New Moon in Cancer
Wednesday, July 2, 2008
7:19pm PDT
11° 32’

Ah…a New Moon in Cancer, our chance to be held by the sweetness of love that pulsates through every living thing. With a Sun/Moon/Venus conjunction in Cancer, this is the New Moon to completely surrender into the heart of love: compassion for self and others. On this New Moon of love, we can truly cultivate the intention for living each day as a loving, heartful, mindfully, compassionate being.

If your life has been characterized by disconnection and alienation, this is the New Moon to honestly appraise the usefulness of defending against deeply felt emotional interactions with others. This is the time to look with real compassion at the insecurities and co-dependencies that arise from refusing to recognize and deal with inner emptiness. Thanks to all the retrograde planets—Chiron in Aquarius (wounding from emotional disconnection), Uranus in Pisces/Neptune in Aquarius (awakening into oneness), Jupiter in Capricorn (practical generosity) and Pluto in Sagittarius—we may all be palpably experiencing the inner conflict of existential meaninglessness and spiritual interconnectedness. The beauty of the human heart lies is its ability to feel a full range of emotion that arises when faced with the fundamental paradox of the human condition: we are essentially alone and ultimately one with all other existent life. Humans seek love and relationship in order to feel whole; yet real wholeness arises from self-realization. If we listen to the longings of a lonely heart, we can find tools to help us surrender into the ocean of love that is always all around us; always accessible to us.

Cancer makes everything more sensitive as it heightens the brain’s natural intuitive capacities: our interactions, our ability to intuit the meta-messages of any action or statement are realized when Sun, Moon and Venus are in Cancer. With relational Jupiter opposing Venus/Moon in Cancer and inconjunct Mercury in Gemini, we can sense the meta-message behind the words, we can also feel the full impact of any interaction we might have, before it occurs. And happily, Mars in cautious, deliberate Virgo makes any action we might take more considered and careful.

Cancer is about emotional nurturance and above all craves emotional security. Need I mention that it takes at least two to heal a relationship? This means that if you want to work on a relationship, this is one of the few New Moons where ritual is best done with all involved parties present and ready to do some serious work. Remember that half the battle is finding a way to express truth with love (Moon in Cancer) and a willingness to see the reality and deeper meaning of any relationship (Jupiter in Capricorn.) And Venus in Cancer should make it a whole lot easier to listen patiently and lovingly to the responses of others.

Cancer rules family, home, and the archetypal mothering energy. Saturn in Virgo adds the energy of the archetypal father to this New Moon. This is the best New Moon to work on your home life and the quality of interaction that goes on in your family. Though nothing is more important than family, it’s hard not to get caught up in the day-to-day hassles of family life. These days, most families are overwhelmed and harried by a never-ending cycle of work, school and extra-curricular activities. Since rushed lives leave little time to just "be" together, this is the New Moon to make a commitment to bringing relaxation back into the family schedule. We all need time to stop and really appreciate our loved ones: to fully embrace them, look deeply into their eyes, allowing the heart to soar in the recognition of oneness.

Generation gaps often create poor relationships between parents and children. This is especially so with teenagers who need to separate and parents who desperately want to protect. This is a great New Moon to redefine rules and extend boundaries for teenagers, by creating a contract that is based on mutual respect, personal responsibility and trustworthiness. Supporting a teenager’s need for independence can be done with love.

This is also a great New Moon to engage in healing work around your own childhood/family system issues. Most of us come at our adult lives based on our desire to recreate or disengage from our family patterns of behavior. Astrology is a great tool for delineating introjected familial patterns of behavior that affect our behavior in current relationships. Once the issues are delineated, there are many psychotherapeutic techniques for working on healing childhood trauma, and this is a great New Moon cycle to investigate issues of and methods for emotional healing. For those of you that have emotional issues with people who are no longer available, this is the New Moon to use the powerful psychic and intuitive power of Cancer to work on an energetic level and heal your own internal pain. Sometimes Cancer never knows when to cut the cords and stop trying to take care of other people. This is the right New Moon to take a hard look at your own patterns of neediness and codependency and let go of any strong attachments to constant worry.

