Saturn Turns Direct in Scorpio: Watch the Offloading of Dreaded Responsibilities

Saturn is currently stationing in Scorpio and will go direct just after midnight on July 8. As it drags its heels to a stop in the zodiac, it permeates the overall astro scene with its themes - its dreaded, depressing, arduous, isn't-that-a-bummer themes.

Saturn is the planet that (eventually) leads us to position, advancement, success, prestige, and recognition in the public realm. It spurs us to reach our grandest potential in these human forms. But it rides our asses like a rented mule in the process.

Since entering Scorpio in October 2012, Saturn has been doing a slow dredge within the structural set-ups of our lives and of our societies, at large. It has drawn out into our concrete realities certain emotional and psychological truths that have up until now been submerged or semi-submerged. We are now aware of the deep, dark, disturbing subtext in ways we weren't before. Our awareness of underlying energy dynamics has increased. We've honed and utilized our X-Ray vision. Whip-smart, razor-sharp.

And for those who already skillfully traipsed around in the Scorpionic nether-realms, new position, advancement, stability, and validation have come with this transit.

We've had a period of waiting, restructuring, and sober second thought as Saturn went retrograde over the first leg of Scorpio February 18 to July 8, 2013, particularly related to career. This period now draws to a close.

Saturn is now stationing direct, about to move full speed ahead into the ongoing process of structural metamorphosis underway on this planet and in our lives.

Career progress that has been stalled but still percolating beneath the surface can now unfold in earnest. Steps people have been mulling over to cement advancement and position can now start to be taken.

There is a more overt jockeying for position and power underway as of July 8. A new pecking order formulating. Be aware of this.

At the same time, Saturn in Scorpio in mutual reception to Pluto in Capricorn indicates that the structures as they exist (Saturn/Capricorn) have become hell (Scorpio/Pluto). People's responsibilities within those structures have become hell - though this is often kept hidden, contained. Obligations within these past-their-prime Pluto in Capricorn-era structures have become enervating traps to the point that people will gnaw their own legs off to get out of them. The more people deny the underlying situations, the more desperate and disturbed they become, until they'll do pretty much anything to hand it off to someone else.

This direct station increases the pressure and makes it difficult for people to pretend. If inherent problems are being ignored, keeping up the shiny, happy public face will be challenging, to say the least. Some will crumble under the pressure. At its extreme, this station will have people wishing for sweet, sweet death rather than face the lack of passion, interest, or integrity in their careers and in the career structures in which they participate. Keep an eye on mental and emotional health, and take the pressure off others (if deserving) when you can.

One of the things to watch out for during the entire transit of Saturn through Scorpio (October 2012 to September 2015) is the offloading of responsibilities as the structures continue their slow collapse.

People will be trying with all their stealthy, wily, and crafty might to get out from under energetic obligations that are draining them.

From now into mid-July particularly, as Saturn stations and the drudgery and bullshit become intolerable, people will be attempting to offload their dreaded responsibilities onto you, and they'll be willing to pull some pretty underhanded moves to get you to bite.

These aren't just concrete responsibilities. They're also heavy loads of the emotional, psychological, or psychic variety. A weight people can no longer sustain. Secrets people can no longer contain.

People are going to be pulling some pretty desperate and funky manoeuvres to pass the buck. However, the passing of the buck is the last thing we need. The passing of the buck has gotten us into the mess we're in on this planet today.

There's the lazy way to deal with the Saturn in Scorpio restructuring themes, and there's the right way.

The right way involves confronting the dynamics head-on, treating them as if they are real (they are), addressing them but also getting yourself out of their reach whenever possible.

Responsibly transforming the current structures and power hierarchies into something different, into something that works better for all involved, takes time and effort. Rather than committing that time and effort, people will simply try to plop the whole kit and caboodle on you. They'll try to slide out from under the weight of their obligations, dropping them on your lap. Again, these are responsibilities and obligations (Saturn) that have become enervating hell (Scorpio). Unless you want to start a stack of new responsibilities from a point of "enervating hell," it is not advisable to put yourself under this weight. Pluto in Scorpios, this is particularly directed to you right now.

Don't allow people to offload on you, and if you are trying to offload on others, stop. It isn't going to work.

The full psychological, emotional, and energetic weight of the responsibilities being offloaded are unbearable. They cannot by borne. By anyone.

Saturn in Scorpio indicates a time of restricted energy - especially emotional or psychological support energy. The hidden glue that holds everything together. There is not enough energy to continue to prop up and sustain the current structures or the way things are being done. These things are corrupt to the point of inherent dysfunction and toxicity. We've been pushed to a point of multi-level crisis, to the end of the road for the current way of things. Offloading the current situations onto other people will only create breakdowns.

No one can step into the current structures and responsibilities and maintain them. We are living during the Pluto in Capricorn years, and the structures themselves need to change - dramatically and from the inside out.

There is a leveling of hierarchy required here, a sharing of rewards and profits, a redistribution of responsibility, recognition, prestige, power. There are changes required here that must be triggered by people getting down to brass tacks. We have to get down to how we really feel about things, how we've really felt, perhaps, for years or decades now, and we have to allow the accessing of these suppressed feelings to fuel the ongoing process of structural metamorphosis experienced during the Saturn-Pluto mutual reception.

The Pluto in Leos are looking to retire or at the very least, to be unburdened of their heavy loads.

But their structural reality does not translate to other generations.

We don't simply step into the shoes of the Pluto in Leos.

We morph the structures, the responsibilities, the power, and the rules so that they're alive, adaptable, and responsive to us and to our needs.

This is one of the primary failures of the structures as they currently exist: the needs of the human beings within those structures have not been taken fully into account.

There is next-to-no emotional or psychological support for people within the current structures, even as those people are eroded terribly by structural dysfunction, corruption, and illegitimacy. There is no allowance for emotional, mental, psychic, or soul health within these rigid, top-down business and governmental set-ups.

And this is where things are breaking down - at the hidden emotional, psychological, psychic, and soul levels. At the energetic level. People can no longer suppress and carry on, as they've been trained to do. We're hitting the brick wall on multiple fronts, on most fronts, and it is going on all over this planet.

It's crucially important during Saturn in Scorpio that you take on only the responsibilities that feel right in your soul to take on. Don't fall for the little tricks of Scorpionic persuasion, attempting to lure you into taking on too much. Don't allow people to unburden themselves on you, unless you know it's the right thing to do.

Take on the burden for another person against your ultimate will, and watch yourself falter and crumble under its weight. Watch yourself fail, as you've been set up to fail.

Alternatively, there are many people scrambling for footing and position during Saturn's transit of Scorpio. Often, these are people who have not been fully responsible with Scorpio energy in the past.

From a previous post:

"Under Saturn's thumb over the next years, misuses and abuses of power will be put in check. The results of underlying dynamics we've been (even unknowingly) furthering will start to surface. Issues falsely believed long-resolved will be stirred, like hot spots after a brush fire re-igniting. We'll be confronted with our misunderstandings of the way energy really works. We'll come into contact with the consequences of the way we've been living our lives - for good or ill."

People are trying to advance themselves using your energy, your talent, your hard work, and your position. Understand this. Keep a wary eye on this. And withdraw your energy and support from these misguided souls wherever possible.

All in all, the Saturn direct station July 8 looks fairly blessed, occurring as it does within Grand Water Trine with Jupiter in Cancer and Neptune in Pisces. All three bodies are in early water, and there is a freshness, an innocence, and an exuberance to this configuration that is lovely, indeed. We are being lovingly assisted by the universe with the very complex challenges with which we are currently faced.

If we keep an eye on the thorny Saturn in Scorpio issues, as well as on an emotionally manipulative/vicious tendency with Black Moon Lilith conjunct Jupiter in early Cancer, this one should be fairly smooth.


