Despite being located in Indonesia, the official religion in Bali is Hinduism- but a different sort of Hinduism to what is practised in India. I won’t get into details here (mainly because I’ll probably get them wrong!), but is has to do with what the Balinese worship in addition to Brahma, Shiva and Vishnu. They also worship (with thanks and credit to Lonely Planet) ancestral gods, village founders, gods of the earth, fire, mountains and water; gods of fertility, rice, technology and books; and the demons who live in the world beneath the oceans.

Being Hindu, the cow is revered in Bali. On my last trip to Bali I asked our driver why this was so. He explained that the cow is the mother- it is the source of milk for babies and the giver of life. He said the cow was identified with the mother of gods.

The concept of mother is seen also in Gunung Agung- Bali’s highest mountain (and volcano) and the temple Pura Besakih 1000m up the mountain. The mountain is said to be the “mother” and the temple the “mother temple”. In any case, it is the spiritual centre of Bali, with the peak thought to house ancestral spirits. The mountain harnesses the rain from the west to provide nourishment for crops.

As for the volcano herself? She is usually shrouded in clouds and rarely seen. This too is about “mother”- you know she’s there, her presence is comforting, sometimes (as in the case of an eruption) fearful, and sometimes a great big guilt block in the road of the stuff you want to do, but do you ever really “see” her? Do you ever really know what’s going on inside of her?

With this many references to “mother” and “ancestry”, I can only be talking about the Cancer Moon. Specifically, the Full Moon in Cancer- which is what we will have Friday evening (Sydney time) at 9.21pm.

The Full Moon in Cancer casts the spotlight very clearly on the struggle between the competing themes of Cancer (home, family, food, sensitivity, nurturing, history) with Capricorn (work, goals, achievement, authority, experience, respect).

As with all signs, Cancer has more in common with her opposite Capricorn than you might think. Cancer is not always the shy, mothering type. There are not always apple pies on the table and a warm hug. Cancer can also be one tough mother, so to speak, with the whole concept of “you’ll thank me for this one day” or “I’m doing this for your own good.” And, sometimes, tough love is what is required.

Cancer has the same ability as Capricorn to dig deep in times of hardship and provide nourishment and security for her family (think metaphorically here…). Despite the pain of her lessons, Cancer provides support and structure within which we can grow and then leave to function independently.

Cancer can be as ruthlessly ambitious and no nonsense as Capricorn- it is just that the motivation may be different. There is nothing intrinsically wrong with this either.

Capricorn, on the other hand, runs into her shadow when she loses track of goals and wallows in a mire of “what could have been” or “poor me.” Capricorn can fear success in the same way that Cancer fears emotional vulnerability.

Both the sunshine and the shadow become important at the Full Moon. For every achievement there must be something sacrificed. In the case of Cancer/Capricorn, what have you sacrificed in terms of home, family, emotional ties, whatever in order to achieve, progress, attain your goals? What is the cost of your hard work? What are the rewards? Are they worth it? What has been the impact to your emotional health?

Think about the premise in the movie I Don’t Know How She Does It. (As an aside, I preferred the book, but regardless of this, still enjoyed the movie…). The character of Kate represents this dichotomy beautifully. She is a mother. She is also ambitious. She has the same protective instincts towards her job as she does towards her children. Every day is a question of balance. Investment in one area means payback in the other. Sacrifices in one, bring rewards in the other.  It is a constant and exhausting see-saw. Outwardly she has it all together, but at what cost? At what point does it all fall apart?

Look at your own chart- where does 7 Cancer/Capricorn fall? This is the area of life under the spotlight for you. Do you have any planets or chart points between, say, 5-9 Cancer, Capricorn, Aries, Libra? These points will be especially sensitive.

Pluto aligns with the Sun, so an element of emotional de-toxing will be required. Think seriously about any habits that need purging, any people that are no longer helping you and any ego attachments that need to be eliminated…and do it.

Uranus is at the apex of a T square, so whatever happens now, whatever decisions you make, ensure that authenticity is at the heart of them. You must be true to yourself.

In any Tsquare, we look for the point of release- a planet that is in easy aspect to one of the 3 points. In this case, that planet is Saturn. You will be well served to make the changes required under stable structures, and with measured, focused intent.

What about you? Where is this playing out in your life?

