The New Moon in Cancer falls at 7:31 PM PDT at 2 Cancer 47. We’re in the wake of Neptune’s retrograde, Jupiter’s direction, and the Superior Conjunction–so where are we? With Mercury separating from Solar contact, heading deeper into the sign they share, we may see conscious contemplation receding, replaced with feeling (Cancer); we may also be so preoccupied with our beliefs, with the social sphere, or with absorbing and handling ‘the facts’ that we lose forward momentum on ‘the Dream’. The music of the spheres is muted right now, in favor of sensation and caring, especially caring about what and who we nurture.

Caught at the midpoint of Vesta-Venus, the New Moon perfectly expresses the conflict between these two. What we dedicate our life energy to (Vesta) is in conflict with what we want, treasure, and desire, in areas of relationship and finance. How, you may wonder, could there be upset when the focus comes through us, through our values and what we want to have in our lives? The answer to that is, we carry conflicting inclinations within ourselves, and this New Moon shows us those conflicts, laying open the difficulties and making it apparent we must find a new way to reconcile disparities or contradictions between matters we care about. What starts at the New Moon points out the ways in which we carry internal disharmony in our wants, our interactions, and those matters where we earn and spend, with this latter including the spending of life energy. The new Moon says, You’ve got the facts (direct Jupiter), your vision is clear (Neptune retro), you’ve seen the result of thinking up to now (Superior Conjunction), now it’s time to sort out what’s not working in matters of energy dedication (to causes, efforts, projects, or people–the Venus-Vesta square, with NM at the midpoint).

The New Moon is also in wide conjunction to Merc (which as mentioned is speeding ‘ahead’ of the Sun) and wide square to Chiron, neither of which I would normally consider for a New Moon event–they’re just a smidge too wide in orb–and yet today we don’t have many contacts, so must stretch a tad, if only to get the flavor at play during such an isolated (contact wise) occurrence as this New Moon. We’ve already discussed the importance of the recent Superior Conjunction, and know how important what we’ve been thinking is to this NM event; what we’ve not touched on is the square to Chiron, which suggests that if we’re looking for the origins of our internal discord, it’s to be found in our wounds. When considering our relationships, our finances, and our commitments of time and energy, we are being too reactionary, asserting and responding from our sense of hurt, from the level of woundedness we carry around each subject.

The Sabian for the New Moon is, ‘A Man Bundled In Fur Leads A Shaggy Deer’. For the Lapplanders, to which this image likely refers, the reindeer is a source of sustenance, aids in transportation, and provides a great deal of the material for survival, for living. That sounds like what the New Moon will make clear for each of us: what we care about, what’s important, but most vitally, what we need to survive, in terms of Love, the material world, and our own dedication of energy (and we must keep in mind that what we give the world is equally as important as what we get from it). This also emphasizes something we might otherwise dismiss as a lesser concern; that is, we might be tempted to see Love, or Money, or the material world, or what we give our energy, attention, and resources to, as a little Self-centered, as not carrying the weight of the spiritual or the eternal. That would be a mistaken viewpoint, as the Sabian tells us that these are matters on which our survival depends.

Other influences for the day include the ego, which may go out on a limb in order to prove it doesn’t need help from anyone, thank you (this might be in direct response to an offer of cooperation or support), and we may spend some time weighing the real costs of ambition or desire fulfillment–obviously, make sure it’s worth it, before you go forward (the New Moon will help with this immensely). This New Moon helps us find our ‘True North’–don’t be surprised if you learn a thing or two, even about yourself, in the waxing moonlight.

Read —  Donate  —  and Happy New Moon! The forecast for the rest of the coming week will be posted sometime on the 22nd Pacific time.