New Moon in Cancer
Today (6/28/22) there is a New Moon in Cancer, the sign of the Mother. America, itself a Cancer (being born on the 4th of July), will soon see a lot more mothers who do not want to be mothers, who, lacking resources, will struggle to raise their children well. It will see a whole cohort of unwanted children, carrying the weight of their mothers’ struggles and broken dreams. These are facts.
Here is another fact: the Goddess is back in town, and no Supreme Court or legislature can stop her. She is here. She will burn the human world to the ground if we persist in our stupidity. But she also loves us and is always ready to show her love and pour new life into us if only we ask for it sincerely. Erase any religious connotations from your mind. She is You– even the fellas out there. And, just like God the Guy in the Sky does not exist, the Goddess in her many imagined forms also does not exist. But, like God, the Goddess as an energy, power, and aspect of consciousness is realer than real, ever-present, and a part of every single thing that exists, has existed, or can exist– including and especially YOU.
In human birth charts, the sign of Cancer often brings extreme attitudes toward the mother– either the human mother, or the Great Mother. The dynamics can be fraught. You might find a child who never moves away from home, or a mother and child who talk on the phone fourteen times a day; at the other extreme, you may find a person so damaged by his mother that he can barely speak of her without bleeding from every pore. Sweet Cancers, I know how you take things to heart– I am using extreme examples to make a point, so please remember there are plenty of healthy and virtuous expressions of this sign, like loving, caring, nurturing, and knowing how to actually feel (which might be the most important medicine there is).
America as a nation has plenty of Cancer qualities, like the intense identification with the home, family, tribe, nation, and the past: “Gee willikers, my country sure is great!” Whatever symbolizes America for different Americans, we treat it like our favorite childhood stuffed animal: “Jazz! Guns! Freedom! Rock and Roll! Movies! Burgers! Baseball! Democracy! Opportunity! The West! Diversity! Manliness! The Flag! Jesus! The troops! Money!” And like a wounded Cancer, America knows how to marinate in its own emotional poisons indefinitely and ultimately take it out on women as a whole.
Let’s not forget, America is still in its Pluto return, and this means that all of the bodies are being dug up to rot in the open air– sexism, racism, partisanship, greed. Ultimately this is a good thing, even if it means a lot of short and medium-term pain. It is all the work of the Mother. She is there in all of it– every justice and injustice. This is Kali, who in the words of Sri Aurobindo brings the “swift and decisive stroke”. Nothing cuts away the rotting flesh and brings you to awakening faster than Kali.
It is possible to clear your karma in this life. As long as you live, you will have some Karma– enough to stay tethered to this existence– but you can still become mostly free of it. You know how nice it is to take a shower after a long, sweaty day? It’s like that, writ large over lifetimes. Karma is the energetic accumulation of all the thoughts, words, actions, desires, aversions, and habits that define any entity of any kind. Humans have karma, nations have karma, and so do the species and the planet. We keep our karma most firmly in place by running down the same tried and true grooves– our thought patterns, diet, trauma reactions, conditioning, reaction patterns, and so forth. We take the same route to work, eat the same food, shake our fist at the TV… The trick to getting free lies in learning to see through yourself and to love yourself at the same time; in learning to not take anything personally; in allowing yourself to feel without becoming our feelings; and in discovering the part of yourself that cannot be touched by anything that happens on the outside. Inner work on the mental, emotional, energetic, and physical levels, is non-negotiable, because it is the only thing that can help you let go of the trunks full of dead weight and light your Inner Fire. If all you can manage now is five minutes per day in silence, then start there. Just take the step in that direction. That is the only way out of this predicament.
The Hermetic tradition speaks of freeing yourself from planetary influence– this is the same idea as “clearing your karma”. It means that when a planetary vibration sets vibrations off inside of you, which come with preloaded responses, you are able to recognize what is happening and let it go. It doesn’t mean that nothing unpleasant or painful will ever happen. It means that you know who and what you are, either way, whether or not Brett Kavanaugh is on the Supreme Court. And you can still work to make a better society; you can still be an activist; you can still get things done. But you are free and joyful no matter what.
The planets always hold the medicine, as well as the poison. To become free of the poison, we choose the medicine instead. This New Moon squares Jupiter, while Mars forms a close square to Pluto. A poisonous manifestation of this might be to let the pain of the world and your own impotent rage lodge deeply in your emotional body, where it will eat at you from the inside. The medicine of this alignment would come with being present to this pain and rage, sensing its energy as it arises in real time– which, with practice, makes it miraculously easy to let go — and still finding things to be grateful for, still appreciating the beauty of things, witnessing the real progress that has been made and is still being made, and affirming that this is not over.
It is going to take more than a good guys vs. bad guys fight to overcome the many problems we face. It’s going to take more than rational debate, and certainly more than force. No, it’s going to take a shift in consciousness for individuals, which ripples out from person to person, as each person realizes their inner nature, finds the source of love from within, and develops the power to truly be who they are. We each have to become better and show others that it is possible.
Alex Stein sees the world as a tapestry of vibration, and he loves discovering magic formulas to transmute discord into harmony, open the heart, and stay awake. This vision guides his professional work as an astrologer, composer, and alchemical life coach.
