New Moon in Cancer & Dark Moon Gifts
Persephone - artist unknown
Our Cancerian lunation was birthed deep in the warm darkness. Mistress Moon emerged from Her NM Cancerian shell today, glowing softly in Leo.
There are times we need darkness in order to see more clearly. We need this monthly fallow season, and the awareness to observe and cultivate primordial rhythms.
Withdrawal from the perpetual light we experience now can feel like a form of civil disobedience.
But the relief & rest that comes when we turn wearily towards that wise, old Dark Moon. Our black mirror. Elemental and spare. We pare back and down to the essentials. Shedding, releasing what has come before, grieving losses, and scattering seed visions for the future.
As La Lune renewed Herself, Crab-clawed in Cancer, She had Fanged Lilith at Her breast. Lilith - who carries the Shadows of all our refused female monsters. Our Feminine scapegoats. Lilith is Witch and Warning. According to old Judaic lore, Lilith is a winged, taloned demon who squats in the corner of birthing rooms, causing women miscarry or bear stillborn children. Lilith in Cancer carries the shadow of these sorrows.
Depending on your chart, and where our lunations land depends upon the flavour & experience of each one.
Velvet pawed with hidden claw.This New Moon felt more sharp than sweet, though it may bear hidden gifts and blessings that could emerge with time, as Jupiter was involved.
When the New Moon was exact, La Lune was squared by lawmaker Jupiter, in His full Viking regalia in Aries, aiming his soldier’s spear point toward the Mother, the Womb, the child at the breast. Where we are most vulnerable.
Whether you felt Jupiter’s connection as wound or wonderment, there’s been an overbearing Yang fervour imposed upon the primal Mother. It may feel as though there is a lack of safety, or sudden precarity in regards to Home, Tribe, Belonging, Motherhood, Family. There may be a sense of overbearing force and power. A feeling of pressure in these areas.
There is tremendous sweetness, protection & care with Cancer; but She is also fierce when required to protect. Jupiter is exalted in Cancer, and one reason for this is because of the generative aspect of Jupiter, and its associations with protection of children and innocence.
Cancer as the Mother archetype is both cradle & tomb, and she’ll not be declawed to pander to Hallmark depictions of Motherhood. Her tender ferocity is held for us in the Womb of Memory, along with the primordial placenta, blood, heat, milk, & the eggs we carry of our future granddaughters with which we’re born. Cancer is the red thread of mitochondria, matrilineal source of life, nutritive, fleshy portal to Otherworldly dimensions.
As Mother Moon waned balsamic in Cancer, she drew close her crone’s cloak. Many of us felt a tidal pull towards deep emotions, silence & stillness. We’re being prompted to burrow into the heart of what we care about, what we wish to protect & what truly matters.
What does Home mean to us? Do we feel called to protect or nurture something or someone? This may be actual children, but it may also be what we give birth to creatively, our projects and dreams. Can we “mother” these wisely and well to maturity?
