Tuesday, June 28th
New Moon
in Cancer 7°23’
7:53 pm PST

“History isn’t something you look back at and say it was inevitable, it happens because people make decisions that are sometimes very impulsive and of the moment, but those moments are cumulative realities.” — Marsha P. Johnson

A NEW MOON FOR COMING HOME by Rocco Kayiatos

June is a time of light, celebration, and liberation. The summer solstice ushers in
longer days drenched with sunlight. There is also a remembering we feel in our soma, leftover from childhood—the joy of summer vacations stays in our cells. As a queer person, I associate June with Pride Month: a time of visibility, radical, revolutionary self- authentication, and defiant, abundant love!

This Tuesday evening the New Moon is in the sign of Cancer. A sign that is associated with home and ancestry, Cancer is also deeply intuitive and can be introverted. I am a Libra Sun, with a lot of fire and air in my chart. I was raised by a Cancerian woman and ended up marrying one. For the first 30 years of my life, I could not understand or appreciate Cancer energy. I was not ready to embrace lunar energy or deal with my shadows.

Cancer’s stereotypical traits—their strong desire to put roots down and make a home, their protectiveness of Self, their propensity to retreat in order to find comfort—are counterintuitive to me. I am a person that has spent most of my time in motion, traveling, out in the open, bathed in the light, comfortable in the Sun. I am most energized by bold movement and transformation. I have made enormous changes in my life and put them out into the wild for others to learn from and share.

Over time, and through living with and loving a Moonchild, I’ve come to understand how this water-energy functions in my own life. I have built my life around wide-open change: lunar energy is constantly shifting. I’ve utilized raw vulnerability in order to heal: the Moon represents those places where the wound is cleansed through intimate expression. My ongoing transformations and emotions have been fodder for my art and activism. All of this stems from a deep need to find different homes and acceptance for my truest Self and my beloved community.

I am a man of trans experience who began my transition over 20 years ago, which was arguably the dark ages for trans people. I did so on a stage, literally. I used my story to become a lighthouse for others who might be fumbling in the dark towards a self they could not yet recognize. I felt strongly that if I was vulnerable and shared my story, others would not have to experience the isolation or challenges of not knowing about other possibilities. I did not want others to feel alone.
Similarly, when I decided to get sober I spoke openly and freely with others about it. It never once occurred to me to keep these axis-shifting moments—traditionally intensely personal and secretive experiences—locked inside myself or solely within my inner circle. Instead, I brought them into the light with a clear focus. I poured gasoline on the flame and ignited celebration around my atypical life experience. I dismantled the framework of shame and liberated myself from tradition and expectations, and it saved my life. I felt obligated to help others experience the same liberation and deep connection to Self. Shadows are only scary when they are not illuminated. Shame only works in secret.

With the convergence of the summer solstice and a New Moon in Cancer, we have the opportunity to unite two distinct forms of energy and find a resting place within a spectrum. Let’s use this moment to allow this amplified lunar energy to help us explore what “home” means to us. Let’s use this time to explore what it means to feel comfortable and beloved in our bodies and Self. The summer solstice gives us an abundance of initiating fire energy: let’s harness that and use it to fuel whatever changes we want to bring about in our short, precious lives. Let’s take this New Moon energy to explore what lurks in the shadows of our relationship to Self. What needs illumination?

My invitation to you, dear reader, is to harness the energy of Marsha P. Johnson— legendary activist who was at the forefront of the Stonewall Riots—and start an uprising for Self liberation.

To read the rest of Rocco's New Moon Essay and prompts, get your copy of the 2022 Many Moons Lunar Planner or download the June Guide.

Rocco Kayiatos is a creator, educator, and organizer. He is the founding editor of Original Plumbing Magazine (the world’s first trans male quarterly print magazine), co-founder and Executive Director of Camp Lost Boys (the first sleep-away summer camp exclusively for adult men of trans experience), and hailed as the first openly transgender man to release an LP. Over the past eight years, he has been working for digital media companies, leading teams, and creating award-winning content at BuzzFeed, INTO, Grindr, Spotify, and more. In the past few years, he has turned his focus to building healthy masculinity in community, which led to him creating The Intentional Man Project, and writing and editing the Mindful Masculinity Workbook. He is an empathic leader that is highly attuned and adept at inspiring transformational change. Connect with Rocco on Instagram at @roccokatastrophe and online: www.roccokayiatos.com