Chart USA: Solar Return 2013

(Adapted from a stock image of the Great Seal of the United States)

For those who agree with (or who are willing to entertain) the idea that Chart USA is the horoscope which pictures the reunification of ‘a country divided’ at the end of the Civil War, there is a solar return for this chart which will occur on April 9, 2013 at 1:28 in the afternoon (EDT/+4).

 Chart USA - Solar Return 2013

 
And for those of you who are skeptical about this chart, I invite you to use it. (Check in the sidebar in the 'Corporate and Political' section for "Chart USA" postings).

Granting the huge debate about Chart USA, this is the only chart I have found which works. As esteemed astrologer Robert Hand observed, all the other charts for the United States have a void-of-course Moon. And if there’s one thing the United States isn’t, that would be a nation which is indecisive about its existence and willingness to speak its mind and act on same.

That’s not to say the US does it all right – just that it’s willing to do stuff.

Anyway…Solar Return 2013 as the Sun at 20 Aries with Mars at 21 Aries and Eris/Venus at 23 Aries exactly conjunct the 23 Aries Solar Eclipse Midheaven. Whoever is thinking this government (and nation) is going to get united and peaceful about what it’s values are, forget it. Eris/Venus is a sign of discontentment if there ever was one. The degree 23 Aries is known for confusion with the necessity (or “necessary evil”) implied here being to accept reality and deal with that.

Of course, when it comes to the United States, just what that reality is…? That would be the question.
With Mars as ruler of Aries and Mars conjunct the Sun and both in the statistically very active and potent degrees which precede all angles of any horoscope, there is a generosity which can be offset by foolishness and a need to not move ‘ahead of the pack’ (or the times) which is interestingly offset by this all happening in a 9th house which with it’s 21 Pisces cusp (with Kleopatra exactly conjunct and Kalypso/Mercury at 23 Pisces denotes a weakness which can come from too much or too little reliance on faith (that would be national faith or faith-as-in-religion)…and the Kleopatra intelligence of 'things foreign’ including foreign countries, foreign nationals and foreign beliefs.

And if you’re into the danger of all that, just think – this Pisces Kleopatra/9th house cusp and Mercury/Kalypso also applies to education in the US (i.e., the educational system). 

Burnished fields outside Benton Township, Columbia County

(photo credit: Nicholas A Tonelli, May 2010)

The dreams and commensurate lack of realities in both regards would seem to be where the US is going to have problems. Mercury in Pisces – under any circumstance – tends to exacerbate worry. So are all the concerns voiced by the government or the American people valid? Maybe yes, maybe no. Since Pisces on the 9th says you can’t just learn the basics, you have to understand the spirit of the thing even though many people will be up on dates, names and histories, understanding what that means to others is likely to be a big weak point.

Oh yes – did I forget to remind us all that the 9th house is also the house of the media and ‘information dissemination’? This should be a big year for everything from blowing things out of proportion to bad behavior on the internet creating problems in – and for – the United States.

To make this even more interesting, the 20 Aries Sun in this chart rules both the Leo Ascendant and the Leo 2nd house. This is a sign that what the country does affects its stability and security. (And that would be both its economic, international and sense of stability, inclusively.) Leo at Ascendant is very good when it acts with an eye to long term growth and a creative way of dealing with challenges (thinking of good parenting as the example here is probably apt)…and Leo at the Ascendant is very bad – even detrimental in it’s own (Sun) regard when it acts arrogantly or presumptively, as in ‘I know what’s best for you.’

Unfortunately, this Leo first-and-second house also speaks to a continuing likelihood of problematic young people and problems with how parents treat their children, too.

Still, on the 'up' side this is also a sign that important 'creations' and the whole idea of 'Made in America' may come to the fore - and become increasingly important. Even something to celebrate.

