Sun in Cancer I: Nike
The Sun enters Cancer I, the domain of the Greek goddess of victory that also lends her name to a famous athletic shoe and clothing company, on June 21 at 5:14 am EDT. Not coincidentally, this is also the moment of the summer solstice, the longest day of the year in the northern hemisphere. The season thus passes from the aptly-named Executioner’s Sword to The Mother and Child, in Austin Coppock’s schema of names for the decans. Ruled by Venus, it’s a season of tenderness and care, for bringing up children and preparing the fruit that will nourish the seed to come. In the ancient world, late spring and early summer was the season of famine, as what was stored from the previous year began to run out but the new food was not yet ready to harvest. Giving this season to Nike the goddess of victory may have been not so much a celebration of athletic prowess, as “hurrah, there’s food to eat!”
We are, of course, looking at a night chart, in which the waning moon still hasn’t reached the midpoint of the sky, and the Sun has not yet risen. It’s strange, at the moment of solstice, to find that the Sun has not yet emerged from the shortest darkness of the year, and that will be a theme in the Cancer Ingress chart of the next three months for the United States The Moon is in Aries, a place of no special dignity or detriment for her, but in the First Mansion — called The Two Signals, it is a place of new energy and ambition, but also fired up with ferocity and warning — something difficult tugs at the connections between our acquaintances and networks of professional connections and social ties; webs of social, economic and political norms fray and smoulder.
And yet — the Ascendant is still in the last decan of Gemini, that self-same Executioner’s Sword: we may wish to be nurturing and considerate of one another, and help grow one another’s skills through loving-kindness and creativity. Yet our attention is still on the sovereign power, steadfast in continuing to not do what must be done. Winston Churchill once said, “The Americans can be counted upon to do the right thing — but only once all other options are exhausted.” So many of my readers may be aware of the genuine problems facing the world — or even just their part of the world — that aren’t being dealt with: it might be as simple as a pothole in a parking lot or as large as a corrupt and authoritarian government. One way or another, the desired solutions are still not on the horizon.
Venus administers this decan, and the bright and cheerful “morning star” version of her is twinkling easily in the eastern sky. She’s quite strong in her own sign of Taurus), and prepared to assist (sextile to the first house), but disinclined to get deeply involved in your problems (cadent and in the twelfth house) — this is akin to the friend who you run into at a coffee house between deadlines and you talk for twenty minutes about your problems; she says, “Oh, that’s terrible. Let me take you to lunch sometime next week” and then (let’s be charitable to her) forgets to schedule something. Use those twenty minutes of her attention advantageously: don’t gripe about the whole situation; ask her to fix a single specific problem, or make one phone call on your behalf, right then and there.
The dodecatemoria of this decan are four: Cancer, Leo, Virgo, and Libra. It’s helpful to see this as the farmer’s view of the plant life cycle: first, there is the watering of the seed, and the nurturing of the seedling; then comes the swift and sudden bloom, the emergence of the lion’s mane of the flower in all its colourful brilliance. Then there is the extended analysis of Virgo: is this plant ready to harvest? Today? tomorrow? What does it need to stay healthy? Finally comes the harvest, and bringing it to market in Libra: What is this worth? What is the accepted payment? Will that help cover next year’s start-up costs?
Recently on Twitter, user @omegastrology pointed out that the decans of any two signs on the same axis always lack the influence of one planet. The decans of Cancer-Capricorn lack the influence of Saturn — and by the pantheon of deities represented in the decans, this axis is an interesting mix of powers associated with magic, healing, health, and purification: Nike, Herakles, and Hekate rule the Cancer decans; and Asklepios, Hygeia, and Tolma rule the Capricorn side. It’s a thought-provoking mix, which urges us to take in the sunlight while we can, pursue health, work out and exercise, and stay clean. Greek medicine also relied on specific foods, so eat often of summer produce and be bold in planning for your own success: it’s not often when Saturn is in a sign it rules, that you get a brief holiday from the full authority of the old ascetic curmudgeon — now’s your chance!
