Finding, then following, the Middle Path

As the month of June opens, the Full Moon in Sagittarius occurs on Tuesday, the 2nd.    This particular Full Moon asks us to honor our emotional truth.  To be emotionally honest.  This is not the easiest of Full Moons as it forms challenging angles to Neptune in watery Pisces and Messenger Mercury and the Sun, our will in communicative Geminii.    All Full Moons bring to a piece of our life to culmination and shines a bright light on what work we have yet to accomplish.  With the planets and signs involved, it is essential to focus and strive for clarity and truth in both our purpose and message...the messages we deliver to others and messages it is critical for us to receive.

Since Neptune is entwined in this mix, confusion, deception, and disillusionment are all at play, especially regarding thoughts, speech, or anything written.   If you are considering significant changes in life circumstances and relationships, take your time. Think things over.   Neptune and the sign it rules, Pisces, deal with illusion, govern image, film, the movies, and photography.  So there is a very strong possibility that situations or people appear not to be what they actually are.   Appear one way when they are in reality, something very, very different.  Think:  false images.  Mirages.  Through June 12^th, before Mercury turns direct motion, really do your homework on all fronts.  Make lists and ask pointed questions.  Re-re-research.   Read the fine print and in between the lines especially of insurance policies, any kind of contracts or significant documents to be signed.  Review words and language, both verbal and written.

Because Neptune rules water, matters concerning water also draw our attention now:  be it plumbing, appliances using water, swimming, bodies of water, and overflowing water.  Folks in Texas, Oklahoma and parts of the American Midwest know exactly what I’m referring to after the unprecedented rains flooding that region.  June will bring cleanup to the havoc caused by recent weather there.  The upside of Neptune is that is also the great cleanser, like a planetary washing machine, bearing much healing potential.   What needs to be (or should be) washed clean from your life?  Where do you need to do some housecleaning/keeping either actually or emotionally, psychologically, financially, etc?  The beginning of June is an excellent time for a thorough review and an in-depth honest look at what is not functioning well in your life, to contemplate approaches to fix and correct these areas and make a coordinated plan.  Once Messenger Mercury turns direct on June 12, proceed full speed.

And we’ve been itching to hit the accelerator of our lives.  The immense power, strength and creative ingenuity driving us now derives from the on-going alliance between Generous Jupiter and Radical Uranus.  In fiery Leo and Aries respectively, these two powerhouse planets offer us a plethora of creative solutions throughout the summer.  Feel the Force?  Depending on where they align in your chart, you are afforded an absolute treasure trove of riches to find your way and forge new paths. 

This energy is tremendously helpful for making new starts in life, relationships, work or projects.  So before Mercury turns direct motion on the 12^th,  just stop for a few moments; take time out from the hustle and bustle, that incredible engine driving us onward, the noise that drowns our lives, including our own voices.   Take only five minutes a day to really listen, hear, what your soul is trying to say:  dare to reach higher, deeper, leave the job, relationship, break free, you can do it, yes you can.  Start fresh, try something completely different, unknown to you.   Right now the cosmos is offering immense support for how to accomplish the work, follow your heart, and fulfill your potential.

Heart. Passion. Romance. Creativity.  Generous Jupiter Leo gives us tons of these qualities and then some throughout the summer months, while Uranus in Aries fires up our energy and drive.  Where do you want to go?  How do you want to live…what sort of lifestyle?  Who do you want to be?  Fire away my friend.  You’ve got this!  The Force only grows stronger as we move ahead into June.   

Beneficent Venus passes from sensitive Cancer to join Jupiter in festive Leo on Saturday, June 6^th where she will remain for the rest of the month, adding to the creative rocket boost formed by Jupiter-Uranus.  Any parties, partnerships, creative projects, romantic pursuits, sports activities (all ruled by Leo) take off now.  This fire sign also rules pleasure, good old fashioned FUN so June has the potential to be an outright blast.   Let go.  Let your hair down.  Do the happy dance.  Or the hippy, free-to-be-you-and-me dance.   Join hands and sing to your heart’s delight.  After a very long winter in North America, so much toil, take time off for relaxation, to celebrate a job well done.

Leo is also about cosmetics and costumes, and…clothing.  Ladies:  when was the last time you cleaned out your make-up drawer and bought fresh lipsticks and mascara?  Gentlemen:  how about a new grooming or shaving set?  It is high past time.  For all of us:  have you looked at your clothes lately?  Use Mercury’s final week of retrograde motion to clean out your wardrobes and closets.  Then do some real shopping.  Invest in some new threads.   Where is your wardrobe lacking?  Shoes, lingerie, sportswear, accessories, business attire?  Take a thorough study, make a list and hit the stores.   A little something new always makes you feel better, look nicer, too.   The timing is key especially at mid-month when Venus’ (beauty) in Leo (costume/clothing) helpful angle to the Lunar North Node in Libra (beauty).  Decorate thyself says this pair.  Now is the time to spruce up your self.  Leo likes to strut its stuff so prepare to take center stage!

