Solstice Sunset                                                                                                                        Catherine Al-Meten Meyers

New Moon in Cancer

As I was writing this column this morning, the lyrics and tune to Changes kept coming to mind. "Ch ch ch changes."  As I finished the column, I tracked the song down, and realized both its lyrics and the lyricist, David Bowie, have had a profound effect on us. Talk about someone who went beyond his norm, who broke down boundaries, and exceeded limitations, so at the end of the column are some of his lyrics in. See if they speak to you too. Use the energy and time of this powerful week--Summer Solstice (today), Sun enters Cancer (tonight), and New Moon in Cancer Friday. It's a powerful time, and the energy is yours to use to make life better, to heal, and to make some new choices for a new road ahead.

 As I write today’s column, I do so on the Summer Solstice, the longest day of the year in the Northern Hemisphere. In the Southern Hemisphere, it is Winter Solstice. The Sun enters Cancer two days before  the New Moon at  peaks at 2 degrees Cancer ushers in the Cancer Lunar Cycle on Friday, June 23.  This is truly a time of rapid change and transition. 

Cancer, being the sign most determined to create safety, security, and a balanced home, makes this New Moon at 2 degrees an optimal time for setting new goals, envisioning necessary and desired change, and setting forth on whatever new journey you’ve been preparing for. 

When conjuring up ideas or creating a vision for the path ahead, it is vital that you throw out any preconceived ideas about how things should be or what limitations you are bound by. Go deep into the heart of your passions and desires, though irrational and impossible they may be. For dreams that come true, are born of what we put our energy into. Use your words, actions, intentions, prayers, and imagination to create the blue print for your future. 

Often we limit ourselves because we see the world as limited and limiting. All new moons offer new energy for new plans, however this New Moon in Cancer focuses on what it truly is that we need to feel safe, secure, and at home with ourselves. Whatever you’ve been needing or longing for, is within reach, once you acknowledge just what that is. When we are stingy with ourselves and others, when we hesitate or hold back in saying what we mean, asking for what we need, or offering what we can, we miss opportunities to create deeper connections. This is the time to go deeper to discover what we truly want. And then to begin laying out a map or plan to begin moving towards that.

The clearer you are with your intentions, the better. When I don’t know what I want, how can I expect to see my life change for the better?  Be receptive to the gifts that are being bestowed upon you now, and use your powers of discernment and discretion to narrow in on the essence of what is needed at this juncture of your life. As the energy of Light bestows movement, fulfillment, and creative gifts on us, we are encouraged to open our minds, hearts, and lives for deeper and more fulfilling experiences. Look to the house where Cancer lies, and notice what is growing by leaps and bounds in this area of your life. Be more intentional now in distilling the essential components that provide you with connection and meaning.

The New Moon in Cancer as well as the Sun,Mercury, and Mars are all stirring up the 4th House in our lives.  The fourth house rules our home, how we define it for ourselves, and what challenges and gifts can be found here. Many of us may be feeling the desire to fix up, change, alter, or in some way improve our home environment. Many will be contemplating moves, though this may seem unusual, it nevertheless is a shaking up time. We’ve probably already begun feeling the urge to purge and get moving. We may have been communicating about where we’d like to be or how we’d like to change our living arrangements. With Mars, then Mercury in Cancer, this is highly likely. Mars may actually push us into changes sooner than later once the Sun and the Moon enter Cancer this week. Be thinking about where you feel most at home. Where you can be your true self, and where you are being called.

Though not all will be feeling the need to move, most of us will be feeling the desire to make improvements and changes in our homes. Our lifestyles change with the seasonal changes, however this period of time runs deeper in our lives than normal. We seek depth in purpose, connection, and meaning. Consider how this stellia of water sign planets in both the natural 4th house and the house Cancer rules in your life/chart, and use this powerful time and energy to work some magic in your own life. What you do to improve your own life and direction will have a lasting experience in your life and the lives of those you love and connect with.

Venus’  transit of Taurus  this week focuses our attention on beauty, music, artistic expression, harmony, balance, and love. We feel essentially  drawn to put our aesthetic and artistic talents to practical use. We bring imagination into form. We shape our everyday lives into beautiful gifts and creative expressions. This week Venus makes aspects to Neptune, Jupiter, and Chiron, making us acutely aware of how we have been disappointed, hurt, or disillusioned in love and in our search for harmony and balance. Whatever is coming to the surface, emotionally or via memory, dreams, synchronicity, needs to be acknowledged and an attempt to understand the lessons and changes needed for healing, need to take place. Again, as with the last lunar cycle, healing is on the agenda. What we suppress or refuse to face, becomes our burden in all future decisions, choices, challenges. Take time now to look at yourself with an open heart and a willingness to face, forgive, and make necessary changes in whatever is stopping your progress, growth, and ability to connect with what you say you want.

