Category Archives: Columnist

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

Photographic Proof: Mars and the Sagittarius Full Moon

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By Amanda Painter

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.

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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

Mars, Chiron and You

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By Amanda Painter

As Mars makes its way through Cancer — and thus through a series of potent aspects to many of the planets defining much of current life — it reaches a key marker today: its exact square to Chiron in Aries. This event would have a personal feel to it no matter what. But with Mars in emotional, protective Cancer, and with Chiron in a sign Mars rules (one related to the concepts of self and identity), there’s a picture of taking things very personally indeed — perhaps in ways that could feel challenging.

Photo by Amanda Painter

As has been mentioned elsewhere on Planet Waves recently, western society (particularly the U.S.) has Mars issues. There’s a tendency to default to aggression when fear is encountered, and most people seem to be afraid of a lot these days; for sure, there are a great deal of scary things in the world, and mainstream media often appears crafted specifically to emphasize that fact.

Yet, in addition to all the things ‘out there’ to be afraid of, many people harbor tremendous doubts about what’s inside of them: their desires and sexuality, emotions, needs, dreams, gifts; many doubt whether there’s really anything at all inside that’s deserving of love and acceptance.

In the last year or two I’ve witnessed a few situations in which someone received the affirmation that they are enough, just as they are. Their response to that affirmation has generally been emotional: an outflowing of relief at being seen fully, mixed with grief over the years of feeling disconnected from a sense of wholeness, mixed with disbelief that the affirmation could possibly be true, given how long it has not felt true.

Those emotions could also come out as aggression if someone is too far from a place of being able to hear, feel or even glimpse the message. Anyone who does not feel free to express deep emotion has the potential to lash out in defense of those vulnerable, terrifying parts of themselves.

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Believe it or Not: Scorpio Full Moon

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By Amanda Painter

On Saturday, we have the Scorpio Full Moon tucked into a busy chart. Yet it’s happening as Mars makes contact with some potent, society-defining slow movers elsewhere in the sky. There’s a lot of energy zinging around currently — some of it may feel quite personal or internal; some of it might be coming through to you the way the noises of next-door demolition and construction come through a window, even if it’s closed. You may be experiencing a challenging combination of both.

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Evolutions of the Heart

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By Amanda Painter

Even though Venus has not yet entered Taurus — its own sign — to resonate with the Sun, it figures prominently in this week’s primary aspects. So that’s an immediate indication to notice where you’re at in your relationships (especially the ones where love, lust, and other big emotions reign).

Photo by Amanda Painter

You may have felt a little introspective in this regard beginning the week, as Venus in Aries squared Saturn in Capricorn. With the late-week aspects Venus is making, you may notice a shift to needing to express some energy around these topics. But how might that look?

We can get some clues from the other major aspects Venus is making. Today into tomorrow, it enters the Pluto-Eris square (squaring Pluto in Capricorn and conjoining Eris in Aries). Venus also makes a trine to retrograde Jupiter in Sagittarius (exact today).

One way to look at this overall configuration is that it’s asking a question about receptivity in our current moment — a question that relates to some much longer-term activity. If you’ve read and listened to the INTELLIGENCE annual readings for 2019-2020, you know that Jupiter, Saturn and Pluto all factor heavily in the marquee aspects that define late this year and next year. So you could think of this early contact by Venus as a way of warming up your most personal feelings about any process of growth and development you’re in currently, or which you think you might be headed for.

With Venus in Aries, we get the idea of initiative: what it feels like to just go for what you love; how to get started; the act of expressing emotions that put us in vulnerable or exposed positions. What’s at the heart of that? One answer might be: being seen and received for who you really are. How do you feel about that?

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