This is the right New Moon to begin letting go of old defense and protection mechanisms that may be doing you, and your relationships, more harm than good. Do you crave love as a way to fill up your own inner emptiness? Do you mother others as a way to bury your own inadequacies in feelings of power? Do you hold on to unhealthy relationships because of a deep sense of unworthiness? The answers to these important questions often teach us much about our own underlying motivations for being loved. Wishing yourself well with metta is a beautiful way to cultivate compassionand lovingkindness for self and others. You can find recorded metta practices on my web site: www.lisadalemiller.com/metta.htm

Cancer represents the archetypal nurturing Mother. This is a great New Moon to investigate the Sacred Feminine and incorporate this wisdom into your daily life and by extension, into our world. The Way of the Sacred Feminine is one of love, caring, understanding, compassion, peace and joy. Our world suffers from a lack of Her presence and Her values in our governmental, educational, business and religious institutions. It is of course our job to reinvigorate our workplaces, communities, schools and politics with Her wisdom. The New Moon in Cancer rules the power of the archetypal feminine. The time has come for women at every corner of the globe, of every race, every nationality and every religion, to rise up and break the cycle of female powerlessness. It is our responsibility to wake up to reality, raise our voices as one, throw off our chains, and withdraw our political and economic support from the male-dominated institutions that have failed to create a safe, secure, and fair world. Women have to support each other in an effort to take our places as heads of State, corporate leaders and religious authorities. There is no one that will free us: we must liberate ourselves and insist that the way of the heart, the language and action of love is the only policy we will support with our votes and with our dollars. Women have the power, but we consistently refuse to use it. Let us not abdicate any longer! Use some of your ritual time to release indifference and inaction and come up with a personal action-plan to empower women.

Since Cancer rules caregiving, this is the New Moon to take a good hard look at how much you give to those in need. Do you volunteer at a local school, shelter, food bank, environmental group, children’s educational service, eldercare facility or hospice? How much have you extended your definition of family? One of my favorite Cancer New Moon cycle activities is to go through my house and gather up clothing and belongings I haven’t used for the last year, and then donate them. It reduces clutter in my own life and allows me to share the wealth with others.

For those of you who use your intuitive skills in your work, this is certainly the time to start any new programs of study to increase your intuition. Those of you who call yourselves healers and spiritual teachers should use this New Moon to look at your own motivations. Do you crave attention and get off on the neediness of others? Are you disempowering through advice-giving, rather than empowering a client’s ability to find their own answers, their own inner healing? Venus, Sun and Moon in Cancer require an honest appraisal of emotional agendas. And Mars/Saturn in Virgo and Jupiter in Capricorn challenge us to consider how much our own work as healers is rooted in a narcissistic need for love and attention. So don’t be afraid to ask yourself these tough questions. In the end it can only benefit your clients.

Any of you who wish to get in touch with your own intuitive capabilities couldn’t ask for a more psychically potent New Moon than this one. Try asking for wisdom while gazing into a bowl of water or crystal ball or drawing a few cards from a Tarot deck. You will be amazed at how much contact you already have with your own inner truth. You already have your own answers, and ready access to them. It is just a matter of opening up to your own inner voice and then trusting it. This is certainly the perfect New Moon to open the channel to inner wisdom and self-knowing.

So take care of your emotional life by committing to an insistence on love and kindness in all your interactions. This is the way of Cancer!

New Moon in Gemini
Tuesday, June 3, 2008
12:23pm PDT
13º 34’

We are what we think
All that we are arises with our thoughts.
With our thoughts we make the world.
Speak or act with a pure mind
And happiness will follow you
As your shadow, unshakeable.

How can a troubled mind understand the way?
Your worst enemy cannot harm you
as much as your own thoughts unguarded.

But once mastered,
No one can help you as much,
Not even your father or your mother.

Buddha

Gemini rules information: its gathering and dissemination. Gemini represents knowledge of the material plane of existence, which is made up of binary information bits; a digital landscape of 0’s and 1’s. Gemini rules the mind and our thought processes. This is the New Moon for all of us to reclaim our mental space; to set limits on what gets our attention, and to carefully examine how our current diet of information is affecting our lives. As you may have noticed, our world is suffering from a bad case of close-mindedness fueled by fear, greed, hatred and delusion. Concurrently, we are also suffering from information overload. Our lives have become a roller coaster of good news one day, bad news the next, and a constant need to deal with the ensuing manic reactions that follow both extremes.

