Cancer New Moon 7/9-The power of empathy

The definition of the word power is the “ability to do or act; capability of doing or accomplishing something”. It is an essential word as we make our way to this New Moon in Cancer. Although not a new theme, power, and specifically its correct use, has been an underlying theme most of last year and this one (thank you, Pluto and Saturn). What has shifted though, is the emphasis on a more collective understanding of the word.

How does personal power coexist within a community? Is power inherently meant to be self-serving or collaborative?

Because we have certainly seen both how tribal power can be an expansive, collaborative, and supportive entity or a selfishly destructive one. As always, intent, it seems, is everything.

Indeed, as Pluto in Capricorn opposes the Sun and Moon in Cancer, we have some critical insight into this quandary arising. Cancer represents the heart of the matter. It ignites our emotional, nurturing, and feeling senses. It is our force of empathy, the ability to not just logic our way through solutions but feel into what is right. Often this type of “rightness” is not convenient to the status quo of familiarity, though. It takes us into vulnerable territory- which is why it is often ignored or resented. Just because we can, doesn’t mean we should. Just because it is scary doesn’t make it wrong. Just because we feel something doesn’t make it right. That paradox is Cancer.

No doubt, we will experience some heart-tugging reality checks in both our private and public lives. From climate change to racial inequality, to politics, to education, to scientific innovation, we are living the consequences of how we have used power thus far. Pluto times are not subtle in their revelation of what requires improvement. Where this New Moon (18 ° Cancer) occurs in your chart reveals your particular flavor of power checking and re-calibration.

Eris also joins the party forming a T-square with the Moon, Sun, and Pluto, revealing another vital layer to the time. Eris is our wild, passionate, and often untamed flow of emotion. This marriage of emotion and power is a potent combination that reveals precisely both the problem and solution.

Why? We have a complicated relationship with feelings. Feelings are always valid, always real, always important, but they are not always accurate to the present time. Often, they become frozen, unexpressed, shamed, and wounded in a myriad of dysfunctional ways. We learn to manage, ignore, shame, or deny them. Thus, when an unhealed or sensitive wound is activated in the present, we bring our past right into the now. Our ability to act (power) becomes hijacked by our history. Then our reactions become rooted in primitive survival-type flight, fight, flee, or fawn patterns that may have once protected us but are now out of time. We shapeshift, quite literally, into shadow reactions like aggression (both passive and overt), blame, and defensiveness. Reaction makes our power sources selfish and close-minded, which is understandable if we believe our survival or safety is at stake. Human brains are designed to recognize danger and seek patterns to find some sense of control in all the uncertainty. Thus, we find comfort in predictions. We gravitate to quick answers and solutions. We want to be right. We project or blame. It is much easier to look outside of ourselves for answers than within.

No doubt, I suspect this will be a sensitive time. Feelings will rise to the surface in situations and experiences that evoke choice points between old patterns and new solutions. This is not to limit you, of course, regardless of the heaviness it holds. It is to reveal you.

Where are you reacting when you are meant to respond? Where are you channeling your power through old patterns? What are your feelings revealing in you that requires attendance?

Because feelings have tremendous wisdom, they just require some compassionate fact-checking, some pause to assess if they are wholly responding in present time. The vast majority of us are attracted to beliefs (truths) that make us feel better, albeit temporarily, regardless of their validity. Feelings are powerful things, with the potential to ignite the very best and worst.

So, as we enter into this New Moon, let us celebrate and remember the true meaning of the word power -the ability to respond, not react. The awareness and accountability to not believe our own righteousness. Real power is found in empathy, which is the antidote to self-focus. It is found in the ability to really listen- not just to the words but the truth beneath the words. To understand. To think and reason. To recognize maybe we aren’t seeing the whole picture. To walk a mile in another person’s experience. It is the only way we begin to heal the shadow tribal polarity so evident right now. Because when we react, we re-enact, and no change happens there. Neptune trines this New Moon reminding us to honor what needs release. Because there are no beginnings without endings, so loosen your grasp and allow the grace of the new to surface.

To that end, I’d like to offer a resource that echoes this theme. Certainly, it isn’t the only example out there, but it exemplifies what this type of communication might look like.

The You Tube Channel Jubilee describes itself simply, “Feel more. Think more. See more in others.” The ‘middle ground‘ series places people with totally conflicting views opposite one another to plainly and openly listen and speak together. To communicate. To understand. They tackle the big topics from politics, to Covid-19, to religion, to racial injustice. The conversations are brave and responsive (not reactive) revealing the roots of real power.

In the worlds of  founder Jason Y. Lee,  “… It all started with a single idea: to create a movement of empathy for human good. It’s a simple goal, but one that’s had an awe-inspiring domino effect over time. People want to connect on a deeper level, be challenged, empathize with one another and share vulnerably; and they want to do it in an engaging way. Sometimes it feels like the world is becoming more divided, chaotic, and cluttered. But if I’ve learned anything in my time growing Jubilee, it’s this: we are all inextricably linked and want to live for something deeper. Living for empathy and human good is a resilient vision, and one that is worthy of pursuit.”

I urge you to take a minute and watch a few of the conversations. Then maybe have a few of your own.

Want to understand what this time if revealing in you? Contact Aleka for more information.