Any nation’s ‘business’ (national or with regards to its commerce) will be ruled by Saturn. And this chart presents us with a 9 Scorpio Saturn (retrograde) in the 4th house, conjunct Deucalion and – through Deucalion, the North Node. This points to a ‘wrestling’ with real estate and (Scorpio) debt on the part not of the nation, but the national populace. It also speaks to prices of issues, which may be approaching ‘fair or moral’ (Deucalion) in terms of actual value, but which are probably not what they were prior to the recession. Dealing with the idea that the real estate market will recover but probably not soar is going to be something people from all walks of life will need to (North Node) accept, and many of them will respond to this idea by saying ‘I don’t know how to.’ 

A rainbow and streams of rain filter down from clouds

over the Delaware River Valley in Pennsylvania

(photo credit: Nicholas Tonelli, July 2012)

This sense of ‘how can you say that to me?’ will continue into the world of investments. For all that the US stock market is currently way up there, there are many people who have never recovered from what they lost at the top of the market before its crash. The lesson in the stock market as a vehicle of risk is going to be one thing people are going to learn more about this year, and with fixed star Toliman and Medea at the 5th house Scorpio cusp (the 5th house is the house of all thinks risky and all risks we take) it would seem like some people are either going to be shy about getting back into the market (they got seriously scared the last time around) or they’re going to learn a big lesson through over-investing.

Which yes, suggests that at some point during this solar year there will be a major market correction.

This is actually compounded by that Leo rising and Leo on the 2nd house cusp: the stock market is notorious for correcting or simply dropping some measurable amount when Mercury goes retrograde in Leo (which it will not do this year) or when there’s a solar eclipse in Leo (also not happening this year).

What we do have is this Saturn in Scorpio and Mercury going retrograde in Scorpio during October and on into November, with a solar eclipse occurring in Scorpio on November 3rd.

This would seem to be a difficult moment for the nation. Pictured as a solar 4th and 5th house occurrence, this is likely to be something endemic or ‘home grown’ or of the nation’s own making which either makes a major shift or which shows up as a problematic weakness.

The signature here is 28 Scorpio and Toliman. 28 Scorpios is all about ‘superior power’ which when it isn’t directed towards social and societal betterment through heartfelt and open emotional support, negotiation and – to some degree – vulnerability becomes an energy which is highly problematic. Even dangerously so.

Oregon's Rogue River

(photo credit: Hamad Darwish of Medford, Oregon - October 2005)

Toliman is a fixed star which refers to ‘learning better through mastering of one’s emotions.’ This star is the foot of a centaur, with lore suggesting that this is the centaur Chiron, implying a vulnerability we can face, but which we are loath to tackle.

At it’s most unfortunate, this is likely to be a symbol of tragedy which has long range effects on the future. Scorpio is the sign of atomic power and we are likely to hear a lot about atomic issues this year (obviously that has already started with conversations about North Korea). But we should be aware that this is not just about some foreign country. While the first of Scorpio’s co-rulers (Mars) is conjunct the Sun and in the 9th house which – as above – would tend to speak to all sorts of things foreign, that Scorpio is on the 5th house and therefore below the horizon in this chart is about the US itself and something which happens (if you’re an American) in the “here at home” quadrant. And since the ‘outcome’ ruler of Scorpio is Pluto, that points to Pluto in Capricorn, here positioned in the 6th house of health, work, service (i.e., that we need to do because it needs to be done) and conjunct Facies (the million factors and facets which drive us all nuts) and Industria/Vega.

Pluto is also conjunct the Aries Moon-Amor-Photographica and Uranus complex in the 9th house.

In any national chart, the 6th house being the house of those who work for the government or for the nation puts the civil service, the military, operations like the post office, Congress and the states as members of a union (complete with their governments and civil service leagues) on the table.

The 6th house of a national chart is also its system of health care and its work force in general.

Pluto / Facies is the ongoing and seemingly endless debate about who is responsible for what and what needs to be changed. There is denial at work, and sometimes creation in spite of that. Or creative ways of destroying what could be, all as part of the desire to simply control things for your own personal end.

