Last month pretty much kicked my ass, and I’m in the midst of moving the store where I work to a new home - very fitting for this month! - so this month’s update is going to be quick and dirty. Err…compared to my usual length, anyway.
I see a lot of themes that started last month continuing this month and a lot of sometimes tricky adjustment aspects (called inconjunct or quincunx) involving connections/clashes of the past and the future.
But first off, we start the month with Canada Day. It’s our country’s birthday and very fitting that we are in the Cancer Sun part of the year.
Cancer relates to home, roots, our early lives, memories, family and emotional security - what we hold near and dear. In Cancer, we’re asked to deal successfully with our inner lives, our pasts, our souls and our soul families. Emotion and family - trickier parts of life than we like to let on a lot of the time. Ruled by the moon, Cancer is reflective, ephemeral and soft and snuggly at the centre. A mother’s lullaby, a comfy bed with fresh sheets, a home-cooked meal and loved ones gathered around the table, the family photo album. Comfort and contentedness. Our inner selves come to the forefront here, and we can understand emotion intuitively, without having to speak. In Cancer, we understand the importance of how we feel…and of how the people around us feel. We feel the importance of home, family, where we come from. At this time of year in the northern hemisphere, patriotism and the love of our country (home) comes up. Family BBQs, family reunions, kids graduating from high school, getting ready to leave the nest. Teary-eyed parents who want to hold on but know they can’t. The misty, bittersweetness of knowing a chapter of this sweet, terrible, beautiful life has closed, never to be relived again, with only memories and a few snapshots remaining. Feelings of loss. Understanding the march of time but not wanting it to end JUST yet. But also being happy for new chapters, new homes, new emotional anchors in our lives. Resolving our emotions about the past so that we do not carry them forward with us as baggage.
And as with the moon, which regulates the tides, there is a constant ebb and flow that must be attuned to, a constant cycle of changing emotions that can be very challenging at times.
Symbolized by the Crab, there is a harsher side to Cancer, as well. Cancer energy is very attached to its roots, its family, ancestors, where it comes from. It has some fear of change and of the unknown, and it will try grasping onto things when it feels them start to slide away. And man, those pinchers can grasp! They can also be viciously hurtful when they’re out to protect someone or something they love. Think of a mother bear protecting her cubs from a potential threat. A mother ANYTHING protecting its young. There is nothing rational about it. Just pure rage that anyone or anything would even dream of harming her nearest and dearest. The threat can be real or imagined. That’s one of the problems with Cancer. When it’s operating out of fear, it can work itself up into a completely irrational and damaging fit of emotional rage. In that state, everything is taken as a threat. Cancer can make its own emotions the ONLY guiding force. And it can use its own emotions to justify almost any behaviour. It can move into the “unfair” territory, treating other people badly and selfishly with no other explanation than, “I was in a bad mood” or “I felt…”. These are some of the cautions to keep in mind this month, as the future and the fresh Aquarian air can become the things Cancer fearfully takes as a threat to its cherished familiarity. Some other things to be aware of: detrimental emotional withdrawal from those situations or people you “just can’t deal with,” avoidance, emotionally shutting down, leaving other people holding the bag, clinging to the past, tribalism and staying cemented into older family structures, dealing with life in ways that were conditioned into you from childhood or teen years, living out old cycles and using other people as props for these scenarios, refusing to mature emotionally, controlling other people with emotional over-reactions, acting ineffectively out of irrational fear.
The pain of saying goodbye is something Cancer doesn’t want to experience and therefore, can fearfully spend time avoiding. But with inconjunts of the Moon, Venus, Sun and Mercury in Cancer to the North Node, Chiron and Neptune in Aquarius this month, the call of the future is making those goodbyes necessary. We’re on the move. New homes, new families, new paradigms in many different respects. New emotional territory in our lives and collectively as a planet. But all in good time, when we’ve emotionally come to terms with the changes we’re taking on. The shift the planet is currently going through (on an ongoing basis) is huge. It’s bringing new consciousness at a very accelerated pace, which can be scary. I’ve heard it said that Cancer energy is highly persuasive and usually gets its way by slowly breaking something down with wave after wave of emotional persuasion. I think this is sort of the vibe of this month. Inconjunct after inconjunct, with many small adjustments taking us into new territory, not one huge leap that could leave us feeling rootless and adrift. But tackling one emotional adjustment at a time until we finally look back and can’t believe the territory we’ve covered and how far we’ve come.
The inconjunct aspect is an adjusting aspect between two very different energies. Each sign will have to adjust in its way of operating for the sake of getting the job done for the benefit of both. We will feel the energy of these inconjuncts all month. Pretty much constant adjusting, constant allowing or disallowing, some exasperation and hopefully, by the end of the month, a harmonious and productive connection between past and future that both energies can be happy with.
Here’s how the inconjunct action breaks down, for anyone into the specifics:
July 2 - New Moon in Cancer (Sun conjunct Moon at 11 degrees Cancer) - new Cancerian cycle, new emotional territory in our lives
July 3 - Moon in Cancer inconjuncts the North Node, Chiron and Neptune in Aquarius
July 3- Venus inconjunct North Node
July 4 - Venus inconjunct Chiron
July 7 - Venus inconjunct Neptune
July 10 - Sun inconjunct North Node
July 11 - Sun inconjunct Chiron
July 15 - Sun inconjunct Neptune
July 18 - Full Moon (Sun in Cancer opposite Moon in Capricorn at 26 degrees) Bringing to a head those home - work, private - public polarity issues that we’ve been dealing with - which Pluto will be transforming once it re-enters Capricorn in November.
