“Naturally…I have no shape of my own so I try to be just like whatever I’m near, said the Gelatinous Giant. In the mountains I’m a lofty peak, on the beach a broad sand bar … I just hate to be conspicuous; it’s really not safe, you know”. Then he looked at them again with hungry eyes and wondered how well they’d taste.

“You look much too big to be afraid of anything”, said Milo quickly, for the giant had already begun to open his mouth wide.”

“I’m not’ … I’m afraid of everything. That’s why I’m so ferocious. If the others found out I’d just die. Now do be quiet while I eat my breakfast”, he said, raising them toward his gaping mouth.

“Then aren’t you really a fearful demon?, Milo asked desperately under the assumption that the giant had been brought up well enough not to talk with a mouthful.

“Well, yes… I mean, no… What I mean is, relatively maybe—in other words, roughly perhaps. What does everyone else think?” “There you see,” he said peevishly; “I’m even afraid to make a positive statement. So please stop asking questions before I lose my appetite altogether”. — excerpt from The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster

Full Moon Capricorn, Friday, July 2, 2004 4:09 AM PST

This week the satellite Cassini explores Saturn for the first time in 40 years. The mission is ‘explorational’, to go deeper and further than ever before, to see Saturn from Saturn’s perspective. Just as we live in a solar centered universe, Saturn has it’s own universe replete with moons, planetoids, asteroids. As above so below, our consciousness wants to explore the internal nature of the planet called Saturn, Capricorn’s planetary ruler.

Saturn is the only planet with boundary rings. A sphere with a fence, an entity with clearly demarcated rings of dense gaseous matter. This ringed matter holds the planet in a Saturn-specific stasis. Of course, every planet has its unique ecology with varying temperatures, elements and weather. Flying bits of space matter be handled according to the unique quality of the planet’s gravitational force—maybe exploding a comet with its heat, or possibly sucking it into orbit or sending it hurling back into space. But Saturn is more obvious than most; Saturn has a message that space observers can immediately see. Saturn’s rings announce themselves. As though through a megaphone, deep bass voice bellows: ‘these are the gates through which you must pass’.

Saturn’s perspective is one of consequence in form. He is the Gatekeeper. It’s the force within us that asks any person, job, and goal: If I let you into my life, how will you affect my sustainability? Will you contribute to or subtract from my viability as an individual? If the answer is positive, you are willing to commit to this part of life, and the brevity of this commitment contains your highest aspiration: contribution to your net worth. The risk is letting someone or something in who may potentially disrupt your stasis or damage our delicate ecology. When younger, this is where our essential boundaries were implemented (and later) where our most stubborn defenses arise. In this sense, boundaries help us discern what is beneficial for our success and growth. They keep the baddies out and the goodies in.

Boundaries are useful here. As adults we can use the power of choice as boundary, as a ring around the pearl of wisdom that is slowly growing. We make choices all the time, but these are the choices that collect in the nether regions of our psyche. These are the types of choices that instantly calcify into patterns of behavior; fed into the body, into the matter that we are as human beings. Whether we make a choice of compromise or liberation, Saturn is that law of cause and effect. Karma. It is inevitable and irrevocable, capable of manifesting great beauty or great deformity.

We are all familiar with the Saturn’s toll, the deformity of self-neglect. People we know or have known who were once free and beautiful, now bound by so many bandages we can no longer see their essence. On my regular route to work via infamous MUNI, San Francisco’s subway system, I see a new face. Rather, it’s the face I don’t see that startles. When I see this person in the elevator on my way back from yoga, I realize this meeting has been pre-arranged. This person has wrapped the face completely, a bandaged mummy with patchwork rags piled on so deeply that even looking through the small slit for eyes is akin to looking into a pool of darkness. Head to toe, no body shape is recognizable for the layers of clothing. Thought appears: ‘Where are you hiding? What is your injury, wound, disease? What part of you became so used to being unseen that you have literally transformed into someone who we no longer see?’

A choice to protect, defend or hide. It once preserved integrity and sense of self-security. Over time did it warp us into unrecognizable creatures? This being is that person in each one of us, the one who made the decision, in a certain part of life, to go under wraps. We hide from the world only to find that we are so far from the story we were trying to begin. We can make the choice to take off the rags that bind us to invisibility. The ecology of that choice no longer exists and now the wound needs to breathe. Most of the time the protected thing was a myth or lie and spontaneous healing occurs just from exposure to light and air. For those deeper wounds, the hurt is still there but the dressing needs changing regularly and with great care.

