Looking Back on the Recent Planetary Aspects

In the past few weeks, we’ve had a Mercury in Cancer Retrograde and a Grand Trine in Water signs.  Saturn is still in Scorpio and Neptune is still in Pisces.  I don’t know about you, but I think all that emotionally-charged  Water stuff can feel pretty overwhelming sometimes.  Even if you yourself aren’t emotional, having to work or live with others who are can be a challenge.

I’m finding that the Neptune in Pisces aspect is hardest for me.  Neptune is the ruler of Pisces, so therefore they have similar meanings: spirituality, emotions, enlightenment, mysticism, compassion.  Those things sound good, but Neptune and Pisces also represent delusion, addiction, escapism, and ever-expanding boundaries.

It’s that capacity for illusion that frustrates me so much.  My Virgo Rising/Grand Trine in Earth self can’t abide such ungroundedness.  Trying to communicate or interact with someone who isn’t clear on everyone else’s reality gives me a headache.  (Let me clarify:   I’m all for allowing every bit of wildness and creativity and free-spiritedness to roam unfettered. . . . inside your own head.  When you are at work or in a group, you gotta be able to dial it back when you have to, and you gotta be able to hear input from others, even if you might not agree.  That’s all I’m saying.)

Now, during a Mercury Retrograde, we are meant to review and reflect.  We get four weeks to mull things over and contemplate how to go forward in a better way.

So what have I learned from my own month of ruminating?  Boundaries are a good thing.

Summer Solstice

The Sun enters the sign of Cancer on Friday the 21st at 1:04 am (Eastern Standard Time in the US), heralding a new summertime.  Lots of light and lots of sun are in store!

In astrological terms, Cancer represents our emotions, the mother, water, the home, and memory.  It likes a cozy home,  a family dinner, and caring for others.  As a Cardinal sign, it symbolizes new beginnings.

Mercury is also in Cancer right now, and Jupiter will join them toward the end of the month.  With all this watery, emotional energy about, what can you do to understand yourself a little better?  Can you find better ways to express your emotions or show someone that you care?  Jupiter can sometimes give us enough rope to hang ourselves with, and Mercury is known to be a bit of a chatterbox, so how will you wade through these charged waters?

For me, I like to remember that emotions are just messengers; we don’t have to BECOME them.  Just because I have an emotion, doesn’t mean I need to act on it or act it out.  I can just use it to understand myself better.

Happy Summer Solstice!

Approaching Fear

Someone once said, “Panic at the thought of doing a thing is a challenge to do it.”  I believe that fear, like any other emotion, is a messenger.  Our feelings and reactions are there to help us understand ourselves.

Now, I know that many people view their emotions as a guide:  I’m scared, so RUN!  My heart flutters, so he must be THE ONE!  But I’ve found that method often brings trouble.  Leaping before looking can lead to a concussion.  I’ve come to realize–for myself, anyway–that emotions are just messages from my unconscious.  These messages often need to be deciphered, but the task of unraveling the code brings the enlightenment.

Astrology can be helpful in putting together all the emotion puzzle pieces.  Fear and anger are two of the more challenging emotions to figure out, I think.  So we can look at Chiron and Mars in a natal chart to help us understand.

Astronomically speaking, Chiron is an asteroid, but it is officially designated as a planetoid.  It was discovered in 1977.  Astrologically speaking, Chiron is the “wounded healer” of the chart.  It tells where we have been wounded spiritually and where we feel “unhealable.”    By studying our own Chiron, we learn to work through our fears and our pain; in this way, we become spiritually transformed.

Mars, the Roman god of war, gives his name to the fiery red planet that symbolizes our aggression, our anger, and our will.  In karmic terms, Mars in a chart can symbolize where we’ve taken bold actions in past lives and thus hurt ourselves or others.  It can help us understand our fears and phobias in this way.  By working through these past conflicts, we can be free to let go of fears and anger in this life.

How do you deal with anger and fear?  What would happen if you stepped back from your feelings and viewed them as messengers, as puzzle pieces to a larger picture?  Could you interpret the symbols and move forward?