By Julia Hultgren

The nurturing New Moon in Cancer on July 11 finds the Moon in its own sign. Applied to all of us, this is the holding tank for our group emotional state. When we think about the Moon in Cancer, there isn’t much room for finger pointing or name calling.  Consider the idea of all of us being in the same womb together being nurtured by the same mother. Gets kind of unsettled and crowded in here if we are unwilling to spread compassion from one to the other, permeating the entire space.  Too much angst among us and our mother grows toxic. This is the time for us to intuitively open to others in our sphere, get the vibe of the whole womb territory; and send our purest energy pulsing out for some moments of cherished oneness.

Our Cancer New Moon finds itself in an eclipse this month, which increases the essence of the energy.  Receiving assistance from Mars in Virgo, our task in compassionate oneness is supported by a good capacity to heal using an exacting ingenuity.  We are reminded to be particularly observant of those in the armed services in our prayers.

After settling ourselves into a compassionate realm of “oneness,” it’s time to turn our attention to the rest of the chart for this period. We already know how to perform the breast beating fury of communication regarding our excellence and honor, our superior strength and economic prowess. Some would say ad nauseum.  Instead, we are charged with learning to discern what is significant on the journey of soul progression, and what is not. How do we really access the divine within and around us?  If we continue to insist on issues involving our separateness, if we continue to feed arrogance, we’ve already experienced the consequences for that behavior. Seems like we should be smarter than that.

By the 22nd of this month, the Sun shifts into Leo and Saturn heads into Libra, and the birthing experience begins!  With buoyant vitality we emerge, all set to lift the veil of the old.  It is, after, all a new day.  With abundant energy and a wealth of newly engineered resources we set about developing this new identity of mass consciousness. Again, we are reminded of what we already know that balance in relationships is of the gravest concern.  And, we are asked to redefine ourselves using the context we developed in the first part of the lunar cycle: compassion, divine entreaty and the knowledge that we really are “one.”  We have tremendous access to the new and inventive, with the ability to husband resources.  There is a danger of being profligate spenders, but Mars joins Saturn in protecting the home front and the resources of the planet.

Expect to feel the balancing act of this lunar cycle as we learn to weigh and integrate seemingly disparate issues.  How do we develop personally while merging with the “other”?  How do we share resources equitably while caring for our mother?  Our seeming separateness is intended to serve the purpose of identifying and aligning each cog in the wheel of life, not personal aggrandizement and tyranny. We continue to learn that forgetting we are part of a single pulsing organism only feeds our peril.

Julia Hultgren has been a practitioner/student of astrology for over 30 years. She was an avid student of noted Chicago astrologer, Doris Hebel. In addition to basic astrology readings and charts, Julia reads and teaches planetary indications for soul mates, life purpose and monetary aspects. She also reads and teaches charts of relationships, called synastry. She is a graduate of the Weiss Institute, where she was professionally trained in Past Life Regression. She has been meditating for 13 years and has had many profound and happy experiences becoming reacquainted with spirit, while investigating altered states over the years. She has lived in Colorado Springs since 2001 with her husband and 4 children, has an MSW, and also utilizes EMDR, hypnosis and mediation in her practice.

By Julia Hultgren

Aries is always the sign of fresh starts, and when the New Moon occurs on April 14, it is the “newest” new moon of the year.  That’s why the urge for spring cleaning hits us this time of year, among other desires such as putting a new face on relationships, and revising plans and strategies for any facet of our lives. And next month, the New Moon in Taurus will help us root and grow the innovations we come up with over the next few weeks.

This month, when the Sun and Moon occupy exactly the same degree and minute of the Zodiac, we are being asked to pay special attention to our desire to retreat from taking any sort of responsibility for the collaborative process we all know we need for healing the planet and ourselves. Our personal egos are so wrapped up in being right, about the issues being all about us, that it is hard for us to see how we, individually, can bring about balance in relationships. Yet, that is the task we are being charged with.

