New Moon in Cancer
Dear Friends
We have a new moon in the sensitive water sign of Cancer on Wednesday (25 June, 11.32am, UK time), just on the back of the Summer Solstice, as the Sun turns back from its tropical zenith, and begins its slow descent. And that turning stirs an impulse within us to turn toward the memory of the soul, to remember where we come from, to connect with what it is that continues through us from the past. It prompts us to recall the origins of our being.
The Aspects in Today’s Chart
This new moon has expansive, far-sighted Jupiter for company, with the so-called ‘Great Benefic’ marking an exact conjunction to the Sun and Moon at 4˚ Cancer, which brings a bright, optimistic feel. With Jupiter in the sign of its exaltation and the moon in rulership in Cancer, this looks very auspicious. There is a cautionary note to the potential good fortune, as Jupiter is still involved in a square aspect to the Saturn-Neptune conjunction at 2˚ Aries; the square to Saturn suggesting lingering doubt and obstacles, and the square to Neptune: confusion, lack of clarity or ungroundedness. This aspect is separating now, which mitigates its effect to some extent. There is though an exact inconjunct aspect to Pluto, which looks unsettling, indiciative of an underlying emotional and pyschic intensity. We should be mindful of obsessive tendencies, and draw on the courage and independence of Mars, which is making a helpful sextile in Virgo, to support us move forward step by step and release old toxic attachments. Together these planets form a yod aspect which suggests a certain evolutionary pressure to make a particular type of adjustment in our lives, adding weight and significance to our choices over this period. A new moon is a time where we sow the seed of intention for what is to come. Being in Cancer this needs to be invested with a sufficient depth of connection to whatever it is that really feeds the soul.
The Back and Forth Tug of the Soul
The sign of Cancer is all about belonging. Being under the guardianship of the moon, we are drawn inwards, memories of what has passed leave strong impressions on the psyche, reminding us of the familial threads that our woven through our soul’s journey. The back and forth movements of the crab and the rhythms of the Moon and tides connect us to the deep motions of the soul, and incline our attention back toward what is most fundamental to our being, to a feeling of being held, nurtured, cherished within the bosom of the Mother. We feel the complex nature of the mother archetype most strongly in this sign, and all the places where weren’t cared for and felt that nurturing care was lacking.
What Does ‘Home’ Mean to You?
Few things in life are more important to us than finding a home, somewhere we can feel safe and secure, and we may spend much of our lives searching for this. As your set your intention over this new moon, you might usefully ask yourself the question: “what does home mean to me?” It might evoke a feeling of being at peace, a place to rest and connect, a place where we are loved unconditionally, a place of warmth and care, a place to return to. We might connect home with the feeling of belonging, of being at home within ourselves, surrounded by the natural beauty of the world. What does that look like for you?
Our actual memory of home may be very far from this ideal, perhaps being a place where we felt isolated, unloved, controlled, violated or abandoned. This betrayal of how home should have been has set in motion a whole series of behaviours that unconsciously replicate the dysfunction we experienced. As adults we often struggle to make a home in the way we would like it to be, and this struggle can be a source of deep sadness and grief. Yet most of us can imagine home as it could be. The invitation over this new moon is to nurture that ideal and, in so doing, draw it closer to our lived reality.
This quote by Toko-Pa Turner really spoke to me today, as I was putting this article together:
“To this world you belong. To this moment, in this place where you already stand, something greater has ushered you in. To the momentum of a long line of survivors you are bound. From their good deaths, succeeded by new lives, and to the incidents of love that seeded them, your story has been woven. With the wild jubilation of nature, you are in correspondence. By every season’s conditions, and by the invisible holy inclination, your life has been hewn. And yet you may feel, as so many of us do, the ache of a life orphaned from belonging.” (Toko-Pa Turner, Belonging: Remembering Ourselves Home, ch.1)
My Cancerian Mantra
To help seed your new moon intention, you might want to connect with my Cancer mantra, which runs:
“I am connect to the source of my being, and I remember my origins.”
New moon blessings to all.
John
For a deeper dive into the Zodiac, and the ‘Twelve Gateways to Wholeness’, you can purchase my book, Your Zodiac Soul, published by Orion Books (2018).
