Jupiter enters Cancer at a Mercury Station

 In honor of the vast increase in Cancerian energy we're all going to be experiencing, a

fun picture of a little crab on a rock taken by Pavel in January 2009

As the Lunar Nodes continue hovering at the Scorpio and Taurus’ cross-quarter points and Ceres rolling forward into Leo, we are all going to face new questions and new reasons to be more creative and personally expansive. With the Moon having just passed through Capricorn Fullness we are in a moment where by putting ourselves and our thoughts or efforts ‘out there’ helps us see what is – and what maybe can be…

…and then, as Mercury goes on station, Jupiter moves into Cancer. The date of this dual event is Wednesday, June 26th – except for those in the Americas and eastern Pacific region, where Jupiter slides into Cancer late on the 25th.

The specifics (so we can get the persnickety data stuff out of the way) are as follows: Jupiter enters Cancer at 1:41 in the morning (UT/+0 time) on the 26th, and Mercury goes retrograde in Cancer at 23 Cancer on the 26th at 1:09 in the afternoon (again, UT/+0 time).

Not to put too fine a point on it, with Venus and the Sun already in Cancer, that’s a LOT of Cancer energy floating around. So think family, home, real estate, childhood (the result of yours and that of anyone else as a formative ‘shaping’ energetic), culture, habits, traditions, national populations and immigration, agriculture, building, buildings…and any kind of plan you have for moving forward or growing your world, your life, your ‘base’ or ‘basis’ of operation(s).

So what’s with Jupiter in Cancer?

Jupiter in Cancer is expansive – that’s the Jupiter thing – and it tends to be expansive in the areas cited above. It also exacerbates (increases) feelings about all those issues, and because Cancer is ruled by the Moon, anything concerning money connected thereto.

Cancer is the first of the zodiacal water signs, all of which are connected to wealth. The 4th house of a chart generally indicates our home or ‘home base’ but wherever we see Cancer, we get a sense of our relationship to real estate, the cost of housing and our experience of our family’s general attitude towards wealth.

Jupiter's big red spot as photographed by NASA-JPL. It's amazing to think this

'spot' is actually a Jovian 'weather system' where the cloud tops are moving at hundreds of miles an hour...!

(photo credit: NASA, JPL-Caltech)

Of course, a lot about how this manifests in your life depends on where in your chart your individual Moon is - and of course, what sign that Moon is in. What this becomes is a combination of those two factors - the house with Cancer on its cusp will indicate where you tend to build your 'foundation of emotional reactions.' You know, the what you react to and why you react to it as you do. Meanwhile, the position of the Moon is where those foundations act out - and providing your Moon is not in Cancer, that Moon position will tend to describe how you will react.

A couple of examples, both of which are helpfully donated to this cause by friends of mine who may or may not care that I'm thinking of their charts. (Yes, this is the blessing and penalty of knowing an astrologer. Occasionally you learn something, but there's also a strange feeling associated with having your metaphysical structure being being discussed with countless others...even anonymously!)

In our first example, Cancer is on the 12th house. Cancer on the 12th house is an indicator of deep, deep emotions, some of which can be downright scary. They can be scary to you...and they may just be scary to others who find out what you really feel about things and about them. Traditions may be hugely (read: overly) important to you...or then again, you may not be even remotely tolerant of anyone talking to you about traditions for reasons you just don't want to get into.

Not even with yourself.

If the Moon ruling this Cancer 12th house is (say,) in Aquarius and the 6th house, you will tend to act out all your feelings - the strong and the being-scared-of-them through qualities denoted by the keywords 'health, work, service.' That means you may have real issues with responsibility. Or maybe you'll take care of everyone but be really bad at taking care of yourself. Or maybe you only care about yourself and nobody else. Feeling your own feelings may be so powerful a thing (12th house placements are always powerful) that you can't bear to feel much...but then, given Aquarius' talent for seeing the bigger picture, maybe this is exactly what allows you to do great deeds and deal with difficulties which would scare the willies out of others.

Or let's say Cancer is on your 8th house. That makes your experiences with all forms of interactive negotiations (be they business, financial or of the Intimate Kind) a place where in risking your 8th house inner sense of "stability" (read: self respect, feeling of self worth) that your 12th house Scorpio Moon causes you to withdraw from others...and (oh by the way) choose people who will provide you with reasons to withdraw (except for the occasional fling, to be sure.)    


