This thread brought to you by Mars in Cancer still building an opposition to Saturn in Capricorn (sidereal) until July 1, 2021.
Conflict is a form intimacy.
It says, "we have gotten so close that I can no longer tell where you (and your feelings) end and me (and my feelings) begin. I need to remember where the boundaries of my self are."
— The People's Oracle (@PeoplesOracle) June 24, 2021
Mars in Cancer (sidereal) reflects a time when we set aside all other ambitions to focus on the most essential and necessary: our bodies. Not only food and shelter, but belonging, safety, and connection, too. These are worthy ambitions undermined and undervalued in capitalism.
Mars in Cancer (sidereal) marches towards an opposition with Saturn in Capricorn. That opposition perfects July 1, 2021.
Mars: Abilities, also Seperation
Saturn: Reality, also Covid-19
Mars in Cancer opposed Saturn in Capricorn through July 2021 asks:
📌How does our collective confrontation with the reality of Covid-19 change what drives us?
📌How are your goals changing as you learn to cope with the permanent shifts the pandemic has brought to your life?
Planets will be occupying Cancer (sidereal) until August 16, 2021. Mars and Venus are there now. Eventually the Sun and Mercury will travel through Cancer as well. This is setting off the story of your natal Moon.
Sidereal Moon Sign Meanings
What does your natal Moon sign (sidereal) have to say about your relationship to mothering, home, family, and your body?
First cast your sidereal birth chart using the instructions here:
Growing up you had access to mothering in a way that has taught you to hear your body loud and clear. 📌What is to be done when what you need is unavailable? 📌Must you consume it because you have it? 📌How much is enough for you?
Sidereal Libra Moon:
What your body looks like can only hide what you really need for so long. Besides, our needs are not up for litigation. 📌Who are you trying to convince that you don’t need what you need? 📌How does it feel to be exposed and vulnerable?
Sidereal Capricorn Moon:
Time to face the fact that your suffering is chronic and not acute. 📌How has the emotional neglect of your childhood carried over into neglecting your body in adulthood? 📌What does it look like to give up suffering as a way you deny your needs?
Sidereal Aries Moon:
Leaving is a good way to avoid the discomfort of needing what is unavailable. It’s saved your life in the past. 📌What will happen if you stay? 📌How are you learning resourcefulness at present? 📌Who will win the race to abandon you first? Is it you?
Sidereal Leo Moon:
Daddy issues = deferring to dad/authority and abandoning your own perceptions. 📌Who perceptions/authority do you trust to tell you what your needs are? 📌How are you extending grace to your mother for the way she had to defer to dad?
Sidereal Scorpio Moon:
Being the one to tell the truth about the harm you experienced has alienated you. 📌How does the present bring up old wounds of having to abandon your mother/family to save your own life? 📌How long can you hold out in isolation? How?
Sidereal Aquarius Moon:
If you had identified with your body/family as a child, you’d likely not be here now. You/elders saved your life! 📌How is your body is forcing you to recall what happened to you? 📌How can you honor your body without centering what happened to you?
Sidereal Taurus Moon:
You played the role in your family that made sure they liked you enough to meet your needs. 📌Do you like you enough to honor what your needs really are? 📌Just because it feels good doesn’t mean you need it. Can you tell the difference between the two?
Sidereal Gemini Moon:
Seeking more info to affirm what you know you need can undermine your trust in yourself and your body. 📌How are you growing to trust your body and your ability to feel it? 📌Who do you trust to affirm your body? Who are you learning you can’t trust?
Sidereal Virgo Moon:
Being mothered on a schedule rather than when your body says you need it is a form of neglect. 📌What metrics aid you in identifying + meeting your needs? 📌How are you overcoming confusion that arises when your body tells you it needs something different?
Sidereal Sagittarius Moon:
What you believe your body is saying and what it’s actually saying may be up for debate. 📌How do your political/religious/spiritual convictions support or undermine your ability discern your needs? 📌Does that body have a truth? How can you know?
Sidereal Pisces Moon:
Feeling other’s feelings got your needs met growing up. How much longer will you allow their trauma to be an excuse for the pain they cause you? 📌How are you prioritizing your needs in relationships? 📌What does emotional safety look + feel like for you?
