This weekend(Friday, Saturday and Sunday) is a powerful astrological portal with the new moon at 0 Cancer, which also happens to be an annular Solar Eclipse followed by the Solstice on Saturday. Just any one of these transits would be powerful by itself, but all of these together, is off the charts!
If that was not enough, Mercury, the planet that represents our mind, our communication, our expression, turns retrograde today for 3 weeks in the sign of Cancer. This means that there is an internal focus on our mental realm, and feelings are brought to the forefront and maybe hard to avoid during this period.
Solstice is a major checkpoint in our yearly cycle. This is when the Sun enters the sign of Cancer. Normally we would look to see if we were on track for our yearly goals at this midpoint during the year.
But there is nothing normal about our current time.
With the unusual year we've had, it's possible that things have changed for you and are not clear.
So then how do you navigate times like this where we don't have clarity on the path ahead?
How do you sit in the uncertainty?
How do you hold space for the unknown to unfold?
This is the strength of the Cancer archetype, which we will feel greatly, as all the above transits concern the sign of Cancer.
**Holding space is what Cancer is known for. **
Like the mother to be, caring for the unborn unseen baby.
Like the parent, nurturing a baby's growth and even after its born, holding space for a child to grow to independence.
Our current times are asking us: how do we hold space for ourselves & our families & communities in times of darkness?
The archetype of Cancer, is a Water sign, deeply feeling. It cares most about healthy responsible nurturing and providing a safe space for growth.
It allows for the not knowing, not expecting to have all answers, but rather supporting through this unknown phase in healthy loving ways.
**The shadow of the Cancer archetype **shows up as wanting to control the growth, not being able to let go when something has reached maturity. It also shows up as nurturing others in unhealthy ways, giving so much that the self is neglected, leading then to feeling like a victim and resenting the role of giving.
So during this period, when the Cancer energies will be most strongly felt, ask yourself:
- How do I support myself or my family/community to walk through an unknown phase of life?
- Do I need to develop the ability to be ok with not knowing for a while?
- Do I need to let go of the need to control an outcome or even the HOW, and instead develop trust and patience for things to unfold?
- Are the ways I give healthy, which means do they nourish others as well as myself in balanced ways?
- Am I able to provide nurturing and support joyfully, or do I find myself getting resentful when I do so?
Holding space for myself is something I got really good at as I went through Pluto transits in the past few years. Pluto transits bring about a death and rebirth in a person. As Pluto started to go over my Mercury and then Mars, it became obvious that the things I held value for were changing big time. It brought me to a point where the old stuff in my life was dying, but the new path ahead was not clear at all. Sitting in this dark space, requires an immense amount of trust. And what kept me going, was a deep trust that I have immense potential and to hold on. **Collectively, humanity is going through a death and rebirth process. **
This is a bit of what it looked like for me and some of it may be familiar to you:
- allowing myself to not know what is ahead
- letting go of external accomplishments that had formed my identity at the time
- allowing myself to grieve greatly
- allowing myself to experiment, to be curious,
- allowing myself to be ok with not being good at something, to fail and fall, just as a child is when learning new skills
- lovingly holding myself as I stumbled in the dark trying to find my way out
These are 2 of my biggest sources of motivation for doing what I do, for pursuing my passion, for caring and daring to own my uniqueness. My 2 kids, wonderful souls from whom I have learned a great deal and who inspire me to be truer and truer to myself.
For, if I can't do it for myself, how can I support my kids to do the same for themselves?
If I can't hold space for my own potential to emerge, how can I support them to follow the path that is true for them?
The mother archetype exemplified by the zodiac sign of Cancer, says to me, nurture myself in deeply loving ways, so I can do the same for my children.
Finally, this new moon Solar Eclipse is brand new beginning energetically. Mercury Rx in Cancer will bring up deep seated feelings regarding our home and roots, foundations, past stories around what it means to be nurturing and be nurtured. Process these feelings and decide WHO you want to be. This is a major point to be planting seeds for our vision of how we want our lives to look going ahead. So be aware of what's coming up for you during this time and lovingly hold yourself through it.
May you find strength in the deep knowing that there is a point to all that we are going through and that you have the resources to carry yourself with love through it.