Sunday, July 19, 2020

The Cosmic Story: 2nd Cancer New Moon, July 20, 2020

The Cosmic Story: 2nd Cancer New Moon, July 20, 2020
The Divine Mother Gives Birth to a New Age




This Monday we get to experience a 2nd Cancer New Moon, occurring at the very end of the Cancer Solar Eclipse cycle. Each New Moon month arrives back in its own sign to complete the cycle, to see what we've learned about what we planted at the New Moon. Usually we come to a deeper understanding of what we thought we wanted from the cycle. This month, we get to re-plant some more seeds as we discover deeper needs.

Cancer is the sign of the Mother, of our emotional bodies, of home and security and family. With the Solar Eclipse on Summer Solstice, we planted new seeds about emotional security and the need to re-mother ourselves, which means to love ourselves. And to re-mother our nation, since Cancer also rules our country.

Our society's rules have not only hurt most of us through unrealistic expectations, they've also hurt the nature of mothering. As an archetype, the Great Mother loves us unconditionally – we are all her children, just as flowers and weeds (which turn out to be valuable herbs) are equally her children. She doesn't expect us to be other than ourselves. Her only expectation is that we actually love ourselves and own who we are. 
 
Unfortunately, western society has shaped mothers and fathers who try to shape their children to their own expectations and unlived lives. This leaves most of us feeling unworthy and insecure. And feeling lonely and unloved.

The Cancer Solar Eclipse created a portal to a new experience for each of us – a connection to the Great Mother of All. And a return to an unselfish self-love that not only values who we are and our purpose, but also allows us to value each other in a new way. Yes, Black Lives Matter. And all lives matter – human, animal, plants, trees, air, water and earth. The Great Mother who created us all loves every bit of her creation.

That's the difference from our patriarchal monotheistic religions and beliefs, which have shaped the western psyche. To the Great Mother Everyone is Chosen – not just the followers of a certain faith. We are all equal in the Mother's eyes.

There is a prophecy about our times that has in many ways proven to be true. It declares the hypocrisy and lies of the Christian communities and how they have called forth the 4 Horsemen of the Apocalypse – famine, sickness, war and death. This is what the Christian West has done to our world. 
 
But in that same prophesy, there is redemption. And it comes from a Woman, a Goddess and Mother Earth. It is a call to everyone, but especially women, to rise up and give birth to a new age, for the Goddess always brings forth the next evolution.

And a portent appeared in the heavens,

A Woman, Clothed with the Sun,

Standing on the Moon,

Crowned with Stars,

In labor, giving
 
Birth to the Savior.

This is an image of Earth that we first saw in 1969, rising above the Moon, surrounded by the starry heavens. It is an image of Mother Earth's children, especially women, rising up in wisdom and compassion to give birth to a new society that respects the individual while advocating community.



This is the Great Mother who we can invoke for this 2nd Cancer New Moon, the Mother who supports and guides us to our life and our purpose. The Good Mother who wants to help us create a new world that is free of patriarchal bias, hierarchy and domination. A new world where partnership, peace and communal welfare guide us.

2nd Cancer New Moon 2020

This second Cancer New Moon changes the rhythm of life. We have been living in the rhythm of New Moon/Full Moon in compatible signs. Now the rhythm picks up a new beat. With this Cancer New Moon we'll be dancing next with a Leo/Aquarius Full Moon which will be followed by a Leo New Moon – flipping the cycle to Full Moon/New Moon. This new rhythm will go on for about a year until we get to the 2nd Aquarius (Blue) Full Moon on August 22, 2021 when the cycle flips back again.

This different rhythm asks us to plant a New Moon seed that will open us to a different Full Moon realization. With this 2nd Cancer New Moon, we can plant the seeds of self-worth, self-confidence and self-love. With the upcoming Leo/Aquarius Full Moon, we can offer that self-love to our creative endeavors that will benefit the whole group. 
 
So this Cancer New Moon helps us go beyond our individual self to see how we are part of a larger group of selves. That in fact, nurturing ourselves can help us nurture others.

This Cancer New Moon occurs on July 20, 2020 at 10:33am PDT/ 1:33pm EDT/ 6:33pm GMT. 


