-the sun’s in the east and the moon reflects
Like the knowledge and wisdom I manifest
If you wanna go to heaven lay upon my breast- I’m game. -Erykah Badu

New Moon Cancer, Wednesday, July 6, 2005 5:02 AM PST

The new moon in the most fertile sign of the zodiac, Cancer, begins as a dark seedling of summer. New Moon in Cancer plants roots for the winter months, when there is less light and support. Even though the sun is bright now, turn to that part of your life that gives you nourishment. This is the place you go to for manna-the food of your life. Locate your inner taproot by asking yourself: where do I go for nurturing, caring and compassionate unconditional love in my world? Perhaps you give this to others, or they give this to you. Traditionally, Cancer is associated with family; your inner spirit lives in the home and hearth. From an evolutionary standpoint, Cancer is who and what you consider your ‘home’ in the world. It is safe. It is what feeds and sustains you, always providing the proper nourishment for the next step of your growth. Lately it is easy to locate what de-stabilizes us, this is the impetus to re-conceive our nurturing needs.

The moon represents the emotional and physical body and when it needs attention, communicates through ‘symptoms’. The symptom of Cancer is a certain mild malaise, a pre-conceptual nausea that encompasses all new beginnings. It’s the butterfly in the stomach, the queasiness. The uninitiated call it symptomatic, Cancer looks closely and notices that it’s simply something stirring. It is the secret seed to your future, the one gestating inside you so small that no one knows its there, perhaps not even you. It’s a keeper of the ultimate mystery, the Egyptian scarab that crawled across the path of the Sun, laying eggs in its wake. It’s the creation of life. And it causes a body/mind phenomenon remarkably similar to morning sickness. The clockwork of the psyche is right on schedule: you’re trying to do the same old and are road blocked. When you try and address the needs of the new person you’re becoming, you get slightly nauseous and uncertain.

This is Mother Nature’s blue double bar on the pregnancy test stick, a certain sign that new life is growing within. Soon you will reject all the foods that used to comfort. Perhaps you begin to crave tough leathery things that to your former self tasted like old socks or you make a midnight run to the medicine chest for a spoonful of that delicious new Kiss My Face toothpaste that tastes so good that it must be food. You are an alien creature not because you have become alien, but because you are housing a whole new life form.

From the standpoint of your habitual life patterns, (aka the status quo), this is not safe. Any new beginning throws off the physical and psychic body, the homeostasis it works so hard to maintain. This sets off a domino effect of spontaneous re-shuffling to a set of new needs and conditions. By the way, did I mention this bundle of joy, this new conception you’re birthing is a closet revolutionary? This new moon invitation is a 100% original never been done before way of being. Prepare to make some quick-on-your-feet maneuvers. Your ability to creatively adjust-will be what nurtures and nourishes this new cycle. Psst-have you heard? Adaptation is the new beige, the fashionable rage of the season.

New Moon brings a searching ambiguity that maddeningly teases even as it delivers. Questions precede answers and New Moon is a Magic 8 Ball, full of one-liners, koans to all of your seriously gut wrenching questions. Remember the Magic 8? The 8 Ball was never much of a prophet, but a crystal ball to your hopes and fears. It maddeningly spat out irreverent answers like ‘try again’ and ‘My sources say No’ which prompted more questions like: ‘just what sources are those?’ and made you want to get your dad’s hammer and crack open that ball just to watch its bloody blue liquid spill onto the sidewalk. Not that I did that.*

Cancer must move from childlike fear clinging of the past to the practical sustainability & security demands that change and progress require. Now as you gaze into Magic 8 with attendant childhood fears and parent trap tapes fading like watermarks on the sidewalk, you realize that by virtuously blazing new trails you have somehow fancy foot-worked the resistance out of your reality. Nurture this truth with what it needs to grow, even as initially physically uncomfortable to bear. It’s only uncomfortable because you’re figuring out how to adapt to a new truth. Your precious truth is sacred and hard- earned, directly from the Maker. Like the Magic 8, the answer always brings more questions & when you resign yourself to the question, you begin to arrive. In time your conception will bear a most luscious and delectable fruit. Give it about 9 months.