With the ruler of this solar 6th (Saturn) in the 4th house of the people, as much as the people may not like seeing bad behaviors in their government, they are described as being - at some level - equally culpable.

And afraid. But then, the government is also afraid. It may be afraid of the world...or how 'how the world works' is changing (emphasized by Pluto in the 6th), but they're also afraid of the people. And as all those who work for and with power do in such situations, they will tend to clutch ever tighter until they are either removed from power or they break the tiller of the boat.

Or the patience of the people.

The Japanese Gardens at Huntington Museum in Pasadena, California

(photo credit: Randy, son of Robert April 2007)

Saturn in Scorpio is patient, but not that patient. And even if things stay the way they are through this (calendar) year, Saturn moves into Sagittarius in January of 2015. And Saturn in Sagittarius is well known to be not-all-that patient.

Nor is it subtle. Saturn in Sagittarius tends to bring around a lot of 'backfires' based on shortsighted or narrow-minded thinking.

But that's yet to come. Meanwhile, here in 2013, Industria/Vega conjunct Pluto is a changing workforce and the need to change our attitudes about those who work and the quality (Vega) of the work they do.

Uranus-Moon-Amor-Photographica in the 9th house smacks of a buddy-buddy system and the whole ‘I’ll support you if you’ll make me look good’ sort of thing.’ On the whole, this looks to be a challenge to the nation as a nation to get past it’s ‘playing to the media’ as opposed to using the media properly to get information out to those who need to know what’s going on.

This is also an image of a workforce which can be at odds with its leaders or leaders joining with the workforce to better the nation’s lot. Looked at like this, the leaders would appear to posture and the workforce would seem to lose interest in working for a group of leaders who they perceive as not giving a ho-ho, snowball (or twinkie) about them.

Thirdly, this is an image of the citizenry and the way it would like to see itself – that being added through this solar Capricorn 6th house being  ruled by the Scorpio Saturn in the 4th house of the national population. The ‘I don’t care about others, I only care what happens to me’ is a national problem. The national obsession with ‘lookism’ on every level is defined here as a problem.

As is mental health. And yet, with Pluto sextile Chiron (which is conjunct ‘repeated challenges’ Achernar) in the 8th house, the health – mental and that of the commerce system – is still plainly in the hands of those who care more about their power (in many cases) or what they ‘get’ from the process than in doing a good job.

 Autumn in New Hampshire

(photo credit: Bluepoint, December 2005)

If the nation is a patient, in this image we see it opting for plastic surgery and Xanax rather than accepting the reality that life isn’t paradise and that with all due respect for Billy Crystal ‘you look mah-velous!’ routine, looking good and ‘having it all’ is less important than doing good and investing quality in what you do while valuing those around you and what you have.

Neptune at 4 Pisces in the 8th here asks for humility. Conjunct Fomalhaut to the degree it says that the United States must face its fears on all fronts, internal as well as external. With Medusa at 2 Pisces with Nessus just inside the 25 Aquarius 8th house cusp, the nation can face its fears of living in a world which the US does not control or regulate all by its mega-conscious ‘I-Me’ Aries self…or it can move towards recreating the lessons which will force the US to learn to be a nation of the world through problems in this world and with the world at large.

Is there an ‘answer to the quandary’ posed here? If there is, it’s shown up by the Part of Fortune (aka Fortuna) being positioned at 26 Cancer, conjunct Pollux and conjunct Byblis in the 12th house.

Byblis is ‘defending the indefensible.’ Pollux calls for an intellectually driven choice to give something up of your own accord. Both of these symbols being in the solar 12th house describe current trends to not take on these issues, however you want to describe them…as gun control, child abuse, environmental issues, climate change, drugs, drug addiction and the effect that has on families, children and the population at large, factionalization of the population along cultural lines (including immigration issues)…

These things are not being attended to. And since Cancer is on the 11th house natal for the nation, the problem would seem to be both commercially-driven (probably profit-driven) and because the problem seems to large for the nation to wrap its (Pollux) mind around it…at least well enough to make a decision and the sacrifices which might come with that.

