Sun into Cancer | Summer Solstice - nostalgia, feeling vulnerable and how we feel about the vulnerability we see in others, moving past the decision, SUMMERTIME!

Sand wings. by Lileinaya

The sun moves into the sign of Cancer on Thursday. At 0 degrees Cancer we start the Summer Solstice (the southern hemisphere starts the Winter Solstice).

A chart drawn up for the morning of the Summer Solstice will give us an idea of the overall energy for the summer (the second celestial quarter of the year) - just like a new chart drawn on our birthday can give us the themes for our new year.

This year the Sun is squaring Chiron (in Aries). There is something here about not feeling safe or not feeling mothered or cared for. It could be some tension around a home/family issue - a frustrating situation now could trigger a childhood wound/trauma pain.

Kind of like "feel the fear and do it anyway" Chiron in brave and independent Aries asks us to feel the pain (or fear or weakness) and soldier on anyway ....

Cancer, ruled by the Moon, is about our emotions so we could be more emotional now with whatever we have going on.

We had Venus (in Cancer) square Chiron back in mid-May and Mercury (in Cancer) in mid-June. There could be a culmination/coming to light now of what hurt then AND the wound will have still deeper roots (childhood).

Remember Cancer is the sign of the mother and the baby. Let's be kind to ourselves. Let's nurture ourselves. Know that any unsteady ground (instability) or unsure decisions will be exasperated now and trigger other times/spaces we didn't feel safe/sure. This isn't something we have to solve. Gemini season (the mind) ends when Cancer season starts. This is something we have to feel.
 
Solstice means standstill: the Summer Solstice is the time when the sun halts its journey over the Tropic of Cancer on its tropical journey north - then after three days, turns in its tracks and begins its journey south. The time of symbolic marriage - we call this period Midsummer.

The Solstice is like a powerful full moon in its potent energy but like a new moon with its clean energy for a fresh start - instead of walking in the moonlight it's time to get up early and absorb the sunrise - at least one of the 3 days if you can - there is much magic at play now. 

Remember our DNA carries the energy of our ancestors who celebrated the solstice all over the planet for centuries.

This is powerful stuff. Set your intention for the new season of your life. Light a candle and let it burn in the sunlight. This is the manifesting energy of fairy magic!

The Summer Solstice was once the biggest celebration of the year.

The shifting of celebratory emphasis from Summer Solstice (Moon/Mother/Cancer) to the Winter Solstice (Saturn/Father/Capricorn) reflects the dominance of the patriarchal paradigm of the last many centuries which we are currently evolving, so it is supportive of the emerging energies now for us to put our attention and intention on celebrating and enjoying this time of the year, too! In a few months the North Node will be moving into Cancer - home, family, security. We will not be talking so much about following our heart (North Node in Leo) as we will be about "coming home, what we really need to feel safe and secure, family, mothering, nurturing, emotions".

So today we move out of Gemini - I am a 3rd house kind of girl (Gemini rules the 3rd house) with three planets there, but have to say Hallelujah! One more day and my brains would have exploded.

Yesterday was the First Quarter Moon and we had the Gemini Sun squaring the Virgo Moon - a time of choices and details, although I bet alot of people have found out over the last few days they didn't have as many choices as they thought they did! In Gemini we want to keep all our options open, but at the First Quarter Square there is something about this that's a no-go now. Maybe the too many options are just too overwhelming and have to be pared down. Maybe life has pared things down for us. Maybe something has naturally risen to the top of the pile. We choose. We focus on that choice. We have Mars walking degrees he will walk two more times (and most of the heavens retrograde this summer) - so things we do now will be subject to some natural do-overs anyway.

With the Sun's move into Cancer so quickly after the square we could feel the emotional loss of anything in our rearview mirror - what we didn't get/didn't choose/have to give up to - that's OK, that's what we are supposed to feel. I hope we also feel some excitement about whatever in our life is having a 'changing of the guard' even as we continue to work through the nitty gritty day-to-day details of the thing.

Venus is hanging out with the North Node - our collective way forward. Venus, ruler of Taurus and our 2nd house of what we value is in Leo, ruler of our 5th house of our creative projects, our joy, our heart, our romance, our children - do we value our children? Do we value our own happiness, our own personal joy? The Mars/Venus opposition we have been talking about for awhile is also exact today!

Neptune has just turned retrograde, so it's like we can see the man behind the curtains now, and over the next few months.

Mars is turning retrograde (in Aquarius) in just five days. Doing the same old/same old doesn't work in the Age of Aquarius - which is all about advancement and equality. This summer is intense with 3 eclipses and two inner planets - Mars and Mercury - both retrograde, as well as pretty much all the outer planets (!) - slowing everything down. We have a big mid-July eclipse in Cancer opposing Pluto.

For today, lets appreciate the gift of a brand new season (summer or winter depending on where on planet Earth you hang your hat).

We are alive. Life is changing for all of us.

Cancer is all about family and home and history and patriotism and security - about having our needs met and meeting the needs of others we are close to. Family interactions will be sentimental. What we need and what other people need will be colored by our memories of how things used to be (or how we wished they had been). Comfort comes from people and situations that are familiar.

We could feel a bit lonely or nostalgic now.

It's about vulnerability (being vulnerable and how we see vulnerability in other people - playing out in the United States in technicolor through a hard-line immigration policy and its impact on families) and how we deal with that.

The Sun will shine a light on these areas as well as light up our natal Cancer house.

Cancer is ruled by the Moon. Her emotional nature comes from the fact she changes signs every couple days - contrast that with the Sun who moves through one sign a month or Neptune who sits in the same sign for fifteen years. Can you imagine if the celestial body ruling our emotions stayed in the same place for fifteen years?

We wouldn't be moody anymore and certainly some people would be lucky enough to be smiling for over a decade, but we could be stuck in a bad mood through three presidents and two car loans. That's a whole lot of lemons, folks!

Looked at this way - the moody, changeable Moon is our friend.

Feel whatever you need to feel now. Solstice means standstill - so stand still. Get near water. Watch the sun rise. Light a candle in the sunshine. Do that balance an egg thing. And then let's be as gentle with ourselves as we are with that egg!

xo all

1 comment

DancingMooney said...

This one was touching.

Love to you Cat.

xoxo