Maximum Stretch, Maximum Squeeze

Dear Friend and Reader:

We are fast approaching Northern Solstice, when the Sun enters the cardinal sign Cancer. The seasonal effect is created by the Earth’s 23-degree axial tilt, which provides longer days and more sunlight to the Northern Hemisphere at this time of year, and less to the Southern Hemisphere.

This is maximum stretch for those of us up north, and maximum squeeze for those down under. Tune into your body and see if you can feel this happening. It’s entirely natural, beautiful and real as it gets on Earth. And you can directly experience the Earth-Sun relationship.

As the solar journey to the north reaches its peak, all at once there is a reversal, which can feel like the pressure being let out of a sealed container. I once experienced it as the celestial machine stopping and reverting directions — right at the moment of Northern Solstice.

Solstice is Overnight Next Friday to Saturday

The solstice and Cancer ingress takes place at 10:42 pm EDT Friday, June 20. So it’s late evening across the US and early morning in the UK and Europe. This is exciting because the Sun mounts the cardinal cross and makes aspects to Saturn, Jupiter and Neptune all weekend. That’s a heck of a lot of energy at the time of the seasons changing.

Five days later this is followed by the New Moon in Cancer, which is conjunct Jupiter, another chart that brings in the whole early cardinal pattern.

This is leverage. Use some basic focusing power and set your mind on what you want to create — adding “for the greatest good of all concerned,” in case you’re a little off the mark.

The unusual early cardinal sign emphasis is about the Aries Point, which brings individual and collective experience much closer together.

Therefore I would suggest:

— Using existing momentum to get existing projects done.

— Taking initiative and setting into motion that which you want to accomplish over the next few months. Small points of beginning and advance work can go a long way.

— Paying attention to the path of least resistance before you go against the current or the tide. Under this kind of astrology, the energy wants to find a way and you can usually use it.

— Looking for places where your needs and the needs of others intersect. Beware of any situation where you think you’re right and everyone else is wrong.

— Stay grounded in your basic needs: food, water, shelter, companionship and taking care of young people.

Before We Get There

On Friday, June 13 the Sun squares the lunar nodes. This is an eclipse-like condition sometimes called “Moon wobble.”

The lunar nodes are challenging points to understand. They are points where several dimensions of space and time converge, with the result being eclipses phases. But when something like the Sun is square the nodes, there is a deep calling to express the solar principle of creativity and radiance.

Therefore:

— Notice any feeling of instability you might be feeling.

— See if you can get underneath what it’s about. The feeling may not be related to anything you are currently aware of.

— The Sun is square Nessus, which will have a tendency to raise the fear of the consequences of your actions. This includes those taken long ago. Try apologizing if you feel that might be appropriate.

— Engage creatively; that is the purpose of the solar principle. As the Sun moves out of the nodal square, it picks up Chiron and Eris, which will help remind you who you are (as long as you don’t get obsessed with some nonexistent tribal identity).

— Continue to let momentum carry you, guiding your life as if you have your hand on the rudder of a boat.

The Pulse of Life

Seasonal changes are meaningful, a time to reflect and to connect with the larger life around us. The ego is self-limiting, and this is deceptive and it can be destructive.

“As the Earth moves about the Sun the seasons change,” Robert Hand wrote in an article a few years back.

“If you could speed up this motion and look at the Earth from space, you would see on the continents a movement of green (from vegetation) moving up and down. At the beginning of the northern hemisphere’s spring (beginning of Sun in Aries) you would see it moving up to the north of the equator, reaching its greatest development in the north at the beginning of the northern hemisphere’s summer (Sun in Cancer).

“Then it would begin to move south until at the beginning of the northern autumn, the southern hemisphere’s spring (Sun in Libra) it reached the most southerly part at the beginning of the southern summer (Sun in Capricorn). After that the belt of green begins to move north again.

“This is the ‘pulse of life’ that the late Dane Rudhyar referred to in his book of the same name. We believe that the origin of the qualities that astrologers associate with the signs comes from this movement of life’s energy on Earth. In the last analysis, the zodiac may not be so much due to the astronomy by itself as it is to the Earth’s biosphere. The signs are simply a measure of where we are in the year and the flow of life on Earth as it relates to the heavens.”

More in Starcast.

With love,

Your faithful astrologer,