I’m not gonna lie, this New Moon essay turned out to be a tough one. This Solstice New Moon with Jupiter has been on everyone’s astrological radar as a lovely respite and hoped-for change of direction after the tense transits of the first half of this year.
Yet, we’re less than 24 hours from the New Moon, inside a spiraling news cycle filled with bombs, threats, counter threats, and claims that are impossible to substantiate definitively in the midst of all the noise.
Where is great-hearted Jupiter, empowered to raise banners of peace? To rebalance power to include the deliberately excluded? To just help us feel better? Jupiter is the planet of great expectations. Now he’s exalted in Cancer, our expectations have been high.
It’s tough to be heading into this New Moon without a clear Jupiterian signal that it’s all gonna be ok.
There are some useful things to say about why, in these last hours of the Balsamic Moon, we’re not seeing the New Moon energy we hoped for.
First, having a Sun-Moon-Jupiter conjunction in Cancer with Mercury also in Cancer points to Big Feelings. Our core selves, our bodies and emotions, our minds, including how we perceive, process, and communicate are all in deeply emotional territory. And that territory is made larger and more expansive with Jupiter’s presence.
We’re in this with our whole bodies.
The emotional focus of the Moon’s sign of Cancer is on issues of home, family, safety, security, our land, our people, having enough, trusting that life will provide. These are precisely the aspects of life that seem to be in the crosshairs of what’s going on politically, in policy and in direct actions on our streets.
So, it shouldn’t be a surprise we’re feeling really emotional and also probably unsafe.
For those of you who might not be feeling this at the same level of intensity you see around you, just know we’re not all losing it. This New Moon’s setup places us right into a vortex of deep emotion.
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Also, this Moon is out of bounds. She’s outside the control of the Sun. This means she is feeling, and processing those feelings, on her own terms, which may or may not match up with anyone else’s expectations.
This New Moon is in a tight sextile to Mars in Virgo. Mars wants to do something. To take action to relieve both the emotions and their causes. But Mars isn’t strong here. Virgo is detail focused in a way Mars doesn’t vibe with.
So, our own desires to take meaningful action may feel thwarted, in part because of the mismatch between what’s happening in the world and our capacity as individuals to help.
The bigger pressure is the square this New Moon and Jupiter make to the Saturn–Neptune conjunction in Aries. Neither Saturn nor Neptune is well placed in Aries, since for very different reasons, neither planet is comfortable with the direct action Aries loves.
In this current situation, it seems possible Saturn and Neptune are each trying to find a basis for action, but since they go about this in very different ways, and they are conjunct, no clear path forward emerges. There seems no direct avenue to relieve the tensions currently facing us.
There are two hopeful indicators in this chart.
One is Venus in Taurus sextiling the North Node in Pisces and trining the South Node in Virgo. Venus is strong in Taurus, her nighttime home. Here she is transitioning from the second into the third decan.
Venus in the second decan experiences abundance with a need to be generous in sharing. In the third decan, there’s a new awareness of loss, to which Venus can bring a graceful hope. This feels like a good reminder, that no matter what fate brings, we have choices around how we individually respond. We can choose generosity and grace.
Also, remember this is a New Moon. It’s a seed time. The Moon is dark in the sky. We can sense what might be happening, but cannot see it. Not yet.
Our birth charts vary tremendously in how each ties into current world events. Some of us are directly affected. Others of us, less so. Over the next weeks, important astrological shifts will happen, and things will be happening in the world that won’t feel the same for everyone.
If we can acknowledge our own emotions and support ourselves with grace and humility, if we can support each other emotionally and with tangible resources and actions as we can, and if we can avoid assuming the worst (yes, that means not doomscrolling), then we can partner with this New Moon to experience ourselves, all of us, as members of communities as we figure out how to keeping moving toward the world we want, together.