What needs to be nurtured more? Do you need to step back from work a little and re-connect with your family? Do you need to stop using your family or your past as an excuse for not achieving in the present? How vulnerable are you prepared to make yourself? Do you fear success in this area and are tempted to crawl back into your shell and wallow in self pity and seethe with resentments or do you have someone in your life with enough tough love to kick you up the butt and push you out of your nest/ off the couch/ away from your comfort zone? Is it possible to find balance? Can you really have it all? How many question marks can go into this post?

Today we said goodbye to my Nan.

The Moon is in Aquarius (as was Nan’s natal Moon) and the music they played was John Farnhams’ “That’s Freedom.” She loved John Farnham.

One of my cousins talked about how Nan always had a costume for any occasion. There was the full Santa get-up for Xmas (complete with bell), the Dolly Parton (complete with wig and fake boobs), the Spanish dancer (complete with castanets) and the Rockabilly Rebel (complete with checked shirt). Then there were the bags filled with shoes and necklaces and chandelier earrings- and a whole room for her hundreds of volunteer uniforms. A contingent from the Sydney Olympics Volunteers turned up in their distinctive blue jackets. In fact, contingents turned up from so many different places- there was standing room only in the chapel.

Another cousin said “no one else had a Nan like we did.”

That’s what you get with a Cancer Sun and Aquarius Moon- a combination completely out of the ordinary.

The current planetary energy is also out of the ordinary.

With Mars in Scorpio, the air has intensified somewhat. Mars in Scorpio knows what he wants and will do what needs to be done to get it.

Over the next couple of days the Sun will join up with Pluto. They’re probably SMSing now, ticking off what needs to be done, the milestones that have to be met. The potential for achievement is high- if you want it badly enough. This is a trine aspect, so even though the hard work is still there, you seem to accept that it is all part of the deal.

Not so comfortable is the pending inconjunct between Uranus and the Sun. The inconjunct is an uncomfortable aspect and usually potends something that needs to be cleared or completed that you simply aren’t ready for. Whenever Uranus is involved, it will be something to do with your authenticity.

The Sun likes to be liked, Uranus doesn’t care- he just wants you to be honest with yourself for f$%^ sake. If you have any points around this magical 7 degree mark, I would be thinking on that one very seriously. Uranus doesn’t rightly care whether you’re ready to be you. In fact, this is likely to be something which needs to be resolved if you are to capture the potential of Sun-Pluto and Mars.

In a couple of days we have a very soulful blue Moon. Not just something lager louts do at the cricket, a blue Moon occurs when there are 2 Full Moons in a month. Somehow it makes them more special. More passionate… and a little more passion is always a good thing.

More on this next time…

sunrise in Sydney

I write this watching my hubby painstakingly chopping assorted veg into tiny little dice to make a no point (yep I’m on Weight Watchers) soup for me. He’s quite excited- the fridge is a bit like a mystery box for him.

Anyways, he’s preparing something to keep my tummy full and satisfied during long days at the keyboard when procrastineating can miraculously turn into binging without much thought at all.

And that’s especially the case at the moment with the Moon in Cancer- always potential Diet Disaster Days- especially for those lunar types or watery types.

My tummys not good at the moment- in fact I haven’t been 100% for well over 6 weeks. First it was the breathing, now that’s working again, the guts are crook (as us Aussies would say)…too much information?

At 2.30 the other morning I grabbed my iphone and googled the symptoms- self-diagnosing appendicitis…as you do. Actually, it’s not normally something I do, but I did in desperation the other night.

Instead my doctor (I shouldn’t call him “my doctor”, I met him for the 1^st time today…I don’t really go to doctors) thinks it’s more likely to be my second guess- wheat (or gluten, but we’ll go with wheat first) intolerance. Great. I love bread. It’s my one big indulgence- along with cheese and wine…hence the Weight Watchers!

Cancer rules the tummy, so it was probably a good day to find all that out.

Anyways, to the skies that were, I hasten to add, gorgeous this morning. At about the time I got in the car to go to the gym, the Moon and Venus were conjunct. The pic is above.

After a busy day aspect wise today, the Moon has some free-wheeling moody stuff to do through Cancer before squaring off against Saturn and Mars.