All Saturn in Scorpio-related articles: Saturn in Scorpio

35% Off Weeping Willow Designs Until July 22

In honour of Earth Mama Ceres moving into flashy and stylish Leo, there will be 35% off the listed prices on all jewellery at Weeping Willow Designs until July 22.

If you've had your eye on something, now might be the time to treat yourself!

(Please note that shipping is extra.)

These are all my original designs. Semi-precious stone beads and freshwater pearls with sterling silver findings.

They carry the energy of a wonderful and magical little store I used to work at called Art of My Heart.

Please contact me at willowsweb [at] hushmail.com if you are interested in something.

Link: Weeping Willow Designs

Ceres Enters Leo After Kicking Butt on GMO Food Issues Around the World

Ceres enters Leo June 22 after an extended transit of Cancer, and the things that nourish us most deeply shift from Cancerian things (home, family, roots, familiarity, food, comfort) to Leonine things (fun, play, style, art, drama, kids).

How much do we need this shift? A whole lot, I'd say.

Ceres is the dwarf planet related to agriculture, grains, and the fertility of the Earth, and during its transit of Cancer, Ceres took part in an extremely hardcore cardinal t-square with Uranus in Aries and Pluto in Capricorn, just as Uranus and Pluto formed their third exact square May 20.

I'm not a predictive astrologer, but I did correctly predict, with the strong Ceres influence, that food and agriculture issues - particularly GMO issues - would be huge, at the make-or-break point, by planting time this spring.

From a November 8, 2012 article:

"Agriculture-related dwarf planet Ceres stationed retrograde at 3 degrees Cancer on October 31 within a cardinal Grand Cross with Venus in Libra, Uranus in Aries, and Pluto in Capricorn.

This configuration brings food and agriculture issues to prominence, particularly as they relate to increased corporate globalization (Pluto in Capricorn) and the direction into biotechnology (Uranus in Aries).

Ceres maintains its strong influence into mid-2013, forming a cardinal t-square May 5-7 that will still be within orb during the third Uranus in Aries - Pluto in Capricorn square May 20, 2013.

These are high stakes times for the future of food and, correspondingly, for life on this planet.

And nowhere are those high stakes more visible than in the realm of natural versus genetically modified seeds and foods."

These are some of the extremely high stakes GMO-related events that took place with Ceres in Cancer within cardinal t-square this spring:

- It was recently announced by the Canadian Biotechnology Action Network that, despite widespread public opposition, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency has approved a variety of Monsanto's RoundUp Ready GM alfalfa for commercial sale and growth in Canada.

Monsanto's genetically modified alfalfa was first released in January 2011 in the United States by a pro-Monsanto FDA and Department of Agriculture. It was scheduled to be commercially sold in Ontario and Quebec, Canada, by Wisconsin-based Forage Genetics as early as spring of 2013, under the Ceres-Uranus-Pluto t-square. All that was required was a rubber stamp approval of the GM seeds by the Canadian government - which it has now reportedly received.

This means it is now legal to sell and grow untested, unproven genetically modified alfalfa seed commercially in Canada. Forage Genetics and others have the green light.

It is also impossible to know if other varieties of GM alfalfa have been or will be approved, as the approval process is kept secret from the public.

Currently, Canada's alfalfa crop is GMO-free and mostly unsprayed. Since alfalfa is a feral perennial, cross-pollination by GM alfalfa would be impossible to contain, and contamination of the natural crop would be absolutely devastating. Because alfalfa is used primarily as animal feed, the spread of GM alfalfa could potentially contaminate all meat and animal products. But because alfalfa is used as a fertilizer and foundational building block of the entire organic agricultural system, contamination by GM alfalfa could mean the literal end of any certified organic food at all.

Opposition to GM alfalfa is widespread among farmers in Canada, as well as among many citizens.

I've been writing about the threat genetically modified alfalfa poses since the spring of 2011 and started an active "Stop GM Alfalfa in Canada" campaign in February 2013, as Ceres went direct in Gemini. I wrote a GM alfalfa primer as well as a basic explanation of the threat GM alfalfa poses to our food supply and sent it to media outlets and organic grocery stores around the country, as well as to politicians in my province.

I telephoned reporters in newsrooms around the country, with very limited interest generated. ("You're talking to a newsroom in downtown Vancouver. We don't grow alfalfa here. This doesn't affect us. You want farm issues.")

Cross-Canada protests against GM alfalfa were spearheaded by the National Farmers Union earlier this spring. You can see the very inspiring photo gallery here. Demonstrations in 38 Canadian communities on April 9 brought some new media coverage of the issue.

Anti-GM alfalfa protesters in North Battleford, Saskatchewan on April 9, outside the MP office of Gerry Ritz, the Conservative Minister of Agriculture responsible for approving GM alfalfa.

No to GM Alfalfa in Canada! Between 200 and 300 marchers protested in Guelph, Ontario on April 9. 

However, the mainstream media, as well as the information control of the anti-GMO lobby in Canada, failed miserably in providing the context that would convince people that they need to care about this issue. This is more than likely because the reporters and lobbyists themselves don't fully understand why they should care.

So the GM alfalfa issue failed to cross over to the masses in any substantial way, but word was that the protests and anti-GMO activist efforts had created enough resistance and enough attention that Forage Genetics would not be releasing genetically modified alfalfa this spring.

When I started writing about GM alfalfa in 2011, Ceres was transiting Pisces. Neptune was ingressing Pisces, and it was conjunct both Ceres and Chiron in Pisces at the time.

From the April 13, 2011 article, "Ceres in Pisces, GM Alfalfa and the Neptunian Permeation of the Seed Supply":

"At the time of Neptune's ingress, it was conjunct masculine 'wounded healer' Chiron (3 degrees Pisces) and feminine 'Goddess of grains, cereals, and fertility of the Earth' Ceres (5 degrees Pisces). It was also just past the orb of a conjunction to Venus in Pisces (10 degrees). These conjunctions colour Neptune's entire 15-year transit of Pisces...

Ceres, along with other feminine bodies and points, plays a secondary and often invisible role in most of the astrology of the day, indicating the downplayed importance of food, agriculture and feminine grounding and nourishment. Combined with the double dose of Neptunian/Piscean influence, these issues remain obscured, glossed over, and do not have the hype factor required to keep an entertainment-addicted public interested. Everyone eats. Almost no one cares about or understands agricultural issues...

Most visibly, the wounding (Chiron) related to food (Ceres) involves purposeful food shortages and criminal inflation of food prices bringing about increased levels of starvation worldwide. Less visibly, it involves the slow degradation of the quality of our food through contamination by genetically modified organisms, over-processing, soil pollution and the leeching of the soil of minerals."

Pisces is a sign related to the dispersion of elements into the whole, and the message coming through at that time was one of intentional permeation (Pisces) of the seed supply (Ceres) by genetically modified varieties.

Gerry Ritz is the Canadian Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food under the Bilderberg-approved Conservative government, led by Stephen Harper. (The "Agri-Food" part was added in the mid-1990s when GMOs were first unleashed in Canada.) According to his wikipedia profile, Ritz was born August 19, 1951 in Delisle, Saskatchewan. He was a farmer before making it big in far-right Canadian politics.

Ritz is an Old Guard Pluto in Leo with a Leo Sun conjunct.

He is the Minister responsible for the Canada Food Inspection Agency, the agency that approved Monsanto's GM alfalfa, which is sure to cross-contaminate the alfalfa crop in Canada almost completely over the course of time if it is planted.

Terrifyingly (and fittingly), Ritz has a natal North Node in Pisces conjunct Ceres in Pisces. His forward-ho path through life involves agriculture and, quite literally, the permeation (Pisces) of the seed/food supply (Ceres) by GM varieties.