 


The Sabian symbol for the Sun and Moon at 28*27' is: A Greek Muse weighing newborn twins in golden scales. The name Muse has many meanings, just as there were 9 Muses in Greek mythology. The word Muse came from words meaning to learn, to direct one's mind toward something, a place of study, a temple (museum) of learning, the primordial waters of creation. It can also mean a mystery, a secret or hidden rite or doctrine. So the Muses could be considered creative messengers from the place of mystery.



Something new has been born and is emerging, something from the 'place of mystery' or creation that is being weighted in the golden balance. It is a new heart, a new combination of right and left brains, female and male energies, intuition and logic, wisdom and knowledge.

Let this image be your guide in planting those new seeds of creativity and mystery!

This Cancer New Moon receives into her womb all the lessons we've been learning this year as the 3 Amigos in Capricorn retrograde back to make sure we're seeing the whole picture. This is our chance to re-look at and release old behavior patterns that our culture wanted us to fit into. Feeling unworthy for being different. Feeling as if we have to toe the line and give into our corporate masters. Feeling less than because we're not chosen. Shake off those old patterns and sit with the mystery to see what new patterns and beliefs want to arise within you. 
 
Honor those things in our culture that you respect, even as you find new forms for them to flourish in. Let go of those aspects of culture that are deadening to life, because if you don't, you get to be part of the Zombie Apocalypse – a living death. We have to get over our fear of Death because it's just a part of the life cycle. It's not the END. That's the patriarchal LIE. Once we get over our fear of death, we can stop being a death culture. 
 
We can start being a Life culture again. And for life to happen, we need to ground ourselves in the Divine Feminine aspects of life and hone our Divine Masculine to support, intend and nourish what wants to be born. The Woman clothed with the Sun gives birth to the New Age. So Mote It Be! 
 
Speaking of the New Masculine, let's look at Mars in Aries. Everyone is talking about its retrograde as if there's only doom and gloom ahead. But let's remember where Mars has traveled. Since early January, when Pluto conjuncted Saturn in Capricorn and we had the Cancer Full Moon eclipse at 21* Capricorn/Cancer, we have been thrust into a quickly changing world. 

Mars was in the sign of Sagittarius, looking for truth as the world shut down. Next he joined the Capricorn Amigos, questioning old beliefs, authority and power structures, getting charged up and ready to take action as he worked his way through Aquarius, asking how can I help the group on this quest. Then he dove into Pisces, where all our old desires dissolve in the cosmic ocean and he met up with Neptune who re-energized his spiritual vision and quest. Now that he travels through his own home in Aries, he can become something new. He doesn't have to engage in his old war-like behavior of bullying, aggression, aggravation and domination. 
 
Mars was the old Roman god of war as well as agriculture. His true strength is that he will grapple with an issue until it's resolved. He has seen what is corrupt in our society and what is no longer viable. He has listened to our collective mindset worrying about what the future holds. He has gathered to himself the compassion and understanding that we are all one. 


Comet Neowise over Glastonbury Tor
And St. Michael's Tower:
Gateway to Avalon

And now, starting the cycle again in Aries, he is ready to defend and protect the people. He is ready to incarnate in each of us, calling for the New Masculine king to awaken within all of us, but most especially men. It is time for men to do what women have been doing for about 50 years now – learning to be free of patriarchal chains. Looking within to understand our beliefs, feelings and wounds. Learning to become our most authentic selves. Learning to become lovers of the Goddess again.

Mars calls us to find our courage. Courage is so important now. It doesn't mean we won't be afraid. It just means that we won't let our fear stop us from taking a stand and speaking our truth. Just past his conjunction with Chiron retrograde, Mars has acknowledged the wounds to our self-knowing, our self-recognition. The warrior in us knows that wounds come as a result of our battles in life. Now is the time to grapple with their meaning and harvest their wisdom. Now is the time to move past our wounds and become the hero and heroine of our own stories. 
 
Mars in Aries tells us we don't have to do things the old way. Aries is all about a new life, a new vision, being a pioneer. Mars helps us develop courage, the willingness to keep grappling with the challenges before us. These experience hone us into the beings we were meant to become. Struggle requires courage, just as life requires struggles to help us grow.

It is time to embark on a new quest – a quest for new life, not only for self, but for everyone. It is time for each of us to take a stand to protect what we love.

