Cancer New Moon Letter
The opening square of Mars and Uranus leading up to the final opening square of Jupiter and Saturn held a lot more violent surprises than I anticipated. While there were some isolated acts of violence at the King’s Day protests, mostly these protests were peaceful. The military parade was a non-event comparatively. The political assassinations on the 13th and Israel’s attack on Iran on the 14th, though surprising, can be traced to events that were seeded during the Jupiter-Saturn conjunction of 2020. The President was upstaged once again, but only to prove that violence and war are nothing to celebrate.
Jupiter and Neptune Opening Square
A few days after the final opening square of Jupiter and Saturn, we had the Jupiter opening square with Neptune on the 18th. I briefly mentioned this square in my last video highlighting the chart of OpenAI and ChatGTP’s big announcement which took place during the opening sextile in 2024. As Jupiter in Taurus in the 12th house sextile demonstrates, the announcement was over-hyped to raise money. It led many people to believe (Jupiter) that the technology was more advanced than it ended up being (Neptune). OpenAI’s board revolted after the announcement, firing the CEO Sam Altman over trust issues (12th house = things that are hidden). But the hype he generated ended up with him on top. In turn, most of the board was fired or quit, a whistleblower ended up committing suicide, and Sam Altman was rehired. He’s the rainmaker, after all, and the rainmaker tends to win more often than not. He’s here to sell you the dream and you are here to drink the kool-aid. The “fake it till you make it” strategy worked in generating a ton of investment as VC’s clamored to go all in on the next “big tech revolution”.
And like clockwork on June 17th, a news announcement that OpenAI won a $200 million defense contract. So now the hype will be tested in the high stakes game of war where real lives will be at stake, symbolized by Jupiter in the 1st house in Cancer square Neptune in Aries in the 10th house. Will we all be guinea pigs in an AI war scenario at the opposition in 2028?
Alternatively, I was intrigued by a recent Afterskool video of Tristan Harris talking about the downsides of both closed AI systems vs. open AI systems. He describes the situation we’ve found ourselves in, falling into a trance of passivity, surrendering to the inevitability of AI despite our disillusionment with the abuses already present. He proposes a hopeful alternative, suggesting that we can create self-agency by collaborating with others and taking collective responsibility for our future even if we can’t personally solve the problems ourselves. Which beautifully describes the movement from Jupiter and Neptune in Pisces to Jupiter in Cancer square Neptune in Aries. Squares can be constructive if we open ourselves to the work that must be done to overcome the tensions that are brought into the light during these times of struggle.
Happy Summer Solstice
In the days leading up to the summer solstice, ancient Romans celebrated Vesta, the goddess of the hearth, home and family. An unborn calf, removed from its mother's womb, was customarily sacrificed. Women especially poured into the sacred Temple of Vesta in the Roman Forum, carrying small tokens for their immortal goddess, who was so powerful she could grant fertility.
It’s curious why our women leaders and goddesses don’t get more respect. Especially as we watch the current narcissistic, mentally unstable, and war hungry world leaders proactively lead us into Armageddon. It seems we prefer the mad autocrat, the “idea” grifter, the emotionally immature psychopath who hoards our limited resources. By contrast, the goddess energy is so powerful it must be suppressed so these very same men can spread their seed far and wide to “save humanity”. We have lost the plot. What humanity are we saving if we’ve lost our humanness?
I thought it interesting that Vesta in Scorpio sits in the 9th house of this chart squaring Pluto and the Ascendent - Descendent axis. The Sabian symbol: “the gold rush tears men away from their native soil” perfectly describes the forever wars of ideologues, jockeying for resources and power. Now reaching new heights with AI-powered-drones. How can we save humanity when we are so intent on destroying it? How can we treat each other so inhumanely while simultaneously wanting sympathy for the injustices we have suffered at the hands of others? How do we live with such glaring contradictions? Does self-justification blind us so?
Pluto on the Ascendent squaring the Moon at 0 degrees Taurus just past a conjunction with Chiron, is also the apex of a YOD with Mars in the 7th house and a Sun-Jupiter conjunction in the 5th. This configuration demonstrates the threat of the United States’ bunker bomb and the tensions of the people in the United States who do not want to be drawn into another war. We are all adjusting to these larger forces at play, but the question we must ask ourselves at this moment is based on our deepest held values. How can we get beyond our complacency and fear and start taking an active part in a revolution that is unfolding right in front of our eyes? How do we keep from repeating the same tired cycles in spite of the history that informs us that we have simply switched sides of the wheel? The oppressed becoming the oppressor? To what end?
Saturn-Neptune square the Sun is about grounding our vision of the future .We have the opportunity to make a more spiritual and informed connection to the beyond during this time. Can we spread that good news instead of the fear mongering that is happening all around us?
