Author Archives: Amanda Painter

Caring in Action: the Cancer Eclipse

By Amanda Painter

Dear Friend and Reader:

Eric wrote at the beginning of the week about today’s Sun-Chiron square, and the collective healing needed to our inner masculine/yang sides. Then I looked at the chart for the July 2 Cancer New Moon and solar eclipse, and started thinking about the daily assaults on our empathy and capacity to care that are being made by the daily news.

Demonstrators gather to protest against the separation of immigrant families at the border in Austin, Texas, on June 14, 2018. Photo by Amanda Voisard / Statesman.com via AP

Demonstrators gather to protest against the separation of immigrant families at the border in Austin, Texas, on June 14, 2018. A year later, things are no better. Photo by Amanda Voisard / Statesman.com via AP

And it all cascaded together in my perception of what amounts to the ongoing psychological and physical torture of immigrant children separated from their families and being held in detention at the U.S. border. I’ll get to the astrology in a moment.

I’ve been seeing a lot about this in my Facebook feed and my email inbox. The strongest recurring theme, however, is an overwhelming sense of paralysis: not knowing what we can do; wondering ‘why isn’t anyone organizing a mass protest?’; asking ‘who is organizing something I can join with?’; feeling completely at a loss regarding which actions will help and which might actually make things worse.

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Cancer Solstice Calling

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By Amanda Painter

On Friday, at 11:54 am EDT / 15:54:07 UTC, the Sun enters Cancer for the solstice: the longest day of the year in the Northern Hemisphere. It’s one of the year’s four major, seasonal turning points, by which ancient cultures once organized their practical lives and their understanding of the cosmos.

Children dance to music after lunch Wednesday at the Portland (Maine) Expo. Photo by Derek Davis / Portland Press Herald

Children seeking asylum dance to music after lunch Wednesday at the Portland (Maine) Expo. Photo by Derek Davis / Portland Press Herald

Most modern cultures have become rather detached from this rhythm — thanks to things like electric lights and other industrial and agricultural innovations obviating our complete dependence on seasonal shifts; along with what we’ve gained in that, there have surely also been losses. Astrologically, the Sun entering Cancer also signals us to be aware of the Aries Point: those first degrees of Aries — extended to the other cardinal signs (Cancer, Libra and Capricorn) — that describe events and issues where the political and personal weave together.

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Tempests and Tides

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Whether they know it or not, people all over the world are witnessing an event that perfectly illustrates our current high-pressure, confrontational astrology: the slowly growing beat of war drums as Saudi Arabia joins the U.S., Israel and the U.K. in blaming Iran for attacks on two oil tankers in the Gulf of Oman last week. The astrology in question: Mars in Cancer opposite the Saturn-Pluto conjunction in Capricorn — with extra intensity added by a Full Moon in Sagittarius.

Photo by Enrique Lopez Garre.

These events are occurring in a week that ends with the longest day of the year in the Northern Hemisphere: the solstice, when the Sun enters Cancer to begin the new season.

That occurs on Friday, June 21, at 11:54 am EDT (15:54:07 UTC) — bringing the emblem of consciousness into contact with the early cardinal sign planets. That is Aries Point territory, coming with a reminder to notice how the personal intersects with the political/collective.

Even though the official word from the U.S. government is that it does not want a war with Iran, does the energy around this event feel like that to you? Without getting into all the reasons how certain people in power might benefit from armed conflict in a region known for its tinderbox qualities, this is an issue we all need to notice carefully.

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Photographic Proof: Mars and the Sagittarius Full Moon

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Dear Friend and Reader:

As you may be aware, we’re in the thick of Mars in Cancer making “the” aspects of the season (and of the year): oppositions to Saturn and Pluto in Capricorn, which themselves are headed toward a stunning conjunction in January. We’re also building up to a Full Moon in Sagittarius on Monday that appears to carry some profound themes.