Wherever we see Cancer and wherever we see the Moon, these areas of our chart are going to be enlarged on throughout this next year of Jupiter in Cancer. Therefore, no matter what your Cancer ‘thing’ is, you can experience the negatives or expand on the positives. And this generally will happen by 'closing out' some old way of thinking.

In moving into Cancer, Jupiter is moving out of Gemini. And given that the flow of the signs around the wheel of the horoscope (above) is counter-clockwise, this means that this shift from Gemini to Cancer has Jupiter 'changing sides.' 

Of the horoscope wheel, yes. And in terms of personal and worldly dynamics. The left side of the zodiac (Capricorn through Gemini) is proactive. The right side is responsive, but not just in the sense of 'responding to input,' though it tends to be a bit of that too. No, in this  sense the idea of 'response' has to do with 'responding to the known' or acting or choosing in terms of that which we have already experienced.

The signature sign of this 'building of experiences' is Cancer. For you that may be building on experiences or building things which allow you to experience this or that...whichever way you go with it, we and our world are now exiting some six years of doing-in-order-to-make-happen (from which we learn). For the next six years, we will tend to build on what we have done.

Or yes, on what we have set ourselves up for. There are lots and lots of ways these things come to light!

Those of us who are hesitant will meet up with situations which evoke (or provoke) our Cancerian feelings and Moon issues. Those of us wiling to step out and learn or let go of what plainly isn't us or doesn't work for us will feel a renewal of our vital sense of life.

With Jupiter we know the stakes are big. And that the possible rewards are big. And how what we see as possible often exceeds our ability to stomach the 'whole' of the process. So during this next year of Jupiter passing through Cancer, we should expect a lot of big talk. But will action back up those claims?

That remains to be seen.

Real estate and ‘lifestyles’ will probably come back into focus on many a level and for many a reason, good and gnarly.

All of that aside, the next day or so (between now and the 25th/26th, depending on location) is going to be uber intense. Jupiter pushing through the last gasps and breaths of Gemini makes us think the stakes are raised.

Are they? Maybe. But since it’s common for the days leading into Mercury’s station to feel pressured, when we add in Jupiter’s climactic energetic in thought-and-choice oriented Gemini, a few folks are likely to go plumb out of their minds now.

And let’s remember…those societal-and-relationship lunar nodes being at the Scorpio/Taurus cross-quarter points also point to some pressure-filled moments.
Or is that a ‘pressure release’ moment?

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The Lunar Nodes at Cross-Quarters

With Pluto in the oppositional sign of Pluto, life is changing. The world is changing. The times are changing. Evolution and revolution are grinding, churning, turning outlived concepts on their heads.

And some people, yes. There are those who are getting their ‘come-uppance’ now and those who are getting traction on getting ahead. It sort of depends on where you are coming into this time. After all, the Pluto keywords are create, deny, destroy…and that generally applies to whatever the ‘status quo’ of your life is.

Considering the way Pluto tends to symbolize where starry-eyed, ‘me starring in my own mental movie’ visions tend to meet up with reality, with Pluto in retrograde into September and Jupiter’s impending romp through Cancer moving into position to oppose Pluto from mid-July until early September, we are all being set up for one of those Great Seasons of Change.

Into which comes Mercury. And yes, I know – I got all wound up with the Jupiter in Cancer thing. But it is interesting that in one single run Jupiter is going to hit zero and go all the way to 20 Cancer before turning bringing all back into retrograde (consolidation of gains or losses) mode come early November.

Oh yes…and that would be happening just a few days beyond the November 3rd solar eclipse. So, remember how I said a while ago that Saturn going retrograde at 11 Scorpio in February drew a “dotted line” in the metaphysical sand the other end of which was November’s 11 Scorpio Solar Eclipse?

In that process, Jupiter’s entering Cancer is something like starting a snowball rolling. For good or bumpy, whether you’re in for a heck of a ride or getting snow-rollered over, this would be celestial gravity beginning to gather its karmic momentum.

Surely you understand my being so intrigued?

Another thing about Jupiter in Cancer: this is a combination known for 'endings,' which in an odd sense goes with Cancer as a sign of culture, family, experience of childhood and hearth, home and nationality as our 'roots' in the sense that they are what we build on.

