This New Moon is the time to contemplate all things Cancer, which involves our home, family, childhood, roots and our ancestral line and legacy. As with all New Moons it is a time for sowing seeds, and as such, any thoughts, contemplations, conversations and conscious intentions have the potential to take root and bear fruit later down the road. With the Sun, Moon and Venus all in emotional, nurturing, family-oriented Cancer, the focus is on whatever gives us a sense of emotional security, whether that be a home, a happy family life, a sense of belonging or the ability to tend to our own emotional needs in a healthy way. Cancer represents the foundation of our life, from which we spring out into the world, so this Moon could call into question whether that base is solid or whether it needs some work.
Cancer helps us to connect to our emotions, so this is an ideal time to notice what emotions are coming up, as they can help us to understand what we truly need and yearn for. Our emotions can be our guideposts, showing us the way towards a greater sense of fulfilment and happiness, if we are willing to listen and honour them rather than suppressing, ignoring or downplaying them. Often, they point to the truth of the matter, even if we don’t want to admit it. Cancer can also highlight any unhelpful or inappropriate ways that our childhood patterns and dynamics with our parents or siblings might be repeating and playing out in our adult relationships. This Moon can help us to recognise and release these patterns and any unhealthy attachments that are not serving us. Emotions may come up that have their roots in the past, although they are probably being triggered by something in the present.
This Moon also invites us to contemplate whether we feel at home, literally or metaphorically. It is most important that we feel at home within ourselves, of course, although having an actual, physical home is also very important. However, this can look different for each of us, depending on our current needs and inclinations. One person may feel perfectly at home living out of a suitcase, while another may need to own some bricks and mortar, and another may be happy in a caravan, boat, or living in community. However, we all benefit from some kind of base and a sense of belonging and emotional security. This is an ideal Moon to visualise our ideal living situation, sowing the seeds of intention.
Saturn in Pisces is a big part of this Moon, forming a supportive trine to the Sun, Moon and Venus. This could help us to make our dreams and wishes more concrete and tangible somehow, and to set realistic goals in order to achieve what we yearn for. Saturn teaches us mastery over whatever area of life he is found in, both within our natal chart and the house he is currently travelling through by transit. Saturn calls for us to step up to the plate and stop slacking, taking full responsibility for ourselves and to be fully accountable for where we are and where we want to be. In connection with the Cancer energy, it can help us to look at some of our childhood conditioning and also to recognise any intergenerational patterns that may play out in our emotional lives.
Saturn recently went retrograde, on 29 June, and will be going back backwards until mid-November. As such, we have a chance to go back over any lessons we may have been learning since mid-March, especially in the house that Saturn has been activating in our chart as it has travelled between 12° Pisces and 19° Pisces. What have we learned since March? Have we fully learned and integrated the lessons? What tests have we received in the house where Saturn is currently sitting in? How can we take more responsibility in that area of life, and take more control? What has Saturn been stripping away? Which of our planets has Saturn formed aspects to since March? What happened during that time and what lessons did it bring? Saturn will aspect these planets twice more in the next few months as it moves back over them and then forwards again.
Saturn in Pisces has a lot to teach us about going with the flow, helping us to recognise when the path is obviously blocked and the gates are closed, versus when the green light is showing and the energy is flowing easily. Saturn can help us to work with the concept of flow in a more tangible way. Combined with Neptune in the last degree of Pisces, also turning retrograde on 2 July, we are encouraged to take the path of least resistance, letting go of the need to be in control and allowing ourselves to simply “catch the right wave”. Saturn in Pisces can help us to turn our fantasies into something real and tangible, rather than simply a fanciful imagining. This is the planet that helps us to step up and take responsibility for our dreams – and no excuses! It also calls for us to see things as they really are, rather than how we would like them to be.
Venus, the planet of love, relating and beauty, is very much involved in this Moon, as it is being activated by a few planets and is fairly close to the Sun and Moon. Chiron the Wounded Healer is almost exactly square Venus, which could bring up insecurities and pain around our self-worth and relationships but could also bring healing. Venus is the ruler of the Libra South Node, so we could be looking into past patterns of relating that may not be serving as anymore, such as people-pleasing, codependency, avoiding confrontation and turning a blind eye to issues for the sake of peace.
The Nodes of the Moon themselves are being activated by this Moon, so we could be given some nudges towards soul growth, which may involve us stepping out of the comfort zone but can ultimately help us to understand ourselves better. Possibly this Cancer Moon will help us to gain more comprehension of where any self-sabotaging, unhelpful patterns of relating have come from. They could be learned, or they could be inherited through the family line, or they could be the result of childhood hurt, neglect or even trauma. Understanding these patterns can help us to change any unhelpful behaviour. The Aries North Node is ultimately calling for us to put ourselves first, to stand up for ourselves when we need to and to confront any thorny issues in our relationships in a direct, open, healthy manner.
The Sabian symbol for this New Moon, at 15° Cancer, is an interesting one: “In a sumptuous dining hall guests relax after partaking of a huge banquet”, which Dane Rudyar describes as “The need that exists at an early stage of human growth to materialise the concept of fulfilment. This symbol pictures a scene of fulfilment at the purely physical level of eating, if not overeating. Possibly the person who visualised the symbol could think of fulfilment – consciously or unconsciously – only in terms reminiscent of the Mohammedan picture of paradise, a place filled with all the good things earthly life provided, only most sparsely. It may also be that the symbol is a reference to the fact that what in European countries is seen rather broadly and spiritually as “plenitude of being” is usually related in the United States to the idea of “plenty.” We are hypnotised today by the ideal of physical abundance. Perhaps physical abundance is less mind-haunting than deprivation, and there may at times be a need to “turn to superficial things for self-strengthening.” This symbol makes a note which indicates a phase of only temporary fulfilment. The mind yearns to translate what it has seen in purely physical terms. This is perhaps the keynote of American life: the MATERIALSATION OF THE SPIRITUAL.”
This brings to mind the concept of fulfilment. This could be a good Moon to contemplate what might bring lasting emotional fulfilment, rather than a temporary feeling of satisfaction. What will truly bring us a sense of emotional security, a sense of belonging and a feeling of being home? What do we really want for ourselves, when it comes down to it? What truly nourishes us? Cancer energy can help us to look back into our past and recognise how it might be helping or hindering us in the present. It can also put us in touch with how we are really feeling. It can help us to nurture our inner child and listen to what it needs. And when it really comes down to it, and we strip away the things that ultimately don’t matter, our needs are probably very simple.
Much Love
Amy
xoxo
Picture: Family Portrait - Unknown