As the New Moon in Cancer peaks on June 23-24, Venus trines Pluto, the Great Transformer, so if we’ve prepared the way, we can get strong indicators of just how deep a transformation is getting ready to take place. 

The Sun enters Cancer early Wednesday morning, and forms a conjunction with Mercury a few hours later. A good time to pray, make your needs known, sing praises, or otherwise voice your best intentions for your highest good.  Monday and Tuesday are days we find ourselves drawn to last minute decisions and choices, end stages of long term goals or desires, and final thoughts or desires to complete some aspect of our lives. As the Sun and Mercury are both transiting the anorectic degree (29) of Gemini, we may feel compelled to make some kind of statement or decision. Failure to do so, will hinder progress.

Mercury will be in Cancer until July 5, joining with the Sun to bring a desire for nesting and creating a safe home environment in and around us. A really good time to focus on the practice of Ahimsa—do no harm—to yourself and others. Whatever you say, do, speak, think has energy and power, and being mindful of that energy and that power helps you channel your thoughts, words, and deeds in a helpful, healing manner. Kindness is the operative word, and involves being kind to yourself as well. Forgiveness is another aspect of letting energy transform. Forgiving whoever or whatever you need to, including seeking forgiveness yourself, can enhance the transition and transformation that is taking place.

Uranus in Aries signals a clean break with whatever is blocking your path. Whatever needs to be released, needs to happen now. Be attentive to those subtle nudges to release old patterns of thought, behavior, and connections where you’ve let your energy get stuck. We get stuck in all kinds of things, including ideals of who we think we are or who we think should be. We get stuck in memories, old relationships or ways of relating, and we get stuck in the simple daily routines that we refuse to acknowledge or occasionally question. Uranus in Aries is reminding all of us, continually, that life is all about movement, change, and growth. Just when we think we have arrived, we realize there’s a new train leaving the station. And we’re meant to be on it.

Where are you headed? What would you like to do, find, or experience? What’s stopping you from pursuing your dreams? What are you waiting for?  Use this New Moon in Cancer to create the life and home you truly want to inhabit. Give yourself the gift of living life, not just marking time. It’s a powerful week, full of opportunities, gateways, and new doors to open.  Break out of your shell, and let yourself live. 

Lyrics to Changes by David Bowie:

Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes
Turn and face the strange
Ch-ch-changes
Ooh, look out you rock 'n' rollers
Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes
Turn and face the strange
Ch-ch-changes
Pretty soon now you're gonna get older
Time may change me
But I can't trace time
I said that time may change me
But I can't trace time

Healing Full Moon in Sagittarius

The Healing Full  Moon in Sagittarius reaches her peak at 6:09 a.m. PDT/9:09 a.m. EDT on Friday, June 9, 2017. Focus of the Moon in the second decan of Sagittarius is on women’s health,midwifery, genetics. DNA, and the family history in the healing of the family wounds. The individual and collective families are receiving some special, powerful light this Full Moon to place our awareness on where and how we need to continue healing. 

The Full Moon in Sagittarius opposing the Sun in Gemini focuses our attention on the axis of mental, intellectual, intuitive, and emotional ways of knowing and processing information. Sagittarius Moon looks for meaning, purpose, and ideas to turn into action while Gemini Sun tends to use logic, analysis of sensory input, and connection with the immediate environment. Fire and Air mix to spark a lot of ideas, energy, and disparate and conflicting directions. Our emotional well being is more adventurous in Sagittarius finding us longing for some new and untested challenges.

The Gemini Sun makes us at home with the immediate and current situation while the Sagittarius Moon has us longing for adventure and pushing the limitations and boundaries, whether imposed or self-determined. The challenge of this Full Moon in Sagittarius is to balance between the two polarities as we seek harmony. This Full Moon is all about healing the ways we communicate, looking for new ways to heal ongoing issues, and learning to recognize and cope with our ancestral ties and wounds as part of an ongoing healing journey. We do not leave the past behind, but carry it within us. Facing what has helped us become who we are, helps us cope more effectively and heal more fully.

