CANCER SOLSTICE 2016 with Cycles and Trends Ahead

We come once again to the longest day of the year here in the Northern Hemisphere where I live, but I know all you readers in the Southern Hemisphere are experiencing the longest night and the return of the Sun.  Either place it’s always a time of celebration.  I have a wonderful Taurus/Cancer friend who each year has a gathering at her place with a potluck, swimming, a fire ceremony of some kind, and plenty of art projects since she’s an artist/sculptress.  How do you celebrate wherever you live?  Or do you just make note of the day and continue on with your normal routine?

Let’s take a look at this year’s chart calculated for Washington DC in America:

Perhaps one of the first things to catch your eye is that Full Moon.  The Moon actually reaches fullness just before the Solstice in Sagittarius which further punctuates that Grand Cross in Mutable Signs you see blocked off like a big square with the red lines between Saturn rising, Neptune at the bottom, Mercury setting, and Jupiter peaking at the top of the chart.  It’s this ‘Mutable Dilemma’ that I will be writing about in the second half of this article. It has been peaking in strength through May and now June with the faster moving Venus, Sun, and Mercury filling the 4th leg.  It will shortly become a T-Square, and then just that longer lasting Saturn/Neptune square will continue until Saturn finally moves out of orb in November.

This Sun in Cancer opposite Moon in Capricorn alignment emphasizes the present polarity themes of family and state, nurturance and authority, personal and professional, mother and father, water and earth.  Which side do you most identify with?  Full Moon awareness is called for now on this Solstice day.  The ideal is to balance both and the Sun shines light on family matters and personal identity right now.  Cancer is a sign that encourages growth in a foundational sense.  Yet the Moon needs commitments, responsibility, and a thrust towards organization while in Capricorn.  It’s always good to use polarity when working with astrology symbols.  One side balances out the other, so each sign has it’s opposite complement.  This is a special day of being aware of that principle.

These are Cardinal signs which always initiate the next step.  All the quarterly gates do that as we revolve around the Sun each year.  Doubling the emphasis on Cardinal has been the on-going dynamic thrust of Uranus in Aries square Pluto in Capricorn  which is beginning to move away from that aspect this year.  The changes we’ve seen on the planet have reflected in graphic stories the symbolism of these two transpersonal energies which represent powerful upheaval and change.  As I write this, the shocking news story of the massacre of 49+ LGBT patrons in the ‘Pulse’ nightclub in Orlando, Florida emphasizes even further this tension between Pluto and Uranus.  Uranus may well represent the uprising of individual rights to be and express whatever sexual preference one so desires while Pluto in Capricorn may represent very ancient traditional and collective systems which adhere to strict laws of conformity.  Yet Pluto may also represent the deep volcanic transformation of those same long-standing traditions.  The clash of the two has been violent unfortunately, and in the case of the nightclub shootings it was one, lone ‘Uranian/Plutonian’ man who shocked the world with his act of…..malice?  hatred?  conviction of belief? His motives will likely be discussed and scrutinized for weeks to come.  This even leading up to the Full Moon and Solstice drives yet deeper the great divide in points of view this election year in America.  I see Trump has just asked for Obama’s resignation because he has not stated the term radical Islamist in relation to this event.  Radical is a Uranian word.

I’m just looking at the symbolism here and wanting you to see that both planets can represent many different sides and aspects of these ongoing clashes between titanic forces changing the fabric of our world.

And let’s not forget Mars moving back into the later degrees of Scorpio as it in-conjuncts Uranus in Aries.  This is strong energy in a highly tense aspect right now.  Erratic action, sometimes violent, is another theme to ponder.  Or could it also represent heightened awareness of how to awaken further out of the limbic brain and evolve to more all-encompassing consciousness and compassion as Mars equally trines Chiron in Pisces?

When thinking about Pluto I always go back to Jeff Green’s work on Pluto and consciousness where the greater percentage of humans are in the ‘herd state’, maybe 20% are in the ‘individuated state’ and only a very small number have evolved to ‘the spiritual state’.  May Uranus speed up that evolution to a more conscious level please!!

Let’s briefly look at how this Solstice impacts the United States in it’s crazy election year.  This is after all, a Cancer nation and Venus in the Solstice chart is exactly conjoining the Venus of the United States at 3+ Cancer.  Venus is a country’s values which in turn reflects its expenditures.  Venus in the United State’s chart also represents it’s relationships with other countries.  Both Clinton and Trump, the leading contenders for President, speak about America’s friends and allies.  Trump is adamant that he’ll make sure America’s friends are loyal and true so that it’s enemies are clearly differentiated.  Clinton, a seasoned Secretary of State, tends to emphasize more who America stands behind and supports.  It will be interesting to see how both define more clearly what they see as America’s ‘values’ over the next three months of campaigning.  The chart of The United States of America is all about relationships.  This is not a country whose purpose is to be an isolationist.

Transit Uranus is solidly in square to America’s Mercury now.  This is a jolt of an aspect experienced through collective issues involving news, media, communication, commerce and trade, and all things mercurial including transportation. This country will be going through enormous upheavals and awakenings no doubt.  The rapid changes in technology are also symbolized here as America attempts to keep a lead in innovations that are Uranian hi-tech.  A lot of experimentation will be going on.

Pluto in Capricorn continues to decisively change the very structure of America’s government and executive offices as it squares Saturn in Libra.  With the Supreme Court in readiness for further change, and a highly conservative power grab at work the pressure of this aspect feels heavy and ominous where human rights and true democracy are concerned.  The lack of anything remotely balanced is troubling to say the least!  The shadow of a Pluto/Saturn aspect is likened to ‘The Black Magician’.  More and more attempts at state control seem likely.  In a person’s chart this would be a time of hard, hard work with very little gains possible.  Can we see this unfolding with a country?