Transiting Chiron is currently tightly conjunct Ritz' natal Ceres in Pisces, indicating a devastating and ongoing injury to the health and well-being of the whole brought about through his actions.

Ritz has Mercury and Venus in Virgo, loosely conjunct his South Node. This makes for a weighted South Node with pitfalls including not seeing the forest for the trees and not understanding the broader effect on the whole of his personal actions - or perhaps just not caring? 

Gerry Ritz. Click to enlarge. Note: this is not a correct birth time.



I'm not sure if Ritz is ignorant, stupid, or just straight-up NWO evil. If ignorant, he certainly does not see the long-term implications of his actions, which could destroy most of the Canadian food supply by contaminating it with poisonous, untested GMOs.

Though Monsanto's dirty alfalfa seeds have been approved for sale in Canada, they have not yet been planted or grown. It's crucial that the "No to GM Alfalfa" pressure continue. If we lose this battle, much of the food supply will be lost.

- In May, under the intense Ceres-Uranus-Pluto t-square, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin reportedly told U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry that the continued agenda of the Big Ag GMO corporations could bring about World War III.

As we last experienced a Uranus - Pluto square series in the 1930s during the lead-up to World War II, the war threats (Uranus square Pluto) spurred by global food and agriculture issues (Ceres) are apropos. You could even say, planned and timed?

Particularly at issue is the huge global honeybee die-off underway, including "colony collapse disorder," conclusively linked to chemical pesticide use. Bees pollinate crops so that they grow. If the bee population is destroyed,  most of the current global food production is also destroyed.

One of the major problems, as seen by Putin and others, is the continued use by the United States of a class of pesticides called neonicotinoids - named for their resemblance to nicotine. Scientific studies have shown that neonicotinoids kill bees. The European Union, following the lead from Russia, Switzerland, France, Italy, Slovenia and Ukraine, has passed a law to ban the use of neonicotinoids in Europe, but the United States refuses to follow suit.

Swiss-based GMO and chemical corporation Syngenta is the maker of two of the most problematic neonicotinoids.

Exposure to genetically modified organisms and electromagnetic frequency pollution have also been raised as issues in the global bee deaths.

You can read the full article on this subject here: Ceres in Cancer Forms Cardinal T-Square with Uranus and Pluto: Putin Says Big Ag Could Trigger WWIII

- During the last week of May - again, under the intense Ceres-Uranus-Pluto t-square - a farmer in Oregon discovered a patch of unapproved and illegal RoundUp Ready GM wheat in his field. The farmer found the stray wheat plants and sprayed them with glyphosate-based herbicide RoundUp in an effort to kill them. When the wheat did not die, the farmer reported his findings.

The GM wheat, produced with an experimental gene by Monsanto, was last planted in test plots in Oregon in 2001. It has never been approved for commercial use or for human or animal consumption. This means Monsanto's unapproved GM wheat is contaminating wheat fields in Oregon 12 years after it was last planted, discrediting Monsanto's common line that their genetically modified crops can be safely planted alongside non-GM crops with no fear of cross-contamination.

After news of the GM contamination, Japan - the largest market for U.S. wheat exports - cancelled its tenders. The European Union also went on high alert.

On June 3, 2013, a Kansas wheat farmer was the first to sue Monsanto for damages related to the contamination by GM wheat and for the psychological damage done in overseas wheat markets, which now question the purity of U.S. wheat.

Ironically, also on June 3, Monsanto announced it would be developing a new Wheat Technology Center in the Twin Falls, Idaho area. This is an expansion of the growing and testing of GM wheat at a time when the planet is crying out for Monsanto to discontinue its experimental wheat crops.

The pro-GMO Idaho Wheat Commission Commissioner Bill Flory was quoted as saying, "Monsanto's continued commitment to wheat is front and center in southcentral Idaho...It's a major commitment on the part of Monsanto. Wheat is their new frontier." Source.

- This spring saw countries taking matters into their own hands, destroying genetically modified crops. In Hungary, one of the 27 countries worldwide where genetically modified seeds are banned, 1,000 acres of corn found to be genetically modified were destroyed. In China, a country which imports GM crops, three shipments of U.S. GM corn were destroyed when they were found to lack proper safety documentation. Both actions took place in May, under the Ceres-Uranus-Pluto t-square.

- On May 25, a worldwide March Against Monsanto was held, as an estimated two million people marched in 436 cities and towns in 52 countries to protest the insidious contamination of the food supply by genetically modified seeds, as well as the massive use of glyphosate herbicides like Monsanto's RoundUp - the most popular and widely-used chemical herbicide in the world.

Marching Against Monsanto in Chattanooga, Tennessee

 

Marching Against Monsanto in Akron, Ohio

 

Marching Against Monsanto in the Netherlands

 

Although there was very scant mainstream media coverage of the worldwide protests, the marches did raise public awareness of Monsanto's long list of dirty deeds and crimes against humanity. However, they also put a disproportionate amount of focus on Monsanto. Monsanto may be at the top of the GMO game, but it is only one of the major players. If you lop the head of the Monsanto beast off, there will be at least five more heads popping up to take its place - Bayer, Dow, DuPont, BASF, and Syngenta, as well as others waiting in the wings.

All these GMO corporations - five of which are actually chemical corporations with a long history of production for the military industrial complex - are aggressive, litigious, and deadly. All require our attention.

- Also in May, Monsanto announced that it would halt the production of its GM corn in Europe, discontinuing attempts to force GM acceptance in mostly anti-GM European markets. Monsanto will continue to market and sell GM corn to Spain, Portugal, and the Czech Republic.

- In June, the results of the first-ever feeding trial study of GM soy and corn on pigs were published (available in full here). The lead researcher in the study was Australian Judy Carman who studied 168 newly-weaned pigs in a U.S. commercial pig barn for 22.7 weeks.

The study results found that the pigs who ate a GM diet had a much higher likelihood of developing severe stomach inflammation (32% for pigs fed a GM diet compared to 12% for pigs fed non-GM food). The results also found the pigs who ate GM food had 25% heavier uteruses, indicating potential adverse effects on fertility. Source.

These results echo the findings of the Seralini study, the first-ever long-term GM feeding trial done on lab rats that found toxic effects from GM corn in 2012. Those trial results found that rats fed a diet of GM corn were much more likely to develop tumours, digestive problems, and to experience premature death. From September 21, 2012: "Ceres in Gemini, Food Issues in the Media, and Unprecedented GM Feeding Trials Produce Horrifying (Though Unsurprising) Results"

Ceres has been one busy little dwarf planet over the past months while transiting the signs of Gemini and Cancer.

Now, Ceres shifts into Leo, and it is our heart-deep creative force that nourishes and sustains. It is our heart-deep creative force and bold artistry that can keep deadly power in check on this planet.

Art and creativity are very potent for socio-political change now - or they can be.

Ceres in Leo says: play, sing, dance, create, be your dramatic and hot-shit little self! But be relevant. Be potent. Use your creative energy to address the major issues facing us now as a collective, rather than diverting attention from them.

Ceres is one hardcore Earth Mama. She goes to the mat. She takes on any power player she has to take on, and she holds life on this planet in the balance as she does it.

Now is the time when we need our artists, our astrologers, and our creatives to use their public platforms in more relevant ways. Art for art's sake isn't going to get the job done. Art and astrology for diversion's sake certainly isn't the move. Controlled opposition figureheads manufactured for your viewing and listening pleasure are far from adequate.

With Ceres transiting Leo, we inject a little more fun, a little more style, and a little more glam into the fight for our food supply. (And don't kid yourselves - we've only just gotten started there.)