As Mars travels through Aries and then retrogrades on September 9 at 29* Aries, it will square this 2nd Cancer New Moon, reminding us of what we've planted now. As Mars connects with the Capricorn amigos, it will also connect with Eris, the warrior goddess who protects and stands up for the heart. She will offer her feminine strengths to his power, helping him confront and grapple with the old Capricorn hierarchy, bringing in a new structure and the beginnings of a new society.

Venus in Gemini sends loving thoughts to Mars, encouraging him to be the bold protector of life. She can send him the right words to use when confronting injustice and bullying, words that can bring reconciliation between opposing sides. In the end, we all want life, we all want love. Only truly selfish people, who are afraid of life as well as death, will resist that reconciliation. The spiritual warrior is not too proud to begin the reconciliation.

Mercury in Cancer, just starting forward from its retrograde, challenges Mars to listen to the emotional needs of the people he stands up for. With Uranus in Taurus inspiring Mercury to new insights about emotional intelligence and emotional security, Mercury can write the new script for Mars to follow. 
 
Vesta, the fire priestess, receives all that Capricorn energy as well. She is burning away Pluto's debris, Jupiter's excess and Saturn's rigidity. She funnels the New Moon's nurturing right back to the Capricorn planets, supporting them as well as they retrace their steps to set things right. 
 
Embrace this Cancer New Moon and let the peace and the love of the Goddess rest in your hearts.
Blessed Be!
Cathy





A Map to the Next World

In the last days of the fourth world I wished to make a map
for those who would climb through the hole in the sky.

My only tools were the desires of humans as they emerged from the killing fields,
from the bedrooms and the kitchens.

For the soul is a wanderer with many hands and feet.

The map must be of sand and can't be read by ordinary light.
It must carry fire to the next tribal town, for renewal of spirit.

In the legend are instructions on the language of the land,
how it was we forgot to acknowledge the gift, as if we were not in it or of it.

Take note of the proliferation of supermarkets and malls, the altars of money.
They best describe the detour from grace.

Keep track of the errors of our forgetfulness; a fog steals our children while we sleep.

Flowers of rage spring up in the depression, the monsters are born there of nuclear anger.

Trees of ashes wave good-bye to good-bye and the map appears to disappear.

We no longer know the names of the birds here,
how to speak to them by their personal names.

Once we knew everything in this lush promise.

What I am telling you is real and is printed in a warning on the map.
Our forgetfulness stalks us, walks the earth behind us,
leaving a trail of paper diapers, needles and wasted blood.

An imperfect map will have to do little one.

The place of entry is the sea of your mother's blood,
your father's small death as he longs to know himself in another.

There is no exit.

The map can be interpreted through the wall of the intestine --
a spiral on the road of knowledge.

You will travel through the membrane of death,
smell cooking from the encampment where our relatives make a feast
of fresh deer meat and corn soup, in the Milky Way.

They have never left us; we abandoned them for science.

And when you take your next breath as we enter the fifth world there will be no X,
no guide book with words you can carry.

You will have to navigate by your mother's voice, renew the song she is singing.

Fresh courage glimmers from planets.

And lights the map printed with the blood of history,
a map you will have to know by your intention, by the language of suns.

When you emerge note the tracks of the monster slayers
where they entered the cities of artificial light and killed what was killing us.

You will see red cliffs. They are the heart, contain the ladder.

A white deer will come to greet you when the last human climbs from the destruction.

Remember the hole of our shame marking the act of abandoning our tribal grounds.

We were never perfect.

Yet, the journey we make together is perfect on this earth
who was once a star and made the same mistakes as humans.

We might make them again, she said.

Crucial to finding the way is this: there is no beginning or end.

You must make your own map.

~ Joy Harjo ~ (A Map to the Next World: Poems)


Thursday, July 2, 2020

Capricorn Lunar Eclipse, July 4-5, 2020
"Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death"  Patrick Henry




The last lunar eclipse in the Cancer/Capricorn Lunar Nodes (December 2018 to May 2020) will occur on the night of The 4th of July in the United States. 
 
It's America's Birthday! Independence Day. A time to look back on where our nation has come from as well as a time to look forward to the nation we want to become.
 
This year as we celebrate the story of our country's birth a midst a revolution against tyranny and in the hopes of an evolution toward individual freedom, perhaps we Americans need to look outside ourselves and our private needs and look to what our society needs.