On this New Moon we can work toward opening the mind to a diverse range of ideas, while maintaining a perspective rooted in the principles of generosity (Jupiter in Capricorn), truthful/wise speech (Pluto in Capricorn), and a responsibility to serve (Saturn in Virgo). With Mars/South Node in Leo (egoic attachment) we will all have to work a bit harder to tone down our inner Mr. or Ms. Know-it-All! Sun/Moon/Mercury/Venus in all-over-the-map Gemini and Neptune/Chiron/North Node in lightning-fast Aquarius, holding the mind steady will be challenge. If you find yourself feeling pulled in a thousand different directions simultaneously, this is the source. There is no way fight it, so do what you can to reign yourself in intellectually and verbally, while allowing the play of ideas free reign to take you places you might not otherwise go.

Gemini’s symbol is the twins, but they are not identical; they represent the broad spectrum of experience and therefore oppose one another. However, since they share a common transcendent source, they are the identical. Gemini allows us to realize the truth that all things which appear different on the surface, share a fundamental sameness.

Gemini, with its love of communication, makes this New Moon a good one to work on opening up around areas of our lives that have been mired in conflict and misunderstanding. The Mercury trine to the North Node/Chiron/Neptune in Aquarius along with the South Node as focal planet of a Yod with Uranus in Pisces and North Node/Chiron/Neptune in Aquarius makes this the right time to question and transform old beliefs about identity and relationality. We can talk about it. We can find the right words. We can be inspired to open up to new ideas. We can relax and let our words be a force for healing and transformation. Yods are configurations of frustration that when harness can open us to intense focus and power.

If you make your living in high tech, communication, politics, education, or new media, these aspects are incredible for brainstorming sessions or meetings to forge new creative or professional relationships.

Gemini is best symbolized by flexibility, changeability, and adaptation, and this is the New Moon to cultivate these qualities and incorporate them into our daily lives. When strong winds and hard rains come, the supple trees bend and sway with the each gust. It is only the hardened, stiff trees that break and fall. When we harden our hearts and minds, plant our feet and become immovable, we set ourselves up for failure. To survive the gusts of hatred and fear, we must open our minds and create useful dialogue. Fear makes us stiffen up and go rigid.

As you know, all New Moons are a time to initiate new goals, ideas, and desires. Mercury, Gemini’s ruler, shows itself in our thoughts, ideas, and our ability to learn. Gemini rules the gathering of knowledge, an inherently open-systems process, that requires us to reach far and wide to get as much data as possible, even opening our minds to perspectives we might normally dismiss. If you are in a researching phase, this is the time to get help and gather as much information as you can about new endeavors. The New Moon in Gemini calls on each of us to open up, talk about it (whatever it is), and open ourselves to feedback.

This is the New Moon to work on your communication skills. Learning how to communicate effectively creates successful relationships. Mars in Leo tends to make us narcissistic and overly attached to our own ideas and desires. Try warming up to the idea that you are not the center of the universe and your great ideas might get better with some good ‘ol Gemini teamwork. Resist the temptation get mired in drama or anger of a bruised ego. Open yourself to the perspective of the other. What harm would it do if you chose to see the other side or walked a mile in someone else’s shoes? We must all find a way to talk through our disagreements. Walking away in anger never solves anything. Learn to recognize your anger: stop, stay, be quiet, and then speak from a calm rationality and not from the rage.

This is the right New Moon to communicate your wishes, dreams and desires to those who can aid your progress. The truth is, no one does it completely alone and learning to ask for help at the right time is one of life’s hardest lessons. Over the next two weeks as the Moon waxes to fullness, try to really hear what those around you have to say about your wishes, and take their advice to heart. Honest and clear communication is a two-way street and the best way to achieve a successful outcome for all.

Of course for those of you who make your living in the communications/publishing field, this is the best time to initiate new projects in film, video, TV, publishing, and writing. Deal with your fear and just get the work out there!

