A Gemini New Moon

Sunset, with a gibbous moon over  Unthank Park in Portland, Oregon

(photo credit: Steve Benoit, July 2008)

Can you believe it? Yes, it’s already time for another New Moon. How time flies when you're busy being eclipsed, right?

Anyway...about this New Moon, the date will be June 8th. And that will be smack-dab amidst the ‘after-effects’ of Neptune’s station/retrograde - which is to say Neptune has just gone retrograde, but we're still inside the station.

Just that much is quite a lot to think about, considering what we know connections between Neptune and Mercury mean…confusion, possible deception…or on the positive side, the suspending of life’s problems in moments of delight or bliss of some kind.

I know you’re saying ‘what, Neptune and Mercury? How’d Mercury get into this?’

The answer to that is simple: any time we talk Gemini, at some level we are talking about ‘Mercury things,’ the foremost of which would be our thoughts. Our perspective. What we’re thinking. Our decisions.

And considering this is a New Moon we’re talking about, it is the moment to make some sort of choice – even if that’s just choosing to think something through.

 The chart of the Gemini New Moon

(Aries wheel - Location Not Specific)

Neptune’s turning to retrograde represents the softening or melting away, even the dissolution of positions, thoughts, pre-conceptions. That means some of us are coming out from behind our mental walls. It also means that some of us may well be losing our grip on certainty.

The date of this New Moon is June 8th. The time of this New Moon is 3:57 in the afternoon in the UT/+0 zone. And the degree we’re concerned with here is 18 Gemini, a degree with a reputation for difficulties when it comes to reconciling our love of life and our desire to life as something good with the situation. Or the facts. Or that which we may need to see in order to establish some clarity and definitive orientation moving forward.

As I say this, I’m reminded to mention something which floats through my (alleged) brain now and again when I’m doing the ‘magic finger’ typing of these blogs. That ‘something’ is the fact that having a degree as a natal influence often manifests somewhat differently than when we see something – like a New Moon – occurring at that degree. The transit, the New Moon ‘moment’ may feel or manifest more ‘purely’ than the whole of a life lived in being born with your Sun at 18 Gemini. The life lived with such a nativity gives time to explore and work through and resolve the issues. And yes, there will be those who don’t get there. But many do. This is similar to the fact that many people born with a given planet in retrograde (the popular one to cite being Mercury since we’re exploring a Mercurial idea). Someone who has Mercury retrograde in their natal chart has a time – a literal lifetime – to adjust to the influence and find ways to make it work for you as a positive. In fact, having Mercury in retrograde in your natal chart seems to make transiting Mercury going into retrograde less of a headache. You’re more accustomed to the ‘internal’ or more behind-the-scenes sort of work Mercury retrograde symbolizes, so you go into that mode with less muss, less fuss and less mental frothing.

So while this New Moon at 18 Gemini may pit us all against what we don’t want to know or do or deal with or be pitted against (conjugate on at your own pace), those born with a Sun or any other planet at 18 Gemini will merely be getting a notice that it’s time to shift into a different gear.

Hopefully they’ll be smiling at the rest of us and offering us a hand. But don’t count on it – this degree is known for ‘going another way’ which means such a native would be busy doing their own thing now, perhaps while paying less than total attention to the splashes and sounds of indecisive floundering coming from the rest of us in the cosmic gene pool.

Even apart from any native tendency which goes along with this degree, this also seems to be a moment which is all about doing what we need to be doing. And maybe that will seem unkind to others, but there is a nicely perfected trine between Juno (in Aquarius) and this New Moon which says we need to be managing ourselves and our own affairs right now.

Not that it’s all comfy-ness. With Vesta at 17 Cancer (conjunct Apollo at 16 Cancer) there is an emotional, maybe even instinctual quality to this New Moon which separates us from others even as they are separated from us. For most of us this won’t be anything huge, but since there is an ego-daunting semi-sextile between Vesta/Apollo and this Gemini New Moon, there is something uncomfortable about this moment.

Apollo and Daphne by Bernini

(in the Galleria Borghese, photo by Int3gr4te, January 2007)

Or maybe it’s about what we realize we need to get to doing which is so ‘aw shucks!’ disquieting. In the emotionally experiential (emotionally educationally) sign of Cancer, Vesta’s symbolism as ‘the cost of keeping our commitments’ may be about what we need to do to be our own person and fulfill our own potential, it may be about some ‘cost’ associated with keeping our commitment or promises to someone else (or in our profession)…or, considering that this is a semi-sextile, and semi-sextiles are known for producing or manifesting as ‘ego bruises,’ this may be a difficulty with someone else’s willingness or lack of willingness to keep some commitment to us.

