TRANSCRIPT
EPISODE 128 | The Cancer Solstice: Vacation, Gestation, Incubation (June 20, 2022)
Listen and read show notes hereWelcome to The Big Sky Astrology Podcast, with your host, Astrologer and Author, April Elliott Kent.
April: Hello, invisible friend, April here, and the date today is June 20th, 2022. Welcome to Episode 128 of The Big Sky Astrology Podcast. This week, a soulful Last Quarter Moon in Pisces, Venus makes a trine to Pluto and enters Gemini, and the Sun enters Cancer, ushering in the Summer Solstice in the Northern Hemisphere and the Winter Solstice in the Southern Hemisphere.
Mercury sextile Jupiter (June 20, 2022, 12:44 am PDT)
Beginning the week, Mercury makes a sextile aspect to Jupiter on June 20th at 12:44 AM Pacific Time. Jupiter in Aries is moving quickly and instinctively, but Mercury in Gemini is a little bit like a GPS that’s going to help you get exactly where you’re going more efficiently. Mercury in Gemini is about gaining intelligence and information that can make success possible, and it’s also about enlisting others to your cause. So, Jupiter would be the cause, the thing that you’re trying to accomplish and Mercury really talks about connections with other people, with networking and with a brain trust who can help give you the information and the tools that you need to have success.
Pisces Last Quarter Moon (June 20, 2022, 8:11 pm PDT)
Now, for the Moon Report for the week of June 20th. It begins with a Last Quarter Moon at 29°46’ Pisces on June 20th at 8:11 PM. The Moon is in a conjunction with Neptune, and it also receives good aspects from Venus in Taurus, and Pluto in Capricorn; and the Sun is in a trine aspect of Saturn. But the Sun and Moon are both at 29° at this Quarter Moon. And that’s significant. The 29th degree always gives us this feeling that we’re struggling to finish something up before we go on to the next thing. So, this is a critical make it or break it time, it feels, for many of us. This is also last critical phase of the Lunar Phase Family, the Lunar Gestation Cycle that began with the March 24th 2020 New Moon. And that of course was about the time that things started closing down here in the US due to the pandemic. Something much more like normalcy has returned. And this is the phase for looking back over the last two and a quarter years or so and contemplating what could have gone better.
We’ve had a series of lunations or aspects over the last three to six months that have been little way stations where we paused and reassessed and thought, “If we were to be faced with a similarly overwhelming and difficult crisis in the world, how could we respond more effectively and what can we learn?” always the Last Quarter Moon question. “What can we learn from what’s gone before?” Now, this is the Last Quarter Moon in Pisces, which is an empathetic sign and encourages us, I think, to look back with a certain amount of compassion, not just for others, but for ourselves as well, that we’re not always going to react perfectly in every situation or every crisis that comes our way.
In fact, the New Moon that began this Lunar Phase Family was in Aries, was at 4°12’ Aries. That is much more of an emergency-oriented sign, and collectively as a society, we didn’t necessarily handle all of the decisions related to the pandemic perfectly, nor do we handle anything perfectly because we’re humans and we are imperfect. The Last Quarter Moon invites us to reflect without judgment, to ask, what did we learn about ourselves during the last two-and-a-quarter years? And, what is it that we want to do in the last part of this Phase Family over the next nine months to prepare for the next challenge?
Void-of-Course Moon periods
Let’s take a look at the Void-of-Course Moon periods for this week. The first is on June 20th, after the Moon in Pisces makes its square to the Sun, making that Last Quarter Moon at 8:11 PM Pacific Time. It’s void-of-course for just under one half hour, a very fleeting void-of-course period, because of course the Moon and Sun are both at the end of their signs. Then the Moon enters Aries at 08:37 PM Pacific Time, so this is a very short void-of-course period. Probably if you are in, say Australia, that part of the world, then you’re getting this one in the afternoon for just about a half hour. That might be a time to take a coffee break or something and sit back for a little bit of a reflection. But really, this isn’t probably going to be a very consequential void-of-course of period, other than the fact that it’s this Last Quarter Moon that kicks it off, so, it is a little more consequential. We’ll feel the after effects of that until the New Moon at the end of the month.
Then on June 23rd, the Moon in Aries makes a square aspect to Pluto at 1:02 AM Pacific Time, it’s void-of-course for about four hours and enters Taurus at 4:58 AM Pacific Time. Again, here in the United States, that’s more or less the middle of the night. Probably not going to be doing a lot with that, although we might have some interesting dreams, and you don’t want to fall asleep, as I often say, with these final aspects to Pluto… you don’t want to fall asleep, necessarily listening to something that could be disturbing. So, in Europe where you’re about five to eight hours ahead of where we are here in the US, this is taking place in the morning, about 9:00 AM through 1:00 PM. So, this would be a good morning to do the kinds of work that we recommend on a void-of-course Moon, which has to do with reviewing and reassessing habits. And this is especially true when the Moon finishes on a difficult aspect with Pluto as it does here. This is a good day to cultivate new habits that are life affirming, so things that are good for your health, exercise, dietary changes, but also mindset changes. When you come across emotions that feel really self-defeating, train yourself to respond differently. And this comes down to things often like meditation, other kinds of practices that can kind of help you pay attention to your thoughts and steer them in a more productive direction.
