Tender Territory and Sitting Ducks
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Communication reboot
Read my full essay for some thoughts about this week’s New Moon in Gemini (June 3, 2019, 3:02 am PDT) – but suffice to say, this is the year’s best New Moon for rebooting communication patterns and preparing to learn something new. Find the house of your birth chart where 12°33′ Gemini falls (not sure how to find it? this blog post might help); here is the garden plot where you’ll be sowing new seeds. Dream your dreams and wish your wishes; at the New Moon we may not know exactly where we will end up, but we know that it’s time to head in a new direction.
But plenty of other planetary factors this week lend shading to this simple message…
Sitting ducks
What if you were a duck? You’d be at home both in the air and in the water; that versatility is a tremendous advantage. But you’d also be vulnerable. Have you ever watched ducks floating atop a pond with their beaks underwater, looking for food? They’re literally “sitting ducks,” an easy target for hunters.
As the Sun in airy Gemini aspects Neptune in watery Pisces (June 9, 12:33 pm PDT), we may not sense the ways in which we’re vulnerable until it’s too late. The Sun in combination with Neptune is often interpreted as weakness, insecurity, and even physical frailty, but under the surface is a deep need to figure out who we are and what we need. When this aspect formed last year, I was exhausted from a conference, wouldn’t slow down, and fell ill with a digestive complaint. I felt rotten, but it gave me an excuse to take to my bed and rest up for a week.
That could well be something we all need right now: a little time out from the pressures, stresses, and speed of daily life.
Later this month (June 24), Venus in Gemini will square Neptune at these same degrees. At that time, relationships will benefit from the inner work you’re doing now. So, lay low, get some rest, and get reacquainted with yourself. And stay out of the sight of hunters.
Tender territory
Mercury enters the protective sign of Cancer this week (June 4, 2019, 1:04 pm PDT). Unless you have a lot of planets in water signs, Mercury can be a maddening communicator in this sign, requiring lots of guesswork to figure out what it’s thinking and feeling, what it wants, and how to make it happy. There’s no use trying to get Mercury in Cancer to communicate in a straightforward way because that’s not how a crab operates. It’s a vulnerable sign, unwilling to give away its movements and motives to predators.
But please remember that not everyone is out to get you. In fact, some people would sincerely like to help you, give to you, and get to know you better. It’s wise to keep your own counsel among strangers; but with people you know well, you’ll benefit from being forthcoming about what you want instead of making them guess – and then blaming them when they guess wrong.
In the coming weeks, we’ll be talking about Mercury in Cancer’s difficult aspects with Mars, Saturn, and Pluto, and its impending retrograde period. For now, it’s enough simply to know that Mercury is moving through cautious, tender territory. And on the plus side, Mercury makes a sextile aspect to Uranus this week (June 7, 2019, 7:16 am PDT), which suggests unexpected news, offers, encounters, and flashes of intuition. That’s a pretty good day for getting happily lost in a crowd.
Familiar waters
Venus enters Gemini this week (June 8, 2019, 6:37 pm PDT), giving extra weight to Mercury – the ruler of Gemini – entering Cancer. Venus in Gemini is generally sociable to the point of gregariousness, likes circulating and making new connections, and can be highly strung and a little nervous. But this is Venus in Gemini ruled by Mercury in Cancer, which is a very different beast, a quieter, more sensitive one.
Unless it’s turning retrograde, Venus moves through a sign quickly, within a few weeks. But that can be a critical few weeks in the life of a relationship (relationships of all sorts are ruled by Venus). The emotionalism of Cancer combined with Gemini’s changeable nature can bring relationships to the brink of dissolution.
This is a Venus in Gemini that will be more inclined than usual to stay close to home, or at least to confine socializing to close friends and family. Within those parameters, Venus will still indicate that Gemini things bring us pleasure: trading thoughts, ideas, gossip, and laughter with others. But with Mercury in Cancer, we’ll seek those pleasures in safe, familiar waters.
©2019 April Elliott Kent
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