Today is Wednesday, August 3, 2011. Mars ingresses Cancer at about 5:22 am. We’re moving into the first full day of Mercury’s current retrograde phase, with Mars, the Moon and some potent goddess power moving the day along. Some people find the couple of days surrounding a Mercury station to be turbulent, so take a moment now to check in with yourself. Allow yourself a little mental space and see if you can follow any tension, impatience or impulsive conclusions deeper in.
What you uncover may prove key as the retrograde deepens, particularly with Mars bringing its drive, assertiveness and heat to the emotional body of the cardinal sign Cancer. This ingress lights up the Aries Point and completes a cardinal cross. Notably, the first aspect Mars makes is a square to the Ceres-Uranus conjunction in Aries. According to Eric, this aspect represents the fear of starvation and hunger. It’s something we’re seeing more of close to home, as people continue struggling with the economy.
Anticipating Ceres moving onto the Aries Point, Eric had mentioned that we should watch how food issues and possible crises play out in the world. Sure enough, the Horn of Africa is in the midst of famine — and we hear about it now. Valerie Amos, Emergency Relief Coordinator of the U.N., was quoted Monday as saying that “12.4 million people in Kenya, Ethiopia, Somalia and Djibouti are in dire need of help, and the situation is getting worse.” Thousands have died in southern Somalia. Given that Africa is generally considered to have been the cradle of humanity, I think it’s fair to say this crisis has a message fundamental to all of us. How does our personal sense of nourishment affect how involved we get in matters of community, however locally or globally you define it? How much of what captures our attention and energy actually feeds us in any way? There have been famines forever, but we can ask ourselves what this one says to our current collective moment.
In the Friday subscriber issue, Eric noted that as Mars moves through Cancer, it “makes what are called hard aspects to Saturn, Uranus and Pluto — indicating the potential for some hotheaded, reactionary and yes, rigid emotions (the sign Cancer principally expresses itself emotionally). This is a good time to get beneath the shell (associated with the crab) and defensiveness of this sign, and open up to the deeper empathy we’re all capable of. And we will have help.”
That help comes in the form of water trines to Neptune and Chiron in Pisces, which emphasize flow, flexibility, empathy and creative solutions. As Len noted Monday, this is about Mars bringing its energizing powers of incorporation to this sense of flow. The question is, however, what exactly is flowing? As Eric pointed out in conversation about this aspect, anything can flow. It could be imagination or it could be something toxic (or potentially toxic) like alcohol. So this trine will take discernment. Notice what is tending to flow and pay attention. How much did you actually have to drink, for example?
Lastly, let’s not forget the Moon. It begins the day in Virgo, entering Libra at about 6:04 am EDT. Once in this cardinal sign, it moves into aspects with the slow, strong planets hanging out on the cardinal cross, plus Mars.
As the Libra Moon squares Mars, it also enters into a conjunction with Juno and an opposition with Ceres-Uranus in Aries. So we have a picture of our inner, emotional self possibly magnifying any jealousies or deeply-held relationship scorecards in its quest for justice and balance. And as Len has pointed out, a conjunction can indicate a bit of a blind spot in our perception – in this case, of these feelings.
Opposite Ceres and Uranus, the Moon and Juno may be asking: Are you feeling nourished? Do you feel like you have made sacrifices regarding the nourishment you desire, or that you have to offer, in relationships? If you are a daughter, how do these themes play into your relationship with your mother? Or with your own daughter if you have one? Or with an intimate partner? How much do we need to receive before we feel like we have enough to give?
It’s not about keeping score, and it’s not worth feeling guilty and ashamed about it if you feel like you come up short. It is, however, worth bearing in mind as you work with the Mars water trines and the Mercury retrograde. The clearer we get about any perception of deficit within ourselves, the freer we will be to give what we have with true empathy and generosity — in whatever realm nourishment is called for – to others and to ourselves.
Notice and choose: in fresh horoscopes weekly and twice monthly, the current sky speaks through your Sun and rising signs. Eric unfolds the themes in Planet Waves subscriber edition and Planet Waves Light so you can notice your patterns and choose consciously.
susyc — thank you for sharing the connection between your sexual abuse trauma, food, and hunger of more than one sort. it’s astonishing how deep the tentacles of any sort of sexual/emotional trauma can run, and in how many directions.
i am glad to hear you felt a sense of being fed today; i hope that blessing continues to manifest when you need it.
so let’s rock it, us. cause we have it in us to do it.
