The Moon grows into its fullness in Capricorn this week, while Saturn retrograde also re-enters Capricorn. It’s a good week to engage our relationship with responsibility, productivity, authority, and ethics – all of which many of us have complex relationships to. Watch this forecast on YouTube or continue reading below!
Capricorn relates to doing things which may not be immediately pleasurable but which have consequences we appreciate. If we are new to building a life-enhancing habit, it is a struggle at first, and once we become more accustomed to it (or conditioned) it is easier to maintain.
An image comes to mind of a parent trying to get their child to put on their shoes, and the kid is not having it. Whether in this image the parent is kind and gentle, or frustrated, it could really go either way. There is just the quality of kicking and screaming in relationship to doing basic life things. And we each have our threshold, or the thing that life itself is asking of us in place of putting on our shoes, that we’re having an internal fit about. We are both parent and child in this metaphor – and somehow they are being asked to harmonize.
In addition to that inner dynamic, a potential tone of the week is grounding into a deeper layer of self-empowerment and communal generosity that comes from caring – both in the empathic sense and in concrete actions. Sometimes what we see is missing from the world around us is what we have inherently, to contribute and give to the world.
Inevitably we have received the cultural narrative that nature is a place of ruthless survival, and that beings have to compete for resources and compete with each other to survive. This kind of framework glosses over the complexity of interdependence, collaboration, and synergy that can also be found in nature (and we are also nature). We could analyze what any various being provides to its environment and how this act of providing generates abundance and wellbeing for countless relations in the living system.
There is a common reticence around providing – for the fear of not having enough or running out, of being taken advantage of, of growing weary and drained by it, etc. The act of providing and giving to others is not without its own complexities and arts. Withholding does have its place – such as when over-giving as occurred, or there is not enough trust and respect present for the giving to occur. Capricorn is also about boundaries, after all.
On the other hand, the further one recedes from giving of themselves and learning the art of doing so as it applies uniquely to them (skillfulness does not just happen overnight), the more disconnected one might become from the ecosystem, the ecosystem as mutual provider.
This is not to suggest that anyone step so far outside of themselves as to lose themselves. Capricorn relates as well to stillness, rest, and in this deep stillness awareness percolates through the mind and body that can only happen from pause. These insights can then inform how one lives.
This IS all to say that we are not disconnected from nature, and so if we sideline ourselves so that other people and other forces “do the job” we have removed ourselves from a living system. There is no need to aggressively, reactively do things to be productive, but rather a deep, still, interior opening I invite you into, to consider what your soul wants to give to the world, and what kind of mutual flourishing this could generate in a collaborative, abundant cosmos.
Welcome back! Or in case this is your first time here, I’m Sabrina Monarch and I’m a soul-centered astrologer. I love providing perspectives on the opportunities of transits and putting into words what the vibe feels like at this moment in time, to support you on your path & open a dialogue between us and the cosmos. If you would like to receive these weekly forecasts to your inbox, sign up for my mailing list here.
Here’s our week, after a few announcements:
Kickstarter to fund the year ahead of astrology forecasts and Magic of the Spheres podcast episodes: June marked the beginning of the sixth year of writing these weekly forecasts and I’m asking for your support to crowdfund the year ahead. I’m offering astrology readings, discounted tuition to my Evolutionary Astrology course, and more. These forecasts have long been free and providing so much value to many people’s lives, and I truly need the support of you as my community to thrive. (Consider me like public radio!) I aim to keep sharing valuable free content for years to come and I ask for your help keeping Monarch Astrology around. Please help me reach my goal of having 200 backers – we’re at 42 at the time of publishing this forecast! The campaign lasts till July 30. Back the campaign here.
I’m really excited to share this course in part because I literally don’t think there is anything else out there like it! It’s a psychological, intutive, mystical exploration on the process of cultivating an online presence. This includes moving away from the narrative of the internet as a place of soul-depleting scrolling and moving toward an imagination of the internet as a place of magic, opportunity, and connection — and then actually embodying that more enriching perspective in how one participates with the collective airwaves.
This course also explores the inner-psychological, often hidden/private, processes that go into the cultivation of an online life or a public presence. The resistances and anxieties that come along with this are archetypal and human, and very much part of the path.
I hope that this course unlocks catalytic insights that makes way for businesses, friendships, colleague relationships that are now just awaiting in the wings. Enrollment is open through the Kickstarter at its lowest ever price.
