Before the start of every yoga class I teach, I make a point to approach each new student to introduce myself, welcome them to the studio and my class, and check in with them about any injuries or concerns they have about class.
In a recent class, one new student responded to my introduction and check-in by immediately asking if she could book private sessions with me.
She hadn’t yet experienced my class or my teaching style, but that didn’t matter to her. In her view, she already knew enough about me and my approach.
The experience affirmed an old adage that is central to success in business:
People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.
In the age of AI, this principle has never been more relevant. Caring is something AI can’t do for us.
New Moon in Cancer: How Do You Care and Nurture?
The New Moon at 14º23’ Cancer (July 5, 2024 at 6:57 pm ET) pulls our focus to the ways in which caring, and nurturing can be our superpower — if we harness these qualities with discipline.
There’s a prevailing myth that business should be free of emotion, but nothing could be further from the truth. Without emotion, we have no connection.
If a movie is all special effects it will land flat; for a movie to resonate with an audience, it needs an emotional component. It needs to have some heart.
“Spectacle without story is just noise and light.” — Austin Coppack on The Astrology Podcast
This new moon invites us to connect with our intuition and emotions, and renew our commitment to care and nurturing — starting with ourselves.
A Well-Supported New Moon
At every new moon, we look at how the moon is situated and supported. Three factors make this new moon is a great one to work with:
First, the moon is at home in Cancer, which means it is in the place where it has the resources it needs to do its job. The Moon represents our body, emotions, and intuition. In Cancer, it wants us to nurture and nourish something, to bring the qualities of care to a part of our lives.
Second, at the new moon the Sun and Moon are joined in Cancer by Venus, also a planet of nurturing and relationships. Venus brings its benefic blessings to this lunation.
Third, after their conjunction, the Sun and Moon will both go on to form a trine — a 60º angle — to Saturn in Pisces.
Saturn can often represent obstacles or heaviness, but a trine is a flowing, harmonious aspect that creates support and structure.
Care Requires Discipline
The act of caring requires discipline: both in its implementation and in maintaining the boundaries around it.
The Duty to Care
Cancer is often driven by emotion and intuition, but you can’t care about something only when you feel like it.
If you have a child, you must feed it and bathe it daily. If you buy a house plant, you must water it consistently. Once you take on the duty to care, you have a responsibility to maintain that care — you must be disciplined about it.
The Need for Boundaries Around Care
On the flip side, the duty to care can feel like a heavy weight when you have no more care to offer.
Cancer and Pisces are both signs in which the style of operation is to offer care and compassion. As water signs, both are driven by emotions.
Without proper structures to contain water, we get a flood. The flooding waters can extinguish our fire. Among caregivers, compassion fatigue, illness, and burnout are common ailments.
The trine from the Sun and Moon to Saturn helps create the structure that helps us maintain discipline and boundaries around that care so we can exercise our duty without burnout or resentment.
The Lesson to Fill Your Cup First
In my natal chart, my tenth house of career and public roles falls in Cancer, which means it’s my calling to care.
Caring and nurturing others is the through-line that ties together all of my roles and my work. I also have Saturn at 14º26’ Cancer, which has brought me the lifelong lessons of how to impose structure around my caring to avoid burnout.
This new moon is happening in an exact conjunction to my natal Saturn, bringing renewed focus on the lessons I am constantly learning (and teaching) regarding care.
One of the hardest lessons I’ve learned is that if I don’t fill my cup first, I can’t adequately care for others.
The cultural conditioning around care can imbue us with a sticky belief that it’s “selfish” to put our needs first, especially when we have taken on a duty of care for others.
I’ve learned, however, that If we try to fulfill our duty to care from a place of emptiness, we will end up resentful of the people we are caring for. That doesn’t work so well for caring.
New Moon in Cancer: Make a Commitment to Care
This new moon, applying to a trine with Saturn, asks us to commit to a path of caring.
To accept the duty to care for others requires that we commit to equally care for ourselves first.
When we create better boundaries, we can avoid illness or burnout and serve from a place of being filled up rather than out of a need to fill ourselves through service
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