“I wish it need not have happened in my time,” said Frodo.
“So do I,” said Gandalf, “and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.”
― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring
On June 20th, the Summer Solstice occurs at 4:51 pm EDT. In the Northern Hemisphere, it is the longest day and shortest night of the year as the Sun reaches its zenith, its highest point in the sky. It is the celestial moment when the Sun is most powerful. In the Southern Hemisphere, the Sun reaches its nadir, the shortest day of the year and the longest night. We can feel a tangible shift as we reach the astrological midpoint of the year. This cardinal point opens our inner space through our emotional bodies. It is time to go inward, opening your heart space to ourselves, our family, and everything that nurtures body and soul. Midsummer is the Pagan holiday that dates back centuries, celebrating the changing seasons. Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” tells how love can make us behave strangely, captivated by our heart’s desire. We can all feel this emotional stirring as we pass through this celestial moment.
At the Solstice, the Sun enters the sign of Cancer under a restless Sagittarius Moon. Venus and Mercury seek sanctuary within the Moon’s protective and nurturing embrace. Luna’s energies undulate, deeply embedded in the swirling experiential Sagittarian events that awaken our minds and hearts. Discussions revolve around values and priorities, spanning a spectrum of personal and sometimes discordant expressions. Our hearts and heads are charged with active agendas, often in conflict.
Mercury and Venus are stressed by the lunar nodes, creating a “skipped step” condition. It seems that every day brings news of catastrophe, carnage, or courtroom drama, which lays bare the truth that our collective values and priorities ignore the potential of looming future cataclysms due to inaction, lack of oversight, and regressive public policies and attitudes.
Pluto retrograde casts an angular shadow across the Sun as he inches back, seeking some Capricorn sense of security and control. For a few weeks from early September to mid-November, Pluto will re-anchor our intentions and self-empowerment as it idles over the final degree of Capricorn one last time before returning to Aquarius, parceling out Uranian energy for the next twenty years.
Neptune, in the final moments of his native signs of Pisces, exhibits angst and disillusionment. Its difficult relationship with the Lunar stellium in Cancer adds to the emotional stress. “When are we going to get our priorities straight?” Our higher minds and intuition are awakened as the god of water and the sea connects with strategists Pallas Athene, Uranus, and Sedna. Pluto empowers Neptune with highly individualized self-expression, while Vesta overlays the need for sacred authenticity. Astraea reminds Neptune of the injustices that abound in our awareness.
Neptune’s square to the Sun in the final zodiacal moments of Pisces and its opposition to the Lunar South Node illuminates our decline towards a historical, social, and political precipice. Fate already hangs heavy over the moment. The Lunar South node ruled by Mars chants a choral message again, asking, “Isn’t it time that we stopped repeating the past as the future?” Eris rattles our cage with contentious questions that evade answers.
Take time to escape the summer “heat” or the brutal Arctic cold, depending on your earthly latitude. Seek refuge in the natural world. Immerse yourself in your favorite healthy pleasures: bike, hike, camp, rockhound, wildcraft, paint en plein-air, and find refuge among family and friends. The storms will continue to rage around and eventually subside, but we can now weather the storm by finding shelter in our favorite people, places, and things.
“There are no sidelines. There’s no one sitting this one out. This is no hoping that someone else is going to come in and save the day. There is no cavalry. We are the cavalry.”
—Beto O’Rourke