When I was little, I think I had anorexia type symptoms. I had all kinds of little food aversions that I realize now were related to the sexual abuse I went through as a child. Amazing how much fresh semen is like the white of an undercooked egg, for instance. That hungry feeling, that hollow place became a place to hold my fear. Just lately, I’ve been avoiding phone calls from a needy person I sponsor in a 12 step program I attend for my weight. I realize now it was stress from following this stupid debt crisis stuff. I don’t know why I don’t think these things can be taken care of without my obsessive attention…but I do follow these situations. It almost seems like the spiritual discipline developing through 2012 is to ride the waves of these situations, meaning: notice, stay aware, respond within my limits, refuel and move on. I grieved over my son’s army service after 9/11 for years, certainly the six Bush years, and I didn’t really start dealing with it until I started to take action. First I worked for moveon.org during the midterms and then two years later for Obama’s campaign. Making phone calls, giving money. My goal was at least to participate in getting my army boy and his fellow service people better leadership. Can’t keep track of all the crises, manufactured or genuine that we’ve had since.
But today, I could feel something break loose. A bit of well-being that enabled me to answer the phone and talk to my sponsee with true presence and an open heart. Something fed me today. I felt myself become quiet for the first time in a while. Eric’s podcast to start the day and the pleasure of being with the beautiful babies I work with on a beautiful cloudy day here in NM. Faith will carry me through if I let it. Take care all, and let’s remember ourselves as our loving creator made us no matter what has happened since.
Michele,
I fee that rage too. Rage that people who are progressive are not used to “doing group things or group think” so they seem unable (or unwilling or apathetic) to DO anything. I feel tired today; in fact my whole family feels tired as though we ran a long and horrible race. I woke up to the hot water tank being out though it worked when Dave re-lit it. The rest of the day I felt restless, angry , tired and out of sorts.
I keep having to deal with my father who complains about getting $3000 a month in his combined retirement, VA, and SS benefits as though that’s not enough (that is after the free VA health care and Medicare). We six people survive on way less than that and he is complaining. He is perfectly fine with my generation not getting anything near that when we get old. He personifies the old guard of “I want it for ME but not for anyone younger than me.” He ignored me for 27 years; why is it my job to prop him up emotionally now? I want to just walk away. I feel fucked and victimized and pissed off all at once. His generation just keeps on giving; giving fear, giving stinginess, giving demands for my time and attention when he gave me neither.
I felt tired of people who play at being therapist; they seem so willing to listen and act like they are your deepest friend because of how they listen yet they are more like the butterflies who only stop long enough to lure us with their beauty and impart a bit of pollen and then flutter out of reach. Real friends are available, not like butterflies. Real therapists help you and know their limits and the boundaries.
So I sat on the back porch and tried to think of the beauty around me and be thankful for the husband I have, the kids I have, the health I have, the life I have that is good by most standards. Usually this works but I was so tired that I went in and laid on the bed to think…and fell asleep only to wake up with a raging headache.
I feel for you, Michele and I commiserate with you.
Thank you Len. You are such the staunch supporter, mentor.
Michele – I too had what could have been interpreted as a very disturbing dream last night/this morning. It had to do with uncovering a buried/hidden dismembered and bloody woman. There was nothing in my daily life that would have triggered images or story such as this – other than the symbolism of many things female that we are now un-earthing and setting out to repair or breathe new life into. – time to set things right and uncover truths, unpleasant tho some of them may be.
I chose to take the “up” side of the dream – I do believe it was an omen of good – and hope that you find something in your daily life that transitions you through that nightmare.
With love
xo
Amanda, shebear, be, aword and michele: Thank you all for bringing home the sheer power of the whole lot going on right now. All of you are powerful in turn as evinced by your eloquence in compassion.
so screwed. yesterday i took a short nap. i had a nightmare. it was set in a grocery store. i woke up and have not recovered,
today, a load of world was set on my shoulders.
i barely made it back to my apartment without sobbing on the street, and two women were standing outside… let’s say they are alive cause i get i’m volatile. they are some lucky two women.
i NEVER lose it. but i am blasting cohen. and i will take a nap. and live to live another day.
“may the lights of the land of plenty shine on the truth someday….”
i guess that’s better than metal right now.
fuck i have rage.
but i am home (i have one) and i will continue on to be loving. but you know…. that annoys me. i want to lose it all the way.
so. there you go. lives have been saved. the world goes on.
How fitting, Amanda! I awoke looking to heighten awareness of – where am I resenting, not feeling grateful? In relationships where I have felt like I am being “sucked dry” is there really a place for me to give of (my universal) abundance freely? Where I have felt like others are not sharing, what am I withholding that could be of value to the group?
