Final Moon in Cancer co-present Mars

A Personal Account

Since Mars’ ingress into Cancer, I have learned to anticipate once a month, when Luna transits through her home sign, some kind of emotional and physical flare up. The experience erupts, bursts through my body, pushing through my defenses that on most other days successfully compartmentalize my feelings, but not when Moon is in Cancer co-present Mars.

Somatization is the process by which repressed emotions and psychological distress take the form of physical symptoms. For example, my mental realm feels hazy, dissociative, confused, as if my thoughts are farther away. I hear them like echoes deep in a cavern, their source out of view. My gaze is out of focus as if I were looking through things rather than at them. My body moves on auto-pilot. My anxiety is felt as a pressure and a burning in the center of my chest, a gripping in my throat, and thoughts arise like, “Will I ever stop feeling this way?” “What if I never come back?” “What if something is seriously wrong with me?” “I am alone.” “Even if I wasn’t alone, I wouldn’t want anyone near me.” My trust in others slips away in this space. There is something about this, I am certain, that derives from my earliest experiences, because that is where the Moon in Cancer takes us - back to the earliest moments of our infancy and childhood. Jason Holley describes regression as one of the tendencies of planets in Cancer. Planets in Cancer live on the shorelines where, at any moment, they may be carried by rising tides out to sea.

Another aspect of these experiences is that, when they occur, not only do my own repressed and compartmentalized feelings rush through, but so too do resonant energies of the collective. Today, mass amounts of people gathered to protest our current administration and their attacks on immigrants, queer people, women, people of color, and the elderly. The Moon rules the common people. The collective. Specifically what rode the possessive energy that has hooked into my psyche is the pain inflicted by the patriarchy and the rise in violence against our bodies and souls. In a recent visit with my masseuse, they shared with me that many of their female bodied clients are experiencing either pain or dissociation in their pelvic region. Whether we are conscious of it or not, whether it is affecting us personally or not, this energy is seeping into our bodies.

What struck me about this particular experience is that it took place this time with the Moon at 29 degrees Cancer, which is where Mars was when he made his first opposition to Pluto. Unbeknownst to me at that time, that transit planted the seeds for the subsequent dissolution of a relationship resulting in another heartbreak on top of a mountain of heartbreaks. In Mars Pluto fashion, the severing of the relationship occurred because of a manipulative use of power and influence to change the course of events in favor of a hidden enemy within my community [the Mars Retrograde went through my 11th house of community and 12th house of hidden enemies].

It also strikes me as significant because today is the last day that the Moon will move through Cancer with Mars co-present until August 2026. Even in the midsts of my dissociative panic, I can access some relief. Knowing that soon, Mars will be out of Cancer, and by the end of the month, separating from his final opposition to Pluto in this cycle.

Earlier in the day I spoke to a friend about determining the difference between when one should take action and when one should surrender. In this moment, my inner wisdom is telling me to allow. My internalized therapist reminds me, rather than taking action to make the feelings go away, instead do something to caretake myself through the experience and to help me tolerate it.

Although it has been difficult, these transits of the Moon through Cancer co-present Mars have taught me how to stand amidst the crashing waves. They have taught me how to nurture and nourish myself amidst the discomfort. The extended Mars Retrograde taught me how to cultivate presence and stability amidst fluctuation. These are initiations of Cancer.

So I sing. I let my mind float away and focus on the feeling of vibration in my body.

Mama please won’t you help me
To be a sanctuary
Open Hearted, Tried and True
With Thanksgiving, I’ll be a living
Sanctuary, for you.

With Gratitude and Good Wishes,
AntlerMythos