Midway into the Sun’s passage through the sign of the Crab, the Moon will catch up with the Sun at 14° 23’ Cancer, on July 5 at 3:57 Pacific coast time. Cancer is the Moon’s home sign.
Cancer is said to be the sign of the Great Mother. That’s feminine-style nurturing, and it’s also something done by all genders. Everyone needs mothering, and everyone is capable of mothering, in their own way.
A New Moon is a time to set intentions for the coming month, and under a Cancerian New Moon, self-care is most obviously called for. The sign of Cancer is associated in much popular astrology with a kind of soft quiescence, an odd characterization given that Cancer is one of the cardinal, initiatory signs. Effective mothering—of young creatures or projects—is not for the weak. To mother well requires staying power, an action plan, and attention to detail.
Several aspects at the July 5 lunation,involving the planets Mars and Saturn, highlight the fact that mothering is not for the faint-hearted.
On July 5, the New Moon nearing 15 degrees of Cancer will be approaching an inviting sextile (60-degree aspect) with Mars, which is currently passing through the fixed sign of Taurus. Watery Cancer and earthy Taurus are natural affiliates. Mars, the Warrior(ess), is associated with directness and even speed, so it’s not all that comfortable when it’s moving through the sign of Taurus, which can be plodding or even stuck.
At this lunation, Mars is precisely sextile to Saturn, while Saturn’s in a trine with the New Moon. Saturn’s a slow-moving planet, one of growth toward maturity as well as limits and endings. Saturn spends about three years in a sign. It’s now in Pisces (from March 2023 to February 2026). While in Pisces, Saturn calls forth the wisdom of setting some limits around Pisces’ otherwise boundless compassion. In mothering or any other endeavor, kind intentions are best exercised within healthy boundaries.
On June 29, Saturn stationed (slowed way down) and entered one of its annual periods of retrograde motion (until November 15). These next four and a half months of Saturn appearing to move backwards are an excellent time to review and reconsider Saturnian themes about what the structures and responsibilities that hold our lives together. Which of these is worth bolstering, and which is best left to dissolve in the waters of Pisces?
At any New Moon, there are countless ways to contemplate our intentions and, then to take action on those intentions when the Moon’s crescent light appears in the sky. With a New Moon in Cancer, and the call for self-care, you might think about improving your diet and enjoying more rest—always good choices—and more broadly about emotional wellness and safety. These are Cancerians’ reigning needs.
Contemplating the element of each New Moon sign is an excellent practice. One of the foundations of astrology is the four elements: fire, earth, air, and water. Beginning with fire sign Aries, and moving around the zodiac, each of the 12 signs lives in one of the elements. Four elements, times three signs in each, equals the twelve-fold zodiac.
These four elements–and some mystical systems add a fifth one, Spirit—are simultaneously physical, meta-physical, and transpersonal. They are us and they are also gateways to realms beyond one’s individual self.
In the world of material form, the elements are the substances of Creation: the soil, the clouds, the breeze at dawn, the feathered nest—all swirling together to make physical existence possible. The elements animate our own bodily processes: from cell growth to respiration, digestion, mobility, and rest.
In the inner worlds, the elements are infinite domains, accessible to human consciousness if you make them a subject for a lifetime of practice.
Moving water is the element of this Cancer season. You might practice noticing the qualities of water: fluidity, neutrality, the power to cleanse, to be held in containers, to dissolve and dilute what it touches, to float. The qualities of water are also potentials in one’s own psyche. They are qualities always available to be cultivated. Listening to the sound of moving water is one of many entryways to the sublime.
This year, on July 5, the Cancer New Moon is an especially watery one. The Sun and Moon in Cancer will be widely conjoined with Venus, now also in Cancer. Venus speaks to what and how we love—including the motherly sensitivity of Cancer—and Venus is moving toward a harmonious trine with far-out planet Neptune, the Altruist, now in the final degree of watery Pisces. Saturn in Pisces will meet up with Neptune at the final degree of Pisces in about a year.
The Sun, Moon, Venus, Saturn, and Neptune all now in the element of water make this New Moon an ideal time to focus on our own true feelings, which requires taking some time to be quiet and still. To thrive, a good Crab knows when it’s best to step out of her shell and forward march, and when it’s most self-nurturing to just wait, and retreat.
Blessings for the Cancerian New Moon, and with prayers for peace!
~ Sara
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