The New Moon happens at 8:12 pm, PDT on Wednesday, July 31st and is in sidereal Cancer in the star of Pushya. Cancer is the sign of the Mother, the nurturer, and the unconditional love a mother offers to her child. Pushya, right in the heart of Cancer, is the nourisher, the one who feeds the child and sustains them. Represented by the cow's udder, it is the bosom, the breast from which all life is sustained. Pushya is a very spiritual star, as it is the star under which Jupiter is exalted. Jupiter is both the planet of Wisdom and Teachers, and the planet of our best teachers, Children. Children flourish under the love and care of their mothers, and wisdom pervades when devotion is at the heart of one's spiritual search. If we are merely doing practices to gain something in our body or mind, or what we believe will happen in an after-life, we are not sincerely connecting to spirit. We are in the ego state. If we are like a mother, unconditional in our love and devotion, then we are truly wise. This new moon is a time to connect to this state of true love, both as children of Mother/Father God and as wells of this pure love ourselves.


Both Mars and Venus are joining the Moon and Sun here, so we see a strong balance of both the Masculine and the Feminine, with the King, Queen, Maiden and Warrior all holding court at Mama's house. She is such a gracious host, she can cater to all, but don't forget to recharge your batteries with a long bath, a quiet moment or a solo swim. When the Sun and Moon join, it is literally the new Moon, where we don't see the Moon because she is completely coved by the Sun, as opposed to reflecting his rays. This is generally a meditative time for us, a time when women naturally menstruate and when our minds are less full. It can feel more sad and empty, but that emptying is a need we have to release. With the house full, we will be contending with the passive-aggressive nature that Mars has been giving us her in Cancer for a month now, choosing emotional battles and feeling hurt. We will also be feeling a bit put upon, as Venus in Cancer can give us the feeling of being used or not met in our relationships with all of our actually conditional love masquerading as unconditional love. Venus is where we meet other adults, both romantic and otherwise and in Cancer we may act as though these adults are our children, giving and giving. When they do not reciprocate with what we feel we need, we get angry and think they do no love us. If we can keep our hearts in the space of devotion and peace, and not spend as much time brooding over our interactions with others, we will tap into the higher emotional space Cancer can bring us to. If we focus on the daily, and keep about our routines, we are likely to feel overwhelmed, under-plenished and used. Self-Care and Spiritual practice are a necessity!


Mercury just left Cancer in it's retrograde state, to step into Gemini, and is already stationary. So don't be surprised if your phone, computer and mail are too, lol! By the end of the day on the 31st, Mercury will be direct in the sky and heading back towards Cancer and all our emotions can come pouring out again into words, lol! Jupiter will also turn direct this month, on August 11th, offering us some forward motion on our motivations. When Jupiter is Retrograde, as he has been for months now, we are confused and questioning our very beliefs and what inspires us. Since our belief system directs so much of what we choose to do (or not do) in our outside lives, it can be very wearying, especially when Saturn (and other planets) also are Retrograde. This process is important though, as we must constantly be holding our beliefs up and examining them to make sure we still can stand behind them and how they are playing out in our lives and the world around us. Hopefully, some of the deep, inner work we have been doing will begin to pay off now as we warrior our way forward, stronger in what motivates and inspires us. This Jupiter, as it is still retrograde, yet stationing, is giving dristhi, or an energetic glance towards all the planets in Cancer, under this new moon. This will be that shot of wisdom, courage even, internally that will remind us how to rise above the pettiness and sit in the divinity available here.


Blessings on your New Moon! Hare Ohm


For More Information or to find out how these alignments affect your personal life:

The Lunar Eclipse this Tuesday will be happening outside of Moonrise for the majority of people in North America, but people in Europe, Africa, India, China, Australia and South America will all be able to witness at least a portion of the event. The entire event will take place from 11:43 am PDT to 5:17 pm PDT, with the Full Moon occurring at 2:38 pm.  The eclipses happen in pairs. Two weeks ago we had a Total Solar Eclipse in sidereal Gemini and now we are seeing the other side of that, the Partial Lunar Eclipse in Sagittarius. This is not only a “flip” of the energy and themes of the eclipse two weeks ago, it is also a flip on whatever area of your life this axis is riding. The houses are across from their “opposite” house. For example, your first house, or your outer self is across from your seventh house, the house of others and relationships. So if nodal axis (or eclipse points) are transiting your first and seventh houses, this will be the cycle you are experiencing being flipped. For a Gemini, they might have stepped into themselves and their identity in some way leading up to the solar eclipse and now are being forced to look at how their self-importance has affected their relationships. For a Sagittarius, it would be the opposite. For more detailed explanations on how this affects each of the 12 rising signs, visit my site and sign up for the newsletter. My gift to you is a FREE report on this current nodal axis and how it is riding in the lives of each of the 12 signs.