The Full Moon in Cancer is coming, Thursday, January 28, 2021. Why am I telling you this now? Cause it’s gonna be ROUGH.
Here is the good news: You will have had 1 full year of Saturn in Capricorn by the time we get to that Full Moon. One full year of remembering that you are mortal. One full year of confronting the reality that YOU are the adult now.
The question is, have you approached this time with these things in mind? Have you confronted the fact that mommy and daddy can’t protect you from everything? …Can not, did not, will not.
And if you’ve looked to leaders in your community, nation, or family to be a good mommy or daddy…
Don’t get me wrong. YOU DESERVE to have your needs met, to be protected, to have your needs recognized. BUT! Have you embraced your ENTITLEMENT to have your needs met?
At your big age, how can you expect anyone—the government, your lover, your loved ones—to meet your needs when you are too ashamed to need?
3 of the 4 Cardinal signs will be occupied during the Full Moon in Cancer, January 28, 2021: Moon in Cancer; Saturn, Jupiter, Venus, and the Sun in Capricorn; Mars in Aries. That’s all of those red lines in this chart. Those red lines = power struggles, conflict, confrontation.
In our personal lives and in our communal lives, the Full Moon in Cancer (Jan 28, 2021) brings into focus:
Addiction and Repression are two sides of the same coin: How does one learn to regulate a mind-body whose needs were never acknowledged?
Recklessness: The adults weren’t/couldn’t adult, so do you know where the limits are when you were expected to find them on your own?
Libra is missing from this Cardinal party. That means we will be looking to what Libra represents as a solution: objective agreed upon principles that help us know what to do in any given situation. That’s law and legislation.
Also, the pressure is on Libra + what it represents.
Last thing… don’t get caught up and sent off like ya’ll did last year. Tropical astrology had ya’ll ready for a Leo Full Moon party, but instead… you FELT that Full Moon in Cancer. Tell a friend!
A lot of people were put off by the recent Full Moon. I know that it was in Leo in the tropical zodiac, but I think it's clear that the externally expressive fire of tropical Leo was not the way most people experienced this recent Full Moon.
This is a post about the Sun in sidereal astrology. It originally appeared as a thread of tweets on Twitter.
There are 3 primary ways to understand the function of a planet in a natal (birth) chart. And I believe they go in this order:
As representative of people in your life;
As experiences or events at particular times;
As aspects of your becoming, rooted in 1# & #2.
Free Will & Astrology Aren’t Good Friends
Modern astrology often avoids, derides, or out right denounces predictive astrology. But that’s because modern astrology doesn’t possess the tools to be adept at predictive astrology. Plus, it’s predicated on free will which is NOT the philosophical roots of astrology at all. If you’ve followed me for awhile you’ll know that I believe we have very limited freedom of will. And I believe that free will is a tool of oppression. But that’s another conversation for another time.
The focus on individual will as opposed to a more collectivist worldview has framed the sign of the Sun in a natal chart as the most important and central part of a person’s astrological make up. This is unfortunate.
Which You is the Real You
Anyone born within the same season (30 +/- day period) as you has their natal Sun in the same sign as you. Let’s borrow from Chinese astrology to understand what a season is and how it relates to the natal Sun’s sign.
In Chinese astrology, the season of birth which is the month of birth, is important. However, that season serves as a context for the day of birth. This is like the relationship between the Sun and the moon. The Moon being the day, the Sun being the month. The season/month of birth generally defines the level of support the day master/day element has. Specifically it represents the parents, family, home and upbringing.
Now, if we translate this back to western astrology, we’ll see that the Moon is the identifying factor in a natal chart as it takes 2 days to transit a sign (as opposed to 30 days for the Sun). A person born in the same season as you (30 day period of the same Sun sign) has to be born within the same 2 day period as you in order to have the same Sun and Moon sign. Conceptually this helps us to understand that the Sun in the natal chart is not a unique identifying factor for an individual. I know this goes contrary to everything you’ve learned, but you must unlearn it.
I’m going to offer some philosophical concepts to help you better understand the Sun in astrology. Then I’ll offer some basic significations. The latter will be a result of the former.
