Summer Solstice Chart 2010 – I See You

The Solstice is almost upon us. I was talking with a friend yesterday about how the year seems to be passing in a blink of an eye. I can’t quite fathom how we got here to the longest day so fast. Winter for me was without mercy: the relentless cold, the impenetrable ice. Right now the sky is blue, clouds drifting and a curious silence outside as I write, as if the world is holding its breath, waiting. I want to hold on to this moment. I want to hold on to the light and the warmth and the summer breeze.But the axis turns and one cycle leads inevitably to another. The beauty of living with astrology and the cycles is that it teaches some kind of acceptance, a sense of balance. Light follows dark follows light.

This year Midsummer ramps up the Cardinal T-Square formed by Saturn, Jupiter-Uranus and Pluto to a  Grand Cross which every astrologer clearly has their eye on. The Sun takes the place of the missing arm, a see to Pluto’s saw. Pluto’s motto could be ‘we came, we saw, we conquored’, the Sun’s motto simply ‘I see you’. At solstice we would be wise to stand still like the Sun and open our eyes to what is going on in the world.

At Spring equinox, Iceland’s volcano blew the planes from our skies. Mother Earth literally grounded us. Whilst the Hadron Collider continued searching for the ‘God particle’, the headlines leading up to the Uranus ingress into Aries screamed at me.

Craig Venter Creates Synthetic Life Form

Scientist is first Man to be Infected by Computer Virus

In true Uranus in Aries style, the headlines preceeded the ingress, fast and furious, humanity hurled itself into a new age. Never mind finding the God particle, let’s just be Gods.

But I love Uranus. It’s probably my Aquarius Moon I know but I love his eccentricity, his freedom fighting, his forward-thinking electric flashes of insight. But I also know he can be perverse and stubborn, fighting for a cause regardless of consequence or rebelling purely for the sake of it. Uranus in Aries is the ultimate brilliant scientist, the heady rush of creation, the awakening of the divine spark within. Who knew that you could write an email address on dna? It fascinates me. It terrifies me.

Jupiter joining Uranus could  exhalt the confidence of human invention to heavenly proportions, the arrogance of which could prove our downfall. Or perhaps Jupiter will lend a raft of wisdom to Uranus, an understanding of the true joy we can create if we allow ourselves to think outside of the box, to journey where we haven’t journeyed before. The opposition to Saturn  shows that whatever comes will be hard won, that it will be opposed by those that seek to maintain the status quo.

But Pluto, dear Pluto who roams farthest in the solar system; Pluto who rules generations, pollution, power and the sheer will to survive: Pluto DEMANDS to be heard on a grand scale. Reaching out his energetic arms across the emptiness of space he touches Saturn and Uranus and Jupiter on the shoulder, asking them to look to him to resolve their differences. He may be a harsh teacher but he will get the job done…or he may let it all go to hell because sometimes we can only truly notice the light by its absence. When you hit rock-bottom, the only way is up – right?

The Sun in Cancer asks us to remember our global family, the Earth our Mother, our brothers and sisters, the things that creep and crawl and our four-legged fur friends. Mum and Dad (Cancer and Capricorn) are about to have a summit on what to do next. The Moon visits Pluto in Capricorn on the 26th July, a lunar eclipse. We will see the Earth’s shadow pass across the face of the Moon. Suddenly it is clear that we are all travelling together on our little globe.

What have we done to our Mother?

Father Sky and Mother Earth are trying to get our attention. Uranus in Aries sometimes seems to me like a child screaming to be heard. Saturn in Virgo has got bogged down in the details of life and lost the breadth of vision necessary to move forward. We cannot change without some sense of stability yet we cannot have stability through change. Without understanding and a sense of meaning we cannot apply what we have learned and without the teachings of the past we are liable to make the same mistakes over and over.

The solstice chart is like an X marks the spot – a clue on the map of life. It is a harbinger that change is necessary and change is coming because it must. The Oil Spill in the Gulf of Mexico is perhaps one manifestation of this planetary story. Pluto has certainly got our attention now.

But there is something else in this Solstice chart – a grand trine created by the Sun, the Moon and the Chiron-Neptune conjunction perfecting less than an hour after the Sun’s ingress into Cancer. If the Sun and Moon are our archetypal parents then perhaps they are gently teaching us that we have a responsibility on a personal level within all of this. Chiron’s entry into Pisces still conjunct Neptune shows our potential for healing and learning from our wounds, how we can show love despite our scars. The most nurturing of trines shows that we have at this time an innate ability to tap into our human compassion which is turn can be a creative force that shapes the landscape. Or we can choose to feel overwhelmed with the struggle portrayed by the Grand Cross.

The Grand Trine occurs at 0 degrees of Cancer, Scorpio and Pisces and the Sabian symbols for these are interesting.

0 Cancer
On A Ship The Sailors Lower An Old Flag And Raise A New One

0 scorpio
A Crowded Sightseeing Bus On A City Street

0 Pisces
In A Crowded Marketplace Farmers And Middlemen Display A Great Variety Of Products

Interesting that both 0 Scorpio and 0 Pisces contain the word ‘crowded’. Both talk of having pride in human achievment for what we have built and produced. We certainly do have many achievements to be proud of. But there is a sense that everyone is going after the same thing, everyone has the same vision, the same commodity desires. The push to become richer, to have more leaves us little room to breathe. There is an absence of silence in which to think and contemplate and hear the whisper of the heart.

Perhaps this is a time then to raise a new standard, to embark on a new quest. One which brings healing to our global family but which begins on a personal level. The Sun’s position in the Solstice chart shows us what we have been missing. The western world’s insatiable drive for material gain has left us spirituality starved. No wonder we have an obesity epidemic; trying to fill the space inside. We have forgotten what true nourishment is.

Change is coming whether we like it or not. We can sit and weep with frustration or fear or we can hold our hands out to one another, cradle the Earth and remember we belong to each other.

Pluto is a Planet After All by jurvetson on Flickr