It's Problematic
The planets are cancelling Cancel Culture
Backed by 16 years of astrological study and 100s of client sessions, I help people break stagnant patterns and make successful transformations in times of change.
Apply to work with me here.
Welcome to the Gemini New Moon.
Many of you are overwhelmed with options at this time. It could show up as being pulled in two directions between partners, cities or ways of expressing yourself.
It all seems problematic.
Speaking up for what we truly want isn’t as easy as it used to be. From 2008 to 2025, we lived under the terror of Pluto in Capricorn, which raised the monster of Cancel Culture.
As institutions escaped accountability—2008 told us banks were “Too Big To Fail”—the average person had to live in fear of expressing any opinion slightly outside the status quo.
A break in the clouds is the meaning of this New Moon.
The ultimate lesson we’re learning this summer is speaking up for what we truly want. This will require us to fashion a new identity. Every message needs a messenger.
But how do we deliver these messages without destabilizing too much of our life?
Gemini is the sign of conversations and phone calls and thought and speech and logic.
It’s represented by Mercury the Messenger, who is in Cancer until August 9 due to his long summer retrograde story. This gives us clues to the nature of communications happening now.
You might notice that people are increasingly emotional in what they’re communicating, even if the attempt is to talk about something neutral. This can be great for passion or connection.
But it can also seem like emotions get in the way of solving our problems.
Mercury being in the Moon’s sign (Cancer) and the Moon being in Mercury’s sign (Gemini) gives us a solution. When planets are in each other’s signs, it’s called mutual reception.
As ironic as it sounds, we’re really thinking through how we feel about ourselves right now in order to achieve a more sharply defined self-concept.
Armed with a courageous identity, we can cut through the BS and get our wants fulfilled.
Because here’s the rub: Mercury in Cancer is in a tight square to Saturn in Aries.
You’ll recall that I predicted a Global Reset in 2026, largely stimulated by Saturn and Neptune going into Aries, the pioneering sign of individualism and fresh starts.
Saturn refines things, through slow sustained pressure. He’s refining our emotions, so they can inform our individuation process—so we can see ourselves as truly capable of speaking up for what we want.
This square is really urging us to slow down and honor our feelings.
Well, what is it that you want—and why is it such a challenge to articulate it?
Could it be that once you are openly honest, it creates ripple effects throughout all your relationships?
Let’s dive in and find out.
Freedom Calls
The expression of identity through self-reflection and self-awareness seems to be a uniquely human condition. This has been the subject of Western philosophy for some time, going all the way back to Descartes: “I think, therefore I am.”
During a Gemini New Moon, we’re typically thinking through things—because there are more questions than answers.
The answers arrive at the Sagittarius Full Moon, which is ruled by Jupiter the Guru.
Well, we’ve already had the Sagittarius Full Moon—it was May 31.
You may recall that I described that moment as “forbidden wisdom.”
In a word, the “forbidden wisdom” was knowing that we could “jazz up facts” in order to formulate our own personal style, as a strong counterpoint to Cancel Culture. I highlighted Spencer Pratt’s campaign in Los Angeles as an example of this emergent trend.
Thus, we may be wondering:
Well, I do KNOW that I can survive outside the box, but what’s next?
What’s going to happen as I keep leaning into this new freedom?
How am I supposed to evaluate all these crazy new emotions coming up that make me wonder if I’m being TOO MUCH?
When I look at this chart, my eyes naturally gravitate to Uranus, who is still in the beginning of Gemini. Uranus is the planet of surprises. For him to be in Gemini for the first time since World War II is quite a big deal.
Yes, he’s at the beginning degrees of Gemini rather than the end, where the Sun and Moon are. But for just about everyone reading this, we’ve never experienced a Gemini New Moon with Uranus co-present there.
So focusing on him is very important for understanding this New Moon message.
Gemini is very grassroots energy: local networks, the flow of information and the present moment. Uranus transiting there will bring us new ways of looking at old facts. He is re-contextualizing topics so that we’re more or less forced to look at them in new ways.
For example, I recently overheard the phrase “first world problems.” It had been awhile since that phrase came up. But instead of landing like a zinger when it first came out, it fell flat. There was no energy behind it.
Uranus redistributes power and resources, so I don’t think people are as willing to pay tariffs to Cancel Culture anymore just so they can be protected from the mob and find safety in numbers.
Does that mean Cancel Culture is…canceled? Let’s find out.
Cancelling Cancel Culture
Uranus is a highly individuating force. Many are finding it hard enough to be emotionally balanced these days, so they’re tired of tiptoeing when it comes to speaking up for what they want—even if it’s “problematic.”
You have to remember that Uranus is a very utopian and progressive planet, but Pluto the Renovator is in his sign of Aquarius, tearing up the social contract.
The luxury of self-deprecation is long gone. Pluto in Aquarius says that truly progressive lifestyles can happen when we acknowledge the unfair advantages each of us brings to the table.
Pluto doesn’t like thought experiments where all humans are automatically equal in a blank slate universe, because he gets to the root cause, which is usually an unsavory truth. The beautiful lotus flower has roots in the mud.
So the idea that we should try to imagine ourselves as different than what we really are—well, that’s a no go as far as Pluto is concerned.