One last thing, Gemini rules change. This is the best night to work on managing your fear of change. Everything changes; it is the nature of Maya, the field of relativity. When we ride the changes and make surfing the waves of change a vehicle for success, we actualize the highest expression of Gemini. This is the New Moon to celebrate the power knowledge holds to broaden our perspective and open our minds!

 

New Moon in Taurus
Monday, May 5, 2008
5:18am PDT 
15º 22’

Taurus rules our commitment to provide for our families and communities, and Venus/Sun/Moon in Taurus represents our identification to and emotional connection with Mother Earth. This year, a grand trine between Pluto in Capricorn, Venus in Taurus, and Saturn in Virgo create a sense of destiny about the arrival of “green consciousness” in the mainstream. Saturn in Virgo is all about sacrifice, Pluto in Capricorn is all about getting real, and Venus in Taurus reminds us that “going green” can be aesthetically beautiful and healing for All our Relations. So, its time to do more than mea culpa for global warming, deforestation, and extinction of so many species on our planet. We must ACT NOW!

Remember that Neptune rules oil, and while in Aquarius, Neptune acts as a shared delusion that we can continue to use oil as we always have. Chiron and Neptune ion Aquarius are awakening us to the crisis currently being created by spiraling oil prices, which is fast escalating into a food production crisis. How much worse does it have to get? When will our personal responsibility to take care of the environment outweigh our ceaseless desire to fulfill our own individual needs? Uranus in Pisces (interconnectivity) will do much to open our hearts to the impact of our greed and selfish desires. Even now the meager calls for energy independence from Bush are pitiful. It is time for all of us to start fighting for a big redirect of engineering and financial resources to develop sun, wind and water technology before we have no oil left.

Taurus is all about making real what is in our minds. What can you do? Connect your self-worth with your role as caretaker of Mother Earth and all her inhabitants. Taurus walks the path of beauty and gives away its time and talent for many causes. Don’t just gripe about the environment: get out there and pick up trash in your local park or on a beach. Don’t just gripe about the price of gas: go buy a more fuel-efficient or hybrid vehicle, or walk/bike to work. Don’t whine about homelessness: get yourself to a shelter, food bank or aid program and volunteer your time. Don’t scream about the trashing of education funding: get to a school and offer your services to the kids and get on the anti-war protest lines to demand your tax dollars go to education not bombs. Enlist your brain, brawn, talent and time in shattering the illusion of separation.

Taurus represents caretaking, security issues, personal values and morals, self-worth, and one’s attachment to possessions, land and money. This is the New Moon for revisioning our ideas about abundance. And these days, with the global economy teetering on collapse, we all have to reframe personal gain of wealth and security as part of our own effort to build the health and well-being of others. There is no system in nature that exists in a constant state of expansion. Contraction is an integral part of a balanced life. Taurus embodies the challenge of knowing how to save in the good times, so we can savor and enjoy the downtimes. Saving requires maturity, responsibility and moderation: the defining lessons of Taurus.

The Taurus New Moon is the best time to get serious about your finances. Set financial goals that make sense, commit to a budget, and/or set earnings and savings goals for the year. There are some people for whom financial success seems effortless, and some who engage in an endless struggle with their finances. Money is not a fixed entity, it is energetic and always in flux; sometimes we have more of it, sometimes we have less. A healthy relationship to money reflects a sense of rhythm and play. That Taurus, a fixed sign, rules the ever-changing world of monetary matters really comes down to the fact that Taurus’ modest, frugality breeds an even-tempered relationship to money. It is true that Taurus loves to be surrounded by luxury, but there is a great difference between insisting on good quality and indulging excessively in materiality. Think of this New Moon as a time to nurture the boy/girl scout within by cultivating financial preparedness and responsibility.

Since Taurus rules survival issues, this is the New Moon to look at how you meet your daily needs. What does fulfillment mean to you: surrounding yourself with mountains of possessions as a means to self-definition, or spending wisely on the few things that really matter? Are you so busy keeping up with the latest styles, must-haves and trends, that you have forgotten what is important to you? This is the New Moon to seriously reconsider what makes you happy in a realistic way. Jupiter and Pluto in Capricorn are asking each of us to bring our desires in line with an economical consciousness. Try this exercise for the next two weeks. Before you purchase something, think about how you will feel after you own it, and be honest about how much use you will really get out of it. What will you do with it when it has outlived its usefulness? The answers to these questions will tell you if it’s worth buying. You will be surprised at how much prosperity can be generated from a concerted effort to be more conscious about spending.