Learn Evolutionary Astrology with me in August! The next run of the Evolutionary Astrology intensive begins this August. Note you can enroll at a discount through the Kickstarter! This is a transformational course with glowing alumni feedback – learn more about the program and read reviews on the course page here.
New episode of Magic of the Spheres!
I had a fascinating conversation with fellow astrologer Nate Speare about performance, and performance’s connections to psychological/emotional range, magic, and charisma. I wanted to talk to Nate because when I see his astrology updates on social media, they are transmission-like, where he uses different sounds, and voices, and theatric elements essentially, to convey the feeling tone of the transits he is describing. I felt that there was probably something dynamic and thoughtful behind that process and how he developed his theatric vocabulary, and I wasn’t wrong 🙂
Nate Speare is an astrologer, vocal artist, storyteller, mythologist, and educator. He comes from a line of astrologers and sound/music composers who used natural environmental sounds and the connection between sound, the natural environment, and the characters within the earth and sky. He offers consulting sessions, writes essays, tells stories and uses his voice in videos and live performance as an active representative of the world to re-ignite a sense of magic in every client. It is his aim to connect each person to the idea that they are not blank slates, but that they entered the world with their own “daimon” and irreplaceable style of talented genius with inspiring and definite directions in life. As an astrologer, Nate has studied under Jungian psychological and evolutionary astrologer Montgomery Taylor, and is influenced by Archetypal, Shamanic and Renaissance schools of astrology. Nate directs Mythopoetic Astrology, a consulting practice that integrates experiential therapy of astrology through Astro-Drama, voice, sonic art and client consulting. His teaching credits include Salem Summer Symposium (Massachusetts) Myth and Theatre Festival (France), and Jung Institute NYC. Nate is a collaborator of PanTheatre, the France-based cultural organization that researches the relationship between contemporary performance, mythology, and the archetypal psychology of James Hillman, the company’s Honorary President. He lives and works in Brooklyn, NY, where he is also the co-artistic director of Nekyia Theatre.
Tune into this episode where you listen to podcasts! Or on your browser here.
Here’s our week!
July 1, 2020
Mercury retrograde in 9 Cancer square Chiron in 9 Aries: 9:56 AM PDT
- This tense transit may correlate with inner-confrontations of emotional states we find uncomfortable and the inner call-to-action that emerges within our distress. The call-to-action could be a coping strategy that assuages the problem, or taking action to remove oneself from the situation that is an ongoing cause of distress.
- Inflammation may be a useful image here – there is the issue itself and the puffy, tender energy around it. When we are encountering a problem or a difficult mental state, there is both the issue itself and our response to the issue (the inflammation) that we must tend to. The issue and the inflammation are different.
- As an example if we are finding ourselves afraid of something, there can be the pragmatic response to the fear at the most basic level, AND the emotional tending to the psychological inflammation around the fear. Again, they are different.
Saturn retrograde re-enters Capricorn: 10:33 PM PDT
(Image: Georgia O’Keefe)
Saturn will station direct on September 28, 2020 and re-enter Aquarius on December 16, 2020.
Saturn draws closer to Pluto in Capricorn. They formed a conjunction last January 12, 2020, but we’ve still very much been in that zeitgeist. In the legendary text Cosmos and Psyche, Rick Tarnas details major planetary alignments through history and accompanying trends. For Saturn-Pluto (which we are in now) he writes:
(Note that “quadrature alignments” mean conjunctions, oppositions, and squares.)
“While the Uranus-Pluto periods consistently coincided with widespread revolutionary upheaval, intensified emancipatory impulses, and radical cultural innovation, the successive quadrature alignments of the Saturn-Pluto cycle coincided with especially challenging historical periods marked by a pervasive quality of intense contraction: eras of international crisis and conflict, empowerment of reactionary forces and totalitarian impulses, organized violence and oppression, all sometimes marked by lasting traumatic effects. An atmosphere of gravity and tension tended to accompany these three-to-four-year periods, as did a widespread sense of epochal closure: ‘the end of an era,’ ‘the end of innocence,’ the destruction of an earlier mode of life that in retrospect may seem to have been marked by widespread indulgence, decadence, naïveté, denial, and inflation. Profound transformation was a dominant theme, as with the Uranus-Pluto cycle, but here the transformation was through contraction, conservative reaction, crisis, and termination.” – Rick Tarnas
- We don’t need the astrological reflection to sense the profound levels of grief and heaviness in the air in the collective, but the astrological mirror is there! So what’s the use of knowing? The Saturn-Pluto dynamic has a variety of ways it can manifest, and also particular endeavors it supports. In this context of collective grief or global contraction, there are aspects of moral transformation, discovering deep inner-reserves (when hope seems lost), intensely tenacious work ethic (putting one’s head down and doing the work), and transformations around individual’s relationship with authority.
