cancer new moon

The new moon arrives in Cancer (24°) 

at 2:31 pm eastern time Monday, July 17 2023. 

“There are only about 1,700 Royal Bengal Tigers left in India – a frightening decline from the estimated 100,000 during the Raj. Therefore, to find a father and son bathing in the same pool in the jungle was statistically unlikely. Photographers cannot direct wild tigers and thus the positioning of the animals relative to the surroundings or each other is matter of luck. Overtime, luck will average out, but the placement of the adult tiger’s left ear covering his son’s right eye enhances a picture which evokes jungle book stories. I like the lone eye to the right – even though it’s outside my focal plane, it ironically grabs our focused eyes.” Photograph by David Yarrow, quote posted April 2015

Containing Multitudes

I’ve been thinking a lot about matriarchy. How the egg that created each female body was formed in the womb of the grandmother, in the perfection of the mothers womb before she was born. How in that space, we are anchored in the protection & lineage of female bodies. There, time is not linear. It is a series of phenomenal connections which summon forth creative power like a wave. Timely, to theories being proven this week in science, the matrix of the water sign of Cancer brings this New Moon into the collective conscious as the bridge between an exhale & the incoming breath cycling through.

Back in May (on the Scorpio Lunar eclipse), the lunar story in the skies switched from the building of momentum between the lunar phases of New to Full Moon aligning on the polarity of their own axis. Translation: the New Moon is not building towards a Full Moon in the opposite sign. Each pair of signs is being activated first by the Full Moon, as was the Capricorn Full Moon two weeks ago. From the Full Moon to the New Moon is a cycle of distillation. As the peak of the moon begins to loose light & return to darkness to be renewed, a new story is being summoned in the collective conscious. I have noticed it around me, at first not realizing the connection to the shift. A veil of niceness has been lifted. There’s a freshness to the loss of perfection. The revealing of the humanness behind the cultivated self. In the loss of light, the moon turns inward and assesses what needs to transform… what remains through this process becomes a seed to be planted in the new cycle. What is essential, a blueprint of what is to come, coding itself through the depths of the unconscious as the desire to turn inward pressurizes the necessity of creative force.

In Demetra George’s book Mysteries of the Dark Moon, she proposes a theory of the Earth’s longer lunar phase. Some of you all have heard me talk about the Progressed Lunar Phases, similar to that theory, she poses a hypothesis: the Earth’s consciousness has been in a Dark Moon phase, and we are in/entering the New Moon phase of the Earth’s lunar cycles. These are much longer cycles than a human lifetime. According to the proposed timeframe this would suggest that the at the turn of the Age of Aries & the Bronze Age around 3000 BCE, the Earth & feminine centered consciousness entered the dark moon phase. Suggesting we are now in the transitional phase that aligns to a nearly 40,000 year lunar cycle, a 26,000 year processional cycle (the change of the pole star), and the end of the 2,300 year Age of Pisces on the cusp of the Age of Aquarius. As a new phase emerges for life on Earth… what might this New Earth be seeding? The phase we are emerging from is one of initiation. What seeds have survived the depths of this process? “The transition period between two world ages, several hundred years in duration, is called the ‘cusp of the ages'… we are currently living in such a time of global transformation” (p. 95 Mysteries of the Dark Moon).

Along the Capricorn/Cancer axis emerges the conversation around boundaries and the sacred source of creatrix energy those boundaries are meant to protect. Capricorn, like the grandmother whom created life in her womb for further generations, creates a visible structure of protection. In this metaphor, the grandmother (let’s call her Saturn), builds a world for the future, yet to the observer… she is located in the past. A while back Maryam Hasnaa in one of the New Earth Mystery school classes asked a similar question: what kind of ancestor are you?

In this moment, under the Cancer New Moon, life is being created through you. In our aliveness, our newness, our presence, we are weaving reality. Yet the material we are working with to create this reality is not new. You are of this world and of the next. Working with what you have inherited, what kind of world can you create?

In the collective psyche, we have inherited a fear of the dark. We shudder at the idea of loss, of letting go of control, and of facing the shadow. Yet in this New Earth, with the New Moon… might there be something to gleam from the transition of dark into light?

The ecology of creativity doesn’t happen in a vacuum, but we don’t have to spend all of our time in the shadows in order to find value. Transformation is alchemy. Meaning, to transform means taking a substance through a process which allows for that substance to shift into an entirely renewed expression. It is not the dark we fear, it is the power of the transformation which requires surrendering to a higher power than our earthly bodies can comprehend. In the dark phase of the Moon, the power of the feminine is the key to the transition from darkness to light. The faculties of intuition, the ability to navigate with an internal compass, all become vital to what emerges.