Radio City Music Hall in 1996

(photo credit: Rick Dikeman)

Are they going to get attended to? Only if and where people get scared enough. At that point Byblis will stop being the defending of the thing which isn't good. Or the defending of something which works for some but not for all. And once Byblis turns to its positive side, as seen in this chart it would seem the whole of the people - the citizens of the United States - will demand that things get done.

But before that...? Expect them to be too busy with their own business, their own families and the 'maintaining of their own houses.' At some level, this 12 house Part of Fortune speaks to the need for the country to consider the nation it's 'household.' And to the extent that the people of the United States don't see their nation as their 'home' and everyone in it either part of the family or a guest in the house, they're going to make things more difficult for themselves, and their government.

And conversely, the government will do things which make things harder for the general populace. (Welcome to the wonderful metaphysical world of political cause/effect!) 

26 Cancer is a degree which generally manifests as a poetic image which is great if you’re an artist and not so fabulous if you’re a nation needing to deal with reality. With Cancer on this house, the citizens of the US and some image of ‘how things used to be’ or ‘the old way’ or ‘what we were taught by our parents’ or even a wholesale, word-for-word ‘founding fathers’ allegiance is described here as a source of not just limitation but fear, qualities which the nation as a whole (government and people) have to get past if they are to move on and grow into times yet to come. By having faith in its people the US does far better than to eschew their needs, rights and the plight not just of families, but of those who don’t have families. This is a Moon-ruled image of the ‘national family’ which the government is asked to shepherd, protect and educate so that America can not so much ‘look like’ a leader, but be a nation which in leads through grappling with the realities of life. And how ‘liberty and the pursuit of happiness’ has enough practical, real-time limitations without pride and prejudice being heaped upon them.

With Circe at the Leo Ascendant, the government of the US is likely to act like one spellbound. This is the chart of a government likely to pick fights at home and abroad frankly because the driving fire-sign forces for 2013 care can get away with bad behavior.

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is at  some level the real sign of a rich and powerful nation – or at least a nation which is sufficiently rich and powerful in present tense to indulge in fearful ignorance.

Whatever happens in 2013, The United States is likely to weather it. Not perhaps comfortably. Not even happily. But the crunch is coming.

Sunset in Marana, Arizona 

(photo credit: John Hunnicutt II, November 2006)

A long time ago – back when the recession first hit, I wrote a few posts about US (and world) economics. In those posts I said that for various reasons, things were not going to change substantially until 2017.

To those comments I will now add this: come 2016, just as an eclipse hits the Descendant of Chart USA, Uranus will conjunct the nation’s Sun. And that means that some of the factors involved in that change will start being felt during the latter part of 2014, as Uranus moves into orb of the national Sun.

That is when the power, the energy, the direction the US is currently headed in will shift. Whether it will do so of its own accord and peacefully, or because it is prompted to by some external force (good or bad), that remains to be seen.

But the nation will change. Or it will be changed.

It’s really that simple.

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Saul David: My Father the Producer

When in the early 1990's my dad announced to me that he had no intention of going into the 21st century, that struck me strange. After all, he had made Logan's Run, the epic welcoming everyone to the 23rd century.

Right up to the moment when I started digging up clips and posters to write this, all I'd really remembered about Logan was how it had been so on the cutting edge of Special Effects (known in Hollywood abbreviationland as 'FX') - though only bits and pieces got into the movie, there was a whole effort to see maybe sections of the film could be done in holographic imagery. When dad died I found that test reel in his house. And like any dutiful daughter and handmaiden to the film industry, I delivered same to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for preservation - along with his personal copies of The Wizard of Oz and Behind the Green Door and much else.

But as I say...I'd mostly remembered Logan for its effects, it's wonderful color palate (dad was a trained artist, after all) and the Peter Ustinov character at the end of the movie. The character was that of an old man living outside the bustle and bliss of the controlled city environment, a man who though plainly freed by his exclusionary lifestyle was tinged with a haunting loneliness which...well, was very much my dad.

