July 15-16, 2015
6:24 PM PDT / 9:24 EDT / 1:24 AM GMT
23 Cancer 14
Water is a complex element. At times it’s cool, refreshing and comforting. At others, it can cut through, reshape or destroy anything it touches, even hard, solid rock.
And so it is with emotions. They’re up for renewal under July’s Cancer New Moon. That sign always heightens sensitivity, and that is going off the charts now, coming as this Moon does in the wake of another in a seemingly endless stretch of shapeshifting and breaking apart and realizing a doorway has closed. As emotions bubble up, nourish, pour out from and wash over us, do not lose sight of their inherent power. Some of them are permanently changing life as we know it.
Cancer is the Moon’s home base, ground zero not just for emotions, but also how we define, express and experience nurturing. Food, home, tradition, family and tribal definitions and, of course, Mommy are commonly woven into Cancerian security blankets, which we clutch, usually against all reason, in the hopes they’ll bring emotional and/or financial safety. Our particular cloth inspires fierce attachment and devotion, not to mention a tenderness, nostalgia and sentimentality that can cause the gruffest among us to reach for a tissue.
This New Moon coincides with — and fosters — a remarkable phase in our emotional expression, individually and collectively. Notice how much is coming to the surface and flowing into the conversation. One easy-to-spot example is the flood of impulses being freely voiced that have been long undercover. Donald Trump is the poster child du jour for this, with his unapologetic opinions about Mexico stripping the governor off the id of the GOP. The phenomenon is visible as well in the furor over the Confederate flag, which is showing that for some people a 150-year-old war has not really ended. Also in this mix is the rash of government officials putting personal beliefs above the oath of office in which they swore to uphold federal law and refusing to follow the US Supreme Court’s marriage equality ruling. Distrust of the feds is not new; refusing to play by the ground rules so openly is.
Impulses are coming up and out personally, too. Consider what is percolating in you and what you have observed in others. True colors are being unfurled, sometimes in places, people and ways that you would not have predicted. Each unfurling offers a moment of recognition and choice: Does this flag fit on your team? We’re seeing more clearly who stands with us and who does not. The people in that second category, in many instances, haven’t really been with us for a while, and we’re only now realizing. We’re not so much breaking apart as acknowledging separations that already exist. This Moon is a corridor leading out of those separations and into more aligned allegiances.
Emotional honesty and frankness are also on the rise. After the fruit basket turnover that has been the past three years, many of us have reached a hard-won emotional awareness. Instead of rationalizing or making allowances for someone else’s behavior/position/viewpoint (or what we assume that is), we are more immediately conscious of our own emotional reaction and needs. And with that, especially now, comes a decided devil-may-care attitude. After what we’ve been through, why not be honest? Why not put cards boldly on the table? Why not say out loud how we feel and what we want? The worst that can happen is that the person hearing you isn’t the one who will respond or deliver. That person may, in fact, leave your life as a result — which is not necessarily a negative. (Refer back to the true colors section.) The best that could happen is that you do indeed reach your target audience. And regardless, you will feel clear with yourself, and the unexpressed emotions will not be swirling and roiling into a force that eventually spills out uncontrollably and destructively.
That honesty is on tap for anyone who’s brave enough. Or exhausted enough from holding down the lid. Or simply ready to live more simply. Mercury and Mars, the planets of communication and action, are fused together in Cancer and equally tightly aspecting Pluto, the ruler of the subconscious, the hidden, the power behind the scene and, above all, transformation. Pluto is in the middle of Capricorn, the sign ruling structures and the status quo, where he and the cosmic agent of radical change Uranus have been overhauling our foundations for three years-plus.
This configuration is providing a moment of distance from (and, if we take it, perspective on) the changes — a moment when we take in all that has changed and line our thoughts and rhetoric up with our willpower and drive. The inevitable response is voicing our emotions and then following through on them. That may occur forceably, or forcefully, assertively, angrily or aggressively. Some voicing/action combos will have a machete or guillotine effect, cleaning cutting away deadwood, denial or cloaks (which can be enormously positive and freeing) and permanently changing, in some cases killing, the situation (ditto, sometimes).
Though Pluto’s role guarantees some death and dying away, that furthers and support’s the New Moon’s orientation toward growth. The Sun and the Moon are forming a water grand trine with Saturn and Chiron — a free-flowing round robin of energy with the potential to both ground (Saturn) and heal or resolve (Chiron) the emotional expression. Maybe you never dared speak your emotions freely as a normal matter of course before. Maybe it wasn’t in the family rule book, or you doubted your right to have them, or you were invalidated or taunted if you did dare. Maybe you held them back so much than when they did erupt, you came across as a crazy person. (Show of hands? I thought so.)
That was before the trial-by-everything that has been the last three years. You are different. Your environment, goals and priorities are different. The people around you have undergone a similar tempering. Emotional expression and nurturance is now different, too. Be honest with yourself. Be honest with others. Dare to speak and act on your emotions. Put them out there, to use a cliche, and see who responds. Look for true colors. Look for the ones that complement yours.
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© Kathy Biehl 2015. All Rights Reserved. You may forward this article as long as the copyright notice is intact. No part may be used or reprinted without my prior written permission. Karma, ya know.
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