Getting to the Heart of the Matter
After the intensity of May, we should find June’s waters a little less choppy. About time, right? Three planets move into sensitive, emotional Cancer, so don’t overschedule. Leave time to relax and connect with loved ones and friends. And leave time to soul search and dream. Now is the time to tap into your heart’s desires and begin sharing your dreams and needs with others. A series of grand trines in water (more below) can help us move our dreams from inspiration into doable reality.
With such a watery month, emotions can rise high. On the other hand, we can also open up, explore these watery depths together and deepen our sense of intimacy, safety and belonging. Commit to using your emotions to bring yourself closer to others, to become sensitive to your own needs and the needs of those around you. May all our hearts beat as one.
June 1st – Mercury enters Cancer
Mercury leaves quick and adaptive Gemini for gentle, sentimental Cancer, where it stays until August 9th, an exceptionally long stay for Mercury. Now is the time to get in touch and express what you’re feeling. Because what you sense and feel takes longer to put into words, the flow of information will begin to slow so you can access what lies beneath the surface. That’s all right. It takes time to create intimacy and closeness, to find the right words to express concern and caring, to share your deepest needs.
June 4th – Venus enters Cancer
Venus, planet of love and beauty, joins Mercury in Cancer, adding greater need for connection and belonging. This month we want to be around the people with whom we feel most at home, those who care about us and with whom we can express our vulnerabilities. This is a great month to tune into what makes us feel safe, nurtured, and supported and to provide those things for ourselves. What is it you need? Replenish yourself.
June 7th – Neptune stations retrograde in Pisces
Neptune spends roughly half the year retrograde (seemingly moving backwards in the sky, from our perspective on earth), so we’ve reached Neptune’s appointed time to stop in its tracks and begin its mid-year shift in direction. Right around the Neptune station, sensitivity increases, as does intuition and nonlinear means of understanding the world around us. For some this creates confusion; for others it opens portals into the hidden unities that surround us.
June 8th – New moon at 18 degrees Gemini
This new moon is an intriguing one. Gemini gives primacy to reason and information, but the ruler of Gemini, Mercury, is in Cancer along with Venus, and the watery emphasis of this lunation leans toward feelings, connection, and nonlinear means of knowing. It calls us to gather our facts but to anchor them in the context of our core emotional needs.
With Moon and Mercury in each other’s signs, figuring out and communicating what we know only becomes useful when it responds to our deepest passions and longings, and addresses people that feed our soul, those whom we genuinely care about. Then we move from sharing the stuff in our heads to sharing the stuff in our hearts. In short, we need to scratch beneath the surface and find our tribe, the group that supports and facilitates our heart’s desires and most intimate self.
Mars squares Neptune on the day of the moon, so be aware that people can be stressed, overly sensitive, easily frustrated, and reactive this month. Watch that small things don’t take on more importance than they might otherwise. Mars represents the principle of action and energy while Neptune represents the principle of diffusion. Often we struggle to express our anger when these two planets come together. At best, this combination fires us up to work toward our dreams and ideals or to advocate for those without power.
With Pluto and Uranus in stressful relationship to Venus and Mercury, we need to think deeply about what brings us pleasure, how our relationships support or thwart our needs, and what we value. Issues that raise questions of self-worth may appear. Do we feel we are enough, are we “worth it,” deserving of the love, beauty, and peace we seek? Do we feel empowered to ask for what we want? Do we put others’ needs first because we genuinely want to support them or because we feel it selfish to address our own desires? Do we hope (in quiet) that someone eventually will notice that our needs have gone unmet?
If we have not been supportive of ourselves, June can be a month when resentments and jealousies bubble to the surface. If you want this exposure to be healing rather than corrosive, the trick is to state what you want without blaming others for what you feel is lacking or expecting them to change. Instead, identify your own fundamental requirements and empower yourself to provide them.
June provides the opportunity to negotiate with others, to advocate for core needs and desires, and to strengthen our foundation and our tribe. The challenge will be to do so without letting negotiations erode into power struggles or storming away from the table. This means sharing vulnerabilities rather than making demands or engaging in a contest of wills.
