New Moon in 18/2° Cancer, July 9, 2021 at 6:16 PDT/9:16 PM EDT
Honoring our need to make a secure home. Making home homier. Seeking ways to nurture and honor our sense of feeling at home and making a nurturing, secure home for ourselves and our families. Making plans now to improve our lives, and time to lay the groundwork for whatever kinds of changes we want to make within the next few weeks. Focus for Cancer is on creating a space and environment that is both secure, safe, healthy, and comforting.
This Cancer lunar phase is a kind of nesting time for us. A time when we seek to create peaceful, comfortable, nourishing home life as well as a more supportive way of living life so that we feel more at home wherever we are. The changes brought on by our need to maintain safe conditions during the pandemic, have called upon us to now make adjustments to our old ways of doing things and carrying on business. Some of us were busier and under more pressure during much of the last year and a half due to our work; others have been more isolated and have had to change the way they have been working. This Cancer lunar cycle calls for some realistic adjustments, where we build in greater security, self care, and more innovative ways of integrating back into a new approach to work and life balance. Now is a good time to spend some time discerning how we might make those kinds of adjustments.
The Sun in Cancer along with the Moon, emphasize and heighten our desire and need to create a more nurturing environment for our families, our pets, ourselves. Time to treat yourself with a great deal of TLC (tender loving care). With the Sun and Moon both in Cancer, we may find this a more emotional time than usual. It’s a good cleansing time for our emotional energy, so find some soothing, creative outlets to express yourself. Allow yourself to indulge your senses with walks on the beach or hikes in the hills. Seek ways to become more a part of the sensual world, and let the sun warm you and the waters soothe you. It’s a time to take good care of ourselves, and to encourage our loved ones to do the same.
Venus is conjunct Mars in Leo signaling energy that can be used creatively to make necessary changes are needed. Uranus in Taurus squares Mars/Venus indicating this will be required due to some unexpected changes (look to see which houses/sectors of life Leo and Taurus rule, in addition to aspects they may make to natal planets/progressions). Venus and Mars in Leo also oppose Saturn, the Great Teacher which is transiting Aquarius. Challenging us to find a middle ground for changes and improvements, based on what we’ve learned about innovation and looking ahead. Opposition to Saturn can make us feel a bit insecure, as our feelings and need for affirmation and affection, are more evident now than usual.
Venus conjunct Mar in Leo is probably one of the most passionate aspects possible. The dramatic and warm need to express ourselves, is heightened. Needing to create and express ourselves, this is a fruitful, productive time, especially in the areas of love, romance, art, drama, and the world as a stage for the theater of life. It’s a great time for working with others in some creative venture. And needless to say, this is a time when ‘love at first sight’, taking a chance on love, and the desire to reveal our true feelings, are enhanced.
The period leading up to the New Moon in Cancer on Friday, is called the Dark of the Moon. It is when the moon is waning, and it’s a time when one lunar cycle is coming to a close, readying the way for new energy. A good time to put some things to rest: old beliefs and patterns of behavior, projects and unfinished business, relationships to whatever was important, but no longer is, and whatever else needs weeding from your life.
The New Moon in Cancer squares Chiron, the Wounded Healer, shortly before the new moon peaks. This may signal some insight and/or emotional release (or both) giving you greater insight about how old wounds are affecting you at this point. The insight is valuable because it gives you the keys to unlock some old pattern or intuitive insight into how you continue to allow the past to shape the present, and the future. It provides the keys to unlocking the secrets and/or intuitive insight of the past, so that you can remove the hold it may have on you. Think of the fairy tale where a kingdom is under an ancient curse, and all the inhabitants fall into a deep sleep. When the magic elixir or sacred words are at last spoken, the people awaken from their sleep. This is such a time, and we are in need of a great awakening, both on the personal level and as a whole. We’re all at the stage where we have been roused from our sleep; now it is time to get up, shake off the past, and start forward. Before we travel though, we take time to prepare for what is ahead. Use this Cancer New Moon and the rest of the solar and lunar cycle to treat yourself with great care, soothing, resting, and calming yourself for the new road ahead.
The Moon rules Cancer, and so is at home here, more than anywhere else. Seek the home within you. Create a home around you that nurtures and provides you with the resources you need for forging ahead as you walk a new path. Things to keep in mind: On Wednesday, before the new moon, Mercury in Gemini makes its third and final square to Neptune, resulting in greater clarity after a long period of miscommunication. There may still be some confusion, but we discover the fog is lifting. Before the new moon, Mercury officially comes out from the shadow of its retrograde cycle. Issues are resolved; a new cycle begins. It’s important to be clear about decisions and directions; it is equally important to be kind.
The New Moon in Cancer enables us to water the seeds we’ve planted, and to continue to release whatever we’ve been hanging onto. Whatever we don’t release, rides into the next cycle as extra baggage. Toss it off now. Remember the lessons of Pluto (now opposing the Moon) which remind us of what it takes to create new energy, plant new crops, and build greater and more healthy relationships (to self, others,the world in general)
Good news ahead, is that Mercury will be leaving Gemini by this Sunday, and will be joining the Cancer Moon and Sun.
The symbol for Cancer is the crab. Like the crab, we carry our ideas and inner identity to home, within and around with us. Like the crab, we maintain an vulnerable, soft inner essence while wearing the protective mantle allowing us to set boundaries, and maintain a safe, secure shell around our more vulnerable self. This is the time to take good care of ourselves, and to use great discernment in our relationships: personal, professional, familial, community, and to our greater society of humanity.
Cancer rules the home, homelife, and parents, including our ideas and experiences with what those mean. If you’ve ever watched a sand crab, you’ll know that they did themselves a nesting place in the warm, wet sand along the shoreline.The sandcrab is designed for quickly burrowing in the sand to protect itself. It’s eyes protrude out of the sand to keep a watch on its surroundings. It also has the ability to project the long stalks which hold their eyes above the surface to gather water and to gather food from the surface. The sandcrab is a good example of what we all need to do periodically. Be like the Crab. Seek a safe, comfortable, safe spot to gather your resources, rest, and prepare for what is ahead.
