The Peace of Wild Things
Over the next 7 days, a Gemini New Moon occurs and then joins the Sun at its greatest maximum to mark the Summer Solstice and the longest day of the year. Both of these astral events are starting points. One marks the next monthly cycle, and the other marks the beginning of a seasonal cycle. In the Northern Hemisphere, Summer begins. The newly found verdant world begins to bear fruit, whispering the promise of an abundance to come. In the Southern Hemisphere, Winter sends Terran fertility inward to rest and restore in preparation for its scheduled return.
The new moon occurs at 26° Gemini 43’ on June 18 at 12:37 am EDT. The solstice will occur on June 21, marking the Sun’s entry into the cardinal sign of Cancer on June 21 at 10:57 am EDT.
Gemini is about what we know or perhaps what we think we know. We are submerged in a data-saturated world. It is hard to tell whether truth or lies are more elusive. Opinions are presented as fact. Facts are reduced to an opinion. With Jupiter and Uranus both in sometimes bull-y Taurus, there is much castling and hunkering down.
The Sun anchors a grand trine applying to a last quarter (waxing) share to the Lunar South Node and separating from a first quarter (waning) trine to health advocate asteroid Hygeia. Something from the past lingers, unfinished but loaded with potential. Localized epidemics threaten to rebound elsewhere. The learned experiences of the past offer multiple pathways forward.
Mars is under Venus’s sway as she approaches him from behind, whispering in his ear. Is she murmuring sweet nothings or veiled ultimatums? New priorities are on the table. New choices are under consideration. New commitments are possible with asteroid Juno’s urging.
Maternal Divinity Ceres in the early degrees of Libra separates from a full phase opposition to elusive Neptune in Pisces. The Sun separates from a last quarter (waxing) square to Neptune. The Sun applies to a last quarter (waning) square to Ceres.
An inconjunct tightening from the Sun to Pluto, retrograde for the last time into Capricorn, underscores both events. Self-empowerment is re-infused with self-authority. The social and political tremors show no hint of receding. Gaia is re-awakening from a long period of tolerance and restraint. Nature is actively at work to heal itself. We are in crisis with our Planetary Mother. She reveals the chthonic place within herself and us. This current sequence of astral events are her messengers.
Venus separates from a partile (exact) semisquare to Venus in Leo at the new moon and the solstice. Venus is about our values and priorities. In Leo, they are formatting how we are currently self-actualizing. The current alliance of Venus and Mars actively inhabits our moment-to-moment, day-to-day choices. Ask yourself, “What is the right thing to do?” The correct answer will save a lot of צרות tsrus (trouble) later on.
The Sun applies to a partile semi-sextile to Vesta in Taurus and the new moon and separates from Vesta at the solstice. Finding our authenticity requires self-expression. Consensus works very well in telling us not to hurt others and to stop at red lights. But most of our other choices should come from the heart.
Saturn in Pisces is stationed retrograde at the New Moon. By early November, it will retreat to 0° Pisces before turning direct again. In my Astrological Weather Report for Saturn in Pisces, I wrote:
“Saturn has been churning the winds of change in Aquarius since the end of 2020. Since then, the worldwide spread of COVID-19 and its self-mutating variants have shattered our sense of normalcy. In the United States, the Capitol Riot and exposure of malfeasance at the highest level of government has politically splintered the nation. Europe has been drawn to the precipice of nuclear confrontation in Ukraine. In Asia, an active Chinese agenda is attempting to reset the balance of power in the region. We have witnessed a much different world emerge in the last three years.”
Saturn is the law of the land. We have begun to see the dominoes fall for Donald Trump. Over the balance of this year, this legal process will progress and possibly conclude.
In the US Chart,
- transiting Saturn is squaring the Jupiter-Neptune in Gemini conjunction in the US 9th House of Jurisprudence and the court system. This conjunction also refers to the religious life of the US.
- Saturn trines US 10th House Sun in Cancer. The Presidency is under political pressure from more than one direction.
- US Saturn forms a tight crisis-laden inconjunct to 11th House US Mercury, ruler of the US ninth house. This also places pressure on the media as well as the court system.
- Saturn sextiles rogue personality US Eris. I cringe at the thought of continued gun violence, nuclear catastrophe, or insurrection.
- Saturn sesquisquares 1st House US Moon in Libra, predicting general turbulence for the US population.
The Cancer Sun applies to a disseminating trine to Saturn at the solstice. If we live in warmer climates, the outdoors offers opportunities to merge with the natural world. In the Southern Hemisphere, If winter sports are not your thing, use this coming season to nurture yourself with healthy food and good friends and family.
“When despair for the world grows in me, and I wake in the night at the least sound in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be, I go and lie down where the wood drake rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.I come into the peace of wild things who do not tax their lives with forethought of grief. I come into the presence of still water.And I feel above me the day-blind stars waiting with their light. For a time, I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.”
― Wendell Berry, The Selected Poems of Wendell Berry
