Dear Friend and Reader:
June will be a big month for the water signs. That’s good news for everyone, unless your only friend is a cactus (and they love water too, just not too much of it). Water is the most delicate element, essential to supporting life on our planet. It’s as basic as oxygen, and it’s drying out, being polluted and fracked out of existence. Yet when the astrology gets wet, I think that everyone is happier — and that’s what happens soon.
Among the main events of the next few weeks is Jupiter moving from Gemini to Cancer, completing a grand water trine with Saturn in Scorpio and both Chiron and Neptune in Pisces. The Sun and other planets will be passing through Cancer as well, filling up our spiritual reservoirs.
Let’s start in the current moment and take the story more or less in order (note, all dates are based on EDT).
Eclipses of spring end with the Sagittarius lunar eclipse that happens Saturday, May 25 at 12:25 am EDT. This will be the last of the eclipses along the Gemini/Sagittarius angle — the unusual third eclipse in the current cycle is a holdover from the prior (Gem/Sag) cycle. Through 2014 the Taurus/Scorpio axis will host eclipses (along with the Aries/Libra axis); the next Taurus/Scorpio eclipse heats up in November.
June 2013 emphasizes the water theme of this year — a theme of making contact with one’s feeling body without being overwhelmed by it. That’s always the thing about emotions; with the other thing being the extent to which they are being corrupted by advertising imagery, clearly among the top spiritual issues of our time in history. When astrology emphasizes the water signs, you will feel more, and more deeply, and then at the same time be subject to manipulation.
The realm of feeling, of emotion, of body sensation, is different from the realm of intellect, concept and mental control. Indeed what happens on the level of water can subvert or perhaps submerge what we experience in the mental environment. It doesn’t need to — emotions and ideas can coexist, and if the forthcoming astrology is any indication, we need to figure out how to do that.
Mercury enters Cancer on May 31, where it will perform its retrograde maneuver between June 26 and July 20. It’ll remain in Cancer through its second shadow phase and then finally enter Leo on Aug. 8.
That’s a long time for Mercury to be in any one sign, especially a water sign; yet it’s also the second of three times that Mercury will spend more than two months in a water sign this year (the first was in Pisces earlier in 2013 and the third will be when it’s in Scorpio later in the year).
On June 2, Venus enters Cancer — still in a loose conjunction with Mercury. That conjunction will come back into focus later in the month.
June 8 is the Gemini New Moon, exact at 11:56 am. That’s synchronous with a sparky aspect, Mercury square Uranus, happening just a few hours later.
June 19 is also a special day — the Sun is conjunct Jupiter in Gemini. That won’t happen again till 2036. Yes, it should happen again in 12 years, but the Sun-Jupiter conjunction skips Gemini the next time Jupiter is in that sign. This is also our farewell to Jupiter in Gemini for this cycle.
On June 21, the Sun enters Cancer, which is the solstice. This is an Aries Point event; the Sun is square the first degree of the zodiac (i.e., the Aries Point), which means that we’ll all be standing at the intersection of the personal and the collective. That’s what this degree does, and it’s very sensitive. So sensitive in fact that the ingresses of Mercury and Venus earlier in the month may have a similar effect.
Because this is happening in the style of a water sign, experiences and events will have a deeper emotional influence than usual, and in addition to describing the emotional realm, water sign energy also reaches into what we think of as psychic — that is, behind-the-scenes communication. It’s also good for empathy and understanding what others are going through by feeling it rather than needing to have it explained.
On June 25, Jupiter enters Cancer. This is yet another Aries Point event, as Jupiter will be square the first degree of the zodiac. This happens with the Cancer Sun trine Neptune in Pisces, and Mercury very close to stationing retrograde in Cancer.
Jupiter will remain in Cancer until it ingresses Leo on July 16, 2014. Plenty of water passes under the bridge between now and then, and fortunately we will have happy, old Jupiter to keep us company the whole time.
On June 26, Mercury stations retrograde, which will last through July 20, and as mentioned, Mercury ingresses Leo on Aug. 8.
This is a lot of water for one year, and a whole lot of water for one month.
