The Northern Hemisphere Summer Solstice occurs 8:32 pm PDT June 20, 4:32 am BST June 21. It's the longest day of the year in the Northern Hemisphere, said to be the time at which "free will" acts more powerfully than any other time. It is a point of decision, and kicks off Summer, the season of work, play, productivity, and lots of sunshine for those of us up north. If you're "down under," remember to have a little compassion for us up here when December 21, the Winter Solstice, rolls around and we're freezing while you're enjoying the beach! What follows explores elements we all can expect to experience over the next 3 months, regardless of where we live.

The June Solstice is the end of Spring in the Northern Hemisphere, the end of Autumn in the Southern. If you’re wondering how I reconcile the seemingly opposing energies between the hemispheres, when you’re done here please take a look at The Mirroring of the Northern and Southern Hemisphere Year Cycles in Astrology. It may help readers “down under” see how the important points of seasonal change, though opposite in physical manifestation, actually have similar challenges at each point of shift.

The Solstices and Equinoxes are excellent times for looking at what began in the past 90 days, whether new growth or signs of what is ending, what is emerging and what has slipped down the timestream. In any case, the Solstices are points of radical reorientation, whether toward emotional self interest in the Northern Hemisphere or personal power in the Southern.

The next 90 days are in any case a time to decide, consolidate, express, stabilize, and work toward what will shift at the Autumnal Equinox (or the coming of Spring if you’re down under.) The charts for the Summer and Winter Solstices provide guideposts for the symbolic and actual weather that will follow in the 90 days after those points in time, just as charts for the Vernal and Autumnal Equinox each show what will follow in the period after those points in time.

The Pluto Factor Past and Present

This is the thirteenth Summer Solstice with Pluto in Capricorn. After many years of being an important factor in the Solstice and Equinox charts when it was near the Galactic Center, Pluto has moved on to an entirely different set of aspects with the Sun at these changes of season.

When Pluto was in very late Sagittarius and very early Capricorn, it was squared by the Sun at the Spring and Autumn Equinoctal points, and opposed the Sun at the June Solstice point between 2006-2010. It was close to exact from Dec 2006 through Dec 2009, and June 2010 through Sept 2010. The squares and oppositions of those turning points released a lot of energy, and either blocked or propelled events. Certainly those were seasons of great friction where many seeds were released into our gardens of Life.

Then, just as the Sun no longer made frictional aspects to Pluto during the Solstice and Equinox, Uranus began to make an exact square to Pluto, showing very volatile Plutonic energies in play. This began at the June 2010 Solstice, and except for the December 2010 Solstice, a mundane or actual square remained in play until the March 2016 Equinox. The last time the square happened was the December 2016 Solstice.

At this Summer Solstice, Uranus has moved out of its biseptile to Pluto in the Solstice chart and is in a serendipitous tredecile. It will make its final biseptile beginning December 2021. However, this is the first Solstice chart with Sun trieptile Pluto, triggering The Grand Irrationality for the next 90 days! As the triseptile is a “destiny producing” aspects, we can expect more radical events this season, and definitely late this year through next Spring. This is a major fork in the road for the entire world, and things may become extraordinarily irrational at times.

If things don’t make sense, they don’t have to. The only thing that matters is to know how to focus and not get distracted by the craziness in the atmosphere. Sometimes, when we keep our heads when all around us are losing theirs, we come out on the other side looking and feeling good!

Given the Solstice and Equinox charts show the weather patterns to come, the various configurations and weightings give us a huge amount of insight about the season to come. I will go more extensively into the outer planet aspects in the coming article on the Cancer/Capricorn Full Moon, as well as the larger friction in the collective atmosphere and what we can do about it!

Decan and Element Distribution and the Solstice Jones Pattern

This Summer Solstice chart shows 4 planets in the first decan of their sign, 3 planet in the second decan of their signs, and 3 planets in the third decan of their signs. This indicates a three month period of activity involving a balance in the actional-material and individual-mental and spiritual areas of life, with a slight emphasis on the emotional, social, and cultural areas of life.