7/06 New Moon Day. We are hopeful, with glimmers of promise and new life in our eyes on New Moon Day, when Venus in Leo and Mercury in Leo sextile Jupiter in Libra, wonderfully generous and fun loving. Any new relationship or contract forged under this influence has qualities of generosity, equality and expansiveness. Ingenuity is a prerequisite as theirs is an arranged marriage by the matchmaker of change, Uranus. If you’re looking for exciting and different, you’ve met your man. Uranus, the rule breaker, can’t be boxed in, the iconoclast of tradition. It’s a negotiation worth making if you’re open-minded- what’s offered is as good as it looks- a really special and rare opportunity. This will be challenging to all your old paradigms and require ongoing adjustments, yet endlessly compelling. Harmony in relationships and negotiations continues through July 12. The New Moon squares challenging Mars, as we push into new endeavors we’re pushed and pulled energetically. It’s been a particularly demanding time and this is the push. Yet energy is eased and softened by a sextile to Neptune, who prefers to pull us into fantasy by appealing to your softer side, your shared vision and compassion, perhaps a more skilled tactic to the energetic brute force of Mars.

7/06-7/09 With Neptune we want to act on our dreams and Mars traveling close to the north node causing an amplification of desire. Perhaps your energetic, physical and sexual demands are high right now. With the node, Mars says ‘I want what I want and now’. Do you feel your own heat? There’s a driven-ness in behavior, a sexual charge in the air. Awareness makes the difference between acting blindly on impulse, and acting with full conscious intent. It’s a great time to become aware of your motivations, sexuality, aggressive urges and what makes you tick. Mars also rules, cars, weapons, force by violence so be safe these days. This amplified energy may combust in a mini firework of action as it squares the eclipse degree of April 8 on Saturday, 6/09. What were you experiencing around that time? The square may bring in new information or a change in direction. Socially, it was a powerfully procreative eclipse highlighting regime changes, women’s issues and secular versus sacred. On a softer note, Moon, Mercury and Venus in Leo add drama and fun to the heat of your Mars. Forget shy, let your lion roar. Friday 6/08 is great party day, planning or having one, if you’re not taking that class on Tantra. Simultaneously, active quincunxes may leave the door open for leaky plans, interesting diversions and some space-out time. Saturday continues the fun energy, people are sweet and engaging. Entertain, express and treat yourself to some pampering luxuries of Leo- the best of everything is not extraneous but essential to Leo.

7/10-7/11 Bask in the warm glow of the weekend while unwinding the process. Virgo moon is good for mental housework, clearing out the clinkers in your mind. Proceed to the next step by listening to self-talk, perhaps overly critical, yes, but all in the pursuit of clearing away the extraneous information, clarifying. Try not to call in the thought police, the weekend’s free-spiritedness was good. Meanwhile, clarity in one part of the life, confusion in the other as Venus opposes Neptune Monday, 7/11 illuminating idealism and illusion in relationship. The fog will lift, as we see that our foolishness is genuinely good and sad, arising from a heart that just wants to love and be loved. Meanwhile, physical energy runs high, and if channeled into vigorous pursuits of self-purification or housework, you’ll avoid the burnout of trying to take on more than capable. The push is strong as Aries Mars square Sun in Cancer activates desire to complete a task, damn the torpedoes. Argumentative? Remember ‘the best defense is a good offense’. Accomplish a lot and remember your limits.

7/12 -7/14 late afternoon proves its point and mellows. Power down with Moon in Libra, Libra re-calibrates us from the early week’s energetic contrasts. Evening of 7/12 there’s a challenge for clear communication, and a potential to see where the loop can be closed. If a situation is fuzzy, what is left unsaid may fog the dialogue and hang in the air like an echo. 7/13 Mid morning bears gifts, excellent time to make business connections and beneficial meetings. Late evening is soft and diffuse, a gently embracing mist. 7/14 The morning starts out busy and cranky. Deep reflection and healing words settles the day into equanimity. Go to bed early, if you’re up late you’ll be thinking about obligations. First quarter moon is associated with hunter goddess Artemis, who appeared to as a protectress of the virgin maiden, making sacred the inviolability of the fecund deep forest, wild natured femininity. Befriend and make sacred the possibilities you envision with friends and partnerships.

