The Ideal Within
When planets are retrograde, we look within about matters connected with the symbolism of that planet. Neptune is the spiritual seeker, and as it stations retrograde (July 2, 2024, 3:40 am PDT, through December 7), we embark upon of a five-month period of looking within for spiritual guidance. What is it that we believe is our spiritual purpose? What do we believe is the most appropriate path to pursue enlightenment?
Neptune turns retrograde at 29º55’ Pisces, on a Sabian symbol that Dane Rudhyar described as, A majestic rock formation resembling a face, is idealized by a boy who takes it as his ideal of greatness, and as he grows up he begins to look like it.
What we idealize is what we will seek to become, and while Neptune is retrograde, we’ll find it within. Now is when we sort through all of the messages of spirituality and self-improvement that we’ve taken in, to decide what we are going to keep as a permanent part of our spiritual ideal.
Without Using Words
Mercury trines Neptune this week (July 2, 2024, 4:53 am PDT), just after the latter turns retrograde. If Neptune symbolizes the spiritual element of our journey, what we believe about why we’re here and what happens after we’re gone, then Mercury is how we make sense of that intellectually, and how we share our ideas about such esoteric subjects.
This is a good aspect for creative work, too, for imaginative thinking and expression. Mercury is still in Cancer, barely, at this aspect, and that isn’t one of Mercury’s chattier signs. But there are plenty of ways to communicate that aren’t necessarily verbal, that have to do with touch and emotion and body language, and all the ways that we convey our message without using words at all.
When Leo Speaks, People Listen
When Mercury in Leo speaks, people tend to listen. It speaks with utter confidence and real flair. But is it always as right as it thinks it is?
When Mercury is in Leo (July 2, 2024, 5:50 am PDT, through July 25), it actually struggles a bit to do its work. On the face of it, that’s counter-intuitive; surely Mercury’s communication would benefit from Leo’s creativity and sense of fun?
And I mean, it does, but self-expression is only part of Mercury’s job. It’s also charged, to the best of its ability, with gathering and processing ALL facts and information – not just the ones that flatter us.
Enjoy Mercury’s brief journey through Leo. Play games. Read entertaining books. Tell stories. Make people laugh. But save the research and analysis for Mercury in Virgo; it’s too easy now to see only what we want to see.
Getting Serious
Venus trines Saturn this week (July 2, 2024, 6:41 pm PDT) at 19º25 minutes’ Cancer and Pisces. Venus is on the Sabian symbol 20 Cancer, Gondoliers in a serenade, and Saturn is on 20 Pisces, A table set for an evening meal. They’re both lyrical symbols, and the trine between Venus and Saturn is very sweet itself. It’s not sweet in the way Venus trine Jupiter or even Neptune might be; those connections have a softer quality. When Venus, the planet of relationship and affection, fun, and appreciation of life’s beauty comes together with Saturn, things tend to be more serious. But that’s not necessarily a bad thing.
Maybe you’re in a relationship that’s has been progressing nicely, and now takes a serious turn. Maybe you’re willing to make some kind of commitment to somebody. It may be romantic, but it also might be a friendship with someone whom you’re more willing to trust, to rely upon, to confide in.
Venus is a financial planet too, and at the time it connects with Saturn, especially by trine, it may be time for a financial commitment. You may be ready to take on a mortgage, or just sit down and take an honest look at your financial future. Saturn can be your very best financial advisor.
Listen, Watch, Tell the Story
As Mercury opposes Pluto (July 3, 2024, 12:27 am PDT), I’m reminded of the difference between grasping something with our minds and understanding it with our bodies. An intellectual understanding and willingness to talk about the huge issues we face – disease, personal rights, social justice – are a good place to start.
But unless we’ve faced these things ourselves, faced life-threatening discrimination, watched a loved one struggling to breathe – our understanding is limited. Today, we’re invited to glimpse the shadowy, Pluto underworld that many of our fellow humans call home. Listen and watch, and help them tell their story.
Sisyphus
This week, Mars in Taurus sextile Saturn in Pisces (July 5, 2024, 12:02 pm PDT) suggests there’s an opportunity to employ our powers of persuasion to move past what’s been blocking us. If we’ve not been successful up to now in moving forward, it could that we haven’t really been doing everything that it takes to succeed.
Mars in Taurus urges us to take our time, lest we veer into hurtful territory and simply take what we want. But to the extent you can give every bit of energy and determination that you have, this is a week when Sisyphus can move the Saturn rock a little bit, making up in persistence what it lacks in speed.
The Big Table
When you’re young, there are usually some relatives, a house, some possessions that connect you to the place where you started. If the people who raised you did a good job, there are also places inside of you that act as an internal GPS, long after those people and those places are gone.
Cancer, the sign of home and history and heritage, is your astrological GPS, the umbilical cord that connects you to the mother ship and nourishes you to viability. It’s home – the place where you started out in life, the place where you begin each day, and the people and things that have been there with you
As my generation of my family are hitting our second Saturn returns and second Uranus-Uranus squares, and all the financial worries and health problems and various existential crises of our 60s, there is sometimes the sense that without the sustaining superglue of an elder generation, the wheels are about to fly right off the bus, sending us careening into a ditch.
But for the family’s next generation, however wobbly we might be, we’re their GPS. They sit at an old table with us and listen to our stories, and struggle to remember their grandparents, so vivid and dear to us. They need nourishment, and a sense of place, and a tribe.
We get to experience Cancer from the other side, now. We are the ones who have to try to summon words of wisdom, who celebrate the achievements and put losses into perspective, and try to suppress our anxiety about the future. We’re the ones who safeguard a past so that the next generation can head off into the future feeling a little more secure.
The Cancer New Moon (July 5, 2024, 3:57 pm PDT, 14º23’ Cancer) is the soulful season of belonging, family, and home. It’s a big round table that we’re all sitting at, more or less together; and even those of us who grew up with wise elders and stable households are still frightened children, sometimes, even when we’re the ones who have to fry the chicken and set the table.
Even if you don’t have happy memories and protectors to make you feel cherished, here’s an unexpected truth: nurturing others can help heal the part of you that no one looked after properly.
So at this Cancer New Moon, I wish you a good dinner at a strong table with people who care about you. I wish you memories of how you’ve been loved and places where you’ve been happy. And if you don’t have those things, go ahead and set your table, make supper, and invite someone you know to share it with you. We’re strangers, most of us, but we’re sitting at that big table together, just waiting to become a family. (Read this full essay here)
Writing and images © 2017-24 by April Elliott Kent
For more on this week’s planetary news, listen to my podcast!
