I’m going into this season with my grandmother on my mind. She’s a Cancer Sun and being her granddaughter has taught me a lot about the joys and pains of this archetypal energy. If you’d like to read the personal story (a heads-up: it contains deeply intimate themes around war, survival, and inherited trauma)), you can read it separately here.

I decided to share it separately as a companion piece to offer an inside look at how my own maternal lineage shaped my relationship to Cancerian energy.

If you’re reading this from the Northern Hemisphere, welcome to the summer solstice. To my readers in Australia and the Southern Hemisphere, welcome to winter’s inward spiral. I’d love to hear how Gemini season was for you, feel free to share in the comments.

Personally, I found myself needing to put limits on the noise. Time limits. Boundaries. Guardrails around how often I checked my inbox or answered messages on social media. It was the only way to preserve clarity amid the chaos of constant communication.

Gemini season brought a flood of questions, messages, and conversations. And while I genuinely love receiving thoughtful notes from many of you, I’m also still playing catch-up. Thank you for your patience as I continue to move through them with presence. I promise I’ll get there.

Moving in Cancer Season

As Jupiter tiptoed into Cancer at the end of Gemini season, themes of homeland, safety, and belonging suddenly moved into the spotlight, both personally and politically. In the United States, immigration raids intensified.

Heated debates sparked across the digital landscape, where nationalism collided with collective grief. And in these debates, the word “home” was invoked constantly… but rarely defined the same way twice.

Last weekend, during the No Kings Protest, I caught so many signs that had the words “Belong", “Motherland”, and “Home for all.”

This isn’t a coincidence. With Jupiter’s entrance into Cancer starting it’s cycle with a tight square to both Saturn and Neptune in Aries (disagreement of ideology, identity, conflict), we’re seeing this tension play out in real time. Cancer, like any other sign, will challenge the higher, lower, full spectrum octaves of what these themes means for us. And right now, we’re seeing all of it: the longing to protect, the fear of erasure, the need to belong, and the emotional volatility that comes when safety feels threatened.

There were also protests all across Europe on putting guardrails around mass tourism. I saw videos of spaniards squirting water guns at tourists. There is an emotional fuel and protectiveness that is happening across the world on feeling like their home/homeland is being threatened. Cancerian energy is protective, security driven by nature. So this does not come as a surprise when we see the heightened emotions playing out around these themes.

Where Do We Really Belong?

On a personal note, I’ve been really wrestling with my identity lately as an American. I’m Thai, Vietnamese, Chinese born in California. On paper, this is my home. But emotionally? I often feel like being here is a complete identity crisis right now.

When I was in middle school, I moved to a pre-dominantly white and hispanic neighborhood. I was the only asian kid around. During the 1st week of COVID panic, I was walking around the streets of Crown Heights, Brooklyn, where people jeered at me to go back to China. They called me still remember being called “China Woman” and “Miss Sushi” all these years later.

But 10 years ago, after graduating college, I traveled across Spain as a gift to myself. And for reasons I still can’t quite explain, I felt more at home eating a quiet meal in Granada… exchanging smiles with an elderly couple at the bar than I’ve ever felt at a family dinner with my blood relatives. I felt more connected to myself, and with the culture, floating in the waters of Mallorca, laughing with German children I’d never met before, than I’ve sometimes felt sitting across from people who share my DNA.

The feeling stayed with me. So much so, back in 2019, I went to a tattoo parlor in Soho, New York, and asked them to ink the GPS coordinates of Alhambra onto my wrists, a private acknowledgment of the home my body remembered…and hope to never forget.

This is the paradox I often sit with when I tune into Cancer energy. Home isn’t always the place where your birth certificate says you belong. Sometimes, it’s a place you haven’t lived yet…but your soul recognizes instantly. Sometimes, home is broken into multiple places, or it's a state of feeling witnessed by another.