Might this approach reveal that someone isn’t in your tribe after all? Perhaps, but authentic gains come through examining where we limit intimacy by refusing to reveal our true needs and longings. If someone else walks away from the negotiation, that’s okay. You strove to reinforce the bonds between you. Recognize that even if it doesn’t work out, breaking free will create space for others who do share your dreams and who will support you.
Assisting Venus and Mercury this moon cycle are Neptune, and Saturn—creating a grand trine in water—and pointing to helpful strategies for the month. First, start with essentials, with the most fundamental elements of our dreams. Second, let yourself be guided by your inspiration and ideals. Third, cultivate your allies and supporters. Fourth, be willing to have serious conversations and go deep. Be open to discovering that you don’t have all the answers. Allow yourself to receive the support and input of others.
June 22nd – Sun moves into Cancer
The sun joins Mercury and Venus in caring, clan-oriented Cancer. With this much water, feelings have primacy. Be gentle with others and gentle with yourself. Because your sense of limits can become somewhat diffused, make sure to spend a bit of time alone each day so you can reconstitute and reestablish good boundaries.
June 23rd – Full moon at 2 degrees Cancer
The week leading up to a full moon is often one of heightened emotion. The week of June 17th-June 23rd will be especially so, as we have half the celestial bodies in water signs and the moon and sun becoming more angular to Pluto and Uranus.
An awareness that everyone is a bit more reactive right now – and feelings can be raw – can help keep things in perspective.
On a more personal level, your own emotions are ripe for review. Deep psychological insight is possible, especially into habits and behaviors that have been with you for a while. For instance, if at the new moon you discovered you had difficulty asking for support or wondered if you deserved it, the full moon provides an opportunity to uproot these old psychological patterns.
The best results come from keeping the focus on you. Journal, soul-search, ask hard questions. Illuminate those shadowy aspects of yourself – your fears, your doubts, your shame and guilt. Bring them into the light to be healed. Doing so gives you the opportunity to break free of old emotional patterns that have held you back and limited your happiness.
The sun is supported by Saturn and Neptune at the full moon, creating another grand trine in water. Use the full moon to explore your purpose, goals, and dreams. Mediation, yoga, and other internal and/or spiritual disciplines can provide a framework for personal growth this full moon. Insights garnered now point to how to align inspiration with reality and to make your dreams real. Plans crafted now have the spark of a grand vision that can pass the tests of time.
June 26th – Mercury stations Retrograde at 23 degree Cancer
Three or four times a year Mercury appears to stop in the sky (station) and then begin moving backwards (retrograde). This lasts for roughly four weeks before Mercury appears to stop again and then begin moving forward (direct motion.) What this means for us is a period of integration, review, and resolution.
With Mercury being in Cancer, we need to integrate the emotional material we’ve been exploring since the new moon. Consider: Is the direction in which I am heading emotionally satisfying? Do I have the support I need? What behaviors and patterns keep me stuck in the past, and how might I change them? You have until July 20th to reflect and get your house in order and until August 9th to fully integrate the emotional shift you are trying to make.
Retrograde planets work more internally than those in direct motion, so much of what we are thinking about and processing at this time may more difficult to articulate to others. With Mercury in a water sign, communication may feel doubly hard. Slowing down, taking time to discover how you feel and what you need is an important strategy when navigating this period.
If you have to deal with complex information, contracts, and data, double check your facts and asks lots of questions. Remember, it’s Mercury retrograde for everyone. When someone misunderstands you or communication becomes garbled, keep your sense of humor.
June 27th – Jupiter enters into Cancer
Jupiter leaves Gemini, the sign of its detriment, to enter Cancer, the sign of its exaltation, where it stays until July of 2014. Jupiter is connected to wisdom, truth, growth, expansion, moral/religious/philosophical frameworks, and optimism. In Cancer, Jupiter’s generosity of spirit is highlighted. We are more charitable and giving.
If we have been doing our homework all month, working with our emotions, addressing unresolved feelings, and exploring our core needs and desires, Jupiter’s entry into Cancer can represent the payoff for that hard work. We grow emotionally and spiritually, and bounty will result from that growth. We are more giving, more open-hearted, and better able to receive the gifts that come our way.