And thus life leads us into a new phase which reflects Cancer at the bottom of the 'natural' zodiac wheel as a time when we finish up one phase of life and begin to build anew. For some, this will herald a period which includes hitting a new 'bottom' which yes, may be painful - but which may also represent an emotional reality we need to know in order to build a life or life structure which will be stable and stand the tests of time (time being the Saturn province greatly signified by Capricorn, the opposition sign to Cancer).

 Jupiter being eclipsed by three of its moons

(photo credit: NASA, JPL-Caltech)

That this ingress is marked by Mercury's station suggests that the whole of this Jupiter-in-Cancer passage is aimed at, or which will evolve as a growing 'mental' awareness. Or a consciousness of what mentality is and means. And maybe how some 'old' way of thinking or 'seeing' life needs to be surrendered as your present 'actual' in favor of recognizing and utilizing a more 'present' form of mental emotionality so that your life can become more in sync with everything (and everyone) with whom you interact, allowing you to build that 'better world.'  

As for the specifics of Mercury's station, 23 Cancer – the degree Mercury is going on station at – is known as a point where either our strengths or weaknesses (speaking of celestial gravity) come to the fore. There is an equal danger of overstepping your own bounds, abilities or the limits of propriety as there is an opportunity to make good on your talents.

As Jupiter enters 0 Cancer, Black Moon Lilith is sitting there a 1 Cancer: another sign that we may ignore society (or social responsibilities) or get caught in being too caught up in our own cause. With Pluto being smack dab between Industria and the ‘it’s complicated’ nebula we know as Facies, the likely focus for all has to do with what you have – or haven’t done well enough. The likely meaning here is that those who have bailed on making an effort will now begin paying some price, while those who have tackled some complex project will begin seeing results – or at least what it will take to get the job well and done.

Of course, since this is Pluto in Capricorn we’re talking about, there will be a few who in having avoided doing their work properly (or doing any work at all) will now realize there’s an avalanche heading their way.

 An avalanche in progress (lower center) on Nuptse in the Himalayas

(photo credit: Iwe Gille, April 2005)

Create, deny, destroy…those Pluto bywords are Pluto bywords for a reason, y’know.

Meanwhile, Mercury is going retrograde exactly conjunct Pollux. And since Pollux is the ‘thoughtful’ Gemini emblem which signifies giving (or giving in) so that the ‘important things’ are preserved, this is just another indication that this is a time of fateful choices…past or present.

But let’s not think all will be easy. Queen of all things unexpected and stunningly provocative, Eris at 22 Aries is in square to Mercury’s station. And with Eris conjunct Pelion (the ‘mountain’ we have yet to climb) things are not easy.

In fact, with fixed stars Arcturus and Spica (the brilliance of leadership) at 24 Libra, there’s something of an implied t-square here…

…one with Mercury’s station point at it’s ‘t’. Since this t-square isn’t formed by full-fledged planets (Eris is a dwarf planet) it may be a bit more subtle than some – unless 23 Cancer coincides with something in your natal chart, that is. But the general ‘object’ here is working past where you are (the Cancer point) to a place where you can be effective in your life. Where your brilliance and stand-out qualities really show.

That would be the Spica (brilliance) and Arcturus (leadership) point of this station. With Eris at it’s starting place it may be easy to be daunted by what it’s going to take to get where you want to go – that being the Pelion part.

Of course the good thing is that once Mercury stations and goes retrograde, we all get a couple of weeks to work behind the scenes and figure out which options will work best.

Considering all…the Nodes being at cross-quarters and Jupiter plus Mercury…? To me that sounds like at least a couple of weeks (and maybe more) of getting a better grasp on things as we recognize what is really (South Node in Taurus) worth going for.

Getting there will require doing a few things we aren’t sure we know how to do yet - that's the North Node in Scorpio part of our challenge. But with Jupiter moving into the sign Mercury's station has us focused on (at least internally) all bodes well providing we’re willing to open our eyes, our mind and our hearts to not just who we are...but who we can become through asking ourselves to take on building a bigger and better world which then can become our life's basis for operation.
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Venus in Cancer

From the mid-40s, a fashion model photographed while underwater in Marineland Florida's dolphin tank

(photo credit: photographer Toni Frissell, 1907-1968)

There are a variety of interesting factoids worth thinking about with regards to Venus entering Cancer – an event which will happen on June 3rd at 2:14 in the morning, UT/+0 time.

First of all, considering this is Venus we’re talking about, that brings up our questions of value, worth, confidence (emotional self worth) on one side while asking whether how others and the world are responding to us is what we’d like it to be.

