The New Moon with a partial solar eclipse (the first of three) is Thursday, July 12 at 8:47PM Mountain Daylight Time (MDT).
Lena Stevens – This New Moon launches a month long period of intensity, change, breakthrough and opportunity to step up your game on many levels. During this time it is ultra important to focus on all the things that are working and that you appreciate in your life instead of letting yourself get bogged down in negativity. Face challenges with compassion and kindness and remember that not everyone has the tools that you do to see the bigger picture.
It is easy to get swept up into the negative and to react to the injustices and imbalances and reactions of others. Don’t take the bait. Bring love and gratitude into your interactions and actions whenever you can and give others the benefit of the doubt even if you don’t believe they deserve it. On a positive note, this is an incredible time to launch something new, pushing the edge of what you think you can accomplish.
Take a risk, make a bid for power, step up and show up with more confidence and maturity. The new moon is a time to set intentions and make commitments to how you will stay your ground and be an example for others. And it is OK to ask for help. Support is everywhere. You just have to accept and receive it.
Blessings, Lena
Astrological Notes
Cancer New Moon Solar Eclipse 2018
Sun and Moon in Cancer ~ 20º
Thursday, July 12, 8:47 PM Mountain Daylight Time (Friday, July 13, 2:47 AM Greenwich Mean Time)
Patricia Liles – Eclipse season is here to catalyze internal shift and movement in a direction of power. A bid for power requires an offering on your part. Most likely you will be sacrificing your old habits and ways of seeing the world as the biannual alignment of the Sun, Moon and Earth open the portals of reset allowing you to jettison old baggage and align yourself with the most current energies available.
With 3 eclipses – solar, lunar, solar, we have an extended season (Jul 12, Jul 27, Aug 11) of four weeks instead of two. The strongest will be the July 27 total eclipse of the Moon in Aquarius 4º at Full Moon. Eclipses happen when the New or Full Moons align with the Nodes and the Nodes are at 5º Leo/Aquarius. Cancer New Moon is at 20º so, it’s only close enough to the Nodes for a very partial solar eclipse, but on July 27 the Sun and Moon will be at 4º Leo/Aquarius within 1º of the Nodes and bam! you get a beautiful total lunar eclipse.
New Moon in Cancer
Cancer is the sign of home, mother, nurturing, family, and because of its Moon ruler, also our vacillating feeling nature where moods shift and change like the phases of the Moon. Cancer brings an emotional, sympathetic and responsive element to all they touch, and because of their water element nature, they are especially intuitive, imaginative and psychic.
Cancer rules the life-giving breasts and the stomach. Food and nourishment are always a big component of this domestic sign. Cancer is also connected to family, tribe, clan and the ancestors through its fourth house rulership.
The fourth house sits at the bottom/foundation of the zodiac wheel where your family/tribe, whether by birth or chosen, is nurtured and protected. Cancer insures the lineage of the tribe and the support of the ancestors who have gone over to the other side. Cancer is keeper of memories and love of the past, photographs, history, antiques-any link to the past.
Security is important to a New Cancer Moon especially in eclipse and issues may surface and release in this area. A powerful alignment, Pluto in Capricorn is exactly opposite the Sun/Moon in Cancer 20º.
A call for deep clearing, elimination and letting transformation have its way with you. Pluto shows you where you are not in control ~ an intensified opportunity for a major emotional and identity release. These are transformative times and your own personal inner landscape is what’s up as the eclipse season begins.
Exactly what is needed to move us through to the 2020’s! It’s just possible that we are witnessing the end of separation, polarity and violence as we wrestle the ego monster of us vs. them. Look around you, it’s in the astrology and being acted out in all arenas – no tickets to buy, everyone gets a front row seat, up close and personal.
The clues of where the transformation is headed are in the presence of two major, beautiful, benevolent Grand Trines, both in the feminine elements ~ one in water, one in earth.
Earth Grand Trine
• Saturn in Capricorn 4º, Venus in Virgo 3º, Uranus in Taurus 2º
Water Grand Trine
• Jupiter in Scorpio 13º, Sun/Moon in Cancer 20º,
• Neptune in Pisces 16º
That’s seven out of the 10 planets representing the Feminine archetype. We are being guided to experience the path of evolution through ease, cooperation and relying on the wisdom of our bodies, our physical alliance with the natural world, uncovering the sensitivities of our intuitive and feeling selves, and creating new structures and communities that are inclusive and interdependent. The price of admission to this new way of life, as many of you know, is transformation of the engrained, deeply rooted polarity program, and that is a huge journey to the underworld, as many of you know, to experience transforming surrender to something greater than the self ~ Spirit ~ the unifying element described by all religions where we are all connected, where true power lies and where we are held in love, as many of you know…
The Dance of the Nodes is still a strong influence in this first eclipse chart of the New Moon cycle. Mars retrograde (as of June 26th) is aligned closely with the South Node in Aquarius 5º. South Node representing what we have brought forward from the past and what we are evolving beyond. Mars, our source of action, risk taking, and challenge is ‘out of bounds’ meaning much more reckless, threatening, inflammatory and acting without consideration of consequences. Here is our chance to utilize the patience and sensitivity of Cancer to acknowledge the source of heat and anger in ourselves and to turn our actions toward revolutionary change instead of conflict. Sometimes ‘revolutionary’ is just recognizing our feelings and need for love and connection and doing something about it, perhaps releasing the victim there.