If we use the Pluto cycle (248 years) as a timing reference, we find that we are living in the cyclic time frame right before the American Revolution. A time when men and women rebelled against unjust laws and unlawful occupation, taxation with representation, and a growing realization that when they united as one people, they could create a new world.

We find ourselves living in similar times. In a few years we will experience our nation's Pluto return, (February 2022 – October 2023) which often signals the end of empire as well as an evolutionary need for change on a national level. 

As we come to the very end of our nation's first Pluto cycle, we are seeing the 'hidden truth' about corrupt corporate control of the world – America's contribution to the world, for good and evil. We see our social and physical infrastructure crumbling. We see the injustice of inequality, which has been with us since the beginning which started with genocide. We allowed Nature to be overwhelmed. We ignore the fact that it is corporations who control our unthinking consumerism, and that both are poisoning the earth, our air, our food, our water, causing illness and death. 
 
We are on the brink of collective chaos and collapse.

We are on the brink of a new revolution. Or rather, a new birth.

As the US approaches its Pluto return, we have a chance to create a new vision for society, without a bloody revolution. This time we have to evolve consciously, and I believe it's because more women and people of color are stepping into leadership roles around the country and around the world, bringing new gifts of connection, community, emotional intelligence and compassion to the vision.

We have a chance to create the social justice we were told America stood for. We have seen the reality of who our leaders are and who they are beholden to, and if we want to be the change we've been waiting for, we need to be the cultural revolutionaries that awaken our fellow citizens to their duty. 
 
Just as Ben Franklin, Patrick Henry, Samuel Adams, John Adams, Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson shaped that revolution with their words and deeds. Just as Sarah Fulton and the Daughters of Liberty, Sybil Ludington, Deborah Sampson and many other women aided the Revolutionary cause with their deeds.

        Just as they envisioned a new world for their own society, we can envision what our own society needs to prosper, We can and will stop the corporate influence over American law and justice. We can and will expect and achieve the equality of all individuals, black and white, gay, trans and straight, rich and poor, and most especially, equality between women and men. 
 
I also mean an equal valuing of both masculine knowledge (intellect, logic, comprehension, speech, writing) and feminine wisdom (imagination, dreams, visions, instincts, emotional intelligence). Women and our wisdom have been rejected and reviled for over 4000 years. It's time for women to have the freedom to find our own voices, gifts and powers. Gifts centered in our bodies, which must be free of male domination. And for this wisdom to be valued, respected and used for the betterment of the world as a complement to our society's left brained talents.

Cancer/Capricorn Full Moon Lunar Eclipse

 

This lunar eclipse will occur in the United States on July 4th at 6:44pm in Hawaii, 9:44 PDT and on July 5th at 12:44am EDT and 7:44am GMT.




The Revolutionary theme plays out in the Sabian Symbols for this Full Moon.

The Sabian symbol for the Sun at 14* Cancer is: An old man, alone, faces the darkness of the northeast. This image is interesting because there is a fixed star associated with this degree – Canopus, the navigator's star and the steersman of the constellation Argos, and in ancient Egypt of the boat who takes Osiris to the Underworld. In Egypt, Canopus – the star of Osiris – is the 2nd brightest star in the southern sky after Sirius – the star of Isis. It was believed to be the gateway to the afterlife.

The direction of the North symbolizes fulfillment, wisdom, integration of life's lessons and endings. East symbolizes dawn, the beginning of a new day. The light that gives a good life. When we combine these two directions, we get an inspired and motivated energy to release the past and to greet the new day. As well as a picture of the old society (masculine) looking into the dark unknown for the new vision.

We find ourselves in this space, don't we? The future has been thrown into chaos and we face the unknown. The old man might symbolize the old patriarchal attitudes that are dying out in our world, facing the darkness of death before a new birth. Or it can be a wise old Osiris, who knows his death is coming and welcomes it, so the new can arise.

The Sabian symbol for the Moon at 14* Capricorn is: In a dense jungle, a perfectly preserved Mayan bas relief. We are reminded that many civilizations came before us and many will come after us – that is if we leave the Earth viable for them. That it is a jungle covering over old civilizations shows us that Mother Earth can recover if given enough time.

