Full Moon in Aquarius - July 29, 2007

As individuals, we desire recognition. We are each unique, and want to shine in our own way. However, as performers, we require an audience. Without one, we may feel we do not exist, like the narcissist who breaks down if there's no one there to reflect her image back to herself.

It is developmentally necessary to be seen when you are a child, to have your mother convey -- through her words, tone of voice and facial expressions -- that you are the most special person in the world. If you integrate this message well enough, you can survive adulthood, when, invariably, you often feel invisible or unacknowledged.

Unfortunately, few of us absorb our mother's message 100%, because mothers are imperfect (or because we've got a nasty Saturn-Moon square in our horoscopes). Those moments when we crave recognition and don't get it can lead to all manner of reactions, ranging from temper tantrums to indulgence in fantasies about being loved and adored.

Unless we feel confident in our soul purpose, we yearn for validation. And even if we know we're on the right path, it feels good to be applauded, for this reassurance keeps us going when the going gets rough.

An antidote to reactivity is to not take the lack of an appreciative audience personally. We're all pretty self-centered. I've heard numerous times that you shouldn't worry too much about how you're going to appear to others, because most people are too obsessed with themselves to notice you. In other words, we need detachment to divest ourselves from our incessant need for ego-stroking. Detachment doesn't mean "I don't care." Rather, it means having a sense of perspective, when we can observe ourselves and witness our longing for approval. From this contemplative standpoint, we can notice our inner divas but not feel compelled to meet her demands.

The Fine Print: The Moon at 6 Aquarius opposes the Sun at 6 Leo. If you have planets or angles around 6 degrees of fixed signs (Taurus, Leo, Scorpio, Aquarius), this Full Moon will resonate in some cosmic way with your life circumstances.

New Moon in Cancer - July 14, 2007

Family is where our lives begin, and many of us derive joy from starting our own. Yet families are also severely screwed-up. I just finished watching the last season of Alias on DVD. This show, starring Jennifer Garner as Sydney Bristow, was about a CIA operative whose parents were also spies. However, her mother was a "bad guy," and Sydney was constantly deceived (or had information hidden from her) by both her parents. The theme of this show is appropriate for this Cancer New Moon, because the Moon and Sun are exactly inconjunct (150-degree angle) Neptune in Aquarius. The misinformation and lies (Neptune) perpetrated along various networks (Aquarius) was intimately tied to Sydney Bristow's sense of family -- her very past (Cancer), in fact, as she was the progeny of a Russian spy who pretended she was someone else, to get close to Sydney's father, a CIA operative. (I know, it's complicated!)

What forms of deception were part of your family? Many of us grew up with a gut sense -- way below conscious awareness -- that our parents were hiding something from us. Family secrets -- a gay uncle, an alcoholic father, a sexually abused step-sister, a pedophilic great-grandfather, take your pick! -- were hidden supposedly to "protect" us, but the withdrawal of this vital information ("intelligence") left us feeling incomplete, that there was something missing, if we could only identify what that was. Once we learn about our family's past, the missing pieces come together, and we finally understand why we felt off-center.

Even though the secret was about something that didn't directly impact you, it affected you anyway. You are a part of your family, and a family is an organism, a unit by itself, of which you are a part. You cannot separate yourself from what your great-grandfather did to your grand-aunt, because these patterns are inherited. Mistakes are often passed along the generations, and it takes both consciousness and will to not repeat the "sins of the fathers." Thus, it is imperative that the veils of our family's past are pulled aside, so that, with awareness, we can choose to stop the dysfunction.

The Fine Print: This New Moon occurs at 21 degrees Cancer. This lunation will mostly impact those natives with personal planets or angles around 21 degrees of the cardinal signs (Aries, Cancer, Libra, Capricorn).