Rumination.
Rooo... minnn... ayyy... shunnn... The root of this word means “to chew,” so
when we ruminate on something, we chew on it in our minds. Chewing is the first
process in digestion. If you skip this step the rest of your digestive system
has to work extra hard, and even with that extra effort it’s hard to get the
nutrients from what you eat. But if you get stuck chewing on your food without
ever swallowing it, your jaws will grow tired, the rest of your digestive
organs will actually start to eat themselves because chewing stimulates enzymes
to be released that help to break down food. If there’s no food for the enzymes
to work on, they can start affecting your bodily tissues instead. Meanwhile,
you’re not getting any nourishment. The moral of this month’s astrological
story is: chew well, and then swallow.
The Sun enters Cancer on the Summer Solstice, 6/21. Cancer is the sign most concerned with
nourishment - both in the physical realm of eating and processing food, and in
the subtler realm of what fulfills us on some deeper level, such as loving and
being loved, and feeling a sense of belonging. Meanwhile, Jupiter is completing
his yearlong transit through Cancer throughout most of the Sun’s month in
Cancer. Since the Sun illuminates, we’re all given a last chance to understand
how to increase our experiences of nourishment and belonging (to a place, as in
“at home in the world,” and to an intimate group of people, as in “family,”
loosely defined). Here are some Cancerian concepts to ruminate on this month:
Are you
nourishing yourself well - with healthy food, with quality alone time, with
quality social time, & with quality intimate time?
Are you
nourishing what’s important to you - important relationships; the people you
lean on; the establishments you love; the environment on the micro & macro
levels?
Are you
being nourished by your work in the world? If not, do you need to ask for more
support in exchange for your efforts, or do you need to look for other, more
fulfilling work?
Are you
being nourished in your various relationships? If not, what happens if you ask
for more support?
Mars is happily in the last stretch of his final pass through
the shadow of his retrograde in Libra. Mars is
a planet of decisive action. Libra is the queen of rumination. This month is
the time to make some final assessments, bring some things to a close, make
some choices, and let certain options fall away. In the Libran realm of
relationships, make sure that things are feeling lateral and honest, without
getting caught up in the relative and fluid realm of “fairness.” Mars entered
this retrograde shadow in late December 2013, so it’s going to feel really good
to get some closure on these issues. Welcome the decisions you make. Welcome
the decisions others make, even if it’s not what you would have chosen. Accept
your situations as best you can, take affirmative action, and move on.
What
are the choices you are facing?
Which
options give you a sense of balance and poise?
How can
you be kind to both yourself and others in carrying out the choices you make?
What
are the most beautiful choices you can make within the confines of your
reality?
For
artists - what sense of conviction about and direction in your art have you
gained since late December?
Mercury completes his retrograde cycle on 7/1. This retrograde began in early Cancer, ends in
late Gemini, and thus blends the realms of feeling and perception. Hopefully,
you’ve noticed the cycle of how feelings affect what you perceive, which in
turn affects how you feel. This Mercury retrograde gives you an opportunity to
break or evolve those cycles. For instance, people with low self esteem
intensely notice when others criticize or ignore them, but gloss over the
moments when they are praised or given positive attention. This pattern of
selective perception “proves” and perpetuates the originating issue of low self
esteem. So yes, you can rejoice that with Mercury moving forwards, your
internet, your phones, your vehicles, and your computers can run smoothly
again, but hopefully you also learned something about the nature of your mind:
What
assumptions do you make when you don’t hear back from people?
What do
you notice when you’re happy? What do you notice when you’re angry?
What do
you notice when you’re sad? What do you notice when you’re feeling anxious?
What
events do you gloss over in your
memories, & how does this shift the story you’re living?
What if
the world is full of ambiguities, & people are not all bad or all good,
& things do not come together in tidy little stories?
Is that
terrifying, or is it freeing, or maybe both?
The
sticky convergence of inner planet retrogrades cycles, stretching way back into
mid-December is about to come to an end. My closing advice is REST UP.
Withdraw a bit, even if you have to steal yourself away from the pulls of the
world because you need some you-time to process everything that has shifted,
ended, begun, gotten lost, resurfaced, or been utterly shaken and stirred in
the first half of this year. If you do this, the next half of the year, which
will be much more fast-paced, and with much more forward momentum, will be
exhilarating and fun. This is the year of the Green Horse in Chinese astrology,
and this is the month where you need to make sure you have a firm grip on the
reigns before that horse begins to gallop.
If you
would like to know the astrological currents of this summer, mp3’s of my
workshop, Aligning Heaven & Earth: Summer 2014, are available for $5. The talk covers the major planetary events of the
season, offers herbal support for working with those energetic shifts, plus
meditations to get you in touch with the evolution the planetary energies
suggest. You may purchase them here.
Thanks for reading,
Rae Diamond
