New Moon in Cancer

The idea that we can never step into the same river twice, famously attributed to Heraclitus, represents our experience of flux in life. Aware of our mortality and the constantly changing nature of form and desire, we work to build foundational structures and relationships to give us a sense of stability and security. We can become attached to the way things are, resisting taking the action that will commit us fully to unknown directions that are full of both exciting potential and overwhelming uncertainty. Though astrology and the constantly changing lunar cycles are always aligned with the changing aspects of reality, sometimes astrology indicates a heightened collective experience of threshold tension. The New Moon in Cancer on 17 July and the lunar cycle to follow is one of those times.

The Cancer New Moon is a pivotal point of 2023 due to its square aspect with the lunar nodes, demarcating a time period at the midpoint between this year’s first eclipse season (April-May) and its second (beginning in October). The feeling of being at a critical crossroads will be magnified, as the timing of the lunation is aligned with the lunar nodes changing signs. The lunar nodes in their “true calculation” have been in Taurus and Scorpio since 18 January 2022, with Venus ruling the north node in Taurus and Mars ruling the south node in Scorpio. Venus and Mars will remain as the nodal rulers with the nodal shift, but Mars will now become the ruler of the north node in Aries and Venus will become the ruler of the south node in Libra until the nodes change signs again on 11 January 2025.

The impact of the lunar nodes is one of the most mysterious and mesmerizingly meaningful aspects of astrology. A mathematical calculation revealing the shifting intersection between our orbit on Earth with the orbit of the Moon, the lunar nodes also indicate the timing of eclipses whenever a New Moon or Full Moon aligns in proximity. In transit, their “true node calculation” does not move in a straight line but rather twists and turns, snake-like in motion backward through the zodiac. With the nodes switching to the cardinal signs of Aries and Libra, we can expect the quality of time to accelerate, bringing a faster pace of change with increased motivation to initiate new directions. Yet due to the lunar nodes in Aries and Libra also forming an intensifying square aspect with Pluto in Capricorn, we may face inner and external resistance to pursuing new directions, including the ways in which change could disrupt our present relational dynamics. With the south node in Libra, it will be imperative to tend to the needs of our relationships with integrity. However, the pull of the north node in Aries will incite the inspiration needed to break free from the ways in which we have held back from pursuing our true desires due to conforming to the conditioning of external expectations.

The New Moon opposing Pluto while forming a cardinal cross with the lunar nodes signifies initiation. The kind of initiation many resist. Resisting will only intensify the volcanic intensity building, and so it will be necessary to find ways to express and move with the internal mutations taking shape. The Cancer New Moon will evoke the feeling of being at a powerful precipice of change, as the Moon will be separating from a square with Chiron and a sextile with Uranus, while applying toward a flowing trine with Neptune in addition to the tense opposition with Pluto. The lunation opposing Pluto will dredge up deep feelings and desires to sift through, as their additional activation of the lunar nodes will necessitate a confrontation with one’s shadowy unconscious and aspects of ourselves, our needs, and our desires we have been denying, repressing, or projecting upon others. Pluto will form an exact square to the “true calculation” of the lunar nodes on 22 July 2023 (and will not form an exact square to the “mean calculation” of the lunar nodes until 3 August 2023) but its impact will extend far beyond the present lunar cycle. If you want to reflect upon the choices and tensions you had to face when transiting Pluto previously formed a square aspect with the transiting lunar nodes, consider January 2015, October 2006, and May 1998.

Pluto has been in Capricorn since 2008, and though we experienced our first glimpse of Pluto in Aquarius from 23 March to 11 June 2023, our time with Pluto in Capricorn is not yet at an end. The tension from the square aspect between Pluto with the lunar nodes will deliver final lessons from Pluto’s journey across Capricorn, with the Cancer New Moon uprooting buried issues into surface awareness. Among other things, Pluto in Capricorn has called us to question and adjust our relationship to the systemic structures of civilization and the ways we feel pressure to conform to its conditioning. As the astrological atmosphere of the forthcoming lunar cycle will present opportunities for deepening into contact with the true desires of what you most dearly want in your life, lean into the ways in which Pluto in Capricorn has been teaching you how to claim responsibility for building the structures and forming the relationships that are aligned with the authenticity of your heart.

The week following the Cancer New Moon features two extremely impactful astrological events involving the rulers of the lunar nodes: Mars in Virgo forming an opposition with Saturn in Pisces on 20 July, followed by Venus stationing retrograde on 22 July. The tension and constriction between Mars and Saturn will bring inner conflicts to the surface and exacerbate any difficult tests we are facing, yet they can also become powerful allies in creating change when we resiliently face their challenge and take direct action to address whatever situation they are drawing our attention toward. It’s significant that at the same time Mars in Virgo begins bearing responsibility for the head of the dragon (the north node of the Moon), the red planet is immediately confronted by Saturn in Pisces. Since the tail of the dragon (the south node of the Moon) is in the exaltation of Saturn, Saturn will be demanding right relations as we carry the shield of our moral integrity into whatever quests Mars will be spurring us to pursue. Mars combined with the close proximity of Pallas Athena in Virgo can discern the choices needing to be made and the actions needing to be taken, further analyzing the aspects of old relational patterns that need to be severed due to no longer serving the highest good of our present relational dynamics.

