Cancer Full Moon (in interesting company)
Cancer Full Moon (in interesting company)
In a nutshell: A moon to bring you more in touch with the intelligence of your heart.
* This is a moon capable of opening you to a deep understanding of the integrity of the human heart . . . of what it takes to care for yourself, for those you have pulled under your wing, and for the world itself.
* This moon wonders what you might find at the very core of your desire to nurture?
* And it hopes you’ll notice if, even rarely, you use your emotions to control other people. Your heart knows when you’re responding cleanly and when you’re composing a little emotional drama to get control of a situation where, otherwise, you may feel out of control. Even seemingly kind overtures (chicken soup, anyone?) can be attempts at emotional control.
On the other hand, unconditionally compassionate care-taking is the most profound gift you can offer to the world. Tonight’s moon would like you to be very clear about the difference between pure kindness and orchestrated emotional contracts.
* Do you sometimes bury a gut feeling because it’s just too much emotional work to explore it fully? This moon offers tremendous support to the emotionally brave.
* Cancer asks you to be conscious of how you go about feeling ‘at home’ in the world. Do you understand that your heart is your sanctuary; that getting to know it, and accepting its unique sensibilities, is key to feeling as if you belong somewhere? Think of the beautiful relationship between the words heart and hearth. It is communion with the inner fire that nourishes you so that you can, then, nourish the world.
For those who understand the astro language: This powerful full moon is triggering a grand cardinal square between Uranus, Pluto, Jupiter and itself. Put another way, the square hopes to find a way to engage all sides as it fans the wildfire between the four cardinal signs—Aries, Cancer, Libra and Capricorn.
All these energies are hard-wired for (fiery cardinal) movement yet all of them are calling out from a different set of desires: To this dinner party Aries brings independence and courage, impatience for something new, and plenty of spunk; Cancer adds a desire to feel emotionally secure through its care for family and home and worry that it might lose someone it cherishes; Libra longs for peace and balance, wouldn’t mind an allowance for a little romance and has to be careful not to care what everyone is thinking if it speaks its mind; and Capricorn offers up self-discipline, options to help the heart find its ground, and a tendency to bloody its knuckles working on the emotional equation until either it’s been mastered or come under control (which can be its own abyss).
Whew—a high bar has been set. How do we manage to find a new emotional approach and still feel safely grounded? How do we stretch into emotional independence and continue to care for everyone for whom we feel responsible? How do we explore the shadowlands of our feelings and maintain emotional balance? How do we keep the romance kindled while speaking of what is no longer palatable? How do we feel as if we’re making a difference if we’ve chosen to care for what is someone else’s baby? Let's begin by listening to the Cancer moon . . . .
Isn’t it the first and last question: What in the world does the Heart want?
And isn’t the heart so much wiser than we sometimes give it credit for being? It knows what it knows. Yet much of the time we are either hiding from that emotional awareness, trying to edit or re-write its story, or trying to circumvent the heart’s clear directive in our desire to feel something we think we should feel rather than bowing to the pure feeling rising through us.
This Cancer full moon may surprise you with feelings which are new, or newly discovered (Uranus and Pluto chime in). What I mean is . . . this moon isn’t interested in conventional or romantic slogans but longs for depth of understanding of its interior. It acknowledges the tremendous sense of loss that sometimes accompanies pure feeling.
Unbiased emotional clarity leads to unadulterated compassion and is as close as most of us will ever get to what is holy in the human experience. Sometimes this means giving something of ourselves that upends the ego and sometimes it means pulling back from care-taking so that someone else can find their way, unencumbered by our need to feel responsible for them.
This is a moon with its ear to your heart, it is energy poised to support your movement toward integrity of feeling. Listen for the clear notes, says Cancer. They are rising like fractals of light from within you.
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The gentlest of winter evenings to you.
Deborah O’Connor
Be humble, for you are made of earth.
Be noble, for you are made of stars.
January 12, 2017
Give back your heart to itself,
to the stranger who’s loved you all your life,
whom you ignored for another,
who knows you by heart.
~Derek Walcott
© Deborah O’Connor photo