What to Give Up, What to Take Up
Moon is in Cancer + it's Mercury's day: Sorry, Mercury, but the cosmos wants us to lead with our heart, not our head, today. How's about writing your heart out?!
it's wednesday, august 20, & moon is in cancer, in the starspace called punarvasu until about 1 p.m. MDT, then puṣya. whereas gemini is pretty much all head, cancer is all heart. under the sway of gemini we are given to explore & experiment, expand the boundaries of who we are with curiosity, just b/c we can, just b/c we want to, to assess merits & demerits using our noggin, our powers of reason. under the sway of cancer, we drop into our heart, feel into what resonates, what feels true to us, what to give up & what to take up. our heart says neti neti—not this, not that—until it says iti iti—this, that. our intuition gets the last word, casts the final vote.
"we know the truth not only by reason but also by heart."—pascal
punarvasu reminds us that life is cyclical, that everything comes around again, that we always get another chance, that if we didn't get it right the first time, we get a do-over. punarvasu means "the return of the light": it is through repetition that the light returns, that the magic arises, that we get one more opportunity to work through a bit of stubborn karma in the form of, say, an unhealthy pattern.
puṣya means "the nourisher" & reminds us that whatever we nurture & however we nurture it will determine how that thing grows, what it grows into. dwelling in the heart of unconditionally loving cancer it also reminds us that while selflessly giving can be a virtue, it's not so much when we give so much to others that our own family suffers.
it's the thirteenth lunar day (tithi), the thirteenth phase of the waning moon, whose deity is kamadeva, the hindu cupid, who invites us to keep things simple, to not overcommit, to nourish ourselves & others through joy & connection. this tithi also loves wednesday, creating an amrita yoga, a combo that produces nectar (amrita). what is nectar but joy, bliss—let it flow!
wednesday is ruled by mercury, who is hanging out in cancer these days. logic & intuition may be at odds, the scale may be weighted in intuition's favor. what's the best that could happen if you communicated from your heart rather than your head?
btw: my internet vanished unceremoniously in the middle of a zoom session monday night & didn't return in time for me to write the bliss yesterday. moon was, interestingly, in ārdrā, an asterism that can create obstacles for me—apologies!
TL;DR
let intuition cast the final vote today. • what comes around will keep coming around until we get it right—& that’s a good thing. • drink the nectar of bliss, of joy. • let your heart send those emails & have convos.
& that’s your daily bliss! IN-joy! 🌘🙏✨
p.s. jyotish is the science of light—if you want to shine more light on your life, click here to book a session with me.