We begin this week with three personal planets on the move that represent some of our most palpable facets of personality. Broadly speaking, this is a reminder to notice what’s shifting — particularly within you, or in terms of your responses to your immediate environment. Yet it’s how things are shifting that really matters.
Spider monkey at the Belize Zoo, which cares for animals that have been injured, abandoned or rescued from the illegal pet trade. Photo by Amanda Painter.
The background context for this other astrology is that the Moon is approaching Full phase. On Friday, the Moon in Sagittarius will oppose the Sun in Gemini. Like all Full Moons, this one speaks of energy coming to a peak, particularly in interpersonal relationships. And as noted, the tone of ‘the personal’ is being modified.
First off, Mars ingressed Cancer earlier today (Sunday). On Tuesday, June 6, Venus enters its home sign of Taurus at 3:26 am EDT (7:26 UTC). Then later on Tuesday Mercury ingresses its own home sign of Gemini at 6:15 pm EDT (22:15 UTC).
Both Venus and Mars are entering ‘feminine’ (or more receptive) signs: Taurus and Cancer. (Gemini, like all air signs, gets called ‘masculine’, though astrologer Isabel Hickey points out that due to its dualistic nature, it’s rather neutral in terms of ‘gender’.)
In an email conversation about this cluster of planetary shifts, Eric wrote: “You might ask: if people suddenly seemed to be more emotionally accessible, and if you wanted to be more accessible, what would you do? How would you respond?”
For example, there’s the idea of allowing oneself to be more open with a partner: stating your feelings and listening to theirs. Or in social situations, being more receptive to simple gestures like eye contact. Making eye contact is such a powerful way of connecting with another human being. Yet in this era of the smartphone, people seem to avoid it like the plague with anyone they don’t already know.
Aside from situations that specifically warrant caution (like walking alone in an unfamiliar neighborhood after dark) what horror is likely to befall you if you meet someone’s gaze for an instant?
Our current planetary setup also hints at some assertiveness mixed into the accessibility. Mars is the symbol of the assertiveness principle, and it’s now in Cancer. The Sun is also an assertive energy, and is currently in a conjunction to the asteroid Ceres in Gemini (exact today). Both Cancer and Ceres are about nourishment and the act of nourishing.
Mwanda, a young bonobo, hugs Lomela, a malnourished bonobo orphan. Bonobos are known for their cooperative, empathetic social behaviors. Photo by Yo La Bonobo rescue facility.
Eric continued in our conversation, “I would advocate for taking care of yourself, taking care of the people you love, taking care of your plants, taking care of your garden, taking care of your critters and, overall, taking care. This is the most basic level of dharma: taking care of the world.”
Part of taking care of the world, of course, is to recognize what is happening around you, and connecting it to what is happening within you. You can only truly take care of things (animals, people, yourself, your garden, your community) if you can see what is actually needed. With the Sun currently in a square to Neptune in Pisces, the need for careful discernment becomes key; that is, dealing with the world as it is, not as you wish it to be. Where might you be letting your wishful thinking cloud your perception?
Keep in mind that this week is building to a Full Moon. If you’re having difficulty assessing others’ needs, goals or emotional reality, it could become more apparent by the end of the week — especially if a discrepancy in awareness causes tension in a relationship.
Remember that just like making eye contact, asking a person what they need is often the most efficient way to know whether you can help care for them in mutually healthy ways. Mercury in Gemini should assist verbal communication; Venus and Mars bolster emotional and physical sensitivity. The rest is up to you.
Sheer pleasure to read Amanda!
I found the example of eye contact to be especially enlightening. I visited New York city…, once. It was just not for me. I had the benefit of having an older gentleman as a waiter when I was there. During the course of the evening he asked me where I was from, saying he knew I wasn’t a New Yorker. Besides my accent, I asked him how he knew. ‘What is different?’
He told me it was because I was so completely open, explaining New Yorkers weren’t that way. His reason explained something for me that I’d noticed all day long in going to various places. People had been reacting to direct eye contact defensively, with scowls and suspicion. It was totally odd for me, because I always make direct eye contact, coupled with a beaming smile of friendliness. It’s just me.
I came away from that visit with an impression of New York city being a vast concentration of paranoia and neurosis. There was a LOT of fear and insecurity being generated and expressed. I have since experienced other places and the one determination I’ve been able to make is that we don’t know what we don’t know.
