Here in the Pacific Northwest, most birds have fledged their young and adult salmon hold in rapids waiting for the time to leap-climb to their home tributaries. This week hawks have been circling and more and more birds, hummingbirds, finches… sit in tree branches conserving their energy. Dragonflies patrol the ponds and lakes. The air carries the fragrance of ripe berries, sun-baked decks, citrusy cedar and dried kelp.
This Sunday the 21st, the Moon is Full at 29º Capricorn. The Moon circles and returns to your Capricorn house. Mercury will station retrograde on August 4th.
I have mixed feelings about Mercury’s “pre- retrograde” shadow period. Earlier this week I questioned whether or not Mercury did in fact have a “retroshade” and that night I dreamed of David Bowie standing next to a lit bbq beside a pool that was half in the shade. David Bowie proceeded to tell me “they were getting ready to swim in the dark area”. I didn’t realize this was a Mercury dream until a conversation with a friend connected the dots for me.
This pre-retrograde shadow is the zodiac area (the degrees) through which Mercury will retrograde.
Mercury retrograde starts 4 August at Virgo 4º06’ and ends 28 August at Leo 21º24. So,
if you have planets between 21º Leo and 4º Virgo plans have changed due to some unforeseen/ unexpected event or you find yourself back at the drawing board, reconsidering your options.
I recommend you not sign any contracts from this weekend and postpone purchasing a car or any electronics until September. You will not lose out on some “amazing” opportunity if you hold off committing to something during Mercury Retrograde. Remember you are NOT in possession of all the facts when Mercury is on vacation.
The Moon
The best way to describe this Moon’s invitation is to tell you something of my Motherline*.
My great-great grandmother belonged to the Serpent people, the Saefes-Celts. She was a grandmother of stones and sky and goat milk. Originally from Galicia she crossed the river into Portugal with her husband and children. She shared her small mountain home with goats and a pig, fattened with food scraps. She healed cuts with wild mountain thyme and soothed stomach aches with parsley. In fact, the smell I most associate with her daughter, my great-grandmother, is the scent of fresh-cut parsley and wood smoke. By the time my grandmother was born, the family had converted the ruins of a 13th century monastery into a family home. My grandmother, the eldest daughter of seven children, helped raise her siblings while also working in the fields. Then… a sea-change. My grandmother boarded a ship with her young daughter in the 1950s to join my grandfather in Mozambique. They made a home on a wild coast of palm trees and white sand. My mother adopted a vervet monkey as a pet and described herself as “a woman of the sun and the sea.”
This is a Full Moon that asks you to illuminate and reflect on your own motherline.
I remember how my maternal grandmother would visibly shrink when you turned your attention on her. How she preferred to talk about my grandfather. (It is a wonder that my maternal grandmother is now the loudest and most active of my ancestors and my maternal grandfather is silent.)
I grew up believing that our experiences as women and as mothers are undervalued and that culture would prefer, we stay silent. This Full Moon invites you to consider the convergence of voices in your motherline through generational differences. If you want to reclaim your connection to your motherline, begin by asking your mother and grandmother questions like: How has motherhood changed you? How was your childhood different from mine?
If you are a mother - new to motherhood - consider how you hope to change the pattern or how your own story adds to the warp and weft of your lineage.
High Summer is also, in my family, a time of commemorating the dead. See if you can name your female dead. How far does your family tree go?
Maybe this Moon finds you travelling to explore your ancestral roots. If so, make sure to visit the places connected to your motherline.
The Moon and Sun are in Cardinal signs indicating that either something initiated or carried out around the time of the New Moon in Cancer concludes at this time or comes full circle or, that you turn your focus to creating something that showcases your unique talents or perspective.
Be unafraid about sharing your unique perspective.
Again, a reminder that a Full Moon is in her brightest phase and so clarity arises at this time which does not necessarily mean you get to sign off on something but that you do experience “illumination”. This Moon is ruled by Saturn in Pisces who in turn is ruled by Jupiter in Gemini who in turn is ruled by Mercury who is standing in the shade in Leo. Leo is ruled by the Sun at 29º Cancer.
Later on Sunday, Venus sextiles Jupiter (1:42pm) and Mercury squares Uranus, an exact square, at 3:20pm. This tells us that agreements aren’t reached readily even though your idea or plan has support. Something more is expected of you. Consider an unconventional approach or dare to share your unique perspective on things.
The Sun in Cancer blesses what is offered with tenderness and rooted in deep care. The image that arises for me is of tenderness in the shape of spaciousness and slowness, of cups of tea with your mother or doing something that takes you back to a perfect day with your grandmother.
May this Moon help you remember the ancient female wisdom that lives in the stories of your motherline!
Dr Ruth Naomi Lowinsky came up with the term “Motherline”. I highly recommend her book, The motherline : every woman's journey to find her female roots. (Publication date 1992)
✮⋆˙ Read my posts on VOCATION in ASTROLOGY here and here.
✮⋆˙ Read my article on The Role of Fire in Vocational Astrology here.
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