Monday afternoon at 2:33 pm (EDT) we have a New Moon with the Sun and Moon meeting at 25 degrees of Cancer. Cancer is the cardinal water sign. Water signs experience life through emotions and can absorb the emotions that are around them. With Cancer, there is the added tendency to personalize the emotions that are around. During Cancer season, maintaining energetic boundaries is especially important to avoid taking on stray feelings and confusing them with your own. When you are out in the world, notice if your mood shifts. Take a moment to pause and determine if what you are feeling is actually yours. Curiosity can be a useful tool for exploring emotions that come up as it allows a little detachment in order to better recognize if your mood is being hijacked. "I wonder why this feeling came up? Where in my body am I holding it?" are good initial questions.  

Cancer is the caretaker of the zodiac, associated with the mother archetype. It is concerned with home, roots, and foundation, including childhood. Cancer needs a home that feels secure and safe. Consider that the symbol is the crab, an animal that is always at home within its shell. But  it is a huge and common misconception to think of Cancer energy as homebound. It is not. Cancer energy needs to be out in the world, experiencing things. It is not some delicate emotional being. Cancer energy is strong. It needs to engage with others and does so on multiple levels. Cancer's sensitivity makes it vulnerable to emotional currents and discordant thoughts, often without realizing how much is being absorbed during interactions. In order to fully realize the power of Cancer energy,  there must be a sacred space to come home to so it can settle and recenter. The key to using all of Cancer's gifts of intuition and emotional sensitivity is awareness. If you are unaware of the tides and their influence, you can get off course easily. That is why it is so important to pause and check in periodically to notice how things are flowing and to course correct as needed. 

Cancer is ruled by the Moon, so each New Moon in Cancer emphasizes the connection between the physical and the emotional. We tend to embrace logic and rationality in this culture, often distancing from emotions by thinking about how we feel rather than feeling how we feel. That is fine when air signs prevail. But, for Cancer energy,  it's important to shift out of the head and into the body. How do your emotions show up in your body? Do you tend to pay attention or dismiss them? That lump in your throat because you edit yourself; the tingling in your feet because you are ungrounded; that stomachache because you are dimming down your power or are exposing yourself to too much information indiscriminately. Cancer has an appetite for life but being aware of and connected to the messages of the body is critical to avoid the discomfort of taking in too much at a time. Under Cancer skies, there is often a tendency to eat your feelings. Be wary of trying to cover up emotions with food.  

Under the Cancer New Moon, themes of "home" and nurturing are emphasized. This goes beyond your living space or domestic arrangements. This is the feeling of home. Do you have a space to retreat to that offers you a chance to truly relax? How do you nurture and mother yourself? How accessible are you to others? When you have created a true home for yourself, it becomes sacred. You are completely at ease and able to be yourself. In this space, regardless of where it is, you are completely accepted. There is no façade, no need to look a particular way or play a particular role; no need to  be anything but your true self. It is a sanctuary. The ultimate expression is the embodiment of this sense of sacred space. When you recognize that you are sacred, your energy is sacred, you treat yourself accordingly. 

Be judicious with who you allow into your sacred space. Cancer ferociously protects what it cares about. Put yourself at the top of the list of what you care for. Cancer season is time to cultivate your roots so they can support what you offer to the world.  

This New Moon is opposing Pluto at 29 degrees Capricorn. The earlier post on Pluto retrograde explored many of the themes and won't be repeated here. In terms of this New Moon, recall oppositions require balancing of complementary energies. Look at the structures in your life (Capricorn). How is the power dynamic within them? Are you involved in control dramas (lower Pluto expression) or are they transformative and empowering (higher Pluto expression). 

Notice your patterns of behavior. July is the time to take ownership of all your behaviors, both optimal and sabotaging, and begin the release the latter to create more of the former. There are major energy shifts happening now that offer support, but you must be the one to change the way you show up to be more authentic. "They" are not a factor in this equation, as much as you want to project and deflect. Truly, "they" are distractions. It is all about you. 

The Moon's Nodes are moving signs from Taurus-Scorpio into Aries-Libra on July 18, where they will transit for the next 18 months or so. There will be a post on this in the future but for now, be aware of your default patterns and acknowledge the ones you have outgrown. Begin to explore different responses to current situations.  

Venus will be going retrograde on Saturday, July 22 until September 3, bringing an opportunity to review relationship patterns and themes of values and worthiness. There will be a separate post on this soon. Again, notice repetitive patterns in your relationships.

Not one of us will leave this summer as the same person we entered it, nor are we supposed to. These energies are offering opportunities on multiple fronts to step up, to release, and to empower yourself while creating a community that supports you as you evolve. This is what we came for. Now that you are here, what do you choose? 

"Perhaps home is not a place, but simply an irrevocable condition." James Baldwin