by Barbara Hand Clow

It is the New Moon in Cancer, when we find ourselves wanting to nurture, protect, and enjoy our personal lives and our planet. This New Moon brings in a new seed, the fruition of the creative potential that arrived when the Sun moved into Cancer during the Summer Solstice.

In the reading for the Summer Solstice, we saw that this summer is when a new transcendent field arrives in our world. Many of you have been experiencing a powerful new level of will power that is possibly becoming available with the Solstice Grand Square, a real sense that you can make things happen. Enhanced will power is a sign that spirits are really assisting us now, even if you can't detect this presence. This New Moon offers guidance for how we can actually use this potent creativity.

During the Summer Solstice, Uranus in Aries exactly squared the Solstice Sun, which indicated great surprises would happen right after the Solstice. I begin with describing these startling changes, because they indicate what's passing out of the scene to make space for new forms and potentialities. We want to really nail how the change factor is functioning, because Uranus went retrograde on July 5 and will go back into Pisces in August. Thus, the change factor is going more into the psyche until early December, when Uranus goes direct at 27 Pisces. Major squares from Uranus always trigger events, so on June 22 (a few hours after the Sun exactly squared Uranus) President Obama got a big surprise. He woke up to the Rolling Stone article about Afghan commander Stanley McChrystal and the general's thoughts about the war.

The following day (when the Sun squared Jupiter in Aries), McChrystal was fired, and David Petraeus took over the war. This came on the heels of the firing of the Canadian commander of the Southern Offensive in Afghanistan, Brigadier General Daniel Menard, for having an affair with one of his soldiers. Menard is a key expert on Afghani tribal politics, and many believe the Kandahar campaign will fail without his direction. Therefore, based on the removal of McChrystal right after the Summer Solstice, we can see that the war in Afghanistan is passing out now. Of course, McChrystal's demise was probably staged to get Petraeus in, since his cleanup job in Iraq is finished. Petraeus seems to be the man called in at the end.

Meanwhile, the Pope has been the biggest beneficiary of the news blackout caused by the ongoing oil volcano in the Gulf. The Summer Solstice Grand Square briefly returned the spotlight to Rome. On June 24, Belgium police raided Catholic institutions to seize the files on sex abuse cases. The police even disturbed a cardinal's tomb looking for hidden records! This raid could expose the systemic nature of the sexual scandals leading right into the central command post, the Vatican. In a June 29, 2010, New York Times article, Doreen Carvajal noted that Belgium prosecutors may expand their scope to "encompass those who knew children were in peril but failed to protect them." Concurrently, the Vatican issued a short memo on its internal business that is "proof of a battle inside the Vatican walls that mirrors the anger over sexual abuse raging outside them". (Rachel Donadio, NYT, June 29, 2010) For fifteen hundred years, the Vatican has held its power by using oppressive secrecy; this great wall is cracking and getting ready to fall down. We can add the tottering Vatican to the failing war in Afghanistan on our list.

Great economic and political shifts were very visible during this Solstice. Many people in the world who have looked to the United States for leadership since World War Two are now realizing the American empire is collapsing. Bob Herbert summarized the state of the nation brilliantly in his June 29, 2010, New York Times column entitled "Wrong Track Distress." He pointed out that the nation is in a funk with oil spills in the Gulf, the war in Afghanistan, and the epidemic of joblessness. He notes that Obama and the Democrats had a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to focus on jobs and solve some very serious problems; instead, they just didn't play their cards and now Americans are paying a "fearful price." The people's anxiety grows "as they watch teachers, firefighters, and police officers lining up to walk the unemployment plank as state and local governments wrestle with horrendous budget deficits." Meanwhile, what is the Obama administration doing? "It's doubling down on the war in Afghanistan, trying somehow to build a nation from scratch in the chaos of a combat zone," as the domestic side of America disintegrates.