Lovingly,
Planet Waves Monthly Horoscope for June 2013, #951 | By Eric Francis
Aries (March 20-April 19) — Most of what we experience in life is shaped by how safe we feel. Those who feel safe also feel confident. They consume less energy on fear, and as a result have more to invest in creativity, productive work and loving experiences. What is interesting about experiencing safety and confidence is that it improves with practice rather than with external reasons or rationales to feel a certain way. It’s worth practicing, especially now that the planets are moving one by one into a position that makes it easier than it’s been in quite a while. When you tune your emotional body to a space of harmony and empathy, you get different results than if you are practicing competition or fear as your daily yoga. Events this month can take you on a journey into a grounded, confident space, and give you a model for how to feel stable there. With each passing event, you can go a little deeper into the calm assurance that you belong in your home, your community and in the world at this time. This is something you can commit to as a conscious choice, then gradually teach yourself and improve your skill, learning what thoughts, communication patterns and ways of connecting emotionally foster your sense of safety. If questions arise, they are most likely to focus on identifying and letting go of emotional thought forms that no longer serve you. Let them go and you will liberate space and energy for what is beautiful, good and true.
Taurus (April 19-May 20) — Seen one way, the focus of your life is on communicating your feelings, and slipping into a way of being where that comes more easily than you might expect. By ‘feelings’ I mean your point of view, your desires and the sensation of what it’s like to be alive. By ‘communicate’ I mean with others, though more significantly, with yourself. While I would not want to deny anyone consciousness, it often seems like we live in a world where many people have no idea what they feel, and I would say that most humans would be a lot better off if they did. You may, at first, experience the transits this month as magnification or exaggeration. If so, that’s an invitation to pay closer attention to the nuances and the cycles that seem to run your emotional experience. You still seem to have a disagreement with yourself over something, a potential grudge, judgment or inner dilemma where there may indeed be two sides of the story. If so, I suggest you get those two sides into a discussion, perhaps even a negotiation. Do your best to understand both points of view. Neither is strictly true; neither is incorrect; the two added together don’t tally up to the truth. Yet a new depth of understanding can emerge from an extended inner dialog, particularly if it’s gentle and emotionally grounded. This is as much about what is true as it is how you feel about it. Listen to your mind and your body.
Gemini (May 20-June 21) — Jupiter leaves your sign this month, though it lands somewhere just as influential for you. You’re living through a phase where you have beautiful, idealistic goals, though turning them into concrete results may be challenging. You may be feeling restlessness in your current work because you crave doing something more meaningful. Jupiter in Cancer will help you establish your understanding of the value of what you do. That, in turn, will help you create or see the circumstances that will make it seem more practical, worthwhile and easier to share. If you live confidently in your understanding that you really do have a gift, that will be compelling to others. Yet what’s more significant is that you focus your vision. It’s one thing to have an ideal or a dream. It’s another to refine that into something specific, and to analyze it into a few beginning steps. You may feel that to do so weighs down the idealism angle, burdening it with practicality. But what we’re describing here is accomplishing something, not wishing you could do so. Therefore, I suggest you put at least one long-held goal or desire to the test of reality this month. I suggest you persist with your plans for 90 days; say, through the end of August, which will take you well past the end of the Mercury retrograde that starts June 26. If what you dream of and want to do is really worth doing, you will have a clue by then.
Cancer (June 21-July 22) — Jupiter arrives in your sign this month and until it does (on June 25), you may have the sensation that your life is dangling by a string. If you feel that way, trust that it’s made of nice strong fibers and that you’ll have enough of what you need to get you through to the next phase of your life. Jupiter in your sign is an authentic turning point, and it’s one you’ve been waiting for, potentially without realizing it was even coming. You could interpret this as your luck improving, though I think of it more as connecting to yourself, your community and your emotional resources. You might have the experience of seeing the obvious — solutions to problems that have persisted for too long, the strength to make decisions that will improve your life, and most of all, your presence in the world. You would think that walking around in a body would be more than enough to give you a clue you exist, but really this is about resonance with people who surround you. This same astrology will offer you some instruction on how important relationships are to you. That will come into focus as you start to see how much you mean to people and how much mutual benefit is possible. This is a reminder to focus on people to whom you have a real value and with whom you want to share. What you’re seeking is a real meeting. Where the depths of intimacy are concerned, almost doesn’t count.
