Sunday the Sun; Monday the Moon

When a season changes from one to the next, the sun is passing over the angles of all of astrology. If you are an astrologer, have you ever met someone whose Sun is conjunct your Nadir? to translate this into non-astrology language, have you ever met someone where food, nurturing and a kind of parental taking care of each other came to light? This is the feeling of the northern solstice: when Sun meets the northern angle, security become a priority as does nourishment. Issues of parenting arise. What makes the solstices since 2008 so powerful is that Pluto is sitting on the southern angle. With Sun opposing Pluto, a reminder for the first day of summer is to be aware of our own powers and resources and to own them as they are the root of our security.












When the sun passes from Gemini to Cancer, this is the moment summer in the northern hemisphere begins. The climate changes from conceptual experience to nurturing safety, like the difference between analyzing a conceptual composition of the painter Morandi, to collapsing into comfort in the domestic still lives of Cezanne. This pair of paintings came to my mind as I thought of think of the change of seasons. As well, both paintings are constructed from clear lighting. Shadow, like in the Pluto opposition, is not denied.

On this year's solstice Sunday, Sun is conjunct asteroid Vesta both at 0° Cancer. At the moment of the Sun's ingress, Moon is in Gemini, and will trine the Jupiter - Chiron - Neptune triple conjunction later in the day. On New Moon Monday, Moon ingresses Cancer as well, creating a second triple conjunction: Sun - Moon - Vesta. Both triple conjunctions are in an out-of-sign trine. With intentions set on nurturing and being nurtured by community, this solstice ushers in a time when we can start trends we want to follow. The rituals of sharing a meal with people important to us may help maintain focus through the Autumnal equinox..

It is a good time to tend to the root of security in our lives. We can devote ourselves to our friends and family, protecting them from all threats and dangers and focus our intentions on providing emotional safety and robust sustenance. Over this coming weekend, have a happy first day of summer, the longest day of the year.

A Door Opens to Summer of Eclipses by Deirdre Tanton

Although we have a month to go, I consider eclipse season to be in full swing now. The June 8 lunation opened a door to some specific geometry: 17°+ Sagittarius was the June 8th Full Moon. The July 7th full moon will be at 15°+ Capricorn and it will be an eclipse, too. Being so close in degree, these full moons will both effect charts sensitive at the mid-degrees, a port of entry for the first in a triplet of eclipses this summer.

Looking at a list of eclipses between 1980 and 2020, seventy-five percent of summers have one pair of eclipses on just one axis. This summer is now in the twenty-five percent and has three eclipses on two axes. From what I see, usually when three eclipses occur in a summer, this pattern will repeat every other year three times. This means the summers of 2009, 2011 and 2013 (when Pluto is in early Capricorn) will have have three eclipses each on two different axes, as did 1998, 2000 and 2002 (when Pluto was in early Sagittarius), as well as 1980, 1982 and 1984 (when Pluto was in early Scorpio). It started to be a tidy geometric package, and then I noticed 1991 was a irregular, isolated summer of three eclipses and it had the nodes freshly in a new sign. Besides 1991, the eclipse pattern I am diagramming seems to roughly parallel Pluto's ingress into a sign. As I stated in a previous post about eclipses, I notice that eclipses start to get clumped together during times of rapid and accelerated change.

The way I started to understand the feeling of eclipses was in the years 2006 - 2008, the years when the eclipses were spanning the Virgo - Pisces axis. I had heard about the eclipse dimension before, but it wasnt until the eclipses being in my sun sign that I got sensitive to it. Since then it doesn't matter what sign the eclipses are in, I look forward to the dimension like getting to read a new favorite book. Eclipses turn the wheel of fate and are integral to altering the general plot. On the days around eclipses, do what you feel comfortable and safe and enjoy doing, because what you are doing may start to be a big topic for the next six months or year. Lunar eclipses help us let go and solar eclipses help us open up. This summer, the pattern is let go - open up - let go. It's always good to let go of fear — a kind of clean sweep so we can open to love. The eclipses are in the signs Capricorn, Cancer and Aquarius. If your sun or personal planets are in any of those signs or in Leo as well, I wonder if you may start to feel what I am talking about. July 7 will be a full moon lunar eclipse at 15° Capricorn; July 22 will be a new moon total solar eclipse at 29° Cancer and August 5 will be another full moon lunar eclipse at 13° Aquarius.

Spring 2009 was a time of retrogrades. Relationships may have ended or at least been up for reflection, review, or a bit of chaos. This may now be firming up to some solid footing as Venus and Mars move toward conjunction at 15° Taurus (there's those mid-degrees again) on the first day of summer, the Northern Solstice. After so much deliberation all spring long, it's time to catch the waves of change in the coming summer of three eclipses. Stay aware, steer the course and enjoy the ride.