This week brings us our first New Moon out of the recent eclipse season. Eclipse lunations feature a sense of a certain degree of chaos, a warped sense of time, as well as the possibility that if we tune in and listen, a path or direction or vision will open up to us like a visitation. This is related to why many astrologers will advise not doing magic during eclipses, but rather praying and being open to what wants to come through. The light of the luminaries are literally eclipsed during eclipses, which symbolizes the arrival of shadow material and soul work. Thus, what we intend, may not come out as we intended, and it may be a richer time to simply tune into the material that is wanting to present itself. As we return to a ‘normal’ New Moon this week in the sign of Cancer, the regular opportunity for setting intentions, doing magic, etc. opens up again (if you heed this perspective about eclipses).
The New Moon is symbolic of course for beginnings, but it is also a monthly union of the Sun and Moon.
The Sun representing a steady source of radiant energy, awareness (like light bringing clarity and distinction to objects in a room), and creativity. The Sun’s heat is an ingredient that makes life possible.
The Moon is changeable, waxing and waning, reflecting the light of the Sun. It is more like a lantern or mood lighting, bringing an enchanting ambient glow to what which it illuminates. It relates to the interior world, the unconscious and subconscious, ‘nighttime thinking’ (like art, poetry, reverie), and relates to the process of creating conditions that support life – like rich soil in a garden or a supportive home, or a healthy personality.
At the New Moon, we truly do experience the beginning of a cycle that is more real in nature than say the first day of a calendar month. There are two main/general opportunities for participation with a New Moon: observe and be open to the appearance of an intention, or with your conscious intention/will/desire set an intention. (Or ignore and sleep on the New Moon entirely, which I’m not really including here. 😂 Its themes may still show up, but without the magic of awareness and noticing.)
A New Moon in Cancer, or the union of the Sun and Moon in Cancer, could be a time to reflect on where we feel vulnerable, where we feel emotional need, or even if there is part of ourselves or our lives that feels neglected. How might we create new conditions that are more life-affirming in these areas? This could be like feeling into where you need or desire love, and then sourcing within yourself (or asking the Universe to assist you in sourcing) a vision of what you could cultivate to remedy this place of longing or neglect. In a garden, if you noticed a plant wasn’t doing well, you might figure out how to support its thriving. Similarly, any area of our life, including our relationships and communal bonds, that is needing extra love and care is already showing itself to us through our emotions.
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 zeitgeist 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 and be notified of upcoming educational opportunities, sign up for my mailing list here.
Watch this week’s forecast on YouTube or keep reading below:
Here’s our week after a few announcements!
Kickstarter to fund the seventh year of Monarch Astrology, as well as a year ahead of the Magic of the Spheres podcast!
Monarch Astrology just turned seven! To kick of the seventh year of weekly content creation, I’m asking for your financial support for the year ahead. If you enjoy these forecasts and/or Magic of the Spheres podcast, please support them. They require hours of work a week, in addition to work I do creating curriculum, teaching, and working 1:1 with clients. Every single backer counts, so I ask you to take this message very personally 🙂 There are many exciting rewards – talks, courses, astrology readings – to choose from for backers! Check out the Kickstarter and pledge here. We have passed minimum funding now, and I have a push goal of 20k+. I also have a goal of having 115+ backers.
🐝 Announcing IMAGE HIVE: a LIVE COURSE on creative writing available through the Kickstarter!Image Hive explores the craft of creative writing, drawing in influences from poetry and literary fiction. Image Hive derives its title from the idea that a writer is a collector of images: that it is our capacity to have vision (of all kinds) that underlies our word craft.
Image Hive is available through the Kickstarter funding the seventh year of content creation, Monarch Astrology and Magic of the Spheres podcast as one of the backer rewards. Read more about Image Hive here.
Study Evolutionary Astrology with me! The new course dates have been announced. Catch a discount via the Kickstarter here. You can enroll early and get HALF-OFF through the Kickstarter currently. See the course page for more details and student testimonials.
New episodes of Magic of the Spheres!
I had a conversation on dharma, business, and alignment with Adam Carney. Adam is an Artist and the founder of East+West. He spent the last 10 years traveling through India and Bali studying yoga in non-traditional settings and searching for the best yoga teachers on earth. He is certified in Integrative Health from Duke University.
Alignment as we spoke of it here was about making aligned life choices and navigating being open for aligned opportunities to arise while being able to turn down what is unaligned and being patient – as well as alignment in the context of listening to that inner spark of excitement and taking the leap to act on those sparks, whether they are bigger decisions like traveling, moving somewhere, starting a business, or perhaps smaller decisions like going to an event or taking some given fork in the road – not because you logically know why but because something in you is lighting up about it.
Tune in where you listen to podcasts or on your browser here.
