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This full moon fattens in Virgo, sign of the Virgin—the one whole unto herself—the devotee dedicated to the goddess—the small, daily acts of service that add up to a lifetime of reverence. It sits across from the Sun and Neptune, along with Jupiter and Mercury in Pisces, sign of the fish—swimming the grand cosmic ocean, the ending and beginning, the place where all of our individual drops eventually return, death, rebirth. The vast, veiled planes of spirit.
This is a big, emotional, POWERFUL full moon, y’all. This full moon is a crossroads, a threshold. Forming a grand cross with the sun and the nodes of fate, and with Pluto in conversation with the nodes as well, the decisions we make now are destiny-making choices. You can choose to stay stuck in your karma and the past—or you can choose let go, step into an unknown future and evolve.
We began the new year deep in Venus’ retrograde through Capricorn—asking us to deeply examine the structures and foundations of everything we value, relationships, love, beauty, art, money, finances, pleasure. As Venus conjoined Pluto, this excavation went deep into the recesses of our past, our subconscious, even into generational and ancestral layers of our psyches and physiology. The good news is, this week begins a major shift in this energy and a big push for forward momentum.
Taurus is fixed earth, the bull—the deep appreciation and pleasure of the body, the earth, incarnation. Scorpio, meanwhile, is everything beneath—beneath the earth, beneath the surface, beneath the veneer of society. Scorpio is the taboo, everything a culture represses and denies. Taurus is the earth unfurling in the height of spring; Scorpio the inward coiling and falling leaves of deep fall.
Now is a season of conserving, reserving and storing, a time of sending the energy to our roots to coil and preserve for the spring—a time of pinpointed focus and release of everything extraneous. So that when we come to the time of growing, producing and extroverting, we have that energy repleted and ready to send out into the world, and into our creative goals and projects.
The moon conjuncts the sun at 18º of Cancer on July 9, initiating a new moon cycle and a moment of pattern-setting for the next two week period—as well as the next six months (until we return for the full moon in Cancer, January 17 2022, closing the cycle). The constellation of the crab spans the portion of the sky assigned to Cancer—the word cancer itself is Latin for crab—and this crustacean spirit animal has much to teach us about the lessons and journeys of Cancer season, and this Cancer new moon in particular.
As is always the case with a full moon, the moon sits across the sky from the sun in the opposite side of the zodiac, staring each other down, and therefore shining the full light of the sun onto the reflective moon. The moon rules Cancer, so it doesn’t fare well in the opposite sign, Capricorn (it’s in its fall here, a debilitated placement). Capricorn is rather dry and harsh for the watery moon. Ruled by Saturn, planet of boundaries, Capricorn is known for rational thinking, rules and structure—quite different from oceanic Cancer.
Summer solstice marks the longest day of the year (in the northern hemisphere), the height of its brightness, and the beginning of summer. The summer solstice is analogous to the full moon—a time of celebration, culmination, climax. After today—though we still have much summer and heat before us—the days will shorten, slowly and ever so slightly, as we move toward the autumnal equinox. But for now, we revel in the height and heat of summer, partake in its hedonistic pleasures, languish in its languorous afternoons. We consume the fruits of our labor, imbibe what we’ve fermented into wine.
Stop spinning, stop running and rushing and getting it all done. Plant your feet on the soil, the grass, the concrete if that’s what you have. Look up at the dark sky of the new moon. See those extra stars. Take a deep breath. And another. Root. Feel the mother earth beneath you. Her soils dark and dank and fecund, her dirt the womb wrapping all the birthing seeds of spring, ready to break, ready to unravel. Yes, this is a powerful moon to manifest… But before you do. Breathe. Stand on the earth. Look at the sky.
The centaur, Sagittarius is the adventurer of the zodiac. Aspects of our lives that may be intensified include goals and plans that expand our horizons and lead to deeper understanding of ourselves and our place in the grander scheme—our beliefs, our visions, our FAITH. Do the work here to examine your belief systems and spiritual values, and root out anything toxic, bypassing, or that just no longer resonates for where you are now—so that you don’t carry it forward in your future patterns, and in the annual intention-setting energy that arrives with the winter solstice.
New moons are times of intention setting and planning—and this new moon in Virgo trine Saturn is the apotheosis of organization and plans.
Virgo is the Virgin, the Priestess, the Devoted One. Virgo reminds us that each small task we undertake, each detail we give attention and care, is in service to something larger than just that act, and in service to something bigger than just ourselves.
The current astro weather (full moon in Aquarius opposing sun in Leo) is speaking to the conflict—and potential—between the collective, the communal, and our own personal light, the individual spark in us, the ideas and creative offerings that only we can bring forth. This energy can feel very polarizing—can tear us in two, split us with what we think we “need” to do from what we feel called to do. But it also has much to teach us.
This new moon in Cancer is a black moon—the second new moon in a solar month (like a blue moon is the second full moon in a month). The last new moon in Cancer was June 21, 2020.
A black moon is like a super-charged new moon, a time of cycle formation and intention setting that will play out not only for the next month, for the next three years (until the next black moon in March 2023 in Aries).
This is powerful energy to use consciously and wisely.
