Well, by now we could all use a little mothering. Thank Heaven there are Cancer people in the world wanting to take on the job and Cancer energy comes around on a regular basis. After the trauma some of us are having with transiting Pluto opposing the placements in Gemini, a retreat back in to the comfort of home and family may be very much on the agenda.

The exaggeration Sagittarius brings to the already ferocious expressions of stressed Pluto energy may cause a lot of second thoughts before venturing out again. It may take the dramatic, publicity-hungry, and supremely self-confident energy of Leo to cobble up enough courage. For now, we need a little down time ... and with any luck a little peace and quiet is on the agenda.

Having ventured out in the world despite the hazards, and picked up some new ideas, gathered in some valuable information about our growth and new directions, and done a little research and other homework, we need to pull back and process the things we know now that we didn't know earlier. Fortunately, Cancer energy carries heavy motivation and opportunities to do exactly that.

In terms of the creative process, this is a time of processing the raw materials you've assembled in response to your new inspirations -- and letting the subtle, inclusive wisdom of your subconscious mind have a chance to put things together for the initial presentation, the first public viewing soon to come when Leo energy arrives and brings the insistent impulse to shout, "Look at me!!"

In the neutralizing response to this last intense month of high-strung, highly mobile, and restless Gemini energy -- made more so by Pluto's aggravating influence in Sagittarius -- the soothing energy of Cancer urges more serenity; prompts a withdrawal into the protective recesses of your home, your family circle, and your private life; and promotes the occasions for you to reconnect with your own emotional center.

Abstractly, in the metaphors which are the heart and soul (oh, what a Cancerian concept) of Astrology, Cancer energy represents the establishment of emotional bonds and connections. Deep within ourselves, we are beginning to care about what exists and what we have decided to create. It's not just a neat idea, a curious possibility, or an intellectual concept anymore.

Our new beginnings formed in the time of Aries need more support now than just the physical care and feeding gained during Taurus or the awareness of its own existence that came with Gemini. Now it and we are establishing symbiosis, reciprocity, and recognizing an emotional component to what is happening.

Most notably now, we are feeling feelings and attachments, building a sense of family, putting down roots, nurturing our new creation as it acquires a consciousness of its own heritage and background, and constructing a home base with traditions and responsibilities toward family members who already exist.

With the arrival of the New Moon in Cancer, we really do have, on many levels, the astrological event of "coming home." Cancer energy is deeply concerned with matters of home, family, one's domestic surroundings, issues of ancestry, traditional culture, memories or and connections to "the past," and the emotional support and sustenance gained primarily through the conduct of one's private life.

Indeed, the Moon itself rules the sign of Cancer which in astrological terms represents a direct linkage and correlation between the symbolism each represents. Thus the Moon is very much "at home" in the soft, gentle, solicitous, responsive sign of Cancer.

Although many of us never find such ideal conditions, "home and family" is where we want to be understood without having to explain ourselves, unconditionally loved without having to necessarily deserve this, and provided with the support and protection we need before we even have to ask. Ideally we expect our families and our mothers in particular to intuit what we require and what is in our best interests ... and hand it over on the spot.

Again, this is the ideal -- the elusive dream and stereotype of the family circle. It rarely happens in real life, even in the best of situations ... but all of us keep on hoping and trying. That peculiar psychological fact of yearning after total acceptance and the knowledge that we have pleased and bonded with "Mother" ... is at the foundation of many psychological constructs, obsessions, longings, and efforts -- some of them chronic, futile, and tragic.

We may not want to literally return to the womb, but many of us -- perhaps all of us at some level -- would sure like to be received back into the all-nurturing, eternally caring, tender and doting embrace of "Mom" ... and endlessly welcomed home. These are our deepest longings and our most unseverable security issues. No matter who or what we are, these are part of us.

Moods, feelings and emotional attachments are "coin of the realm" where Cancer energy is concerned. And these things are all necessary to the successful establishment of a sense of family and the lasting, dependable security one is supposed to be able to find there. With Cancer energy, the effort is always being made to grasp that elusive ideal.