But it also symbolizes the basic values of life that need to be preserved in our birthing of the future. The Maya were earth-based and heaven-focused just as the Egyptians were. We need to be knowledgeable about the heavens, both literally and symbolically. The heavens tell the cosmic story of the energies at play in our world. Perhaps that's why astrology is making such a strong comeback now, for it is telling us that we are in the chaos of ending cycles and beginning new ones. And that All Will Be Well.
 
We are all looking for a source of truth that can guide us through these chaotic times. We are the dreamers of the new world. We are the protectors of a new vision. We get to guard that new vision until others awaken to its truth and beauty.

At the Cancer Solar Eclipse on Summer Solstice, the hope was that we could let go of our past, taking the lessons we learned from it while leaving the trauma behind. This was a time to allow the Great Mother to love and nurture our spirits, giving us a new understanding of what home and tribe/family means, security and soul-trust means. When we are secure in ourselves and centered in our truth, we can feel the self-love that is a pre-condition to loving others.

What is family but the community we can count on for support and protection? While we are all social distancing, we also have to decide what is important in life. If you're like me, you want to be around and nurtured by your people. And that support gives you the strength to help others who are in need.

The Capricorn Moon, under patriarchy, is all about the social rules and traditions we hold onto to fit into our society. But there are also cosmic laws that transcend these merely human laws, and that is what this lunar eclipse is highlighting. Capricorn used to symbolize the Council of Grandmothers, those elders who set the rules of life according to the cosmic laws of life. These laws looked to the ancestors for guidance, the guidance that connects us to Mother Earth's laws. For we are her children, even if we've forgotten.

Mercury retrograde kissed the Sun in Cancer on June 30, getting the message about what home is to us. As it moves forward on July 12th, let's bring that vision of home into the world. 
 
The Sabian symbol for Mercury direct at 6* Cancer is: Innumerable birds are busy feathering their nests. A perfect image of creating a safe and secure home. 
 
Saturn just retrograded back into Capricorn from Aquarius to check in with what Jupiter and Pluto are doing. How are the rules changing? And how are we combining the old with the new – technology and natural law? 
 
The Capricorn Moon eclipse pulls in the energies of retrograding Pluto, Jupiter and Saturn. What still needs to be released? What shadow rules are still operating within us that need to be wrung out like water from a wet rag? Are we ready to embrace the warmth and shelter of our Cancer nurturing community rather than the cold hard cash of the old Protestant work ethic? 
 
Mercury is still close to the Sun, waiting to see what we really want. Uranus in Taurus is supporting this lunar eclipse, showing us new ways to live and relate to each other. 
 
Meanwhile, Mars entered its own sign of Aries on June 27th where it will stay while it retrogrades until early January 2021. While Mars in Aries can be a sign of conflict, it can also give us the courage to stand up for what we believe in. Aries is the sign concerned with our authentic identity. So how will we identify ourselves in these next 6 months? If we have the courage of our convictions, we can become spiritual warriors. 
 
Mars is moving to join Chiron in Aries on July 14th, once again asking us to find our archetypal identity and purpose, to see the purpose of our wounds and to learn their lessons so we can stop being victims of our wounds and become stronger for our wounding. 
 
Mars in Aries sextiles Venus in Gemini, giving the planet of connection and wholeness a say in what Mars is up to. It's time to open up to new ideas about what is possible and use our yang/Mars energy to get us there.

This month will see a 2nd New Moon in Cancer as the lunar cycle shifts. After this next new Moon, the full Moons will be in different signs, shifting our awareness to very different energies. But more on that next newsletter.

Until then,
May the light of true liberty start to shine brightly on all of us around the world.
Cathy




Eagle Poem

To pray you open your whole self
To sky, to earth, to sun, to moon
To one whole voice that is you.
And know there is more
That you can't see, can't hear
Can't know except in moments
Steadily growing, and in languages
That aren't always sound but other
Circles of motion.
Like eagle that Sunday morning
Over Salt River.  Circles in blue sky
In wind, swept our hearts clean
With sacred wings.
We see you, see ourselves and know
That we must take the utmost care
And kindness in all things.
Breathe in, knowing we are made of
All this, and breathe, knowing
We are truly blessed because we
Were born, and die soon, within a
True circle of motion,
Like eagle rounding out the morning
Inside us.
We pray that it will be done
In beauty.
In beauty.


~ Joy Harjo ~

(How We Become Human: New and Selected Poems 1975-2001)