Planetary Positions
Because of a pile-up of planets in the first quadrant of the sky, we now have a fascinating situation: four of the seven visible planets are in signs that they rule. Mars, Saturn, and Mercury are each sextile or trine to one another by sign, creating favourable conditions for difficult communications, arguments, and harsh words. Venus is square to Saturn, promising roughness in the relationship between our public religiosity and our private understandings of spirit.
Mars is in Aries, his own rulership, in the decan called The Burning Rose. Here he stirs up trouble and conflict in social circles, professional networks, and educational communities; he’s passionate and serious about what needs to be done, but it doesn’t mean he’s not going to break a few eggs (or heads) in the process. Venus is in Taurus in the decan called The Prayer Beads, suggesting a retreat from the world undertaken for aesthetic reasons — “it’s just too ugly out there right now.” Mercury is in Gemini’s first decan, The Apple of Eden, suggesting we’ve bitten off more than we can chew, and are gaining new insight against our better natures and reason. Saturn is in Aquarius in the third decan, The Knot, indicating a necessary re-education in how to cut free of normal restraints and limitations.
Along this same arc, we find Uranus still in Taurus’s middle decan The Lingam Yoni— a struggle for autonomy and the right to personal happiness is ongoing. I see a lot more Starbucks stores are looking to unionize, and I see that employees at Amazon and SpaceX are pushing back against their CEOs’ and boards ‘ policies and rule-making procedures… with varying degrees of success. And, of course, there’s a January 6 Committee grinding away, sharpening the knives to come for the power players in the last administration. These things are all of a piece: low-level people hitting back at those with more senior and better-compensated positions Expect this struggle to be ongoing, and note that Pluto is on the other end of this particular negotiation, which hasn’t yet turned blood-in-the-streets ugly and probably won’t for a couple of years yet.
Jupiter and The Moon are also in Aries in the first decan, the Double-Bladed Axe. Divisions are coming, and separations, under the cover of law but backed by at least the implied threat of violence.
Neptune is in the last decan of Pisces the Cup of Blood. A marker of zealotry and untethered enthusiasm, it’s also a warning against false information and confusion about the state of what’s real. Henry Kissinger, describing the challenge of compartmentalizing classified intelligence from public information, warned that it’s easy to privilege and honour what was brought to you through secret channels and at great cost — but there’s no guarantee that the New York Times hasn’t published a cub reporter’s more accurate analysis of a problem on page 17 of last Tuesday’s paper. In a more fictional vein, both Saruman and Denethor saw false visions in their seeing stones, in Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings — just because a high-tech vision has brought you the information, doesn’t mean it’s true. Eleanor Shelstrop’s file may only be another cactus.
There’s not much left to delineate. Pluto remains in Capricorn’s third decan The Throne, and it’s been nice to see the Uranian labour push-back at least mildly inconvenience a billionaire or two on Twitter. The obligations of high office weigh upon senior statesmen and top-tier executives alike, and, as noted above, at the moment it’s the genial give-and-take. That may change by 2026 when Uranus progresses into Gemini, or Pluto enters Aquarius for the first time in March 2023. But we’ll see.
The Nodal Axis is balanced on Taurus III and Scorpio III — the hunger for minimalism and simplicity being challenged by the releasing and destruction of beautiful things. Expect to see ongoing signs of the beige-ending of the world, as AirBnB encourages more rental properties to conform to an IKEA-ness of minimalism. Rooms may get duller as the transhipment of pigments for artists and wall paints slow or stops, delayed for more, higher-priority cargo. Tighter trade protocols keep hand-made things out and let more mass production in.
Horoscopes by Rising Sign
Cancer: Moon square and in the first Mansion. Financial issues overlap with some issues around loaned or shifted money within our work budget or discretionary accounts. We may want to file the necessary paperwork to report or re-shuffle funds, before the end of the month. Settle the existing outstanding tasks, too, and try to have a clean desk for July 1. Depending on our place in an 80+ year-long lifespan, someone’s health care may force us to reconsider our own plans and legacies.
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