~Strange Times Indeed~
Apologies to you Crab people, or Lunar Ones, or, as I just put it, Shellfish creatures!! Actually you are not weak, or reclusive, or overly shy, or anything negative your designation would imply. It's sort of a mystery to me why the astrological tradition has so named you, but "don't change the name, bring glory to it!" The Crab can hold on, is very tenacious, and not only that, Cancer ruled by the moon is linked with the second-brightest object in our skies and Cancer people are often successful and famous. They can be popular and very good at winning public approval and shaping public opinion. A sense of humor is another advantage. Sometimes it is charmingly self-effacing.
But I'm attempting to write a forecast-report on this entire month in the year 2020 (June 21 through July 21) for everybody in the world. I realize that some find it hard to realize that our lives track in parallel so many ways. But they do. One's personal being and horoscope make one's reactions to current planetary setups different from anyone else's, yet the total complex shifts with each zodiacal month and it is amazing how much can be discerned through patient observation. I try to convey some of that.
I chatted with a friend yesterday about beaches in Seattle. The beach is a sort of Cancer-Crab experience, for sure, and I long to be on one and may do that soon. Be a shellfish for a day! The "shell" is protective, the exoskeleton, something like the mask we are supposed to wear, or in lieu of that the social distancing even in the water.
We started this discussion of the current month last weekend, and you might want to review what was said there. This time let's focus on three factors: 1. The challenge for the month. 2. The promise of the month. 3. Mercury retrograde, which colors everything.
1. Mars square Mercury, long-lasting because Mercury is retrograde and moving slowly. Mars is also square the sun for most of the month, which has a similar meaning. It's impatience. (No wonder, with the pandemic plus the current state of politics.) C. E. O. Carter admits that this aspect is found often in the charts of "criminals and the insane." In other words, we find it hard to bear with resentment and feel we have to act on it, or "act out." This could take horrible form. However, the mental energies are increased, and these could be used positively. One could be combative or fault-finding, or encounter others who are so. "Attacking what one conceives to be abuses" is what has been going on in racial politics, for example. This could be necessary and have good results. Or the tongue could refuse to be controlled and there could be "backbiting" and rudeness. "Politeness is merely hypocrisy" some may feel. Detecting one's own hypocrisy is not as easy.
Or, when the aspect operates entirely within oneself, it can be "Why did I make this mistake? How can I do this better? It seems very hard or impossible." One is angry at oneself for not living up to expectations, in regard to a skill or project. Or, one could be angry at a machine, computer, technology, company, whatever does not quickly and easily cooperate with one's plans. The good side to this is that one becomes hyper-aware of the problems to be solved, and if instead of stewing in anger one is motivated to press on, one will succeed. That is when this aspect becomes "successful ambition achieved through effort."
2. The promises are sweet, involving the sextile between Mars and Venus while both are in good aspect with Saturn. That can mean love which has a solid basis in reality. Whether between or within the sexes, this can be fortifying and wonderful. Since "love" means so many things to so many people, I won't try to elucidate what it might mean for you, but whether a single important relationship or some more diffuse yet very pleasing connections, you should be feeling it, or if you aren't you could be emboldened to make it happen. As for eroticism, if it is not there, then the deeper sorts of love, "caritas" or caring for the welfare of someone, could take on beautiful form. Since Saturn is involved, maybe Eros should take a back seat, though it might shoot its Cupid-arrows..
Another promise involves the close sextile between Jupiter and Neptune. I would not have made as much of this as Mr. Carter does in his superb book, but gladly defer to him. He says it shows "hospitality" and "quick sympathy bestowed upon all who are in need." I tend to believe this because this aspect, in the form of a tight septile (a variation of the sextile) was present in the Taurus chart this year, when the first round of stimulus payments went out. It was absent by any close orb in the Gemini chart, but is back in this Cancer month and both parties are planning to agree on some new stimulus (though the payments might not reach us until the Leo month). At any rate, Dr. Carter (I gave him the Ph.D. myself) says that this generosity can be directed toward "the animal world or sometimes the slum-dweller and outcast." Yes let's have more of that.