Here’s our week:
July 7, 2021
Venus in 12 Leo trine Chiron in 12 Aries: 1:09 PM PDT
(Image: Michelle Webb)
Venus and Mars in Leo are opposite Saturn in Aquarius. Mars and Venus trine Chiron in Aries, while Saturn forms a sextile to Chiron in Aries. Some thoughts:
- There may be an emerging desire or impulse to express ourselves (Mars and Venus in Leo) and a simultaneous restraint of doing so for fear of the consequences (Saturn). Such as wanting to express our raw anger to the one we feel scorned by and wanting to feel heard and validated in that way, but also fearing the damage. Or wanting to express our passionate attraction, but fearing rejection. Chiron in Aries comes in like an initiatory figure reminding us that we are the heroes of our own story (as others are of theirs, as well). So in grappling with an impulse and our simultaneous impulse control, much of our own psyche/soul is revealed. We are at the cutting edge, the initiation of a new plot point which is new territory to us!
- It may not be good enough to simply suppress the impulse OR to abandon all caution and just go for it — there is a third (and more) choice(s) that are more complex than our initial black and white thinking.
- There is a really excellent opportunity here to expand our capacity. In feeling tension, sometimes we can try to just get rid of that energy as soon as possible like we’re holding a hot coal and we just want to throw it away from us. This can take the form of energetic dumping or leaking our power. We make a choice in a moment of victimization and frustration. Alternately, if we can find the strength to accept the tension and the high sensation and open to it and increase our capacity to hold it, we can access a more aligned expression of that energy or set of choices from there, as opposed to splitting off from ourselves in a moment of panic. Start by having self-awareness of the fact that you are having high sensation – that little level of distance and objectivity (as opposed to just being inside of it) goes a long way.
July 8, 2021
Venus in 14 Leo square Uranus in 14 Taurus: 12:25 PM PDT
(Image: Taeyeon)
Keep in mind Venus is entering into dialogue with the Saturn-Uranus square, which Mars also just activated. I delineated the Mars-Saturn-Uranus dynamic in last week’s forecast – this energy was/is very catalytic and hot, tense and dramatic for many people. With Venus activating this dynamic, here are some thoughts:
- There can be breakdowns of order or the sudden construction of order with Saturn-Uranus. Things which are thought to be solid or long-lasting (Saturn) break down suddenly (Uranus) – the Florida condos are a tragic example. But this dynamic happens in a variety of places at a variety of scales: it can be an ego construct or paradigm we’ve lived with our whole lives suddenly breaking open. It could be an eruption of tension within a family system or the workplace. Even though we say Uranus is sudden, most of these sudden events had foreshadowing which for whatever reason, we didn’t register or perhaps overlooked in some way. The reality of these more subtle dynamics becomes known under a tense and confrontational transit like this, which as stressful as this can be, also offers an opportunity for change and aligning more with truth/what actually is.
- Mars had emphasized the Saturn-Uranus dynamic, so there were more fireworks (metaphorically speaking, though sure literally as well with July 4th in the US). Likely more conflict, whether it was outright and visible or some inner psychological tension or working. Not all confrontations have to be problematic either – sometimes something in our life is deeply stirring or provocative to us and it inspires a new direction.
- Venus entering the dynamic (she has been here, but she is emphasized now by exact transit) adds in a value-based approach to how we are dealing with the tensions and confrontations in our lives. Rather than simply reacting — and the game or paradigm is changing before our eyes — we have also been tuning into what we actually desire, where we want to be coming from in our hearts when we participate in these catalyzing situations.
- An inner confrontation that could be occurring here is being aware that a situation does not reflect our values – or the dissonance makes us aware of what we want.
- Another confrontation that could be occurring is realizing that we desire something that we do not think is possible, and yet, some of this pessimism is being broken through. There is an alternative route or choice we haven’t even imagined, that comes through our awareness like the sun suddenly piercing through the clouds.
July 9, 2021
New Moon in 18 Cancer: 6:16 PM PDT
This beautiful work of art was made just for this particular lunation by the talented Alex Maune. Read their caption here.
This New Moon is widely opposite Pluto in Capricorn, and trines Neptune rx in Pisces.
- The New Moon takes place in the second decan of Cancer, which is described by Austin Coppock in The 36 Faces as a walled garden: “The second face of Cancer is like a walled garden in which something beautiful is kept. A greenhouse exists here, to nurture what is beautiful and exotic — but fragile.”
- By the upcoming Full Moon, the Sun will be in Leo opposite Moon in Aquarius. The Moon in Aquarius will sit between Pluto in late Capricorn and Saturn in Aquarius. Pluto and Saturn are not conjunct anymore like they were in 2020, but the Moon will bring a tie between them at the Full Moon. The Pluto-Saturn complex can be deeply protective, especially in relationship to a real or perceived psychological threat. The Pluto-Saturn complex is also about endurance or feats of willpower in challenging conditions.
