The Cosmic Story: Summer Solstice & Cancer New Moon 2017

The Cosmic Story: Summer Solstice & Cancer New Moon 2017

Sacred Marriage

The Sun goes into the sign of Cancer at the Summer Solstice, the longest day of the year, on the night of June 20th--June 21^st. And this year, the Cancer New Moon occurs on the third day when the ‘Sun stands still’ at the Solstice before it turns back South. So this Cancer New Moon is supercharged with the blessings of the Summer Solstice, the Marriage of Heaven and Earth.

Summer Solstice, when life is abundant with heaven’s blessings, is also a time to come home to yourself so that Sacred Marriage can happen within you as well as out in the world. This is the season to find your inner Beloved and marry that energy to your consciousness. You will birth something awesome this next year if you do. 

 

Summer Solstice chart 2017

This year’s Solstice chart has the Sun in Cancer and it’s ruler, the Moon, in Taurus, the sign of its exaltation. That means the Moon is very happy in Taurus where it can ground in its nurturing power to make things grow. The Moon is conjunct Taurus’ ruler, Venus, and receives a power boost from Pluto in Capricorn as well as a little magic from Neptune in Pisces. I would say this Solstice chart invites us to manifest our deepest dreams with love, intelligence and grace, both for yourself and for the world. We have to birth a new society that will bring our deepest ideals into reality. We do that by living those ideals. The American Revolution is in its second phase: the future is calling our names.

Summer Solstice has always been a time of joyous celebrations, for the Light is bright, the Earth is fruitful and life’s pleasures are appreciated, because we know that soon the Dark will Rise, for the Dark is as important to life as Light. Unfortunately our society no longer honors the Dark for its true gifts of inner vision, possibilities and silence; rather we misunderstand it and twist it into our cruelty to life, our fear of death and our unconsciousness. So at this great festival of Light – embrace the kernel of darkness within you, the seed of future possibilities, without fear. Change is the only constant.

We honor the Great Mother of Life as the Sun rises high in the North, just as we honor Grandfather Spirit when the Sun travels to the deepest South. (Happy Winter Solstice to everyone down there!) Cancer the Mother symbolizes the primordial waters/womb that give birth to all life. As Above, So Below. Cancer also symbolizes our emotional bodies, just as our particular Moon (ruler of Cancer) shapes our unique emotional body. The emotional body processes the emotional energies that activate and carry us through life, reflecting how we experience life. Do we embrace life to the fullest, or try to hold back and control it? Do we meet life as an adventure or as a responsibility? Do we love to sink into a depression and stay there or do we let the river of our emotions flow unimpeded so when we get pulled under by depression, we pop right back up and take a breath and see what else life has to offer? An Aries Moon will process her emotional life differently than a Cancer or Virgo Moon. Their emotional wounds will be different.

This month as the Sun travels through Cancer, most of us will turn our attention to home, family, nurturing, beach, relaxation – whatever says mother love and nurturing to you. It’s a season of self-care and abundance, so don’t miss this opportunity to pamper yourself in all the right ways. Excess is sloppy and not really nurturing. Unwind and get centered.

A few hours after the Sun enters Cancer, Mercury, who just raced through Gemini after trudging through Taurus, leaps into the arms of Mother Cancer and then dances with the Sun in the early morning. When I was a kid, early summer mornings were the best – soft breezes blowing through open windows, bright light filling the room and best of all, no school! In that relaxed, happy moment, I was totally at one with the world. That’s what Mercury in Cancer’s mission is. A dive into the watery depths of life to bring back the heart’s messages on how to recapture that peace, pleasure and at-one-ment. The emotional security of home.

Cancer New Moon

Cancer New Moon 2017

This year’s Cancer New Moon slips home on June 23rd during the window of the Summer Solstice. All New Moons are energetic births and beginnings, but the Cancer New Moon stands out because Cancer is the Moon’s domain. The Cancer New Moon re-births our emotional body, asking us to dig ever deeper to find our true home. To feel most ourselves.

The Great Mother ocean, symbolized by the sign of Cancer, gave birth to life on this planet and continues to give birth to each of us on Cancer’s New Moon.

The Cancer New Moon occurs on Friday, June 23rd at 7:31pm PDT/ 10:31pm EDT and Saturday, June 24th at 2:31am GMT.  

The Sabian Symbol for the Sun and Moon at 3* Cancer is: An arctic explorer, following up reports of a unicorn, brings back a reindeer instead.  (the Revised Sabian Symbols, Steven D. Eardley)   So here we set off to explore the unknown, expecting to find magic.  The Unicorn symbolizes the magic of self-ownership, a purity of spirit, for he only comes to a virgin--a woman who belongs to herself.  And that leads to infinite possibilities.  But expectations can cause trouble, so this symbol cautions us to let go of expectations and see what happens.  Reindeer symbolizes wisdom, resourcefulness, cleverness, knowledge, creativity, inventiveness and cleverness. That's the real way to embrace magic!

The Great Mother

This Cancer New Moon is very juicy. The Great Mother is cooking up a sweet and spicy stew for us. Its taste is fiery, bold, rich and sweet – a truly subtle blend of spices. Just what the Mother ordered to nurture our emotional bodies so we can embrace this summer’s Great American Eclipse that occurs on ‘the heart of the lion’. So we can embrace our soul’s work in the world.

