The Sun enters Cancer, the sign of the crab, tomorrow at about 1:17 pm EDT, marking a solstice. This one is commonly known as the beginning of summer in the northern hemisphere and the first day of winter below the equator. An annual event, it is always a powerful moment of transition that many people can actually feel. Concurrent circumstances make this one exceptional.
In the natural world, the crab is a creature that lives inside of a shell and moves sideways on the bottom of the ocean. The very word, in English at least, implies a defensive temperament. All of that imagery is somewhat at odds with Cancer’s position as a cardinal sign, initiating a new season. As the very first water sign, ruled in orthodoxy by the Moon and esoterically by Neptune, the nature of this beginning is therefore implied to be a sensitive one. Feelings are a big part of the moment, but it’s more than that.
As a representation of our consciousness, the Sun is compelled to change direction at a solstice. You can see it for yourself. At this time, we observe the sunrise and sunset as far north along the horizon as they ever get. That corresponds to Sol stationing directly over the Tropic of Cancer. Soon those events will gradually move south. The nature of the experience is a matter of perspective.
From a linear point of view, it can seem like the Sun turning back. Altering that perception is both the challenge and opportunity of this time. It is a matter of evolution and development. Growing beyond the idea of moving in one direction to a new awareness and appreciation of cycles is the essence of this initiation. That, besides the profound feelings that go along with it, is what this solstice is all about. The sign of Cancer is thus a rite of passage. It leads to a new way of being which is more in harmony with the realities of life on Earth.
In nearly any given June, that sensitive beginning and rite of passage are the essence, the very theme of the month’s astrology. This year, the waters are deeper. The solstice takes place while a sequence of three eclipses is unfolding between one New Moon and the next. The opposed and moving points where eclipses take place are thus introduced to the equation. Those points are the lunar nodes.
That pair of hypothetical points have a lot in common with the sign of the crab. The nodes are places where the cycles of Sun, Moon and Earth align in space. Yet they also represent karma (the consequence of past events) and dharma (the potential to act on the future).
The Cancer solstice, in turn, is a period of time when solar, lunar and terrestrial energies merge. Yet it is also a place, a turning point, on the globe and on the horizon. When this solstice and these eclipses come together, suddenly there is no separation. That is the depth we are stepping into. On every level, literal and symbolic, tangible and imaginary, what we thought of as different and distinct are becoming apparent as one and the same.
Space and time are really the same thing. Past and future, here and there, are actually both eternally present. Separation is not reality. It is projection and illusion, conditioned and enforced. Once we get that, we have two big questions to answer. First, how do we be with it? Then, what do we do with it? That’s where the planets come in.
Just days before Sun’s ingress to Cancer, Mercury got to the sign of the crab first. The planet that represents how we think will be in exact double aspect, to the degree, precisely at the solstice. It will be in a trine to the Pisces Moon, allowing thought and feeling to flow together as one and allowing us to both conceive and feel this new and emerging consciousness. Perhaps more important, our trickster ally will be in a square to Saturn, now direct in Libra.
The limiting nature of Saturn serves to define. Moving direct once again in the cardinal air sign of Libra, that role is to give definition to mental balance. The square with Mercury implies that how we think is at odds with that. It tells us that the world seems divided on the outside because we are first divided within. The solution is to integrate the quality of events. When the Sun is connecting place and time while also changing direction, our consciousness has the opportunity to do the same. The question of how requires that we refer to one more aspect.
Mars has also just changed signs, entering Gemini overnight. Like Mercury it is also squared, to the degree, at the time of the solstice. The aspect is to Neptune, retrograde in Pisces. The tension that goes with it takes us to the heart of the matter. Action is not always doing.
‘Not doing’ does not mean doing nothing. It means exercising restraint on yourself. It is choosing to refrain from acting on what is. By not doing, ‘what is’ becomes apparent of its own accord and has a chance to become real. If enough of us can be present with that we can realize the potential of what is about to happen. It’s more than a feeling. It can be a new reality.
