Astrology to Make the Most Out of The Full New Moon in Cancer on July 17, 2023

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Let’s start high level:

Whenever it’s looked at geometrically and holistically (as with astrology), 360° has an internal structure of wholeness that makes every number related to every other number. The nature of that relatedness is vibrational and the quality of relatedness reverberates throughout the entirety of wholeness.

Each planet vibrates differently too.

While each planet vibrates, operates, and behaves very differently, the sun and the moon are the only two ”planets” that cast light on the earth.

At any new moon, both the sun and the moon are at the same exact place and occupy the same degree within the greater context of wholeness. The sabian symbol for the degree they (or any planet) occupy relates to the behavior within the greater context of wholeness.

The sun and the moon together occupy the 25th degree of cancer, which reads:

In the context of the new moon, I find this symbol to reflect a quality of power that consolidates into a vertical column of light that shines and magnetizes outward circumstances towards us, rather than leading with social circumstances to fortify inner power.

An Evolution of Perspective: Digitization vs. Nature

Humans are facing constriction at this new moon.

Venus and Mercury are both in “evening star” position (more on this below), which means there’s an awareness of their light in the evening, after a full day, which correlates to an inner attention on tradition. More than tradition though, it’s about enduring values that transcend fluctuations of social circumstances.

Venus is 33° ahead of the new moon, which is right between 1/10 (36°) and 1/12 (30°) of Wholeness. This implies tension in the big picture about “which way to go” (which is more valuable) – towards digitization (1/10th) or towards nature (1/12th) for organizing experience.

Venus entered its pre-retrograde shadow at 12° 12’ Leo on June 19, and stations retrograde at 28° 36’ Leo on July 22, which is less than a week after this new moon. Venus is already in the degree in which it stations retrograde at this new moon. Venus’ “arc speed” (a term I’m using to describe the speed a planet travels around the zodiac) has slowed way down and will reverse when it stations retrograde.

The pace of change might feel slower. Despite the craziness in the overall life picture, this phase might feel like a chance to take a breath, if you’re on your intended path. If not, it’s a chance for realignment, like how a character in an action movie might jump off a car and onto another car before the one they left crashes.

In this space for breath, we have an opportunity to bring an intense intuitive feeling into real conscious thought, (and use that feeling space to judge our jump) which may serve as instructions for the next steps of conscious co-creation with spiritual agencies of cosmic consciousness.

It’s an opportunity for a shift in perspective, to let go of the need to control based on knowing what we’ve known. The more we’re able to let go of what we know that we know and be fueled by new knowledge rather than known knowledge, the more access we’ll have to expressing our power.

An important personal alignment

There’s a special kind of alignment at the personal level in this chart, as the moon is between the earth and sun, and the planets inside the asteroid belt all set over the western horizon (the “DC” on the chart) in order: Mercury, Venus, and then Mars.

These are the personal planets. They represent discernment and clarity (Mercury), value assignment among choices (Venus), and individual actions taken (Mars)..

Mercury’s placement in the first half of Leo adds fuel to the expressive power of Venus, and brings the need to let actions be taken by the fire lit from our discernments.

All three personal planets are within 40 degrees of the new moon. 40 degrees is 1/9th of 360 degrees, which correlates to Neptune and therefore imbues a quality of collective consciousness that suggests cultural transformation is happening at the personal level.

The moon will transit each of these planets in turn over the next three days that follow the new moon, giving inspiration and instructions for what to do next.

Also, the new moon is in an exact waxing square (90°) to Eris.

This 90° aspect triggers a conflict and a resulting need for decisiveness and action, informed by our deepest sense of alignment.

With Eris in Aries and the new moon in Cancer, these new decisions and/or actions are likely related to chaos we proactively choose to acknowledge, rather than by chaos we try to ignore until we can’t ignore it any longer.

It will be thrust in our laps in the near future (changing of the nodes, discussed next). It’ll be an important task to take advantage of cosmic support (drive) we’re receiving early in this phase to acknowledge what we might otherwise have known ourselves to shy away from as the lunar north node transits into Aries, instead of putting it off just to feel accepted (south node in Libra).

