are, and make choices according to what your answer is. Your answer is not about light or fleeting fancies, but about what truly feeds your soul, supports your life and purpose, and enables you to appreciate, acknowledge, accept, and use your gifts and talents for your good and the good of all. Look to the areas of your life and your chart where the trine of water sign planets are transiting, and see if you can discern more clearly, what is calling you to create, understand, and receive.
The retrograde transit of Mercury and its trine to the North Node in Libra. The New Moon, shining on the seeds planted by Mercury when it turned retrograde, shows you where the changes you seek or that are meant for you to discover, are developing. The North Node is the gateway to new stages of life. The New Moon is the time of planting, envisioning, and setting intentions. Mercury’s retrograde transit is going over those areas that need to be smoothed out, worked out, rethought and more clearly developed for the changes that are ahead. When Mercury goes direct on July 1, movement will pick up. Now is still the time to rethink and reflect on what it is you truly seek. Despite some of the powerful and challenging aspects this week, this is a very good time to enter into new experiences, plan new trips, set new goals with the full awareness of what it is you must deal with in order for fulfillment and success to be yours. When we live ruled by the unconscious, it rules us. When we face our fears, and allow ourselves to face the facts of who and what we are, we are stronger and more capable.
This New Moon in Cancer is a time to revel in your plans, dreams, and visions. Plan parties, invite in goodness and grace, and welcome the best of what is possible. Plan parties to celebrate victories. Make plans to launch your books or open a new office. Use your imagination and intuition to envision greater success, deeper love, and an all around more fulfilling life. Stop acting like you are less than or in need of. Feel fulfillment, and drop the unnecessary masks that make you feel you are not enough or you don’t have enough. Dip your hands, hearts, and minds into the wellspring that holds such promise for you.
Join body, mind, and spirit into a complete expression of yourself―full of life, love, and joy. This is a great time to involve yourself in all the plans and preparations for the good times ahead. Be ready for when Mercury goes direct, the life you planned now will get under way. What we envision becomes our reality, and if we have no dreams and make no plans, we are like feathers in the wind. Be bold and creative with your dreams. Be courageous and strong in dealing with what needs to be dealt with. Live life fully whole and discover that happiness comes in those moments between the highs and the lows when we realize, we are, in the paraphrased words of Winnie the Pooh, stronger than we thought we were, smarter than we knew, and more capable of love that we imagined.
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