Whatever has been building up within us is now coming to a head with this full moon cycle. We are facing conflict between our ways of knowing, thinking, feeling, and sensing, and our system of beliefs, and our spiritual and philosophical practices. We may find a need to question, reconsider, examine, and update our practices to fit with how we have matured and what we have learned about ourselves and the world we inhabit. What has changed in the way you perceive life, the world around you, and your part in it? What is missing or in need of connection, and how are you being called to make alterations, repairs, or changes? Where are you on your journey at this time?

All Full Moons tend to spark emotions, and this one is no exception. We have a strong desire to express our emotions, communicate what we feel, think, and believe, and reveal what we are seeking and what we need to heal more fully. This Full Moon forms a square to Neptune in Pisces, and may bring up whatever is necessary for you to deal with what the real issues of your life are. This may result in a change of plans; we cannot force a direction or path that is blocked without removing the obstacles in our way. Notice what is arising as a challenge during this lunar cycle. Look to the areas in your chart/life where Gemini/Sagittarius/Pisces are, and this will help you determine the ongoing situations that needs tending to. 

On June 6, just three days before the Full Moon in Sagittarius, Mercury changes signs. Joining the Sun in Gemini, Mercury is right at home in the chatty and exciting energy of Gemini. Venus enters Taurus on June 6 as well, and grounds our search and definition of love, romance, and beauty in the practical reality and down-to-earth efforts expressed by those we love. Venus in Taurus is all about showing rather than saying how we feel. Our artwork, our romances, our relationships in general are all about doing, bringing meaning into form, and creating the beauty we need in all aspects of our lives. It is a good time for those who seek to redefine their journey to be more inclusive of love, romance, art, beauty, or spiritual depth to envision and create something tangible to symbolize this quest. Decorate your home, redo your look, or create more beauty and order in your garden. Drape beauty in all areas where you want to attract more connection.

Look for love in the simplicity, art in the ordinary, and meaning in the pragmatic everyday acts of life. Mars, the planet of action  and the masculine aspect of life, has just entered Cancer. Our need to create safe, secure, and homey abodes for ourselves and our loved ones is prominent at this time. Neptune, Chiron, and Mars trine one another, and so whatever upset the Neptune square to the Moon creates, it will also be soothed by the ability of each of us to create peace and harmony within our homes, within ourselves. Like a turtle, we need to walk with our protection in and around us. Being aware of how we carry our home with us wherever we are, we find we are never in danger of being unprotected even in the hardest of times. There is that essence within each of us that comes forth when we most need it. We will all become very aware of this during this lunar cycle. 

As I write this column on Monday, June 5, Neptune forms a semi square to  Venus in the final degrees of Aries. This may cause us to feel somewhat confused or misled about something regarding our loved ones or our dreams and hopes. We may be surprised by some news we receive or realize we had been looking at a situation differently than it actually was. We are seeking the keys to understanding how life is changing right now, and on the brink of Venus’ transit from Aries to Taurus, we may receive some last minute reminders of the importance of not assuming too much. Living in fantasy and illusion can lead to unnecessary pain and delusion. Seek truth and travel unencumbered from illusions that keep us from seeing who and what is authentic and real. It’s often comfortable and convenient to slip back into old beliefs and perceptions. Take off the blinders and deal with what is rather than dwelling too much in wishful thinking.

Later in the week and on the full Moon, Venus and Mars form a sextile making for a more fortunate, cohesive, and compatible energy. This Full Moon may reveal a lot about what is growing and coming to life now. At the same time since the Full Moon is at 18 degrees in the second decan of Sagittarius, this Full Moon can reveal some outbursts in the collective sphere. Corruption, abuses of power that come to light now, can trigger some pretty strong reactions…all part of the ongoing transformation that Pluto in Capricorn is pushing through in this cycle. 

Anyone who feels pushed or exposed now, can erupt or react in irrational and unpredictable ways. What comes to light includes using the poor and displaced populations as pawns in a game of human trafficking that involves a great deal of money and unscrupulous international power structures. What is being revealed in the light of this Moon in Sagittarius unmasks those who usually hide in the shadows or find safety behind their positions and power. 

Those who might ordinarily be on opposite sides are now united against that which is unacceptable and obviously corrupt and wrong-headed.

The best use of the energy and power of this Full Moon is to focus on healing—within and in all areas of the world in which we live. Avoid negative expressions, which are intensified with this lunation. Use energy for healing, completing, reshaping, and finding ways to work on the common healing of all humankind and our planet. Use your power for good, and help change the patterns, vibrations, and energy of Life in the channels for peace, healing, and reconciliation.