The ache for home lives in all of us, the safe place where we can go as we are and not be questioned. — Maya Angelou
Today’s new moon in Cancer invites us to consider where we find home and safety, and how our home and feelings of safety impact our ability to take risks in the world and share our best work.
The Moon in its Own Sign on the Moon’s Day
New moons happen when the sun and moon come together at the same place in the sky. This new moon is happening at 24°56’ in the sign of Cancer on Monday, July 17 at 2:32 pm ET.
Lunations in Cancer are special because the Moon rules Cancer; the cardinal water sign is the Moon’s home sign. This means that the Moon has access to the resources it needs to do its job.
And the moon’s job — particularly at a new moon — is to feel all the emotions, reflect, and renew itself so it can seed new beginnings.
New Moon in Cancer Significations
Cancer is a cardinal water sign that represents our home, foundation, and sense of security. It’s waters symbolize the water of the womb, the place where our creative spark is incubated and where our sense of safety and security are nurtured. This is the sign of care: how we care for ourselves and how we, in turn, offer our care to others.
In Cancer, the flow of emotions can be strong. This is where we learn how to process those big emotions and cultivate safety in the face of emotional flooding.
The symbol of Cancer is the crab, an animal that has a soft and vulnerable underbelly and a hard outer shell. This shell offers the crab protection; it is where the crab retreats when it is in fear.
The Cycle of Birth and Death
In general, new moons are times of seeding new beginnings. This is especially so in Cancer, a cardinal sign that is the archetype for incubation and giving birth — whether we are birthing actual children or creative projects. Having the moon in its own sign always speaks to the power of seeding new intentions from the foundation and stability of home.
With every new beginning comes an ending; birth flows from death.
This new moon is sitting in close opposition to Pluto, at 29º of Capricorn. The Sun’s opposition to Pluto will be exact later in the week.
Pluto is the planet of power, control, and power struggles. It’s often called the Lord of the Underworld, as it speaks to transformation. And every transformation is a form of death.
Capricorn is an earth sign that speaks to the systems and structures of society. Capricorn represents our long-term goals and ambitions, and the work we put out in the world.
The Cancer/Capricorn Axis
The opposition to Pluto once again highlights the Cancer/Capricorn axis that we explored at the full moon in Capricorn earlier this month.
One of the lessons of the Cancer/Capricorn axis is that we must be rooted in a sense of safety and security in order to take a risk and put ourselves out in the world.
When we don’t have a foundation of safety, or the confidence that we can process the inevitable rejection and other big emotions that arise in life, the nervous system won’t allow us to step into public view.
This safety that we seek is often associated with our physical home and family, as well as with the structures and systems that are theoretically designed to keep us safe.
And one of the things many of us come to learn or discover is that those metrics of safety are often an illusion.
This has been one of the lessons of Pluto’s transit through Capricorn.
Pluto in Capricorn: Death to the Illusion of Security
Pluto is wrapping up a 15-year transit through Capricorn. Among other things, this transit has been about the dismantling of established structures and systems. A death, if you will.
What gets transformed under Pluto doesn’t go back to the old ways.
Under Pluto in Capricorn, we saw globally low interest rates that encouraged an increase in home ownership. Home ownership is often seen as a means to financial and physical security, a way to control our future.
But the financial and physical security of home ownership is often an illusion.
Financial Security
Pluto’s entry into Capricorn began in 2008. That was the year the subprime mortgage issues were exposed, causing a financial crisis when the housing bubble burst.
One thing Pluto does is reveal what has been hidden in the shadows. The housing crisis revealed that many people had taken on too much debt to buy their homes. Many people were “under-water.”
To be “under-water” or drowning is the opposite of the Cancerian nourishment and safety we seek. It doesn’t feel safe to feel smothered and suffocated by looming debt, to live with the threat of losing your home to foreclosure.
Physical
In fact, we’ve seen how the physical home can be a place of stress and physical danger.
Pluto, especially in earth-sign Capricorn is also associated with climate change. Big storms and wildfires force people to evacuate their homes or destroy homes.
During the pandemic lockdown, homes became prisons for victims of domestic abuse, who had nowhere to go.
Not everybody has a structural home or other physical location where they feel safe to engage in their work or be themselves.
Cultivating Emotional Security
The safety Cancer seeks is about more than physical safety. It’s also about emotional security and nurturing that we associate with “home.”
When we are well-nurtured, when we learn how to process big emotions, and when we feel a visceral sense of safety to be who we are, we develop healthy self-esteem.
We can step out into the world with confidence to take risks, knowing that our worth is not tied to our success or failure.
But when we lack that emotional foundation, the shadow side of Cancer comes into play: like the crab, we recoil in fear to hide in our shells.
Our Source of Care and Nurturing
In Cancer, our task is to learn how to be with the big emotions, how to find and cultivate safety, and how to create that feeling of home.
Many of us did not receive nurturing that helped us cultivate a deep, visceral sense of safety.
Not everyone learned how to feel safe in our emotional experience; how to be with the big emotions.
The people who are supposed to nurture you don’t always nurture you in the ways that you need to feel safe.
Finding Home Within
This lunation is the last time the Sun will oppose Pluto in Capricorn for over two centuries. The new moon speaks to a new round of work for us to begin here. It may be work we couldn’t see before, that we can see only now, after we have already peeled back so many layers of excavation.
The opposition of this lunation to Pluto helps us see that we cannot rely on others for our physical or emotional safety.
Like the crab, which carries its home on its back, we must cultivate the feeling of home within ourselves. We must do the work of creating our own sense of security and safety, the work of reparenting ourselves.
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