- Keeping this eventual climax of the Full Moon in mind, this lunation cycle could have something to do with more deeply exploring the conditions that we personally need to flourish. When we do not have these conditions, we surely can still survive or push through – but it can feel much harder. We might explore if we feel drawn to cultivate this “greenhouse” that allows us to thrive, or if we feel it necessary to unravel some of our attachments to comforts that have become more neurotic in nature to us.
- When it comes to cultivating life-giving conditions, this is literally a creative process. The womb creates conditions for life. We nest into a home to create a particular ambiance. We design our creative process to encourage fruitfulness of our endeavors. There is an element to all of this that is construct: like a thriving cherry tomato plant that is held in place by a trellis. We might already know what this ‘trellis’ is symbolically for us, or we might be in the process of cultivating it where it didn’t exist before.
- A simple question to meditate on could be what is emerging within you that wants to be given more life? And what does this emergent quality need to thrive? It’s possible that it doesn’t just thrive without any cultivation, but like a plant it does need to be given the right conditions.
- Where this becomes neurotic is a distinction that you may have to draw. Taking for example, makeup- an art form and form of adornment which can instill so much confidence to the wearer. Yet being afraid to be seen without makeup on, even at home with loved ones, and going to great lengths to not let this happen, would be like a form of dependence on the comfort/soothing quality of the makeup. We might have a part of our personality we feel the most comfortable resting in, and it may offer us a lot of returns in certain areas of life or at certain times, but are we able to step in and out of it when needed?
- Simply having the awareness of what parts of our lives are symbolically uplifted by trellises, we can be aware of our vulnerability in that regard, and make the choice to nourish ourselves in that way and simply be aware that in an environment less suited to our needs, we may feel more insecure than we’d like. Even in less supportive settings, we may have energetic or internal resources to draw from.
- Creating ritual space or setting intentions can be a way of walling the garden, so to say. We do get to create particular conditions or experiences when we create the parameters or aura of care around them.
July 11, 2021
Mercury enters Cancer: 1:35 PM PDT
- In terms of cognition and information (Mercurial things), Mercury in Cancer highlights our memory. The way that we circle in our minds over an event in the past and curate or cultivate the memory each time. There is something quite mystical about memory in the sense that an event in its original experience may be quite potent, and there are often new layers of meaning or perception that open up about that event through the portal of memory and reflection.
July 12, 2021
Mercury in 1 Cancer trine Jupiter retrograde in 1 Pisces: 12:45 PM PDT
- In communication and storytelling, Mercury in Cancer can be circuitous. It’s not about getting right to the point, but about setting the scene and really weaving a whole web and context, from which the point eventually emerges or is even just eluded to. The importance of setting is highlighted. As we think in this particular way, of how we are always housed in context or a ‘scene’, we can see how interconnected and environmental we really are. We are individuals, and we are also influenced by and in relationship with our environment. Jupiter in Pisces relates to visions of the bigger picture in its most expansive context.
July 13, 2021
Venus in 19 Leo conjunct Mars in 19 Leo: 6:33 AM PDT
(Image: Paula Condoner)
- This is heart activating on two big levels: Mars and Venus conjunct alone would do that, but they are both in the heart-centered sign of Leo. The heart beams and radiates energy like the Sun does. The heart can also hide or retreat, like the Sun appearing to hide behind the clouds. We can be in our brightness and fullness of expression, affection, truth – we can also be dim or toned down. A transit like this can certainly be an invitation to turn up the brightness: to explore the ways we can open more to love and living from deep attunement to our heart center.
- Noting the sensations of the heart center can reveal so much in any given moment. We can feel settled openness and warmth. We can also feel contraction or pain, as a reflection of our own sensitivity or even the edges of our range to feel. The heart ‘cracks’ open. Or like a fitness of heart, we are already used to openness as default and it takes less and less to ‘crack’ or create sensation – the smallest things can be invitations to deeper layers of opening. Venus-Mars gives me the image of a pierced heart or a heart that pierces. Our magnanimity, joyfulness, play, affection, humor, can open and expand a whole room. Our intention to open can create warmth and receptivity throughout our entire being.
Thank you for meditating on the planets with me this week! If you would like further guidance, I have been increasingly focused on longer-term experiences in the form of the Evolutionary Astrology Intensive, higher level courses for alumni, and 1:1 mentorship – helping people form a depth relationship to their natal chart and personal transits over time, to develop themselves, to be in their power, and to reach their goals, all through the soul-making lens of evolutionary astrology. I would love to support you in building your relationship with astrology. The intensive is currently in session but will be offered again in the autumn, and I am to take on new coaching clients again in the future.
Find me on Instagram @sabrinamonarch, get on my mailing list to stay apprised of all upcoming offerings and events, and I’ll see you next week!
If you enjoy these forecasts, please help crowdfund a year ahead via the Kickstarter! Tuition for the next intensive is half-off though the Kickstarter campaign.
With love,
Sabrina Monarch
(Top image: Paula Condoner)
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