As Mercury turned retrograde on June 7, a wave of radiant solar energy moved Earthward through the Cosmos.

We’re in the heart of a cosmic storm.  Two planets begin retrograde vision quests within three days, doubling the retrograde storm effect. After Neptune, the Cosmic Mystic, changes direction — at 12:50 a.m. UT on Tuesday, June 10 — a total of four planets will be directing their energies into the invisible realm where the mysteries of transformation take place.  Intensifying the vibrations in the skies are four of the cosmic riddles known as yods, or Fingers of God.  Meanwhile, the solar storms that arrived on Earth early this morning are expected to continue for several days. At every turn, we are surrounded by the Mystery. And the closer we look, the more clearly we see the signature of the Cosmic Feminine.

Yesterday, Mercury began the second of his three 2014 vision quests. For the next three weeks, the Cosmic Messenger will travel back to the beginning of Cancer — one of the most potent degrees in the sky — and on into Gemini.  The Messenger is on a quest. He’s looking for awareness that you’ve lost or forgotten – and that you need to claim more fully the power of these two very different, and very powerful, ways of perceiving the Universe within you and around you.

This is important — so important that our Star has sent an energetic emissary to empower the Messenger as he begins his quest.

A burst of energy from the Sun occurred as the Messenger prepared to turn retrograde.

A Retrograde Storm with Star Power

Mercury and the Sun have a special relationship.  The Messenger is the closest planet to our Star, and above all else serves its life-giving purposes in the Cosmos within us and around us. As Mercury made his retrograde turn, by a wave of energy headed earthward from our Star.

Arriving early in the morning of June 8, this solar wave rippled through our planet’s magnetosphere, creating minor geomagnetic storm conditions that included auroral displays at higher latitudes.   NASA’s Space Weather Prediction Center expects minor radio blackouts over the next three days, with a slight chance of moderate to strong events as magnetic flux continues to emerge from the Sun.

The energy that the Sun sends earthward through the Cosmos powerfully stimulates our evolutionary processes. As author, teacher, and healer Jim Self often points out, magnetism is a yin force, working within us through our emotions.  Electricity is yang, operating at the level of thought. During the recent period of solar maximum, many of us have observed how the passage of electromagnetically charged energy into the Earth’s  atmosphere accelerates changes in our emotional and mental fields, as well as our physical bodies (which are also part of the Moon’s domain, astrologically).

Cancer, the part of your inner sky ruled by the Moon, is where the lunar realm is most potent.

Cancer and the Power of Luna

Mercury will spend the first 10 days of his vision quest in Cancer. The Messenger has been traveling very, very slowly through the first, potent degrees of the ancient sign of the Cosmic Mother since May 29, the day after our Gemini New Moon.  It will take him 19 days to make his way through the first four degrees of Cancer and back. That’s a distance he normally travels in less than three days. The Messenger is going deep and going slow.  In the days ahead, you’ll be able to sense with increasingly clarity the depth of attention he’s giving to all that he finds within you.

O degrees Cancer is one of the four most dynamic degrees in the sky. When it’s activated by our Star on June 21, everything changes. If the Vernal Equinox (which occurs as the Sun activates 0 degrees Aries) is the year’s most concentrated burst of yang energy, the Summer Solstice, when our Star lights up 0 degrees Cancer, is the most potent infusion of the yin energy of the Cosmic Feminine.  The first degree of Cancer is a profound point of beginning for her. 

Cancer is the sign that’s ruled by the Moon, whose domain is the vast, fertile realm of emotion, memory, and creativity that lies beneath the threshold of our conscious awareness. It’s estimated that this lunar intelligence comprises 96% of all that we know. (Interestingly, this is precisely the percentage of the Universe believed to comprise the dark matter and dark energy that cannot be seen by our rational, linear perception.)

Of all the signs in the cosmic wheel, none is more sensitive emotionally than Cancer. You may find that your feelings are hurt more easily over the coming days.  Memories of the past may be easily triggered and you may feel more nostalgic than usual.  Something from your past may be trying to reach you.

The ocean within you and the oceans around you, where all life begins, are ruled by Luna and her sign of Cancer.

And no part of your inner sky is more concerned with nurturing what is young and growing than Cancer.  In this retrograde, Mercury is questing for the awareness you need to nurture something within you, and within us all.  It’s something intrinsic to the Cosmic Feminine. What is waiting to emerge from this energetic ocean where Mercury is diving deep, within you and around you? In the next post, we’ll look deeper.