Offered In Service
liminali,
Many thanks for the info and link. Happy solstice to all.
be
Hey Folks…
*Besides* my day job, I just attended an interview at my son’s (possible) new HS, which seemed to go relatively well. Now I am on my way to the counseling center.
Yeah, Carrie, it is Standard Of Care to allow the analysand to switch, in virtually every therapeutic situation — unless you are incarcerated. I’ve never done it before, but it has always been held out as a possibility. It is this *very* counseling center’s policy to do so, with minimum fuss. But it seems the director of youth services didn’t like the way I hitched my jeans or something, so he’s fired up the hoops and is gesturing that I jump “right this way.”
We’ll see. I’m feeling fairly civil, but who knows how long that’ll last. This Solstice is rolling like a juggernaut, and I’m barely movin’ … There’s some kind of inverse proportion in play here: the more power I sense around me, the quieter I get.
*****
Fe, we’re with you. You just go do your magick for the sisterdancer (mine too! with the Stuttgard Ballet of all places!!) and *be* her back for a few days. You and Patty and Carrie are all in my heartspace right now.
And SheBear and Burning River and Stellium-n-Sagg and Len and what’s his name on the masthead… and, and…
Much love and thanks,
M
be asked…
“Isn’t there some ancient holy day we need to reflect on at this time?”
Today is the ancient holy day of Litha, aka Midsummer.
http://theragblog.blogspot.com/2011/06/kate-braun-summer-solstice-is-festival.html
ps Happy anniversary, shebear! Seven years ago today, right about now, my husband and I were getting married at the courthouse. Enjoy your celebrating! 🙂
Oh wait, I worked at one in Salt Lake City that also allowed people to switch so maybe it is just these two states that do that?
Patty,
I don’t know if I would say “most” people; a lot are pinned into using only one but every counseling center I went to or worked at did allow people to switch if there wasn’t a good fit so maybe I was just lucky all those times? All my counseling happened in Arizona so maybe there is a law here that allows people to switch.
carrie, most people stay the course because they have little choice, which is what Mystes if facing. My own teen experiences with social workers was horrific and i would not wish that experience on a dog. That said, I also know people who have been helped beyond measure because of the love of dedicated professionals who are unafraid of challenging the status quo. There may be no time left to choose.
Nice. Boston. More Than a Feeling. One of my favourite songs back in the day.
Maybe this is why I feel like 14 again.
“Action is not always doing.‘Not doing’ does not mean doing nothing. It means exercising restraint on yourself”. Thank you dear Len. So what I need to read right now. xx
{{{{mystes}}}} I hope all goes well tomorrow and your son gets a therapist that works for him (and you). Good for you that you are willing to cut it off when you can see it isn’t working; too many people stay the course to “save” the feelings of the “professional” when things are clearly not working. I like to think of this as not only advocacy for your son to have a therapist that works for him but maybe your doing that is a karmic lesson the not-fitting therapist needs right now.
Take care and my thoughts are with all of you.
Oh Mystes, and I to you and your son also- blessings that you cannot imagine at this late hour.
I pray love to you.
A…n…d… coming down off of my rantwave:
So Patty, we’ll trade sanity services. Thank you for the prayers. Now yours:
I support in you the ability to fall effortlessly in love with the process you have before of you tomorrow. May your humor, patience, insight, serendipity and serenity flow from you like the aurora borealis. May all concerned derive sustenance and courage, laughter and true freedom from the sudden untangling of the knots of time and karma. May the light that blows through us bear every imaginable resource, every unimaginable blessing.
witnessed and sealed…
M
Hey Pattissimma… “The young girl does not want to fail, and neither does your son. What will it take for both to succeed? ”
The answer: Another therapist! Another frigging therapist!! If I wasn’t as old and experienced, if I didn’t have an advanced degree in reading body language, if my intuition about how the flow of energy is blocked or diverted was just a little less accurate, if I had another year to lead the therapist to the eleusian fields and gentle guide her toward helping us, she’d be the right person.
But I don’t and she’s not. My son doesn’t care if we change therapists, the X doesn’t care. The procedures are being coiled around us like the serpents of Laocoon, and tomorrow, at 1:12, I will be taking out the razor of my attention and cutting through them.