It’s only when we embrace who we fully are that we find the actual possibility of helping a fellow human being.
Not from a place of what we wish could be, because it sounds so pretty and virtuous to our ears—but from what we have, and then work from there.
At the time of this New Moon, we see Venus has just popped into Leo and is automatically opposite Pluto.
That’s no coincidence.
Leo is where you gather pride and then channel it into a hyper-unique personality—which is the domain of Aquarius. These two signs work together to develop our identity.
Venus opposite Pluto is like feeling a fatal attraction to your wildest dreams. But do you dare to act in alignment with your truest and most raw self?
Let’s keep digging.
The Charms Of Venus
Announcements don’t happen in a vacuum. The things we say affect partners and anyone else share a space or a relationship with.
Therefore, it’s my belief that we should now focus on Venus—the symbol of relationships. She’s playing a key role in Leo during this New Moon, and therefore she represents the essence of what we need to know.
Leo is represented by our Sun, which is a star, not a planet. It’s the center of our solar system. We’re just the right amount of distance from it on planet Earth to experience its life-giving force.
As a vital source of power, the Sun (and Leo) represents identity in a chart.
Venus in this sign brings a high degree of showmanship, praise, courage and attention seeking to relationships. We worship the shine of others and wish to be worshipped in return.
Her opposition to Pluto has us questioning whether we can enjoy living in our interpersonal bubbles, while recognizing that we live in an interconnected world.
All the problems that you’re personally facing now are worthy of consideration. You don’t have to compare your problems to someone else’s to feel like you’re allowed to have them. We live in a fractured and asymmetric post-globalist order now.
This is how we contextualize our problems so that we FEEL worthy of them and own them, rather than feel crushed or punished by them.
But easier said than done, when news from around the world is always landing at your doorstep.
Shortly after the New Moon, the volume of this theme gets cranked up high.
You’ve heard me talk about T-squares before, where a pivotal planet is in a 90-degree square to a pair of points that are 180-degrees opposite of each other.
On June 19th, Chiron goes into Taurus for the first time since it was discovered in 1977. He will immediately square Venus and square Pluto. He’s mediating their tension.
Chiron reveals where our wounds live. Taurus is about what we own and what brings us pleasure.
Thus, in Taurus, he is going to ask: what pleasure is worth your while?
People will say, “I could step up and be that, but it’s going to make me a black sheep, I’m going to lose old friends, co-workers are going to think I’m weird.”
And so let’s amplify this story. Chiron square Venus in Leo is like, “You’re right. I am wounded when I announce how I want pleasure. Just give me some cheap thrills, like DoorDash and PornHub. I’m not going to be around people that make me catalyze my individuality. My problems don’t count anyways. I shouldn’t stand out and speak up for the particular things I want.”
But then Chiron square Pluto is like, “Oh, the pain feels so good. It makes me feel so real. I’m going to take that chance on myself to really stand out.”
Important note: this fall, Venus is also going to oppose Chiron in Taurus when she gets into Scorpio for her autumn retrograde. A lot of what’s happening at this New Moon is preparing us to be very proud of who we are, even if it doesn’t fit inside a box.
Otherwise, we could feel really lost come fall.
Calculated Pleasures
Let’s come back to the ruler of this New Moon, which is Mercury in Cancer.
Cancer is a kind of cranky energy. It’s the sign of babies. When we accept that we have particular desires—which may show up in the form of problems now—we can fashion that into a state of individuality.
We can say, “Well, this is who I am. I’m neither bad nor good. I’m just working on these problems so that I can move forward and get my desires met.”
That’s what Saturn in Aries wants to do as he squares Mercury this summer: he inspires patience, not so we can self-deprecate or catastrophize a situation, but enjoy the conversation of who we’re becoming.
When I meet with you on the Capricorn Full Moon on the 29th, we’ll consider Saturn even more, since he rules that lunation.
That happens to also be the day Mercury turns retrograde.
Also that same day, Jupiter is going to pop into Leo, just like Venus did for this New Moon. We’ll be called to shine even more.
It will be a similar narrative as now, but written on a bigger canvas:
Do you chase after cheap thrills that don’t have enough substance, because you feel ashamed of what you want?
Or do you embrace who you are to the finest inch—and get what you want by being the person who can speak up for it?
And are you surrounding yourself with others who support that?
The shadow of summer sounds like this: “It’s harder to get what I want because there’s less of it out there, because I’m more particular and the things that I want are more rare. I feel ashamed announcing what I want to own, because it’s too much attention on me. So I will desire less, in order to avoid the toll of expressing more.”
That said, I feel like this is going to be a really good summer. We have the chance to embrace our individuality so that during Venus Retrograde this fall, we’re ready to smash scarcity mindsets.
While everyone else will be alienated with quick hits—you’ll be choosing the deeper, more rare pleasures.
You’re announcing yourself as someone who can receive that starting now. Taurus is a sign of reception and Chiron there will help us curate life—we’ll find the vintage denim at the thrift store and say, “I don’t need to follow the herd. This speaks to me.”
Indeed, a lot of people are going to be dumpster diving in the fall when they could have been finding better options this summer.
Take a chance on yourself now. The odds are in your favor.