Cancer Solstice & Potent Solar Eclipse
Today at 2:43 PM PDT, our Sun ingressed into the tropical sign of Cancer. The Sun is reaching the Tropic of Cancer, the most northern latitude that the Sun visits in his journey through the year as viewed from Earth. Here in the northern hemisphere, we are in the longest day of the year and the beginning of summer, and our friends in the southern hemisphere will begin your winter months.
Hindsight is 2020
As we approach the second half of 2020, let us take a moment to look back on the past several months. With 5 planets (Mercury, Venus, Jupiter, Saturn, and Pluto) retrograde, it seems fitting to pause and reflect.
We knew that this would be an epic year, but none of us, no matter how clear our crystal balls were, could have seen exactly how the events would unfold to reveal the world that we find ourselves in, even though many of us in the astrology field shared our concerns back in January and even years prior in regards to the powerful Saturn-Pluto conjunction, which began the year at 22°47’ Capricorn, bringing together Saturn, the god of authority, hard work, and responsibility, with Pluto, the god of death, destruction, and transformation.
Throughout history, as we have discussed previously, pandemics coincided with Saturn/Pluto conjunctions, squares, and oppositions.
Also, 2020 has 3 Jupiter and Pluto conjunctions: April 4th at 24°53’ Capricorn, June 29th with both planets retrograde at 24°07,’ and again on November 12th with both direct at 22°52’ Capricorn.
Jupiter, the god of expansion, is amplifying the destructive/death/rebirth nature of Pluto and is also helping his brother to bring everything that has been hidden for eons to the surface. Humanity’s deepest wounds are no longer kept behind closed doors. With the blatant murder of George Floyd, we are each processing the pain of the cognitive dissonance that we’ve been living with here in the United States for centuries.
“Liberty and Justice for all” must mean something!
Land of the Free? painting by William R. Hicks
Make a mental note that Pluto only destroys that which is no longer serving us.
If the conjunctions of Saturn & Pluto plus Jupiter & Pluto aren’t potent enough for one year, Eris (a large asteroid), the goddess of discord is also in the midst of 5 squares to Pluto.
Remember that Eris is the goddess who wasn’t invited to a celebration on Mt. Olympus, but she showed up anyway, tossed a golden apple into the center of the party and said, “This is for the fairest among you!” This revealed a latent rivalry between the other goddesses. They Implored Zeus to decide who the victor should be but knowing that his wife, Hera, was one of them, the shrewd and irresponsible politician gave the task to the mortal, Paris. Each of the goddesses tempted Paris with offerings if he chose them. He chose Aphrodite’s gift of the most beautiful woman on Earth, but unfortunately Helen of Troy was already married!
So according to the mythology, The Trojan War resulted from a goddess being excluded from a party.
The bright side of the power of Eris and Pluto clashing will be our intolerance of intolerance! Where within each of us are we no longer willing to tolerate our ignored and shunned shadows?
Today’s Solstice with an Annual Solar Eclipse
Along with today’s Northern Solstice, we are also having an Annular (Ring of Fire) Solar Eclipse at 0° Cancer and on the World axis at 11:41 PM PDT. The world axis points are extremely sensitive – 0° or 22°30’ of the cardinal signs, 15° of the fixed signs, or 7°30’ of the mutable signs. When a planet transits one of these hot points we can expect the whole world to take notice!
Because the Sun will be below the horizon, he will not be visible to those of us in the Americas, but will cross through Africa, Tibet, and China.
However, as you can see by the Astrocartography, the Pluto & Jupiter Midheaven (MC) line (the thick red line) will be crossing through New York and very close to Washington D.C. No doubt the U.S. is going through deeply transformational times!
We are in a very special time in the Earth’s history, where the ecliptic (the Sun’s path) is crossing the Galactic plane (Milky Way) right during the Cancer Solstice. This only happens for a brief time (1975-2025) in the 26,000 year cycle. This area of the sky, where Orion, Sirius, and the Pleiades are is called the Sacred Hoop according to the Lakota tribe...the Orion nebula is thought to be the birthplace of stars, and many ancient cultures believe that our souls entered this incarnation through this part of the sky.
The Washington Monument was built to point toward this area of the sky as viewed from Lincoln’s gaze, and The U.S. was born under the Sun sign of Cancer, so our past leaders knew a little something about astronomy and its astrological significance!
There is so much more to say, but for now I just want to say that I love you and I trust that you are finding your emotional footing in this new world that we are all co-creating together.
Remember to be gentle with yourself and those around you. This time of "Sheltering in Grace," as one of my beautiful clients puts it, has given us a great opportunity to be much more yin. In times of great energy and change it is key for us to be centered. The authority structures of our world are being challenged and that’s okay…we are enough individually and collectively, and quickly we’ll find ourselves capable of self-governance…
We’ve been told a terrible lie that we were mere mortals and can’t be trusted to take care of ourselves. I am knowing that the infinite creator, which stirs in each of us, is certainly capable of anything…and I can hardly wait to see how we co-create The New Earth!
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For your Cancer New Moon intentions think in terms of how you nurture yourself and others. What is your relationship to your mother and mothering?
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Be on the lookout for my next post about the powerful Mars Retrograde coming up in Aries this late summer through fall.