If that’s the case, it would be natural to feel offended and put out – and maybe a bit confused about how to cover all the bases or catch up with what hasn’t been done as promised.

Sound like daily life yet?

That the mental flow is likely to be a bit choppy is further outlined by the following opposition: Arachne  at 18 Sagittarius with Ixion at 19 Sagittarius, Pholus-Pandora at 20 Sagittarius and Ras Alhague, the ultra-pronounced hero-villain of the fixed star set at 22 Sagittarius.

- link to –

Ixion: Our Conflict of Self

Oh golly gosh…where to start?

Embodying the qualities of a spider, Arachne is all about the webs we weave (when first we practice to deceive, perhaps?) and our entanglements. Arachne also tends to speak to ‘spinning,’ which has a whole meaning of its own in Sagittarius as the sign of media and ‘putting information out there.’

Next to Arachne is Ixion, the emblem of not learning the lesson until you get so ‘burned’ by your errors and your continuing inability to own what’s wrong with your methodology that you hit that point of no escape.
I know…we’d all like to think this New Moon is going to signal quick work and swift results. And it may. But we need to be aware of the parameters of what we do as we do it – and evidently for some folks, that’s going to be a bit much to ask.

Or maybe this is the moment when they find out that they should have paid attention, and that now Ixion-Arachne against the New Moon means they’re knee deep in the tar pits with the whole world acting like toothy, primitive carnivores snarling and licking their chops?

That’s a bit dramatic, yes. But with all this Sagittarian energy in opposition to the New Moon, our judgment is of concern. So either we’re thinking things through carefully, or judgment is coming at us. Let’s remember: Sagittarius is both an interactive AND big picture or ‘global’ sign, so this isn’t just about us. There’s something that we’re having to face now, whether it’s something we’ve been thinking is true, something we thought we could do, or some sort of societal force which is bigger and more complicated than we had thought.

 The zodiac quadruplicities

 

The Ras Alhague part of this opposition gives us a ‘it could be very good…but then again, it could go very bad’ sort of quality. And since Ras Alhague, like Pholus/Pandora, is in a third decanate degree (meaning a degree in the last 10 degrees of a sign), we know this has something to do with others. Or the world in which we live. By “degree definition,” we don’t have control. And with Pholus conjunct Pandora (which sounds like a splinter situated in a spot you can neither reach nor see) the little things count. One slip-up can be highly, even wildly Pandora-ish and problematic.

- link to -

Pholus: A Little Nasty

So…going back to that somewhat ‘separatist’ vibe spoken of with regards to the New Moon’s position at 18 Gemini…do you really want to do things your way? Or is doing it your way the best thing to do and going ‘with the group’ the definition of the problem?

F. S. Church's truly unusual conceptualization of the 'Pandora Problem' - namely, our efforts to try to close the box after we've let all the trouble out. (engraving, 19th century)

Sometimes it’s a good thing lunar cycles are only a month long. With the lunation itself conjunct TNO Chaos, fixed star Rigel and Kassandra, we will do well to listen and probably – in that ‘limitless possibilities’ sort of way which is so TNO Chaos – consider things beyond our comfort zone. That doesn’t mean we have to believe them. Kassandra’s presence in this mix says we may not.

Then again, it also says we may not be believed.

What’s a person to do?

My answer to this would be to remember that all lunations are a process, and that in being positioned in Gemini, this one is about choosing to learn – which doesn’t mean scattering efforts and doesn’t mean endless dithering. My favorite image of Gemini remains that of the jig saw puzzle…the object would be to find the pieces which fit and to build on that.

The finding part is probably Rigel, a star which in being positioned at the foot of Orion represents ‘sitting at the foot of the teacher’ in our search (Orion is ‘the hunter’ constellation) for a path to personal fulfillment.

A map of constellation Orion made by Blueshade. You'll see Rigel down at the lower right corner - which is (at least theoretically,) Orion's foot...the one he's "leading" with.

Happy hunting!
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Neptune Station-Retrogrades in Pisces

In this photo taken by Voyager 2, Neptune and one of its moons, Triton, are seen together.

Though it may seem like tritin (the smaller crescent) is beyond Neptune, actually it's

closer - which just shows you how much larger Neptune is than this most curious of planetary moons.