Taurus is the great procrastinator of the zodiac. It can always find more than enough distractions: shopping, cleaning, cooking, laundry, carpooling, errands, paying bills, caring for loved ones, and never-ending yard work. If you are a procrastinator, use this New Moon to make some serious commitments to setting goals for getting your work done…and adhering to them. Since Taurus rules procrastination, work on taming this demon and you will see your success rate soar!
Taurus needs to enjoy its work. So if you make your living doing what you love, you are way ahead of the game. But if you spend your time at a job you despise because you can’t figure out how to get paid to do what you love, this is the New Moon to work on changing that reality. This basically comes down to building self-confidence, believing in the value of your talent and then doing the work. Creativity isn’t about genius; it is really about giving from the heart. Anything, when done well (even sidewalk sweeping) can be satisfying and creative work.

Chiron and Neptune in Aquarius ask us all to look at our wounding around issues of originality and staying ahead of the curve. Here in Silicon Valley business is driven by an obsession with being first and always new and different. Aquarius reminds us that it isn’t just being new or first, but more connecting with the pulse of the communal mind and heart; expressing that which everyone is feeling and thinking but not ready to face openly. Taurus is all about making real things that uplift and benefit real people’s lives. This requires some attention to how one defines success. Look at the cost of what you define as success. And remember, success when measured with the yardstick of ever-increasing productivity is the mania that drives our world and us to desperation, violence and war. What good is all that money if you don’t have time to enjoy it? We all have to learn how to take some time off and relax.

In the Tarot, Taurus is associated with the Magician card—garnering personal will to gain the necessary tools and knowledge for future success. If you own your own business, this is the New Moon cycle to ground strategies and products in reality by invest in research and development. For the self-employed, this is the time to work on developing new client relationships, expand your skill-set, investing in equipment upgrades, and set earnings targets.

Taurus is all about the push/pull of responsibility to others and the desire to follow one’s own will. This is a constant theme in all our lives. Some feel like free agents; others feel constantly at the beck and call of family, friends and business associates, never able to enjoy a private moment. Most of us have lives filled with the constant weighing our own needs against the needs of others. This is the New Moon to consider how this juggling act plays out in your life. How easily do you devote time to your own pleasure? How much responsibility do you take on for others? Are you choosing to martyr yourself, while thinking others demand it from you?

Since Taurus rules our relationship to nature and its beauty, spend the next two weeks beautifying your home and garden, or get involved in a local beautification project or conservation program. If you are looking to buy, sell or rent property, this is the New Moon to focus your attention on getting exactly what you want. Taurus demands beauty and comfort at a reasonable price: and so should you. If you can visualize it, you can make it a reality!

Of course we cannot forget Taurus, the passionate, sensual, lover! So after you do “the hard work” of this goal-setting ritual, relax into a hot bubble bath or treat yourself to a delicious meal and then get a good night’s rest. Of course if you are lucky enough to share your life with a partner, it becomes an invitation for lovemaking and sharing of sensual pleasure.

Either way, you will awaken ready to face the new day with renewed vigor and joy! Enjoy this beautiful and fruitful New Moon!

 

New Moon in Aries
Saturday, April 5, 2008
8:55pm PDT
16º 44’

Because Aries is the youngest of the signs, this is the New Moon for fresh starts, turning over a new leaf or starting a new phase. Aries represents the inner child; that trusting, innocent soul which lives within each of us. Even in the worst of times, it is important to be aware of the ever-present humor that exists in the darkest moments of our lives. After all, the greatest comedy does arise from the deepest tragedies.

I realize childlike innocence may be hard to conjure up when the global economy and political landscape are in such disarray, but this is the only New Moon of the year when we get to start all over again. If this past year has left you feeling beaten down, depressed, and physically or emotionally wounded, this is the New Moon to start anew. When darkness comes into our lives, we must remember that the dawn will eventually come. This year, the Sun and Moon in Aries are focal planets in a T-square with Mars in Cancer (compassionate action) and Jupiter in Capricorn (altruistic realism). This represents an intense pressure for emotional and intellectual maturity exerted on an Arian childlike desire to “just go for it!”