Leo (July 22-Aug. 23) — Everyone needs a guardian angel, and you have a few. Who are they? People or spiritual entities? You’ll know better as you establish a relationship to them. What you may discover is that they’re sources of intelligence within yourself — what you may think of as your superconscious awareness. Some call this intuition; that’s close enough, though what you have developing now would be a particularly vivid form of it. As the month develops, you may find that this source of knowledge has more to offer you — far more than asking the opinions of others, for example, or watching public trends. Those external sources come with way more uncertainty than you need, and may be a distraction from admitting and acting on what you know to be true. One thing to remember is that your body speaks to you. The feeling you have thinking a thought is as meaningful or more meaningful than the thought itself; that’s your confirmation that you are onto something. This may guide you to trust countercurrents that may seem to violate prevailing (supposed) popular wisdom. These same aspects will help ease much of the anxiety you may be feeling, and provide you with a sense of confidence you don’t fully understand. That’s okay, and you don’t need to question it; just appreciate its presence. Whether these are actual angels, mentors or the ‘better angels of your nature’, the thing to do is listen to them, speak to them and thank them for their assistance. And don’t forget to ask when you need help.
Virgo (Aug. 23-Sep. 22) — Mercury, perhaps the most influential planet for Virgo, stations retrograde later in the month. As it moves in reverse (from our point of view on Earth) it will gradually form a perfect trine to Chiron in your opposite sign Pisces. In this we see an aspect that points to the bridge between friends and lovers. This reminds me of one of my favorite true jokes — when someone says they don’t have sex with their friends, I ask if they prefer to have sex with their enemies. Yet the intimacy suggested in this aspect applies to other facets of relating, perhaps highlighting what distinguishes a friend: in my view, the commitment to healing. I know there are many other definitions going around, and I would propose that this is not a word to use casually, but rather, to use thoughtfully. Your circle of friends is your circle of light. The people you call your friends are the ones with whom you share mutual support, and willingness to heal and grow. They are the people willing and openly offering to support one another. It may take you some time to apply this definition to the people around you and see who stands up to the test, though events this month will make it clear who qualifies. What will be more abundantly clear is that you do have friends, and one friend in particular who transcends all of the usual boundaries and is your companion on every level.
Libra (Sep. 22-Oct. 23) — Though this is not necessarily the easiest time for Libras, it’s certainly a meaningful one, and you’re likely to experience a series of breakthroughs on some of your longest-delayed projects or goals. As these happen, leave room to re-evaluate your goals. Question why you have a goal, not just what it is. When you get to the level of your motives, you could shift your point of view with one thought. What’s changed in recent years is that the appearance of doing something, or being known for it, has less importance than ever. That’s a big help, an authentic step on the way to sincerity. Go deeper into who you are and what your real purpose is. Many encounters you have with others are provoking you to do just this: to assert yourself, sometimes in the face of what blatantly contradicts your ideas. What you may discover as you do this is that everyone has something to teach you, or some gift for you, even if the transaction seemed confrontational. Keep your sense of humor, and you will spend your days collecting useful ideas like a bee collects pollen and in the process feeds the world. As you rise in your success — and make no mistake, your star is rising, despite any dubious quests and struggles you’ve been through, or what any other astrologer claims — have fun discovering how much you don’t know, and therefore, how much you have to learn. This is a core element of leadership.
Scorpio (Oct. 23-Nov. 22) — Religion seems to have taken over both national and international politics, if one could go so far as to describe the crude ideological stampeding as religious. The resulting controversies are seemingly endless. Yet the need to express one’s faith is inherent in humanity, and it will always take some form, whether healthy or not. You may be feeling this calling now. From the look of your astrology, my observation is that it’s coming from a visceral level, not the level of ideas. You are beginning to feel your inherent truth, or to go deeper into a journey already begun, perhaps around 2001. Where this matter is concerned, the first question is who and what you serve. Bob Dylan was right: we all serve someone. It’s merely a question of whom, and for what motive. Your faith has the power to nourish others, something you’ve no doubt seen at work many times. Notice your ability to draw from a deep inner source, to allow yourself to be filled up, and then to offer what you have to the people around you. There is another way this could play out, though — by experiencing your generosity, you deduce that you have something to give, and in doing so, recognize that you’re in contact with the source of whatever that is. An image borrowed from Aquarius comes to mind — you’re now a kind of water bearer, though the urn is self-filling. Offer what you have to those who are thirsty. There are few better ways to learn compassion and humility.
