A Solsticey, Eclipsey Week

6.21.10


Happy Solstice, my astro-brethren. Now we enter a season likely to prove memorable, due to its high-drama astrology.

Not only does today (Mon Jun 21) marks the official beginning of summer (or winter, depending on your global positioning), but later in the week also brings a lunar eclipse in Capricorn (Sat Jun 26), another indicator of climactic chapter-turning development.

As I mentioned at the last season-change, our Solstices and Equinoxes are presently playing off the historic 'cardinal climax' astrology… so that, with each turn at the year's quarter-points, we greet the next season with stark reminders of how dynamically our world is in transition. Think of how much has been altered or advanced since the Spring (or Fall) Equinox on March 20. Could it really be only three months has passed? Issues that were wholly 'up in the air' back in February have since clearly shown the direction they're heading, have they not?

At today's Solstice, the Sun arrives at the first degree of Cancer… which also means, during the surrounding week, the Sun will face squares to Saturn, Uranus and Jupiter, as well as an opposition to Pluto. In other words, over these few short days, we're bound to confront instances of how the fates of so many supposedly 'separate' circumstances are ultimately intertwined with one another. Poke one finger with a sharp object, and a wholly other one might wriggle in ouchiness. Pull the cord, and a trap-door in some building down the block drops open. Treat one phantom stranger with kindness, and someone else entirely may show up to deliver the reward. There is little reason to expect any action not to stir wider ripples of consequences.

Concentrating unwaveringly on our intent has rarely been more important than during the season ahead, ripe with the friction of sensational astrological aspects knocking us back and forth against the walls of this narrow channel. While the bumps and bruises could sting, we must persevere, imagining ourselves engaged in some fast-forward erosion process, our jagged edges being rapidly worn away by ceaseless pressures from outside us, to eventually reveal a whole new physique. Without the clarity of vision and inner fortitude, we're apt to collapse into the coursing currents. With spontaneous surprises around every corner, laser-focused intent is our only substitute for planning. Plans will have to change too quickly, too many times in a row, to be of much use.

Saturday's lunar eclipse is also turbo-charged by its connection to the outer-planet dance. The eclipsed Moon in Capricorn is tightly conjunct Pluto, as well as squaring Jupiter and Uranus… and from this position, the emotions pushed upward are apt to be deeply uncomfortable. What we're confronting is nothing less than the repressive-rationale trips we lay on ourselves to convince us not to show our vulnerabilities ('weak spots', we might scornfully call 'em), in order to save face and/or ward off possible failure. We mustn't turn away from these emotions. Rather, let's glare threateningly back at 'em, refusing to cower at their stern tone. This is no moment in history for foregoing the risk of advancement, merely to cater to the ego's aversion to falling flat the first few attempts. If at first you don't succeed, try and try and try, different approaches to the same problems.

This mix of 'solsticey' and 'eclipsey' elements is liable to produce a heightened emotionality throughout the week ahead, as we meet and greet the wily potency of our own self-imposed blocks to deeper freedom. The messages in our heads do far more damage to our momentum than any outside force… but until we're willing to deconstruct everything they're telling us, to put the judgments and criticisms and reasons not to bother in their proper resting-place (a trash receptacle, for instance), they continue to defeat us.

We mustn't surrender this battle for our personal power, which is too easily depleted when we permit internal traitors to remain on the team. Offering 'you're either with me or against me' ultimatums to the unsupportive parts of ourselves—to get with a program of lightning-speed evolution, in order to fortify our readiness for this next chapter in history, or be swallowed whole by the chaotic elements—is the level of gravity with which our inner hesitations must be fought.

Despite how desperately we know we need to move ahead, such a merciless farewell to outdated selves just might leave a bittersweet, sad even, taste in our mouths. Honor the grieving feelings, as you continue onward toward that golden oasis in the shimmering distance. There is no going back.