With Ceres in Leo, we nurture ourselves and others by not taking things too seriously, even the life-and-death issues we're being faced with on a daily basis. If we can laugh at the hijinx of the sociopaths at the helm of business and government these days, we've won half the battle.

This is what we need now: play, fun, style, drama, the joy of creation. This is what nourishes our souls and rejuvenates us after the long-haul transit of Ceres in Cancer within cardinal t-square. Those themes have been with us since October 2012.

In Leo, Earth Mama farm wife Ceres is treated like the Queen that she is. She gets to have her hair done. She gets to buy a fabulous new outfit. She gets a little of the star treatment. All the hardcore Earth Mamas protecting this planet do, and they couldn't be more deserving.

The glam and style of Leo gives Earth Mama Ceres the confidence and the attention she needs to change the course of food and agriculture on this planet. A tall order, but this is what faces us now.

Enjoy the warmth, the fire, the heart, and the creative excitement of Ceres in Leo from June 22 to August 28.

Mercury in Cancer Retrograde Within Cardinal T-Square: On Alert, Breaking Out of Mental Comfort Zones

Psychedelic astrologer folk art sign, circa 2013

- Mercury in Cancer May 31 to August 8, 2013
- Mercury retrograde June 26 to July 20, 2013 from 23 degrees to 13 degrees Cancer
- Mercury enters its retrograde shadow June 9; it exits its retrograde shadow August 3
- Mercury conjunct the Sun in the interior conjunction July 9 at 17 degrees Cancer
- Mercury direct station within cardinal t-square with Uranus in Aries and Pluto in Capricorn July 20

When Mercury is transiting Cancer, as it is now, emotion and communication are fused. We say what we feel and (hopefully) feel what we say. There is a sweetness to our interactions, a softening of verbal exchanges. We think about our feelings and the feelings of others more than usual. Logic is coloured by emotion and vice versa. Things are not so intellectually clear cut. People are more sensitive to conversations, tones, and opinions when Mercury is in a water sign, as it is now. We're very aware of our words and how our words can hurt the feelings of others, and this can keep us from having conversations we know we need to have. We may find we have to withdraw from interaction and discourse at times during the Mercury transit of Cancer, drawing our heads back into our crab shells to deal with the sensitivity and maintain emotional stability.

Mercury, always within 28 degrees of the Sun, transits Cancer in late spring or summer in the northern hemisphere, when the minds of the masses have turned to summer vacations, backyard barbeques, reunions, and spending time with family (Cancer).

Ideally, Mercury in Cancer likes to think and talk about fairly simple things. Home, family, childhood, nostalgic looks at the past. Baseball, Mama's fried chicken, apple pie Americana.

However, Mercury in Cancer is currently taking part in a cardinal t-square configuration, intensified during the direct station, indicating things are much more complicated and complex than the crab would generally prefer.

Things are not as routine, as cyclical, or as comfortingly "the same" this summer. The events might be unfolding the same as they did last year and the year before that and the year before that, but, underneath it all, people know things are not the same.

Mercury in Cancer formed its first cardinal t-square with Uranus in Aries and Pluto in Capricorn on June 8. It will station retrograde June 26 at 23 degrees Cancer, retrograding back into that cardinal t-square configuration, where it stations direct July 20 at 13 degrees Cancer.

Our conscious minds may be on simpler things, but there is a bubbling-and-boiling underlying context requiring our attention.

The square series between Uranus in Aries and Pluto in Capricorn (2012 - 2015) tells us things need to change and move in our lives, in our societies, and on our planet in dramatic and grand-scale ways.

This square series, last experienced during the Great Depression and the lead-up to the widespread evils of World War II, indicates that we're on alert, waiting for war news to come to us through media channels this summer (Mercury in Cancer).

The powers-that-be are attempting to repeat a very, very nasty cycle of history. People can feel this, underneath it all. Whether they let it enter their conscious minds or not, the comfort and familiarity Cancer so enjoys is being shaken up. The status quo is not going to cut it anymore, no matter how much support we pour into it.

We are being intentionally kept in a crisis state all across this planet, and the crises are not going to slow down any time soon. The story for World War III has been written. The people have been intentionally pushed as far as they can be pushed. The events have been planned. Now, they occur and hit media like clockwork. Uprisings of the people are going on all over the world. People are standing up to the fascism that is gripping us. And it's all expected by the powers-that-be...

During the Mercury in Cancer transit, we'll be required to have conversations that unnerve us and to participate in interactions that make us or others uncomfortable. There is initiatory movement required here (cardinal energy), and we have to talk about it in order to keep things moving in the right direction. We're required to break things open here, to bring new energy to our home planet and into the standard nuclear family units (Cancer), now mostly existing in a state of fearful, Pluto in Capricorn lockdown.

Black Moon Lilith in Cancer June 9, 2013 - March 4, 2014: the Dark Side of the Mothering, the Nuclear Family Unit, Traditional Femininity, Head-in-Sand Denial, and Security at All Costs

The Black Moon Lilith lunar apogee (mean calculation) enters Cancer today for a nine-month stay in the sign of the crab.

With Black Moon Lilith in Cancer (June 9, 2013 to March 4, 2014) and colouring the Uranus-Pluto square, we are being confronted with the dark side of the nuclear family unit, apple pie Americana, and head-in-sand denial. Nowhere is this head-in-sand denial more apparent than in Cancer Sun nations Canada and the United States, which offer citizens false security and comfort provided by deadly force through the military and police arms of the state.

At the time of the Mercury direct station July 20 at 13 degrees Cancer, the true calculation of Black Moon Lilith will be conjunct Mercury at 17 degrees Cancer. The mean calculation of Black Moon Lilith will be tightly conjunct Mars and Jupiter in early Cancer, taking part in Grand Water Trines with Saturn and Neptune.

The deep, dark, denied feminine perspective strongly colours the scene.

A strong Black Moon Lilith in Cancer theme is "the feelings we're ashamed of," and nowhere is this a more prevalent theme than with mothers. Black Moon Lilith in Cancer is a symbol of the underlying feelings related to mothers, mothering, caring, nurturing, and supporting that are too dark, shocking, or upsetting to be accepted by the society at large. These are the emotions that many mothers (and supporters from both genders) are ashamed of: rage, hatred, resentment, depression, desire for freedom.

Black Moon Lilith in Cancer is mothers going to emotional extremes, crushed by the pressures of their increasingly impossible, dysfunctional, and emotionally-detrimental support positions.

Black Moon Lilith in Cancer is the vilified mother. At it's most extreme, it is the child-killing mother. It is the mother pushed to the absolute brink and beyond.

Or it's anyone who feels that way. Anyone who feels he/she can't take the bullshit for even one more day.

Black Moon Lilith in Cancer involves dark themes related to traditionally-accepted femininity, as well as aspects of femininity that are amputated to stay socially acceptable. Women's roles. Sweet and gentle. Light and congenial. Supportive and generous. June Cleaver. Mad Men. The Angel of the Household. Taking care of the men. Supporting them wordlessly in their positions of power.

Black Moon Lilith in Cancer relates to the socially-accepted role of the feminine versus the unacceptable and socially-threatening energy of the raw and wild dark feminine. This is the vilified feminine perspective, held by both men and women, that dares to consider things like feelings, soul, care for others, and emotional health and well-being in a Pluto in Capricorn business world that values none of those things - unless it can make money from them somehow.

With all this dark energy related to Cancer over the next nine months, there is a strong theme of "the tyranny of the nuclear family unit." Single people and people without children have had the preciousness of the nuclear family unit shoved down their throats for decades. The norm of it, the desirability of it, the rightness of it. And they're fed up. With the pressure to move beyond old constructs so intense, this "tyranny of the family" is going to be cracking at the seams. Areas of weakness that have been glossed over will start to crumble under ongoing pressure from radical Uranus in Aries and transformational Pluto in Capricorn.