Transit Saturn crossing the United State’s Ascendant in Sagittarius symbolizes a sobering time for this nation.  In an individual’s chart it often speaks of a deeply serious maturation process at work, and this is probably true for a nation as well.  The expansive side of Sagittarius is limited now as if to say that America needs to re-focus it’s aims and approach and get more realistic in it’s identity.  Since it’s ruling planet is Jupiter in Cancer over there in the 7th house of relationship it needs to look at what it has created out there in the bigger world in terms of relationships with other nations.  Are they solid and good ones?  Are they caring ones?  Is there a nice reciprocity between everyone? Remember, the 7th house is also one’s enemies. We go right back to that Full Moon Solstice chart, don’t we?  Capricorn takes responsibility if done rightly, and Cancer helps to nurture and protect if done rightly.  A nation needs to abide by the same rules I would think. It takes both a father and a mother to c0-create a child, and both ideally need to participate in the growth and development of that child.  That’s the basic message of Cancer/Capricorn.  America’s role and purpose is to BE a Cancer nation.  Cancer nurtures and protects all of its ‘children’ and helps them to feel they belong.  Is that too much to ask for?  With America’s natal Sun square Saturn as well as Chiron it is a long, slow process towards building a land where everyone feels equal and where everyone is able to prosper.

That’s probably enough said, but I wanted to spend a bit of time on this theme given that the Cancer Solstice always falls close to America’s Sun.

I now want to discuss that Grand Mutable Cross.  A Grand Cross does tend to pull you in multiple different directions. This is especially true since we’ve had the personal planets in Gemini creating even more variables to the mix.  But only Mercury will remain after this Solstice.

 Mutable signs are always aiding the shift from Fixed signs to Cardinal ones.  In that respect they often alternate between the past and the future with Virgo most strongly focused on here now realities.  We’ve had a nice run of Jupiter in Virgo which helped tremendously the campaign of Bernie Sanders, a Virgo, who has consistently championed the hard-working classes of people who labor for their incomes.  Please re-read my article on Jupiter in Virgo to understand this passage.

Saturn in Sagittarius and Jupiter in Virgo have squared off strongly in recent months emphasizing the conflict between expansion and contraction.  Both planets are in signs rather antithetical to their intrinsic meaning.  Jupiter is at home in Sagittarius, and I’m sure Saturn would be a lot happier in methodical Virgo.  I’ve noticed in my own life how much I seem swamped with detail after detail as I struggle to get things back on track and organized.  There just never seems to be enough hours in the day to get it all done either.  So this square mobilizes us to determine where to expand and where to cut-back.  For each situation it can be different.

Jupiter has been opposite Neptune in Pisces expanding either a further search for escape from reality or a spiritual search for practices that ground the mystical into ordinary daily life.  This aspect has further brought awareness of the ecological crises the planet is facing now both from global warming and geo-engineering.  Life forms are literally disappearing.  Here where I live I’ve noticed an alarming increase in trees dying.  They are suddenly doting the vistas of the forests surrounding us in every direction.  Are they dying because of the long draught, or is the fall-out from heavy metal aerosol spraying also weakening their ability to withstand the draught?  It’s probably a combination of both.  The awareness of the fragility of life has certainly grown even as the awareness of the absolute beauty of the natural world.  This aspect deserves an entire article in itself because the magnitude of what it represents covers so many areas of life including the plight of the refugees seeking to escape war-demolished lands, the plight of slave victims in human trafficking, the plight of all life forms abused and desecrated.  These themes arouse increased compassion in those who care.

The long, slow Saturn square Neptune aspect compounds the above themes which have been blown up bigger than life by Jupiter of late.  This square, however, has a highly useful function as all Saturn components tend to bring to the fore.  One of my Gemini clients recently described it best by stating that so much is dropping away.  I can certainly relate to this time when much needs to be released so that a new direction can emerge.  I have Saturn now squaring my Sun, as Neptune goes over it, while Jupiter has been opposing it.  So here’s some of what I am experiencing:  I feel I am seeking greater union with nature. Recently  I was forced to let go of an office in town and now ‘float’ my professional life in new ways.  So now I SKYPE and give phone sessions from my upstairs home office which is quiet, serene, and looks out at nothing but forests.  I go to people’s homes who live close by, or I rent office space per client from friends in town.  This move also has forced me to release a lot of book for lack of space in our home.  Books are heavy and dense!  I’m only keeping what I now have room for; only those important enough to keep close by.

 I am in two dream groups and my dream life continues to gets richer.  Working on dreams is a very rewarding process both for me individually but as part of a group where I get to ‘enter in’ to other’s dream life.  I am involved even in a World Dream project!  How cool is that?  I now commute back and forth across the State every other weekend to spend time with our new grand baby so our daughter can ease back into work a bit.  This brings me great joy!  Driving those long miles is similar to floating through different realities I realize.  I enjoy it so much.  I listen to music or have silence.  It’s all good.  Once on the West Coast I get to walk everywhere with our grand baby.  We stroll around the neighborhood and I see new things, but  back at home I walk through the woods every morning again which is another kind of reality.

In other words, it’s all about staying FLUID IN MY ATTITUDE.  I see my forced move as actually a blessing.  It has changed my life in various ways that work better for where I now am in time and space.  There’s lots of movement in this Mutable time, and it’s often a to and fro, betwixt and between kind of movement.  It’s less dramatic than Cardinal probably.  This is decidedly not a fixed time.

So look at your own life and think about this Mutable shifting time.  What is dropping away for you?  What is emerging as new?  How many forms of movement do you experience now?  What is going on in your mind, in your dream life?  And, finally, what is your attitude about it all?  That’s exceedingly important!