Unlike every other known moon in our solar system, Triton doesn't orbit its parent planet in the

direction if the planet's rotation. Why Triton orbits in the opposite direction is as yet unknown, but

more than a couple of people have voiced a question as to whether this could be connected to

Neptune's massive magnetic resonance, a force so large it controls a substantial swatch of

space beyond the planet's orbit, evidently all the way around the Sun.  

(photo credit: NASA-JPL, August 1989)

For the past couple of years, Neptune’s station has been happening a week or two (sometimes three) after the year’s first set of eclipses. It’s almost like life putting us through the pressure cooker or crucible process of the eclipses so as to break down all the tough personal callus we tend to build up so that Neptune can finish the process by ‘dissolving away’ that which separates us from a more insightful reality so we can see our inner potential.

And yes, sometimes that which is blocking us from being able to fulfill our greater potential.

Life absolutely requires us to have a sense of boundaries and separation. That’s one of the most important functions of ego, that thing which defines the “I/me” of life so we know where we end and the next person begins. And yet, if there’s too much of that ‘ego wall,’ we can’t relate. We’ll have no compassion. Or – worse than that – we’ll totally negate the value of anyone else’s life apart from our own.

Astrologically often most associated with Saturn as the physical ‘structure,’ the psychological ‘limit’ or the emotional ‘wall’ between us and anything else about life, this ‘boundary’ can be seen as being two sided: Saturn provides the structural “wall” of self-identity and Neptune represents the amorphous ‘all’ which at some level we all long to be part of. Or to merge with. Or to be swaddled by.

The relationship between Saturn and Neptune in a person’s chart at some level defines their comfort and relationship with reality. How both planets are presented tells us where (by house) and the medium (by sign) they will experience life. A bit counter-intuitively, Saturn tends to define our ‘comfort’ level with life where Neptune pictures our relationship to and with the world around us.

But it’s never ‘this here’ and ‘that there’; these two precepts are always in continuous interaction, just as we all go through life reflecting on the world around us and having our thoughts on people, life and the world in some sort of mental format which is itself – at some level – ‘imaginary.’ Neptune is that precept which allows us to not focus so hard on life around us that we can’t feel ourselves being (or feel what we feel about being part of this world) even as Saturn represents those precepts which keep us grounded in a reality-oriented realistic pattern of functionality.

When any planet goes retrograde, it’s station (and the days surrounding that station) displays an increasing ‘pressure’ in our lives. So now, as Neptune goes retrograde on June 7th at 8:27 in the morning (UT/+0 time), we are likely to get past our ‘pre-definitions’ to some truth of experience.

That may be in the moment. That may be from the past. That may involve a vision of the future. It could be eternal. It could be neither of this time, space nor realm of reality.

Neptune’s keywords vary between the extremes of emotional experience: idealism and illusion, inspiration and despair, faith and abandonment. Wherever we see Neptune in the chart whether by transit or natally, that’s where we know we will experience all sorts of highs and lows which in the end teach us to not pin our hopes on one thing or the other, but to experience life as it is – to accept life as it unfolds in every moment.

You know…in reality – that Saturn thing.

Eclipse cycles move slowly back through the calendar; a couple of years ago they were happening in June…then it was May and June. Right now it’s April and May. Meanwhile, Neptune’s stations have been moving forward through the calendar: a few years ago, Neptune was going retrograde during May. Last year it was June 4th. This year it’s June 7th.

Where did they “cross”? That would have been in 2011, when there was the solar eclipse on June 1st (at 11 Gemini and conjunct Aldebaran) with Neptune going retrograde on June 3rd (at 0 Pisces).

Considering 19 years is the length of a Metonic (solar eclipse) cycle, this suggest that from 2011 until 2030 we are going through both a Gemini/Pisces learning cycle (dealing with the realities of our mentality, perhaps?) AND a period during which Neptune’s relationship to our yearly eclipses will be important – not to mention the idea that Neptune, it’s transits through our chart and maybe most particularly its stations are going to carry some message about ‘eclipsing’ that which we have been.

Or maybe that’s about being what we can become. Or think we can become. Or think we are. Or don’t believe we are – whether that’s true or not.