Venus always asks these questions. And for the next three-plus weeks, all such questions will be put to us through ‘Things Cancerian’…or in such a manner as to arouse our Cancer-born instincts.

And yes – when we talk about Cancer, there is a definite quality of ‘instinct.’ As the first of the water signs, Cancer is related to the shaping of our most basic emotions and how those emotions are shaped – which is why Cancer is associated with habits, cultural traditions, the unconscious and our attitudes regarding family.

As we grow up, Cancer comes to be other, more worldly things too. Home, family, nationality – these are all Cancerian concepts.

Then we come to the idea of real estate – particularly as an emblem or means of (rather literally) “building” wealth. The zodiac’s three water signs (Cancer, Scorpio and Pisces) and the houses they’re associated with (the 4th, the 8th and the 12th) are the areas we look to when we consider wealth in the chart.

With polarities, the idea that air is always opposed by fire and water is always opposed by

earth on the zodiac wheel counts. Traditionally, even though in opposition on the zodiac

wheel, air and fire "get along" and water and earth "get along"...though the more esoteric

question always pitches some form of the reality (earth) against the feeling (water) or 'whether

 the idea works' (air) against the vision (fire). 

You may have thought that was Taurus and the 2nd house? Well, no. Not precisely, that is. Taurus is the ‘I-me-personal side’ of (polarity sign to) Scorpio, which is why Taurus represents what we have depending on how well we get along with and deal with others (and the financial mechanisms in society)…and how well we gauge the concept of ‘risk’ at an emotional level.

That people do think of Taurus so diligently as ‘my money’ is actually rather interesting, considering how few folks focus on Cancer in the ‘landed gentry’ or large scale real estate owner sense.

There are long and well-established traditions in many cultures which “judge” you by your home. That would be Capricorn (our ‘worldly standing’) as the polarity to Cancer – real estate, our home and all that.

So why don’t people think in those terms?

Well, we do – to some extent, that is. Scorpio and the 8th (and to some extent the 8th house of our natal chart more than Scorpio as a sign) is where we display that ‘competition’ or ‘going for’ what we want in a worldly sense. But the 10th and its associated sign of Capricorn, that’s not ‘making it’…that’s more about ‘having it made.’ Capricorn seems a bit more ‘boring’ to us because it’s about (Saturnine) earning and doesn’t have that intense, inter-personal Mars/Pluto tussle quality that Scorpio and the 8th so adds to our lives.

And as far as real wealth goes (you know, giant, incontrovertible wealth) – that’s Piscean and the associated 12th house of the chart. Were the 8th and Scorpio have an active quality which is so associated with inheritances, investments and the spoils of war, the 12th (and Pisces) is associated with pensions, royalties, annuities, income from patents and any other sort of income which simply shows up without your having to do anything in particular.

So if you’re a Wall Street trader who could make it or break it in a day, that’s 8th house. If you’ve inherited an oil company and now are endowed with a sump of money which will never run dry, that’s 12th house.

But lest you say ‘oh, don’t I wish!’ let’s also think about what we know on the emotional side of this triad. Cancer is the sign of family. At it’s best, Cancer is the cozy hearth – and that hearth doesn’t need to be big or fancy in order for it to warm the very cockles of your heart. And that Scorpio is all about power, control, war, death, sex, inheritances, surgery and rehabilitation pretty much says it all. Scorpio is the active search for security – which implies there’s insecurity which must be dealt with.

Then there’s Pisces, the zodiacal land of artists, gurus, addicts, saints and convicts. Need I say more?

It’s an interesting sort of comparison. Evidently as the ‘water wealth’ capacity gets deeper, so do the emotional challenges.

With that duly plumbed, we retreat to the surf zone of Cancer.

Being the sign natively positioned at the very ‘bottom’ of the horoscope wheel, Cancer is about not our ‘standing’ in the world, but what we stand on. It’s about the foundations we are given, or which we scrape out or lay out and then build in our lives. (Yes, there’s that ‘building’ thing again!)

So while Cancer is the sign of home and we often see people redecorate or clean or even change their place of residence (and settle into new digs) under Cancer, any time we see a planet passing through Cancer its attributes are open for us to use in the realm of planning so that we can build a better future.

