Tricking the Goddess News, New Moon in Cancer and Solar Eclipse in Cancer

The New Moon and Solar Eclipse in Cancer

You may have already felt the gears turning as old ways of life drop away. No worries - that's just par for the course, given the fact that we're in some big changes. The energy of the Grand Cross (remember all the push-me-pull-you energy of last summer 2010?) seems to be back again, but in a slightly different format.

This year, we're working with major eclipse energy. Let's do a walk through. We're still working with  several major planets in Cardinal signs (Uranus in Aries, Sun/Moon in Cancer, Saturn in Libra, Pluto in Capricorn). A Cardinal sign is a sign that is a Type A, BossyPants! These guys want their way, but will use very different methods to do so.

The Sun and Moon are going to give us a New Moon in Cancer on 7/1. In other words, we have the Sun (our identification) in Cancer AND the Moon (intuitions and emotional needs) in Cancer as well. This - against the backdrop of Cardinal signs - still provides us with the same New Moon energy that we get every month - a time to manifest the energy of the New Moon.

Now is a prime time to start projects that relate to

• nurturing

• caregiving

• memory and nostalgia

• the Divine Feminine

• family trees

• family healing

• family memories

• the past and your roots

This is all happening - as I've said - against the backdrop of a solar eclipse.

What's an Eclipse?

Eclipses basically are the cosmic acceleration plan. Eclipses speed things up and force beginnings or endings. In other words, it's time to Deal With Stuff. Eclipses may release things we don't need. It may bring in new forces. I think of an eclipse as the eye of God closing and reopening. For a moment, things are changed - quickly, forcefully, and, frankly, are what author Geneen Roth

called in her book Women, Food, and God, "AFGO...Another F**king Growth Opportunity."

So, here we have this New Moon- Cancer-style chance for new growth and new manifestation, surrounding all the Cancer-type areas I mentioned above. Because this New Moon is hitting against the backdrop of a Solar Eclipse (a Big Deal), we can really start to make things move for ourselves. Even though there is tense energy (Pluto - the ruler of the underworld and hidden things - in cranky, old-timer Capricorn; Saturn - the planet of slow, pain in the ass lessons - in relationship oriented Libra), we have hope.

As things continue to move and change around us, and as the Eclipse forces us to trash the old, we are slowly, slowly building up life into what WE want, not merely being passive participants in our own lives.

How will this New Moon and Solar Eclipse affect you? Where do you have Cancer in your chart?

Let's do astrological Mad Libs:

If Cancer is in _________ House, expect to undergo a change or renewal in the area of _______.

Not sure where Cancer falls in your chart?

Go to www.astro.com for a free chart. Want more?

Contact me for a full-length reading

If you have a Sun or a Rising in Cancer, Cancer is in your 1st house. If you have a Sun in Leo, Cancer is in your 12th house. (I have a Rising in Gemini, therefore, Cancer falls in my 2nd house)

HOUSE                               RENEW OR CHANGE

1                                            Ideas of Self/Ego

2                                            Money or values

3                                            Communication or short distance travel/relationships with siblings

4                                            Home/Family

5                                            Love/Creativity/Children

6                                             Work

7                                            Partnerships/Open Enemies

8                                            Transformation/Sex/Death/Other People's Money

9                                             Education/School/Long Distance Travel

10                                           Career Path

11                                             Friends/Groups/Associations

12                                           Secrets/Wishes/Dreams

I wish you all only the best of changes in this potent time of amazing restructuring and change - we're all rebuilding for the future!

<3

Marissa

Image: New Moon from

CreativeCommons.com

Happy Birthday Cancer!

It’s time to celebrate the crab.

Cancers are best known for their sensitivity, their orientation towards family and their love of music -which is in part what we're going to celebrate tonight.

1) Here's Cancer Mercury Rufus Wainwright (with help from Shrek) singing "Hallelujah" - a great example of Cancer's natural spirituality.

2) Cancer Suzanne Vega got this beat into everyone's head in the 90s - Here's "Tom's Diner" - all about one of Cancer's favorite things, food.

3) Cancer Sun George M. Cohan was best known as the "Yankee Doodle Dandy."