There is an underlying edge of desperation, fear, and panic with us this summer, threatening mental and emotional well-being almost across the board. People are at breaking points with backs against walls all across this planet. Many have run out of options within the structures and systems as they exist. Things are breaking down grand-scale on economic and emotional levels, and people are breaking down under the pressure of it all.

Collectively, there is often complete denial of this. The American Dream is alive and well, they say. Everything's great. Never better. Just bought a brand new Honda last week, in fact.

There is a strong desire to keep up appearances with Mercury in Cancer, to maintain the daily chit chat - its comfortable, regular rhythms, its usual patterns and roles. The weather. The baseball standings. What you saw on the news. What you had for supper last night.

But the underlying emotional edge this summer is going to be pushing us beyond verbal and intellectual comfort zones. Information that comes to us or new perspectives we reach through the Mercury retrograde will push us to the breaking point so that we are forced to go further - beyond the iron-tight nuclear family units, the home towns, the home bases, the comfort zones.

The nuclear family unit is one of the least functional forms of social organization, leaving millions of people out in the cold, on the outside looking in. It fails us miserably as the primary mode of social organization, and the blinders will start to come off a bit this summer and during the BML transit of Cancer.

We're going to start to see the cracks widen, though most will want to look away.

We can't go home again. Not really.

The influences this summer indicate movement is required as far as the reformulation of the family unit into a body of equals. There is a redistribution of responsibility required whereby family members pick up their own slack, relieving the mothers/supporters of their crushing and losing positions. There is a stronger emphasis on the family unit now as a vehicle for improving the function, health, and inclusivity of human society, rather than closing out the unmarrieds or the childless. The nuclear family unit is breaking down so that the energy contained within it can be redirected in ways more beneficial to its members and to human society as a whole.

This is not an annihilation of the nuclear family unit. It is an expansion of the nuclear family unit beyond old forms, indicated by Jupiter (expansion) transiting Cancer (family) beginning June 26.

Our communication holds that horrible, wonderful, alchemically-triggering edge this summer, underneath all the babies and the home-cooked meals and the fresh sheets and the summer days whiled away by the seashore.

Understand that things can turn on a dime this summer. Conversations can turn very ugly, very quickly, and the bigger the store of denied emotion, the uglier things can get.

Tense family issues are a particular theme.

If you've been tiptoeing around the feelings of another person (or they've been tiptoeing around you), things can reach a fed-up breaking point quite easily. Acid words can be thrown, egged on by impersonal Uranus and Pluto, that can't be taken back. Be aware of this, and stay away from the verbal point of no return.

With Mercury in an extended stay in Cancer, it's going to be difficult to get our minds off how we feel. Eroding fear and anxiety can prey on our minds if we're participating in things that go against our consciences. With connections to transpersonal planets Uranus and Pluto, we must be very careful not to allow off-the-charts collective fear levels to drag us under.

This retrograde period could be especially difficult for men and for those currently hauling their carcasses through the emotionally-void, soul-void, Pluto in Capricorn business structures.

Black Moon Lilith and Pluto, forming an opposition August 30, are getting to the bottom of things. We can either help or get out of the way. Both will be required at different times.

With a Mercury direct station within tight square to Uranus in Aries, there are radical breaks coming from the traditional, from the family-oriented, from the cosy and comfy.

Those who are paying close attention understand in no uncertain terms who is suffering to support that comfort. In effect, we all are.

We need to advance the scene, and advance it will - with our permission or without.

Cancer involves emotional conditioning, especially from the early upbringing. With Mercury retrograding in Cancer within cardinal t-square, we are breaking out of communication patterns that involve manipulation, emotional blackmail, or guilt - all possible Cancer territory. We are intellectually coming to understand how our emotions can be used against us, how our fear can be used against us, how our desire for comfort can be used against us, and we're working to disengage from those sources of manipulation - personally and on a societal level.

People will be more fearful than usual with Mercury transiting Cancer, more easily affected by the horrifying stories piped daily into our living rooms via media. People's fears will be played upon by mainstream and alternative media outlets, all vying for their piece of the public mind pie.

The constant implied threat to the safety and security of those we hold nearest and dearest will be pronounced during this transit and retrograde. Many heads will be buried in many piles of sand - but the confrontations will keep coming. These are real threats interwoven with implied threats, and it's very dense territory to traverse, determining real from false.

In order to move out of the fear, we have to examine the dynamics, confront the real situations, and consciously break out of the patterns of emotional manipulation. The depth of our courage determines the breadth of our progress.

Mercury enters its retrograde shadow today at 13 degrees Cancer within cardinal t-square formation.

Any verbally/intellectually frictional points coming up now will be coming up again during the retrograde process, with acute points around the Mercury direct station July 20.

Mercury has been involved in stressful transits and aspects throughout 2013 so far, while Jupiter transited Mercury-ruled Gemini, the sign of its detriment. These stressful transits and aspects continue with the Mercury in Cancer retrograde within cardinal t-square.

Understand that a certain level of mental and emotional stress must be accepted at this time. We're in mentally and emotionally stressful circumstances, collectively, on Planet Earth. Acknowledge this, and let it flow through you. Things will more than likely not go exactly according to plan this summer. Accept this, also.

During the transit and retrograde of Mercury through Cancer, keep a close alignment between what you are saying and what you are feeling, no matter how incendiary the voicing of those feelings may be. Don't allow the feelings of others to paint you into a corner, keeping you from saying the things you need to say. Allow the Mercury retrograde process to do its work according to natural timing, and don't force uncomfortable conversations to happen as a method of relieving stress.

Juno Stations Retrograde in Aquarius, Black Moon Lilith Enters Cancer

Soul mate asteroid Juno turns retrograde on June 14 at 19 degrees Aquarius, in the sign of the new astrological era. This begins a three-month retrograde period that will have our lady Juno squaring off with heavy hitter Saturn in Scorpio.

The mean calculation for Black Moon Lilith, the lunar apogee, shifts into Cancer June 9 where it will stay until March 13, 2014. The dark side of mothers, mothering, caring, emotional support, femininity, apple pie Americana, and the family unit become prominent themes. As BML in Cancer opposes Pluto in Capricorn, we see the false security people are grasping to, maintained by the military and police forces of the state, and nowhere is this more apparent than in Cancer Sun nations Canada and the United States.

I've written about both these transits, as well as the Venus retrograde in Capricorn at the end of this year, in a 2013 paid article you can find here:

Venus, Juno, and Pluto: the Reconfiguring and Renegotiation of Marriage and Commitment in 2013

The article is just over 5,300 words and costs $20.

Please note: This article was released in January, 2013.

Neptune Stations Retrograde and the End-of-Pisces Disappointment and Futility Drop Like a Veil...

Neptune is slowing to station retrograde at 5 degrees Pisces on June 7 for a retrograde period that will last until November 12, 2013. As Neptune stations, still within range of wounded healer Chiron, it permeates the astro atmosphere with its energy and themes, and this means end-of-era despondency can sit on us.

Hollow-gut disappointments hang around us like stale fumes. End-of-era love relationships are a confusing, disorienting mess. The idea that our dreams are not special, that we're not special under egalitarian Aquarius, can erode us at the heart. The discrepancy between where we hoped we'd be at this point versus where we really are is staggering at times - both personally and on a broader societal or collective level.

Anyone aware of the circumstances of humanity on Planet Earth at this time will find them humbling, to say the least.

The Moon enters Pisces at 7:30 p.m. tonight, conjuncting Neptune at 4:54 a.m. tomorrow and Chiron at 7:46 p.m. tomorrow evening. The themes are acute until the Moon enters Aries in the early morning of June 2.

