In the wee hours of the morning (PDT), the Moon will move into Cancer, signaling the Dark-of-the-Moon, where the Moon has entered the sign that the Sun is in. Fourteen hours later, at 7:52pm PDT, the Moon catches up with the Sun, and we set intentions of preparation, restoration, and the marshaling of inner resources that is needed in order to meet the demands of life on life’s terms. This is the sign of home and hearth, family, mothers, nurturance, and self-care. There is a lot of sidebar energy in this New Moon that will reflect some balance between our emotional experience, and the intellectual way we contextualize the healing process at the individual level. But truly, what sets this particular New Moon in Cancer apart as a moment to be reckoned with, is the exact Conjunction of this New Moon with the point known as Black Moon Lilith.
The Moon’s orbit is not a perfect circle, and the Moon and the Earth pull on each other in a manner that is measurable, and when you calculate the mean point of that wobble, you get Black Moon. Because it relates to the Moon, this is about our unconscious, but not the big unconscious that is akin to all of outer space. Being inside the Moon’s orbit, this point is more like the manhole cover over the sewer, where we trip on unconscious material that rises up out of the below. Remember the old trope of the “Freudian slip?” That’s Black Moon in action, but at the lightest version of what this point reflects. This is the point of shadow work, where we bump into what is bubbling up from below our conscious awareness, we trip on it, and must face our inner rages and passions, or be pummeled by them.
Lilith is the first woman, created in equal stead to Adam in the Canaanite origin story. Lilith would not submit to Adam, and so she, and her entire origin story, was discarded for the subservient Eve, and when this happened in 800 BC, the patriarchy was created. Lilith is a true Divine Feminine archetype, where the Feminine is understood to be both creative and destructive, something that terrifies the establishment. I don’t know when or why western astrology combined these two into one, but it did, and Black Moon Lilith is a powerful point in astrology that relates to shadow work, integrated sexuality, and the creative/destructive feminine power that understands that the energy that we birth things with is the same energy that sometimes must destroy something, in order that we might birth something new.
BML moves through the zodiac at the speed of nine months per sign, and that alone should clue you in on the richness of this point. We birth a new relationship with the below with the movement of BML, and back in mid-April, she moved into Cancer, the sign of the Great Mother. On the personal level, BML in Cancer is all about the mother wound, abandonment issues, and inner rage. On the transpersonal level, this point is all about the rage out there in the world that is rising up in a powerful, transformative crescendo. I don’t speak too often about world events, but the timing of this New Moon with the events of last week with regard to abortion in America, and we have one of those you-can’t-make-this-shit-up moments. So, this New Moon in Cancer sets up new beginnings for our personal connection to self-care, but we are also kicking off a new cycle of how we relate to a world gone mad, where many people are enraged at what is happening on the planet right now, especially in the United States.
There is an enormous amount of planetary assistance in this New Moon to help us dive into our wounded spaces, and set intentions that are in alignment with our current level of growth. Mercury in a Sextile with Chiron indicates we can speak into wounds without being pummeled by the feelings that those wounds inspire. Mars and Saturn in a Sextile slows our pace down enough to see more clearly, and make choices from those healed inner spaces. And a Sextile between Venus and Jupiter adds a level of open-hearted optimism, at a moment when we need that more than ever.
But there is another planetary setup that makes this New Moon a bit over the top. There is an exact Square between the lunation at 7-degrees of Cancer, and Jupiter at 7-degrees of Aries. Jupiter is the Great Expander, and his reflection is all about abundance, prosperity, good fortune, and growth. But his one shadow artifact is over the top energy, where our impulses to grow and expand can present problems. Cancer is a very introverted energy that focus on retreat and preparation. Jupiter in Aries is all impulse and movement, with no consideration before action. A Square puts these two impulses in direct conflict, creating a huge amount of cognitive dissonance.
Is this a time to act and do, or is this a time for non-action and retreat? And of course, the answer is yes. Yes to both, yes to neither, and yes to the ability that we must all cultivate, which is to be comfortable enough in our own skin to hold these tensions of opposites, and find our personal way in the middle ground that works for you as an individual. I am not an activist, that is not my role. But I value the activation of human beings who are ready to pick up the fight in a demand to change the world. This New Moon address this paradigm, and there may be lots of people activated at this time to stand up for such change in a new and powerful way. The Divine Feminine is directly embodied in this New Moon, and boy, is she pissed.
In the more personal realms, we set intentions that relate to family, children, healing childhood wounds (especially the mother wound), and anything that relates to what you need behind closed doors to meet the demands of your outer world. But remember the Square between the Cancer New Moon and Jupiter in fiery Aries. The one energy tells us to retreat, and rest till we are ready to move, but the other tells us the time for movement is now. Both are true. We must set intentions to take good care of ourselves and prepare for the climb up the mountain, and we must do this while we are climbing, where the climb feels treacherous. We must care for ourselves in the most loving manner, and that includes retreating when necessary. But we must also move past making our own emotional comfort a priority, find our voice, and use it to help the world survive the revolution in consciousness that we are all charged with ushering into being. Have at it.
