A Cancer New Moon of Energy and Enthusiasm

The New Moon that takes place on Friday, July 5th, at 3:57 PM PT, later afternoon and evening for points east, is of great interest due to the Sun and Moon’s exact degree in Cancer, the parallel and contra-parallel the Cancer Sun makes to Venus and to Pluto, and the prominence in this significant configuration of outer-planet aspects. When we take a look at this New Moon’s position in the zodiac, of 14° 23’ of Cancer, we note that this is the exact degree and minute of Fixed Star Sirius, with the keywords: creativity, communication, enthusiasm, and passion. We might therefore want to think of this New Moon as a bit special, and even magical, as we consider the other attributes that its configuration suggests. One thing that we will also want to keep in mind is that the planet Neptune is standing almost dead still in the sky, having just stationed retrograde on the 2nd, and is therefore greatly magnified in power. This highlighted station of Neptune is furthermore taking place right at the Aries Point, or 0° of the sign. The position of Neptune is 29° 56’ – so within a mere 5 minutes of a degree of 0° Aries! We do have Pluto, located at 1° Aquarius, in close sextile to the Neptune station, and additionally in an extremely close contra-parallel with the Sun. Incidentally, as far as the Moon’s declination, in this New Moon configuration, of 27.6 degrees, this Moon, like the one in the recent June 21st Solstice Full Moon, is considered “out of bounds,” and therefore more than a little wild. With the connection of Pluto to Neptune, and, as well, with Uranus to the new planet Eris, which we examine more thoroughly below, this is in fact a very energetic New Moon with tons of evolutionary energy for meaningful change, so that it is up to each of us, in our own distinct manner, to make it count!

The outer planet combinations in this Cancer New Moon are of major importance. We mentioned the Pluto-Neptune close sextile, a refining of the wide sextile that is, in general, a feature of this 21st-century timing. The Neptune-Pluto conjunction takes place about every 500 years, with the most recent being the one in the year 1891, a decade which saw great shifts in the zeitgeist, defining the modern era. In the intervening years, Neptune has gradually slipped ahead to get to the point where it is about one sixth – or 60°– of the circle away from Pluto. There is also on the horizon the Saturn-Neptune conjunction of 2025-2026, which is getting close enough to really count now, within about ten degrees, or well within the limit for World Transit effects suggested by Richard Tarnas in his seminal work, Cosmos and Psyche.

Not to leave Uranus out, we have, with Eris at 25° Aries and Uranus at 25° Taurus, an almost perfect semi-sextile aspect between them of thirty degrees. Uranus being invoked here brings up the potential for surprise events and for unexpected enlightenment as well, as a result. Eris enhances Uranus here and Uranus enhances Eris. The point of Eris aspects is also to explore what we have, individually, deep inside ourselves as a soul-level mandate that we cannot ignore, and we may note that Eris is also conjunct Chiron, the Wounded Healer, parallel to Neptune, and square Venus. In our individual lives — and in the life of the collective — we have seen, and are continuing to see, a string of surprise events that may yet provide the enlightenment that we seek.

All these outer planet combinations are accompanied as well by a presence of Venus, Mars, and Saturn that chime with the New Moon when we consider that the Sun is parallel to Venus, and eight degrees away from her symbolic resonance with relating, art, and aesthetics, so that the midpoint of Sun and Venus is 18° 50’ Cancer. This midpoint is sextile Mars and trine Saturn, within less than a degree. That these personal planets are involved in this Cancer New Moon with Sun, Moon and Saturn implies for our personal lives and with regard to the relationships that we inhabit as we go through, we are very much engaged. Saturn is also appropriate here, as providing a grounding presence in which valuable life lessons might need to be learned, and as tying in the outer planet combinations, including Saturn and Neptune, as part of the comic symphony that is playing.

The final outer planet pairing that we might want to mention is the long-lasting combination of Pluto square Haumea, with Haumea the new 21st century planet representing concepts of natural law, of intuitive right action, bringing up internal moral commitment and truth-telling, or the lack thereof. There is plenty of the latter circulating in the zeitgeist these days. The only solution to it all is to keep our heads on straight and to reach deep inside ourselves, as these outer planet combinations are demanding, for our own individual, quirky, and independent answer. In the final analysis, we can trust no one else to truly tell us what stand we must take in order to remain our most authentic selves, this time around the wheel.

We need to support each other in finding the peace that comes our way when we can abide by our own guidelines. As pioneer Davy Cricket was reputed to declare when his comrades’ backs were up against the wall in his own era, “Be sure you’re right (by your own standards) and then go ahead!”