New Moon in Cancer

Strength lies in the ability to be vulnerable. This is the potent message of July 5th’s New Moon in Cancer. The cosmic crab has a hard shell and pincers, making it seem closed off, defensive. Yet, underneath that armor lies a soft, tender underbelly. Cancer is, at heart, deeply sensitive and prone to enormous feelings that build and break like stormy waves in an open ocean. This armor is essential for the crab to be able to navigate a sometimes harsh world.

With this particular New Moon, there’s a call to soften our armor, while still remaining boundaried and protected. It’s not an easy task, particularly when it comes to the main theme of Cancer, which is home and family. Here, we are at our most defenseless, our most unguarded. Here’s where, as much work as we have done, we tend to fall back on old defense mechanisms, onto behaviors that protect us and guard us from having our soft hearts bruised beyond repair.

Venus nearby - just a few degrees away - from this New Moon reminds us that love is all and pleasure is our birthright. Here, she brings gentle love, a motherly love, a nourishing, nurturing love. Love is in our future, in whichever form we choose to manifest it.

Saturn also lies in close alignment to La Luna via a stalwart trine aspect. This steadies the emotions of this New Moon, allowing for openness, yet with a healthy dose of caution. It’s a configuration that supports us in not only creating boundaries but also helping to maintain them.

Being the sign of home, this New Moon may also beckon us to ask ourselves deeply -what is home? Who is home? Do we need to set down roots in the place we were born? Can we create roots in a place far from home, yet still feel at home? Remember, the crab carries home on their backs, making anywhere and everywhere sanctuary. This New Moon reminds us that Home is within.

Thus, this is an opportune moment to sow seeds for love, for home, for sanctuary, for safety, and for belonging. The next several months will unfold in a way that helps us navigate to where our heart belongs, to where we feel most resonant. Family, too, can be the family we choose. It does not have to be blood. Saturn’s influence reminds us that, while the inner child within may yearn for the nurturing arms of mother and father, it behooves us to be our own inner parent, to decide for ourselves what’s best for us. There may be an air of loneliness, but there’s also emotional resilience and strength in this New Moon energy. Situations may arise which test our ability to stand on our own two feet. Like the child learning to walk for the first time, it’s important to trust those first vulnerable steps into an unknown future.