As Cancer energy flows into this new season, the tension tightens from the squares to Saturn and Neptune in Aries. Both of these planets challenge the soft tenderness of Cancer in different ways. Neptune blurs the emotional edges. It can dissolve clarity in the name of compassion, flooding our intuition with stories we’ve inherited but never questioned. Saturn, on the other hand, demands a border. A structure. A boundary.

Saturn sits in superior position (when aspected to Jupiter) in traditional astrology meaning it will inevitably hold more weight. Saturn holds more authority. Saturn doesn’t bend to emotional tides. It asks us to define what we are and aren’t responsible for. It asks us to name where the line is even when it hurts. We see this happening right now also with Gaza and Iran.

These squares call us to confront the tension between longing for unconditional emotional belonging and the reality of needing clear emotional borders. Between family as safety and family as the site of inherited harm. Between the myth of home and the responsibility of building one that’s actually safe for us.

I did a separate post on Jupiter in Cancer last week that is worth a read below. I go into more detail on how to handle this initial square that we’re going to continue grappling with. It’s an emotional marathon.

This season will also ask us to confront the deeper, often unspoken emotional vows we’ve made around family, home (both emotional and physical places), belonging, and burdens.

Some questions we may ask ourselves at this time:

  • What are we building around our sense of home?

  • What emotional walls still serve us, and which ones are keeping love out?

  • What emotional citizenships are we ready to revoke or finally claim?

Now let’s do a breakdown of Cancer Season more specifically now. ↓

Mother wild Child Cherries, Frederick Lord Leighton, 1865

Cancer Season Timeline (June 20th - July 22nd)

Below are key ingresses and aspects to make note of during this upcoming Cancer season. You can save this resource to revisit it throughout the season’s phases to see how this is rippling back in your life.

Note: All dates listed are based on Pacific Time (I’m currently based in California. Adjust accordingly if you’re elsewhere).

June 20 · Sun enters Cancer: Welcome to Cancer Season
June 22 · Mars sextile Jupiter, Sun square Saturn
June 24 · Jupiter Cazimi (3°21' Cancer), Mercury square Chiron
June 25 · New Moon in Cancer (new beginning rooted in emotional truth)
June 26 · Mercury enters Leo, Mercury sextile Uranus, Sun sextile Mars
June 27 · Mercury trine Saturn & The Chiron Alchemist Workshop Series begins
June 29 · Mercury opposes Pluto
July 4 · Venus enters Gemini, Neptune stations retrograde in Aries, Venus conjunct Uranus
July 6 · Venus sextile Saturn & Neptune
July 7 · Uranus enters Gemini (a new collective chapter begins)
July 10 · Full Moon in Capricorn (18°50')
July 12 · Saturn stations retrograde in Aries (1°56')
July 17 · Mercury stations retrograde in Leo
July 20 · Mars conjunct South Node (19°38' Virgo)
July 22 · Sun enters Leo: Farewell to Cancer season

How to navigate Cancer Season

Cancer season asks us to feel. To really feel. Cancer season will always heighten emotions. Love shows it’s bittersweetness during this time. If I can best sum up Cancer season, I get an image of crying into a bowl of your favorite family homemade recipe.

I’ve talked about Cancer season extensively as it relates to home and belonging. But one thing I’ll say about this season is that karmic cycle cleaning, especially as it relates to the stories you carry within family dynamics will be paramount.

Because you’ll have an opportunity to wish for a new beginning (especially if you’ve been desiring to move, or find a new place re-root yourself) with the New Moon in Cancer occurring June 25th. But like all new beginnings, it asks for space. And space is created when we clear the emotional debris that blocks us from receiving what we say we want. Know that we start the beginning of the season with multiple cardinal squares. Mercury is also forming a tight square in the coming days to Chiron in Aries. These aspects can trigger conversations or confrontations that sting…especially with Chiron, Saturn, and Neptune co-present in Aries. Expect old wounds around identity, familial obligation, and unspoken resentment to surface, especially in communication.