And while the eclipses have been moving backwards through the calendar and Neptune’s mid-year station/retrograde date has been moving forward (i.e., getting later and later in the year). In fact…

The above diagram is color-coded light-to-dark to show which event comes

first (lightest blue) and which comes last (teal)

 

…if we look at the dates, 2010 was the last year when Saturn (hard reality and facts) shifted into worldly gear prior to the power of inspiration versus dissolution (Neptune) being internalized – which sounds like hard lessons being learned from events which then bring about shifts of personal consciousness or awareness.

Up until 2010, the mid-year solar eclipse also fell after all this, which would seem to say that life events brought about internal realizations which set the stage for letting go of the old and getting on with evolving ourselves and our world.

As of 2011, the order has become solar eclipse – Neptune going retrograde – Saturn going direct. That differs from the former pattern in that it is through the vanishing or alternation of something which has outlived its function in our lives (the solar eclipse) causing us to understand something about ourselves (Neptune going retrograde) which then frees us to capitalize on our efforts – or begin to make efforts with which we build our way into the future (Saturn doing direct).

Just as a concept, some of us are probably more adept with dealing with one format or the other. Plus let’s remember: this was also when Uranus started back into the wildly wooly if wonderful world of getting us to change ourselves as people by entering Aries.

And yes, Neptune entered its home sign of Pisces, deepened the emotional waters (can you spell a-b-y-s-s?) while churning up a bunch of storms.

(You know, just to see how sea sick we could get in our own lives.) 

All and all, those particular years (2010-2011) probably manifested as a period when slowly but surely, ‘tables began to turn.’ For us, against us, under us, over our heads…it all depends on who we are and how we cope with the changing times.

Speaking of change, now we come to the 2013 edition of Neptune’s retrograde station. In going retrograde, that quintessentially Neptunian ‘could it be…’ moves from the outside to the inside. So instead of looking at the world for possibilities, we will tend to look for inner inspiration and to our inner potentials for our answers.

There are worse things, certainly.

Against this there will be a clearer view of all ‘Things External’…which given Neptune’s habit for making things look prettier than they are mans that over the next few months we’re liking to find things differ some from whatever we had been thinking they were.

Some people experience Neptune’s yearly retrograde periods as a time of heightened inner confidence, as if the ‘internalization’ of Neptunian energy is like some sort of spiritual anesthetic. (Neptune-Pisces do rule drugs, you know.) And that can be good if you have something really tough to go through. It’s just that…well, all the things they tell you not to do when you’re high on anything sort of apply under Neptune retrograde.

Though it does depend (she said, imagining apace) on whether Neptune is natal in your natal chart. It does seem that those who are born with any planet in retrograde seem a bit more “immune” to it’s transiting retrograde periods. People with any of the personal planets (Mercury, Venus and Mars) retrograde in their natal charts nearly always report that though mildly annoying, retrogrades of those planets don’t throw those sectors of life into a complete tizzy. (Exceptions seem to occur when the planet in question goes retrograde in the birth sign.)

So why not with major planets, say I…! (Yes, I so say.) It’s a new postulation. (Feel free to comment yea or nay according to your experience of same.)

Getting to the brass tacks here, Neptune is going retrograde on June 7th at 5 Pisces, a degree known for situations which test our sense of balance and which no matter how difficult, ultimately prove useful.

The glyph for Pisces represents the two fish swimming in opposite

directions connected by an immutable, golden cord 

But that’s not all. 5 Pisces is also the current position of a star known astronomically as Alpha Cygnus (and astrologically as Deneb). Known for its strong will and a clarity of insight which comes from afar (references to channeling and shamanism are often seen with Deneb), this heightens the effects of this Neptune station, making them inordinately powerful, if not on a mundane level.

Oh – and lest we forget, this is a first decanate degree of Pisces, a sign all about facing ‘our fears of being frightened’ specifically as that pertains to our Self and how we think we may not live up to our own greatest hopes for ourselves.

And yes, others. Pisces tends to be highly problematic when we project our longings on others; the tendency to want to be ‘saved’ is very high with Pisces because it is the sign of ‘universal compassion.’ But that’s not how the sign of the fish tends to work. Pisces works best when we extend compassion and accept others and thus allow ourselves to be accepted, cared about and cherished in return. The fantasy that someone or something can ‘fulfill’ you is particularly problematic in the Piscean realm unless you understand that your fulfillment comes from who you are and the standards to which you hold yourself in all you do and are.