Some lingering depression, disappointment, disillusionment, despondency, or a sense of utter futility about carrying on from here can be expected for the next couple weeks, however, as Neptune stations and starts moving backward through the zodiac. There's an unfulfilled sadness in the air, in the collective psyche, so watch to make sure you or your loved ones don't tip too far into the psychic bleak.

The new guy wasn't who you hoped he was. The new job that seemed so interesting turned out to be more of the same. The daily grind seems increasingly dull, painful, pointless, hopeless. Reaching for the bottle, for the bong, for junk food, or for the credit card are all possibilities to dull the pain, to desensitize.

This is standard end-of-era backwash, however. More end-of-Pisces clearing. Fool me once, shame on you, Neptune. Fool me twice, shame on me.

Keep moving, keep flowing, and keep laughing at the insanity of the situations with which we are faced in this foul year of our Lord two thousand and thirteen.

It's the sensitives, the creatives, the Piscean/Neptunians who hold the true weight of where we are right now. They're the ones holding the energy of Pisces, the energy of the spiritual whole, where every last detail matters and nothing can be conveniently amputated or ignored without problematic future repercussions. They're the ones potentially being crushed under the cruelty, the inhumanity, and the dysfunction of the current scenes. Yes, it's that serious.

But it's also funny.

Isn't it?

To be set up with these seemingly impossible clusterfuck scenarios during our lifetimes on Planet Earth?

It didn't start with us, and it doesn't end with us.

But we do have a prime and shining opportunity to direct things now.

Neptune stationing, like prominent Neptune in the natal chart, can create a sort of stoner effect on even the most sober among us. Air-headed and flaky. Forgetful. Dreamy. Wistful. Pie-in-sky. Avoiding. Self-pitying. Indulgent. La La Land-living.

Stay on track and stay focused on your own newly burgeoning Aquarian-era ideals, despite the Neptunian fog tempting us to go down maudlin back alleys or to take diversionary, wishful-thinking detours. We have plenty of assistance in keeping our feet on the ground with the Neptune trine to concrete and steady Saturn in Scorpio. Focus on dealing successfully with the full reality in front of you, and the rest will take care of itself.

For more Neptune stationing effects, check this post from Neptune's last direct station in November 2012: Neptune Stations Direct and Brings the Foggy, the Floaty, the Wispy, and the Surreal

Mercury and Venus in Cancer Get the Grand Water Trines Flowing

Photos: Willow



Mercury and Venus are currently forming a gorgeous triple conjunction with Jupiter in late Gemini, and I hope some good, solid cosmic benevolence is raining down upon you! This is a meeting of the two benefics of the zodiac along with Mercury in the sign of the twins. Our conversations, connections, and communications are lovingly blessed at this time, and the good-vibe ripple effects continue...

Mercury moves from this very pleasing triple conjunction in Gemini into Cancer on May 31. Venus follows suit June 2.

As these two planets move into the sign of the crab, they kick off multiple aspects that will be repeated throughout the summer by the Moon, Sun, Mars, and Jupiter in Cancer (see the end of the article for dates). This is a combination of easy Grand Water Trines with less easy cardinal t-squares and later, Grand Crosses.

The primary "good vibes configuration" this summer is certainly the Grand Water Trine. Three flowing, 120-degree trine aspects formed by bodies in the water signs.

The base aspect in all the Grand Water Trines forming this June/July/August is the Saturn in Scorpio trine to Neptune in Pisces. Saturn and Neptune formed their first trine on October 10, 2012, just after Saturn ingressed Scorpio, and these bodies have been within orb of that trine ever since. They now move into their second exact trine (June 11), with the third (July 19) following soon after Saturn's direct station at 4 degrees Scorpio on July 7.

You can read more about the Saturn-Neptune trine effects here: Saturn in Scorpio Trine Neptune in Pisces: The Last of the Wounding Piscean Era Illusions Are Gently Purged From the System

"Spiritual and psychic elements of life are drawn almost effortlessly into even the driest and draggiest of realities. Things solidify and dissolve, solidify and dissolve, in an interwoven dance of physical and ethereal, planned and dreamed. Wood, steel, and stone are acted on by mystery, magic, and metaphysics.

Solid advancement seems just within our reach, at our fingertips, when the tide goes out yet again, washing things away, back to chaos, back to square one.

And then it’s time for another attempt, for a new set of plans, for a new angle of advancement.

If a foothold does gain traction here - finally, beyond all reason – it’s because it is infused with some 'Pisces for the Aquarian era' pixie dust. It’s a step that has found, through trial and error and otherworldly instruction, a new direction into a new framework of successful energy dynamics.

Our experience of time (Saturn) continues to reformulate. The concept of time having a static and regular nature seems to belong to a different era. Certain time segments speed by, disappear, are seemingly lost altogether, and then time slows, seems to crawl, becomes standard again. Time being relative is antiquated understatement at this point. We snap in and out of the timed reality, the linear regularity, touching down and blanketing ourselves in its weight to regain bearings. Oh, clock. Oh, watch. Pin me to this grounded life. Comfort with your tick tock tallies of life’s moments, speeding blindly past.

Progress made now is not purely linear, easily planned, or directed via desire for personal advancement alone. Things are being put in place, but the work is completed on its own timeline.

Saturn and Neptune. Neptune and Saturn. The finite and the infinite, the infinite and the finite. These two bodies will form three exact trines in these signs – October 10, 2012, June 11, 2013, and July 19, 2013. This trine is in the air for the next year, working its meandering magic.

Our challenges and responsibilities – somewhat daunting, perhaps, at the beginning of Saturn’s almost three-year trek through deep, dark Scorpio – are eased by a sense of floating Neptunian surrender and faith.

There’s only so much we can do about certain nightmare scenarios we find ourselves living through on this planet. But if we’re doing everything we can, everything on Saturn’s docket, we’re also very aware that the loving and benevolent universe (AKA God) picks up the slack. We’re digging in to the nitty gritty as Saturn transits Scorpio, going third-eye deep, peeling away the artifice – but when we’ve dug in as far as we can go, there is both assistance and guidance through the intricate and sometimes arduous matrices.

The stone-cold, ground-zero Scorpionic realities are softened here with just an impression of a glimpse of a wink from the universe. A feather lying in our path, an animal guide making itself known, a glimmer of the faerie folk in a mischievous smile, a remembered dream tying it all together. A reminder that no matter how bad it is, it’s still OK – as long as we’re living and working within soul-deep reality. We’ve come to this point together, and we move through it together.

Our structural realities (Saturn) are in a state of sometimes traumatic morph (Scorpio) as global seismic shifts indicated by the Uranus-Pluto square series drop the bottom out in certain areas and open new opportunities amongst the wreckage in others.

This Saturn-Neptune trine indicates that the progress being made in our lives and the opportunities opening to us now, though potentially scary and uncertain, are moving us toward our dreams, one step at a time.

We’re working (Saturn) for these dreams (Neptune), but they're new dreams.

We’ve stepped firmly onto the water-bearer side of the Pisces/Aquarius divide, and our dreamy ideals take on a new flavour. Our best case scenarios have reformulated, sometimes dramatically.

As Saturn trines Neptune, it is also trine wounded healer Chiron in Pisces. The first exact Saturn-Chiron trine is November 16, 2012. In order to make progress now, we have to be willing to give up some long-held dreams that have not proven viable, and this can be painful. The old ideals have become pale, brittle, faded, whisper-thin. Many of the Piscean-era dreams are going up in smoke, dissipating into thin air after years or decades or centuries of cherished hopefulness and longing."

The first aspect formed by the current transit of Mercury through Cancer is the flowing and graceful Grand Water Trine with Saturn Rx in Scorpio and Neptune in Pisces on June 3-4. Mercury then moves quickly into a more stressed and pressurized cardinal t-square formation with Uranus in Aries and Pluto in Capricorn June 7 and 8.