Photo by Amanda Painter

Speaking broadly, that’s a lot of energy looking for a way out, and it’s likely to find its expression in your relationships with other people. The Mars aspects indicate navigating the difference between empowered interactions and power struggles — with a layer of karma-fueled growth pointing toward new territory. The Full Moon, taking place on the ‘mental/spiritual’ spectrum, also carries its own karmic twist, which you may be able to apply to your relationships.

First, a refresher of the Mars aspects. Tomorrow (Friday), Mars makes an exact trine to Neptune in Pisces and makes its exact opposition to Saturn in Capricorn; on Wednesday, June 19, Mars opposes Pluto and heads toward Eris. All of these aspects have been in effect and growing in strength for a number of days already; you may find it useful to review Eric’s coverage of the themes from earlier in the week.

There’s potential here to experience a ‘slow burn’ kind of anger or irritation; the sort of thing that can seem easier to internalize rather than express because it’s not a clear-cut, explosive kind of reaction. Particularly with Mars in Cancer, the desire to side-step confrontation may increase, or could seem to cycle through phases of self-defeating thoughts like “it wouldn’t make a difference anyway,” and phases of determination to make your will (and feelings of frustration) known.

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Photographic Proof: Mars and the Sagittarius Full Moon

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By Amanda Painter

Photo by Amanda Painter

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Choice of Movement

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By Amanda Painter

On one level, this week’s astrology is describing some very insistent and action-oriented themes, related to Mercury making the same aspects in the cardinal signs that Mars has been making. At the same time, we have activity in mutable signs lending their own sense of movement, in their own style.

Photo by Amanda Painter

To start with, Mercury is currently in early Cancer.

Over the next couple of days it makes squares to Makemake and Logos in Libra, an opposition to Quaoar in Capricorn, and squares to Salacia and Chiron in Aries (it opposed Pholus in Capricorn on Wednesday). So we’re still working with ideas about how family and generational patterns play out; what we think of ‘secret’ sexual material and how it does and does not get spoken about; and the ‘mystery’ and logic of how things have come to be the way they are.

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Of Dreams and Everyday Miracles: Gemini New Moon

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By Amanda Painter

The Moon is currently waning toward a conjunction with the Sun near mid-Gemini: the Gemini New Moon, which occurs on Monday, June 3. It appears to be a lunar event that may help to focus us on the more subtle ways our perception can work; such as how what’s on the periphery of consciousness in more than one way can offer keys to our greater self-understanding.

Black-lit hallway of the San Juan Water and Beach Club hotel, Puerto Rico. Photo by Amanda Painter.

Specifically, I’m looking at two asteroids flanking the Sun and Moon in that chart: Magdalena (associated with Mary Magdalene, a disciple of Jesus of Nazareth) and Altjira (named after an aboriginal creator deity of the dreamtime).

Among the delineations I’ve seen for Magdalena are commitment to a group or collective cause, and an inner change in direction after intuitively noticing small signs or miracles in everyday life. Interpretations for Altjira include envisioning and dreaming, as well as some form of withdrawing or distance.

New Moons tend to be more internally oriented than Full Moons anyway, and signify one’s conscious awareness and unconscious aligning. With Magdalena and Altjira so closely involved, there’s dual emphasis on the suggestion to pay particular attention to your intuition, incidents of synchronicity, perfectly timed words and ideas offered by someone in a group or by ‘the collective’ (the collective unconscious?), the dreams you have while sleeping this weekend — even if they seem somehow distant — and how any of these things match what you envision for your life.

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Zoom in, Zoom Out: Mercury Opposite Jupiter

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We’re now in the last quarter phase of the Moon; it is waning toward the Gemini New Moon, which occurs in about a week. Before we arrive, Mercury makes an opposition to Jupiter, exact on Thursday. This happens once a year, but this year it’s rather special — each planet is in a sign it rules: Mercury in Gemini and Jupiter in Sagittarius.

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