New Moon in Cancer and All Those Crazy Retrogrades

The New Moon is a seed time - after marinating on the shortcomings of decisions past, we try for a happier outcome, particularly if we are have planets in Cancer or the other Cardinal signs such as Aries, Libra or Capricorn. It is true on the world stage, too. We all live under one sky and exprience the same planetary movements. The critical diference, of course, being how those movements affect planets in our personal birth chart.

The Moon is a woman's planet, and what better time to reflect on women's power, or lack of it, when the Court is limiting the right of a woman to govern her own body. And because the Moon also reflects our physical bodies, to meditate on how it affects our body's health. Time couldn't be better to seed some new beginnings for health and women's issues.

So what is going on astrologically? Retrogrades, my friend! Retrograde motion means a planet appears to be going backward - overground it has already tred. The retrogrades of Pluto, Neptune and Saturn are all dragging us backward, taking our advances away and, in some cases, introducing new limitations.

Pluto was in Capricorn from 2008 until March 23, 2023 when it entered Aquarius. Pluto is still in Aquarius, but it is retrograde and slowly creeping backward into Capricorn. Capricorn is a very patriarchal, hierarchical sign. When it goes wrong, which it often has since 2008 when Pluto entered the sign, things go very badly wrong. From September 2 to November 20, Pluto will re-enter Capricorn. Ends that have not been neatly tied up from that long transit of Capricorn will be brought to consciousness to be dealt with AGAIN.

Capricorn believes the wealthy at the top of the food chain are special, deservedly so. They deserve those tax breaks! Aquarius is the revolutionary energy that our country was founded on - that no man is above the law and every person has a right to their unique pursuit of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

This Fourth of July week, the Supreme Court said we are not all equal under the law. It is illegal even to investigate wrongdoing by the President (if the Supreme Court deems it an official act) because the President is immune from prosecution. In a country dedicated to the idea that no man is above the law, we now have one man, the President, who IS above the law. Even beyond the specter of Trump, this is utterly frightening. Hitler and his Nazi thugs, for instance, did not operate illegally. They were morally reprehensible, but they operated within the law, because they made the law.

Remember when Trump said he could shoot someone on Fifth Avenue and get away with it? If he did it in office, the Supreme Court says "sounds reasonable." The Trump felony Trump may get thrown out of court because it referenced things he did during his term of office.

Over last weekend, both Saturn and Neptune have entered their retrograde zones, too. Neptune stood still and went backward at an anoretic point, 29 degrees Pisces. An anoretic degree is urgent, crisis oriented and strong. Neptune is now in the very last degree of Pisces and embodies an urgent, crisis oriented attitude toward fantasies, ungrounded visions, spirituality, illusions. Neptune will be retrograde at this critical degree when Pluto makes its re-entry into the crisis oriented 29th degree of Capricorn. Neptune is supporting Pluto with some fantastical, projective thinking.

Saturn, also retrograde in Pisces, is the ruler of Capricorn. Saturn can draw good limits and boundaries, but it can also be harsh, overly materialistic, and rigidly follow the wrong dream. However, there is also some potential here for grounding the fantasies we have recently seen so much of, and resolving to build better.

Two other, deeper things are happening, too. The United States had its first Pluto return (Pluto returning to the place it occupied at the founding of the country) two days after Putin invaded Ukraine. At that point, democracy vs autocracy became concrete, not an abstraction. Now, Pluto is dancing on the midpoint of the US Pluto and the US South Node. The South Node is where our journey as a country began, and where we did not get everything quite right. The US South Node is in Leo, which has the archetype of the King. So we are dancing around on this pivotal point of our values - and what do we intend to be - democracy or an autocracy?

And one last point - in mid July, Mars, the God of War - is going to conjunct volatile Uranus, God of Thunderbolts and Lightning, in Taurus (Earth) very near a malevolent fixed star, Algol. Algol is associated with violence, calamity and trouble. None of that sounds very promising, does it? We may see earth based problems, like volcanoes, earthquakes, storms, or some man-made violence.

This will be a difficult period from September to November, but do not give up heart. Out of a breakdown can come a breakthrough, and God knows, we could use one. So, once again, do not get caught up in fear. This breeds a lesser response to the planetary movements. As my mentor Steven Forrest said, there is no planetary configuration that is so good you can't louse it up or so bad you can't make it better. Chin up, maybe some seeds have been planted that will bear positive fruit in the days to come.