Add to this the trine from seriously responsible Saturn in Virgo and all-too-real Pluto in Capricorn and this New Moon in Aries may end up being a battle between fear of change and the need for change.
So here are some ways to conquer fear. Think of this New Moon as the light at the end of the tunnel, the beginning of your journey back to wholeness, not the end of that journey.

Aries is all about adventure and the indomitable spirit of the adventurer helps open us to trying something different; something you think isn’t you… but might just be. Reinvigorate your lust for life. We have all become so fearful and risk-averse. Go on an adventure, be spontaneous, or just do something wild and crazy. There is a time and place for play, and this is the New Moon to remember that all work and no play make us very dull people! So use your ritual to figure out how to bring more fun into your life! After all, life is just a big adventure.

Aries rules sports and exercise. Spring has arrived and if you have been couch-potatoing all winter long, it's time to get out and start moving your body! This is the ideal New Moon for starting an exercise program and making it a natural part of your daily routine. Just taking a 30-minute brisk walk each day can increase your health dramatically! For those of you who are already active and may want to take on a special challenge, this is the New Moon to initiate that dream of doing your first marathon or triathlon.

The New Moon in Aries is the best time to create a ritual for figuring out exactly what you want; no matter how hard the solution, no matter the amount of despair and hopelessness. Renewal is a matter of changing our perspective to include the magical and imaginative realms of possibility; especially with Sun/Moon/Mercury in impulsive, quick-minded Aries, Uranus (awakening) and Venus (creativity) in imaginative Pisces, These planetary placements will make it possible to dive back into a childlike world where if it can be thought, it can be made to happen.

Aries says, “I can!” with a level of faith that only an innocent child who has not yet failed can muster. When you do your New Moon in Aries ritual, your heart and mind must be centered in an open attitude of excitement—“let’s go,” or “I can do anything,” or “I can be anyone,” or “the world is my oyster,” or “life is an adventure!”. This is a New Moon that asks us to take a leap of faith and do the impossible. This a New Moon to come at who you are with a sense of wonder, magic and first-time awe. Go find out who you are and what you want; you might just be surprised.

Even with restricted, controlling, retrograde Saturn in Virgo, this is the New Moon to talk back to feelings of self-limitation and learn how to go with the flow. Think of Saturn as all the experience you have had up to this moment. What you have learned, what you have lost and gained. Then let go of the need to believe that nothing can be different. Don’t control the possible now by holding to expectations from the past. We are so busy controlling our lives that we forget to recognize and value synchronicity and serendipity. Learn to let go and trust that everything is as it should be. It makes for a more peaceful and contented life. Though few of us like to admit it, the truth is that security is an illusion because everything is in a constant state of change.

Most of you know that the Ares was the Greek God of war. Aries represents the undeveloped self, learning about itself through experience. Since an undeveloped self does not readily put itself in the place of the other, this lack of relational skills is what makes violence, killing, and rape possible. War making is the natural outcome of actions that stem from an immature, underdeveloped self, with little ability to creatively solve problems.

This is the New Moon to recognize the futility, stupidity and infantilism of imagining war as a way to solve problems. I found it terribly difficult on yet another anniversary of the Iraq war to contain my rage at the continuing denials by Bush and Cheney of the horrific conditions in Iraq, and their inability to admit responsibility for the immense negative consequences this war has had for both nations.  

So don’t do as our deluded leaders have done. This is the New Moon to discipline your impulsivity, selfishness, oppositionality, and impatience. Use this New Moon to reinvigorate your relationship with the inner warrior/warrioress. Though we need this part of ourselves to stand up and advocate for our positions, we also need to learn how to use this power appropriately. Create a ritual to discover or reconnect with your power animal teachers. They are the key to gaining a deeper understanding of our instinctual nature and how to successfully integrate it into our lives.

 

©2008 Lisa Dale Miller
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PERMISSION MUST BE GRANTED BY THE AUTHOR FOR USE ON WEB SITES AND FOR OUTSIDE PUBLISHING