A Ripple On A Pond

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A new Moon, a new birth, a new beginning and so it goes each month as the potential for a deeper self-awareness unfolds in the cyclical dancing of Sun and Moon. This month the New Moon is reflecting the sign of Cancer, natural home of the Moon entwining sentiment and romance of the family, guaranteeing an introspective journey down into the depths of our roots. For many astrologers the Moon embodies the soul; that essence with which we sense the eternal within ourself embedded within the collective unconscious of Jung, imbued with the collective inheriting of our species, and enduring the inevitable eliminating of our physical body. The constancy of the Moon notoriously shifting shape, casting long shadows, puppeteering light and dark insures the gentle pulling of change. When the Moon is in Cancer we can feel a sentimental pulling of the past, and feeling encrusted in the certainty of our memories and reticent to venture outside the comfort of our internal home our fear of the unfamiliar, the unfamily, can assume unfathomable proportion. However, this is the ghost of our inherited past imprinting upon our present, and the new birth in conscious awareness promised by the Sun in Cancer delivers this month an auspicious opportunity to shine the  golden light of our nourishing care and protection upon ourself and others.

Without reserve we are feeling family this month and the New Moon opposite Pluto in Capricorn sends a celestial torpedo to the depth of our unconscious motives bombarding our past and sending the detritus of our fear to the surface.  Major changes concerning our attachment to family are adrift and we are well advised to take action this month and insure the future safety, security, and comfort of our family, but not before we scrutinize what constitutes “family” by dropping the sanctimonious sentiment from the past that may be interfering with the present. Remembering that Pluto in Capricorn is breaking down social traditions and eliminating institutional structures that have become obsolete we may gain a deeper appreciation for the breadth of our “human family” if we ask what it is within ourself that needs breaking down, what  past are we clinging too that prevents us from extending the nurture and protection we give our immediate family to our world family?

Pluto, supreme master of the fiery bowels of our Earth spewing forth chthonic forces of nature and issuing the final decree of incontrovertible judgement insures that the evolution of human consciousness will, even if in spite of itself, take another step forward. Admittedly, a Pluto transit is not always a pretty picture at first glancing but when we look back over our shoulder seeing from whence we have come the truth of our understanding is revealed. When Pluto is active by transit, as it is today at the New Moon, stagnation is rampant suggesting to me that the New Moon in Cancer is beckoning us to shift the shape of “our family inheritance” by extending, much like a ripple on a pond, our nurturing care and protective concern from the source of our own family, touching our community family, reaching out to our world family.