Cancers are famous -- and infamous -- for being passionate, sensitive people. Their range of feelings, with all the various hues and shades, includes in the whole spectrum of possibility. Indeed, like the Moon cycling through its different phases more rapidly than any other astrological entity, Cancers are changeable, reflective of, and profoundly influenced by the atmosphere around them, sensitive to both their own inner moods and fluctuations and to other people and outer circumstances.

The energies of both Cancer and the Moon are affiliated with the Jungian archetype of The Great Mother, the very embodiment of home and family on a trans-personal level. Thus both deal with profound, primitive, and even precognitive (dealing with levels of awareness that exist even prior to conscious thought) needs in all individuals -- perhaps even all life forms.

Thus Cancer / Moon energy is emphatically maternal, compassionate, dependable, perceptive, nurturing, intuitive, protective, resourceful, sympathetic, sentimental and caring. (As is the stereotype of what every mother is supposed to be.) This is the very essence of what "home and family" are intended to provide -- and descriptive of what a desirable private life is presumed to furnish.

Cancer is Cardinal Water energy, active and reactive simultaneously, containing perhaps the greatest polarity range of all the mysterious water signs within its own expressions. As changeable as females themselves are said to be, Cancer energy can be fiercely territorial and combative one instant, reduced to shy tears and hurt feelings the next.

It can stand its ground as well as any Aries in defense of those unable to fend well for themselves and heaven help the unwary intruder who wanders "too close for comfort" and looks in any way like a threat. One look at the way Nature's mothers of many famous (and infamous) species respond when their "family" is endangered will show this example in spades. Arguably whole species survive because of this.

Properly expressed, Cancer energy provides safety, support, a feeling of continuity and bonding, the promise of someone who cares always "being there" for you, and the joyful relief of being intuitively accepted and understood.

Indeed, the feeling of "having a home" and being welcome there always, is fundamental to a solid, dependable sense of personal well-being. It is this feeling that deep in our collective souls, humankind associates with the concept of "mother."

This passionate connection to the elemental ideas of home, children, and family -- representing as it does a deep alignment to the life force of the species in Cancer, moves out and becomes the merging and transmutable energy aligned with the universal procreative force in Scorpio, and the dissolving, transcendent energy aligned with the Divine Source itself, the primal well-spring of all life, in Pisces.

When this energy is not well-integrated into a personal chart, or when it conflicts with more preferred strategies, the results show themselves in actions and attitudes that are passive, emotionally unbalanced, repressed, resentful, clinging, dependent, fretful, anxious, compulsive, moody, complaining, depressed, and self-pitying.

In extreme cases, this energy can also be reclusive, unstable, paranoid and hysterical. The potential for serious family problems and emotional complications are obvious under these conditions --and examples are common in all our lives.

The polarity sign for Cancer is Capricorn -- Cardinal Earth. Cancer build structures to support offspring and members of the extended family in direct, individual, personal, essential, and everyday ways. Its involvement is intimate, intrinsic, essential, and familiar.

Capricorn builds structures to support the family by taking on the world and earning the "essential supplies" through professional pursuits, the acquisition of income, the achievement of status and prestige --which may reflect in the establishment of "a family name," a dynasty, or even royal lineage when done on a grand enough scale. Its involvements, while just as important, are more remote, detached, stern, objective, and concerned with standing, reputation, and governance.

With the arrival of the New Moon in Cancer, the theme of life's creative cycle -- and the focus of people in general -- becomes more cautious, intuitive, instinctive, sentimental, sympathetic, and traditional. There is extra emphasis on security issues, emotional connections, family matters, domestic circumstances, more attention to the condition and maintenance of one's home, and the conduct of one's private life.

People may also be concerned with their inner feelings, their ability to empathize with others, and with memories or other situations from their personal past. This can be a reclusive, private, introspective time, conducive to self-examination, re-alignment of one's emotional foundations and boundaries, and gaining insight into one's psychological center.

Under stress, people may be unusually touchy, resentful, dependent, fearful, moody, compulsive, habit-bound, obsessive, overwrought, depressed, self-pitying and fretful.

Click here for the New Moon in Cancer Meditation