Dear Fellow Traveler:
We are now in the season of eclipses. These happen twice a year; the last time around was during the holiday season of late 2009. The first of the pair was on June 26 and the second will be July 11. They are in Capricorn and Cancer, the signs that contain the most energy and information about family patterns. In the month of July, we have the opportunity to release the old patterns that have kept us anchored to the past. Some are mental; most are emotional. They include our old ideas about marriage, obligation and seeming tradition; what we get to embrace instead is balance, equanimity and a sense of our own vital presence in the world. For a while we may seem to be in two worlds at once: but reality will have its effects.
Yours & truly,
No excuses: this is your time to take territory in life, in your profession and within your own personality. There are almost always thoughts and ideas that interfere with this, and a lunar eclipse in your 10th solar house of career and ambition is clearing away parental emotional patterns, especially the fears of your mother and grandmother. The catch is that circumstances that depend on your remaining in the emotional role of child are going to get shaken up. Plan to have a series of events wherein you take back all the power you gave away as a kid, and the psychic patterns that keep you stuck in this mode. You cannot do this in theory. You can only do it through experience: that is, a direct confrontation with your insecurities. Ladies and gentlemen, start your engines.
To the extent you wish to be free, remember the role that religion plays in our society: which is to make people feel small, scared and confused. Whether you’re a minister’s daughter or were raised by communists, you’ve been influenced by the church’s supposed values, which of course have nothing to do with anything except making sure you do what you’re told. There is an emotional dimension to this, and a lunar eclipse in your sympathetic earth sign Capricorn will help you shed several layers of that material. If you encounter the feeling of ‘I’m not sure what to believe’, then you know you’re in the right place. If you fear that your deepest desires or emotions would offend someone, you’re in the right place. If you question any belief you’ve carried around for decades, you’re right on time.
Few people admit the extent to which they are driven by their emotions. We like to think of ourselves as calm, rational and reasonable people, though anyone familiar with the most basic rules of logic knows that they are hardly ever followed. If your astrology means anything, you tend to fit this description. What you desire changes like the tides. You often feel you ‘need’ things that are not important to you. And you are driven by your sentiments more than befits someone with such an astute mind as you have. You’re in the process of letting go of much of this stuff, and when you do, you will notice that you’re no longer so easy to influence or control. You’ll be willing to stand your ground in your relationships (and they will be more fun when you do).
Many factors this month point to the theme of cleaning house. Whatever this may mean spiritually, I suggest you start digging out closets and filling trash bags. Once you start, you’ll feel so good you won’t want to stop. The same process may be underway in your relationships: you no longer need to live your parents’ notion of wholesome partnership. Usually, it was nothing of the kind, and the ideas they suffered were passed down from antiquity. One of the great challenges you face in this lifetime is modernizing your concept of what a ‘secure’ relationship is; which means facing up to the many ways that idea failed. Are you ready to take an original approach to the matter of love? Events this month will guide you steadily in that direction, and it begins with two ideas: truth and trust.
Events this month will offer a portal into a dimension of your emotional life that is always a few shades off the visible spectrum. You don’t need to dive into these feelings; rather, start by feeling your way around the edges, and getting a sense of the dimensions of the territory. You can enhance your understanding by giving words to what you notice, even when the sentiments involved are fearful or difficult to articulate. Your mission now is learning to be undaunted by your fears. Exceedingly few of them are valid. They simply run you in circles, and oddly, you often don’t always know what they are. The veil between you and this inner realm is growing thin, and you need the information that’s in there. Keeping it out in the open will make your life and your relationships easier.
Saturn leaves your sign this month, ending an unforgettable two-year era of your life. Yet the same theme repeatedly turns up in your charts, and I do mean going back at least seven years: you are confronted by people who are innovative, electric and alive, and they make you nervous. You worry about your stability; you judge yourself as frail in contrast to the seeming might of others. Here is one way to consider the issue: In your relationships, you tend to put yourself in the position to respond or react, rather than a co-creative role. You think others call the shots, which is only true if you abandon a dialog. Make a list of what you refuse to talk about and you’ll see where your power goes — and where you can claim it back.
Saturn returns to your sign this month, arriving for a two-year journey. You may read predictions that treat this like the embodiment of all that can go wrong or set a limit. Let’s go back to traditional astrology. Saturn is the exalted ruler of Libra: it has a potent and core-level relationship to your sign. The experience of Saturn is about aligning yourself within the physical world, defining your purpose in a clear way and coming into your full strength and freedom as an adult. If there’s a catch, it’s about your relationship to what I will call ‘appearances’. It would help if you made a promise to yourself that you will drop your persona, facade or attempt to play a role, and instead present yourself as you are. This may be challenging at first, but you will eventually love how much it saves you in needless energy and useless complication.
Despite the cynicism unfairly pinned to descriptions of your sign, you’re deeply sentimental and have a strong connection to the person you were when you were a child. Now, that particular angle of your horoscope is coming into focus. I suggest you do three things on this occasion: look at every goal you have today and ask yourself how long you’ve had it for, and whether it’s still valid. Check whether you’re still adjusting your life to meet the expectations of your mother. Then, one last thing: as a child you had some idealistic visions for yourself; you had glorious plans and bold confidence about them. Where did they go? If you get everyone else’s fears and expectations out of the way, you may decide that they are every bit as meaningful today as they where when you were little.
You are in rare form, and you don’t have to stop. The ideas you’ve been having recently will provide creative fuel for the next year. You may feel like there are times when you’re running your creative engines too hot. You will cool down soon enough, which will help you orient your ambitious creative goals on the longer territory you will need to cross to make them real. Your charts say you’re having a series of breakthroughs. Then you take what you learn and accomplish, slow down the process and then, using a different kind of creativity, develop things to the next stage and bring them back into the world. Remember, this is all about focusing an experiment based on discoveries you’re making now. You have no reason to doubt and every reason to affirm that you are in a rare and brilliant zone.
Abandon all the ideas of safety and security that your parents and grandparents drummed into your head. You’re not betraying them; you are honoring them by going beyond their petty fears. Be aware of the extent to which those fears have influenced you — and how much better you’ll feel when you let them go. While those fears seemed to center on money, home, family and security, they have translated into your life as reluctance to express yourself boldly. If you want to feel safe, be resolutely yourself. If you want to feel like you belong on the planet, express your boldest thoughts, feelings and passions. The world will move over and make room for you. Where you fear judgment, you will encounter respect.
For every truth you discover in yourself, there seems to be an equal and opposite potential. Yet it can grow tiresome never being able to make up your mind about which is the valid path. You’re aware of this, at least: the opposites you perceive contain one another; you know they are part of the same thing. They are integral to one another. Your ruling planet Saturn is about to enter your 9th solar house, where you experiment with your ideas about life and formulate the plans that get you to the next place. Saturn’s presence is about drawing from both sides of any seeming paradoxes, concepts or theories that you use as the basic fuel for living. Now you get to experience the strength, confidence and clarity that come when you integrate your seeming polarities.
Focus on feeling good. If you reach the blue spot, keep moving. If you catch yourself feeling like you ‘don’t deserve’ anything, focus on affirming your existence and remind yourself that you contribute far more than you take from the world. Indeed, you are a resource that is only available when you are feeling positive and strong, and this resource feeds you as well. Remember, there is nothing you need to do first in order to be enlightened. Well, nothing except to want peace of mind and abundance. In your particular chart setup, this involves remembering who you are all the time, and simply being that person. There is no game here; you are who you are, and as you experience this, the flow of life energy will increase and be available for whatever you choose. And those are the key words: you choose.