Strange too was how through total coincidence I ended up going to school with Ustinov's daughter Pavla for two years. No, we weren't friends. But at least we weren't enemies - and in an upper crust girl's boarding school/high school, that's saying a lot.

My thanks to Pavla, wherever she may be.

Besides Logan, dad was probably best known for Fantastic Voyage...

...the making of which was notable in my world for strange stories of effects experiments (many of which were simply total 'no go's), dad's continuing fights at the studio (particularly when over one weekend the crew from Lost in Space snuck on his brand new set to film without so much as asking 'may I?') and Raquel Welch's not infrequent visits to the house. 

Raquel was very kind to me, which in the pantheon of women in my life puts her way up near the top. When I wrote my 'early years memoir' nothing would do but to immortalize her encouraging words to me in a budding teen moment when I had just been humiliated by my parents. 

Dad really liked Raquel - and not just for the obvious. There was a begrudging respect in his voice when he talked about her at the dinner table, as if he was impressed that a woman that beautiful could also be intelligent and sensible.

Looking back, when I think of Fantastic Voyage the last thing I come to is how dad had doctors from nearby UCLA Medical Center come to the stage and 'approve' what he had built. Did it look like the real thing - the real human body? 

I gather these MDs had a great time wandering around a 'lung' which filled an entire mammoth sound stage. 'If only...' they probably said in their minds, never knowing microsurgery was soon to be in hand.

But one great truth about this movie never gets talked about - that in many ways its a tribute to my father's desperate fight to keep my sister alive. Debby had Cystic Fibrosis (CF) and from the time I was born my whole live revolved around his fight to keep her alive. That's why he knew those doctors from UCLA. 

Dad lost that fight when I was 14. He never quite got past it.

  

The Flint movies (there were two of them) were very fun. Dad didn't take a writing credit but he noodled with every line. As the original editor-in-chief who helped build Bantam Books, he had literature in his blood...not to mention the sharpest editing blue pencil on the block.

This being at the tail end of Studio System Hollywood, dad had a few perk cards to play. One of them allowed him to put his savvy artistic fingers (not to mention his twenty-five cents worth) into set design for the two flicks. Because of this, he had made and installed on...I think it was the first Flint set a very beautifully made reproduction of Rodan's Hand of God.

  

Yes, dad the artist at work.

Following the natural 'way of doing things' of the time, that statue ended up in our house after the picture was finished. I spent my early teen years dusting it once a week - and when dad passed away, that was the first thing I wrapped up ever so thoroughly to have brought to my home. 

Where yes, I continue to dust it once a week.

Dad's first picture was Von Ryan's Express...

...shades of Frank Sinatra, Trevor Howard, Edward Mulhare and a host of talented others. Von Ryan provided me with my first trip overseas - to Rome - and four months of eating flan (otherwise known as creme caramel or caramel custard) for breakfast. Much in the famous mold of Bill Cosby's routine where he's been assigned breakfast 'dad duty' and figures 'hey, chocolate cake is made of wholesome things like eggs, milk and flour, right?', my sister made a brilliant case for 'crema caramella' (as it was known) as the perfect breakfast food, leading to Tony, a handsome, gracious and highly tolerant hotel maitre'd becoming a virtual flan pusher.

The big thing about Von Ryan was not just the elegance of its cast (it was a really good cast) or the great locations, but that 20th Century Fox needed a hit and dad supplied it, becoming - for a time - the studio 'golden boy' until his naturally rebellious nature wore that welcome out.

As I look back now, I get that Ryan was my dad's ode to his own WWII experiences, just as Flint was the embodiment of his personal alter ego - a citified, smart-ass James Bond who didn't just date all the girls but who kept a personal harem devoted only to him.

Oh, how those loyal acorns do fall close to their tree, too...

Dad made two others films, Ravagers...

... and Skullduggery...

