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Cancer Last Quarter Moon at 24*18’—October 17

I’m not going to sugarcoat it—today may be harsh.

Firstly, this moon is a moon shamanic astrologer Raven Kaldera refers to as the Widow’s Moon… a moon when ‘we grieve…’

Secondly, the moon illuminates a sun that is quite literally, however painfully slowly, swallowing Venus while simultaneously squaring Pluto and connecting to Mars, creating a very potent t-square alignment, leaving the void in the zodiacal energies of Aries… can I say: it’s complicated!?

And thirdly, this last quarter moon occurs within the third decan of Cancer, a decan associated with the 4 of cups in the tarot—a very watery card that represents apathy or self-absorption, at the worst… and a meditative rest, in the brightest perspective.

Tarot writer Jessica Dore writes of this card, that it’s “one of those strange cards that seems to tell me a different secret every time we meet…”

Indeed. Cancer: the zodiacal manifestation of secrets.

What secrets are you withholding? And why?

Further, Dore suggests that this card describes a human problem we too often forget or overlook—that “we’ve forgotten how to listen…” as well as simply “not listening.”

Specifically, to cues.

Dore writes that “we engage [even] with tarot cards the way we engage with a lot of other things in this world—as objects to support our agendas and bolster our polemics… and not as entities unto themselves that would offer something if we only knew how to listen…”

Continued, Dore writes, “we’re constantly projecting our inner worlds—beliefs, desires, fantasies—onto the world around us… we decide what we want to eat for dinner without considering what’s in season; we build homes in areas that are not meant for human habitation… often even when we think we’re giving, we’re taking—we give to make ourselves feel good, to feel aligned with the belief that we are righteous, and to be perceived by others as virtuous.”

Do you move through life only taking?

Are you really as receptive as you consider yourself to be?—how would others answer?

Dore suggests that “we’re scared to let go of our agenda and listen for what wants to happen…”

That’s powerful.

Truly, how does this suggestion make you feel?

Further, Dore wonders if we “don’t know how to tolerate the emotional reality of things not going our way… [that] sometimes we feel safer projecting our imagining of how things ought to be, crossing our fingers and praying for the best—even though so very often that way creates suffering.”

The underlying essence of today, then, may describe something that resembles the personal need for deeper meaning, sure—though much more so: the actions you take toward, or in honor of, this deeper meaning.

Tarot writer TS Chang suggests that the 4 of cups is an invitation… “it’s the stop sign at the intersection, where you get to choose what you do next…”

Cancer energies are egoic, absolutely—more so than any astrology cookbook will ever let on, but these energies are also very heavily laced with action—truly, an intersection of choice, of creating movement, even if only sideways.

And so maybe the grieving, then—that is inherently embodied within this lunar phase—is not only about loss, toward anything you’ve lost, though, more specifically: time… is today about the mourning of time lost and the grappling and grieving of not previously taking action toward necessary endeavors that would have possibly opened up additional potentials and so forth…?

Is today about the painful inner feeling of not taking a stand within your life?

There’s time.

On a happier note—let’s delineate the degree!

The degree through which today’s last quarter moon occurs describes ‘rising to the occasion…’

Further, there is “an unavoidable obligation to accept responsibility—and responding rationally…”

Further still… ‘heeding one’s calling; having a sense of personal destiny; confident pursuit of personal goals; living out a self-created role; conscientious preparation for one’s larger role; waiting for the right time; and daring to live life…’

Furthermore… perhaps this moon is more ultimately about—in even the most subtle ways—listening to the inner voice within yourself and really hearing yourself—really connecting to what you need… and more specifically, more essentially, what the inner you actually needs.

❝I remember going shopping shortly after my husband left me, I kept walking around the market without putting anything in my cart. Suddenly, I realized I didn’t even know what I liked to eat. For years, I had been buying what he liked and what the children liked and that is what I ate… I didn’t even know my own tastes in food.❞

—Ruth Harriet Jacobs

☽♌︎ by 9:44pm PDT; 10:44pm MDT; 11:44pm CDT; 12:44am EDT tomorrow

🖋 by Jamie James
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Coppock, A ‘36 Faces’ Three Hands Press; ©2014. Chang, TS. ‘36 Secrets.’ Anima Mundi Press; ©2021. Dore, J. ‘Tarot for Change.’ VIKING; ©2021. Goldsmith, M. ‘The Zodiac by Degrees.’ Weiser Books; ©2004.
Hill, L. ‘360 Degrees of Wisdom.’ A Plume Book; ©2004.
Kaldera, R. ‘Moon Phase Astrology.’ Destiny Books; ©2011. Reed, T. ‘Tarot: No Questions Asked.’ Weiser Books; ©2020.
Roche, D. ‘The Sabian Symbols.’ Astrology Classics; ©1998, 2010.
Rudhyar, D. ‘An Astrological Mandala.’ Vintage Books; ©1973.