This happens naturally & the way it happens is through releasing what no longer serves the flow of energy. This is how food waste becomes compost for the next seeds to grow. How a grain of sand becomes a pearl. The intelligence of the mollusks sends internal waters to an irritation, and the pearl that forms is a response of tending. The food that nourishes our bodies goes into our cells to build biological mechanisms, and eventually returns back the earth. In our lives, how might tending to our own irritations become less of a battle & more of a nurturing process?

To nurture, in the light of the New Moon in Cancer, we make ourselves comfortable. We find what is worth our time to tend. We fluff the pillows just right, open the windows for the breeze to dance in the afternoon light, a fresh vase of flowers on the kitchen table. We do what we can, with what we’ve got. Cancer remembers what it feels like to be held in the womb, nurtured in the darkness, even if it can’t touch or feel those memories. Cancer embraces being wrapped in the sweetness between worlds, in the innocence of emerging directly from source & preparing the space for landing into a world which needs this kind of tending. Cancer values the spaces which allow for one to begin to feel again, knowing that the only space that allows for feeling is in the body. These spaces are primordial earthly waters, lush, and resourceful. How might you create more space like this in your life? Space for the parts of yourself that need to simply be held in connection in order to transform?

Cancer also is fierce. It protects this inner world with a hardened shell. Those boundaries are there to keep the softness within safe. Another question to ask is… what are your boundaries protecting? What barriers have you built in your life that may need adjusting in order to allow that inner sweetness to unfold?

In the vulnerable sweet spot, it’s a little uncomfortable. It’s a little awkward, to be in between the form & the formless… yet that is where all emerges from & returns to. In order to create harmony with the world around us, connected to a higher power or source & flow, we must be in resonance with our essential nature. It is here we can connect to our purpose, unfolding from the core of who we are into the mystery of life emerging through us. Let the shadows & pain rest in these inner worlds, but don’t protect them in the same way you protect your inner resources. The wounds need tending, they are meant to heal if we allow them to. If we use all of our energy defending the wound, there’s little left for the process of healing to occur. Use your energy wisely.

As the nodes shift into Aries/Libra moments after the New Moon arrives, they square up to Pluto in Capricorn. Between March 23-June 11 2023, Pluto gave us a glimpse into the future of what’s to come. As the nodes of destiny activate Pluto sitting heavy at 29° of Capricorn, one might reflect on what must transform in order to free the energy needed to evolve into higher forms. Becoming the future requires preparation through the earthly realms of the material world. What no longer resonates will be pressurized.

Stephanie Snyder shared a story during one of her Glo yoga classes about the mantra Aham Prema. This was a class weaving the understanding of Kali, the dark feminine archetype of fierce love, destruction, and death. Aham Prema translates to I am divine love. At the core, I align to the belief that love is our true nature. When things must transform & be released, Kali teaches us that there is a time for fierce love. A time to fight for love, a time to let the rage of the dark feminine conquer all that is not love, and to this force all aspects of the ego must surrender. As Stephanie implies, I AM is who you are. Divine Love is your true name. Before you were you, you were a vibration in the womb of your mother. Sound emerges before form. What sounds will form through you within the seed of this New Moon?

Imaginal Realms: Food for the Soul

If we imagine our inner landscape like a home, under this new moon, how might you create a space in your inner life for the places within you that are rejected, hurt, calloused, rigid, holding patterns of fear and dissociation? How might you make room for those aspects of the self to transform? What kind of soul food might nourish these fragmented places in you? Imagine that the energy that comes from the digestion, the decomposition of the space this energy holds within you, could be the energy you need to create connection & meaning in your life. To come into sustainable wholeness (holiness). + maybe, from the transition of the Full Moon in Capricorn two weeks ago (linking to the New Moon in Capricorn this past December) we’re coming into a deeper understanding of how our outer world reflects this inner landscape. The material world may need cleansing, to better reflect the interior process. There’s a way to let things go in integrity, to be processed fully. Like a plant, to see them bloom & return to seed, transferring meaning and message forward before returning to the Earth. Allow what you let go of to pass on its wisdom before you release it. This is a matriarchal rite of passage. To care for what we create. To take responsibility for what passes through our hands, tending & transforming the malleable nature of what matters most while it transforms us through its making.