This Full Moon is also known as Guru Purnima in India, the Full Moon of the Guru, or teacher. Generally this is a time to honor our teachers, especially fully realized beings, Sat Gurus. We are grateful for the wisdom they pass on, the knowledge we garner and we are able to tap into the teachings on a psychological and spiritual level at this time. This Guru Purnima, meeting up with the South eclipse point, is a chance to get those insightful flashes of insight that seem to come from beyond the world and offer us a glimpse of something deeper or more meaningful. In this case, likely something from the past, that we have seen before but not fully understood, and something that helps us complete the karma of the house that Ketu is located in for us in our personal charts.


The star this eclipse and Full Moon are happening is Uttara Ashada, located partially in Sagittarius (as with this Moon) and partially in Capricorn. It is the later victory, the reward we get for putting in the hard work to plant and sow things in our world that are aligned with our beliefs. The ability to use our spiritual teachings to discern what we should be planting and tending to in our lives, is rewarded by the harvest. We can still expect much work, but there is a victory that comes with seeing actual tangible results, which we especially witness in the Capricorn portion of this star. Ruled by the Sun, it shows our strength and connection to source and it is also represented by the elephant tusk, which can be both a sign of wisdom (like Ganesh, the keeper of the Vedas) and connection to the natural world and our wild spirit. Both Ganesh and Jupiter (the ruler of Sagittarius) are our teachers and the greatest teachers in the “regular” world, our children. What can we learn, even when we are teaching? What can we pass on to future generations that is teaching them to experience truth for themselves, instead of just filling them with our beliefs? Truth, in its integrity, must be a grain so fine it can transcend all time and space.


With both the ruler of the sign of Sagittarius, Jupiter and Saturn, sitting in Sagittarius Retrograde, we can expect that we are feeling uncomfortable or questioning of what work we've put in, where we are, and what beliefs are efforts are founded on to begin with. With the South Node, Ketu (the eclipse point that is eclipsing the Moon) here, you can bet that you are not interested in dealing with this part of your life right now at all, and yet have to. When we ignore or suppress one side of the axis, in favor of the other, you can bet it will come back to bite us! With our emotional self, our psyche here with Ketu and Saturn, we are feeling it deeply...all the disappointment, all the pressure and all the confusion around it. Will it end? Yes. It will. Answers will come and the air will clear, for some faster and easier than others but the emotional attachment will be dissipating as soon as the Moon moves on to Capricorn.


It does not help that we have a frustrated, debilitated Mars punching pillows in Cancer right now, giving us no outlet for our passion, anger and need for discipline and courage. We may be extremely passive aggressive right now and throwing some tantrums as we expect unconditional love for doing nothing and our anger is fluxating with our volatile emotions. Mercury Retrograde is here in Cancer too, giving us an emotion-based experience with information processing and communication as well. Fortunately, the retrograde part is offering us a slowed down and delayed sense of communication, so we might not spill out our crazy tirade each time our emotions compel us to do so. We can get pretty worked up about the fact that we are getting delayed communications, however, and take it pretty personally. The Sun is almost in Cancer too, giving us a period of time where our power and authority will also come from this emotional place. While Mercury will be moving back into Gemini, where it is in its home sign, the fact that its retrograde will keep communication glitches coming and with the Sun moving in on Mars, we might find ourselves with a short fuse in a couple weeks. This is a good time to watch what we say (written and spoken), re-read, re-check and re-visit anything we might be putting out into the world and to practice as many calming and meditative practices we have in our toolbox. We are not super disciplined right now, for the most part, so it can be hard to keep up the steady rhythm of daily exercise and meditation, but we will be very grateful we did. Perhaps some slower and stiller versions of whatever you do can help: Yin Yoga, Restorative, Tai Chi can all be helpful. Also swimming in water will both cool you off and bring peace to your watery emotions.
Hare Ohm