Have You Ever Seen the Sun?
Look at the picture of the Sun that I used to begin this blog post. Have you ever turned your head towards the sky and observed the Sun appearing this way? How does the Sun appear to your eye? Have you ever seen it as it is? A simpler question: What does the Sun look like?
All that we see with our eyes is because of the light of the Sun. Objects absorb & reflect certain wavelengths of light providing the appearance of colors. Yet we can’t perceive this light as it is. Google quantum physics & explanations of light and matter, have your mind blown.
The primary way that we perceive the light of the Sun is via the Moon. The Moon reflects different amounts of the Sun’s light at cyclical intervals based on the spacial relationship between the Moon, Earth, and Sun.
In astrology the Sun is the mind, sight, and perception. You cannot see the mind. You cannot see sight. And you cannot perceive perception. Much like you cannot take your eyes out of your head and look at them. The very nature of the mind and perception is that you cannot turn it back on itself to see it. Just like you cannot see the Sun as it truly is, you cannot see the mind.
The Sun is the light that illuminates allowing perception. It’s consciousness, and the lens through which you see yourself—not your physical body, but the concept of yourself held in your mind. The Sun is the concept of your self, the idea of who you are that you project into the world, and that you seek to see reflected back to you.
There is no you without your body. When there is no body, there is only the idea of you which is different in everyone’s mind. What is the body in astrology? It’s the Moon. And we know that the Moon is about family, mother, your home, your tribe. It’s the social and physical means by which you come into being.
Identity is a funny thing. Social science and philosophy ask and attempt to answer questions about how identity is formed. We know that identity is formed in society/social setting.
You and the concept/idea of who you are (SUN) comes into being via your body, your mother, your tribe, your family, society (MOON). There is no you without things.
Going back to my comparison to Chinese astrology, it’s clear that in a hierarchy of planets and points that most uniquely identify you and your life, it is the Moon and it’s relationship to the Sun that gives a complete and unique picture. This is why I see astrology as a social science and a tool of divination. It very clearly articulates the nature of human life, the self, and how it comes into being.
But, if you believe that who you are is something that exists in this rigid form, separate from your relationships, family, and society, rather than emerging from those things, then of course you think that the Sun is the most important planet in the natal chart.
The Sun as a Gear of Time
The Sun is the father, significant men, and authority figures. It is your mind, the concept of how you perceive your self, the lens through which your mind perceives the world around you. The Sun is how you think of yourself, yet it says nothing of who you are and what you do out in the world.
The Sun says nothing of how others see you. No one can see your mind, and you can’t see theirs either. It says nothing of how you function and the roles you play in life. Implied here is that your self concept/idea of yourself is formed and reinforced by your body, your family and upbringing, your tribe, and the society in which you come up.
The very 1st time the Sun returns to the position where it was when you were born, there have been 13 Moons/lunations. That’s 13 cycles of New & Full Moons, 365+/- circadian cycles of sleeping and waking. If the Moon is the body, this is 13 cycles of nourishing and nurturing that body.
At that time you answer to your name, and you have come to understand whether or not needs you have and express will be fulfilled. Will someone answer when you cry? Do you experience familiar smells and sights? Is your world one of plenty or lack? Are you touched and played with?
All of these things have to do with the body. And the orientation of your body to the world around you and the people in it are what forms the first ideas of who you are. This is the relationship between the Moon and the Sun in your natal chart: how is the idea/concept of yourself formed?
You have no identity when you are born. You have no idea or concept of a self or who you are. It is something that develops over time. And every time the Sun comes back to the sign and degree where it is in your natal chart, you enter a new season of becoming aware of this self. That time is around your birthday each year and we call the chart cast for that moment your solar return.
The season of your birth, the Sun sign in your natal chart, is indicative of the outer world circumstances in which you were born. It is a transiting moment of time for your mother as well. And what is the mother, the Moon in your natal chart.
July is in many ways the follow-up to April. Sun square Jupiter, Venus opposed Saturn, and Mercury entering its retrograde shadow are all continuations of the stories and cycles we experienced then. I outlined the details of that month in two separate posts because it was so eventful (here and here). But this time, I’m gonna lay July out for you in one long read.
