About four hours from now, we enter the Gibbous phase with the Moon in early Cancer.
This phase is usually a challenge. We think we’re ticking along, ready for the Full Moon, when something trips us up.
If the lunar cycle is a hero’s journey on a 4-week scale, this is when we unexpectedly meet a challenge. There’s a test we need to pass to move forward.
With the Moon in early Cancer moving to meet Mars retrograde in mid Cancer, both out of bounds, we find ourselves in an intensely emotional place.
Given this week’s news cycle, this is hardly a surprise. Yet, we may find ourselves feeling emotionally sensitive in ways that seem over the top even within the current situation.
We might want to hide, disappear into a world of our own making that is safe and familiar.
We’re overwhelmed.
Planets out of bounds have moved outside the limits of the Sun’s path, outside the Sun’s regulation. This is not revolution. We’re not against the rules. We simply don’t see the rules. We’re outside.
In the first decan of Cancer, the Moon is especially powerful. We long for relationships with the intense closeness of mother and child, even as we recognize those bonds are not always supportive. One key here is gaining clarity on what our needs actually are.
Mars struggles in the second decan of Cancer. Austin Coppock’s image for this decan is the walled garden––wonderful if we need respite and calm, too confining if we feel we cannot escape. The sense of enclosure accentuates Mars in Cancer’s propensity to passive aggressive behavior.
Mars closely trines Saturn in mid Pisces, who’s not too interested in meeting Mars needs, even though trines are supportive aspects. Saturn in mid Pisces can feel like a barrier: “Oh, you want that? Well, no.”
So we may find ourselves feeling trapped, alone, unsupported –– or, depending on circumstances, smothered by those who do not understand what we truly need and want.
With the intensity of a strong Moon and retrograde Mars, both out of bounds, we may truly feel emotionally overwhelmed.
The way out, as so often happens, is through. Strong emotions may feel inconvenient, a distraction from things we must do. Yet they arise as calls for attention. Can we honor how we feel? If so, something new will emerge.
Mars squares Chiron in mid Aries. If our usual strategies for coping with emotion are outmoded or not functioning, it’s time to reexamine our assumptions and try a new way.
The Moon squares Venus in early Aries. How do we balance deep caring and protective impulses with the need to take direct action? Can we find ways to balance both, rather than dismissing one to focus on the other?
Tomorrow, Mercury reaches their exact conjunction with the Sun at the opening of the third decan of Aquarius. This is the external conjunction, when Mercury is direct and on the far side of the Sun from us.
This is a place where new perspectives emerge, information comes from outside to bring in new ideas. Yet it’s also a place of detachment, of setting aside emotions or being beyond the reach of our feelings.
So part of this Gibbous challenge is balancing the big question of emotion vs. the detached mind.
On a grand scale, we want the kind of detachment that supports fair and equal decisions, and the kind of emotions that support empathy and mercy. The opposite is privileging emotions that support favoritism, isolationism, and othering, while focusing on detachment that ignores consequences and tolerates cruelty.
On a personal scale, we’e hopefully learned that emotions must be felt before they can be understood. That feelings are only dangerous when we’re blind to their origins and purposes. That productive detachment comes after emotional work, and does not replace it.
Leaning into this Gibbous Moon might not feel wonderful, yet the path opened up is supportive, insightful, and leads to new understanding.
If this Gibbous Moon chart resonates with your own, plan accordingly. Allow the space and grace for processing. If your chart is more of the “I’m not sure what the fuss is about” kind, then extend understanding and support to those around you who are feeling the overwhelm.
Emotional processing is good for all of us.
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