It’s our nation’s birthday and the heavens are throwing us a big party. The gods and goddesses of our destiny have brought abundant gifts.
For starters there’s a Full Moon on the 4th. It’s a lunar eclipse. It won’t be total, when the moon turns blood red. This eclipse, like the one a month ago that initiated a triumvirate of eclipses, is a penumbral eclipse. The moon won’t go dark, it will just dim a bit. To me the symbolism is encouraging. We are mostly out of the dark. Much has been illumined. We are waking up to our reality but there’s still a bit of a shadow we need to unveil.
Our nation’s Sun is at 13 degrees of Cancer. On the 4th we have a “solar return.” The Sun arrives at its original place in the natal chart. The Sun is our life force, our solar consciousness, our experience of identity. Ancient cultures worshipped the Sun as God, the divine source of life. When spiritual energy radiates through the vibration of the Cancer archetype, it activates our emotional body. We feel vulnerable, we get in touch with our needs, we want safety and security.
The Full Moon happens on the Cancer/Capricorn axis, the final eclipse in these signs for a decade because the Nodes of the Moon have moved on to the Gemini/Sagittarius axis. Opposite our natal sign of Cancer is Capricorn. Our need for safety has driven our social and political contracts. We have created a government whose job it is to protect us, to make us safe. Now we see that our government no longer fulfills that role. Politicians have succumbed to the lure of power and control. They are blind to our needs. We’re on our own, as we have discovered in this pandemic. As a result we are disenchanted and want change.
All the misuse of power latent in Capricorn is playing out in full color when heavily armed and shielded police beat and gas peaceful dissenters. This is the shadow of a totalitarian police state and we are saying “NO!” Bravo America! Immediately state and federal legislatures got to work on bills to reform policing in our county. Our collective will has power.
Black Lives Matter has inspired millions of us to stand up for a united population. We are saying “NO!” to systemic racism. And look at the statues that are coming down – icons of a hateful past. Even Columbus, Ohio has torn down the statue of their namesake. The true story of Christopher Columbus is horrific. He committed genocide and enslaved islanders as he sailed through the Caribbean on his way to “discovering” a sacred land that had been honored for centuries by indigenous people. We are literally tearing down our history, symbolic of rooting out our collective shame.
This Full Moon is shining on our national identity, beaming Spirit into our hearts and souls, helping us express our potential. 244 years ago we began a daring experiment that posed the question “Can we live and thrive together in freedom and equality?” Obviously we have gone astray, but we are course-correcting. We are taking back these precious values.
We are in the process of rebirthing America. Ironically we are going to make America great again, not by going backward to some imagined time, but by moving forward guided by our ideals and our finest qualities. We are Cancer – we care, we nurture, we create safety for the persecuted and needy; we provide opportunity for life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
To add emphasis to this historic day, Vesta is conjunct the Sun reminding us of what is sacred, what deserves our devotion. Furthermore, the Full Moon forms a T-Square with our nation’s natal Saturn in Libra and Chiron in Aries. This is a karmic moment. We can heal our collective wounds (Chiron) and make a new beginning (Aries). We can step into the destiny that our chart reveals of leading the world (10th house) into the era of Peace on Earth (Saturn in Libra). And of course it begins at home.
This is the year that we decide to get back on track, perfecting our Union. We are taking back our freedom and demanding equality. Freedom requires responsibility, as does leadership and authority. We have accepted the destiny of making Democracy work. That means everyone takes responsibility.
For the next 5-1/2 months we will be get a final look at Capricorn issues. Which of our institutions needs reform? What is authority and the right use of power? More secrets and corruption will be revealed. Nothing can hide from Pluto. Right now both Jupiter and Pallas are on the same degree as Pluto. Wisdom, faith, justice, vision, truth, are playing a big role in our collective transformation.
Saturn has just moved back into Capricorn, headed toward an exact conjunction with our country’s natal Pluto. In 2022 we have a Pluto return. This is a big deal. It’s the equivalent of a Saturn return times a thousand. The themes have emerged. We have these two years to make the necessary changes, to heal and release the shame of our past, make reparations and move on with renewed commitment to our Union.
To assist in our healing, Mars is fast approaching Chiron in Aries strengthening our will to heal. Racism is fueled by our individual pain. What still needs healing in our own psyches? We can attend to our own wounds and thereby heal the collective angst.
Mercury is retrograde in Cancer and on Wednesday was conjunct the Sun to begin its new synodic cycle. A synodic cycle traces the relationship between a planet and the Sun. When Mercury is involved we wonder what new information will surface? What in our own minds is ready to shift? What new perception is forming? It’s a great time to allow yourself to NOT KNOW. Not knowing is the perfect receptacle for new information. It opens up space, and new discoveries delight far more than the illusion of certainty.
We need to overcome our addiction to certainty. That’s hard for a Cancer Sun. The truth is, however, there is no such thing as certainty, and the institutions we create to stabilize certainty turn into prisons that sap our joy, limit our possibilities and stifle our creativity. It’s a bad bargain, trading our freedom for an illusion.
As the Full Moon passes overhead on the 4th of July, give a thought to our collective Cancer identity. The antidote to insecurity is caring – actually caring for ourselves and others, actually caring about our country and its mission, actually loving and caring for our precious home planet.
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