Disguised As Fools

There will be a lot of discussion about this new moon, with all the wondrous astrological events happening all through this year, and I would highly recommend taking a very diverse approach to hearing about it, because there is never ONE interpretation.

Likewise there are already vast volumes about Cancer’s tarot card: The Chariot. You can read all its associations and possible symbols in a hundred different places.

Rather than regurgitate what’s already widely available, I find myself wanting to focus on a different aspect of this new moon, and this card:

Duality

There’s a lot of Duality in The Chariot – mirrored structures, twinned objects, like wings, beasts, and opposing colours alternating in a binary pattern.

A figure with a look of determination and focus is seen wrangling two seemingly opposing ideas at once, and using it to move themselves forward.

Binaries have been getting a hard rap in the age of Aquarius. On the surface level, it looks like this period wants to dissolve all ideas of either/or into spectrums. But this in itself reminds me of the cosmic charioteer, in the Tarot’s number VII.

In its highest form, the act of harnessing two extremes sparks a reaction that produces creative power. The spectrum in between black and white is not denied existence – the Charioteer themselves stands exactly there – radiant with star-fall!

But it is the ability to cope with things which others cannot abide existing simultaneously that gives this master some drive and motion. It literally enables him to go further.

This card may look like it’s about opposites, but it is enormously about subtlety – and that’s something I suspect as a culture moving forward, we’re going to need to relearn, and harness once again. it is not about fighting, it is about combining, without diluting. And combining opposing forces is a very magical concept.

For a cosmic example (I am a mystic before anything else after all), I look not to the obvious such as lightness and darkness, or to existence or nothingness, but rather to The Void and The Abyss.

The void and the abyss are two contrasting ends of a very particular spectrum – one is the pure potential necessary for creation – from which all creation comes; the other is the realm where negation destroys existence. The abyss’ nothingness is not the same as the void’s emptiness, and yet, they are exactly that: just as zero, meaning none, has also been known to represent infinity.

Sometimes a binary represents an entire spectrum, simply by defining either the boundary at either end – nothingness that is potential vs nothingness that is endings – or in fact the negative to prove the positive. We are not JUST, we are AND.

So where does the cosmic crab meet the cosmic charioteer? My thoughts right now find it somewhere between Clarissa Pinkola Estés’ comparison of the mother that nurtures versus the mother that comforts.

A nourishing mother can seem rather cruel – a lioness who leaves her cubs to hunt for them, or bullies them with teeth and harsh mood. She is teaching them exactly what their environment will demand of them, so that they will be able to survive it and live life for themselves. Too cruel a mother, and the child develops wonky attachment issues, and problematic low self-esteem, so it’s still a balancing process.

A mother who only comforts can be just as damaging. Beyond nurturing a child and making them feel loved, valued and safe, sometimes that kind of smother-mother’s impact is far closer to neglect, what it hides is the mother’s own needs being met, while her responsibility to teach her child the skills and resilience necessary for the real world is not in sight. She does not prepare her child for the reality that exists, but a fantasy world of comfort, safety and all their needs being met immediately which does not exist. In the cocoon she makes, she rears them to expect ease, comfort, niceness and that there will always be someone around to do everything for them when it feels too tough to do it for themselves.

In the wild, children of these mothers don’t last very long.

In society, no-one wants to be around them.

So Cancer – often referred to as the mother of the zodiac – faces the same delicate choices.

She can be your greatest ally in moving you forward in your life: like the chariot, pulled by the twin Sphynxs, those symbols of mystic wisdom and knowing, Cancer can handle many paradoxes in her profound depths:

• Earthy practicality, and emotional nurturing.
• Intuition, and learned experience.
• Careful, gentle and permissive – yet hard, suffering no fools, cutting and emotionally swift.

She is a symbol of both sacred solitude, and the family and home. She can guide you and drive you, and can dig deep into incredible resources – maybe more than any other sign. She will understand what you need – guided by an intuition as mystical as the moon and stars, as uncannily wise as the Sphynx herself.

And she can be ferocious on your behalf, just like that wild mother. Loyal to the death in her beautiful thick armour and innate weapons of defence and attack. She was born for this. She is the power of the ocean poured into a body of rock, as if a stone of deepest, most grounded earth were inspired to life by pure spirit and all that defines the magic of water.

All in her circular arms are family, part of her indomitable heart…

Or she can grip tight, pinch, drag you under to her water realm and drown you. Her emotions overwhelming, her clinging like weeds around your ankles. Her shell impossible to penetrate once you have wounded her.

Sensitivity has two sides.

This charioteer can certainly take you on a deep journey – but never forget the chariot was first and foremost designed for battle. Like the crab’s shell, even if its purpose is to shield something very vulnerable inside, you are nevertheless dealing with a very hard outer carapace.

So what do we make of this duality?

The season is about flow, intuition, emotions – very watery and mystical things. But it is also about home, family, relationships, friends, community. It is both deeply inward, and flowing outward: going in, and gathering others in.

To figure out what to do, remember the Sphynx sacred role: to ask the right questions. So penetrating are these questions, they have the ability to cut some people to the quick. It’s not easy to face our less sublime aspects.

Questions to ask yourself this, for this Cancer New Moon.

• Where do you locate your own emotional security?
• Does it come from within, and flow out towards others? Or do you reach for others trying to pull it into you from them?
• Is it stable, and balanced?
• Or are you locking parts of yourself away, available to no-one, because deep down, you’re not so sure you feel safe in yourself?
• What are your claws doing these days? Defending others, and what matters? Or guarding you against the world?
• How do you emotionally punish others when they have wounded you?
• How do you communicate with those closest in your life?
• Is your intuition to nurture yourself and others? Or to protect in emergency mode, and hold too tight?
• Are you afraid to be alone?

One final thought. To me, the crab’s shell has always resembled a broad heart shape. With so many strong symbols -the ocean, water, the moon, secrets, magic and deep feminine mysteries – a Cancer individual can make a home for those she cares about anywhere in the world, under any circumstances.

Never forget the heart is central to the body, and to your family, and to your own healing and wellbeing.

Go inwards. Seek it out. And if it has been locked away, take it out and be with it for a while. This is the perfect dark night to hear what it wants to tell you.

As always, thanks for reading.

Good Luck, and Go On