In order to call in the support of this new moon, we also need to clear the resistance and debris that blocks us from receiving it. And oftentimes, it’s the stories and emotional burdens we carry, inherit from our roots.

Saturn (especially in Aries) doesn’t like to coddle while Cancer season with jupiter especially here, does. So there’s a push and pull of needing emotional sobriety, but there’s an emotional flood that’s also asking for a pressure release valve.

To work with the energy of this Cancer season:

  • Make space for difficult emotional truths to emerge. uninterrupted time to journal, cry, reflect. Have tissue boxes on hand. Don’t shame your tears. When you block yourself from crying, you’re stopping your body from releasing energy. Let your body do it’s thing.

  • Speak gently, but don’t avoid the hard conversations. Let people know how you actually feel. Use "I" statements. Say, “This is hard for me to bring up,” or “I’m not here to blame you, but I need to express this.”

  • Identify where emotional labor is no longer reciprocal. This is a good time to take stock of your relationships. Are you always the one checking in, offering support, translating your needs into something digestible for others? Also discern if you’re nurturing others too (under or over nurturing).

  • Reclaim the right to define home on your terms. Home doesn’t have to mean your childhood house. It doesn’t have to include your relatives. It doesn’t have to be tied to land, citizenship, or permanence. Whether it's your chosen family, a new city, or a quiet morning ritual with your pets, you get to decide what home feels like now. And you don’t owe anyone an explanation. You can use next week’s New Moon in Cancer to call that in.

PHASE 1. - June 20th - June 27th

Diana, goddess of the hunt, leaning against a tree, Pietro Rotari

  • June 20th - We begin Cancer season!

  • June 22nd - Mars sextile Jupiter, Sun square Saturn

  • June 24th - Jupiter Cazimi (3°21' Cancer)

  • June 24th - Mercury square Chiron

  • June 25th - New Moon in Cancer

  • June 26th - Mercury ingresses into Leo & sextile Uranus

  • June 26th - Sun sextile Mars

We start the first part of the season going through the ache, and hard process of becoming soft again. This may be hard for many. Cancer is the crab. It’s shell is it’s natural protective mechanism, sensitivity wrapped in armor. Sun squaring Saturn may feel like: How do I allow myself to feel deeply… while still showing up for my job, my kids, my deadlines, my people? There’s a push-pull between emotional honesty and functional survival. You may feel like your feelings need to be postponed until the logistics are handled… but they’ll still be there, under the surface, waiting for a safe place to land.

My best advice here is to find some balance. Mars-Jupiter sextile gives you an opportunity to also examine the parts of you that says, you don’t get to rest until everything is handled. You’re learning how to channel energy toward something that’s actually life-giving.If you’ve been nurturing others at the detriment of nurturing yourself, days later, June 24th, Jupiter Cazimi in Cancer offers a beam of insight, faith, or divine timing around what home, safety, and emotional fulfillment could look like if you truly let yourself receive it.

What’s good is that the next day, the New Moon in Cancer nudges you to begin again with a more supportive way you’re parenting, mothering yourself. This is one of the most supportive lunations for setting intentions around emotional safety, family healing, and redefining what “home” means on your own terms. The Moon is at home in Cancer and so are you, if you choose to be.

You’ll see a positive upswing with finding power in sharing your boundaries. Your voice returns around June 26th. Mercury sextile uranus can even indicate an aha moment or unexpected conversation that can shift your perspective entirely. And with sun sextile mars on the same day, you take action to supportive this shift.

On June 27th, we have a supportive mercury trine saturn which is a great day to ground your thoughts into form. This is also the day we begin The Chiron Alchemist! This workshop series was intentionally time to begin this season so we can remember the parts of us that are still holding old stories, ancestral patterns, and emotional roles we didn’t choose through this powerful placement. If you feel called, definitely join us!