Venus in Cancer repeats the Grand Water Trine with Saturn and Neptune June 7, moving into cardinal t-square with Uranus and Pluto June 11 and 12.

And all this is precursor to the main event: a Grand Water Trine formed by Jupiter in Cancer, Saturn in Scorpio, and Neptune in Pisces on July 17 - 18, which morphs into a cardinal t-square with Jupiter, Uranus, and Pluto in August.

From a previous post October 22, 2012 outlining the major aspects up ahead: Saturn Trine Neptune Ripple Effects: Magically Delicious Grand Water Trines Morph into Cardinal T-Squares June Through August 2013

"The good celestial vibes from the current Saturn-Neptune trine emanate through the end of 2012 and into the fall of 2013. There are threads, both ethereal and material, connecting the benefits we are receiving under this trine now with gifts and blessings - potentially beyond what we can currently imagine - bestowed next spring and summer.

Jupiter, the planet of luck, expansion, blessings, gifts, the broadening of horizons, wisdom, and faith, moves from the sign of its detriment, Gemini, to the sign of its exaltation, Cancer, on June 26, 2013 where it will remain until July 16, 2014. 

Jupiter in the sign of its exaltation indicates a year-long period of strong cosmic grace amongst the difficult transitions and movements indicated by the ongoing series of Uranus in Aries – Pluto in Capricorn squares.

From this much stronger, exalted position, Jupiter is going to get a lot done, and it shines its benevolent light on almost every aspect of life on Planet Earth during its year-long transit of the sign of the crab.

Benefic Jupiter will form a gorgeous, glowing Grand Water Trine with Saturn in Scorpio and Neptune in Pisces July 17 and 18, 2013, along with a series of more challenging cardinal t-squares and cardinal Grand Crosses during its transit of reflective, Moon-ruled Cancer.

In fact, the Saturn-Neptune trine we are currently experiencing expands into a series of magically delicious Grand Water Trines next spring/summer as the personal planets (the Moon, Mercury, Venus, Sun, and Mars), along with Jupiter, move through Cancer, forming the final leg of the water triad and dividing the zodiac into three 120-degree parts.

Throughout June, July, and August, 2013, we will experience, in waves, multiple Grand Water Trine formations that morph quickly into cardinal t-squares. 

As the planets move to 4/5 degrees Cancer, they form the easy and flowing Grand Trines with Saturn and Neptune in water signs Cancer, Scorpio, and Pisces. Anyone with natal placements in the early degrees of water or, to a secondary degree, earth signs should be particularly experiencing the good graces. 

As the planets continue into the 9 to 12 degree range of Cancer, they then become part of more tense, stressful, and challenging t-squares (180- and 90-degree aspects) in the cardinal signs of Aries, Cancer, and Capricorn. People with natal placements near this range of the cardinal signs will be feeling the pressure and the impetus to act. 

The water signs relate to emotion, intuition, spirit, metaphysics, inner guidance, and the unseen realms. The cardinal signs relate to initiation, action, new directions, leadership, and decision-making. The movement initiated this June-August is guided and informed by water wisdom of all varieties. 

These are waves of flowing water magic followed by more tense, dynamic, and active configurations. We drift and meander and soak up the blessings of the Grand Trines, but are then required almost immediately to put them to good use. Things are uplifting, flowing, bursting with good vibes. We're buzzing with new dreams, renewed faith, and a sense of loving cosmic connection and grace. The water in each and every cell is singing beautiful harmonies - and then we are challenged to do something with it. 

Considering all the benevolence the universe is showering down on us with these waves of gorgeous Grand Water Trine, it had better be something substantial.

The multiple Grand Water Trines soften the edges considerably next spring and summer, easing frayed nerves caused by the almost constant cardinal square tension and stress we've been working with now for the past three years.

Benefits and cosmic grace will be coming to us through the feminine/yin qualities of Cancer: emotional connection, nurturing, comforting, caring, gentleness. These are all things we can use more of during the cardinal square years, and Jupiter in Cancer provides. Psychic abilities will be keen under all the water aspects, and an awareness of emotional/inner guidance will be particularly acute. 

We will have expanded opportunities to experience home and family under transiting Jupiter in Cancer that are quite exciting, with renewed faith and inspiration found in those things as we are prompted to live our very own "family philosophies." The nests we set up, expand, and commit to during this transit provide interest, faith, and fortification for what's up ahead. 

Luck comes to us through family during Jupiter in Cancer - both birth and chosen. Our sense of family expands to suit a new era flavoured by Aquarius, and we are able to find a sense of belonging where there was only cold isolation and anomie previously. The idea of family and home continues to expand (Jupiter) under the Aquarian umbrella, and friends become family. Home bases can be set up and secured under these transits with like-minded souls who become family to us. The wisdom in our hearts guides the process.

During the transit of Jupiter in Cancer, things we learned and wisdom we gathered during the experiences of our early upbringing become aces in the hole. Under this transit, we come into wisdom and a big-picture understanding about some emotionally tough experiences we've had, especially early experiences of family and home that have stuck with us.

Anyone who has refused to sacrifice emotional health for career advancement, soul security for monetary gain, or inner work for public image will be reaping the benefits of those choices. People who have followed the guidance of the inner voice and the emotional cues, as those around them favoured blind ambition, at-all-costs gains, and destructive advancement, will be in the sweet spot during the Jupiter transit of Cancer. 

We're moving through some often rough waters on this planet and will continue to do so, but the blessings and grace coming to us through these Grand Water Trines do a lot to comfort and protect us along the way. 

Grand Water Trines Morphing into Cardinal T-Squares – June through August, 2013

Mercury and Venus, conjunct in Cancer, form the first wave in early June.

Mercury in Grand Water Trine - June 3 – 4

Mercury in cardinal t-square - June 7 and 8

Venus in Grand Water Trine - June 7

Venus in cardinal t-square - June 11 and 12

Sun in Grand Water Trine - June 26 

(This formation is made a kite by the Capricorn Full Moon June 23.)

Sun in cardinal t-square - July 2 to 4

Mars and Jupiter, conjunct in Cancer, form the final wave in July and August.

Jupiter in Grand Water Trine - July 17 and 18

Jupiter in cardinal t-square - August 7 through 21

Mars in Grand Water Trine - July 20

Mars in cardinal t-square - July 27 through August 1

The Moon in Cancer will form very fast-moving Grand Trine and t-square configurations June 10, July 7, and August 3/4, 2013.

Jupiter in Cancer Forming Multiple Cardinal Grand Crosses - August 2013 to April 2014

In addition to the Grand Water Trine and cardinal t-square it forms next July and August, Jupiter in Cancer will star in a series of five cardinal Grand Crosses involving Uranus in Aries, Pluto in Capricorn, and the personal planets (Venus, Mercury, the Sun, and Mars) in Libra.

Grand Crosses are made up of two oppositions or four squares and usually occur in signs of the same quality (cardinal, mutable, or fixed). In this case, the tense, clashing, and highly dynamic configurations are happening in the cardinal signs, indicating (yet more) grand-scale new directions, new frameworks, and new leadership emerging under pressurized circumstances, both personal and global, micro and macro. The friction creates movement and growth. 

The first cardinal Grand Cross involves Venus in Libra and forms August 23 – 28, 2013.

The second involves Mercury in Libra and forms September 13 – 19, 2013.

The third involves the Sun in Libra and forms October 1 – 12, 2013.

The final two cardinal Grand Crosses involve Mars in Libra – both direct and retrograde. The first Grand Cross forms with Mars direct between December 23, 2013 and January 8, 2014. 