If everyone around me is paranoid, my community paranoid and everyone I come in contact with is paranoid, then being paranoid is going to be what to me is normal. I won’t know it for what it is nor will I recognize any issues or problems with it. The same with any of our issues, like being insecure. If we don’t recognize it, we don’t have a chance nor a motivation to resolve it.
The one thing I was never taught as a child was how to be self nurturing. Since that realization sunk in, I have tried my best to learn and come to recognize that being nurturing and loving is a Power all in itself.
Sue- I share your style of interacting with eye contact and smiles of friendliness which, for the most part, is generally well received here where I live on the west coast (about an hour out of Vancouver BC).
What came to mind reading your comment was something that happened a few days ago while driving. At the traffic light I stopped along side of a school bus and noticed a few children waving and smiling. I waved back and smiled too … this encouraged more waving and smiling and peace signs until the light turned green again.
It was a fun exchange. Like you said …being nurturing and loving is a power all in itself.
Ramona – I’m just south of you, along the west coast of Washington. About 45 minutes from the beaches.
The experience you share about the kids on the bus has inspired a smile on my face every time time I think about it. Thank You for that fuel!
I can’t remember where I read it or heard it so long ago but it has guided me for many years. It said a smile is how we show others how much Love is in our Hearts. That said, grumpy faces just confirm how much that person needs a smile.
Sue — that’s an excellent example of how certain behaviors and energetic/mental states can become “normal” to everyone in the community, and it’s not until you leave that environment (or something enters the environment 00 like a visitor) that a shift in perspective is possible, or a realization of what is missing or different.
Years ago a friend of mine who had grown up on an Ohio farm was living with her husband in NYC. Her parents came to visit, and her father was absolutely steadfast in his habit of smiling and waving and saying “hi” to passersby. She tried to explain to him that he simply was not going to get the response he was used to in Ohio, but that did not deter him. 🙂
Your example of not learning how to self-nurture by example is another good one. Both healthy habits and unhealthy habits cannot be recognized as such unless we get to witness and experience the opposite — and then we get to choose for ourselves which ones to live and model. And sometimes that means choosing a new context for ourselves where those choices are supported with positive reinforcement — hopefully the healthy habits. Though I’m sure we can all think of examples when people (maybe ourselves) have semi-consciously chosen to surround ourselves with those who mirror unhealthy habits, so that we can keep feeling “normal.”
Here’s to the practices of openness, inner security, self-nurturing, connection and more.
Amanda – I guess I’m just as stubborn as your friend’s father. I continued to make eye contact and smile, no matter how much my companion implored me to stop. He was embarrassed and wanted for me to ‘behave’ and I was being deaf to his pleas.
I had the gift growing up of moving all over the place. It was always an exercise in adaptability, learning how to “fit in” and not stick out like a sore thumb. To this day is takes about 6 weeks for me to begin to mimic accents as if they were my own. I don’t think about it; it just happens. It happens with clothing styles, and mannerisms, too. Like a chameleon, I change. But only on the outside. The me on the inside remains, also learning how to adapt and finding ways to harmonize.
I wouldn’t be able to stay in New York City very long and have never been back after that one visit. The best I know how to convey it is that there is a sort of psychic cloud hanging over it. Like air pollution but it’s made up of thoughts and feelings and is a very dense cloud, composed of fear, worry, pain, loneliness, doubt and sorrow. The worst thing about to me was how draining it is on all of the people who live there.
In the central states it’s a little easier to breathe. The cloud isn’t as dense but it is also composed of fear with a healthy (unhealthy) dose of “up tight” thrown in. I found Texas to be extreme in attitudes of domination and control (of others) and didn’t like the kind of person I had to become to succeed.
California surprised me. The psychic cloud is especially dense in Southern California, too. Draining a lot of lives.
All over I found Fear of Intimacy or Into me see, as I call it. So in being open maybe I’m giving an example of encouragement, showing there is really nothing to fear? “If I can do it, anyone can do it.”
Sue Edwards — your experience of the “psychic cloud” over some places is fascinating to me. Not entirely surprising, though, given the natures of NYC and Los Angeles, for example, though I might have expected California as a whole to be lighter. I appreciate your ability to articulate those experiences.
I echo the importance of just ‘being present’ this day in age. It’s lacking and almost bordering on nostalgic at this point. What has helped you maintain mindfulness whilst basking in the glow of a MacBook? Asking for a friend…