The energy available for delivering this process will help us reach back to the earlier knowledge we have gathered about what helps us heal, alone as well as together.  When we are able to fully contemplate this “knowingness,” even as heavy as it may feel, the rapid intuitive senses will spontaneously begin to fire, lighting new directions for us to explore, and fueling more creative activity than we have been able to access in a long while. Through all this—sounding pretty easy so far, right?—the spotlight is on values and remembering to keep our communications loving and deep.

By the time of the Full Moon on April 28, the energy will have lightened up considerably. We will still be shaking off  pride and ego issues, like a small dog nipping at our feet. But our drive is so electric, our spirit so jovial, that we will hardly notice  those sharp little teeth as they puncture our puffery. We are about sick to death of seriousness and worry, as we are also terribly weary of arguing with ourselves (imagine the Democrats and Republicans in Congress as parts of the same organism). We are finally able to shift into something lighter, sweeter and more profound, just because we have lost stamina for maintaining the other any longer.

Mercury turns retrograde April18-19, depending on your location on the globe, encouraging us to still keep making intentions that align with our values—the health of the earth, the health of or financial institutions, and most importantly this time of year, the smart choices of seeds to sew for the future. With the renewed vigor of our spirit, the temptation will be to start speculating a bit rashly, which would be foolhardy at best. A better use of that impetus would be to plant some trees with your kids.

Julia Hultgren has been a practitioner/student of astrology for over 30 years. She was an avid student of noted Chicago astrologer, Doris Hebel. In addition to basic astrology readings and charts, Julia reads and teaches planetary indications for soul mates, life purpose and monetary aspects. She also reads and teaches charts of relationships, called synastry. She is a graduate of the Weiss Institute, where she was professionally trained in Past Life Regression. She has been meditating for 13 years and has had many profound and happy experiences becoming reacquainted with spirit, while investigating altered states over the years. She has lived in Colorado Springs since 2001 with her husband and 4 children, has an MSW, and also utilizes EMDR, hypnosis and mediation in her practice.

By Julia Hultgren
The November 16 new moon in Scorpio will be leaning on all of us to draw cleansing energy into our lives; evaluating what must go and what can stay, what we want and what we will give.  Scorpio handles physical and emotional debris by tying up loose ends in a no-nonsense fashion, especially as it involves our relationships. Where this shows up for each of us depends on where Scorpio appears in our individual charts.  By the full moon on December 2nd every little issue will have been communicated, likely ending on a note of droll wit.

Also front and center are those heavy energies of our Karma King, Saturn, butting heads with the under-worldly Pluto. We need those hard hitters to create the change of the arriving new era, but it’s unlikely to reach the fervent pitch of 9/11 or Nazism, which were influenced by the same energies. Saturn is measured in Libra, longing for partnership, concurrently pacing possible Plutonian upheaval. While Saturn is yearning for balance, Pluto is in Capricorn, simultaneously “getting” the Saturnine lesson. Yes, values must shift, but let’s think of it as a slow and steady climb.  Plus Saturn only gets a few months rest from being called out by Uranus to change its staid and stodgy ways, and Saturn in Libra is tired of fighting.

The new moon makes a benevolent aspect to Uranus in Pisces, reminding the quarrelsome duo (above) that change is coming, like it or not, and they’d better get their acts together. That Piscean Uranus says, “Let’s play act it first, it will be fun and deliver us to the greater good!” Practice suits Saturn fine, but playacting is a stretch for our tired and stuffy friend. Pluto passionately wants to control the whole show, or he doesn’t want to be part of it! Luckily Neptune is also on the stage, bundling those fine higher energies of universal peace (think civil disobedience) with the call to Aquarian ideals of saving the world. We won’t be surprised if some great peace making deals show up at play practice in the near future, especially with that lucky, expansive planet, Jupiter, headed on stage next month.

Venus enters Sagittarius at the full moon, jockeying up to Saturn and Pluto, reminding them to make the play a fun filled adventure, with prospects for lightening up the scene. She’s loving the play, especially the idealistic parts. The heaviness is so yesterday, but everyone needs to remember to hold their code of honor near and dear. Lots of good energy for gettin’ ‘er done this moon cycle—should we all be sending positive vibes to the Middle East?