Moon Mondays: Reset under the Cancer new moon

My very first job was selling The Aspen Times after school. As soon as I could demonstrate a proficiency in crossing Main Street all by myself, the entrepreneurial door swung open for me — and for the rest of us local kids, never closing again for some. I attended the funky, Harry Teague-designed log cabin that was the Aspen Community School. We took our weekly newspaper sales seriously.

Not surprisingly, our hippy school bus always arrived last into town — after both the public school and the Aspen Country Day’s — leaving us woefully behind in the weekly, paper-selling hustle. The moment the bus barely slowed, across from the Hotel Jerome, the older boys would pry open the door and leap into traffic, sprinting to catch up, late to the money-making party. Joe, the bus driver, hollered about safety, then faded into the receding background. Us younger girls bought our pile of late papers and hoofed it across town on our skinny, middle-school legs, praying to find buyers before the town was tapped out.

We bought the papers for 10 cents and sold them for 20, but most folks gave you a quarter — a whopping 150% return on our precious dimes spent. A generous soul might hand you two quarters. Land a local “whale,” and you scored a dollar. Not bad for a Thursday after-school gig.

Being back at The Aspen Times now as a columnist brings me a full-circle smile. I’m not sprinting down Mill Street to the old Times building, throwing a fat stack of newspapers into my larger-than-me backpack anymore. Instead, I get to sit at my laptop, pontificate, and write this weekly “Moon Mondays” astrology column — much gentler on my almost 57-year-old knees.

Why Moon Mondays? Because Monday belongs to the moon. Lunes, the Spanish word for Monday, comes from Latin’s dies lunae, or “day of the Moon,” named by early Babylonian skywatchers. Sunday is the sun’s day, so Monday became the moon’s.

Like Monday’s launch to our week, the start of the moon cycle — the new moon — also offers a reset, a do-over, and the promise of new beginnings. New moons and Mondays inspire change, a chance to do better, to get it right this time around.

Hidden by the brilliance of the sun, the new moon slips out of view — deep in sacred communion with our star of light, their energies united in celestial alignment. The dark of the moon is a still point, inviting reflection, introspection, and creative inspiration. What do we desire to create over the coming moon-month? Or the commencing Moon-day work week? Taking a brief, suspended, intentional pause grounds us before the first visible crescent arrives next and the waxing action begins again.

Wednesday morning brings us the new moon in Cancer, heartening this peaceful lunar bidding. Cancer, the sign most associated with the moon, carries the archetypal energy of the mother: the nurturer, who nourishes her seedlings to grow, spreading her composted love liberally. A generously giving sign, Cancer often becomes depleted, so the secret is learning to first offer that loving care to itself. Nobody’s a good giver when they’re running on fumes — actually the exact opposite: resentful, fussy and snippy. Having a Cancer sun myself, I’m sensitive and get distinctly crabby when my tank is empty. Ask my husband, who just ran off to the Tavern when I resisted his suggestions for this very column. He’s a Leo, so he gets over it quickly, enamored by his own sunlight.

Let this Cancer new moon invite you to take a sacred breath. Unite with the sky and attune solely to you for a minute. Ideal timing as we’re coming off the solstice — the start of this year’s summer chaos with Food & Wine. Lean into how you’re currently nurturing yourself — the little seedling that you are — refilling your inner wine cup before the next customer meltdown commands all your attention.

That’s what a Cancer new moon offers us. Nourish yourself first, so you can give from overflow rather than depletion. This moon gives you a chance to begin again, to set an intention for the month that focuses on you and where you want to steer your life.

I’ll be back next Moon Monday with insights on Venus entering Gemini and Neptune stationing retrograde, plus more sky stories to inspire your week.

Until then, be gentle with yourself. The Cancer mother moon wouldn’t have it any other way.

Sheridan Semple is a feminist astrologer, AstroLife Coach, and founder of Moon Sisters Circle. Her love of the stars began as a young girl on two-week backpacking trips with the Community School, gazing up at the night sky. All her astrological offerings can be found at sheridansemple.com or reach out to her at sheridan@sheridansemple.com.