Mercury’s second entrance into Cancer in 2014 is a bit more subtle this time around. Coming in at 9:45p PDT on 12th July 2014, Mercury sneaks back into Cancer under the hype of the Capricorn Full Moon and the combustible Libra Mars-Ceres conjunction. It does not directly aspect any other astrological bodies upon its entrance, which makes its energetic shift somewhat unnoticeable at first. Whether this quiet entrance is for better or worse has yet to be seen.
Mercury’s mindset shifts back to emotional nurturing, caring, and protection in the sign of Cancer. However, this is not an easily fulfilled role for Mercury as Cancer is a water sign, which means it is rooted in emotion. Not only that, Cancer is known as the Zodiac mother, making this the sign of fundamental emotional energy – it is where the basis of our individual emotional principles is established. The Moon (the ruler of Cancer) represents our emotional core, but where Cancer resides in your individual chart is where you feel most emotionally stable and secure and where in your life you are inclined to nurture, care for, and protect others, especially your loved ones.
Mercury is not comfortable with any of this, as it is a quick-minded intellectual. Curiosity, reason, and mental playfulness are its preferred methods of operation. Mercury takes emotions and tries to process them intellectually – it tries to make logical sense of them. It’s not easy or fun as emotions rarely make logical sense, which makes this a very challenging combination as Mercury has to modify its usual emotionally-detached approach to accommodate Cancer’s emotional sensitivities and needs.
The objective for Mercury in Cancer is to bring a consideration of emotional investment into the logic and reasoning process, and to do so with efficiency, charm, and wit. Its first actual transits with any other bodies comes with a trine to Neptune Retrograde in Pisces on the 18the July, followed by an opposition with Pluto Retrograde in Capricorn on the 21ste July. This reveals that the Mercury-Neptune trine may bring a very idealistic and optimistic view of what is possible by bringing forth an emotionally nurturing dialogue, only to have those words tested by the harsh reality of a drastically changing world during the Mercury-Pluto opposition.
The challenge is that the words communicated need to be felt, not just stated. Mercury in Cancer will do its best, but ultimately, its cleverly-crafted words have to be backed up with genuine feeling – something that the mind-driven Mercury may find difficult to come by.
However, there is another opportunity here. Mercury in Cancer can help us see where emotion is present or absent from the matters at hand. Because emotion is rarely rational, having Mercury’s rational influence upon our emotional reactions to the issues we are facing may help us see where we are simply acting out versus where we could be acting effectively. Mercury in Cancer may help us distinguish where we may have actual and factually valid points and help us understand how to communicate our feelings about those points with more clarity and objectivity, giving our emotional upsets a chance to be heard and understood in positive and productive ways.
To that point, there is a wonderful opportunity for amazing emotional clarity and healing coming up as Mercury in Cancer joins Saturn in Scorpio and Chiron Retrograde in Pisces is part of a Water Grand Trine that is at its most exact on the 24th July.
Yet also on the 24th comes a Cancer Mercury-Aries Uranus square which could indicate that the beacon of emotional hope that the Grand Trine brings forth could be confronting for those who are determined to fight for their independence and freedom. The challenge could be that they finally get in touch with the emotions behind their aggression, and may realize that their actions and emotions don’t align. The question of “what are we really fighting for?” may arise.
But just under a week later, the answer to that question may come as Mercury squares Ceres in Libra to bring values and morals into the mix. The challenge that arises then may be more fundamentally confronting as Mercury’s emotional logic clashes with Ceres’ “logical” approach to lifestyle preservation that has been taken in the days leading up to and since the Mars-Ceres conjunction on the 12th July. This is Mercury’s last effort to bring emotional dialogue to the matters at hand before it moves out of Cancer into Leo the following day on the 31st July.
It may start out quietly and slowly, but Mercury is poised to have quite a challenging yet dynamic run in its second go through Cancer in 2014. I look forward to seeing how this plays out in this astrological climate.
Thanks for reading and sharing Signs and Numbers. Until next post…
~ Light, Love, and Blessings,
Grace