With this brief description of a few globally important issues, we turn to the Cancer New Moon chart for guidance. How we can facilitate these great changes? We look for trends and influences that can empower us as individuals because during periods of great change, personal creativity is radically enhanced. As you will see, when we factor time acceleration into the New Moon reading, the time has come to evaluate our religious values. This New Moon is a solar eclipse, which means our thoughts have strong imprint potential on the collective mind. To determine the probable influence of a solar eclipse, we first look to its path. The July 11 eclipse is total from the Southern Pacific Ocean to the tip of South America-a vast ocean of species dotted by a few islands, a great oceanic womb. This path may signal the regeneration of oceanic species, or humanity may finally face the ever-present potential for great extinctions. Solar eclipses mark great paradigm shifts, so perhaps it is time for the whole world to see that the damage caused by one greedy corporation operating in America may threaten many of Earth's species. We look to the reading to see how this might play out.

Mars in 19 Virgo exactly sextiles the New Moon in 19 Cancer, a very auspicious aspect. Sun/Moon in Cancer invite us to nurture ourselves and protect our world, and then Mars in Virgo adds positive male energy and orderly planning; we will be able to get things done when the old useless methods fall away. Each of this summer's New Moons will fine-tune the magnificent creative potential of the Solstice Grand Square, and this Cancer New Moon is no exception. Saturn in Virgo (goes into Libra on July 21) opposes Uranus/Jupiter in early Aries. We are experiencing maximal structural tension to change and change because the Grand Square has now become a targeted T-square--Saturn opposite Jupiter/Uranus T-squared by Pluto in Capricorn-which is pushing for explosive structural revolution. The oil volcano perfectly expresses this titanic configuration of forces, so the pressure builds to transform these destructive processes. Since this is a solar eclipse, there may be shocking revelations about oil drilling in general and/or a very catastrophic event. (Go to Richard Hoagland's site for a few possible scenarios.)

Neptune and Chiron are drawing close together again, and they will be less than one degree apart from September 2010 through March 2011. This conjunction is birthing the spiritualization of "the wounded healer" complex. We've all been digging into core wounds for a few years now, and many have experienced spiritual liberation on the other side of personal pain. Some have learned to value this difficult healing process, and for a few, Gaia's bleeding wound in the Gulf feels like a collective death and transfiguration. During this New Moon, Venus and Neptune/Chiron are in close opposition, so the goddess is in charge. During a solar eclipse, the Moon blocks the masculine solar rays for a few hours, and during this eclipse the feminine through Venus dominates the field like a Queen in Heaven. This feminine lunar potency opens Gaia's heart, which you can flow with if you surrender control. People are going to register this ancient healing message because Mercury in [bright] Leo trines Uranus/Jupiter in Aries. Mercury shouts, "Stop being stupid, guys, you are screwing up on the most fundamental level: protecting life." But, what can any one of us really do?

The moment has come to realize that the toxic emotional dynamics of the world's great religions are destroying our world and our future. I can see this by factoring in time acceleration. [See The Mayan Code: Time Acceleration and Awakening the World Mind.] We have arrived at a crisis point over the National Underworld religions because at this point in Night Six of the Galactic Underworld, we are resonating with AD 1460-1520 when explorers from Spain and Portugal invaded the Western Hemisphere and perpetrated the great genocide against the indigenous people in the name of God. Also, we are resonating with around 8300 BC in the 100,000-year-long Regional Underworld, when we had to learn how to survive. To survive in our present underworld, we must realize religion is threatening our habitat.

The Judeo-Christian-Islamic mindset is based on dominion, a covenant that Moses supposedly made with God to use the Earth for human desires. I have just finished reading a brilliant book by John Lamb Lash, Not in His Image: Gnostic Vision, Sacred Ecology, and the Future of Belief, that is a radical examination of dominion and Gnosticism. Regarding Gnosticism, it has been very hard to ascertain what they practiced until the Nag Hammadi scrolls were published in 1977. Previous to that, the only information we had on the Gnostics was in Christian sources that aimed to destroy their culture. The Nag Hammadi Scrolls are very difficult and arcane, but Lash has finally decoded them in light of all the other Gnostic sources. He shows that the Gnostics were a free spiritual system of teachers and libraries all over the ancient world from 600 BC through their destruction in AD 400 by Roman Christianity. The Gnostics collected and disseminated thousands of years of advanced spirituality and wisdom that reaches right back into the Paleolithic era. They created the Alexandrian Library and other great ancient libraries, and even the Druids and the last Egyptian dynasties were Gnostics. You must read Lash's book! The chart for this Cancer New Moon shows that Lash's reinterpretation of early Christianity could greatly accelerate your understanding of how religion creates violence.

