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