...which few people seem to know about. Ravagers was his ode to 'what's happening to this world?' and Skullduggery a display of his endlessly restless intellectual bent - a quality I have inherited to the max, if not always to my benefit. There's a very interesting question dug into Skullduggery, namely: if you found the missing link, would it be man, and therefore entitled to the rights and privileges of humans - or would it be an animal, and therefore to be consigned to being treated as a beast or beast of burden?

There's a whole lot of personal history in that question which I won't go into here, but that would be obvious. Artists, be they writers, producers, painters, musicians - we all write from the well of personal history and internal qualm, quest, confusion or agony. That's just the way it works. If we were happy people, we probably wouldn't be artists - we'd be living in oopsie-poopsie town, USA and repainting our white picket fence once a year would be the highlight of our season.

All this brings me back to Logan's Run. Back when it was made (and dad was head of production at MGM, snarling about the insanities which come with movie studio life) I got that a good portion of Logan was about his own feelings of having been betrayed by society. When he was born, the world venerated the wisdom which only comes with age. So that's what he worked for and looked forward to - he wanted to be a venerated, wise elder in the tribe of mankind.

But somewhere along the way, the rules changed. Old and wise was out, young and naive if filled with promise came in. So if you ever see Logan, wonder not that dad made a film about everyone's life being over at thirty. Astrologically, thirty is just when we emerge from the end of the first Saturn round - the growing up cycle. Society has all sorts of markers about when we become adults: religious tradition puts this in ancient terms around age 12 (one Jupiter cycle being 11.86 years), schools and the military tend to pick 18 (one round of the societal lunar nodes being 18.6 years long) and there's the lingering but still popular notion of 21 - the first Chiron square (to its natal position) which is a clear indication that at 21 we have to figure out how to be adults whether we feel like we know how or not.

But it's really Saturn's 29.46 year-long cycle (and it's half cycle at 14.73...and it's plural cycles) which maps life's 'structure.' And that's  fitting, seeing as Saturn represents time, maturation, dedication, responsibility, earning and achievement and ultimately, the 'as far as we can go' thing. When we reach 29.46 years of age it dawns on us that we're not going to be young forever...so we marry. Or we get serious about a career. Or we settle down and buy a house. Or we do all that, plus the family thing. 

Being that dad was born in 1921, this (let's call it) thirty-year mark came in 1951, which is when my sister was born. That says so much which is so plaintive, so sad and so real about my father's life that I scarcely know how to express it. 

Released in 1976, Logan's Run was the first film to be made using Dolby Stereo and it won a bunch of awards, one of which is an interestingly odd 'goddess-robot' statue from the Science Fiction Award people which (no disrespect intended) I tend to think of as my household Buddah. What can I say...? I inherited my father's love of science-fiction and fantasy. I'm just not as good at getting business to listen to me as he was.

(Hello? Book publisher or literary agent needed for memoir and epic fantasy manuscripts. Anybody got one on tap?)

(Dad's probably chuckling. I can almost feel him patting me on my little coconut head.)

The astrological point here is that Logan's Run was made when my dad was 55 - almost at his second Saturn return. It was pretty much the culmination of his work - after that his career...and life...began a slow unraveling which ended with his death in 1996.

I hadn't looked at anything about Logan's Run in plural decades when I decided to write this piece. But as I watched the clips on youtube I was struck by how creepy the Carousel scenes actually are. When I was young, all I thought about was how cool it was to fly all those actors on wires - and how interesting it was that Stefan Wenta (former master of the Warsaw Ballet) was brought in to literally choreograph the scene.

Now all I can see is the haplessness and cruelty of any society which would throw its people away - and the sadness of the Peter Ustinov character who though freed of societal tyranny, did so at great cost to mortal self.

My dad was a very 'old style' guy who valued strong emotions over all else. He hardly was comfortable with love. From my family I learned longing, which finally blossomed not long ago when someone written about elsewhere on this blog finally took the patience of his time to gift me with the warmth of human sanctuary...in which I finally learned to love.

