Way back when the first decade of this century was transitioning into the next 10-year span, something exceptional took place. During a period of only about three years, the outer sign-ruling planets re-arranged themselves in relative unison. It started with Pluto, and with one exception (Neptune), the focus was cardinal signs.

When the Sun enters a cardinal sign (Aries, Cancer, Libra or Capricorn), the season changes. It is now just barely a week after the Cancer solstice — enough time for you to have witnessed for yourself a substantial shift in its early stages.

You may have seen changes in the sky or the weather. Perhaps something eventful or new has gotten underway in your personal life. Maybe an accustomed routine has run its course, and another practice has emerged. Unless you are somehow exceptional for the time being, it would not be unusual if last Tuesday somehow seems more than seven days in the past. Such is the depth of our involvement in the system we call solar.

When planets ingress a cardinal sign, they tend to emulate the Sun — in effect, initiating a new season for any corresponding earthly manifestations of the object in question. Looking back now, nearly everybody should be able to see how things shifted after Pluto entered Capricorn for the very long run in late 2008 (interestingly, just as Jupiter was departing the same sign).

In late 2009 Saturn made its first ingress to Libra, adding substance to intimations initiated by Pluto nearly a year before. In the year to follow, Saturn settled into Libra for the long term, and Uranus made its first crossing into Aries. With the coming of 2011, Uranus entered Aries a second time, on Jupiter’s heels. It was the height of what was frequently called the cardinal T-square, which led directly to Uranus being in what was essentially three continuous (and eventful) years in square aspect to Pluto in Capricorn.

All during those years of outer planets in cardinal aspects to each other, the sign Cancer was the wild card. Whenever a faster-moving object (Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus or Mars) moved through to complete the ‘cardinal cross’, it would briefly add its own cachet to a longer-term tableau, which symbolically implied the initiation of a seasonal turnover on an epochal scale. Now, you are in their place.

With the Sun, Mercury and Mars all in Cancer at once, this is an appropriate time to review the progress of this decade in astrological terms. Pluto is now more than halfway through its tenure in Capricorn. Saturn is less than six months away from its own ingress to Capricorn (one of its two dominions, along with Aquarius). Jupiter is on the home stretch of its term in Libra. On the whole, the image is one of outer planets beginning to wind up a combined process, taking years upon years, analogous to what the Sun completes in three months.

This week, faster-moving Mercury might very well bring to mind how much the many environments you occupy have changed since our current decade got underway. Going into next month, the Sun’s progress will follow in Mercury’s figurative footsteps to shed the light of consciousness on those thoughts.

Then, as July winds down, Mars will at least somewhat anticipate what Saturn will be doing in December, by immediately preceding the Sun into a new sign. As all of that takes place, it would implicitly be worth your while to occasionally look up from more immediate concerns to make a longer temporal assessment.

Just as Earth has its seasons, so do relationships, and so does history. During these days of the Sun, Mars and Mercury in Cancer, it would not be unusual or untoward for personal (or, what in the long term are ephemeral) matters to dominate your attention. After all, Cancer is ruled by the fast-moving and rapidly changing Moon. Unlike many other conquerable stretches, however, some detached contemplation would be more than usually in order.

Beneath the familiar and relatively rapid rhythms of life represented by the Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus and Mars is a slower counterpoint. Underlying the undeniably eventful nature of living in this decade has been an emblematic intersection and exchange with longer stages of your development as a person, those of your relationships, and even of our kind.

If you will but assume (as astrology indicates) that you are living in a period when the rotation of seasonal cycles as you experience them in your body is still meshing with the gears of much larger metaphorical wheels, you will have the perspective you need over the next several weeks. This is no ordinary time. You are not the same as those whose lives have preceded yours.

In spite of temptations to believe otherwise, life is worth living as much or more now than at any time before. Now are the days to appreciate not only yourself and your relationships, but also how tending to them is likewise contributing to what the world will be for a long time to come. Just as your body is essentially the dust of ancient suns, how you take care of yourself (and others with whom you are privileged to mesh) in these days will be the stuff from which the future is made.

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