This new Moon in Cancer takes place on 14 July 2026 at 10:44 am UTC at 21 degrees and 59 minutes of the sign. She is filled with contradiction and, within that, much possibility.

Both the Moon and the Sun are conjunct in Cancer and co-present with Mercury. There is no light; all three planets are in incubation. What is new is unseen and protected in the Cancer place of your chart. Both luminaries in the bound of Jupiter and Decan III of Cancer ruled by the Moon. Jupiter offers a framework within which the Moon is comfortable. There is great potential for abundant growth of what is planted at this time.

Mearcair/Mercury

Each of the Mercury retrogrades in 2026 are taking place in water signs. The Mercury retrograde in Pisces in the Spring was also co-present with the Virgo lunar eclipse. The emotional themes under review at that time are linked with the current Mercury retrograde in Cancer. What you are learning as part of that eclipse story of 2026? Perhaps something was removed or something that you stopped doing is now being looked at from another angle. Venus has involvement in both these lunations. Now she is in her fall in Virgo she is offering something different a new approach to cohesion is available.

Uisce/Water

Water signs being symbolised by animals are considered mute signs. The expression of the Mercury retrogrades this year are more internalised. This Mercury retrograde is a review of the themes of Cancer; home, familial connections both chosen and otherwise, security, safety, emotional bodily sensation. It is the gentle lapping waves of the ocean against the shore. The persistence of this gentle lapping has the ability to wear down or shape something hard into something smooth. Are you noticing the smoothing out of edges in a part of your life?

Susan T Chang offers a beautiful reading of Decan III Cancer as the quest for meaning. She raises questions of the hungry ghosts we might live with, and how we clarify what is enough to ourselves. How does one achieve a level of satisfaction? This new Moon may be requiring us to break a cycle related to this question. Turning inwards to understand how we ourselves can answer this without help from the ever (un)helpful algorithmic social media or the ChatGPT’s of our hyperconnected disconnected continuum.  

This full Moon is receiving an overcoming whole sign house square from Saturn. Saturn is under stress in Aries with an air of frustration and contrariness. The Aries house might be where the dissatisfaction lives for you at present. Mars applying to a sextile with Saturn will perfect by 19 July might bring up something from their conjunction in mid April.

Are there any connections to this time when new frustrations that may have been burgeoning in the Aries part of your chart. Saturn is grinding to a halt as he is due to turn retrograde on 26 July. As he is not moving towards the Moon his influence is said to be lessoned in this respect. So there is something within this new start that may help us overcome the difficulty of a cranky Saturn.  

Dhá Chuid Déag / Twelve Parts

I have been learning more about the Dodecatemoria which is a form of further dividing each Zodiac sign down into 2.5 degree slices. Each slice is attributed to one of the seven traditional planets. This method, also referred to as a twelfth part chart, was used by Hellenistic astrologers such as Maternus, Manilius and Rhetorius. It can speak to more nuanced aspects of a chart that may be hidden or missed. It is more data to analyse but it can throw up interesting connections.

The twelfth part of this new Moon is 23 degrees Pisces which is in a good supportive place for the new Moon. Pisces is boundless ocean. This seeding point is optimistic, full of creative possibility and a coming full circle on something. Though opposite the twelfth part of Saturn in Virgo, Saturn is co present with the south node which reduces the malefic nature of Saturn. This new Moon is with enough support from the jubilant Jupiter to overcome a weakened Saturn in both charts.  

Venus is separating from a square with Uranus and approaching her square with Mars that is a feature of this month of July. Part of the review may be our emotional responses to relationships during this period. There might be an innate understanding of what can be lost when in relationship also gifts with something that cannot be found outside of relationship. Sacrifice is an inherent part of it. What has been liberated within Venus now requires a change with Mars. There is motivation here to understand the action required to move forwards from a place of dissatisfaction.

An Bealach Nua/ The New Way

At the time of this new Moon the “Barbault Basket”, or the alignment of the modern outer planets with the Jupiter/Pluto opposition, is forming its close aspects. These lines of sight and testimony will continue to be translated by the Moon throughout the month, specifically  while she inhabits Libra and Scorpio. That period between 19- 22 July when the Moon interacts with this formation we might see the potential of this alignment beginning to materialise. The Moon in traditional astrology acts as the translator of the planets she is in testimony to. As we are under her influence here in the sub lunar realm she transforms these aspect patterns into material form as something to be experienced for the good and the bad.

This extraordinary formation of the outer planets is a big unknown and being heralded as supremely optimistic while a lot of us are feeling deeply pessimistic about the world as she is. I do hope that we begin to see the positives that are promised with this configuration beginning to interrupt the dystopic collapse we are experiencing in the West. The ending of the failed neoliberal technocratic project perhaps? The promise of living locally inhabiting our world in a bodily fashion and seeing the earth as our cosmic home as someone to cherish rather than extract from. We can but hope and organise in whatever ways we can.

This New Moon is involved in a relational story that links back to earlier in the year. What we learned during the review of the Mercury retrograde in Pisces might be helping us imagine a new future or a different way of approaching our path. Decisions made earlier this year to remove something or to stop doing something might be supportive to us as we retrace our steps once more through our emotional landscape.

We might be seeing an old outdated situation for what it really is. This realisation is something that may set you free from the dissatisfying frustrations of the past. There is still the feeling of rashness (go raibh míle maith agaoibh Mars agus Uranus) in the air. You might feel ready to blow it all up but there might be an alternative way of dealing with it. Something you have not tried before, a new strategy, a new way of approaching an old problem.