Mercury Direct
So how did your Mercury retrograde go? I know something
happened to all of us, because I saw it happening all around me too. What about you? What did you run up against? What flowed smoothly? What did you learn
about yourself and your needs? Mercury
retrograde in Cancer can tumble us in crashing ocean waves or cradle us as it
rocks us down the river.
Mercury is the god of travelers, after all, and when it goes
retrograde we tend to do our traveling within ourselves. When Mercury travels backwards through the
water signs, we discover our emotional needs and depths. Did you find any emotional nurturance this
watery retrograde period (June 26—July 20)?
Did friends come through for you?
Did your children show you their love?
Did your boss recognize your work? Did you create something? Did you see a beautiful sunrise? Did a wild creature cross your path? Can you feel the love that others want to
give you? When we know we’re loved, we’re
not afraid to ask for what we need. I
hope Mercury showed you exactly what you need to fulfill your life so you can start
asking for it.
Mercury can also play the trickster on us. If we’re not listening to our bodies, our
hearts, our spirits—but only the mind—we might have encountered some
difficulties during the past three weeks.
Did your unconscious decisions come home to roost? Are you having a hard time standing up for
your own needs? Are you over-mothering
and getting the backlash? Are you not getting the recognition you deserve? Do you
feel unsupported? Are you fearful of a
health crisis? Any and all of these
experiences are Mercury’s challenge to you.
Don’t forget, ‘As Within, So Without’.
Time to take care of yourself.
Mercury in Cancer has us exploring our emotional body needs
and can even help us ride those wild emotional currents instead of being
swamped by them. We all have a lot to
deal with right now, fully engaged in the mid-point of the ongoing Uranus/Pluto
game-changing square. Since Saturn in
Scorpio turned to direct motion on July 7th, our spiritual test
(Neptune in Pisces—trining Saturn) is to stand in our truth and stop projecting
our shadows out into the world and onto other beings (human or otherwise). If
we don’t learn how to relate to ourselves, how can we relate to others?
Mercury retrograde in Cancer gave us the opportunity to
listen in to our real hopes and dreams—rather than to the false desires
patriarchy has tried to shape us to. Consuming is a Cancer task, but America,
a Cancer country, has taken it to extremes.
Cancer’s real wisdom concerns when and what to consume for optimum Body,
Mind & Spirit health.
The six planets moving through Cancer are energizing our personal and collective emotional body and opening our minds to listening to and understanding what our hearts believe, need and desire. When we own up to our own rejected emotional needs, we can stand up for ourselves even when we stand up for others. It’s a win-win situation when we understand the feminine voice of Wisdom, which comes to us through the language of the heart.
The Sabian symbol for Mercury turning direct at 14* Cancer
is: An old man, alone, faces the darkness
in the NorthEast. This old man is in
need of renewal—that’s why he faces the NorthEast. Like each of us, he stands alone facing the
darkness in the land; he stands there centered in his spirit and hopeful in his
heart for rebirth. He has to remain
faithful to his heart wisdom. This
degree gives us the ability to channel
emotional power. This is the next
step in our evolution.
This
Summer’s Water Grand Trine and potent Square
Just to recap: Multiple
planets have been moving through Cancer since June, each making up the third leg of a grand water trine along with Saturn
in Scorpio and Neptune in Pisces. Mercury,
Venus, Moon, Sun in Cancer have already formed the third leg with Jupiter and
Mars finishing up this week just before the Full Moon on Monday. Each energy center has been blessed by the
Great Mother of Life in this time of crisis and transformation. (Mercury-5th, Venus-4th,
Moon-6th, Sun-3rd, Jupiter-7th, Mars-2nd,
Saturn-1st). With a water trine, our boundaries are fluid,
making us more psychic and open to
each other. This ongoing healing trine
offers the gifts of healing, wisdom and greater consciousness. Stay open so your dreams and feelings can
guide you in reshaping your life.
This blessing calls us back to the loving arms of the Mother,
to the Earthly Paradise, where all of us are loved. If we would love our neighbors, first we must
love ourselves. And we learn that love
from this Great Mother who nurtures us, shelters us, gives us life and takes us
at death. The healing energies of this
grand trine are profound if we consciously work with them and healing
none-the-less even if we don’t. We just have to watch out that we don’t get
dragged under by powerful emotions where we project onto others our own
deficiencies because we refuse to accept Saturn in Scorpio’s demand to look at
our own darkness.
Neptune in Pisces can help us dream big dreams, opening our
imaginations to Spirit’s messages.
Aligned with Saturn, we have a chance to actually manifest some of our
dreams. The planets moving through
Cancer pick up these big change
energies and incorporate them into our daily lives. As each one of them become part of the water
trine, Neptune and Saturn will bring both a vision and a discipline to our
lunar feeling life, our solar sense of Self, our Venusian love nature, our
Mercurial mind, our Jupiterian inspiration and curiosity, and late this month,
to our Martian desires.
At the same time, each of these planets will become part of
the Uranus/Pluto square.
All of us are struggling at the crossroads where Pluto in Capricorn and
Uranus in Aries are challenging each other and us with the energies of death
and revolution, transformation and innovation, letting go of the old so the new
can be born. This is deep and
exhausting work and everyone needs some lovin’ at times like these. So while the universe is sending us
challenges all month, remember it is also sending us the blessings of the
waters. The Water of Life heals us on
the deepest levels, so let the healing happen while you deal with the
challenges.
