New Moon in Cancer Ritual + Reading—Protect
New Moon in Cancer 7º Tuesday June 28 8:52 pm MT
Moon + Sun in Cancer square Jupiter in Aries, Jupiter sextile Venus in Gemini, Mars in Aries square Pluto in Capricorn
New Moon in Cancer, Cancer, Cardinal Water, the primal waters where life begins and grows, the amniotic womb, the primordial ocean from whence life crawled onto the earth. Cancer is Mother, the principle of mothering, nurturing, bringing into being. Mother regardless of gender or genitals. We all contain the ability and sense to mother, to birth, to bring into being and, further, more importantly, perhaps, to nurture into life.
Cancer is mother, and like all mothers, like all women, like all genders who are not cis-men and therefore get grouped together as bodies to be controlled, dominated, exploited, Cancer like mother earth, like mother ocean—is not well-loved, is not respected or valued in this patriarchal, white-supremacist world. Except for what she can produce, except what resources and labor she can offer.
This is a beautiful new moon, full of deep and wild emotions—heightened by a square to Jupiter, planet of growth and expansion of all things. It’s a beautiful new moon—and I am so angry. Cancer to me, today, this week, is a churning, roiling, tsunami of an ocean. A great wave gathering beneath the surface. Today is not the day it will crest, will make landfall, but have no doubt, it is coming.
This same week, on Friday, and present in this new moon chart, Mars in Aries will square Pluto in Capricorn. Mars, planet of masculine energy, of men, of war and destruction, of cutting away, of attacking in Aries, sign of individuality and impulsivity—makes a tense approach to Pluto, planet of power and control, of manipulation and domination, and of—in its higher octaves—transformation. Pluto is still in Capricorn, a sign of structures and governments, of tradition, a sign associated in present times, with the patriarchy.
And Pluto is retrograding back over the US Pluto return point, the point in the sky where it sat when the Declaration of Independence was signed, marking the birth of the nation. Pluto, god of the underworld, rules all that exists beneath the ground, all that is kept beneath the surface, all the ugly, taboo, shameful secrets we don’t want to surface, or face. But dredging what is buried brings, ultimately, what Pluto actually aims for—facing our demons, finally, leads to deep, profound healing. And according to Pluto, it is the only way.
Expect violence. Violence in the streets, yes, perhaps—but violence in our systems, our structures, legislative violence, almost certainly.
Not that this is new. There has been more anti-queer (including, of course, anti-trans) legislation in the past year than at any other time in American history.
The overturning of Roe v. Wade is a wake up call, above all to white women—that we are not safe either. As long as there is systemic injustice against BIPOC folks, queers, trans people, anyone… None of us are safe. None of us are free. Perhaps you have wanted to hide, to feign ignorance behind your privilege? Let us all be clear: that privilege is an act, a farce. It is given and it can be taken away, at will.
As long as we continue to live in a system, a nation, built on domination and subjugation, we are all just a loaded court away. None of us get free, until we all get free.
It is my hope, my belief, that ultimately, this will lead to deep and radical systemic change (Pluto really doesn’t take it any other way, and I do deeply believe in the arc toward justice, and our spiritual evolution as a species—it’s what lets me sleep at night). But this takes work. Deep, sustained, consistent work and effort. Healing is the hardest work there is.
But if there’s a sign that captures the essence of this work, that can make it reality, that can protect and nurture and honor healing and growth, it’s Cancer. If there is someone who can build a womb, a container, a space to hold room for growing and birthing the new world—it’s the mothers, of all genders and types, the mothers of humans and the mothers of art and the mothers of ideas and actions.
And it’s work we do, not for ourselves, but for the children, for the generations to come.
New Moon in Cancer Ritual + Reading
New Moon in Cancer Ritual
New moons are always about planting seeds, about setting the intentions for what we hope to bring into being in the next two weeks, the next six months, and the next 1.5 years.
1. Light a white, silver or light blue candle to honor the moon in Cancer, her home sign and place of rulership.
2. Burn motherwort or mugwort leaves or incense to cleanse your space and body.
3. Write three to four intentions you’d like to manifest, nurture and bring to life in the next six months. I recommend doing one to two personal ones for yourself, and one to two for your community or larger world.
Part of the work of manifesting is remembering that we are all interconnected and interdependent, and that we can neither create nor sustain anything worthwhile by ourselves. We need other humans, as well as the earth herself, and whatever spirits, guides, god or source you relate with.
4. Spend a few minutes visualizing each of these things on your list existing in present reality, being already here and now, being real and true. Picture it with deep gratitude in your heart.
5. Fold the paper with your intentions on it in fourths, and place it under the candle. Let the candle burn itself out (or snuff it out if you must, don’t blow).
6. Now make a to-do list in your calendar/schedule, making sure to schedule at least three actions in the next two weeks before the full moon to support bringing your intentions into reality.
Donate to an abortion fund (Planned Parenthood is important, but other, smaller funds, especially those working in the south and working to support people of color and people in poverty, are doing crucial work with less support and need your help!):
https://www.yellowhammerfund.org/
https://www.msreprofreedomfund.org/
Logistical + practical support for reproductive and abortion care:
Legal questions:
https://reprolegalhelpline.org/
Medical questions during at home miscarriage / abortion:
New Moon in Cancer Reading
Considering Roe v. Wade, Letters to the Black Body
A poem for Saturday
by Tiana Clark
Dear Highest Price, Dear Bear the Brunt & Double
Blow, Dear HeLa Cells Still Doubling, Dear
Disproportionately Impacted. Dear Anarcha
Without Anesthesia During Surgery with Sims.
Dear Fannie and the Mississippi Appendectomies
with the Sick and Tired Ceaseless Sonnet Crown.
Dear Tuskegee Study of Untreated Syphilis. Dear Black
American Women Are 3 to 4 Times More Likely to Die
in Childbirth Than White Women. To all the Black Babies
sliced from lynched women’s bellies spilling black
jelly then burned as crackled wood singing singe
under silent, white starlight. Dear Unbelieved
Pain. Dear Thick Skin Myth, and Yet, Black Skin
Must Be Thicker. Dear Black Slaves Chewing a Brew
of Cotton Roots as a Form of Reproductive Resistance
Even When Threatened with Death—The Body Strikes.
Dear Alum Water, Teaspoon of Turpentine, Rue,
Camphor, and Chugging Gunpowder Mixed with Sweet
Milk. Dear Black Body That I Adore. Dear Black Body
That I Now Listen to Shimmering with Acute Tenderness.
Look at my mother’s hands. How they search and cut
the thread to take out my weave as if deadheading black
finished blooms from my scalp—what survives in us
is us.
Tiana Clark is the author of the poetry collection, I Can’t Talk About the Trees Without the Blood, winner of the 2017 Agnes Lynch Starrett Prize, and Equilibrium, selected by Afaa Michael Weaver for the 2016 Frost Place Chapbook Competition.
(Published in The Atlantic)
Photo by Stormseeker on Unsplash