Sagittarius (Nov. 22-Dec. 22) — How you use your resources, or the ones to which you have access, says nearly everything about you. It’s the essence of how you relate to others, and what you might think of as your civic role. You instinctively know that humans only gain by putting together what they have, to benefit families, tribes, companies and nations. We need one another — and that is one of the most meaningful foundations of your understanding of life. Where the intent is to share and to be mutually supportive, it usually works well. I suspect that it pains you to see such waste, selfishness and the willingness of people to take advantage of what has been collectively accomplished. You may not be able to stop corporate crime, but you can be the person in your immediate environment who makes sure that resources are accounted for, kept safe and used wisely. Your chart looks like you’re about to be nominated quartermaster in chief for those you know; by one reading you could be coming into a windfall or an inheritance. By another reading you’re inheriting something from yourself, which may be measurable in money or observable as wisdom. In any event, you’re the steward of something that belongs not only to you but also to others around you. You’re being looked up to for your ethics and your ability to allocate this wealth wisely. You’ve been carefully ordering your priorities for years now. You know the right thing to do, and you have every reason to trust yourself.
Capricorn (Dec. 22-Jan. 20) — You’ve probably had enough of going it alone, or being willing to. Something seems to have stunned you to the awareness that it’s time to invite people into your life, and to be part of something larger. Yet the extended time you’ve spent in introspection has taught you a few things. You’ve learned so much about who you are, and moreover, you’ve learned how important it is to have that knowledge. Have you ever wondered how you lived without it? Really, you didn’t, but it was hiding on a deep level that would inform you in indirect ways. Now you’ve claimed what you know as direct self-knowledge, and this is offering you the confidence to meet the world on your own terms. There’s often a little gap that one has to cross over before doing that — perhaps something about the guilt of asserting yourself, perhaps about being seen as ‘selfish’, maybe the vulnerability associated with daring to encounter the world with what is true rather than a facade. I think you’ll find that your new approach is much easier, and more dependable. Who you are is something you don’t have to worry about, or think much about; who you are not is much more complicated, and consumes a lot of energy. Therefore, stick to who you are and what you want to share with others. Remember, this is more fun if you let go of jealousy, which means honoring the fun and pleasure others feel rather than trying to control it.
Aquarius (Jan. 20-Feb. 19) — If work has been less-than-perfect lately, I think you’ll be happy with what you create over the next few weeks, and how you approach the puzzle of your work environment. For you, what you do is just as important as where and how you do it. You could have the ideal job but if the working environment were not suitable for you, it would just not work. Now you can consider your plans with your environment as the first step in your thought process. Notice how where you work influences your ideas — the quality of light, the space around you and how your body feels. Regarding work, there’s one astrological detail that no Aquarius should be without. You need human contact and a real sense of whom you’re helping. Whatever field this may be in, the way you support others, and relate to others, needs to be more like how an ideal family would relate than what we find in the average workplace. You need real confirmation that your work is nourishing others who actually need you. This is an extension of the ‘humanitarian’ idea of Aquarius, though what I’m reading is Cancer on the 6th house — where Jupiter is about to take up residence. You have a lot to offer and the more you give, the more you’ll discover that you have. For your own peace of mind and encouragement, make sure that you’re offering your gifts where they are appreciated. You have options.
Pisces (Feb. 19-March 20) — I know it may sound silly to those who read old astrology books to suggest that Pisces people seek pleasure as their primary avocation; that’s what, in theory anyway, you do naturally. Yet that’s not my particular prejudice about Pisces; I tend to think of the last sign as signifying devotion to causes, to situations larger than yourself and to existence. When you offer your assistance, that’s not about feeling good for its own sake. Indeed, there are few signs that can persist through discomfort and delayed gratification like Pisces can. With your ‘ruling’ planet Jupiter changing signs this month to Cancer, your solar 5th house, you’re getting a clue that what gives you pleasure is the thing to focus on, at least for a full year till you get the habit down. This in turn will stoke your creativity, allowing you space to go in wholly new directions. If you want human companionship of the friendly erotic kind, that too is Jupiter in the 5th. In your chart that’s the story of something that feeds and strengthens most people — Pisces is the sign for whom sex is an inherently spiritual experience. Focus on the beautification of your home, starting from the kitchen out, and the food you prepare there. The way your chart is set up, everything you do along these lines will feed everything else, and you can get some energy cycling that feeds you and the people you love.