PHASE 2. - June 27th - July 10th

Water Baby by Herbert James Draper, 1864-1920

  • June 29th - Mercury opposes Pluto

  • July 4th - Venus ingresses into Gemini, Neptune stations Rx in Aries and Venus conjunct Uranus

  • July 6th - Venus sextile Saturn & Neptune

  • July 7th - Uranus ingresses into Gemini

  • July 10th - Full Moon in Capricorn (18°50' Capricorn)

During mid-season, we begin with Mercury opposing Pluto which is one of the more tricky transits to work with because of how sharp it can feel. Any emotional insights, aha moments you’ve had, you may be tested through pushback from the people around you who haven’t evolved alongside you.

This can show up as an uncomfortable exchange, a triggered conversation, or something unspoken suddenly bursting through. There’s potential here to uncover a truth that’s been hiding in plain sight, especially around control, power dynamics, or hidden emotional contracts. Do your best to speak your truth without trying to overpower the other. Stand your ground from a respectful place.

On July 4th, the slew of transits with Venus ingresses into Gemini, Neptune stations Rx in Aries and Venus conjunct Uranus can cause abruption with others. We also have the moon’s ingress into scorpio that same day too. You might want more room to breathe in your relationships. Connections might change abruptly. Allow yourself to be in the eye of the storm mid-season around these dates because you’re doing a lot of clearing with others, even if right now it feels messy and chaotic. Let the pieces fall where it may. And be honest with yourself as you have conversations with others.

Uranus’s ingress into Gemini is also pretty important. I’ll do a separate substack piece on this because this writeup is too long haha. But know that the last time Uranus was in Gemini was in the 1940’s. This also happened to be when the US was involved in World War II. Because the US is also going through it’s pluto return right now, I’m keeping an eye on this particular transit. I hope the geopolitical tensions with Israel, China, Iran, Russia doesn’t escalate.

But on a more productive note, Uranus in Gemini is a time where there will be abrupt changes in communication, learning tools, how you connect with others. Massive massively take care of your nervous system at this time too. It’ll be important, especially with how you’re consuming information.

July 10th we have the Full Moon in Capricorn. I have a positive bias towards Moon Capricorn periods. I find it a great time to get serious about our commitments, even if the energy is very saturnian. It cuts through a lot of BS, especially excuses we’ve made that stops us from materializing our goals. This full moon will have us examine that. It may also address issues with overworking if you’ve been bearing all the responsibility (thanks to the over-nurturing from Sun & Jupiter in Cancer) and none of the division of tasks. This lunation will ask you to recalibrate that too.

PHASE 3. - July 10th - July 22nd

Woman Writing a Letter #2 Poster, by Gerard ter Borch

  • July 12th - Saturn stations Rx in Aries (1°56' Aries)

  • July 17th - Mercury stations retrograde

  • July 20th - Mars conjunct South Node (19°38' Virgo)

  • July 22nd - Sun ingresses into Leo

I find it timely that as we reach the end of Cancer season, there will be a supportive slowdown from both the saturn and mercury stationing retrograde.

With Saturn retrograding, we’ll now enter a long period of review on how we’ve been approaching initiation, independence, and self-responsibility before it dips into Pisces for a bit. Saturn will enter Aries again for good without any ingress pauses to it’s cycle come February 2026. Now was just a preview.

Mercury stationing retrograde in Leo slows the mind down so we can assess the stories we’ve been telling ourselves about who we need to be to be loved, seen, or impressive. We will now have to sit with what we’ve uncovered and kickstarted from our initial wishes and dreams from the New Moon in Cancer a couple of weeks prior at the beginning of this season.

Mars will also conjunct the South Node in Virgo on the 20th. This further emphasizes deliberate thinking and discernment being practiced before taking action. This period of time can also have us notice where our energy is being drained from patterns of perfectionism, over-analyzing, self-criticism, or martyr-like service.

If you notice yourself getting triggered by inefficiencies or trying to “fix” things that don’t want fixing, you’ll examine why. What am I really trying to control here? And what am I afraid will happen if I don’t?

Invitation to this month’s upcoming workshop

written under the Aquarius moon…