Highlights for June 14-20, 2021: Struggles of Heaven and Earth

Struggles of Heaven and Earth

Dates and times are given for U.S. Pacific Time zone.

Pressure

The lives that inspire me most strike a happy balance between order and chaos, between conformity and anarchy, between form and dysfunction. The relationship between Saturn and Uranus in your birth chart tells us a lot about how you’re wired in this regard. A smooth aspect between them, like a sextile or a trine, suggests you are able to integrate these sides of your nature happily, seamlessly. A hard aspect, like a conjunction, square, or opposition, means you struggle to reconcile these warring parts of yourself, with pressure building and occasional explosions.

The second of three squares between Saturn and Uranus arrives this week (June 14, 2021, 3:01 pm PDT). Since February and throughout this year, the heavens and earth reflect a struggle to integrate their qualities. Expect conflict – perhaps with a partner, a friend, a boss, a neighbor. Don’t shy from it; it’s been coming for awhile, and ignoring it won’t make it go away. It’ll just ensure that the pressure keeps building, until someone does or says something that they can’t take back.

Roll up your sleeves

At this week’s First Quarter Moon in Virgo (June 17, 2021, 8:54 pm PDT), the Sun and Moon each occupy one of the signs ruled by Mercury. The fact that they’re in a relationship of natural tension with each other tells the story of Mercury’s two faces. Gemini is the witty, charming linguist, the traveler, the trickster Mercury. The other is the businessperson, the shopkeeper or merchant. The Sun in Gemini shines with Mercury’s wit, charm, and love of wordplay and ideas; the Moon in Virgo longs to roll up its sleeves, rent a retail space, and make those ideas a reality.

At this First Quarter, the Sun and Moon both connect with Neptune. So knowing which direction to take isn’t entirely rational, despite what the Sun and Moon in Mercury’s signs would have us believe. Instead, we have to feel our way along a little bit, guided by intuition, and willing to go in the direction that feels right – even if it doesn’t make a lot of sense.

Admit it on the inside

Ever since the Moon’s South Node entered Sagittarius last May, I’ve been warning you against being too entrenched and insular in your beliefs. Well, the South Node is still in Sagittarius, and I’m not retreating from that position. But as Sagittarius’ ruling planet Jupiter turns retrograde (June 20, 2021, 8:05 am PDT), it’s a good time to turn inward and review those beliefs. Deep down, you know when something is right and true. And you know deep down when you’re being mean-spirited, self-serving, or dishonest, even though you might never admit it out loud. But when Jupiter’s retrograde, you need to at least admit it on the inside.

Slowing down

If the beginning of winter is the time of determination, of buying new calendars and drafting bold resolutions for a year of success and prosperity, then the Summer Solstice (June 20, 2021, 8:32 pm PDT) marks the year’s reevaluation point. Even if we’ve been underachievers in the first half of the year, there may still be time to reach our goals. But we can’t speed our way through this transition. Just as the sun at the summer solstice appears to stand still in its movement across the horizon, then turn around and move the other way, that is our job at midyear: to stand still for a moment, look around, and take stock of where we are. It’s usually too late in the year to start from scratch in an entirely new direction and hope to achieve anything by year’s end. But if we take the time to look back over our shoulders and reevaluate our progress, we can then slowly revisit our goals over the next six months, reviewing our plans and filling in the missing gaps.

Midlife, I’m finding, serves a similar purpose. Here I am at the summer solstice of my life, standing still and looking back at where I started out. It’s not too late to do great things with my life, but certain options are forever closed to me. It’s definitely too late for me to be a child prodigy or an Olympic athlete, for instance, and probably too late to be a tenured professor.

But is it too late to do whatever it was I wanted to do with my life, back when I was a kid? And what was that, exactly? I was always burning to do something, but not always the same thing. I loved to read, and sing, and write, and play alone. I dreamed of being famous, but never of being rich. I dreamed of being married, but never of having children. I wanted to travel the world, I think, but I was afraid of it too.

I’m fortunate that my dreams and passions were built to a fairly small scale. I’m not famous, but then, I lost interest in that dream long ago. Everything else worked out pretty much the way I’d hoped. I’m pretty happy with my life choices. But you get to the middle part of your life, and as you begin looking back over it all you begin to want to jettison parts of your past, as if to make your life more fuel-efficient so that it will carry you farther. Read the rest of my solstice essay, “Slowing Down, Turning Around.”