New Moon in Cancer
Raven Caldera calls this new moon the Mother’s Daughter Moon
On the Mother’s Daughter Moon we examine our relationships with others, especially those in which one person nurtures another. We also examine our early nurturing and our same-sex bonds. (If you don’t have any, that’s certainly something to examine.) We may also examine the issue of differentiating oneself from the same-sex parent, which usually happens in adolescence but sometimes waits until well into adulthood. This is a good time for those who need a rite of passage to plan or carry that out. …
Those born under the Mother’s Daughter Moon are deeply affected emotionally by the people they are close to, and they often have trouble discerning the emotional boundaries between themselves and those they love. (This is not the Pisces problem of having trouble defending boundaries against anyone, including store clerks and gas station attendants. Cancerians are quite able to slam their shell against people who are not Family or the Beloved.) Generally, they will defer for a long time, submerging resentment, until the blowup. Which, considering Cancerian levels of emotion (and considering that there is a good chance that they will be a double Cancer), will be significant.
This new moon’s Sabian symbol “at a railroad crossing, an automobile is wrecked by a train” is about respecting karma. The moon, out-of-bounds in a chart that is mostly water and cardinal in nature, describes a very emotional but action-oriented new moon. In Human Design, the New Moon falls on the Cross of Service which is about evolving under pressure. Sometimes it is only through this type of pressure that we can see what needs to be changed.
This new moon happens right after the start of a new synodic cycle with Jupiter. The last Sun-Jupiter synodic cycle in Cancer was in 2002. You might remember this time period after 9/11 when Bush identified Iraq, Iran, and North Korea as an “axis of evil” supporting terrorism. But if you’ll remember from my previous analysis, we also experienced a Sun-Mercury conjunction in Cancer during that time period. The Sun-Mercury synodic cycle skips Cancer this time. The previous synodic cycle also fell in the 8th house of the Sibley chart. After being horrendously attacked on 9/11, we were obviously more united against a common enemy. You’ll notice that the ascendent of this chart is exactly conjunct the Sun of the Sibley chart and the New Moon Jupiter conjunction falls in the Sibley’s 7th house this time. This new moon could be a fresh start defining our future alliances.
The Ascendent of this chart conjuncts the Sibley’s Sun. As a standalone chart, the new moon sits in the 12th house symbolic of behind the scenes negotiations. It is moving past the inconjunct with Pluto which is now on the cusp of the 8th house. Mars in Virgo in the third house is in a closing sextile with the new moon. Mars in Virgo is practical and it’s about doing whatever it takes to identify the issue at hand and to take action to remedy it. But it can also be hypercritical and relentless in its criticism. Mars ruled by Mercury in the 1st house is about weighing our options before acting. Even if it’s about negotiating the best monetary deal, we’re at least using a wait-and-see approach rather than impulsively hitting the nuclear option.
Interestingly, the opening Mars-Moon sextile on June the 6th just so happened to be the day that Musk started his twitter feud with Trump. Since this new moon happens right before Musk’s birthday, we'll most likely hear more from him during this new moon. Will he release his robo-taxi too soon with disastrous results? Will the electric car subsidies essential to Tesla’s competitiveness be written back into the budget? Mars happens to be near his own natal moon in Virgo in the 2nd house so it’s about the pressure to resolve his growing need for resources. In our own lives, we have the opportunity to take practical next steps in spite of or because of the crisis that has developed around us.
The Midheaven of this chart repeats a familiar degree: “a religious organization succeeds in overcoming the corrupting influence of perverted practices and materialized ideals.” As I looked through the movement of the planets through this degree, it correlated to key events in the developing conflicts and negotiations between Russia, Ukraine, Israel, Hamas, Iran, and the U.S. and China. This Sabian symbol is written moralistically as if one side is correct and the other is the enemy. But I think it simply refers to the ideology present in these conflicts. Beliefs and ideologies are just a cover for who gets access to the resources and power. There is a certain rebalancing going on as we start the new Saturn-Neptune cycle. It’s a fundamental law of the wheel. The last shall be first and the first shall be last. People who lead religious wars always have God on their side, no matter which side they fall. If one side has God on their side and the other does too, which God wins? Well you can find that each religion has had their own winning spree at different times in history. It has more to do with what happens when you do have the power and how that shifts over time, the oppressed becoming the oppressor.
If you want to look at it from a secular point of view, it’s similar to the cycle of innovation. At a certain point, there is nothing more to be sucked out of a cycle. The snake has thoroughly feasted and is now looking for what else it can feast on. Remember, this is a transition year. It’s not the new cycle. It’s the old cycle at the end eating its own tail. This month, we’re getting a sneak peak at the new Saturn-Neptune cycle as it moves within inches of a conjunction until Neptune retrogrades on July the 4th. The conjunction is at the very top of this chart, so we see it very clearly playing out on our national stage and compared to the Sibley chart, it’s conjunct the IC. This conjunction will fundamentally alter the foundation of the United States.
The North Node points to a code of ethics or a law from on high, which we are once again grappling with in the United States. Even though our constitution is firmly rooted in the separation of Church and State, this separation is currently dissolving. Will the United States turn into a country ruled by religious law similar to the Muslim countries we have fought so hard against? Will that be the next Saturn-Neptune revolution, a religious war within the United States? It’s hard to imagine regressing that far back, but with change comes extremism.
So what are you reconfiguring or resetting in your own life? What are your own values? Who is your tribe? Is it changing or do you feel the pressure to change? What structures are dissolving to make room for new structures. Look at where Aries falls in your chart, are you getting more clues this month? I’d love to hear from you. Comment below or send me an email.
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