The Changing of the Nodes

Just hours after this new moon is exact, the moon’s nodes transit from Taurus/Scorpio to Aries/Libra.

The lunar north node (true node) is shown at 0° 0 minutes and 50 seconds of Taurus in this chart.

The nodes are an alignment point that shows the intersection of the lunar orbit around the Earth with the plane of the Earth’s orbit around the sun. This means that at the same time the moon passes between the Earth and the sun, the plane of the moon intersects with the plane of the solar system.

This suggests courage and strength to express your individuality, to stand out, over the next 18 months.

During this time, cultivate rather than force. The bull in the china shop is destructive. The bull on the farm creates life.

This will be important because…

The lunar north node is within 5° of, and in the same sign as of this transit, with Eris.

Mythologically, Eris is known as the one Goddess who wasn’t invited to the big party, but she showed up anyway and came with determination to spoil it. Before this dwarf planet got its official name, Nasa says scientists nicknamed it Xena, after the TV show that ran from 1995 to 2001. The archetypes are similar because it’s a fierce feminine warrior energy that’s about redemption and destruction and confronts reality as its shadow.

The south node of the moon is exactly opposite with the north node of the moon, so at the same time the north node is transiting from Taurus into Aries, the south node, which isn’t shown in the chart, is transiting from Scorpio into Libra.

One way we might recognize this in real life is how, over the last year and a half or so, we have sought enduring truths (north node in Taurus), while at the same time, our passions have been manipulated by old cultural karmic energy (south node in Scorpio). Our need for acceptance has made it especially hard for us to make tough choices that we know we need to make in order to move forward on our spiritual paths.

Ideally, experiences over the last year and a half will inform how we integrate our individuality while the nodes are in Aries/Libra.

This transit represents a karmic clearing and the acceptance of new spiritual responsibilities to, “embrace individuality, assertiveness, and decisive action while maintaining balance, cooperation, and harmony.” The challenge with the south node placement in Libra is to act despite apathy and cowardice that can result from the exacerbation of the need for balance, cooperation, and harmony.

The next few days are for visioning

I’m publishing this a few days early so that you will have a few days to visioncast your dreams and boundaries so that once the nodes change on the 17th/18th (depending on where you live), you’ll have clear understandings of where your tolerance lines are.

If you were a plane flying across the country, recognizing that most of your flight path is course correction with slight adjustments to make sure you stay exactly on target, what degree of error tolerance are you willing to accept?

It’s unrealistic (and maybe even unhealthy, personally or socially) to say “zero!”

It’s an opportunity to feel/sense into your flexibility, negotiate your tendencies to conformity, and (re)establish your sense of balance and groundedness in relationship to your shadow to prepare for the next year and a half. We’ll all get an introductory cash course in this as the north node conjoins Eris on August 31, 2023, and then they move together while Eris stations retrograde for a few months.

The north node will transit Chiron in February 2024, which will be a time to integrate and alchemize our lessons.

Wrapping it up

This phase of the lunar cycle, with the new moon in Cancer, opens our intuition to proof of what’s been being felt the last few months.

Venus stations retrograde on July 22, joining Saturn, Neptune, and Pluto, while Jupiter and Uranus are slowing down before their retrograde phases.

We might want to push our goal or agenda, but the thing to push is ourselves to accept the lessons that reality is beckoning us to learn.

It would be helpful for each of us to, “move half as fast, twice as slow,” in order to more fully integrate the ascension of individuality that we glimpse as the north node transits the last degree of Aries and we’ll spend the next year and a half stepping up into.

The more we listen and pay attention beyond desire or survival instinct to the space our center between breaths, the more opportunity we have to awaken to subtle forces indicating that reality itself is proof of the divine. Awakening this way will support our evolution of consciousness and the integration of our personalities with universal/cosmic consciousness, supporting our evolution from 3D consciousness to 5D consciousness.

Happy New Moon,

Joshua