Intense Cancer New Moon Ushers in Eclipse Season

The Moon becomes new each month as the Sun and Moon reach the same degree of the same sign. This marks the beginning of a new cycle, effectively the germination of the month.

This New Moon happens on July 12 at 7:48pm PT/10:48pm ET in the sign of Cancer at 20 degrees. It is a supermoon (closest to Earth) that officially kicks off Eclipse Season (a 6 week period containing 3 eclipses) with a perfect opposition to the Great Composter in the Sky: Pluto. When Pluto is part of the story we know that we're not fucking around. It's time to get down to business. What business you might ask? So glad you did.

A Primadonna is singing

The Sabian Symbols for the New Moon and Pluto are:

SUN/MOON: A Primadonna is singing

This means this Moon has a powerful emotional voice with a message for all of us. We'd best be listening.

PLUTO: A relay race

This tells of people needing to work together as a team in order to win. We have to pull it together as a species in order to turn this boat around. If we don't change course, we're going to end up exactly where we're headed.

As Caroline Casey says, "Things are so dire that we can't afford the luxury of realism". With Mars now fully retrograde and greatly amplified by the South Node of collective past karma (not to mention incredibly bright in the night sky), things seem to be getting more intense by the day.

Eclipses bring acceleration to our lives. Anything can come to pass, things we've been waiting for, new people, new opportunities. Pay attention to who and what comes to your gate in the next 6 weeks.

Pay attention to who comes to your gate over the next 6 weeks

The sometimes shocking planet Uranus is square to the collective emotional

ley-line aka the Nodal Axis, which is aligned with heat producing Mars on this New Moon. Mars is retrograde, on the South Node, and in Aquarius. This

square turns the Trickster dial up to high. The only guarantee right now is

unpredictability. Can you say revolution?

The volatility of this Mars cannot be overstated.

The way that Uranus works is with a brilliant flash of lightning. It illuminates things in a such a way that you suddenly see differently, and you can't go back to where/who you were before.

It never takes anything away from you without bringing something that is more authentically yours.

In square aspect Mars in Aquarius and Uranus in Taurus are in great discord and yet must find some sort of compromise.

We are feeling this as a battle between our higher cosmic mind and our chthonic terrestrial body. Neither one can win without the other greatly suffering.

I think the best advice is to take a lot of time and space for oneself as needed. Up the self-care, and avoid any situations that feel like they could be confrontational. And self-compassion is absolutely essential. If you have a freak-out, melt-down or the likes, pick yourself up, dust yourself off and give yourself a hug. And if you make any interpersonal messes, do your best to clean them up afterwards. We're only human and are doing the best we can in challenging conditions.

Self-compassion is essential

The pluses of this combination are freedom and ingenuity.

The minuses are the likelihood of encountering our own or others' repressed anger. Why do we repress things? Often because they are not socially acceptable. But repression doesn't dissolve or disappear things, it actually just pressurizes them. Ask any volcano. The fact that this Mars retrograde is in Aquarius gives us a bit more perspective than we might otherwise have. Aquarius is always seeking the upgrade. How could this be done better, in a higher minded way?

That said, if a relationships is at flash-point, breakups are likely. They may not stick long term, but the natural energy of Mars is to separate, as it is the same energy that causes us to separate from the womb of God, into incarnation in the first place. It's the energy of pioneering and adventuring and fighting. Mars is more terrified than anything of losing itself in another and will not hesitate to push away if that danger feels imminent.

The pluses of this combination are freedom and ingenuity.

Since at the bare minimum some sparring energy energy is inevitable right now, try and make it playful and not sharp.

That's a way to dance with the energy.

When Mars turns direct in late August his partner Venus will be in Libra, the sign of partnership and harmony. She will guide us back into connection, into remembering how to look through the eyes of the other, to learn from the other. But she will be square to Pluto and already in station for her upcoming retrograde in Scorpio in early October, so there will be more work to do, but of a different sort.

This is the summer of the individual, Martian, higher-mind medicine journey and the fall will be the partnered, Venusian, deep-fusion medicine journey. May we burn away all the unnecessary dross with Mars and then be less encumbered in our coming together under Venus.

