Brass tacks: hard choices with abundant resources

June:  Man am I glad to see you!!  May was a real doozy that took us for quite a ride.  I sure hope you had it smoother than I did.  Wow.  While a lot of blessings rained upon us, we really had some major kinks and plot twists tossed our way.   I know I had more than my share. If you were trying to reach me via my website email and couldn’t, I am now fully reconnected and all lines are open for business once more.  Little comfort to know that I was hardly alone in the communication snafus as Mercury retrograde handed out some tough stuff last month. 

The days since the messenger planet turned direct motion on May 23^rd are gracing us with a steadier path that continues with our entry into June.  In fact, the cosmic gears are not shifting signs or motion until mid-month.  Thank you Universe!  Yet we will have enough challenging planetary angles to poke or prod us.  Fortunately, there is abundant stability supporting us as we move into summer.

June opens with exactly this:  super support and strength from three key planets in earth signs.  For starters, Messenger Mercury is cycling through practical Taurus aligning beautifully with Generous Jupiter and the lunar North Node (our directional calling) in hardworking Virgo.  These energies are powered up by transformer Pluto in pragmatic Capricorn.  

With their help, we will be given the answers we need to our most confounding questions and problems.  This incredibly realistic and deeply helpful alliance has bolstered us through most of May’s rocky road.  We continue to benefit from the peace, practicality, clear thinking and communication this magnificent trio affords.  Where do you need to make a plan?  Create a solid foundation from which to grow?  At home, in business, in your health care practices and routines?  Anyone celebrating a birthday, anniversary or launching a venture between mid-May through June 5^th will have this stellar support backing them up throughout the next year.  The very powerful help it offers us in whatever sectors of your chart it falls cannot be overstated.  Take advantage!

Another beneficial aspect as June opens joins Venus (love, money and relationships) and the Sun (our will and identity).  These two travel together until mid-month.  Venus casts a versatile, engaging glow over our efforts and how we direct our energy.  Simply:  it is like having a magic wand for two weeks.  Of course the caution is:  be really careful where you wave that wand; be careful what you wish for and use the power wisely as this duo is part of a very dynamic planetary formation.  These are mighty forces at work. From May 25-June 5^th, we feel as though we are inside a boxing ring as five planets square off:  Neptune (illusion), Jupiter/Lunar North Node, Saturn (karma) and the Sun/Venus duo.  It feels like we are being pinched, cattle-prodded and squeezed through an altogether too-tight passage.   A suggestion:  surrender and release.  Go with the flow, wherever the current takes you. 

Remember:  fighting the current only pulls you under.  Surrendering and swimming with the current’s flow, you will stay safe. 

So how do we navigate this tricky landscape?  There is a lot of illusion going on and especially illusion about control.  Give it up.  Manage work, health care matters and the hard facts of life to the best of your ability; control what you can and let the rest go.  Applying force of will just will not work right now.  There is a demand for truth, honesty, integrity, knowledge and answers.  Find them.  This is your work right now!  And we have abundant resources supplying information.  Get as much information about anything you plan to buy, invest in (including prospective relationships…business or romantic), agreements, etc.  Be wary of the “too good to be true” quality to anyone or thing.  The old adage that knowledge is power is the name of the game now.  Listen, really listen to what someone tells you.  Venus/Sun in Gemini challenging Neptune in Pisces is the ultimate spin doctor.  We soooo want to believe…something, someone, our prospects.  And there are savvy people who are chatting us up and talking a great game.  So just exercise caution.  Before moving in with him/her, taking the job, signing on the dotted line:  know what you are getting into.

You may turn up details or information that you do not want to hear or know about.  But really?  Would you rather spend a lot of time or money on something or with someone who is taking you in the totally wrong direction?  The Mercury-Pluto-Jupiter/North Node earth trio is an incredible helper here.  So please trust what the information is giving you.  If you are uncertain, just keep asking questions.  Especially as Mars reverses into Scorpio all month long, it places a detective hat on us.  Prods us to dig deep.  Find the answers.  Don’t stop until you feel certain.  Until you know for sure.  Listen.  Trust your gut and intuition now.

We can feel life shifting gears the week of Monday, June 13.  Venus/Sun in Geminii are still traveling together but no longer squaring off with Neptune/Jupiter/Saturn.  Messenger Mercury moves into its home sign Geminii really sparking conversation and a thirst for knowledge.  You will really want to know what’s going on, be in the thick of things, be happening:  No bystander energy is this!  On the same day, Neptune turns retrograde motion until well into November, cleansing and healing old ways, habits, patterns and routines that are long out dated.  Neptune, especially in its home sign of Pisces, signifies the soul.  Bound tightly to the Lunar South node (the point of release) we move through a very deep clearing cycle.  We are pushed to purge now.  Big time!  Throughout the summer we experience the effects of a giant soul cleanse.  Think of the next few months as a spiritual colonoscopy you may have avoided but can no longer.  What pieces of your life are completely broken and in need of release or repair?  What can you no longer dodge or hide? 

Saturn in Sagittarius demands pure honesty, the truth and nothing but the truth, as Neptune brings in the Tidy-Bowl men in white suits to scrub everything down and wash away all the dirt.  Meanwhile, Jupiter continues to provide endless new healthy connections, details, alternative options to better our lifestyles.  This challenging troika asks:  is your job killing your personal time and/or relationships?  Is it time to move on, move out of that suffocating partnership (business or romantic)?  Are you living life as fully as you desire?

The trio really gives us life experience(s) we otherwise would not pursue in order to realign our paths with our soul purpose:  what we are here to do.  If you are off path, you will not be after this passage.  Life events will force your re-direction.  The good news is Jupiter/North Node will provide abundant resources to find our way ahead.   When harnessed effectively, the energies of June set us up beautifully to break us out of ruts, fulfill our deepest needs.  It is a very challenging time for sure.  And as always:  you have free will.  So you can go kicking or screaming or embrace the opportunity to clean up your act.

Some self-nurturing wouldn’t hurt as we make these life changes and on June 18^th Venus enters motherly Cancer, showering all the care we could ask for and use.  This loving energy is enhanced three days later as the Sun (our will and identity) shifts into Cancer on the annual Summer Solstice June 21. It is no accident that the apex of the Sun, bestowing the brightest, longest light and warmest days launches the vitally nurturing sign of Cancer.  Our basic needs since birth:  food, mom, home, and family dwell within this deeply loving sign.  Cancers are caregivers.  Period.  They naturally nurture and grow what crosses their paths.  Venus/Sun in Cancer now prompt us to take care of ourselves first…and no it is not selfish.  

Your happiness (or discontent) spills out into the rest of the world.  Once you are replenished, then take care of those around you:  loved ones, friends, community, the world.  Many people think of mothering and nurturing as a passive act.  Yet it is the greatest action as it stems from love.  To feed, teach, and care for another forms the invisible net that sustains our planet and the creatures on it.  Cancer is feeling, emotion, intuition.  Our extrasensory perceptions are heightened now through the end of June when Venus/Sun in Cancer aligns beautifully with Neptune/South Node.  Follow your truth, what it tells you. 

Then at last on the final day of the month, Motivating Mars turns direct motion (finally) bringing our actions and inspiration forward, out into the open.  And somehow, life just works well again.