Article Window — July 12 to Aug 11

• New Moon Solar Eclipse is Thursday, July 12, 7:48 PM PDT
• Sun is 21° Cancer, Moon is 21° Cancer
• Next Full Moon: July 27
• Current Solar Eclipse Theme (July 12 – Aug 11): The Price of Success

Current Lunar Cycle

The New Moon releases a new wave of available potential that sets the overall theme for the entire month that follows. This month’s Lunar cycle offers a new tool-set that creates momentum for energizing your life’s purpose. To experience your fullest potential in the coming month allow this energy to guide you, especially while adjusting to changing circumstances.

A Solar eclipse happens during a New Moon, when the Moon casts a shadow over the Sun. This cuts off the  Sun’s flow of light, interrupts the normal relationship between Sun and Moon, and activates unusual potentials for all of life on Earth.

Astrology Article
The Shadow Eclipse in Cancer

by Steven Shroyer & Elizabeth Schermer

Our New Moon solar eclipse in Cancer is triggering an unprecedented boost of energy in order to support your personal growth. In astrological lingo we could call this a “Cardinal” activation, since Cancer is the zodiac sign of Cardinal water and emotional power. There will be more on the significance of this Cardinal activation later in the article.

This eclipse is the third in a series of powerful solar eclipse activations that began last August. By taking a look at where we’ve been, we’ll have a greater appreciation for the opportunity that lies ahead.

The first solar eclipse in this cycle was August 21, 2017, with a powerful eclipse signature of “Rebirth into the Age of Aquarius.” This eclipse initiated an influx of a brand new wave of energy to Earth, directly supporting each of us in our personal expansion into the new Age of Aquarius.

The age of Aquarius offers all of us a new trajectory, with new tools and the internal guidance we need to transition into a world where expanding consciousness and self-realization are honored and encouraged.

The second solar eclipse was in Aquarius this past February 15th, with a signature of  “Accessing Your Guiding Intelligence.” Our ability to access our personal inner guidance is part of the Aquarian Age, and begins a new process of self-determination.

Now our current Solar eclipse signature, the third in the series, indicates that something else big and significant is about to occur.

The Solar Eclipse and an Opportunity for Change

A solar eclipse occurs when the New Moon covers the Sun and produces a physical shadow, momentarily interrupting the flow of light to our world. In addition to the normal internal activations of the New Moon with the launch of a new Lunar cycle of change, the shadow across the darkened Sun affects our consciousness in a significant way.

The very fact that a shadow is produced during a Solar eclipse is extremely significant, because it’s this shadow that marks the opportunity for change within our consciousness. In order to understand the higher potentials of this unique event, it’s important to understand exactly how we can recognize and access the energies of the eclipse shadow in our personal lives.

On the most practical level, when we speak of “the shadow” we are referring to what remains hidden beneath the surface, including the parts of ourselves that make us uncomfortable or those things we don’t want to claim. The eclipse activation, including the shadow created by the actual eclipse event, gives each of us the opportunity to recognize and claim our personal shadow in new and creative ways.

The Power of Emotional Intelligence

Cancer is ruled by the Moon, which governs our emotions. It also rules the fourth house, which represents how we go about finding security in our everyday life, including the inner realm of our own identity.

The dynamic power of Cancer is often overlooked by astrologers. This is because it’s a hidden or internal form of dynamic power. This hidden nature is trying to surface due to its association with the Moon and the element of water as well as its designation as a Cardinal sign, meaning it’s dynamic and active.

As a water element, Cancer holds emotional qualities of connection, feeling, and meaning at a deep and personal level. As a Cardinal sign (the first of the water signs), Cancer brings a quality of focus to our inner emotional energy. With the New Moon Solar eclipse occurring in Cancer there’s a powerful underlying energy that generates a pure form of emotional focus that is oriented toward integrating and connecting the vitality of life to experiences, thereby generating significant and personal meaning.

This powerful Cardinal ability for focus, coupled with the extra-ordinary aptitude for feeling makes Cancer adept and primed for developing our emotional intelligence, including emotional security and trust.

