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Tuesday, July 2, 2013

July 2013: Star Stuff To Know About

STUFF TO KNOW - JULY 2013

Mercury is retrograde in Cancer from June 26 to July 20

Mercury, messenger of the Gods, goes swimming with the crabs.  What happens to you during Mercury retrograde weeks?  Me?  I say c-r-a-p more than I normally do. Just now when I opened WORD to do this document a blank page appeared that I had never seen before. The margins were wrong (1.5 inches on left & right). The font was 16 and in blue.  Then I remembered that you can open an existing document, click on new document, and it will style itself after the opened doc.  It seems that when Mercury is retrograde electronic imps jump into equipment and have a cocktail party

Mercury in Cancer, messenger of the Goddess

With the messenger in the sign of Cancer (mother, nurturance, food, home, family), we might expect to hear from relatives long forgotten.  We might take on some home projects that have been on our minds for quite a while.  Yesterday I did a closet cleanup.  What a great feeling to get some home project checked off the list.  On the more serious side, Mercury in the sign of Cancer suggests attention to the mother and to women in general.  In Texas, we have the women’s reproductive rights on center stage in Austin.  The Republicans did not manage to get their law passed regarding abortion clinic regulations last week.  Wendy Davis did a filibuster and thousands of protestors demonstrated in the Capitol.  The Governor immediately announced there would be a special session so the Republicans could pass their bill.  The abortion issue would fall under more than one archetypal heading, but for sure it falls under the sign of Cancer, ruler of the moon, of a woman’s menstrual cycle, of pregnancy and the Great Mother (the archetypal symbol of what it means to be a woman).  What is interesting is how the Legislature can proclaim they know what the Great Mother wants.  A woman lawmaker brought this bill to the legislature and that would require a complicated analysis of the feminine aligning with the patriarchy.  Most of the Republican lawmakers are men. Men have no vaginas or uteruses and cannot get pregnant, but these particular men feel compelled to ordain what women should do with their bodies and their reproductive lives. These same individuals believe in liberty; believe the government should not interfere with their precious freedoms.  At the same time, they irrationally believe it is okay to deny women their freedom.  The bill will probably pass since the Republicans are the majority in the Texas House.  However, Mercury, messenger of the Goddess, is retrograde!!  The bill will eventually be revised, discarded or found unconstitutional in some way.  It is being birthed in dirty water and will not survive.  Mercury retrograde brings the abortion issue back to the table and back to the community for consideration.  In Ohio and North Carolina restrictive anti-abortion laws were inserted into the budget and passed without discussion in the past few days.  Basically it was an ambush.  Did I mention that Mercury is also a trickster?  With Mercury retrograde in Cancer I am asking what this says about the Republican Party’s relationship with the feminine principle. No one is forced to have an abortion so what interest do they have, exactly?

The Moon rules Cancer.  

Mercury retrograde in Cancer takes us back to many female issues. On the personal level it could mean a return to the issue of motherhood. Some couples might be trying to decide whether or not to have a child.  It could mean a return to a fertility doctor to try one more time to get pregnant.   And, as already stated, there is a return to the odd belief that a small group of individuals can dictate what women do with their sexuality and reproductive potentialities. 

Jupiter entered the sign of Cancer on June 25 for a one-year visit

It takes Jupiter one year to travel 30 degrees through a sign (and it takes 12 years for Jupiter to go through the entire zodiac).  In 2012 to June 2013, Jupiter visited Gemini, a ruler of information, learning and teaching.  There was plenty of data to go through.  There was lots of chatter and debate.  Now, in the sign of Cancer, Jupiter amplifies the feeling nature.  Cancer is a water sign, one of the emotional signs of the zodiac.  Jupiter makes whatever it touches BIGGER.  Old worn out water pipes might break.  There could be flooding, literally and figuratively.   Feelings will be bigger.  We will be asked to process a lot of emotional information and we are asked to maintain emotional balance.  Jupiter is excess so we can get out of control emotionally, we can get out of control with all things Cancerian (see information on Mercury retrograde in Cancer—mothering, food, comfort, needing to be babied).  Here are some other possibilities to think about: 
·      Being too much of a mother!  Practice the balance of nurturing with proper boundaries.   Avoid suffocating other people.
·      Too much focus on food and drink and emotional eating. Solution: focus on nutrition and appropriate diet and exercise.  Avoid the sofa!
·      Stomach upsets and problems.  Solution:  talk about your troubles or journal about your upsets. Find creative outlets for pent up emotions.
·      Being a CRAB.  The totem for Cancer is the crab, the critter that sidles away when it feels threatened.  It crawls into its shell and stays there. Or maybe that crab grabs on with its pincher and doesn’t let go.  Ouch! Anytime the sign of Cancer is in the spotlight, we need to practice expressing what we feel rather than repressing what we don’t want others to see or hear. Learning how to express without using the pincher is the trick!!  You know what I’m talking about, Cancer folks. You can complain and complain and get crochety.

