New Moon in Cancer, 2011

The New Moon in Cancer (July 1st, 4:54 am EDT) with a partial solar eclipse.

The Roots of the Dream

This is a profound New Moon in water sign Cancer for courageous dreaming. With initiating cardinal energies pressing for action, you go far into interior realms, to dive to greater depths than ever before. You get to the soul root of who you are. Can you handle what washes over, and be strengthened by the experience?

Some epic realizations are sensed in the murky waters, but clarity comes later. There's so much to who we are, much of it below conscious thought. This is a time to be a pioneer in the undercurrents. It's a time to find secret water sources, hidden aquifers that can be released with a powerful rush, and have a healing-cleansing effect. Like the Moon card in the Tarot, it's a time of being in the mystery, a liminal space of in-between, the void, where all things originate.

You Become the Shining Diamond

Amy Herring, author of Astrology of the Moon writes, "The second solar eclipse of the summer takes place this Friday in the 10th degree of Cancer. The Sabian symbol for this eclipse is: A Large Diamond in the First Stages of the Cutting Process, suggesting something that has taken a long time to build, form, and develop, and now it's ready to be cut and polished. This eclipse speaks to recognizing how to bring out the inherent beauty, and also the potential for fear to cripple you if you are afraid to take the steps to make this beauty (you? your project? your life?) really shine."

I find it fascinating to note that the diamond is formed in extreme high heat, and high pressure, deep in the Earth's mantle. We have a grand square this New Moon, in cardinal signs, which is a high heat, high pressure atmosphere. It originates in the Earth's hot mantle. Diamond means "unbreakable" and also, "untamed." Something wild, enduring and timeless is unearthed from the depths of our beings.

There's lots of sparks and tensions at the New Moon with a grand square in provoking cardinal signs.

• Sun-Moon in Cancer: Sinking into the deeper meaning behind what's lived on the surface. Drifting in imaginative realms, and finding markers through memory.
• Uranus Aries: A freer future that originates from the "untamed" instinctual Self, joining with others who sense something alive at the edges.
• Pluto Capricorn: Healing ancient wounds of lineages and the land, bridging the gap that keeps us in illusion of being separate from Earth/nature. Recovering wisdom, integrity, the sense of legacy and care for future generations.
• Saturn Libra: Reaping what's sown, stark results of imbalance, a commitment to right action, taking yourself seriously.

What does the grand square contact in your chart? Early degree cardinals (Aries, Cancer, Libra, Capricorn) will feel the pressure and heat the most. But all of us can get a glimpse of who we are, from deep below and the unseen in-between. Some of this is about undoing and releasing. Don't try to figure it out with your head -- let go, surrender, like the Hopi saying goes, trust that the river has a destination.

Living Free

"We must be free not because we claim freedom, but because we practice it." ~ William Faulkner

The 4th of July holiday is coming up in America, which happens to be my birthday, too. Cardinal Cancer rises out of the ocean of family, the swampy bog waters of the past, to declare emotional independence.

It's a New Moon for bravely getting to the bottom of what keeps us from living free. This can include facing the shadows, about the nature of power. It can be a breakthrough time of healing from past conditioning that keeps us demoralized, diminished and even in despair.

In what areas can you experiment with more personal freedom? What needs to be confronted within and without, to know more enduring security? A featured quote on astrologer/mythologist John Lash's metahistory site is "Knowledge of that which is alive can alone banish terror" (Wilhelm Reich).

Lash writes, "To face terror, the signature of the Authorities, you must look into yourself and ask, What is most alive in me?" What domesticates, drowns or distracts that aliveness? Now is a time to commit to those signs of life, as a path forward.

There's more going on, including a Jupiter-Pluto trine in stabilizing Earth signs. If we buck up, get real and find our hidden reserves, we grow stronger and build up the constitution needed for this intense time of transition. Great gains can be made when you stay alert to your physical surroundings. And channel the New Moon intensity into making the most of your natural talents and driving sense of purpose.