Planets move into Cancer starting with Mercury on July 2 and culminates with a Sun- Mars conjunction at 10 Cancer on July 27. Mercury enters its retrograde shadow near the New Moon in Cancer, officially opening the door to eclipse season. You’ll need your seat belt for this month.
So is much happening in Cancer this month. Women take center stage and make or break the progression of the narratives we live during this time.
Being under the governorship of the Moon makes these transits and configurations visceral. You feel them in your body, you want to act or react. My keyword for Cancer is responsive. That’s how Cancer moves when it’s present and aware.
Reaction is great when there is an imminent threat, or an opportunity that must be captured in the moment. Responsiveness is a muscle that must be worked and strengthened. It’s what we become when our reactionary minds pause, reflect, and decide on the best course of action. For champion boxers it happens on autopilot because it is approached as a discipline. It’s in their muscle’s memory.
Let this be your meditation for July.
Cancer rising, Heavyweight Champion Muhammad Ali vs Ernie Terrell
This blog post and its sections are truncated. The full text of this article, approximately 4,000 words, is available for purchase here.
Mercury answers to the Moon when it’s in Cancer. One’s use of language—when and how one communicates—is a tool of the emotions. Physiology and psychology teach us that every emotional state has a corresponding physiological state. Emotions are our intellectual concepts for the way we categorize those physiological responses to our experiences.
Fear forces the body to limit energy use to life sustaining processes only so that you can take off and run or fight back in the face of a threat. This is why prolonged fear induced worry and stress can have a detrimental effect on the body. I’m sure those with prominent Cancer in their chart know all about digestive issues and unwanted weight gain.
But, Cancer is hyper sensitive and responsive to these states; how the body responds to people, circumstances, and the environment, and the emotions associated with those sensations. Following the lead of the Moon’s every 2.5 day or so sign changes, Mercury’s face and motivation change, too.
Mercury’s job is to communicate the reality and perceptions of the Sun. In a Moon ruled sign, however, there may be a disruption in transmission. Even if the Mercury in Cancer can think lucidly, the urgency of their emotions and their physiological expression may override otherwise sound logic.
Emotional outbursts, saying things one doesn’t really mean can cause problems emotionally and professionally. But speaking the honesty of the moment can also be liberating. Can Mercury in Cancer discern between the two?
July 6 – Sun in Gemini square Jupiter in Virgo
The synodic cycle of the Sun and Jupiter represents the evolving relationship between our perception of reality and our beliefs about what is possible.
At the conjunction (in Virgo September 2016) our perceptions and our beliefs are unified. In Virgo, there is a calculative experience of reality, seeing the world as sets of data, rather than actual people, and equations to be solved rather than experiences to live, enjoy, and learn from.
The first square was at 90°. The Sun had moved on to Sagittarius while Jupiter remained in Virgo (January 2017). The dissonance between …
July 9 – Full Moon 23 Sagittarius
Moon in Sagittarius is ruled by Jupiter in Virgo with Jupiter in a tight square, angular to the Sun and Moon. That’s astrology for Jupiter in Virgo being the boss of this Moon.
Jupiter in Virgo:
Jupiter in sidereal Virgo says:
The facts can be put together in any way the storyteller sees fit; they serve the agenda of his narrative.
— The People’s Oracle (@PeoplesOracle) June 5, 2017
Jupiter = synthesizes one’s personal experiences into a life philosophy. But in Virgo, it wants to make it add up like an equation.
Jupiter at this Full Moon represents a narrative that challenges our perception of reality (Sun) & our physical experience of it (Moon). Seeing is, in fact, NOT believing. Who and what do you trust?
Both the Sun and Mars are in Gemini. Gemini is a parrot of sorts. It’s job is to say what it sees and repeat what it hears. It isn’t the most conscious or thoughtful sign. But that’s not in its job description anyway. Mars in Gemini can be reckless and distracted, causing accidents. It can also be playful and not take things seriously.
Sagittarius, the sign of the Full Moon, finds its limitations in the fact that individual personal experience can’t speak for everyone. Sagittarius LOVES to be right. It wants to prove & persuade. And it has to know why.