I wish her no harm. I simply need another person to work with us. The fuckall about it is that I have tried to get us in there for 4 (four) months. 160 days. The last month has been fail after epic-fail. I’m done. Done, done, done. I don’t really want to have to toast this tender monkey, so I may spend the 60 minutes –after saying, for the umpteenth time: You Are Not the Right Person to Work with Us– doing yoga.
Love, huh? I’d settle for respect at this point.
Ah Mystes…holding you up in light, dear heart. The young girl does not want to fail, and neither does your son. What will it take for both to succeed? We have a situation in my extended family tomorrow and can’t find a way to see a good outcome for anyone involved. So much anger in the world, so little love.
I will meditate for your family tonight and tomorrow.
My desire to “do” has often overwhelmed my capacity to relax and let be. I feel I am upon a pinhead of this lesson. If I “get it”, my life will certainly carry forward in a much more productive and enjoyable way.
Ever my teacher; thank you Len.
Hey Len, thanks for the luminous article. A good roundup of what is inflecting the Solstice tomorrow. While I usually *do* meditate during Solstice, unfortunately for the Universe I will not be in intensive practice (really, that’s the best place to put my attention at those moments)
Instead, this time I’ll be firing ‘our’ therapist.
(Rant to follow…)
Sure hope I get the measurements just right. We have had *one* session with a therapist who is not a good fit. I asked for a different person, and am being told to jump through at least 2 flaming hoops to get to an alternate. Bizarre.
And time’s a-wasting… Here we are at the end of the Baktun — the next 18 months are going to become more and more intense. I’ve waited for 4 months to get into family counseling with my kid. Now the clinic wants me to waste a session explaining to this greenhorn why she isn’t the right therapist; then give her another ‘few’ sessions to see if she ‘gets it right.’ Holy crap.
This is NOT the right person. I will employ *all* of that Saturn/Merc square to clarify that point. I spent an hour on the phone this morning w/ the clinic director, saying: “Listen, I have never heard of an analysand being told they *can’t* change therapists. Why? You want to know why? Because she isn’t the right person. Period.”
I called in and asked the intake people what the SOP was on changing therapists, and they said: “Ask for new therapist, we schedule it, you sign some paperwork, voila…”
Nothing like what I am being told otherwise. So. Tomorrow, instead of meditating, where I can do some generalized good, I get to direct my considerable psychic energy, experience and momentum –in combination with my natal sun, the energy of 3 eclipses, a water trine and two squares– into explaining to this poor child why she is too young, too inexperienced, too naive and too daddy-approval-seeking to work with my family.
Pray for her.
(Rant over…)
Very interesting Len, sounds like I should plan on meditating tomorrow afternoon. I mean really, poor Mars is so fidgety in Gemini anyway he has no where to go but up since Neptune will probably have him confused and running in circles. Always grateful for your advice and your strategy, especially at these turning points and times of deep water. Isn’t there some ancient holy day we need to reflect on at this time? Well, in any case you have given me plenty to think and feel today and I so appreciate you pointing me in the right direction. Happy Solstice to all.
be
I’m *desperately* holding myself firm in the “not doing”, though today I’m really quite exhausted by it, life’s difficulties coming at me from a variety of angles; and I’m attempting to play midwife to the emergence of this newer reality. But dammit, there’s no escaping the clearing house mixed with the birthing pains, that are at times *gruesome* (no surprise there!), but I’m sure my Venus/Pluto natal conjunct explains a lot. It greatly helps to know I’m not alone in labour and people of all genders seem to be engaging this process as well.
As an aside, this day – 19 years ago – was my wedding day. How my life has turned itself inside out since then — like it would anyone I suppose — and I just want to say that I wouldn’t have it any other way. No more marriage but a newer, freer arena in which to foster a much needed authentic love of self and the other and *others* — see I can entertain the notion of polyamory as well 😉 I’m just very grateful to be alive right now and ready to loll around, under a Cancer Sun.
Thank you once again for your enlightened guidance, dear Len.