2024 | Astrology with Michelle Gregg

You may be feeling a shift in the energy around how we go about taking action in our lives. Mars is leaving the sign of Gemini, and moving into Cancer for the next nearly seven months. Anytime a planet shifts from one sign into the next, our focus around what that planet symbolizes shifts as well. And it’s especially true this time, as Mars goes Retrograde in this sensitive, indirect, and deeply loving sign.

Mars represents how we connect with our own will and how we go about taking action to achieve our will and to get our desires met. In Gemini, the focus was on gathering information and acting on the information we learned and collected. Now however, the emphasis for taking action shifts to being emotionally motivated, rather than mentally motivated, as was true while Mars was in Gemini for the past two months.

For the next several months we’re meant to take action more intuitively, from a feeling place. The sign Cancer is ruled by the lovely Moon, and she is all about our emotional responses to what’s happening in our lives. Cancer encompasses all things home and family and focuses our energy on what nurtures and nourishes us, and how we can nurture and nourish those we love. Cancer energy is also very connected to the past, so it’s appropriate to look to the past to see how it might inform what we’re doing now.

The crab (Cancer’s familiar) scuttles about on the beach in circles, rather than in a direct line, in order to protect itself from seagulls. In a similar way, when Mars is in Cancer it’s good to find a circuitous route to follow, and to let our emotions rise to each occasion. Mars in Cancer is about taking indirect action… which doesn’t mean never making a decision, or never taking any action at all. Rather, it means a slower approach that is safety oriented, and that doesn’t go directly toward a goal, but circles it to understand the many ways in which something can be accomplished. It may be best to observe and hold back to see how things will naturally evolve, rather than pushing for an ego driven end.

For those who have Mars or other personal planets in Water Signs natally (Cancer, Scorpio, Pisces) this shift of Mars into Cancer can feel very comfortable, like coming home. For those with Mars or other personal planets in Earth Signs (Taurus, Virgo, Capricorn), Mars moving into Cancer can feel quite nourishing and supportive. If you have a dominant theme in your natal chart of either Fire (Aries, Leo, Sagittarius) or Air (Gemini, Libra, Aquarius) this shift might feel a bit more challenging for you. Think of it as learning a lesson around patience and care. Also, the Cardinal Signs other than Cancer (Aries, Libra, Capricorn) may also feel out-of-sorts with this shift, and again, learning patience and redirecting the will may help to navigate this energy.

Enjoy Mars in Cancer! Because it asks for higher sensitivity, we can be more imaginative and creative in the way we pursue our goals. We can feel our way into what we want, and take more time. We want to feel safe with Mars in this position, and we want to take actions to protect our families and loved ones. If you can, spend more time with them. Show them how much you love them in all the myriad little ways that make home and friendship beautiful.

There are downsides to Mars in Cancer (passive aggression comes to mind), just like there are for every astrological energy… but recognize that we can choose, and that there’s always a higher vibration that we can reach for. Afterall, that’s how we learn, grow, and evolve.

As always, may you bloom into the fullness of your cosmic promise. May the kindness that you give always be returned, and may you find peace and joy in the eternal dance of the Universe.

With love, Michelle

I'm longing for Autumn crisp mornings.

I’m longing for Autumn crisp mornings. I can close my eyes and see the leaves of trees in vibrant reds, oranges, and golds as they prepare to let go and spiral gently down to become the sheltering carpet for tree roots, the soil, and the wee seeds that will hibernate beneath them. I want the burst of sweet crunchy apples, pumpkin bread, communing with friends around my fire bowl on the back patio, sweaters and boots, and the warming fragrance of cinnamon. Autumn is my jam! And September 1^st has always been my favorite day of the year. It’s the doorway into the fall of the year. Autumn is not quite within our grasp yet as Summer lingers, but Virgo Season, which started on August 22, and the Sept. 2 New Moon in Virgo tomorrow, are priming us for nature’s transformations that are on the way!

As we enter the month of September, just beginning to leave the ripening heat of Summer behind, we move closer and closer to Autumn. Ten days ago, we entered the time of year that belongs to Virgo, and into the time of harvest. Harvest is a beautiful word that is intricately connected to the symbolism of Virgo, and evokes thoughts and images of toiling in the fields that were planted in Spring, in order to gather in the fruits of our labors that will nourish and sustain us through the Winter.

On a farm, the harvest is, by necessity, a time of discernment, perhaps the most Virgo quality of all. Farmers must analyze the bounty they’ve gathered and decide what to eat now, what is worth putting up for later, and what needs to be plowed back into the field, left to rot and nourish the soil for next year. When harvesting wheat, the millennia old symbol of Virgo, they must take discernment a bit further, so that it becomes an action of effort, separation, and organization. They must thresh the wheat to remove the husks, so that the edible part of the wheat is exposed. And then they must winnow it. Winnow is another beautiful word that means that a strong wind must stir and blow the husks away, removing the chaff – the husks that have been threshed away.

The protective husk is light and easily winnowed from the heart of the grain that is edible and nourishing. The husk serves its purpose as a protector so that that the kernel of the grain can incubate, mature, and ripen. But if the husk were to remain intact, the perfected fruit inside would never fulfill its purpose, which is to be in service to the nourishment of others. That nourishment can be literal, but also means to be in service to others in a way that nurtures their purpose, while living your own.

The beauty of using the metaphor of wheat here is that Virgo, the second Earth sign of the Zodiac, is of the soil. She is of the Earth. She is profoundly connected to its rhythms, the cycles of light and heat of the Sun, and the gravitational pulls of the Moon, and the movement of the waters of life. She is the embodiment of earthy intelligence. Virgo understands and desires everything that nourishes the body, and brings it into the most perfected state of health and well-being possible. Just as wheat is known as the “bread of life,” Virgo, from a more personal perspective, can be understood as the “bread of Self.” During this Virgo Season, which beautifully offers us a New Moon in Virgo as well (new beginnings in a Virgo fashion), be prepared to harvest your true and natural Self. Meticulously work toward separating the chaff, or what is no longer useful in your thoughts, habits and patterns, from the nourishing wheat that is your true purpose now.

The ”now” part is where you might find a bit of a hiccup. As a human doing your best, you still may hold on to old patterns – old chaff that protects a story you tell yourself about who you are, or a goal you once wanted to achieve, or an expectation of self that you haven’t fulfilled. If you really analyze it, that goal or expectation may not have been yours at all, but someone else’s for you. Or you may have evolved beyond the limitations of that particular dream. The old story you’re holding may simply no longer be viable or true. Virgo is the symbol that discerns what’s appropriate for where you are now, and separates you from what’s no longer necessary or serving the path to a more perfected you.

Virgo is about harvesting and honoring the natural kernel of Self; analyzing what you’ve learned, what you’ve accomplished, and with acclaimed common sense and prudence, what you haven’t. The questions become, “How can I separate the chaff from the wheat of what is truly, naturally, me? And if I can do that, how do I release the chaff that isn’t necessary to me anymore, and then maintain and perfect the wheat that is divinely me?” If you’re asking these kinds of questions, you have truly entered the higher vibrational meaning and understanding of Virgo.

I wish for you a healthy Self Harvest during this Virgo Season, and honest and practical new beginnings that serve you well during this Virgo New Moon.

May you bloom into the fullness of your cosmic promise. May the kindness that you give always be returned, and may you find peace and joy in the dance of the Universe.

With love, Michelle