Mercury Retrograde in Cancer: Feeling all the Feels
Mercury is in its retrograde shadow right now and is officially retrograde starting June 18. Tech issues could abound and patience is key. There could be a day, or a few days, where the internet or phone service is out altogether, by choice or not by choice.
If you connect with your ancestors, this is a good time to communicate with them directly for guidance or indirectly through services that highlight your lineage. These are good things to know anyway, as we are all learning about our collective history, getting in touch with our personal and individual histories is helpful, too.
Expect significant changes to continue in the way you view and value things, your sensitivity levels, heightened intuition, and increased vulnerabilities. This 2020 rough ride isn't over yet. It's a roller coaster, a marathon, a bevy of metaphors that keeps us hanging on. It's not so much a question of if this eclipse series will change us, but how.
It’s a good time to assess if you’re ready to make some changes and move forward, or if you’re going to stay comfortable. To some degree, the decision to stay comfortable is largely out of our control, and one of the confrontations we have to make is really to examine our relationship with control, individually and collectively. It starts with really feeling our own feelings and healing our inner worlds.
We have a New Moon and solar eclipse in Cancer on June 21 at 2:42 am EDT.
The moon and sun will both be in Cancer and it is a highly emotional eclipse. We got a taste of what the Cancer and Capricorn eclipses highlight last year, and this series is not done yet. Issues with family might come to the forefront, past relationships, or other deep-seated wounds that need healing and resolve. When the moon passed over Chiron in Aries, this healing energy was amplified.
A solar eclipse always occurs about two weeks after or before a lunar eclipse and usually there is one of each, but this summer we have three, a solar eclipse sandwiched between two lunar eclipses. In a solar eclipse, the moon is obstructing the sun, and we may enter a period of blackout, or burnout. We may be wiped out emotionally and physically, but it's all clearing out to make room for something better.
Eclipses lift blocks and push evolution forward.
Where you’ve tended to feel blocked or trapped this year, there will be forward movement in July. Last year's solar eclipse in Cancer was in the 2nd decan, whereas this one occurs in 0 degrees and the first decan of Cancer. This set of eclipses isn't done shaking up the systems that govern us quite yet. And it isn't ready for us to fully begin anew just yet either. But the change wheels are in motion.
The mutable energy lunar eclipse on June 5 is a shakeup and now this cardinal energy solar eclipse is urging us to see what is possible and new.
We've imagined a better world and now we create it, implement it, jump in with both feet. It’s a good time to connect with the people in your life that feel like home, you can count on, and are rooted in love. This eclipse will occur on the same date as the solstice and it will light up the parts of your chart ruled by the cardinal signs, specifically Cancer and Capricorn, and even if you don’t have planets in Cancer or Capricorn, you have houses ruled by these signs. So everyone will be affected, but how exactly, and the areas of life which are affected will vary.
It is important right now that we are balancing staying in the moment and bearing witness to the historical moments occurring with and around us, looking towards the future that is coming through this process. It’s important to keep the momentum of the revolution alive, though it will most definitely continue on with or without us if we choose not to participate.
Still, we are looking forward to the great conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter in Aquarius at the end of this year. Each of us has somewhat different roles to play and it can be helpful to look at the different “qualities” - the grouping of signs by one of each element (fire, earth, air, and water) that play different roles within the zodiac wheel.
Cardinal signs (Aries, Cancer, Libra, Capricorn)
You are natural-born starters of new things, initiators, and intrinsically motivated to begin new and exciting projects.
Those with dominant cardinal energy in their chart often have great ideas and are great at leading teams to garner the results they are after. You don’t have to be a cardinal sign sun in astrology, but your chart is cardinal dominant if most of your planets, especially your personal planets, are in one of these four signs.
In this time, consider what new solutions and ideas are able to fill the needs of your community and the world at large right now. These are the leaders, the people energized to be on the front lines, leading, speaking, or providing medical care to protestors and people in need. In a creative sense, these are the people starting new projects, which might have to wait until Mercury goes direct again on July 12. Take breaks as often as necessary to replenish your creative well and come back to the drawing board fresh and ready. *This is amplified if you have a stellium (two or more planets) in Cancer.
Mutable dominant signs (Gemini, Virgo, Sagittarius, Pisces)
You are fluid with change, go with the flow, and adaptable. These are the signs that transition one season to the next.
If your chart has a dominant mutable energy, then you're here to bring about change through taking in the information and distributing it in digestible ways for others. You might be easily swayed off course and off path so it’s important to take time alone to recalibrate in nature or water to cleanse off any outdated beliefs or ideas that don’t belong to you. With the sun making a hard square to Neptune, there is a lot of misinformation right now, and so relying on your intuition as well as heavy doses of fact-checking is a good balance to return to.
Fixed energy signs (Taurus, Leo, Scorpio, Aquarius)
You are great at holding things in place and keeping the energy and momentum going strong.
Change is not just short bursts of energy and quick fixes, it's sustainable actionable steps done over long periods of time. And so we need the stable energy that fixed dominant signs provide to not only create but maintain these important changes that benefit humanity and the planet. If your birth chart has predominantly fixed energy then you can be of service by holding space for the movement, not letting important initiatives die, and not letting the conversations die out that you have in your circles and groups.
And for everyone, remember that returning to yourself and rooting yourself in creativity is the antidote to chaos.
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Elisabeth is a writer and astrologer, based in Seattle. To connect with her more about astrology, you can connect with her via a chart reading her Instagram @elisabetham, or email her at info@elisabethmckinley.com.