- In a Saturn-Pluto panel put on by Acyuta-bhava Dasa, Leisa Schaim pointed out charts of environmental activists with natal Saturn-Pluto alignments who year after year, take on going up against mega-giant corporations and government structures, in the fight against environmental destruction. She pointed out these activists “steely tenacity” in the face of their formidable opponents.
- This transit is not a reason why we can’t be happy or experience joy in our lives – in the best of times there is sadness, and in the worst of times there is also happiness. Life isn’t just parceled clear and cut like that. But we might consider there is a ‘snowed-in’ kind of energy to this transit, that there is contracted energy at play. We might find self-esteem in the process of handling difficult things in our lives with grace, developing aspects of ourselves or or lives we have not given attention to before, or in some way stepping up to the challenges life is presenting us.
July 4, 2020
Full Moon eclipse in 13 Capricorn: 9:44 PM PDT
Though considered an eclipse, the Sun and Moon are 14 degrees away from the nodes, making this eclipse not as potent as the last two, technically. The Sun in Cancer will be conjunct Vesta to the degree, only two seconds of a degree apart. Mars and Chiron in Aries square the full moon axis.
“I know no one who has embraced a love ethic whose life has not become more joyous and more fulfilling. The widespread assumption that ethical behavior takes the fun out of life is false. In actuality, living ethically ensures that relationships in our lives, including encounters with strangers, nurture our spiritual growth. Behaving unethically, with no thought to the consequences of our actions, is a bit like eating tons of junk food. While it may taste good, in the end the body is never really adequately nourished and remains in a constant state of lack and longing. Our souls feel this lack when we act unethically, behaving in ways that diminish our spirits and dehumanize others.” – bell hooks from all about love
- One possibility of this lunation is stepping into greater responsibility (Capricorn) because we care (Cancer). In the book Mastery, Robert Greene writes about the fear that some people have about leaving a mark or having a legacy of any kind – how some people keep themselves small because they don’t want to accidentally hurt anyone with their power. He basically calls this out. Wouldn’t it be good for conscientious people to rise up and participate in the creation of culture?
(Image: Architecture and Nostalgia by Victor Delhez)
- Until we own our inner-authority, we’re not really authoring our lives in the way that we could be. It’s not to say we can’t delegate – sometimes we hire someone to do something that isn’t our specialty but it is their’s. But, when we are not taking responsibility we are potentially neglecting something or delegating it, and that may not be proper for us, or perhaps not even a conscious choice.
- We may consider the value of living ethically, or living in a way that facilitates greater love and care in the world. Perhaps we are learning how to be more honest or more trustworthy, or how to be more reliable with our word.
- Are you someone who is always taking care of others and putting other people – your family, your team, etc – before you? You may benefit from asking for help, or learning how to ask if that is something you struggle with. (I like The Art of Asking, by Amanda Palmer).
- There may also be a burgeoning desire to be of more help, to provide for others around you. Consider what is easy for you to give. Just because it’s easy for you, doesn’t mean it’s not valuable – one need not squeeze every drop of themselves to be of value. We often underestimate the things that come naturally to us because we might not feel we earned them. But what is abundantly something you have to offer? This might be your sacred offering to community that is sustainable.
Thank you for meditating on the planets with me this week! If you would like further guidance, I do offer natal chart readings (book here) and have been increasingly focused on longer-term 1:1 work with my students and clients, in the form of mentorship – helping people form a depth relationship to their natal chart and personal transits over time, to develop themselves, to heal, and to reach their goals, all through the soul-making lens of evolutionary astrology. If you’re interested in working together in that capacity, I am currently accepting new clients. Send me an email at sabrina@monarchastrology.com to start a conversation and set up a free consultation call.
Find me on Instagram @sabrinamonarch and Twitter @Sabrina_monarch, get on my mailing list to stay apprised of all upcoming offerings and events, and I’ll see you next week!
Enjoyed this forecast? Please help me fund the year ahead through this Kickstarter!
With love,
Sabrina Monarch
Sabrina Monarch is a soul-centered Evolutionary Astrologer who publishes weekly astrological forecasts, works with clients and teaches. She is a novelist and has a M.A. in Philosophy, Cosmology and Consciousness from the California Institute of Integral Studies.
(image of monarch butterflies coming out of envelope by @chthonicbacchae)
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