Speaking of which, these two bad boys are now conjunct in Libra. Sure their malefics, but Saturn is in the sign of his exaltation and Mars in the sign of his detriment, so no prizes for guessing who will come out on top. I wrote a bit on this last week.

Also tomorrow Venus will be exactly opposite Pluto. We spoke about this one the other day too, so grab that dictionary of Astro keywords and start throwing around things like obsession, compulsion, power games, intensity…you never know, it could be fun.

Not all the kitchen activity in my house tonight is being undertaken by Mr Scorpio. I’ve prepared this yummy chicken thingie- Baked Chicken with Lemongrass and Chilli. Prepared with no fat and lots of fragrant herbs and spices, this is perfect on a Cancer Moon tum- home-cooked indulgence without the calories.

Until next time…

The highlight of today has been the Moon-Jupiter conjunction in Gemini.

My sister in law made this smash cake for my nephews’ first birthday party. The deal was pop the cake in the middle of a picnic rug, sing Happy Birthday quickly, and then get out of the way as all the kids hands make for the cake. Gemini does, of course, rule the hands and fingers. How very social, how very Moon in Gemini, how very Jupiter- and abundance of hands, icing and cake crumbs. How clever of my wonderful sister in law.

The Gemini Lunar energy will be with us for another day, so those of us in the Southern Hemisphere will start Monday under a surge of busyness. Use that multi-tasking energy to, well, multi-task!

The week ahead has a Pluto feel to it.

Soon after the Moon enters Cancer, the monthly opposition to Pluto will occur. That’s cool, we deal with this one every month and now know all the tricks- you know, the bits about rage, volcanoes, resentment and my favourite Moon-Pluto word “seething”.

This month, we get some added spice courtesy of sweet little Venus, who is just a tad less sweet and a tad more passive aggressive in Cancer- especially when in opposition to Pluto.

I’ll probably post more on this as we get closer to it, but here are a couple of tasters I prepared earlier:

Pleasure and Pain

Jealousy

In the best Pluto tradition, this one will start to be felt well before it is exact- in a brooding, intense sort of way.

If you have Venus natally aspecting Pluto, or venus in Scorpio, you’ll feel quite at home with this energy. If you don’t, well, it could be fun…

chart cast from info available on the internet. Jamie was born in a town named Clavering- unfortunately this isn’t on astrogold, so I have cast the chart to the nearest town.

I asked the following question on my Facebook Blog page today:

So, Venus is about to move into Cancer & I have 2 questions for you: Do you like to cook? What types of food do you like to cook?

The response has been incredible- a great conversation.

Cancer rules the belly, so we often associate food and a full belly with Cancer. As with all things Astro, it isn’t that straight forward- life rarely is.

With Venus in Cancer you might love to feed other people, but tend not to bother when it is just you. You may nourish others emotionally, but deny yourself that pleasure. My neighbour (who has this placement) always has a full freezer, full cupboards and full tupperwares. Yet when her family is away she loses weight- she hates eating alone and definitely won’t cook for herself.

The 2^nd, 5^th and 6^th houses also have a lot to do with what we eat, how we eat, and how creatively we eat….but that is a subject for another blog entirely!

Anyways, one thing that did come out in the conversation were some comments about Jamie Oliver. Love him or hate him (and I am firmly in the hero worship category). I just love what he stands for- the whole back to basics, simple ingredients cooked well, food for health type of message. I love that he does it from the heart and I love how he has put his money literally where his mouth is.

Incidentally, his mouth is in Gemini (as is his Sun) and linking to Jupiter. That message has been prolific indeed…just check out his space at your book-sellers…hell, check out the space his books take up on my bookshelf! More importantly for the purposes of this post, his Venus is in Cancer conjunct Saturn. Hello, how beautifully textbook is that? This is someone who loves to feed other people, but also to teach lessons to other people about nutrition.

I don’t have an accurate birth time for the chart (have cast it at 12pm), so can’t see what sign his Midheaven is in. The Moon in Capricorn indicates a love of business and Jamie has certainly built an empire. The Moon is also the apex of a t-square involving Mars (in Aries) and Pluto. Incredible potential to influence and transform.

Naturally there is a lot more to his chart than this (and plenty of other interpretations), but the Venus in Cancer thing caught my eye. Just saying…

What about you? Do you cook? If so, what? Why not jump over to the Facebook page to join in the conversation…