New Moon in Cancer on July 4th

There is love in your body but you can't hold it in, 
It pours from your eyes and spills from your skin, 
Tenderest touch leaves the darkest of marks, 
And the kindest of kisses break the hardest of hearts
~Florence and the Machine ‘Hardest of Hearts’

     New Moon in Cancer is at 4:01 AM on the “4th of July” or Independence Day.  With 4 Planets in Cancer- Moon, Sun, Mercury and Venus, it is bound to bring up emotions and offer heartfelt connections with family or those in our lives we feel a primal connection to through our heartlines.  With the archetypes of the Mother and the Healer, Cancer knows that all healing comes through the emotional body when we are safe, supported, nurtured, and loved.   Cancer has great sensitivity and receptivity as the ability to feel is paramount for the first water sign in the zodiac.  Ruled by the Moon, this New Moon feels right at home, ready to “birth” a new beginning.   In the global sense, we associate Cancer with our tribe, our clan, our extended modern family.  As we allow ourselves to care, we become vulnerable.  This sense of vulnerability can lead to feelings of wanting to protect what we hold dear in our hearts.  Like a Mama Bear with her cubs, we ally ourselves with our loved ones and often will do anything to keep them out of harm’s way.  The sensitivity is absolutely precious as it is can embody the purest form of love.   Love and caring implies allowing ourselves be vulnerable to our feelings, yet not too protective or possessive.  Like the crab that has a hard shell or exoskeleton, functioning as a supportive and protective barrier, the shell must also act as a filter, knowing what to let in and what to keep out.   This exoskeleton is not permanent, for as the crab grows, it sheds the exoskeleton and produces another larger one in which it will eventually fill up and shed again.  This process describes how we can grow emotionally when we allow ourselves to “feel”, our hearts to expand, letting go of the old, calcified or hardened parts, and opening the space for love to thrive.  Should we refuse or get “stuck’, not allowing this natural process of shedding our layers, like the crab, we can suffocate in our own shells. Studies have found a correlation with a mothers’ nurturing and the size of a child’s hippocampus. The hippocampus is involved in learning, memory and stress tolerance.  Infants who experience loving connection to their caregivers, just do better, we need love and nurturing.
     Now as adults, we have an opportunity to care for ourselves, and to foster our ‘little child within’.  As they say, “it’s an inside job”, so as we choose to support and love ourselves, and extend that love out to others.  With Pluto in Capricorn opposing the Cancer gathering, we are asked to take it a step deeper and face the shadows, the areas we may feel powerless or wounded and reclaim ourselves.  Neptune is aiding in our healing by offering compassion.  Venus is finishing up the deep dive of initiation into the unseen worlds, disappearing in the night sky to return soon on July 13th, when visible again as the Evening Star, setting after the Sun. This allows us to “drop in” a little more with that which we value and really pleases our hearts.  
     To set intentions around this New Moon, find 12 degrees of Cancer in your birth chart.  Based on the house placement, we can find more specific areas of our lives where we can soften.  Then through using our instincts, write down ways we can nurture any parts of us that would benefit from some tenderness.  We can have compassion for ourselves, tending to our sore spots, and loving ourselves up! Happy New Moon!  Love and blessings to one and all.