Rather than let Jupiter in Cancer make our crotchety tendency bigger, let’s pay attention to our emotional climate and balance.

Jupiter in Cancer:  Trust Your Belly!

We have a year to experience the abundant gifts of Jupiter in Cancer.  For many people this is a wonderful year to be a parent.  For some it’s the perfect year to get pregnant.  It’s a great time to deepen our family connections.  The Moon rules Cancer. We want to have a happy home.  Jupiter in Cancer can help us align with our feminine aspects and with our psyches.  The crab lives in the sea. We have a year to embrace the ocean and to support the protection of our seas.  Cancer and the Moon rule the breasts and the stomach.  Become more mindful about what you eat, both literally with food and figuratively with energy.  What energy are you eating?  What gives you a bellyache?  What is your abdominal area telling you?  If you have an eating disorder, now is the time to address it because Jupiter in Cancer may make it bigger.  Get help if you have an eating disorder or get out of control with food or alcohol. If a person or situation in your life is giving you a bellyache, then some correction is necessary.

Last year, with Jupiter in Gemini, we had more Mercury associated disorders.  Mercury rules Gemini, so people had to watch their anxiety level. They had to be careful not to get so over-amped by media, the news and excess data. This year the focus is more on the physical body and emotional body rather than the mental/ neurological body.

Saturn leaves retrograde phase, resumes direct movement at 5 degree of Scorpio on July 8th.

We are swimming in a Grand Trine

After 20 weeks in a retrograde phase, Saturn picks up speed and goes direct.  We are invited to take action.  What plans have you been making?  It’s time to get stuff done.  Saturn in Scorpio; Sun, Mercury & Jupiter in Cancer; and Neptune in Pisces form a big triangle in the water element.  We can float in the whirlpool or we can take advantage of the positive current and swim.  It is times like this I wish I still kept an everyday journal.  How cool it would be to go back to mid February and see what I was thinking about.  What kinds of goals or plans were in my mind?  With Saturn transiting Scorpio, the goals are both internal and external.  Perhaps we have a project that now can move ahead, but we also have internal issues that are demanding attention. If you prefer to stay on the surface of things, then Saturn in Scorpio might be a confusing and perplexing time, because Scorpio is deep.

Saturn is the teacher in the sky. Remember that long ago people could not see anything beyond Saturn.  So Saturn represented the boundary of our solar system. Boundaries are practical.  If you get too close to me, I might not be able to breathe.  You will rob my oxygen!  Saturn is the planet that rocks our world when we forget to be practical and pay attention to reality.

Saturn in Scorpio puts the practical emphasis on relational dynamics.  Scorpio is the 8th house of the zodiac. That 8th house represents the results of partnering.  These results include intimacy and sexuality, money, shared resources, inheritance and taxes.  It also includes the inevitability of change and death.  So much of our behavior is unconscious.  Scorpio is the detective that shines a light into the unconscious.  While Saturn is traveling through Scorpio we are learning about intimacy and sharing.  How close do we want to be? What boundaries do we need to establish?  Is the communication open?  Is it veiled in unconscious innuendos? How far do we want to go with the partner?  And what about money? How much to share?  Is the relational dynamic working?  If a person is not in a relationship, these issues are still very important.  If a solo person wants a union and doesn’t have one, then Saturn in Scorpio may make that person feel extremely lonely.  A person suffering from Scorpio loneliness will hopefully reach out to family and friends for companionship. Also, Saturn in Scorpio is a period of time in which to probe into one’s unconscious for information and guidance. Like Persephone and Inanna, we can travel into the dank deep underworld to visit the realm of death and rebirth.

Saturn entered Scorpio in October 2012 and will not complete its work there until December 2014 (and then a brief re-visit to Scorpio from June to September in 2015.)  While Saturn visits this sign, we can dive deep and dig deep.  We can find some answers to our life long issues and bring reality into the light. 

A Grand Trine in water gives us a chance to swim into new territories.

In July we have the help of that big triangle formation in the element of water:  Saturn in Scorpio, Neptune in Pisces, the Sun, Mercury and Jupiter in Cancer.  A Grand Trine is about flow and relationship.  That means relationship between people, between people and animals, or between life events.  It’s about synchronicity and meaning. We can admire the Grand Trine, we can float in its emotional pulse, we can dive into it, and we can use its energy to swim into new territories.