The full development of inner emotional security can only happen through the feeling of connection and experiencing all of the ways in which “everything in life is connected.” Because of this underlying feeling of connection, Cancer is driven to experience connection in a personal way. This sense of connection ideally begins when are born and expands and develops throughout our life as we expand our relationship to our world.

The Cancer Shadow Effect

Connection and emotional security must ultimately be anchored within.

Cancer’s shadow surfaces when we forget that everything is connected. Examples of the shadow element of Cancer include experiences of emotional insecurity, a lack of inner stability, and attachment to drama, including the inability to let go of the past.

These shadow aspects emerge to the degree with which we misunderstand all the ways in which we are truly connected to life. It’s common for all of us to struggle to find connections in a world that pushes external authority and external responsibility (the shadow of Capricorn) as the guiding intelligence for the planet.

The status quo encourages us to find connection and personal authority through external processes rather than our foundation of inner security. This is how the very idea and definition of success in the world becomes driven by the desire to connect personal worth through externalized forms of power and control.

The Cancer shadow is reinforced by a society that determines success through external means, and measures good citizens as those who are first and foremost responsible and obedient to external authority. By activating these shadow patterns within yourself, the eclipse is offering you the opportunity to get clear about your own alignment to authority and your personal definitions of success.

Astrology Pattern – Pluto, Paradox and the Price of Success

The astrology pattern for our Solar eclipse is unusually complex with multiple signatures interacting.

The fact that the three transcendental planets (Pluto, Neptune, and Uranus) play key roles indicates an overall signature of something extraordinarily big and encompassing. There’s an abstract nature to this eclipse and it will manifest differently for every person. This is especially true because of the way that the shadow effect will be amplified through the transcendent influences of Uranus, Neptune and Pluto.

The specific patterns in the chart include two grand trines, in addition to the key signature of Pluto which stands in direct opposition to the New Moon.

Pluto is in exact opposition to the eclipse at Capricorn 21°. This is a specific and powerful activation of the fundamental energies and extremes of the Cancer/Capricorn polarity. What’s being activated is the full weight of the external pressure for success within our society, and what it means to be successful at all cost.

The price of success and personal drive for excellence can best be understood through this polarity of Cancer and Capricorn. Within this polarity there is the natural contrast between Capricorn’s need for responsibility and empowerment, versus Cancer’s desire for emotional security and stability. It’s each person’s challenge to find their own point of balance.

The problem arises with the definitions of success, specifically the ways in which society traditionally defines success in very narrow ways related to money, prestige and power.

This polarity gives rise to the essential question of to whom you are truly responsible. Are you responsible to yourself or to others? Is it possible to be responsible to both? And what about success? In what ways do you assume responsibility for other people’s ideas of success over your own?

In terms of success, Capricorn is concerned with how one’s efforts contribute to society. At the other end of the polarity there is Cancer which measures success through the experience of emotional security.

How does your sense of responsibility drive the need for success? What role does your family play in determining what success looks like? And who decides what you are responsible for, to whom, and why?

This solar eclipse opposed by Pluto is activating a fundamental paradox of life between one’s responsibility to society (Capricorn) vs. the responsibility to oneself (Cancer). It’s a paradox that must be solved by each of us as individuals. Ultimately, when these two factors are in balance, the dynamic paradox between Cancer and Capricorn will give rise to an empowered society that supports the individual as well as the group.

The Cancer shadow of this solar eclipse will expose the ways in which we live for other people’s expectations. It’s this shadow, when exposed, that will help us expand our consciousness by understanding the very nature of our conflict between personal fulfillment and external success, so that we are able to find our own unique point of balance.

Conclusion

This solar eclipse will activate multiple perspectives and multiple forms of contrast and paradox, especially those related to your responsibility to yourself versus your commitment and responsibility to society.

Because the activations will be personal and unique, it will require some extra contemplation in order to associate the opportunities that will arise within your individual situation. One type of activation will be based in your values and feelings of commitment. Another will be based on your understanding of success and excellence, and the price you’re willing to pay for the experience of being successful in the world.

In all cases you’ll be challenged to discern the difference between internal and external perspectives, and your ability to align with the power that comes from personal desire, authentic emotional stability, and the authority that lies within.