Given that Leo is also about F-U-N and pleasure, use the first half of June to plan the vacation you always wanted to take (or at a minimum, need to take).  Then when Mercury turns direct motion near mid-month, buy those tickets, get set and go!  The very same day, Neptune turns retrograde.  So subtle in its effect, we often feel Neptune but do not know why something is happening, much less how to react/what to do about it.  Often, no action is called for.  Try to remember that Neptune is the great purifier, bringing us to our highest and best selves, no matter how hard we resist or how well we flow with life’s currents.  Better to flow than fight…right?!

With Messenger Mercury’s continuing challenge to Neptune for most of June, we may feel as though we have a low-grade fever or are in a fog.  What is wrong with me?   You might ask.  But you just can’t seem to put your finger on it.  So let's take a closer look:   Mercury in Geminii is acutely wired to the mental plane.  Cycling through this sign, the messenger planet figures out how to linguistically and logistically maneuver any which way on a dime.  Not so fast says soulful Neptune.  Instead of skidding along the surface as Geminii and Mercury like to do, take a deeper, richer, slower look at your life prods the ruler of the Deep.

That mental hangover you feel, that low-grade “what is wrong…?” sense that just won’t go away gently pushes us to ask the stronger questions, or, pay attention to those in our lives asking/showing

us what is critical to focus on.   Because...also on June 12th, this sense is exacerbated by the challenging angle between Mars (our energy) and the Sun, our will, in chatty Gemini and Healer Chiron (our deepest wounds) in Pisces.  Even if we try to ignore the callings of our souls, the heart-felt entreaties of loved ones telling us what we must know, this troika will not let us escape.  Forced to face up and focus, how will you respond?  With loving kindness and thoughtful compassion?  If talks get too heated, take a breath.  Step out of the room.  Walk around the block and get some air.  Carefully think through your words, what to say.  Does the other person have a point?  What is this person/situation trying to teach you?  Do you really know everything or is it time to let go and let God (through another) help out a bit?

Meanwhile, be mindful of Venus-Jupiter-Uranus tugging at you to party-hearty into distraction instead of doing the soul-searching work required.   Let’s just say, if we don’t seek to balance the pieces of our lives, Saturn’s return to heavyweight Scorpio on June 15^th makes sure we do.  For the rest of the summer, we must revisit lessons still waiting to be learned.  With its x ray vision, Scorpio leaves no stone unturned while taskmaster Saturn’s final passage thru this sign ensures we will feel our soul’s work yet to be finished like no tomorrow.   Where the Neptune-Mercury’s challenge seeks an escape hatch, Saturn in the last degrees of Scorpio says, go ahead:   I dare you.  Try it.  See what happens.  You will just be wasting your time…   Because there is no escape from soul work.  There is only honoring your truth.  Sticking to the path.  Doing the work.  The old-fashioned way:  with patience, hard work, grit and elbow grease.  The key lies (as always) in a balanced approach.  And, especially at mid-month, the lunar North Node in Libra draws us to balance all aspects of our lives:  family, work, play.   Do the work then play.  Escape for some fun. 

Make wise choices, ones that you will not regret.  Prepare for the New Moon in Geminii on Tuesday, June 16 by meditating on the best possibilities to maximize positive results.  Then plant those seed at the lunar first quarter around June 22, when we are graced with the Sun’s movement into compassionate Cancer.   The summer solstice grants us the longest light to see ourselves and our world more clearly.  Forgive your past mistakes and the transgressions of others.  Pull up the weeds around the flower bed of your life to allow and give permission to fully blossom.

The Solstice promises to be mighty festive indeed with party girl Venus at a super strong degree of festive Leo and conjoined to Generous Jupiter.  Two days later on June 24^th, motivating Mars joins the Sun in Cancer where both challenge the Moon and its North Node in Libra.  This combination draws our attention like nothing else to family, relationships, nurturing, food, relatives, house and home.   Remember, family does not have to be blood ties.  It can also be those we consider family, either friends and loved ones in mutually nurturing relationships.  Consider also your own home:  apartment/house and physical body.  Where we have neglected our responsibilities on the home front, whether a leaky roof, eating junk food, children or elderly relatives, we are called now to take care, nurture and remedy the situation. 

By month’s end, the Sun-Mars duo in caring Cancer forms a deeply helpful angle to Neptune, aligning our will, energy and intuition.  This is a powerful combination.  That vibe you are feeling, that gut instinct stirring inside:  pay attention and follow through on it.  See where it leads.  The small whispering voice is the source of truth….unlike ego which bellows and brags.  Sun-Mars-Neptune offers a strikingly subtle contrast to Venus-Jupiter now tightly conjoined in boisterous Leo aligning with chatty Mercury in Geminii.  Try not to be overwhelmed by the latter trioka’s noise, distraction and hullabaloo.  Again, follow the call of the lunar Libra North Node.  It points the way to a balance between answering our truth and a festive flair for living.   Balancing the polarities of our lives, the yin and yang, fun and work, is always challenging.  It takes poise and a whole lot of practice.  So make like a Buddhist and walk upon the Middle Path.