Mary Jo Wevers

Archives for June 2013

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The Moon

jpeg-1The Moon is the ruling “planet” of Cancer. Next to the Sun, the Moon is the most personal of the luminaries in astrology. The Moon reflects the light of the Sun, just as our inner emotional self is reflective of our outer, conscious experiences in the world.

The closest celestial body to the earth, the Moon exerts a strong magnetic pull affecting oceans, lakes, and other bodies of water.  Our physical bodies are at least 70% water, and the Moon exerts a strong influence on the physical water element in us. In doing so, it affects our emotional attitudes, instincts, and subconscious motivations.

The Moon moves through the 12 signs of the zodiac very quickly, changing sign every 2.5 days. This is why our feelings can change so rapidly, or in a short period of time.  Emotions truly are “energy in motion.”  Like water, it is best to allow them to ebb and flow, rather than contain them or bottle them up.

In astrology the Moon represents our Inner Child, an early pre-verbal emotionally driven part of ourselves that responds automatically to life experiences.  If we tend to repress our emotions, our Inner Child is also repressed and unconscious. Then it acts out and creates chaos in our lives.

Learning to parent our Inner Child out of love and respect is crucial for our emotional and spiritual health. Our wise, Inner Parent can establish healthy boundaries and routines that protect and nurture our Inner Child. We can experience our emotions healthily by simply feeling them. We must then engage the intellect and make rational, conscious choices before taking action. When we embrace our Inner Child and wisely parent them we can experience the joy, spontaneity, innocence, wonder and creativity they bring to our life.

The Moon’s South Node 

Masaru Emoto describes in his book The Hidden Messages in Water how water is affected by our thoughts, words and feelings. Water has the ability to copy, memorize, and transfer emotional information. The ability of water to retain emotional memories and carry them forward in time and space is symbolized in astrology by the Moon’s South Node.

The Moon’s South Node is a point in the astrological chart that represents the accumulation of experiences from our karmic past. It contains ingrained patterns of behavior, attitudes and beliefs that are tied to our emotional body. It reveals our unconscious, pre-conditioned emotional responses and reactions to the world. It is our “default setting”, or path of least resistance we fall back into time and time again.

Learning about our South Node and becoming aware of it operating in our life enables us to consciously redirect our attitudes and behaviors. We can decide to transform problematic expressions of our South Node. We can create balance and resolution by taking steps to embrace and embody the energy of our North Node, our soul’s spiritual destination for us in this life time.

“It is impossible for emotion not to come on us in thinking of that time now flowed away.”

                                                          – Paul Cezanne

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Cancer: The Emotional Memory of Water

jpeg“But reason has no power against feeling, and feeling older than history is no light matter.”

                                                          – Charlotte Perkins Gilman

Thursday June 20th we mark a power point in the calendar year, the seasonal transition we call the Summer Solstice. The Sun will move out of the inquisitive and communicative masculine air sign of Gemini and enter the sensitive and reflective feminine water sign of Cancer. Each succeeding sign of the zodiac provides the means to rectify or redirect the energy of the previous sign. Cancer asks us to shift our awareness from the realm of the mind and tune in to our feelings. A cardinal sign, Cancer wants to initiate activity from a feeling, heart-centered place.

The negative, or receptive, polarity of Cancer gives it an internal, inwardly directed energy. A key phrase for Cancer is “I Feel.” Cancer is sensitive, intuitive, empathetic, vulnerable and sentimental. Cancer governs our inner sense of self, our instincts and emotional attitudes that form the foundation of our psyche.

Considered the youngest sign of the zodiac, Cancer rules our beginnings: infancy and early childhood. The glyph for Cancer is two gametes, male and female, representing fertility and new life. It is symbolic of the deep, creative, imaginative wellspring of life.

Home-loving and maternal, Cancer values family and its ancestral past. Cancer’s domain includes the home, family history and origins, hereditary traits, and ethnic and cultural traditions. On a broader scale, nations and states, citizens, public opinion, and humankind are Cancerian. Cancer is motivated to seek security in its family, clan, tribe, or community. It fears exclusion and needs acceptance from others. Its challenge is to learn self-sufficiency outside of the confines of home, family and community.

Cancer can be retentive, tenacious and shrewd. It stores early life experiences, especially those that are emotionally charged, deep in the subconscious. It allows these emotional memories from the past to color its present experiences, reacting with unconscious, pre-conditioned responses to events and people. Cancer can be overly sensitive, moody, easily hurt, needy and dependent on others. Its tendency to be passive can lead to emotional co-dependency which interferes with its ability to develop self-sufficiency.

The symbol for Cancer is the Crab, a water dwelling animal with a protective shell. Just like a hermit crab, Cancer retreats into its shell when it feels vulnerable or threatened. It guards its privacy and personal matters. It is evasive, preferring not to confront life directly. Like the crab, Cancer moves sideways, side-stepping to escape perceived danger or attacks.

Cancer shows its devotion and care in loyal, nurturing, protective, supportive and domestic ways. Archetypes for Cancer include the primordial Goddess or Female Principal, and the Mother and Child. Wet nurses, cooks, kitchen workers, homemakers and women in general embody the energy of Cancer. History, genealogy and archiving the past are Cancerian occupations and activities.

The color for Cancer is calming and soothing watery silver-blue. Silver is its metal. Pearls and coral are its gems. Willows and trees rich in sap are Cancer plants. Parts of the body ruled by Cancer include the breasts and the stomach. Bodily fluids such as tears, saliva, and milk, and fluid flow and retention are governed by Cancer.

Cancer rules the beginnings and endings of all the cycles of our life. We are born from the Cosmic Womb and we return to it when we die. Cancer defines the ways our beginnings and endings play out in our lives.

“The world is round and the place which may seem like the end may also be only the beginning.”

                                                          – Ivy Baker Priest