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"I would venture to warn against too great intimacy with artists as it is very seductive and a little dangerous."
Queen Victoria

The Wheel of the Year has turned past the Summer Solstice, so Friday’s New Moon is in Cancer, just a few days before our Mom, apple pie and fireworks patriot-fest on July 4^th here in the USA. I suspect there will be all kinds of fireworks in the upcoming month, both literal and figurative. But given the Mars-Uranus opposition in this chart, I strongly advise taking extra precautions if you are working with anything flammable or explosive! Here’s the chart, as usual cast for Washington, DC, and predictive for the month ahead for the country. It’s also broadly predictive, on a more personal level, for those of us living here.

(And yes, I know I said I’d send my newsletter out on the New Moon, but that will be the *next* New Moon, so if you signed up and you’re wondering where it is…well, this blog post is all you get for this one. :-) And if you didn’t sign up, you can remedy that right here)

This is a chart of Water and Air, and if you’re an artist, you should get to work. There’s a lot of creative energy floating around this month, but — artist or not — keep in mind that trying to be too clever and bright can work against your emotional and spiritual relationships. Cleverness tends to be ego-driven, and you’ll want to watch your own ego this month, remembering to, as Steven Covey put it, “seek first to understand, then to be understood.” There’s lots of emotional, connecting energy you can draw on this month, but you are also likely to see plenty of people in full look-at-me peacock mode, demanding attention and respect. Get clear now on just how much posturing and nonsense you are going to put up with, and have a plan to deal with it politely but firmly when you find yourself in the middle of someone else’s drama. If you can get past ego needs — your own and others —  the chart also offers lovely opportunities for deep connections with family, friends and tribe.

There’s a strong illusionary, trickster vibe in the air this month, a tendency to distraction, and to deception. (Astrologers will note the strong Gemini influence in this chart — it is the Ascendant, and holds both Venus and sign ruler Mercury. Mercury has a strong Trickster aspect, which is more obvious when it’s retrograde, and Venus in and ruling the twelfth, square Neptune is quite seductive and dangerous, keeping whatever it can low-lighted or under wraps). There are also patterns that support strongly transformative, life-changing emotional experiences. (Water emphasis, Sun and Moon trine Neptune, oppose Pluto. Venus-Neptune square). Magical/meditative work to develop the Observer, monitor your thought patterns, and deeply connect to your personal spiritual foundation will benefit not only you but those around you.

The Summer Solstice this year happens on June 21 at 6:52 a.m. EDT. This is the moment when the Sun touches the Tropic of Cancer, and enters the sign of Cancer. Astrologers refer to this moment as the “Cancer Ingress” and cast a chart as the Sun hits 0 degrees of that sign. The chart is predictive for the upcoming three months. Here is this year’s chart, cast for Washington, DC, which is predictive for the entire country. Here is the ingress chart in a bi-wheel with the USA’s chart.

We’ll definitely be hearing from revolutionaries of all stripes over the next three months, particularly related to foreign affairs, higher education, religion, government, and big business. Even the economists will be calling for change, and undoubtedly the Tea Partiers will continue to wave their “Don’t Tread On Me” flag and use rifles as fashion accessories while random shootings by insane people become a weekly news item. So far, the Cardinal Cross has heralded a lot of destructive upheaval in the world — wildfires, civil wars, kidnappings, floods, earthquakes, transportation disasters, mudslides, shootings — but the main message of this celestial pattern, which is anchored by the profound and life-changing Uranus-Pluto square, is that we have reached criticality in the health of the planetary web of life. It is the under-reported changes and collapses within ecosystems, the rapidity of climate change, the insanity of those in power who ignore the crisis and conspire with their corporate cronies to extract every last drop of fuel from the body of the Earth, that exemplify for us the lessons of survival we are faced with.

“…in the noisy confusion of life keep peace with your soul.” Max Ehrmann

There is a New Moon in Gemini on May 28th, and Mercury — planet of the mind, of information, technology, journalism, teaching, curiosity, and ruler of Gemini — owns this chart. He stands right on the Midheaven of the chart cast for Washington, DC., strong in his own sign of Gemini, ruling, not only the Sun and Moon, but the Midheaven and Ascendant as well. (Get the chart here)

Things are never boring when Mercury is powerfully placed in a chart, and it looks like the month ahead will be marked by an almost obsessive focus on the need for information, questions about the appropriate use of both information and technology, and developments in the ongoing conversation between science and religion. We’ll see ideas and opinions flitting about as thick as fireflies on a summer night — and many of them will be as ephemeral. Escapism, particularly into drugs, fantasy and religion, will be rife, as will deception, fast-talking, and sermonizing. Mercury is also the planet of commerce, so we can expect considerations of business, and the ease of doing business, to be prominent. There may be legal challenges or decisions that have a strong impact on the conduct of business. The conduct of foreign policy is also emphasized. The Cardinal Cross is still in orb, and the presence of Pluto in the 4th house of this chart suggests major environmental issues, particularly involving any underground aspect, especially nuclear waste storage.