The last solar return of dad's life (1995) pictures him having the exact Ascendant-Descendant line of my natal chart. Given that the Asc/Dsc is how we reach out in the world, our relationships to others and the legacy we ultimately leave, this is a perfect picture of his last-minute attempt to connect and make peace in a father/daughter relationship he had endlessly postponed and criticized relentlessly, treating the child on the other end of the stick (me) as possession, object and utterly less than perfect.

And when he reached out, I took his hand because for all the strain between us, my father had rescued me when life itself was at stake. So I would happily...if tearfully...stand with him in kind. Even if I was an 'also ran' to my sister - his pride and long-dead joy - he was someone I respected and yes, feared, but also someone I understood was someone who had undone and undermined himself.

As so many of us do, yes. At some level we are all Logan living in that city under threat of dying at thirty, we are all Logan running from vulnerability or inevitability, we are all in some way that old man living outside the knowing of anyone but ourselves.

And when any of those becomes all we are, that probably becomes our waste. So often what we really need is right there in our own back yard and yet we neglect it, throw it away or undervalue it in some misguided search for richer, newer pastures. It's so what Dorothy (of ruby slipper fame) learns at the end of The Wizard of Oz.

And maybe why dad owned a print of the film. I don't know. But it seems worth thinking about.

I miss my father. He was more than a bit of a tyrant, but I knew I loved him then and can...finally...feel myself loving him now.

So happy birthday dad. Your daughter of blood and soul and talent misses you...as does the world, I'm sure.

Okay, so maybe not the studio heads. But the world? Yes indeed.

Or 'indeedie-do,' as you would say.

Mercury in Cancer

 Mercury transiting across the Sun - source: News/CNET

Mercury moved into Cancer today. 

So what, you say?

Well, granting that this may not be earth-shattering news, it does signal a change in attitudes. And tone. Which is valuable to you because it says a lot about what's going to come up for discussion...and what approach is most likely to work whether you're in a negotiation or just some garden variety conversation.

Being a water sign, Cancer is automatically emotional. This tells us that as of today, the emotional approach works better than it would have, say....yesterday.

Yes, things do change just that darn quick - not to mention universally.

So where yesterday's appeal to logic might have gotten you where you wanted to go, today (and for the next while), getting into how others feel...or appealing to them in feeling or heartfelt terms is more likely to get a point across. Or - as they say - win friends and influence people.

With that said however, how you feel about 'things Cancerian' may make you more or less receptive to emotionalism in general, emotional appeals, or discussing feelings - yours or anyone else's...which may make you a card carrying member of the Bah, Humbug! club.

Then again, it may just be something far less dastardly and distinguished (sounds like a law firm, doesn't it?) People with air sign Moons are notorious for not liking how it feels when anyone tugs on their heartstrings. They tend to feel 'played'...you know, like a harp. And when Mercury transits any water sign, talking to someone with a water sign Moon may tap into some sort of emotional geyser. 

Obviously we can't cover every contingency about every person you may meet up with here. Nor do I expect that you have the chart on everyone you know - heck, I don't even have that! And we're never going to know the data on people we run across  during the average roustabout day. That's just a given! 

But we can say a few conceptual things about Mercury in Cancer which may be rather useful. 

First of all, water signs vary. Cancer is associated with the surf zone - which may explain to you why it's associated with the Moon, seeing as it's the gravitational pull of the Moon which causes tides. From this we draw that the conversational or situational Mercury in Cancer is also going to have not just tidal rhythms, but waves.

How will this work? Well, rather like the surf itself. While Mercury remains in Cancer, every day is going to have surges and ebbs. But apart from that, there's a 'rising tide' to the entire transit of Mercury through Cancer - a transit which begins today (June 25th) and runs to July 9, when it moves into Leo sometime during the day depending on where you be at that time.  

From June 25 through June 29, the emphasis is on what you do, what you're going to do, or what you've done. This may be a testing, or testy time.

