Homesick
To understand the Sun’s square to Neptune (June 23, 2025, 1:29 am PDT, 2º08′ Cancer and Aries), imagine you’ve traveled far from home, to a place where you don’t speak the language and you’re not sure you’re dressed quite right, or that your natural personality is acceptable. Your usual persona has become a bit melty; the sense of self shifts, and confidence is a bit low. It’s uncomfortable, being a stranger.
But when you don’t have your usual bag of tricks to fall back on, when the construction of who you are and what you are doesn’t fit with your surroundings, you have the unique opportunity to figure out who you are without those constructions. Turns out, the real you has little to do with those things.
If you find yourself feeling a sort of yearning homesickness in the days surrounding this transit, consider that what you’re homesick for is not necessarily a different place or other people. What you’re homesick for is you.
Set Loose From Solitude
The Sun makes its annual conjunction with Jupiter this week (June 24, 2025, 8:17 am Pacific time, 3º 21’ Cancer). The Sun’s sign tells the story of what will light us up during a given month, what will give us energy, the story of which qualities we should cultivate.
Cancer is, first and foremost, a symbol of home and family – where we feel that we belong. And Jupiter is the symbol of where we want to expand our horizons and carve out a bigger life for ourselves. So put the Sun and Jupiter together, and what we’ve got is a hankering for a big, bold adventure that gives us a chance to be part of a community.
One of my favorite films is Local Hero, in which a Houston oil man is sent to a tiny fishing village in Scotland to negotiate for some oil rights, but slowly becomes part of the community. That happens sometimes when we find ourselves in a foreign place. It doesn’t even have to be another country; just a place that makes you feel unconstrained by your regular personality and set loose from all the tricks that you use to keep yourself solitary.
Phoning Home
This story of belonging we found in the Sun’s conjunction to Jupiter reaches another turning point in the chart of the Cancer New Moon (June 25, 2025, 3:31 am PDT, 4º07’ Cancer , on the Sabian symbol 5 Cancer: An automobile is wrecked by a train.
Don’t take this literally as a story of vehicular misadventure. Instead, squint a little and you’ll see that the automobile is a stand-in for the individual, and the train represents the collective. In the case of Local Hero, the story I mentioned previously, the oil man is “wrecked,” in a way, by his encounter with a lovely Scottish fishing village and its people. After a melancholy departure from that village, we see his return to his sterile apartment in Texas, unloading his pockets full of stones and shells and something else: a phone number for a red phone box in the village. He knows from experience that if it rings, someone in the village will answer it. Cut to a scene of that faraway red phone box at dusk, and the phone is ringing.
The process of becoming part of something means that the scrappy, individualistic, Aries part of us is in some way broken down. Warriors aren’t necessarily comfortable in their own village, at supper with the people they have fought to defend. This New Moon asks the question: How much of your individuality are you prepared to set aside so you can sit comfortably at that supper table?
Exciting Obstructions
For weeks, a pair of goldfish have spent their days swimming happily in an oversized aquarium, empty other than a bed of colorful gravel. It’s a pleasant, uncomplicated existence of fluid, acrobatic frolicking. But in time, they begin to feel a bit…bored.
One day, their human housemate comes home bearing something new. Into their aquarium, she places a miniature figure wearing a diving costume, a tiny, colorful chest with jewels spilling out of it, and a tall arch.
At first, the fish are annoyed. The flow of their familiar pathways has been interrupted; valuable space impinged upon. The fish pledge to ignore the interloper.
But eventually, one of them “accidentally” swims under the arch. The other glides in for a closer look at the diver. Together, they investigate the treasure chest. And soon, they’re bright, perky, and engaged.
Mercury sextiles Uranus this week (June 26, 2025, 2:45 am PDT, 29º28’ Cancer and Taurus). The sextile is an offer extended which, if accepted, can bring a happy result; fish in their state of flow can be energized by some weird additions to their environment. Pay attention to any “obstructions” that Uranus places in your aquarium this week. Will you take a closer look and see what novelty and excitement they might bring your way?
The Heart Made Visible
The Sun symbolizes self-hood and heart, and Mars is the symbol of our work. When they meet in a sextile aspect (June 26, 2025, 7:11 am PDT, 05º13′ Cancer and Virgo), we’re presented with an opportunity to make our hearts visible through the work that we do.
Mars has something of a bad reputation among some astrologers, and his reputation is not entirely undeserved. But the gift of Mars is its passion, desire, and drive. On our happiest days, our work burns with that passion; and as the Sun enters the picture, it adds pure creative joy.
Sculptor Auguste Rodin, known for the earthy physicality of his sculptures, was born with this planetary combination in his chart. He’s quoted as having said, “True artists are almost the only men who do their work for pleasure.” As the Sun sextile Mars this week, bring to your work every bit of passion and joy that you can. Be a true artist. Show your whole heart.
The Stuff of Legend
In the second part of this week, between June 26th and 29th, Mercury goes on an extended journey of growth and awareness, and so does the way we look at ourselves and our lives.
This week, Mercury enters Leo (June 26, 2025, 12:08 pm PDT), where it will stay until September 2nd. It’s a good long stay for Mercury in a sign, thanks to its upcoming retrograde here (July 17-August 11). In Leo, Mercury tells of our individual heroic journey. How are you the star of your own story? You must tell it vividly, with fire and color, in a way that compels others to watch and listen. Because Leo, when it isn’t heard, shrivels and disappears.
If you don’t yourself have Mercury in Leo in your chart, it kind of doesn’t matter. Your story is your story, and that’s always Leo’s message: that each of us is special and unique. While Mercury is in the sign of the hero for this long storytelling period, learn the secrets of owning your story. Tell it lively, tell it compellingly, and make the world see you as the stuff of legend.
How the Story is Told
In the three days after Mercury enters Leo, it makes a series of notable aspects. The first is Mercury’s trine to Saturn (June 27, 2025, 8:52 pm PDT), 1º 44’ Leo and Aries). This is the part of the Mercury in Leo story where the hero is trained by a master who strips away the hubris and sentiment that can all too easily sneak into our tale. We have to earn respect in the world, and part of that is the way we express ourselves. Are you speaking authoritatively, in a way that demands that you and your message are taken seriously?
Then, Mercury trines Neptune on June 28 (4:58 am PDT, 2º09’ Leo and Aries). This is a transit that makes it easy to align our thinking with fantasy. If you are very imaginative, and work as artist or a writer, this is a really good day for that kind of work.
That said, there is a fine line between being imaginative and being untruthful. And you want to make sure that you’re walking on the right side of that line.
And on June 29th, Mercury opposes Pluto (12:57 am Pacific Time, 3º10’ Leo and Aquarius). Sometimes when we tell our story, others might not take it well. They might feel that by demanding to be heard, we’re claiming that our message is more important than theirs. Some might make their voices even louder so that yours can’t be heard. Don’t let your message be drowned out!
But there is an important reminder here – that 50% of communication is listening. And sometimes when Mercury is in Leo, we get so caught up in our own narrative that we might forget to stop and hear what other people have to say.
Writing and images © 2017-25 by April Elliott Kent
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