Cancer Horoscope for May 2023

This is another rather intense month for you, Cancer, as your focus on career continues and is modulated by Mercury in retrograde, as well as by eleventh house concerns of societal contribution and planning for a future in greater alignment with your deep principles and values. The Full Moon and lunar eclipse of May 5th is another significant lunation, and takes place in your creativity sector, with Mercury still moving backward, reminding you that your self-expression must be in service to communal values in order to be truly worthwhile. You continue striving to provide a sense of internal moral principle to everything you accomplish in the outer world. Your friendships, group affiliations, partnerships and your relationship dynamic are also likely in transition. You are looking to the inside for most of your answers. You can make the most of what is coming down during this month of change by realistically assessing where you might need to let go of outmoded habit patterns that your soul is ready to discard. The 12th and the 14 also represent key moments of the retrograde cycle, which begins to wind down after mid-month. Mercury’s subsequent recovery period is taken up with slowly sorting things out.

The following was written by our guest columnist Geoff Gronlund of geoffgronlund.com

The Solar Eclipse New Moon from last month, which took place at the final degree of Aries, influences the present month as that lunation cycle of thirty days completes. Your career and professional life is greatly emphasized, and there is a transformational component as well from the highlighted presence of Pluto, closely aspected by the Sun and Moon in this powerful eclipse setting. There could be engendered within you a pressing need to stand up for yourself at work, or to make changes in the way your work aligns with your deepest principles. Your life is in flux, and it is well to acknowledge this basic fact and see what you can make of it. You may feel the need to set boundaries at work in some way, perhaps requiring you to work less. With Pluto’s influence so prominent, whatever you stand for may be transforming your level of authority. The effects of the eclipse will be experienced through the first three weeks of May, and as a background for the next six months or more.

Pluto stations retrograde on May 1st in your sector of intimacy, death and rebirth, and deep soul work. This station greatly emphasizes Pluto’s transformative symbolism in your life so that you might feel a renewed sense of your current metamorphosis. Mercury in retrograde conjoins the Sun on the same day, which represents one peak of the Mercury Retrograde that is another important factor for you during the entire May month. Mercury is moving backward through your sector of community, ideals, and future plans, signaling a time of deep inner exploration to help you align your visionary ideals with your concrete goals. Your personal values and your deep-seated principles are a strong focus now and through to the end of the month.

On Friday, May 5th, the Full Moon and Lunar Eclipse in Scorpio falls in your sector of self-expression, creativity, and joy with the Sun in your social sector. This is another potent lunation that will color the two weeks leading up to the late Taurus New Moon, and also serve as background for the summer weeks still to come. Your happiness depends more than ever on being fully able to express your deepest principles in what you can create, and to see that what you feel in your private inner world has consequences as to serve the community that surrounds you. You might feel less afraid to express some of the more taboo or personal aspects of your nature with the world. There could also be a daring sense of excitement to connect with others and share your inner attitudes and experiences with them. This eclipse timing could also help you process more of the deep shadow work you have been feeling inclined to explore lately.

Venus ingresses into your sign on May 7th representing your first sector of autonomy, drive, and identity, and this can spur you to stand up for yourself and to feel into more of the beauty and natural affection of life. If there is a dream you have been wanting to pursue, you might gain by researching the possibilities. Venus in your first sector can symbolizes new beginnings and new ideas, so that it might pay to listen carefully to your heart to discover what it is you passionately want to pursue. If you are in a relationship, you may experience greater intimacy and emotional bonding with your partner.

On Friday, May 12th, the Last Quarter Moon in Aquarius, representing your intimacy sector, is colored by a very active and interesting aspect pattern between Mercury, Venus, and Saturn. This can be a time of tremendous growth through cultural, philosophical, or community experiences that might reshape your ideals and dreams moving forward. Mercury is winding up its retrograde motion and is therefore quite slow, so that the effects of the retrograde are still very much with you over the following weekend, perhaps putting you more in touch with your innermost desires. In any case you are continuing to explore your goals and societal contribution in the light of your ongoing transformation of values.

Mercury stations direct on May 14th in your sector of ideals, community, and future plans. This is another key moment of the retrograde, when Mercury is standing dead-still in the sky. You likely have been giving a lot of thought over the past three weeks or more, while Mercury was retrograde, to how you can better align your career and creative life with your ideals and higher aspirations. It’s possible you also have some inspirational ideas about how to enlarge your perspective or perhaps provide more security and nurturing to your loved ones. Things are still changing within you. In the two-week post-retrograde period that follows, while Mercury is indeed direct, yet still recovering, there will be ample time to refine these notions and begin to work out a plan for executing on them.

Jupiter ingresses into Taurus on May 16th in your eleventh sector of friends, community, and higher aspirations, squaring Pluto. This is an exciting time that can inspire you to dream big! There could be an opportunity within your community lying in wait for you that can transform your path, especially if you are prepared to take a chance on something you otherwise weren’t expecting. Pluto’s transformational influence in your sector of deep inner soul work could require you let go of what has been holding you back. This ingress brings enormous potential for manifestation of your ideals, although the caveat is that sometimes we need to lose something in order to gain.

On Friday, May 19th, the New Moon lands in the late degrees of Taurus, corresponding to your eleventh sector of ideals, friendship, community, and goals for the future. There can be incredible excitement over these next thirty days to strike a new match toward materializing an ideal you have long dreamed about. Although, while this excitement can fuel your desire for revolutionary change, you may also feel a contrasting apprehension to follow those desires due to more stabilizing influences involved. Whatever the case, the process of manifesting your ideals should be carefully considered before moving forward, because while the New Moon is generally a good time to set new intentions and start new endeavors, it might be a good idea to wait to act upon those intentions until at least after the 21st, and perhaps to the end of the month.

Mars moves into Leo in your second sector of resources and values on May 20th. This can bring an exciting enthusiasm to honor your values and to create more sustainability. These several days surrounding the New Moon represent a very intense timing when issues of self and other are likely to arise, and when almost anything could happen. The fiery motivation and exhilaration of Mars in Leo wants to penetrate and express, while the potential for expansion with Jupiter, and of transformational letting go with Pluto, remain very active as well. The fiery drive of Mars in Leo in this sector can undoubtedly inspire financial growth, but it can also inspire enormous creativity and productivity, revealing previously dormant potential. Your capacity for growth through change are being stretched so that you can decide whether to play an active role in forging your own destiny.

The Sun’s ingress into Gemini on May 21st in your twelfth sector of spirituality, dissolution, and the public can impart a desire to familiarize yourself with the mysteries of life by studying a spiritual or philosophical body of knowledge. Mars, Pluto, and Jupiter are still active. In the remainder of the month you are seeing the connection between inner and outer desires and principles and finding creative juice and inspiration while still in a process of personal and spiritual evolution. This ingress can also symbolize finding inner meaning and applying deep-seated principles to your career, so this is a good time to work hard to achieve more of what you want which might also be in terms of how much your work is aligned with your inner values. Overall, this May month has been a very productive transition in your life, a gift that keeps on giving over the following weeks and months.

Cancer Horoscope for May 2023

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