Welcome to the New Moon, which will be exact at 24º56’ Cancer at 2:32 pm EDT. We greet the Sun and Moon in the third and final decan of Cancer, the Moon’s home sign. We cannot see this Moon, but they’re strong as the ruler of this sign supported by Jupiter in Taurus.
Jupiter and the Moon are in a kind of mutual reception by exaltation. The Moon is exalted in Taurus, where Jupiter is. Jupiter is exalted in Cancer, where we find the Moon. These two celebrate each other.
Cancer is the cardinal Water sign, known for emotional resonance and support, preferring to stay close to home, connected to family, however we define that.
Yet this is an intense New Moon in so many ways. One important theme here will be considering and perhaps expanding our definition of who our family includes.
The Sun and Moon sit in one corner of a Grand Cross that includes Pluto and the Nodes of the Moon. This tenderhearted Moon has landed in deep territory in which the forces of fate are strong.
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One theme we find in the third decan of Cancer is that of luxury and scarcity. Austin Coppock writes that in the world we know, having a thing implies that someone else does not, perhaps cannot, have it. In the desire to keep our family safe, we stock up, holding on to more than we need, in case times get bad.
With Pluto opposite the New Moon, retrograde in the last degrees of Capricorn, the impulse to grab what we believe we need might be strong. The world has changed. Is changing. We have a responsibility to those we care for.
The Nodes of the Moon can reinforce these ideas. Poised at 0º of Scorpio and Taurus, the Nodes will shift into Aries and Libra two and a half hours after the New Moon is exact. This shift of the Nodes, and therefore of eclipses for the next 18 months, is dynamic and unsettling. What will happen? We don’t know, so we’d better prepare.
Cancer and Capricorn can invite us into narrow definitions of who we are, who our people are, and what we need. Two additional aspects to the New Moon offer a wider view.
This New Moon is leaving a sextile with Uranus in Taurus and moving into a trine with Neptune in Pisces. Both aspects are well within orb for the luminaries.
Uranus invites radically new approaches to any sense of scarcity we feel. What do we really need? Are there new ways, perhaps old ways we’ve overlooked, to meet those needs? And what about this idea of family? Can we redefine that? Create new alliances?
Neptune opens us up in many ways. We are invited to relax into uncertainty. We’re reminded how limited our capacities actually are and asked to be OK with that. At the same time, the worlds open up before us. Lands of dreams and visions, places of potential and mystery. What can we find there?
Mercury in Leo is ready to get playful, passionate, and creative with plans. A tight square with Jupiter keeps Mercury grounded in the earthy realities of Taurus, but this is Jupiter after all: There is luck here, beneficence, and philosophical frameworks as well as expansive ideas of who we are and what we’re capable of.
The New Moon forms a tight square to Eris, who reminds us of the great needs of our Earth. It is possible that we have reached a point, as a species on this planet, where we must embrace a radically larger view of who our family is and what true security represents.
Let’s loop back to Pluto for a moment. We are nearing the end of 20+ years of Pluto in the sign of Capricorn. We have been offered so many opportunities to experience the stark consequences of what we have built. We see how structures we thought were immutable, “God-given,” have laid waste to everything we thought was ours.
This Pluto retrograde back into Capricorn is a “last chance to see” opportunity. What were we shown during Pluto’s time in Capricorn? Have we learned? Have we changed? Maybe yes, maybe no, maybe some of both. But we’re reminded. We’re human. We build stuff. Is it solid? Is it good?
There’s something else interesting here. It’s been easy to see Capricorn as emblematic of the overwhelming structuring of the modern world. Cites. Roads. Bureaucracies. Corporations. All the things we call “infrastructure” which now seem to be breaking down. We also see Capricorn in societal structures that are hugely problematic. Systemic injustice. Toxic definitions of who we are as people that limit and control us.
Yet Capricorn, as an Earth sign, is traditionally female or yin, receptive. Yes, Saturn is typically defined and seen as masculine, but Capricorn is not. As an alternative, I offer the mythic figure of the Cailleach, a powerful, giant-sized old woman of Ireland and Scotland. She is winter. She brings blizzards. She throws rocks around, creating mountains. She collects bones.
So it interests me that Austin Coppock, in writing about the third decan of Cancer, brings in the goddess Hecate, via a reference in an obscure Hellenistic text. She is an ancient great goddess, associated with the created world. In this context, it is worth remembering that in traditional cultures, women presided over the mysteries of birth and death, and in many cases still do so today.
Hecate is also a goddess of magic and sorcery. Later Greek tradition suggested she was a companion of Persephone in the underworld. She certainly understands the dark mysteries. Note that Neptune, trining the New Moon, also sextiles Pluto. What if Hecate offers a bridge between the New Moon in Cancer and Pluto in Capricorn?
I may seem far afield here, but Pluto’s opposition to the New Moon, plus the squares to the Nodes, compels us to widen and deepen our explorations.
The New Moon alone may prefer to stay home, close the curtains, lock the doors, and keep the security system humming.
The wider context of Pluto, the Nodes, Uranus, and Neptune won’t hear of it. The world as we know it today, experience daily, won’t let us. Too much is happening that feels wrong. We feel threatened, yet know we can’t go back to some fictional golden age.
Our resource base and our alliances need to expand, not contract. It’s time to get very creative in Uranian and Neptunian ways.
So, who is family? How big can we go? Can we expand our hearts, our circle of caring, to include all humans, across the planet, no matter who? What about all sentient beings? What about all of the manifest world, whether we experience it as sentient or not? What about the cosmos?
For this New Moon, I came back to the phrase “All our relations,” which says we are inextricably part of an intricate and interdependent web of life. We have barely scratched the surface of our scientific grasp of how organisms communicate, cooperate, and influence each other. We have no idea what is possible if we work together.
The ancient Greeks had a range of words for what we call “love.” I’d like to contrast two of those to illustrate what I’m suggesting.
“Agape” is word we might be familiar with from religious or philosophical contexts. This is a transcendent love, selfless, unconditional, infinite, and therefore associated with deities. It’s sometimes defined as the highest form of love, because it includes everyone impartially. This is selfless, without expectation, and in that sense, unidirectional. Agape is something we give, no matter what we get.
“Storge” is a less familiar word that refers to family love. This is considered to be natural, instinctive, and based in familiarity, dependence, and acceptance. It’s also relational and reciprocal, creating mutual support and affection.
Agape is a nice philosophical concept. In the context of today’s New Moon, though, it feels cold, cerebral, and not all that helpful in solving the problems we currently face.
Storge, on the other hand, recognizes that we need each other. We are, in fact, dependent on all our relations. We are interdependent. If we could grasp this not just conceptually but viscerally, in our bodies, where Cancer and Capricorn reside, we might just have a chance.
Note: Thank you so much for your support during my health break! It was such a lovely thing for me to see your messages of support, wishing me well, and saying you value my work. I can’t tell you how much that meant.