In this chart, we have a balanced distribution between 5 planets in Water, 2 in Air, and 2 in Earth, and 1 planet in a Fire sign. That makes this a season of a balance between practicality and interactive experiences, with a heavy emphasis on emotional experience and only Mars in Leo to provide inspiration and warm things up.

After months of shifting between a variety of different patterns, at this juncture they are arranged in a way that creates an almost perfect “Bowl” Jones pattern which leads with Pluto and ends with Mars in Leo except when the Moon is between early Libra and late Scorpio. As the Moon is at 10 Scorpio, while the Bowl is still in play as a planetary “firing sequence,” all its energies are expressed through the Moon as the nozzle for the Bucket. We’ll become increasingly aware of divisions in the next season, since the Bowl is always aware of what it contains versus what it doesn’t, and we’ll find release and expression through the Moon in Scorpio.

Dispositors, Aspects, and the Lunar Influence

In this chart, we find Mercury, Jupiter, Saturn and Neptune in their home signs, with the Sun in the sign ruled by the Moon in Scorpio. The Moon is ruled by Mars in Leo, which is ruled by the Sun. So the Sun, Moon, and Mars form a “chain of dispositors” which also rules Venus and Uranus. So this chain rules those 5, Saturn rules itself and Pluto, and Mercury, Jupiter, and Neptune rule themselves as “standalone dispositors.”

The Moon is at 10 Scorpio, promising all of us a deeper dive into relationships and making them more connected and intense. This promises closer relationships based in activities we’ve done with each other in the past, with a suggestion that this will be a season of “the emergence of group personalities.” Overall the Moon is favorable in this chart, even if intense, a little rebellious, and geared toward challenging old rules and assumptions. Because of the configurations, this should be a season of transfiguration, retirement from old dramas, and the expression of the heart and Soul!

While the Moon is part of a tight Fixed T-square with Saturn and Uranus, throwing the void into the middle decan of Leo, it is also in an extraordinarily favorable tredecile with Venus in Cancer. This promises major unique benefits and blessings in terms of our connection with others, and with Venus trine Neptune and opposed Pluto, there will be great benefits for those who can set aside their preconceptions and follow the flow into transmutation of natural energies into a creative power. While some old relationships will be left behind, this one will strengthen the good ones in our lives. The biquintile of the Moon to Mercury will bring unique interactivity, with many previous efforts seen in “the light of mind” allowing transmutation of the physical into the power to build thought forms.

The most powerful Solar aspects are the decile to Mars, trine to Jupiter, semisquare to Uranus, and triseptile to Pluto. The trine to Jupiter opens a favorable flow between our personal experience and our collective experience, with a widening of social experience along with cooperative collective building efforts. As noted earlier, the triseptile to Pluto activates the Grand Irrationality, making the coming 90 days another major “fork in the road of destiny” for humanity in terms of transformational seeds sprouting as we turn the corner in our allegiances. As noted in each Lunation article, at this time in history the Grand Irrationality involves zones near 25-29 Capricorn, 16-20 Pisces, 8-12 Taurus, 29 Gemini-3 Cancer, 21-25 Leo, 12-16 Libra, and 4-8 Sagittarius.

The Moon rules Cancer, so it's the ruler of the Sun. In this chart we find the Sun and Moon are in a First Quarter Lunar phase, indicating the next 90 days are totally action oriented, creative-expressive and assertive. It is said this phase is “strong willed,” focused on “ego building activities,” and “builds structures to serve us in actualizing our objective and purposes.” It is said to accompany “a need for direct action,” so this season is one of building structures, with everyone trying to find a way to accomplish their objectives.