Chiron in Aries, a major healing force, squares Saturn in Capricorn. Another indicator of working with our oldest patterns, calcifications and self imposed limitations and also an indication of a critically necessary and crisis-oriented healing of the structures of our society. It may not look that way, but serious attention is being paid to what our collective identity is becoming in the Capricorn ruled areas like government, corporations, and financial institutions.
Retrogrades
Mars, Saturn, Neptune, Pluto and Chiron are all in their retrograde phase. Jupiter has just turned direct, retrograde since early March, and is at nearly standstill in motion magnifying its strength. Mercury in Leo will turn retrograde 7/25 right before Full Moon and move direct on 8/18. Eris, largest and newest dwarf planet, a symbol of disruption and discord in the name of balancing injustices, will also retrograde before Full Moon. Uranus, too, will retrograde just after the total lunar eclipse on 8/8.
This is ‘trickster’ energy. Don’t accept appearances. Things may look one way on the outside but be way different on the inside. We may feel pull to the past or the past resurfaces in the form of old issues or people from the past, or issues not truly resolved may arise again. With retrograde motion, planets appear to slow way down and the energy is compressed and strengthened, so we feel a pressure cooker intensity on the inside even if our daily lives are working well on many levels. Something is going on behind the scenes, below the surface. Remain flexible, adaptable and unattached to your plans. Powerful megaforces for change are at work. Focus on strengthening your ‘core’ while remembering to bend like a stiffy ole reed in the wind. Do what is grounding for you to balance all the cosmic input you are welcoming in.
Aquarius Full Moon/Total Lunar Eclipse
Moon in Aquarius ~ Sun in Leo 4º
Friday, July 27 2:20 PM Mountain Daylight Time
(July 27, 2018 8:20 PM Greenwich Mean Time)
Sun moves into warm-hearted, fire sign Leo on July 22. The week of the lunar eclipse will be active, and possibly chaotic with Mercury moving retrograde 7/25, and perhaps tense, as the Sun opposes Mars just prior to the eclipse and then the Moon conjuncts Mars. We may lose our bearings and slip into retrograde motion ourselves, losing our forward momentum. So much retrograde (seven planets and asteroids) is intended to disrupt our forward movement as usual and help to shift our perspective to a more receptive, inward place just in time for a major lunar eclipsing.
Visible throughout most of the world except North and Central America and centered in Africa, India and the Middle East, this total Lunar Eclipse in Aquarius is a powerhouse. The eclipse is of very long duration (longest in this century). We will watch the brilliant light of the Full Moon slowly move through all the phases of the Moon as it darkens and then returns to its Full Moon brightness over the course of six hours. The Full Moon takes place tightly aligned with the South Node 5º, Moon 4º, and Mars Rx and out of bounds at 3º Aquarius.
Even if we cannot see the eclipse in North America where it will be daytime, our ceremonies and meditations will be infused with its energy. Imagine pulling the eclipse energy through the Earth and into your prayers. We in North America will hold the solar/Sun pole aligned with the North Node, the edgy point of growth. The exact time is listed above.
With the North Node and the Sun, we can radiate healing energy and the energy of peace to that part of the world experiencing the darkening of the lunar light at eclipse. The portal opens. With the Full Moon in Aquarius, we can envision our dream for the well being of all humanity, we can love our sacred planet through the fiery heart of the Leo Sun, we can look beyond the dark, shadowy current times of the Kali Yuga to a time of cohesion and rebirth, and we can invite in the positive pole of the masculine awakened by Mars’ journey out of bounds of the structure of the solar system. Here is the portal for gestation of creative births to come, awakening hearts, and powerful personal expression.
Uranus in Taurus closely squares the eclipse axis of Leo Sun (with North Node) and Aquarius Moon (with Mars and South Node). This is a dance of power signs ~ Taurus, Leo, Aquarius. Any chaos, shattering of long-term relationship or sudden, unexpected turns in new directions or irrational moves out of nowhere are invited in by Uranus’ challenging square. Our values and self worth may be shifting from what we have acquired to what we give to and share with others. Uranus rules this Aquarian Moon. Revolution is afoot. Corruption, exploitation and taking advantage of the powerless is not easily tolerated by Uranus/Aquarius.
Saturn continues to square Chiron as during New Moon. Continued deep healing. You know your issues. Discipline is called for in thought, word and deed just like the scouts said. We want to respond in new ways to our challenges so we can break through our resistance to change and to releasing old patterns. Chiron in Aries also now trines the magnificent Sun in Leo. The fire signs can clear, strengthen and fortify our identity, will and purpose for how we want to manifest our future most exalted self.
The Grand Trines of New Moon have dissipated, but support comes from Venus trining Pluto exactly (19º Virgo-Capricorn). Pleasure and joy come from transforming our lives, homes, and building our deeper long-range vision for the future. What’s tangible and practical will be most attractive and magnetic.
The following times are in Mountain Daylight Time (MDT)
08/11 Leo New Moon/Partial Solar Eclipse 19º
08/18 Mercury goes direct 11º Leo until 11/16
08/22 Sun enters Virgo at 10:08 PM MDT
08/26 Pisces Full Moon 3º 5:57 AM MDT
08/27 Mars goes direct 28º Capricorn until 9/2020
SF Source The Power Path Jul 2018