7/15, 7/16 Emotional & sexual intensity. It’s a juicy Scorpio moon bringing up your deepest desires thanks to Mars and Venus trine Pluto. Sexual and emotional energy expended with focused determination brings intimacy to relationships, and as you’re able to contact a deeper emotional & sexual expression, don’t undervalue the richly insightful body-wisdom you’re tuning into. Cut the relationships that don’t bring you deep satisfaction. At the same time, ambitions run high as you access motivational power, taking you through the weekend.

Although we won’t feel it quite yet, the planetary backdrop news is:

Saturn’s shift into Leo 7/16.

Saturn is finally done with his tour de Cancer, and we’re left with the long term manifestations of Saturn in a sign he’s not so keen on: national security & entropic safety and defense concerns, over-identifications with tribe to which we belong, scarcity fears and emotional limitations. Yet a specific subset of the U.S., folks claim to feel ‘safer’ and certainly seem patriotic about their national tribe. Saturn always accomplishes his goal of gaining mastery and authority, even in a constellation where he has little skill. Saturn in the sign of the Lion, whom do we see: the little dictator or mastery of ego -or- the professional artist, the shining star who spreads light with authority? Collectively, there may be abuses and mismanagement of power brought to light, perhaps the punitive face of Saturn stops the broken record abuses. The good news is that over the next couple of years, the taskmaster wants you to take responsibility for the very special Leo talents that make you unique. Are you using the gifts that express your uniqueness and specialty in the world? How can you shine and clarify that light in your professional life? Are you letting your inner child out to play? Saturn in the sign of the eternal child, Leo, encourages new roles of responsibility and obligation to children & creativity. The Saturn method: to polish through limitation, responsibility, work and delays. In the area of life Saturn in Leo effects, we work a little harder to burn a little brighter. But the result is mastery of the highest caliber. Saturn ritual: stand up to the demon that says ‘but-I’ve never been creative-‘ by today manifesting an original creative act. This will set the tone for how you’d like to use Saturn for the next 2 years.

7/17-7/18 Moon in Sagittarius, kisses a brand new Saturn early Sunday morning. You subtly sense the shift but not quite sure how this will play out. Perhaps with playtime this afternoon, Venus and Mars give us some ideas. Like being on mega-date, the weekend just wants to keep on relating. But there’s more freedom in the air today; your compulsive steaminess has cooled off and now you just hang out and have fun with the Sag moon, liberal with affections, at ease with spontaneous acts of adventure that lead to self-discovery. 7/18 continues harmonious contacts; the moon plays the planets like an elegant then bold piece of music, ending in a sweet kiss late evening. Broadcast your song as you wear your heart on your sleeve.

7/19-7/20 dramatically shifts into productivity mode. Work takes priority over play as its more useful now to take the long view, a good balance to the enthusiasms of the weekend. During this gibbous stage of the moon, harness your focus as moon enters the dressing room under full light of the sun. What’s being revealed? Notice what takes center stage for fine-tuning. Eliminate unproductive efforts and time eating detractors, as the next 2 weeks helps you finish what you’ve started.

MERCURY RETROGRADE Warning: Back up the computers, book the ticket now. Mercury goes retrograde on 7/22 -8/14 in the sign of the lion, Leo. Where Leo falls in your chart, you will soon revise and re-evaluate. Get car, contract, communication, transportation issues cleared up by 7/17 or prepare to do it over. ‘Let’s do the time warp again-‘

*I guess I wasn’t the only one blessed with the urge to penetrate the core of the Mystery at a young age. http://www.fiendation.com/people/chris/eight.htm