In the photo by David Yarrow (* yarrow is an excellent flower for boundary medicine), the left ear of the male Tiger covers the right eye of his son. It is in this visual metaphor, as the Moon symbolizes the feminine left eye, and the Sun symbolizes the masculine right eye that we see how the womb wisdom can move through those who do not feel biologically connected to this wisdom. Or for those who do not feel connected to their bodies, their inner intellegence. As the New Moon aligns with the Sun in Cancer, be open to listening. Open to learn from those who carry this wisdom with integrity. Be it a grandmother, a strong female figure, an inner knowing. Attune to receive the intuitive call, it has always been there, and it shapes the future generations to come. We all need a reminder of this. Sometimes we are listening to parts of ourself that are limiting our ability to be in alignment, or allowing unconscious patterns in the collective to shape what is real for us. What would happen in a world where everyone was in-tune with their unique expression, divinely orchestrated?

The animal messenger for this New Moon is the majestic TIGER. Tiger medicine teaches boundaries.

I call on the Tiger archetype when I am in need of fortifying my boundaries. This animal medicine arrived for me in the dream realms many months ago, as a fierce protector walking on a fence line. Though large, this wildcats paws muffle the sound of their steps. They are not seen or heard unless a need must be met. The Tiger continues to show up as a messenger when I need to shift or examine what comes into my field. I am drawn to notice their stripes as they curve around the musculature of this fierce and independent feline. The stripes emphasize their power points, and in some places, even create the illusion of ‘eyes on the back of the head’. Yet the lines are soft, flowing, & unique to each Tiger. Their stripes do not change. They embody a unique blueprint of perfected & efficient boundaries, ones which reflect their essential nature and yet allow them to blend into their environment to hunt & protect themselves. Their stripes emerge at birth perfectly in place as created in the womb of their mother. Boundaries are not always physical, like the door which we walk through to enter our home. They take fine-tuning, the invisible boundaries require adaptability & subtle body awareness. It’s not always useful to stand our ground at the edge of things as if we are on the front lines of battle. Boundaries, the subtle ones, move much more like water. Transforming and flowing with our needs as the environment changes to reflect our inner landscape.

Tigers are known vocalists. They chirp, growl, hiss, moan, chuff, roar, snarl… in the wild their growl is said to be so deep and low it can shake the ground vibrate through the body if you’re close enough. Click here if you’re curious. The roar of a female Tiger can be heard from nearly 2 miles away when she is calling to her young, taking down large prey, or looking for a mate. Talk about asserting one’s boundaries! There’s more information about how the Tiger communicates linked here. As Venus retrograde approaches later this week, the sojourn of the 40 days & 40 nights seen through spiritual journeys across the ages, the spirit of the Tiger arrives as a threshold guardian for this New Moon in Cancer and the Venus retrograde through the feline ruled sign of Leo. Apparently, the scent marking its territory lasts up to 40 days (!).

Invoking Tiger Medicine

Call in Tiger medicine to walk the borderlines of your energetic boundaries. In meditation- through your inner knowing, journaling, or any creative practice- summon Tiger intelligence. You can begin with simple breath work, grounding your feet to the earth & practicing a circular breath such as Inhaling to the count of 7, and exhaling to the count of 7 (for 7 rounds of breath) to restore balance to your mind/body/spirit connection & activate the parasympathetic nervous system (try not to hold the breath on the inhale or exhale). Once you are in the present moment, invite a Tiger to journey on the edges of your boundaries. Allow the Tiger to lead you & notice what appears. What color is the Tiger, maybe a deep orange or red, maybe a white Tiger, or maybe this imaginary Tiger is a new color… with violet stripes instead of black. What sounds does the Tiger make, how does it move? Reflect on what the Tiger might find as it traverses your territory. Use your imagination & curiosity to uncover areas in your life that need tending, and allow the symbolism of this medicine to unfold in your awareness. Thank the Tiger as you close this practice and return to your day.

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Tiger Symbolism in Action

Jerry Garcia’s famous guitar, the last guitar he would play in public with the Grateful Dead, had a White Tiger embedded in the design. The first show that Jerry played Tiger was August 4, 1979 when Althea was first performed in Oakland, leading into Lost Sailor. Boundaries, thresholds, and becoming abound. Tune in here ♡.

Althea told me, upon scrutiny, that my back might need protection…

SOURCE

~ Incoming Transits ~

The full moon accompanying this New Moon arrives in two weeks as a Full Moon at 9° Aquarius August 1.

Venus Retrograde happens July 22, 2023 - September 3, 2023 between 28°-12° Leo.

Saturn Rx in Pisces hits an exact opposition to Mars in Virgo July 20, 2023.

The nodal axis shifts to the North Node in Aries South Node in Libra (moments after this New Moon in Cancer).

Xx,

alexandria