A wood engraving of an architect at his drawing board which was published May 25, 1893 in Teknisk Ukeblad, a leading Norwegian engineering journal

Mercury is already in Cancer as Venus shows up (dressed casually, no doubt) so we know that the thinking part of how to build our way forward is already under way. And since Venus is entering Cancer in the company of Atlantis and Scheherazade, which suggests there’s something (some Scheherazade ‘story’) which needs (Atlantis) letting go of.

But Atlantis is a bit more complicated than that. (All astrological points are, no matter how we tend to ‘short cut’ them when tossing together some conceptual astro-salad.) Atlantis carries with it a quality of being overwhelmed (‘drowned’) – or at least a fear that you will be, which is why you’re so reluctant to let go.

Of course ‘letting go’ may not be the right term in your world, even if the idea is equally applicable. Maybe you’re having a problem making some commitment and thus reluctant to ‘let go of not grabbing hold’ of something in some way? Or maybe you’re in that ‘let sleeping dogs lie’ position where there’s a problem which you’ve been successfully avoiding for some time now because you just know that the minute you poke that problem all will become a tornado of trouble before you’ll need to work your way through?

No matter what shape your shape is in (or not in) we also know that as Venus enters Cancer, Neptune is already sitting at 5 Pisces – the degree it will go retrograde at in just a few days. And with Mercury is at 5 Cancer, and thus in a perfected trine to Neptune.

And then we look to Scorpio, where Timekeeper Saturn, in retrograde, is at 5 Scorpio, completing a perfect grand trine.

Of course the obvious comment to start out with is the same one you hear me make any time we see Neptune connecting with Mercury. Such contacts are famously infamous for delusions, denials, deceptions and outright lies!

But then we throw a retrograde Saturn into the mix. Is this your coping with something you thought was one thing, and which someone might have led you astray about, but which has turned out to be something else?

That could certainly be the solution to the case of the moment. The Sherlock in you may have just caught up with the truth. And the hard part may be that you didn’t plan or you didn’t listen or didn’t do what legal eagle types refer to as ‘due diligence.’

Emotionally, this moment is a time for triumphs and a time for self-recrimination. It’s a moment as likely to manifest as emotional exhaustion or dismay as delight and sumptuous satisfaction.

It all would seem to be about how realistic you are – and have been – with yourself and about life as you come to June 2013.

On another track, this may be a wonderful time for those who are doing something in the Mercury-Neptune-Saturn. After all, this combination favors performers and artistry of any sort, not just that belonging to the arts. It could lend flair to a presentation. Or a bit of magic to a vacation. This combination favors those working towards generating royalties, pensions and other forms of passive income, and it’s a natural for events (pro or con) in the pharmaceutical, oil or entertainment industries.

But there have to be hard facts and a reality of quality attached to whatever goes on now. No kidding of self allowed! Cutting corners and all the rest of the ‘sub-standard’ stuff will backfire now, whether they’re initiated in the moment or coming home to roost.

Looking forward, by the time Venus arrives at the magical 5 Cancer point, Mercury will have moved on. That event will occur on the date of Neptune’s station (and yes, we’ll be discussing that in full).

But for the moment…let’s just say that this Venus-Cancer ingress is likely to set off a water sign grand trine (Mercury-Saturn-Neptune) already in progress. And since Venus is always about ‘results’ or our generating of results that we want…or deserve…or with Saturn in this grouping, have earned…as Venus enters Cancer (which is Venus moving out of Gemini) this is a time when things which have been considered in theory become a reality which brings on a sense of emotional impact.

Plus or minus, that is. And maybe both.

So to be sure, over the next few weeks our being aware of people’s feelings is going to play into our own happiness or lack thereof. Getting what we want from others will require that we own not only our own emotional situation, but theirs.

It’s probably not going to be easy. But did we think it would be in a year colored by two solar eclipses laid out in Taurus and Scorpio at emotional degrees? This year is all about testing our emotional stability, stamina and willingness to relate to others. In that, Mercury…then Venus…and in the days and weeks to come the Sun, Jupiter and then Mars all moving into Cancer is going to bring us back to emotional basics.

And not to put too fine a point on it, after this grand trine will come one with Jupiter taking Mercury’s place.

So that which is given to us now is ours to grow with and to utilize…or ours to be challenged by on an ever increasing basis.

And maybe both. Over the next couple of months life can be exciting and challenging…or more akin to challenging and off-putting. The temptation is to be ‘tempted’ to think it’s all about ‘them,’ but the reality is that we all have things to do.

Good news: Venus entering Cancer says this is time to get to doing them!
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