Mars is not just retrograde but also out of bounds. Steven Forrest says,

"When a planet moves out of bounds, it has “gone to the wilderness in order to re-invent itself.”

The part of you that planet represents has been too stifled by customs, other people’s expectations. It is sick of “the rules.” It will look a little crazy for a while, but there is a good chance that when it comes back in bounds, it will be refreshed, liberated, and renewed – and significantly re-oriented."

Here's to the individuated Mars part of all of us coming back in late August, feeling refreshed, renewed, liberated and re-oriented! In the meantime, it's ok and even advised to find some safe and sane ways of blowing off steam. (Racquetball? Extreme pool swimming? Do people still bungee jump?)

The luminaries are in the sign of Cancer at this New Moon, the sign of family, tribe, clan and deep loyalty to this root no matter what. Its main motivation is to create a safe, deeply personalized environment in which everyone can have the time to process the feelings catalyzed by life and convert them into growth for the soul. The opposition of Pluto to the New Moon speaks to the deep universal fear of the loss of personal and family safety and security. There is so much emphasis now on this heartless and cruel policy of separating immigrant children and parents seeking asylum from their homelands which have become heartless and cruel, due to US foreign policy. This kind of emotional violence is not new and must be stopped . May Pluto bring shadows into light and cook down this madness of Empire into raw material that can be repatriated into something useful, promoting healing and reunion.

Do indulge in downtime.

The intensity of these times in general and this eclipse lunation in particular may require extra circling of the wagons to allow for retreat and the feeling of protection. Do indulge in downtime. Eclipse season can be very activating and with Mars and Uranus affecting the nodes, anything could happen, especially globally.

The Sun and Moon form one point of a Grand Water Trine, with Neptune in Pisces and Jupiter in Cancer forming the other points of the triangle.

Water is emotion and this formation shows the giant surge of emotion that this New Moon is bringing in. As it also is a partial solar eclipse, what would you like for it to carry away? Where can you use a big, conscious, emotional, purging, blast? This is a roto-rooter deep cleanse for the emotional body followed by a reset that you get to take into the rest of the month (which I will point out contains 2 more eclipses).

What would you like this eclipse to carry away?

Big God Jupiter has just turned direct in Scorpio after 4 months of retrograding. This is a helpful prograde in this summer of retrogrades (Mars Saturn Neptune Pluto) and it frees up the opportunity for great expansion if we allow our genuine, deep, emotions to dictate our direction.

Jupiter in Scorpio allows for great expansion if we allow

our emotions to dictate the direction.

Our emotional body is where evolution actually takes place which is, after all, what we've come here to do. Evolve. Big feelings, big honest encounters with whatever is keeping us from being our most powerful selves... this is our prescription right now. We have 4 months left of this transit, before Jupiter leaves Scorpio for Sagittarius and we are advised to get down to it. The kind of growth that Scorpio promotes is not for sissies but it can take us to places that no other sign can and it won't be back for another 12 years.

So take stock... what needs work? Where has your magnet become weak? Where are you suffering from disempowerment? What are you hungry for? Make a plan to do something this month to move yourself forward from a place you've felt stuck in the past 4 months.

Here is some inspiration from Florence + the Machine:

Big God by Florence + the Machine: Have a watch

We not only have a Grand Water

Trine contributing to

this powerful

Moon,

we

also

have a

Grand Earth

Trine. Saturn in early

Capricorn, Uranus in early Taurus

and Venus in early Virgo. How fortuitous!

What would you like to grow?

Earth energy is aways grounding and earth and water together create fertility. What would you like to grow? New Moons are always the time for planting literal seeds or seeds of intention and this one is very receptive and fertile, though a little less grounding, having electrical Uranus as one of the points.

How can Masterful Alignment (Saturn Cap),

Awakening Biology (Uranus Tau)

and Active growth through Love (Venus Virgo)

work to our advantage here? In our relationship to our selves,

our partners, to nature.

We are gearing up for the Venus retrograde in early October and these two Grand Trines are helping set the stage for much deeper healing relationship

work this winter.

If you need support through this intense summer of retrogrades and eclipses, book a reading. Transit readings anytime and the Mars retrograde/Eclipses special runs through July 15.

Peace,

Paetra Tauchert, Astrologer

paetratauchertastrology.com