Other Important Factors

The North Node shows us the line of greatest development. This one pulls us into “new vistas of conscious, concrete development,” opening new futures, new views, and new possibilities. Grow into seeing how you’ve hit a “virgin field of development” and growth, so set aside fear and hesitancy and after you’re done your research and rehearsals (thanks to Mercury retrograde on its direct station) leap into a new life! In Gemini, we are learning to learn, to communicate, to gather information, and to allow our curiosity to find ways to externalize our discoveries.

With so many specializing, frictional, and productive aspects, we have major events promised in the next season. Lots of activity wherever we have the middle degrees of the Fixed signs and the latter degrees of all signs, so learn to read what you’re feeling so you can let go of whatever keeps you feeling stuck. There are tremendous releases of heart power and creativity promised by the fixed squares and oppositions, so find a balance, avoid extremes, take time to rest, and when you encounter those with different values, admire the best in both rather than get into tense confrontations.

Given we have Mercury septile Mars and biseptile Jupiter with Sun triseptile Pluto, we will continue to have a lot of unstable and irrational forces in play across 8 sectors of our charts involving Aries, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Scorpio, Sagittarius, and Pisces. This promises another “fateful” time, for better and/or for worse, depending on how we handle these VERY unstable tides. I gave you the zones affected by Sun triseptile Pluto above; the Mercury-Mars-Jupiter evolutionary configuration involves zones near 1-5 Pisces, 23-27 Aries, 14-18 Gemini, 5-9 Leo, 26-30 Virgo, 18-22 Scorpio, and 9-13 Capricorn.

As you can see, these two 7th harmonic evolutionary configurations are impacting about a1/6 of the entire zodiac. Because of so many non-rational aspects in play this season and at this time in history, don’t get distracted by the craziness or irrationality in people and circumstances, and don’t worry if a lot doesn’t make sense. All the septile series aspects require that we keep a sense of the long range implications of our choices, even when it doesn’t make much sense why we have to make them when we do.

This is a season of initiating experience, feeling everything we need to feel to make our decisions and do the actions we need to do. After we have researched, rehearsed, taken a dozen “new looks” at what we want to do, then it will be important to make a decision and then act, leading us to a new feeling-experience. So while there will be quite a bit of looking backward and revisioning many things, it also is a time when we will deepen our friendships and find a more intense and powerful connection with our Spiritual Brothers and Sisters based in feeling what we did with others in the past which makes our relationships deeper and closer today.

During the next 90 days, the past will give us new insights which will help us move our growth track up and out of the material and into the interaction of ideas. As Mercury retrograde often requires a delay before we have all the information we need to make a solid judgment, don’t worry if things tend to hold back a little at the front end of things before they leap forward with focused intensity. Again, admire the differences in value systems, and make decisions which help you get organized and integrate your feelings with your outer interests. Overcome all tendencies to discouragement, and remember that it’s better to be disillusioned than illusioned.

Deepen your insights while refining your sense of perspective and proportion. If an opportunity arises suddenly, don’t daydream or speculate! Be decisive in responding to the demands on your talents while keeping what appeals to others in view. Your inner barometer will show you what’s coming tomorrow by the inner changes you feel today, and sometimes a “live and let live” attitude does more for security than all the external effort anyone could make.

This is a transmutational season, with deepened relationships with some while others end altogether. There are several major squares and oppositions in play, so use “the tension of opposites” to get more connected with Life, since “Life flows on within you and without you.” Because of the Mercury retrograde and the tredeciles, use time wisely, since using a delay could bring serendipitous realizations about the poetry of our lives and our connectedness with all others in our Soul field. We enter a season of deepened relationships with self, others, the world, and source. While it may get intense from time to time, it’s great for knowing at the bottom of our Being what life is all about.

Aum, blessings, and Happy Northern Summer and Southern Winter Solstice as we stand on the threshold of a new season of life! Let go of fear, let go of the past, let go of feeling stuck in old limitations, and stay focused on the blessings to come your way that expands your life.

Reprinted on crystalwind.ca with persmission from Robert Wilkinson.

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