And Be – thank you so much! You have laid a map for this moment into the next – a world of opportunity we have indeed! I wonder what the potential is in Obama’s chart viewed with the USA and general planetary movement?
xo
A moment of opportunity is upon us right now. It bears thinking about our future, including our food sources and it’s all about fixed energy. This past Monday Jupiter in Taurus squared the Sun in Leo but late tomorrow the Sun will look across to Vesta in Aquarius and see an opportunity to invest (Vesta) in our future (Aquarius) and all mankind (Aquarius). The next morning the Sun sextiles Saturn in Libra, and sees an opportunity to do long term partnering. As Jupiter prepares to go retrograde late this month he is busy planting seeds and laying foundations, fixed Taurus activities and then in in less than 7 months, he will return to the same spot in direct motion.
Meanwhile the T-square between Jupiter, Sun and Vesta is stirring the pot of future possibilities, with Sun in his own creative sign of Leo, being nudged by Taurus to put down some roots and Vesta reminding them both of what needs tending; home, family, future and the betterment of humanity. Now here comes the Moon Friday morning, making a trine to Neptune (just after he drifts back to Aquarius for a while)as she herself moves forward into Scorpio. Then she will trine Mars, sextile Mercury and Pluto before she opposes Jupiter in Taurus, creating a brief fixed grand cross.
This is potent contact, especially of the fixed energy signs, but the buttons of family, mankind, compassion and health have been pushed and the receptive and deep Scorpio Moon absorbs it all and will continue her cycle until she too opposes the Sun. What will they talk about, hmm?
Think about this. Just a day before Jupiter gets back to about 10 degrees of Taurus next year in March, he will again trine Pluto. He will be joined by Venus and they all will trine Mars in Virgo. What will have transpired in those 7 months while he went retro then forward. Did anything take root? What does Mars think about it?
A week later the Vernal Equinox will take place with the 4 planet grand earth trine still effective, promising a 3 month or longer encouragement of building new beginnings that are good for you and your family and your country and your world.
Best of all, three years after that, when the Vernal Equinox for 2015 happens, it will be the last square of Uranus and Pluto. It will also be time for a total eclipse of the Sun in the last minutes of Pisces, followed by the Moon’s move into Aries and then the Sun for the Equinox. At that time Jupiter will trine Uranus who opposes the U.S. Sibly Saturn and squares the U.S. Sun. It won’t be over for the world or especially our country, those trials of 7 squares between Uranus and Pluto. But it will mean that whatever we have built during this long ordeal will have the blessings of the great benefic who has reached the place where the Sun is now, increasing that wonderful idea that came of the opportunity we are in right now. Chiron and Pluto will form a yod with Jupiter at the point position, and he is trine Uranus. We dig our heels in and at the same time move forward.
A lunar eclipse follows on April 4 that year when the Moon is conjunct our country’s (U.S Sibly) Saturn, and she sextiles transiting Jupiter in Leo, opposes transiting Uranus in Aries (and the Sun!) and squares transiting Pluto in Capricorn. It isn’t hopeless by any means. The creative Leo and Arian entrepreneurship that has come from the Jupiter-Uranus fire trine is a product of the cardinal t-square we have had to sweat through for all those years. The Moon may be dark but she’s probably hiding something for later. Let’s do something now that we will be proud of when this is all over. Let’s keep the thought that we are growing and evolving into something better. We are all one and that’s a good thing.
be
Oooo, yummy spiritual food Amanda. I feel pleasantly satiated. Thank you. Your last paragraph is so true and beautifully expressed: “The clearer we get about any perception of deficit within ourselves, the freer we will be to give what we have with true empathy and generosity — in whatever realm nourishment is called for – to others and to ourselves.”
We have to stop keep score, or guilty or ashamed but learn to trust ourselves and gently go inside to open up that space to be human. Accepting ourselves for where we are today, no matter what. Making peace with whatever wants our attention, turning on the compassion to doubts that tend to gnaw away at our confidence is surely the key to applying it within and without. What opens up from that space will help us, I believe, manifest that healthier, happier world we so crave.
I was conscious this morning of feeling very blessed with the ability to fix myself a nutritious, tasty breakfast and in the midst of it all I did think of those starving in Africa :-(( — starved for food and more especially starved for our attention. How our world operates is pathetic and I can only hope we are wakening up once and for all.
I thank you again for composing this *wonderful* piece this morning and for bringing our African family into our thoughts and prayers.
Blessings.