As a base note, the bone broth has been cooking since the mid-60s – an initial blast of evolutionary fire sustained by an ever growing, awakening consciousness. It’s been deepening ever since, and took on a new depth and richness in the last 5 years. The multiple flavors add zest while the chaotic undertones add excitement. This stew is cooking!

Nested within this soupy broth, the Mother added a magnificent contradiction: How to bring light and dark, sweet and sour, fiery and cold together? Or Heaven and Earth/ Neptune and Saturn? How to get down to business, how to re-imagine a society, how to contribute to society as spiritual beings? This past year she’s had to separate out the truth from the lies, what is unhealthy from what feeds the soul. Skimming off waste so the true taste can shine through.

The stew is thickening. Now it’s time to bring in the big taste that will bring it all together. Pluto bursting out through Jupiter in Libra has been exposing all the ways we are not a fair and just society everyday in the news; it’s also been bringing out the peacemakers and justice seekers to rectify imbalances. Uranus beaming through Jupiter offers its unique take on the world. This big taste has to be added with a light hand, or instead of being the perfect blending agent, it could tip the scales into something too hot or too bland. Don’t take your individual mandate too far in either direction. We’re meant to work together on this new creation. 
 The fires of Saturn in Sagittarius, Uranus in Aries and the Leo North Node bestow the gift of transformation on us.  Let your passionate inspiration and vision come through in your creation. 

That’s where the personal planets make all the difference. Know yourself and how you uniquely express these universal energies. Then see how those birth energies are influenced by these added textures.

As mentioned, Mercury slipped into Cancer just after the Solstice, so the Mind takes on a watery depth, dispersing through the stew to pick up intuitive clues about our emotional state. Since Mars is also in Cancer, just beginning to connect with Jupiter before hitting Pluto’s power and then Uranus’ awakening, expect some hot and spicy exchanges, especially with family and friends – probably about politics. Try to listen, because the other person probably won’t.

Mars in Cancer can steam up quickly and first the Moon and then the Sun and Mercury will gather steam as they move through the sign and connect with Jupiter, Pluto and Uranus. There’s a need to protect your people, not just yourself. Fiery, revolutionary energy is around for this 4^th of July. This must have been what our forefathers and foremothers felt like before the Revolution. Dissatisfied and electrified and listening to what their emotional bodies needed. Freedom from tyranny.

Venus is in her own sign of Taurus, bringing music and laughter, art and dance, love and sensuality to the mix. This goddess holds ancient wisdom and we need to embrace what she brings to our lives. It is our creativity, our enjoyment of life, our love and self-worth that make life rich and fulfilling – just like the Mother’s stew. As in the Solstice chart, Venus is offered Pluto’s powerful energies as well as Neptune’s creative imagination to do her part in making this life, and stew, worthwhile. She’s also resonating with the new lunar nodes in late Leo, offering her gifts and talents for our much-needed Self-expression.

All in all, the Mother is offering us deeply satisfying nourishment at this Cancer New Moon. She can help us re-birth ourselves through a deeper, fuller connection to our soul’s desires. Help to strengthen our emotional body for the work ahead – it’s time to bring your new form into the world, a form that is juicy with life and light and love.

Because these Cancer planets are re-activating the deep energies of revolutionary awakening, remember that these emotional energies can scare you as well as enliven you. Try not to retreat behind Cancer’s hard shell when you fall into fear. Just let it flow out of you and acknowledge the experience. Don’t hold onto the emotions; rather, ride the waves. Fear and guilt are society’s control mechanisms. Let them wash through you and free your heart. It is magnificent! Let it do its work of nurturing the seed of light within you.

Blessed Be!

Cathy

In Praise of the Earth - John O'Donohue
Where there is no vision, the people perish.
-- Proverbs 29:18

In Praise of the Earth

Let us bless
The imagination of the Earth.
That knew early the patience
To harness the mind of time,
Waited for the seas to warm,
Ready to welcome the emergence
Of things dreaming of voyaging
Among the stillness of land.

And how light knew to nurse
The growth until the face of the Earth
Brightened beneath a vision of color.

When the ages of ice came
And sealed the Earth inside
An endless coma of cold,
The heart of the Earth held hope,
Storing fragments of memory,
Ready for the return of the sun.

Let us thank the Earth
That offers ground for home
And holds our feet firm
To walk in space open
To infinite galaxies.

Let us salute the silence
And certainty of mountains:
Their sublime stillness,
Their dream-filled hearts.

The wonder of a garden
Trusting the first warmth of spring
Until its black infinity of cells
Becomes charged with dream;
Then the silent, slow nurture
Of the seed's self, coaxing it
To trust the act of death.

The humility of the Earth
That transfigures all
That has fallen
Of outlived growth.

The kindness of the Earth,
Opening to receive
Our worn forms
Into the final stillness.

Let us ask forgiveness of the Earth
For all our sins against her:
For our violence and poisonings
Of her beauty.

Let us remember within us
The ancient clay,
Holding the memory of seasons,
The passion of the wind,
The fluency of water,
The warmth of fire,
The quiver-touch of the sun
And shadowed sureness of the moon.

That we may awaken,
To live to the full
The dream of the Earth
Who chose us to emerge
And incarnate its hidden night
In mind, spirit, and light.

~ John O'Donohue ~

(To Bless the Space Between Us)