He says it also inclines toward "metaphysical speculation or psychic investigations" and heaven knows we need more of those, when they are responsible. We "seek the grandiose and the seeming-impossible." No harm in that, unless we "drift away from the actual world." Nevertheless, a "life of fantasy" has advantages. We drop barriers between the classes, races, sexes, or nationalities. "The whole range of the senses and the emotions is indefinitely enlarged."
"It is good for receiving help from others without having directly merited it." Stimulus payments! (But not confined to them.) Or, we may ourselves "minister to others in connection with a charitable organization." "He may find himself the recipient of kindnesses from friends or strangers without having rendered them any particular services." "It is always an influence through which spiritual help and strength may come abundantly."
3. Mercury retrograde! (Until July 12) This has a very bad name, and understandably. Things go wrong. Timing is off. Mechanical things fail at just the wrong time. And so on. This happened Wednesday this week when I was planning a long conversation with three others on Zoom. It started out fairly well, then fizzled. I restarted the computer three times and my friend whose wifi I share unplugged and replugged the router. No dice. Very frustrating, but we will try again next week. The moon was void-of-course at the same time. It was a "double-witching" day. The computer problems were inexplicable but came just in time to ruin the conference. Demonic? So it seemed. Here are some pointers about Mercury Retrograde (sixteen more days):
A. Demonic? It seems so, as in what I just recounted. It seems that "evil forces" are trying to ruin your plans. For example, this very week cases of the virus have soared in the U. S. and some states are rolling back "reopening" plans and requiring more masks and distancing. This was predictable during a MR period. REtreat, REversal. And many other RE words pepper our lives.
B. Or if not demonic, then "out of pattern." This could be refreshing. Or it could be very frustrating. You get up at a different time than usual, go to sleep at unusual hours, take naps when you usually don't, people call and say they can't meet you or want to meet at a different time, your ordinary schedule is knocked into a cocked hat and sometimes that feels good, for variety, though at other times you feel you have no idea what you are doing. "Out of pattern" can be bad or good, but we can make it good. We seem to need relief from over-strict scheduling at these times.
C. Why are these things happening? I personally hypothesize that we are in a "different kind of time" during the MR period and even the whole Dark or Convolutive Hermetic Epoch (until July 26). I named these "Bright versus Dark" epochs in 1999 and have stayed with the designation (other astrologers ignore them). But experientially the "Dark" Epoch, I am coming to think, might better be called the Convolutive Epoch. Not Involutionary nor Evolutionary, but Convolutionary! My dictionary defines Convolution as: A rolled up or coiled condition. 2. A rolling or coiling together. 3. A turn of anything coiled; whorl; sinuosity. We are in a Whorl of Time! Past and present seem to be coiled together. There is Inter-Dimensionality! Maybe our past lives are "bleeding through" into the present. Have not you been having unusual, interesting, perplexing dreams? I was sure I was with people from my past (no longer incarnate) last night.
D. Putting these insights together with what Dr. Carter said about Jupiter sextile Neptune, this month could be an excellent time for exploring psychic, occult, supernormal research. Of course, one needs to "keep one's feet on the ground" also. Harvesting the advantages of the "strange" Mercury periods requires retaining enough normality to remain sane, of course!
E. Otherwise, the adventure is all yours.
{Weekend of June 27-28, and Month of the Shellfish!} ~Strange Times Indeed~
Saturday 17 June 2020
Moon in Virgo-->Libra
/moon goes void-of-course at 1:03p PT | 4:03p ET | 8:03p UT
until it enters Libra at 1:18p PT | 4:18p ET | 8:18p UT (just 15 minutes later!)
Sunday 18 June 2020
Moon in Libra
< moon enters the Via Combusta (2.5 days of reshuffling) at 2:34p PT | 5:34p ET | 9:34p UT
Cosmic Piper
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