Being one of Pisces’ first ten degrees (degrees 0 through 9), 5 Pisces is also a personal degree: it’s about us – our feelings, our physicality, what we do and accept as ours to do. And since royal star Fomalhaut is right next door to 5 Pisces (at 4 Pisces) this Neptune station will also put a lot of energy into the concept that our dreams only come true when those dreams are neither corrupt, corrupting nor corrupted.

But wait – there’s more!

Dare I say…GRAND TRINE ?

Yes, this station has Neptune as part of a grand trine. And while any grand trine in water is going to put an emphasis on feelings, this one has all three prime objects at 5 degrees of their respective signs.

You just don’t see that very often!

Simply line up Venus-Saturn-Neptune and you get a question about the ‘stabilities of values’ or ‘long term worth’ (or values) which may or may not be accurate, or be being questioned (that last being the Neptune part). This could even be the moment when something you had thought of value, or some sort of financial (Venus-Saturn) status quo shifts.

And no, this doesn’t have to be for the worse. But it could be, let’s be honest.

Saturn retrograde in Scorpio lends a distinctly interactive quality to this energetic. So whether the issue is money, sex, inheritances, loans, partnerships personal or business, buying or selling, signing financial agreements of whatever sort, the prime instruction given by Saturn is to know what you’re doing and to not over-extend yourself, whether that’s financially, emotionally, sexually, or any other which-way.

Venus in Cancer is often a matter having to do with family, your place of residence, real estate or housing or national/cultural traditions. Atropos here speaks to a ‘cut-off,’ which means this could be something you are currently cut off from, or which you are moving towards cutting yourself off from.

Neptune (and Deneb) are within sextile’s reach of Facies, which suggests that there are many ways to see the situation and many factors which need to be taken into account.

Pluto is conjunct Facies, so the ‘Facies factors’ may be difficult to wrangle with. Beyond that, Pluto is also in opposition to Venus and Atropos, speaking to a change of circumstance which – according to the grand trine – is in progress.

Then we come to fixed star Alhena. Alhena is the star and signature of our Purpose. Positioned in Cancer (an emotional water sign), Alhena speaks very eloquently to that so many people refer to as our passion. Finding what fits you not because you were told to like it, not because it’s traditional but rather because it’s integral to your nature and true to your innermost interests is Alhena’s drive. With this star conjunct Mercury, there’s a lot of deep feeling and thought going into what’s important to us now, whether we’re on track with ourselves or not.

Although…with Alhena in trine to Neptune and Saturn, we would hope that you are living a life which fits you well and truly. Otherwise this grand trine may signal a time of trial.

With Pluto in opposition to Venus, Atropos, Alhena and Mercury as a conglomerate, there are many challenges to be met now, many of which will ask that we weigh out our (Saturn/Neptune) priorities.

You know, those priorities which have become obvious over the past couple of years?

The cloud tops of Planet Neptune as photographed by Voyager 2. Rather amazingly,

this huge planet - which is around 3.8 times the size of Earth - makes a full rotation

in just over 16 hours.  (photo credit: NASA/JPL, August 1989)

Like all celestial stations, Neptune’s turn to retrograde is given a couple of days ‘allowance’ to either side. So we should figure that this station begins on June 7th (maybe even on the 6th) and ends on June 9th…or maybe the 10th. During this time, sensitivity of many types can be expected to be heightened. It’s a fine time for get togethers provided nothing too, too serious is on the line. If you’ve been having some sort of problem with someone – or if there’s something you need to tell them, this might be a good time to arrange a space for a talk. Just remember, Neptune/Mercury contacts can signify deception or falsifying – which would be one of the reasons to be careful about contracts or business dealings over these days. But if there has been a problem, or if there is something touchy or problematic to talk about, the natural openness which comes with Neptune’s station may be just the time to have a heart-to-heart. Providing you can say what you have to say with some degree of compassion, you should be received with all due humanity.

This doesn’t mean there may not be disappointment. Even a few tears. But tears are part of being human too. Knowing you matter to someone else is hugely important to us.

It’s part of our Neptune lesson…because it helps us deepen our experience of being being touched.

Emotions, whatever they are, however they manifest are forms of vulnerability. And when someone shows you their vulnerabilities and you choose to treat them with compassion instead of rejecting them for their weakness or destroying them with the knowledge of their vulnerabilities, your acceptance of them heals and strengthens the resilience of your soul, ultimately liberating you at a uniquely Neptunian level from those ego fears of judgment which are the weakest side of Saturn’s structural limitations.

May you station yourself in peace.
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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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