by Silvianne K. Delmars | June 21, 2024 |
This week’s astro update begins late on Friday evening, June 21, with a Solstice Full Moon in Capricorn. We end our week the following Friday with a 4th Quarter Moon in Aries. Here are the highlights (all times in PDT):
Friday, June 21
Falling just one day after yesterday’s exact Solstice point, this is a grounded Capricorn Full Moon, solidly planted on the solstice axis at 01 Capricorn 07, illuminated by the Sun at the opposite degree of Cancer, exact at 6:08 pm. This is an auspicious time to take stock of what is bearing fruit from the seeds we planted at the last New Moon in Gemini two weeks ago.
This yearly turning point of the Sun, under the revealing light of a Full Moon, would also be an excellent still point for contemplating what has been accomplished in our lives since the December Solstice. Time to celebrate our triumphs, make any necessary course corrections, and set intentions for the months to come.
Remember that, although we cannot see them, Venus and Mercury are also with the Sun in nurturing Cancer, seeking counsel in the depths of their underworld journey. As Leo Overstory Venus dies to who she thought she was, she is assisted by Aries Overstory Mercury, channeling messages from the heart of our galaxy, conjuring stories that illuminate the necessity of surrender to the overwhelming power of grief if we are to heal our hearts – and, ultimately, transform the world.
As the month progresses, Jupiter continues to slowly become more visible in the morning sky. It can be found below the Pleiades, looking to the east just before sunrise. Mars is higher in the morning sky, above the Pleiades, further along the ecliptic.
Saturday, June 22
The Moon, which went out of bounds on June 19, just a day before the Solstice, will reach its maximum south position on the horizon today, before moving back into bounds on Monday. Coinciding with the Solstice and Full Moon, this is one of the highlight periods of this once in every 18-19 years lunar out-of-bounds cycle. A time meant for us to explore, foster, and celebrate a way of being that dares to step outside the bounds of ‘accepted’ truths and stultifying conformity. Dare to be your most exuberant, one-of-a-kind you. The Moon would want it that way!
Technically, Aries synodic overstory Mercury will emerge from its Underworld journey today and enter its Threshold phase as it gets 10 degrees away from the Sun. However, it will be very hard to spot, finally emerging from the evening twilight by month’s end and reaching its current maximum elongation from the Sun on July 22, when 27 degrees away. Mercury will be in the constellation of the Twins
Sunday, June 23
The Moon makes its monthly rendezvous with retrograde Pluto at 01 Aquarius 31 late this evening. This illumination of transformer Pluto begs us to scour the dark corners of our individual and collective psyches, to root out any lurking shadows caused by light-polarized, over-idealized Aquarius notions of universal brotherhood that can all too easily slip into group-mind tyranny. The New Earth, suffused with healthy Aquarian ideals of equality, will only be realized to the extent that we are willing to continually seek the balance between Aquarian big-picture thinking and its opposite polarity Leo sovereignty, sourced in healthy personal creativity.
Wednesday, June 26
Mercury in Cancer forms a flowing trine with Saturn in Pisces today. A good time to sit by a stream, literally and/or metaphorically, as we dangle our feet in the gently running water of our emotions and surrender to the currents. In the midst of immense global changes, it is important to engage in simple but radical acts of self-renewal, granting ourselves permission to authentically feel whatever comes up for us, without judgment.
Although it often feels like a hard sprint over rough ground, this is really an ultra-marathon of cosmic proportions we are running. One we have prepared for over eons of lifetimes, just so we can be here at this pivotal Turning of The Ages. It is important to give our hearts and bodies what they most need to go the distance – and enjoy the ride! Despite all the suffering, real tragedy, and tremendous loss, this is still a magnificently beautiful world sourced in The One Reality which is Love.
Saturday, June 27
The waning gibbous Moon will conjunct Saturn in Pisces this morning, visible in the morning sky looking south. Saturn has spent the month in the faint constellation of the Water bearer. The bright star Fomalhaut shines below, in the mouth of the Fish constellation, as it waits to catch the water droplets – or is it “drops” of plasma? – that flow from the Water bearer’s upended jar?! What gifts does the planet of structure have to offer as it traverses this watery sign of ecstatic divine union with All That Is? Time to bring new form to our deepest spiritual longings.
Friday, June 28
In the wee hours of the morning, the Moon has its monthly communion with Neptune, in the very last degree of Pisces. Another reminder of the importance of feeling all of our feelings. As we surrender to the death of so much that we have known and loved, it is important to allow our authentic feelings of grief to surface. And, it is also important to invoke the other side of Neptune/Pisces – the heart’s intuition of a better way of being in the world, a sustaining vision of what will grow from the seeds we are now planting in the fertile soil of what is being composted in this time of radical dissolution.
Later this morning Mercury in Cancer, having exited its Threshold stage yesterday, will be squaring Chiron in Aries. Although Chiron is not visible to us, and Mercury will be hard to spot, we can tune in as Mercury follows the Sun below the western horizon in the evening. What does teacher Chiron have to impart through this crisis-in-action square to Aries overstory Mercury, as the messenger planet emerges from the Underworld in the watery, nurturing sign of Cancer? There is the possibility for deep healing, as we seek to restore the authentically nurturing version of the sacred masculine, so denigrated in the current dominator culture, to his rightful place on the astrological wheel.
The Last Quarter Moon at 07 Aries 40 squares the Sun in Cancer, exact at 2:53 pm PDT. As our lunation week comes to a close, it’s time to take a breath and use this Moon’s sparky Aries energy to assess our trajectory since last Friday’s Full Moon in Capricorn. As we harvest the crop that flowered at the Full Moon, we also begin the process of letting go that will end with the dark of the Moon late next week, and the entrance into a whole new lunation cycle.