Many of you sense that religion is behind the obscene violence and hatred in today's world, but you find it hard to identify the genesis of this toxic soup. Simply put, Judeo-Christianity destroyed the great ancient world wisdom, and then rooted out any remaining threads by AD 400. Once it was cut off from the ecologically-based pagan philosophy, religion evolved into a toxic, fear-based, misogynist system focused on human control of the Earth. This was a great loss during the beginning of the Age of Pisces because the Gnostics were profoundly ecological. Their mythology inspired them to venerate Earth and to center in their hearts so as to be nonviolent and spiritual. Gnosticism incorporated the myths of Gaia and Sophia-the pagan mysteries of the Great Goddess that had kept humans in balance with the planet for thousands of years. Once Roman Christianity consolidated its power by AD 400, it perpetrated the hideous violence of faith-based politics.

Now, during the end of the Age of Pisces and the Mayan Calendar, Neptune (ruling spirituality) and Chiron (ruling core wounding) are traveling together in the sky to inspire us to recover an ecologically-based spiritual perspective. The globs of oil befouling birds, animals, and water are like the arrival of the Conquistadors in ships who came to slay the people in the name of God. We are processing this genocide during this lunar cycle. Lurking within the corporations that befoul the planet are rich religious fanatics who want to drink every last drop of the planetary blood, just like the gold-seeking European monarchs who paid for the Conquistadors. These conquerors all await the Rapture, while the turtles, fish, birds, and the common people struggle to survive. It is time for any person who loves Earth to withdraw support for religions based on God's dominion.

It is no accident that the Vatican is being exposed just when corporations are being exposed, since both are ancient National Underworld systems that are coming to an end. We must examine the beliefs that made this destruction possible in the first place in order to banish these toxic ideas from our consciousness. We must align with Earth's spirituality--nature religion that inspires us with beautiful sacred sites, seasonality, lunar phases, and nine dimensions of consciousness. As we live in the third dimension (linear space and time) amidst this pain and destruction, the real powers of the planetary spirit are filling our world with beauty. We must excoriate beliefs, guilt complexes, and the lack of hope perpetrated by the world religions so that we can feel, experience, and resonate with the great spiritual awakening that is sweeping our planet. These beliefs are as toxic as the oil, methane, and dispersal chemicals bleeding into the sea. You must take back your place in oneness with Earth! Vibrate with her as she opens the dimensions so that all the elements can return to their rightful locations; we all need to be the spiritual keepers of Earth.

This New Moon in Cancer says it is time to move your spiritual eye to the eighth dimension (the divine mind) and out of the fourth dimension (the emotional body) and its control system-religion. It has never been more important to own your mind and locate yourself in all nine dimensions because they are being reformulated by Earth's wisdom; we don't belong here in 3D unless we are her keepers. We must pull our support out of belief systems and corporations that attempt to rule the globe by dominion and return to co-creation with the Great Goddess, the Mistress of Animals.

My first Time Acceleration prediction: As most of you know, I've been studying reality based on Time Acceleration, which has greatly expanded my understanding of current events. For example, during late April we were resonating with 9500 BC in the Regional Underworld, and so I was able to see that the oil volcano is a global catastrophe the moment it started. Here, I will offer a few ideas of what we might see soon. During Christmas 1522, the Island of Rhodes fell to the Islamic Sultan, Suleiman, which was the beginning of Islamic domination of the whole Mediterranean Sea until Day Seven in AD 1617. Exactly when Rhodes fell, during the Christmas Day Mass at St. Peter's, a huge stone cornice fell and crashed at the feet of the Pope. The faithful saw that a cornerstone of Christian defense had collapsed. During Night Six of the Galactic Underworld, we resonate with AD 1522 in late August and early September of 2010. Let us watch to see if events occur that indicate a weakening of the West and/or the Papacy that could potentiate real peace between East and West.