Using Fear As a Bridge

[caption id="attachment_110" align="alignleft" width="224" caption="It's the Journey, Not the Destination, When Using Fear as a Bridge"][/caption]

It's not the destination, it's the journey. How often do we hear that? To focus on the process and not the outcome?

And what about fear? How do we use it? What do we do with it? Do we freeze? Get stuck? Eat ourselves alive?

Do we breathe through it? Allow it to go deep, where fear needs to go? Or do we ignore it?

This weekend, I worked with one of my own fears.

This weekend, HG was happy to be a part of Gilda's Club's Arts Day. Gilda's Club is a cancer support community, named for comedian Gilda Rader, who died from breast cancer in 1986.
To return to Gilda's Club was a personal triumph for me.

Ever since the death of my mother in 2007, Fort Lauderdale is often a very emotional place for me to travel. Both my parents died there and I've had to fight my own grief and fear for years. I've thought of it as the "Square of Sadness." I remember well the harried and frenzied trips to and from hospice during mom's final days. And Gilda's Club? Mere moments away. My logical brain does not often care that I live less than an hour from this area. My brain usually hears "Fort Lauderdale" and goes into shock. Death. Horror. Pain. Watching my loved ones slip away from me, leaving me alone. The root of so much. The crux of it all.

A month ago, I told my best friend I didn't need to go.

"There will be other charity events," I said. "There's one right down the street. Maybe I should go to the one that's five minutes away."
"Or you could go back. Didn't you go back last year? Why is this hitting you now?" he asked.

He's right. I did go back last year. I worked an event and I had a wonderful time. But this time?

Oh, this time was a showcase - a parade! - of all my terrors and triggers. Driving to Fort Lauderdale. Past the place where they died. Driving on a highway I hadn't been on alone since February of 2007, where I drove back from the place where my 50-something year old mother lay dying and inarticulate, in a coma.

So, this was my chance to go through it all again. But I wanted to go.

I created Happy Ganesh because I love what the god Ganesh stands for. I believe in joy and the removal of obstacles. I believe in expansion and growing outward. I created Happy Ganesh because I want to hold space in the world for connection between the living and the dead, between life and grief and back to life. I created HG for others to find their own answers by taking part in these things.

Mostly, what I'm finding is that I've also created HG to also hold my own space in the world.

Going back to downtown Fort Lauderdale took on grand proportions, assuming the depth of an international journey. I started preparations early, about a month ago. I sought professional support. I started making lists of my fears, my outcomes. Why I wanted to go back. Why it meant the world for me to go back. And this year, I chose to go forward. I paid the fee. It's for Happy Ganesh, I told myself. You can do good there. You can help make connections between the living and the dead. It's to get out there, to give something back.

At 2 pm the day before, I was ready to bolt. Why should I go back? Why should I even try? Far better to pull on footie pyjamas and watch my 34th episode of Xena. I'd just call and cancel. That's it. I'll mess with my professional and personal integrity, no problem. They'll never know I'm gone. Maybe I can even put my house up for sale and move to Nebraska. I hear it's nice this time of year.

At 10 pm, I was going again. I'd resolved to myself that I was going back for some kind of nebulous reason, that I was not going to die on the thirty-minute commute, and that maybe, just maybe, moving in any direction towards freedom was better than forcing myself to sit in an emotional space that is so, so, so, so READY to move.

It was creaky and scary. I cried when I drove past the hospital. I remembered my mother. My heart raced when I first hit the highway. But then, something strange happened.

I remembered that this was fun.

That before everything, I used to love this route. Before I knew it, I rolled the windows down. I sang along to whatever pop rock was on the radio. Before I knew it, I pulled into the parking lot.

And I found nothing but joy on the other end of my fear. NOTHING BUT JOY.  I met with old friends I hadn't seen in ages. I lit luminary candles for my parents. I made new friends and helped new clients. I felt blessed and expansive - something inside grew bigger in response to moving through my fear.

How do you feel when you move through fear?

Do you let it guide you? Do you push it away? Drop into it? Ignore it? How do YOU work with fear? It's a powerful tool and a powerful teacher. Do you let fear tell you where the pain is?