July 20 - Mercury inconjunct North Node
July 21 - Mercury inconjunct Chiron
July 23 - Mercury inconjunct Neptune
So you can see that the New Moon followed by the Moon inconjuncting all the Aquarius energy throughout July 3 allows us to internally make the necessary adjustments between past and future before they show up in our outer lives. We’re working hard to allow for the emotional detachment necessary for moving things forward while staying connected to our roots and pasts and to the emotion of being human, in general.
Aquarius (air sign) energy has a tendency to cool, scientific detachment, something that can be quite abhorrent to the sweet, sentimental side of Cancer. And yet Cancer has a tendency to hold on too long, to hide from the challenges of moving on and to cling emotionally to people, places and ways of doing things that have had their day. So these energies can definitely learn from each other. In order to be fully successful in an Aquarian shift in consciousness, we have to understand and honour our roots while using their knowledge and wisdom. Past, present and future is a continuum, one that has to be kept in harmony. There can be no disconnect from our past or we will be rudderless and ineffective. For a tree's branches to reach high up in the sky, its roots must be strong and healthy, holding it to its place of origin. However, we cannot cling to situations that are way past their prime out of fear. We have to emotionally grow up, accept that things are changing and move on - something Aquarius energy can help with.
With Chiron involved, the themes, like last month, have to do with our painful pasts. The ways we have been emotionally wounded in our early years of life, especially within our family structures. Conditioning that has to fall away and elimination of emotional reactions that have more to do with the past than the present or future. Wounds to the feminine, but also ways that the mothering energy of the world has to evolve, eliminating excuses, co-dependence and “happy, happy bubble” type thinking. A big issue for Cancer (and mothering energy) as it transitions from Pisces to Aquarius is the elimination of denial, especially denial of the darker, more unpleasant aspects of life or even just of those aspects that aren’t personally palatable. Cancer and Pisces both have a tendency to “if I don’t look at it, it doesn’t exist”-type thinking when faced with challenging facts or ideas. But this is not going to be successful at this time. The crab might believe it is safe hiding in its shell from the dangers of the outside world, but in reality, refusing to look at potential threats is what makes it vulnerable to the outside. Staying aware of what is going on around it and facing fears instead of avoiding them also discharges a lot of the power of fear. The imagination generally makes things much scarier than they actually are. With Neptune in Aquarius involved and all the Aquarius planets being ruled by a just-turned-retrograde Uranus in Pisces, this month has very much to do with eliminating bad emotional habits for the sake of moving forward. This month, the crab will be forced to poke its head out of the shell to keep its eye on where we’re heading.
In addition to all those inconjuncts, there are yet more to be dealt with! Soon after the inconjuncts to Aquarius, the planets in Cancer inconjunct Pluto at the 29th degree of Sagittarius. Yet more adjustment. How changing beliefs and expanded understanding can rock the more tradition, home and hearth-loving Cancer - forcing it out of its comfort zone, out of its shell. But at the same time, how no matter how far one goes, how many countries one visits, there can still be a longing for home, for the place where one belongs. And all the philosophical meandering in the world can’t change the desire to be safe and cared for. The big ideas don’t necessarily change the fundamental emotional basics, but you can’t bury your head in the crab shell and avoid expanding your outlook, either. These are some of the themes of those adjustment aspects…again, sprinkled throughout the month.
Mercury is in Gemini at the beginning of the month, still retracing its steps since its powerful retrograde in June. Mercury enters new territory July 4 at 22 degrees Gemini. It then opposes Pluto in Sagittarius at the 29th degree of both signs July 10 before conjuncting the Sun, bringing all the information from the retrograde to our conscious moment. This is the point when we can finally wrap our heads around the Venus and Sun oppositions to Pluto in Sagittarius last month and the uber intense Full Moon and subsequent days. Soon after the opposition to Pluto, Mercury enters Cancer for a quick trip through the sign, as we come up to speed on all the emotional progress that has occurred since then. Mercury’s transit through Cancer ends July 26 when it enters Leo.
Mars enters Virgo July 1, and we turn our energy toward working the details and perfecting function, along with more streamlining of our goals, our egos, our tempers, our use of will. This is not as simple as it sounds. Mars will conjunct Saturn in Virgo July 10, which can show up as a feeling of constriction, restriction and physical heaviness. Difficulty doing what we want to do, even the basics.
Saturn in Virgo is still ruling retrograding Jupiter in Capricorn, adding another layer of perspective. Jupiter is currently going back over the expansion of our careers and public standing/status we’ve achieved since December 2007. So this Virgo work is instrumental in our development there. The level to which we can refine, streamline and master ourselves will determine how far along we get and how close we come to achieving our career ambitions. To achieve the status and recognition we desire, we have to go over ourselves with a fine-toothed comb.
We have three planets heading into Leo later in the month - Venus on July 12, the Sun on July 22 and Mercury on July 26. The introspection of Cancer lets up a little here, as we turn to outward expression.
After the emotional adjusting and processing from earlier in the month, hopefully now we’re secure that our roots are still there, as they always will be. Our loved ones are in our hearts, as they always are. And that we carry the love of our families and homes with us to strengthen us and bolster our courage as we show the world who we are and shine as the stars that we are (Leo).
Venus in Leo opposes the North Node, Chiron and Neptune in Aquarius in the last week of the month (July 27 - 31), reinforcing these themes. Enjoying being in the moment while keeping an eye on what’s to come. We’re performing in the first act of a new play, one where we don’t know what’s coming next. All we know is that our performances today are setting the stage for big things. A little confusing, a little surreal, with only our hearts and the visions of our mind’s eye to guide us.