As these planets move through Cancer and come into an
opposition with Pluto and a square to Uranus, they receive the energy of change
and transformation as well as send a message back about what our emotional and
security needs really are. In the midst
of deep change, what are the important things to hold close? Family, friends, creativity, children,
nature, spirit, justice? Cancer demands
that we take into consideration the feminine, nurturing qualities of life that
patriarchy has ignored. Now is the time
to recognize and incorporate these feminine qualities in your own life and in
our collective life.
The Goddess has returned and She wants us to recognize that
we are all loved. But like any good
mother, She wants us to also love each other.
The
Aquarius/Leo Full Moon
The Aquarius Full Moon occurs just a few hours after the Sun enters Leo on July 22, at 11:17am PDT/ 2:17pm EDT/ 6:17pm GMT. This is the first of two full Moons in the sign of Aquarius—the second one on August 20th will be a Blue Moon—when there are two full Moons in an astrological month (not in a calendar month). After the second Aquarius full Moon we’ll be back on the new Moon/ full Moon lunar cycle. (Remember, now we have a full Moon in a sign before the new Moon.)
Every year we cycle through all the
signs of the zodiac along with the Sun.
As the Sun enters the sign of Leo, our attention turns to Leo’s truths:
self-confidence, creativity, self-expression, personal power, generosity,
playfulness and Individuation. More than
any other sign, Leo represents the urge that Carl Jung called Individuation—our
soulful need to be unique individuals.
But unlike ego-individuality, individuation helps us also see that we
are part of a larger group.
That larger group is represented by
Aquarius. Aquarius offers us the
possibility of alliances with like-minded individuals working toward a common
goal. So while we work on our personal
hopes, we also can be working on our shared dreams. Now is a great time to search out like-minded
individuals who are working on a common goal.
We are stronger for our unity.
The Sabian symbol for the Sun at
1*Leo is: Blood rushes to a man’s head
in anger. Anger is an intense emotion that mobilizes our vital energies to
defend ourselves. Will we give in and
attack or will we process the emotion and understand just what it is that makes
us so angry? Is it righteous
indignation? Or a need to fight for
personal rights? Can we use our will to
direct these energies properly? Since
the blood goes to the man’s head, perhaps we need to ‘use our heads’ and not
get caught up in emotional drama?
Instead, we need to name the emotion and understand what it’s telling us
and then act on it consciously.
The Sabian symbol for the Moon at 1*
Aquarius is: A cubical white temple in
the desert. The desert strips you
bare—it leaves you to face your essential self.
Since this is a temple in the desert, it is dedicated to the basic
spiritual and natural laws of life.
Leaving religions behind us, we can seed a new spiritual vision that
encompasses the realities of our times and can be a basis for a new
civilization based on partnership between masculine and feminine rather than
patriarchal domination over everyone else.
The old gods are dead—a new age calls us to spiritual and earthy
freedom.
Saturn in Scorpio squares this full
Moon, showing us where we need to make some inner changes so we can all work
together. Saturn demands that we take
responsibility for our lives, and with the square to the full Moon, it shows us
where we are accountable for the mess in our lives. Full Moons bring us
awareness through relationships. Saturn squaring the full Moon says, ‘if you
want to become aware of how you fit into the group, pay attention to how you
feel with others.’ But since Saturn is
still part of the grand water trine—especially now that Jupiter and Mars are
part of it—we will have the energy, enthusiasm and confidence to move ahead
with our plans. Keep sharing those plans
with like-minded people because that’s how collective change happens. It’s time to realize that ‘no man is an
island’ and that if we really mean it that we want to change our world, then we
have to find others to work with. This
full Moon and the 2nd Aquarius full Moon will help us connect.
The
last week of July will be intense as Mars in Cancer opposes Pluto in Capricorn
and squares Uranus in Aries. Watch some
long-standing issues come to a head and beware of jumping to conclusions
without getting all the information.
This volatile combination can give rise to power struggles. Are they worth it? When you become a vessel of power, which is
the feminine way of handling power, there are no struggles. Just an easy flow of handing power around the
circle.
Grand Sextile
A beautiful
and rare grand sextile occurs on July 29, 2013.
The grand sextile is formed by two grand trines. The first is our water trine we’ve been
bathing in since June. The second is an earth
grand trine comprised of the Moon in Taurus, Venus in Virgo and Pluto in
Capricorn. This second grand trine
speaks about the collective re-orientation toward the Divine Feminine. Combined, the two trines position a planet every 60* around
the circle in the feminine elements of water and earth. Manifestation is powered by our emotional
body and the more focused we are on our real needs which nourish life, the
better able we are to manifest the situations which will help us get what we
need. Sextiles (60* aspects) are all
about opportunity, and this beauty gives us another opportunity to change
ourselves and our world. Step into your new life!
Below is a
list of the changing energies remaining this month. Watch and see how you feel and act on these
powerful days.
Dates for the Water Trine and the
Uranus/Pluto T-squares:
July 13: Mars enters Cancer
July 17: Uranus stations retrograde. Jupiter in Cancer trines Saturn and Neptune.
July 19: Saturn trines Neptune
July 20: Mercury stationary direct. Mars in Cancer trines Saturn and Neptune.
July 22: Mar conjuncts Jupiter in Cancer. Venus enters Virgo. Sun enters Leo. Full Moon in Aquarius/Leo.
July 27: Mars in Cancer opposite Pluto in Capricorn.
July 31: Mars in Cancer squares Uranus in Aries.
As we head into the harvest-time of Lammas (August 1),
remember to offer something of your harvest to the Divine Spirit of Life. Offerings show our love and gratitude; save a
child, a tree, a river, a man, a woman—in honor of the Light.
Blessed Be.
Cathy