The final Grand Cross forms April 21 – 24, 2014 and is exact, as all four bodies – Mars Rx in Libra, Jupiter in Cancer, Uranus in Aries, and Pluto in Capricorn – will be at 13 degrees of the cardinal signs.

Did I mention Jupiter was going to be a busy little beaver during its transit of Cancer? It's hitting all the marks from this exalted position and playing a part in all proceedings. The cardinal Grand Crosses (or Grand Squares) kick the global and personal re-structuring up to fevered pitch yet again, and we're going to need every last bit of Jupiterian blessing from its position of exaltation.

Background:

Cardinal t-square 2010 

Cardinal Grand Cross summer 2011

Cardinal Grand Crosses 2013 and 2014" 


The Grand Water Trines we will experience June through August 2013 are sure to be overly hyped in the astrological discourse of the day. However, these flowing and easy aspects quickly morph into more challenging and tense configurations, forcing us to stay on our toes. This isn't all loved-up, blissed-out, groovy water energy. We're challenged to do something with this ease and grace, especially as Mars and Jupiter conjoin in Cancer and get in on the action (July 17 - 22). As we soak up the good vibes this summer, we are also made acutely aware of the pressurized and less-than-ideal circumstances we find ourselves in on Planet Earth. Backs are still against walls under the Uranus-Pluto square series - the water trines just help us flow into new position this spring and summer.

Neptune is currently stationing retrograde at 5 degrees Pisces (June 7), slowing to motionless in the zodiac and permeating the astro atmosphere with its potent themes. You can read more about the Neptune stationing effects here: Neptune Stations Direct and Brings the Foggy, the Floaty, the Wispy, and the Surreal.

Don't become too intoxicated by all the Grand Water Trine hype. In this stationing state, Neptune is just begging for something new (or old) over which to get starry-eyed. Remember the ever-enticing dangling Neptunian carrots, however, and stay focused on reality. The best use of this water energy is to fold it into the overall scene, accessing the pixie dust when you can but not allowing that pixie dust to throw you off course entirely.

Major progress is possible this spring and summer. Many sticky emotional situations can be eased. Many family issues can be resolved. We can put down new roots or reconnect with old ones in ever-shifting soil, and they'll grab hold. New homes, nests, and families can bring new inspiration, optimism, and comfort for the next 12-year Jupiter cycle. But it all requires our awareness and our effort.

Don't be diverted from the major progress unfolding now in your life and on our planet. Initiate new frameworks this summer that will draw your family - blood and otherwise - into a more integrated and cohesive group. Expand the nucleus of your family to include new members, new forms, new rules.

Emotions guide us. The wisdom of our emotional world, our emotional cues, shows us the way. The invisible, unspoken undulations of the crab, the primal and mysterious draws, the mystical Moon-communion.

Magic is real, reality is magic, and it's all real this summer. Have fun.

A Truth-Raising Sagittarius Full Moon Eclipse With Busy Bee Gemini Getting the Word Out Worldwide

 Photo: Willow

 

The Moon is big and bold and full in Sagittarius tomorrow night (11:25 p.m. CST), opposing the Gemini Sun at 4 degrees of the signs, in the third eclipse of this eclipse season. This eclipse is a penumbral lunar eclipse visible in the Americas and western Africa. The first two eclipses of this eclipse season were the Taurus New Moon solar eclipse May 9 and the Scorpio Full Moon lunar eclipse April 25.

The Gemini/Sagittarius polarity has themes of opinion and ultimate truth, personal perspective and big picture, gossip and wisdom along with the intermixing and intermingling that go on along that polarity.

There is a strong and very beneficial Gemini influence in the zodiac right now. Communication and intelligence planet Mercury forms a conjunction tomorrow evening with love, beauty, and relationship planet Venus at 18 degrees Gemini, just before the Full Moon.

Mercury and Venus are also on their way to a conjunction with Great Benefic Jupiter on May 27/28 at 23 degrees Gemini, and this is pretty much an awesome sandwich. A light social touch, good connections, and just the right amount of conversational flow bring big ripple effects of the beneficial networking variety. We can get the word out now (Gemini) in big (Jupiter) and loving (Venus) ways and in ways that are ultimately hugely beneficial to our local societies and neighbourhoods.

Sagittarius is a sign seeking ultimate, high-minded truth, and at this Full Moon eclipse, the ultimate truth is coming out one conversation, one e-mail, one telephone conversation, one text, one tweet, one article, one link, one Facebook message at a time (Gemini).

The Great Shining Sagittarian Truth is refracted into many, tiny Geminian bits. Its light is re-directed into all corners of the situation, all corners of the globe. Every perspective comes clamouring. Every busy social bee has a piece of it.

With group effort, we're catching up to the detrimental agendas so pristinely planned, organized, and laid out by the financiers and those who do their dirty work. The messages of the people are gaining some serious momentum, and if I were a member of the powers that be at this Full Moon, I'd be getting a little nervous...

This truth-raising Sagittarius Full Moon is occurring under the third Uranus in Aries - Pluto in Capricorn square (exact May 20), coloured strongly by a t-square to agricultural dwarf planet Ceres in Cancer.

The truth about our food is getting out, little-by-little.

Because the outer/transpersonal planets are so strongly involved, the food and agriculture themes are playing out on the global stage, among nations, with Cancer Sun countries Canada and the United States playing pivotal roles.

The public is starting to understand en masse the insidious contamination of the food supply by genetically modification and chemical herbicides and pesticides. The insidious contamination by GMOs has been going on since the 1990s, but the issue is now reaching critical mass.

With the unleashing of genetically modified alfalfa in the United States (proposed also in Canada), the entire food supply is at risk. People are starting to understand this. Countries are starting to take a stand.

Hungary, one of the only countries in the European Union to ban genetically modified seeds and crops, has just destroyed 1,000 acres of GM corn by plowing it under.

China has just destroyed three shipments of GM corn from the United States that were said to lack proper documentation.

And the world is gearing up for a massive global protest action against the GMO and chemical corporation, Monsanto, in the worldwide March Against Monsanto on May 25. Check to see if there is an event in your area here.

As always, however, it's important to gather your own information and to guard your own truth. To be your own truth-teller, rather than passing the buck to one of the many figureheads currently available for the job.

The truth is: Monsanto is just one part of the problem. Demonizing one corporation is not the move. There are hundreds, thousands, more doing similar things. The whole corporate model is corrupt at this point. Pluto in Capricorn.

The real truth, the whole truth, on this planet requires us to dig deeper than most are willing to go and to keep digging. This is the case now.

The Sun (figurehead) in Gemini (media) is currently square Neptune and Chiron in Pisces (wounding deception and illusion), within Yod formation with Saturn in Scorpio and Pluto in Capricorn. The Sun is repeating aspects made earlier by Venus and Mercury in Gemini (Mercury-Saturn-Pluto Yod, Mercury Square Neptune and Chiron: Conversational Maya Remover), and their influence is with us strongly through June 1.

The truth is: the stylish, truth-telling, media-savvy figureheads that have been put up for us to consume are often also here to divert attention, to disperse energy, to help us miss the point.

They've been allowed a position of influence to control opposition, to control the information flow, to focus on one part of the situation to the detriment of the full truth - whether they understand this or not.

They're here so people can abnegate their own responsibilities, passing them off to the celebrity mouthpiece of their choosing. They're here to stem the flow of people really figuring things out.

These puffed-up personalities are Piscean-era throwbacks on pedestals we now have to dismantle.

Tunnel beneath the information and opinions to the underlying intuitive feel of the situation. Go beyond the figureheads. Tap into the energy, the potency, and the momentum of the real, underlying issues. The real grassroots. This is where your words and actions can affect the outcome, turn the tide.

Let this big, bold, beautiful Sagittarius Full Moon light up YOUR truth. And speak it. There will be people listening, people glad to hear it.