Enter Cancer Sun’s nurturing love into the deep corners of the Capricorn Moon’s defenses. The timing is synchronous as Venus just came out of retrograde (6/29) on the heels of new relationship and self-worth discoveries. Many of us have re-evaluated if not completely overhauled our intimate relationships during the past 40 days. Some of these realizations now arise as a new lovability paradigm checks itself against our relationships. What are our expectations of those we love? Is it realistic to ask for unconditional love from others? The Universe loves us all in unconditional love as a service– so we can learn to discriminate that very specific form of love for which our unique soul seeks. This is where it’s often necessary to define our ‘No’ so we can find our ‘Yes’. Until we become enlightened, we grow through this working and reworking of love. Human love is conditional love.

Reaching into the depths of the psyche, Gemini’s New Moon asked us to integrate multiple perspectives and apply new information streaming into our consciousness like super fuel for the new energy we’re fielding. Now again at Full Moon, this moon cycle’s close relationship to Mercury reinforces the need for perspective and feedback from others and our environment. Fruition of awareness, a lotus flower in full bloom, this full moon brings opportunity, perspective and revolutionary awareness into communion with our most inner and reflective self. Jupiter, Uranus, Sun and Moon are lined up in a configuration called a mystical rectangle. To be a mystic, one must live and breathe paradox, so use this opening to see into patterns, habits, defenses that have been previously obscured. It’s one of those time periods when we can see where we went wrong and why.

Take some time to allow this spontaneous awareness to arise into clear seeing. Things have changed so rapidly over the past few months and now we see that for better or worse, we have chosen our lot. Our feet stand on a dense terrain called reality. Learn from and hold the boundaries and commitments you have chosen. Hold them with that same integrity the land holds for your blessed feet.

7/3 Mars quincunxes Uranus for a pre-4th firework. This day may start out with a bang and turn into fizzle. On the 4th someone may not stop talking or want to show off as Mercury enters the sign of Leo with a big ‘Listen to me!’ Later the moon goes void of course after passing over Neptune and everyone is just hanging out.

Overall, for July there is a marvelous opportunity to put plans into form. This is that wonderful Jupiter sextile Saturn which puts your new perspectives into tangible reality. If you’ve been working on creating a more abundant life, see your reward as you plug in your light bulb and actually see it light up your room. There’s nothing like turning vision into something you can sink your teeth into. This is supported by the Sun conjunct Saturn in Cancer on 7/8. Cancer feels, and with Saturn on her we may feel burdened by obligation or duty. This is a meeting of measure allowing you to size up the reality of a situation so that you can get what you really, really want. Sometimes this requires truth telling or removal from a cozy situation no longer relevant to where you are headed. If reality hasn’t been courting you already, call this aspect the reality police.

If the stakes are high in some area of your life then this is your chance to come clean. It would behoove you to do so because on this same day Jupiter quincunxes Neptune for the next week ahead. If you haven’t accurately sized up the situation, overindulgence and overestimation are likely. This could be an element of escape, the place you choose to sweep your errant ways under the rug to keep going as continued. Hmmm? Where’s that smell coming from, no bother, I’ll cover it up with a crisis or nasty little habit. This can also become the mirror for where your ‘just functional’ or ‘dysfunctional’ shows up. View this with Saturn’s gift, the rearview mirror of hindsight. Shine light now, so you won’t have a repeat performance later.

The last quarter squares off with the moon in Aries on 7/9. This is the push to move forward into new territory. Venus sextiles Mars for the next 4 days as Venus, the tantalizingly attractive librarian directs you to the reference section for some schooling on how to move forward with grace and ease. Her first foray with Mars since retrograde, she kicks up her heels and if you’re receptive, reveals new pleasures into your life.

Saturday, 7/10 people will put it out there, talking their talk and making their presence known. Mercury and Mars join together in fiery Leo where everyone wants center stage and if staged properly, this can happen. Make room intellectual discussion with the knowledge that words and thoughts are sharp instruments today. Hopefully heated debates don’t turn into firestorms of personal opinion, rather brainstorms of clarity and inspired collaboration. The potential for accidents and carelessness is here yesterday and today so please use caution as you drive your vehicle, open your mouth.

7/12-7/18. On 7/12 Venus squares Jupiter, echoing the ongoing Jupiter quincunx Neptune. Indulgence overrides sensibility. Anyone or anything new on the scene today is an open target for errors in judgment and perception. Keep your wallet closed because there’s the risk of spending too much for something, placing too much value on this person or thing. The remedy is on the way as you turn your attention within and Neptune lovingly massages Venus with sweet oils of dreamy absolution. This has echoes of the Venus retrograde period; the lessons learned are back to help or heal you in some way. Be aware of misperception, misjudgment yet stay open to the higher message. This period of time is in effect longer as these aspects mutually reinforce one another.