So, we have a setup here of a search for answers, looking for ways to explain what is happening. There is much difficulty in discerning the truth. There is a lot of info to sift through (Gemini), some of it disruptive and upsetting (Mars). Jupiter wants to weave together the facts (Virgo). But, Sagittarius must know why. It’s not enough to have information. There has to be some measure for truth.
Look to the missing piece of this configuration. It’s Pisces. Sometimes you can know things and not know how you know. This is the lesson of Pisces, the only mutable sign not occupied by a planet. This Full Moon asks us to cultivate our intuition. Close your eyes. Transcend your body. Set aside your beliefs. Tap into that other way knowing.
July 11 – Mars in Cancer
Mars in Cancer is in fall. It’s ill-equipped for the task at hand, or at least forced to do it’s job in an unstable environment and less than ideal circumstances. Mars’ task is to …
July 16 – Sun in Cancer
Five days after Mars, the Sun enters Cancer, the sign where it will finally catch up to and overtake Mars for a bodily conjunction.
The Sun is our perception of reality. It’s the eyes we see through that determine what we see and how we see it. Sun in Cancer perceives reality through the lens of what is familiar. The past is a filter that shades its awareness.
Women take center stage as influential leaders and power figures during this time. Just like Mars being in Cancer, the Sun is subject to the changing face of the Moon …
July 18 – Venus in Taurus trine Jupiter in Virgo
A trine means support, but it says nothing about the benevolence or malevolence of what is being supported. As the narrative that defines what we believe is possible, Jupiter met by Venus in a trine aspect says that what we desire is supported by a belief that we can get it. This is the definition of optimism. Whether or not this optimism is warranted is another subject all together …
July 20 – Mercury in Leo
When Mercury enters Leo on July 20, it is entering the sign where it will have the most important retrograde of the year. It rivals the retrograde from April, but is much more significant …
July 23 – New Moon at 6 Cancer
This date and the days surrounding it are probably the most important days of the year. If you have read my Twitter thread interpreting and offering predictions using Donald Trump’s solar return you’ll know that these days are important to whether or not Trump remains president. In that thread I talk about the New Moon in Cancer triggering his chart in 4 different ways: by transit, time lord, progressed chart, and eclipse trigger. (link to a long thread of tweets analyzing Trump’s solar return)
This New Moon ushers in eclipse season. The August Full Moon at 17 Capricorn that follows is a Lunar Eclipse. While the August 21 Total Solar Eclipse has been the focus, don’t underestimate the punch of a Lunar Eclipse.
Now, about this New Moon in Cancer …
July 24 – Venus in Taurus opposed Saturn in Scorpio
In case you forgot, Venus and Saturn had a series of intense squares back in April. Venus was stationing direct and Saturn was stationing Rx. They sat within orb for at least 2 weeks.
When Venus in Pisces was in that extended square with Saturn, it brought important decisions regarding commitments and contracts., re-negotiations and changes in the terms of agreements. It brought an end to many relationships.
Venus in that extended square with Saturn required some to establish boundaries where there were none or where they were weak. Inconsistency and unsureness was magnified. Discrepancies between what you said you wanted and what you were willing or had the power to do where illuminated.
This time they are in opposition which is different from a square. Squares are …
July 24 – Mercury enters Retrograde shadow at 4 Leo
Four degrees of Leo is hot, hot, hot! And Mercury is the brave planet that will first trigger that sensitive eclipse point. That happens on July 24 …
July 26 – Venus in Gemini
Venus’ transit through each of the signs colors our interactions with others and the tone of our personal relationships. In general, its job is to illuminate the common ground that allows people to cooperate. In Gemini, that common ground can take on a variety of forms …
July 27 – Sun conjunct Mars, 10 Cancer
I’ve outlined above what the Sun and Mars mean when moving through Cancer. But, what does it mean for Mars to meet the heart of the Sun while it is in Cancer?
The month ends with Mars stepping up to once again disrupt and divide. All year long Mars has been the author of confusion, here to remind us that our sense of peace and normalcy is tentative at best. Change must eventually take root, and Mars is the one that sows the seeds
A planet is cazimi when …
This blog post and its sections are truncated. The full text of this article, approximately 4,000 words, is available for purchase here.