Aries:
As part of your ongoing reinvention, this month requires you to speak up about your needs, desires and vision, and then do the hard negotiations at home, whether it be with the people closest to you or with intractable parts of yourself. Your place of growth: a tribe that gets you and with whom you feel a deep sense of belonging. Gemstone: Rhodonite
Taurus:
This month you’re slated to discuss your finances, your vision for the future, and your need for a plan that is both feasible and provides a sense of security. Getting what you need will come more easily when you focus on what you care about – for yourself and those around you – and communicate it with love and humility. Gemstone: Rose Quartz
Gemini:
Happy birthday, Twins. June looks to be a busy month for you. Focus on what you can do, what lifts your spirit and fills you with a sense of possibility. Your definition of who you are and what you’re capable of has expanded over the past year. Next year you have the opportunity to use your increased confidence and understanding to grow your income and get clear on what really matters in your life. Gemstone: Serpentine
Cancer:
A cycle that began in 2001 is coming to a close. Let go and make way for the next wave of growth and expansion. June may feel like a sloughing off of old skin, with much churning underneath the surface. It’s okay. Your work will be identifying ways you self-sabotage and releasing those patterns. New creativity, life, and joy are on their way in, but don’t assume you know what form they’ll take. Be open and self-reflective. Gemstone: Angelite
Leo:
June provides you with the opportunity to think deeply about your long-term hopes and dreams. Such heady material is worked through best among allies or in solitude. Spiritual retreat and contemplation do much to feed your soul this month and to prepare you for the journey you wish to take. Start by aligning your head and heart and finding your emotional center. Then you can still yourself to grasp the wonders of your intuition, which will lead you forward. Gemstone: Quartz
Virgo:
You may find yourself in the swirl of activity this month. Enjoy it and its breakneck pace. Your vision for the future might not line up with that of those around you, so negotiate for what you genuinely care about. Your ability to convey your vision hinges on speaking from a place of caring and emotional generosity so everyone feels you’ve heard their concerns. Gemstone: Carnelian
Libra:
Your ideas and truths take center stage this month. Communicating what you believe in a supportive, caring way can bring you into the public eye and increase the respect you receive. On the other hand, trying to push through your agenda by indirect means will alienate your allies. Stay centered in your truths, look for win-win solutions and rethink work so it’s more sustainable. All of these strategies will pay off in the long-term. Gemstone: Blue Lace Agate
Scorpio:
Let go, let go, let go. This is the month to release excess baggage and make room for the new. Don’t hang on to old beliefs, in particular, and don’t make assumptions about the people around you. You are slated for a renewal of faith and optimism. All that is required of you is an open heart and an open mind. Judgment is the enemy. If you feel one creeping in, ask yourself, “What fear lies underneath?” Gemstone: Citrine
Sagittarius:
This month your interactions with others can help you bring a long overdue subject to a close. Do more listening than talking this month. Wisdom ripples out from such conversations, helping you pinpoint areas in which you are ready to move on. The easy chat can quickly turn into soulful connection, allowing you to see deeply into recesses of your mind that previously were hidden. Gemstone: Smokey Quartz
Capricorn:
Your mission for June, should you accept it, is to remain flexible and open. Relationships can be intense, so avoid intractable positions and align yourself with the flow of the river rather than fighting the current. If conflict arises, sidestep power struggles and the competing demands of others by being cognizant of your own boundaries while being respectful of others’. Gemstone: Aquamarine
Aquarius:
By focusing on what brings you pleasure and more fully expressing yourself – be it creatively or by inhabiting all of your skin – you will foster creative change in your daily life. Your day-to-day routines have become calcified and need to be replaced with new ones that are more supportive. Your health, your attitude, and your work life will improve if you focus on lightening up, caring for yourself and having more fun. Gemstone: Onyx
Pisces:
Conversations concerning home, tribe, and family can do much good this month. Focus on addressing what supports and sustains you. If you’re not feeling at home – physically or emotionally – now is the time to rectify that problem. Fishies who open these discussions will find a wellspring of support from friends and a renewal of personal creativity and authentic self-expression. Gemstone: Moonstone