At the same time Mars is facing the testing and tempering of Saturn, all eyes and hearts will be drawn to Venus as she stations retrograde on 22 July at 28º36’ Leo. The stationing of the star of Aphrodite will initiate us into a forty-three day process of regeneration in which Venus will backtrack through the zodiac until stationing direct on 3 September at 12º12′ Leo. Venus retrograde periods intensify all things related to Venus, as her visual descent in the sky mirrors our own inner descent to dig up the roots of our desires, purging and purifying material that will bring about a renewal of desire and aesthetics on the other side. When retrograde, the nature of Venus shifts from seeking social harmony into a transitional space of social norms loosening, allowing for a deep re-evaluation of inner values as well as our methods of fulfilment. With Venus bearing responsibility for the tail of the dragon in Libra, there will be amplified potential for burning off inauthentic desires and shedding outdated relational patterns that no longer serve us.

Further increasing the intensity of the astrological atmosphere will be the stationing of Chiron retrograde at 19º58’ Aries on 23 July. The synchronicity of Venus and Chiron stationing simultaneously shines a spotlight on the fact that Venus will form three trine aspects with Chiron due to her retrograde journey: the first trine was on 29 June with Venus direct, the second will be on 14 August with Venus retrograde, and the third will be on 23 September with Venus direct. The meaning of the trine between Chiron and Venus is deeply personal and will vary from person to person, but in general the influence of Chiron can help unearth the relational wounds and identity issues in need of tending during Venus retrograde in Leo. Though some corresponding realizations may be painful to process, ultimately the trine between Chiron with Venus can burn off the impurities that have clouded our connection to the full radiance of our heart. Pay attention to the issues coming to the forefront in the week surrounding the stationing of Venus and Chiron. It may also be helpful to reflect upon the connection between present circumstances and storylines rooted in the period of the conjunction between Venus and Chiron in Aries on 3 March 2023, a union that formed in close proximity to Jupiter in Aries.

Cancer 3 Decan

The New Moon in Cancer is in the third decan of Cancer associated with the Four of Cups arcanum illustrated by Pamela Colman Smith. In the Four of Cups image we see someone sitting on the roots of a tree considering three golden cups ready to be filled in the foreground. While the figure appears be engrossed in contemplative thought, allowing inner exploration to guide subsequent choice, a fourth cup has become magically offered by an otherworldly hand. T. Susan Chang in 36 Secrets wrote that the Four of Cups “is a complex card, because it evokes opposing states: scarcity vs. surplus, temptation vs. apathy.” Chang further pondered that if the image evokes the refusal of the call of the Hero’s Journey, it may also contain the hidden polarity of the call itself. Chang wrote that the Four of Cups represents the “restlessness” that comes after satisfying the pursuit of a new interest and while it could correlate with states of boredom, it can also be seen as an invitation. Chang advised listening “to those dissatisfied voices till they quiet down: they will tell you what is not leading you toward purpose and fulfillment,” and thus through “process of elimination,” we may attune to another inner voice prompting us to consider what we would do if we “could do anything in the world?”

Ruled by the Moon and Jupiter, the third decan of Cancer is a face in which we must come to terms with available resources and questions of our fair share and how much is enough. Austin Coppock in 36 Faces gave the image of “The Overflowing Cup” to the third decan of Cancer, declaring that it reveals the conflict of choosing “luxurious excess” within “a world of limited material resources” in which “the attainment of luxury for one entails deprivation for others.” Coppock noted that the ascetic air of the figure in the Four of Cups refusing to accept more than he needs reflects having awareness of the “hidden violence and secret competition entailed within the quest for luxury.”  Yet in the way the figure also appears to be conjuring the magical fourth cup, Coppock declared that the third face of Cancer also involves the spiritual dimension of abundance and luxury,  the “ever-refilled” cup offered by Spirit, “the endless luxury of the limitless,”  and the “ever present energy of the natural world- the chi which emanates from all living things.” 

Resonant with endless cycles of filling and emptying, the Hellenistic text The 36 Airs of the Zodiac connected the great intermediary goddess Hekate with the third face of Cancer. Unlike other deities limited to rulership of one realm, Hekate has power in all realms of the upper and underworld and so is capable of meeting us anywhere in any state. The ultimate intermediary, Hekate’s guidance is available when facing crucial choices at the crossroads, and her potent capacity to intercede on our behalf has resonance with the cup offered by the otherworldly hand in the Four of Cups image. The presence of Hekate reveals the chthonic fertility of the third decan of Cancer and its capacity to help guide us toward manifesting and receiving what we need to survive. Hekate’s presence in this face also points to the need of cultivating faith in the unknown; just like she guided the grieving Demeter toward the next step she needed to take within her journey of finding her lost daughter Persephone, so may Hekate’s presence in this decan do the same for us within the darkness of the Cancer New Moon.

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References

Chang, T. Susan. (2021). 36 Secrets: A Decanic Journey through the Minor Arcana of the Tarot. Anima Mundi Press. 

Coppock, Austin. (2014). 36 Faces: The History, Astrology and Magic of the Decans. Three Hands Press.