Lunar-Driven Rinse Cycle

These days surrounding the Full Moon lunar eclipse in Capricorn (July 7) remain all-encompassingly lunar-driven. "I feel" is the operative term. 

At the moment, the Sun and Mercury in Cancer are disposited by the Moon, which is travelling to meet the Sun for the next eclipse - that big one - the total solar eclipse at 29 Cancer on July 21. The longest total solar eclipse we will experience in this century. 

The Moon is the reflective body. The Sun is the externally expressive. Our Sun sign expression of "what it's like to be me" is very coloured these days by our emotional states - the inner, reflective, soul reality. 

Rather than being reserved for nighttime, behind closed doors, in our safe little nests, this inner, reflective, soul reality is shining through both day and night, a mixture of sunlight and moonlight, forming the most fundamental of balanced yin and yang expressions (or the potential for them). 

But this mix of light with light made even more beautiful through its reflection in the dark is also a vulnerable expression. A tricky combination. Our emotions are full to painfulness in our chests. They're right at our throats, pressing. We speak this emotional reality, the reality of our souls, with every word now. Listen, and you'll hear the words are thick with it. 

Mercury in Cancer comes together with the Sun on the evening of Monday, July 12. The intellectual comprehension of these emotional, soul realities and their beaming expression in the conscious moment come together now. We've got our heads wrapped around our emotions at this point and can express them freely. Our thoughts are under the Moon's spell now, coloured by what we're feeling and what we're feeling about. Pulled into the lunar orbit of influence. 

The Moon is the fastest-moving body through the zodiac in relation to Earth, changing signs every two-and-a-half days or so. The constant cyclical movement of emotional processing and response related to the Moon and Cancer are the prominent themes - with an added depth as we travel through eclipse season with an influencing Pluto vibe. 

The water element is strong. We sit on the shore of a silvery lake, our soul's home, ears full of the rhythm of lapping waves. So immediate are the longings for roots, home, family, belonging, the comfort of mothers when the Sun is in Cancer. We move and flow daily, in our every waking and dreaming moment, through these emotional cycles made conscious, connected to the Moon and influenced by it, as the ocean is. We can't escape these longings or pulls of the past any more than the ocean can escape the pull of its lunar-driven tides. 

A catch in our throats and eyes brimming as we think of our families, of the times we have shared, the homes we have shared - how very much they mean, to the depths of our souls. 

Words can't truly express, but we can hear how much they have meant and mean to us now if we listen carefully, with emotional intelligence. We can speak this through gentle words, a kind touch, a knowing smile. (Mercury in Cancer) 

A time of homesickness, for both homes of the past and for homes we have not yet known. Belonging, both longed-for and realized. Memories of a feeling of home so comforting, of a belonging so full, that perhaps we have not yet experienced the extent of it on the Earthly plane. Home beyond the Moon and stars. Home among the Moon and stars. 

All these Cancer themes are made even more deeply touching and poignant now as the Sun and Moon head to conjunction and the New Moon solar eclipse on the final degree of the sign. The Moon will also be in perigee at this time - at the point in its orbit when it is closest to the Earth. Another indicator of the permeating lunar themes and their all-encompassing emotionality. 

The Dark of the Moon period that happens just before this New Moon will bring every preceding degree of the sign of Cancer to a place of emotional completion, stillness and rest. 

The Moon enters Cancer at 9:51 p.m. MDT on July 19, opposing Pluto Rx in Capricorn at midnight. The influence and raw emotion of that opposition to Pluto will be carried into the whole Dark of the Moon process and following New Moon solar eclipse. 

I imagine the period of July 19 - 22 will be intensely and almost unbearably emotional at times as we're pushed out of the nest into a new emotional beginning amidst deep endings. The final clip of some old emotional strings. Painful at first, but then relieving. 

The feminine, mothering energy is taking its place as a full equal, out from under the weight of old dynamics. 

These eclipses are creating a loosening effect, shaking us, at first gently, out of one layer of an older reality and preparing us for another. One layer of backdrop, emotional and physical, taken apart at the seams, broken down in sections, weakening its grip on our reality. As another is being overlayed. 

The eclipses will shake us with increasing urgency when it is really time to move on. When we hold fast to the comfort of the old backdrop a bit too long. As we linger and our heart breaks with goodbyes, not yet assuaged by the hellos that are to come. 

With a Full Moon lunar eclipse up ahead in Aquarius (August 5) as the final of these three eclipses, whether we like it, the future is beckoning. 

Mercury and the Sun in Cancer will both trine Uranus in Pisces on their way to the NM solar eclipse - Mercury on July 16 and the Sun July 18. The spiritual insight that we are always together and connected to the ones we love should assist the planets in Cancer to embrace the (however bittersweet) possibilities of the future here. 

There is also a deeper, more insistent force breaking things down. Pluto. Seemingly with more presence in retrograde (since early April) than direct. Possibly the retrograde process is more suited to Pluto's style. Dealing with the internal examination, unearthing, digging out, release, and then regeneration and recalibration. 

Pluto in Capricorn has seemed to be a constant, consciously-felt force in retrograde, a relentless slow burn staying near the surface instead of the more usual volcanic eruptive intensity followed by retreat to the hidden, undercurrent level. 

This must also be Capricorn's influence - visible and step-by-step, getting closer to the goals. 

So the influence of Pluto continues with its ripple effect, connected to the movement of the Moon as it does its thing in eclipse season - an eclipse season prefaced by the first New Moon in Cancer opposite Pluto in Capricorn at the first degrees of the signs (June 22). We went deep there and haven't really surfaced yet. 

In combination, it's a sort of lunar-driven rinse cycle, washing away the stubborn spots, the hold-outs. Leaving us scrubbed clean for new emotional territory, but not without tears first. 

There are things way down deep that we still need to come to terms with. 

Luckily, both the Moon and Sun enter Leo almost immediately after the New Moon solar eclipse. Mercury will also be in Leo then (entering the sign Friday, July 17). Sunny Leo comes out just in time to dry our tears and raise our spirits. There's no more time to pine for the past when there is so much fun, enjoyment and love to be had in the present. And so many people we love to share it with. 

 

The itsy, bitsy spider crawled up the water spout. 

Down came the rain and washed the spider out. 

Out came the sun and dried up all the rain 

And the itsy, bitsy spider crawled up the spout again. :-)