Cancer

Water is a colorless, odorless liquid. You are not. Yet water, the substance, and watery people, are both very susceptible to external factors, and you're under some potent new influences now that have come into your life with a purpose you would be wise to investigate — or rather, to celebrate.

If celebrating seems a stretch, let's work our way there, looking carefully at a few of the celestial movements that are shaping your life.

All three of the water signs are now fully integrating the double ingress of Saturn and Uranus into Cancer and Pisces, respectively. Saturn in your sign connotes a serious time of life, what one of the first astrologers I ever talked to described as a period of coming to terms with yourself. Saturn's placement often describes what we fear, and in your own sign the suggestion is that you are being invited to overcome your unconscious fear of yourself or some important aspect of your nature.

This can be a tight corner, particularly for women. For women are, at once, so often raised to completely suppress their personhood, then, when pushed out into the world, expected to perform like champions. Similarly with men, we are cut off from our feelings by long years of conditioning, then expected to exist in the complex world of relationships, marriages and families as if we had the benefit of our full emotional equipment.

The nature you may fear may relate to some sense that you are unprepared for life. But Saturn is the best preparation for life you're likely to encounter in this particular life.

Saturn is going to work you for a while, for at least as long as it takes to integrate these issues. Jesus said that in order to enter the kingdom of heaven, you have to become like a little kid. I say that in order to become like a little kid, you have to grow up first, that is, help yourself to really mature and integrate into a natural person, and then you'll feel the stability and safety at the hands of the Universe that is so natural to children.

To sum it up in a few words, this process involves adopting your inner kid and giving him or her all the attention that you lacked as a child. For some, their inner kid needs a bit of discipline; others need emphasis on freedom; in all cases, healthy food, companionship and loving attention are the first order of the day. There is, I advise, an emphasis on the healthy food detail.


Saturn, though, is probably pushing you to do a lot more than this, or so it feels. I just suggest that while you work to renovate your life and make long awaited changes, keep in touch with the little girl or boy at the center of your universe, the one within. And, while we're on the subject, any others you may know of. Saturn's presence in your sign is a message to everyone that parenting is serious business on the planet right now. I speak not of the parenting known as tough love, but rather touch love, the softer connection with young people that is greatly assisted by the ability of adults to be rid of their own anxiety and adolescent emotional tendencies, and to devote their attention to those needing nourishment.

At the same time, parenting, or any contact with children, must invoke in the adult the experience of being a child: the vulnerability, curiosity, fear and yearning for attention. This, in turn, can evoke some of the grief and sadness we experienced when we were younger, which is a very good thing for everyone. This and only this is what can break the spiral of abuse in which Western culture is now spinning so wildly. Given the prevailing world condition, we're all in the position of needing to be that much more loving, protective and aware. You've not only got something to learn about all of  this, you've got a few things to teach. In co-parenting situations, do this by example for the best results (some people have trouble with words, as you well know by now).

These emotional and psychological processes will serve you well in terms of bringing you much closer to your own cherished goals, the ones you always seem to forget. They will influence where you want to be in the world, the physical shape of your space, and push you so many degrees further along the learning curve of feeling and thinking for yourself.

Chiron through your opposite sign (late 2001-late 2005)has been quite a teacher in this regard. People have certainly done their best to have an impact on you, to shape the course of your life, and teach you something, be it seemingly for good or ill. Often with Chiron the result of experience is two-edged, and you'll have to heal the painful aspects of the experience and accept the considerable learning it brought in despite of what it may have cost you. In the end, that cost will count for very little in comparison to the unusual, even one of a kind, gains you have received and continue to benefit from. These are rough lessons with rich rewards. They come with a guarantee: learn your lessons of relationship now and you won't have to repeat them later. More to the point, lessons learned means fulfillment can be received.

Certain people have likely overstepped their bounds in recent years, but that's taught you to keep a close eye on the perimeter. Saturn has helped, and will continue to help, in this regard. But so too will emerging from the false sense of isolation that both the world and your nature tend to impose. For sure, it's right about time to push yourself to engage more fully with community, both professional and that of your physical and spiritual neighbors. The culture of a washing machine in every house dictates that we must not under any circumstances get together for the common good. Your intuition and guts must be telling you something otherwise now.

The presence of another planet near Chiron, called Nessus, has been working to make you aware of something truly less than pleasant, which is how abusive the relationships of the world can be. Certain episodes may have seemed like proof positive that you have to guard your vulnerability and keep to yourself at all costs. But I don't think you've taken them that way. I trust you've used them to spot patterns, to assess the character of people you invite into your life, and to make the connections between how you were treated as a child and how you are treated today.

The beauty of being an adult is that you get to set the terms of your relationships. Once you've done that, don't be surprised when people set the terms of theirs. Instead, be thankful, because then a real meeting is possible.

Message from Eros

All sex hangups are religious hangups and all religious hangups are sex hangups. While marketing culture has taken over where religion left off, dictating the terms of right and wrong, and ensuring that we constantly lie to live the lie of fairytale romance, the deeper issue has to do with the church's social control program.

You're quite susceptible to religious teachings, particularly the kind that are disguised as something else (like social programs, stories and so on). Uranus in Pisces is going to push you to be free, to have your own relationship with both Spirit and your higher essence, and to expose the hypocritical ideas with which you were ingrained. But a deeper quality of your nature comes out through this process, which is the physical, tangible realization that what you most yearn for in life is a cosmic connection that embraces the full spectrum of your sexual feelings.

Remember that if you allow your feelings to be free, you will be just as eager to allow those of the people closest to you to be free. Never make another person lie, and by that I mean put them in a position where you're so powerful that if they tell the truth and it 'hurts' you, they're out in the cold. It's not merely that such karma will bite you on the ass. It's that you have far greater pleasures in store once everyone agrees that the authentic range of human emotion is acceptable.

Cancer Moon

You are so often underestimated. It's your sensitivity. There's a prevailing belief that because you feel, you lack creativity and guts. Based on this logic, all the world's great works of art, architecture and social progress would be produced under anesthesia. There's another side to feeling that you don't often display, which is your sense of resolve. The past is implied in this word, as is the idea of coming to terms. If you can tune your sensitivity to a fine sense of when any given matter is unresolved, you will be able to build your resolve and act not from compulsion, but rather from conviction.