Between June 29 and July 4, Mercury will be in Cancer's most emotional decanate (degrees 10 thru 19) which added to the Sun being in Cancer signals an emotional high tide.  Expect feelings and the expressing of those feelings to be more frequent, more fervent, more exultant and more moody during this time.

From the 4th to the 9th, Mercury moves through Cancer third and last decan (degrees 20 thru 29). The third decan of any sign being where others see what we've been up to, now efforts play out  and you see where you stand...or what you yet need to rise to. 

There's another quirk to throw in here too, namely that the Sun and Mercury will be running in conjunction from June 25 through July 1st. And when the Sun and Mercury are positioned close together, the Mercurial thought process gets a bit...well, let's just say 'drowned out' - that works in a water sign, right? 

And if you don't get why this would be? Look at the photo heading this lovely blog piece. That little, itty, bitty dot is Mercury - the whole Mercury and nothing but the Mercury. The Sun is HUGE! It's hard to remember how large the Sun really is. But it is...gigantic, I mean. 

Anyway, during these periodic Sun/Mercury conjunctions, a bit of personal myopia tends to be going around. So during this time - overlapping from the 'doing' sector into the 'feeling' sector, try to think long term. It won't be easy, but try anyway.

To this we should add just a few more thoughts, the most basic of which comes from the idea that Mercury rules two signs: Gemini and Virgo.

Gemini is an air sign all about the 'idea' of the thing and our ability to think, choose and manage life as effectively or badly as we will.

Virgo is an earth sign all about practical, tangible things. With Virgo, the thing works or it doesn't. There's a practical and pragmatic way to get things done and a proverbial means to the end. That doesn't mean that we always do it that way, but Mercury's association with Virgo is all about the search for the effective method, even if we ignore it once we've identified it!

Put these ideas together and you get why Mercury represents curiosity and a need to understand. Thus in Cancer, Mercury sorts through the basics and finds out what works, and what doesn't work. Given its natural position at the bottom of the zodiac wheel, Cancer is about foundations, thus Mercury in Cancer focuses on really basic values, asking what they're 'worth' to you.

This is where the negotiating comes in. Maybe something is worth it to you...maybe it isn't. And since there are always two parts to any conversation (and since Mercury is associated with pluralities) this makes for a lot of questioning. And answering. And asking why someone wants to know.

Hey! What's it to you, bud?

Considering Cancer rules families, real estate, cultural and national heritage, populations (of any size - civic, familial, national, ethnic, etc.), the homeland, end of life issues, childhood, memory, traditions and in families, particularly the father - and that both the Moon and astrological water are metaphors for money (liquidity, one might say), these subjects are likely to be focal points for discussions.

And don't just take this as a finite list - do a little (Mercurial) conjugating!  What do I mean by that? Well, real estate + money = home financing and home loans (or the need for same). Family + end of life issues = wills, trusts, funerals and probate matters. Childhood + memory (or tradition) can equal simple nostalgia or taking a trip half way across the globe in order to explore your personal roots. 

A last few words. There are two big 'general' groups of us right now...those for whom life may be a little odd, but basically stable - and those whose lives have either been totally tumultuous or which have begun 'shifting' through influences beyond control since...(oh....say,) early May. The former group is not being affected by the July 11 solar eclipse at 19 Cancer - the later camp is being affected by said solar eclipse. 

If you're in the first group, Mercury in Cancer may have it's up and down moments (high and low tide with a few particularly large waves) but basically it's just one of those months.

If you're in the second group, Mercury in Cancer may feel like someone is pressurizing the life vessel you happen to be encased in. And while this isn't fatal, it sure is likely to be uncomfortable.

Whoever you are, expect a lot of emphasis on 'how it looks,' many an assumption being made before all the facts are in (much shooting off of mouths) and a lot of things becoming public knowledge which in calmer moments might have been contained or gone unnoticed.

To paraphrase Bette Davis, it's going to be a bit of a bumpy ride. But not necessarily a bad one!