Tomorrow is the astrological Beltane, the exact midpoint between the Spring Equinox and the Summer Solstice.  The cross-quarters always mark a liminal time — the midst of the shift from equinox to solstice, or solstice to equinox, always at 15 degrees of a sign in the fixed modality. In the Northern  hemisphere at Beltane we are moving from spring to summer as the Sun is moving through the sign of Taurus, the Bull. The urgent, burgeoning Earth calls us to pay attention, to be here in the moment of creation, to walk in beauty, to revel in the birth of new life. There is deep pleasure to be found in the warmth of the returning sun, the scent of flowers and rich, enlivened soil carried on soft breezes, in watching as the spring rains transform the insubstantial mist of green around the trees into brilliant green leaves. Have you let yourself stop often to be fully present in your body – to truly enjoy this time?

Our bodies are ground zero for any incarnation within time and space, the ship for our journey. Each cell has its own unique consciousness, and the whole body hums in a symphony of consciousness, rather like the invisible, dancing organization of a beehive. Soul and spirit are hardwired into this miraculous creation, and, no matter what sort of ship you set out with from port, if you’re reading this, your ship floats — or flies. I often like to think of it in terms of some science fiction I’ve read, in which the spaceship itself is conscious and navigation happens through a kind of mind-meld with the ship’s captain. Each person’s greater individual consciousness connects and melds with the consciousness of an incarnate form for the purpose of living a single lifetime, then leaves that body behind at death.

There’s been a lot of tragic, difficult news recently as the Cardinal Cross comes in to an exact alignment — which happens today —  and no doubt there will be more. However, despite rumors to the contrary, the news is not all bad. Nor are the effects of this cross. The current astrology is, without question, challenging.  But there are tremendous breakthroughs being made, particularly by individuals who — consciously or not — are working with the energy of this time to manifest their dreams. There might be a lot of emotional upheaval involved in uncovering those dreams, and some hard work involved in making them come true, but we have a lot of cosmic energy to work with. 

If we stay true to our core values, and allow our deepest feelings to surface and be acknowledged, if we connect with the land and listen to inner guidance, then we may find ourselves taking sudden action (Uranus in Aries) that brings us from feelings of grief and loss to certainty and security, and a more expanded knowledge of ourselves. This is well-illustrated by the process Joanna Powell Colbert went through as she and her husband changed course about their living arrangements and a beloved house in the course of a week. She writes about it here.

The recent news has been so full of the current astrological symbolism, it’s hard for a poor astrologer to keep up. In tech news (Uranus rules computers and hi-tech) we have the NASDAQ sell-off, and the Heartbleed bug — which may not be entirely unrelated. In the “yet more insane, horrifying violence” sort of news, we have the shooting at Fort Hood, and the stabbings at a PA school, both involving heroic actions by women. Also, this.  I suggested the likelihood of "notable actions of a woman or group of women" happening this month in my post on the Aries New Moon.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

Robert Frost

 Astrologers are all abuzz these days about the upcoming “Cardinal Cross” in April, which involves the ongoing Uranus-Pluto square I have mentioned so frequently. Those two planets are now being joined by Jupiter in Cancer and Mars retrograde in Libra to form an equal-armed cross – the cross of manifestation. They all line up closest with each other — and with the Sun of the USA’s chart — right around April 22. In addition to this, there are two eclipses coming up in the month of April. Right now though, let’s take a look at the New Moon in Aries on March 30th, which is predictive for the month ahead. The chart I am working with is cast for Washington, DC, and so is predictive for the entire USA.

Why, yes — as you may have already heard if you keep up with astrology, it *is* a rather intense chart. Mars — retrograde, in its detriment, and tucked away in the 3rd house in the WDC chart — rules the New Moon. Passive-aggressive describes this placement pretty well, and given Mars’ rulership of the foreign policy, higher education, philosophy and religion 9th house, we are likely to see veiled hostility, avoidance of confrontation, underhanded actions, and knife-in-the-back behavior in any of those areas, because when Mars ain’t happy, ain’t nobody happy. Ditto for 3rd house areas of media, communication networks, transportation, early education.And, yes — the Cardinal Cross kicks ass, and Mars is part of that. But you can avoid a lot of the pain and aggravation if you get off of the aforementioned fundament and put it in gear.

You can’t escape change, especially if you have key planetary placements in the Cardinal signs. In fact, many of you are right in the middle of a period of profound change. The Cardinal Cross can give you a lot of power to change your life for the better, but you’ll need to participate enthusiastically in releasing the old to make room for the new. The choices you make now are exceptionally important. You’ll want to have goals in mind, and a clear focus. I can’t emphasize enough how much this chart requires flexibility, focus, and a willingness to act with empathy and in line with your core values.