This evening, 
we welcome the New Moon in Cancer for the chance she offers to dive deep into wells of emotion, remembering where we’re been, what is most important to us, and what we’re ready to let go of.
This New Moon time is full of feeling as intense as any of the admittedly intense lunations and aspects we’ve been experiencing. Yet the quality of this New Moon is reflective and inward, if we let it be. This is why I’m inviting us to welcome this Moon and embrace the chance for gentle, if deep and inexorable, emotional reflections.
Are there pitfalls? You bet. Let’s talk about those first.
The largest potential difficulty looming here is feeling overwhelmed by emotion. Here we have the Sun and Moon together in Cancer, the Moon’s home sign and the place of home, mother, family, tribe, security, ancestry, tradition in all the ways of women.
This New Moon is part of a slightly wide but still powerful Grand Trine in Water, a flow of emotion impossible to avoid. Also on the trine is Chiron in Pisces, offering deep healing but only if we first experience and acknowledge the wounds. The third point is Saturn in Scorpio. He’s closing in on the end of Scorpio, which adds intensity, and his role is (if I can mix elements here) to keep our feet to the fire, by showing us aspects of ourselves and our situations we must face if we want to enter into a true relationship with ourselves. He is the Shadow.
Create safe space for yourself today, even if that space is simply a cup of tea in your hand or a moment of breathing. Emotions will be present, and we’ll learn the most and move through most gracefully if we welcome them.
The second potential difficulty is represented by a conjunction of Mercury and Mars in Cancer, which is just far enough from the New Moon to avoid a quad conjunction there, but still very present and powerful.
When Mercury and Mars join, we tend to shoot our mouths off, with a good chance of winding up with feet inserted. With the conjunction happening at this New Moon in Cancer, we may be sorely tempted to tell this one or that one exactly what we think of him or her or the situation in an emotionally overwrought way. We do not want to be doing this.
Today, avoid the temptation to unburden yourself in the wrong place with the wrong person. If you find yourself on the receiving end of a tirade, breathe, remember the day, and learn. What is this person telling you about him or herself, about your relationship? Do not meet drama with drama. It’s also a good time to avoid volatile people, situations, and places, as emotionality will be high. Rip currents, rogue waves, and strong tides––the red flags are up.
The gift of this New Moon is memory. The sign of Cancer is a place of tradition. This is where we connect with our heritage, our ancestors, our tribe, our mothers. This is where we store, for good and ill, memories of our lives before birth, in early infancy and childhood, and from trauma.
We know now the mind is not located exclusively in the brain, but is a whole-body phenomenon that involves our endocrine systems (hormones, what could be more Cancerian?), our muscles, bones, deep tissues, and, yes, our emotions. We cannot learn or remember things about which we have no feelings. This is where we can get in touch with our conditioning: The habitual beliefs and responses that color our moment-to-moment experiences.
The patterns of this New Moon point us to where and what to remember.
Pluto in Capricorn opposes Mercury and Mars in Cancer. This increases the potential for drama, but also says remember tradition, remember structure, remember how things are in the world. What needs to change? What is worth keeping? How do you feel about that? Pluto never gives up. He is always, still, there. We just saw him yesterday, reminding us.
Uranus and Eris in Aries say, remember what is important to you because it WILL change. This square to the New Moon says, don’t get too comfortable. Look outside your bubble. Do not make the mistake of thinking the great forces sweeping the world will leave you alone. Remember who you are; remember you are not alone on this Earth.
Saturn in Scorpio says, remember who you have always been. Remember what you might prefer to forget. Do not separate yourself from the others around you, you are not better, do not mistake relative security as a sign you are somehow favored above your companions on this journey. Be unflinching. Be courageous. The gold is in the Shadow. Look and remember.
Chiron in Pisces says, yes, remember your wounds. Yes, this hurts. Remember also this is the path of healing. Looking away hasn’t helped anyway, has it? Now is the time to look, to feel, to embrace, to understand. Support is always available to you. You are not alone.
New Moons are dark times. This New Moon may feel especially dark, if we have many difficult feelings emerging. It may also be especially difficult to consider New Moon wishes or intentions, or see the way ahead. I will not offer platitudes like “everything happens for a reason” for they are meaningless bandaids we don’t need now. What I will say is, trust yourself. Understand that emotions are not to be avoided. They are messengers, friends even, as long as they are moving. not stuck.
At this New Moon, go with the flow. Experience what comes. And as you do, remember what (and who) nurtures you, protects you, loves you. Those are the best memories.