And finally, on June 25th, the Moon in Taurus makes a trine aspect to Pluto at 12:02 PM Pacific Time. It’s void-of-course for about four hours, before entering Gemini at 4:13 PM Pacific Time. Here in the United States, this is probably the most impactful void-of-course Moon period for the week. And, it’s a nice one. The Moon is in Taurus, one of its best signs, and it’s in a positive aspect with Pluto. The changes that you contemplated on that last void-of-course Moon on the 23rd or that were happening maybe on an unconscious level while you slept, now is the opportunity to really put those changes into action and to implement them, and that’ll go pretty smoothly. So, it was an awakening and awareness at the void-of-course Moon on the 23rd. But on the 25th, maybe we have an opening and opportunity to really make changes in a way that’s not too difficult and that can be really lasting.
Venus trine Pluto (June 21, 2022, 1:23 am PDT)
On June 21st at 1:23 AM Pacific Time, Venus makes trine aspect of Pluto. Venus is about how we draw to ourselves the things that we want. And when Venus aspects Pluto, unless we’re very conscious, we can end up easily magnetizing things to ourselves that don’t end up ultimately bringing us pleasure. But this is also a planetary combination that speaks of, being able to find pleasure and beauty in whatever circumstances we may find ourselves.
There’s a little story that I wanted to share with you that I’ve written about a couple of times on my website. I always think of it when we’re having aspects between Venus and Pluto. I copied it from another source and I’ll give the attribution in the show notes. I don’t have them right here with me. But, here is the story. Violinist Itzhak Perlman was crippled by polio in childhood and walks with the aid of braces on his legs and a pair of crutches. At a concert on the night of November 18th, 1995 at Avery Fisher Hall in New York city, one of the strings of his violin suddenly snapped during a performance. Stunned, the audience held their collective breath, expecting Perlman to stop and leave the stage. Instead, he paused, then continued playing, adjusting, creating, compensating as he went along. And when he put down his bow at the end of the concert, a mighty roar of applause filled the hall. When it had died down, he spoke to the audience and said, “You know, sometimes it’s the artist’s task to find out how much music you can still make with what you have left.”
And I love this story so much for Venus and Pluto. Venus is of course, a planet of music, and Pluto is about doing what we can once circumstances have brought us down to our bare bones and left us without anything extraneous, that’s when we really find out who we are and what we’re made of. And Venus and Pluto together, give us an opportunity to make something beautiful of that and from that. It’s that, anybody for instance could make a beautiful home if they had millions of dollars and good taste, but over and over again, I find myself watching say YouTube videos of people living out in the wilds and homesteading and making these beautiful comforting spaces, almost luxurious spaces out of very humble materials and with very little beyond what’s necessary for the essentials of daily life. So that’s just something for you to chew on while Venus is trine Pluto on June 21st.
Venus enters Gemini (June 22, 2022, 5:34 pm PDT)
On the next day, June 22nd, at 05:34 PM Pacific Time, Venus leaves to Taurus and enters Gemini through July 17th. If we consider Venus talks about how we draw others to us and also what draws us to others, then while it’s in Gemini, we’ll be very entranced by words and by the way people use them. So, this is about cultivating a beautiful way of expressing yourself. It’s about storytelling as a means of enchantment or a beautiful voice, showing love to siblings – Venus is love, Gemini is siblings – enjoying travel which many of us are doing this summer for the first time in a long time. Think, as Venus is in Gemini, how you can make your speech, your communication, your words more beautiful?
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Sun enters Cancer (June 21, 2022, 2:14 am PDT)
On June 21st, the Sun enters Cancer at 2:14 AM Pacific Time. This marks the Summer Solstice in the Northern Hemisphere and the Winter Solstice in the Southern Hemisphere. I’m going to talk a little bit more about that in a few minutes. But, when the Sun enters Cancer from our Northern Hemisphere perspective, it’s a season of gestation. If we think about the Sun going through Gemini as a time of pollination, of gathering from one source and taking it to another source, then the Sun entering Cancer is when the process of gestation, of sitting still and letting something incubate and develop, takes place. So, here in the Northern Hemisphere, we think of Summer, the Sun in Cancer initiating the Summer Season as being, especially when we were children at a time of leisure, when we got time off school and we maybe went on vacations with our family, and families were also ruled by Cancer, of course. So, it was a slow quiet time of not doing a whole lot and enjoying that sense of standing still as the Sun does at the Summer Solstice.
Then, when the Sun moves into Leo is when we begin to give birth to something creative. So, during this quarter of the year until the Libra Equinox in late September, there are a few notable things that’ll be going on. Mars will enter Taurus on July 4th, after it’s been blazing through Aries and connecting with Jupiter in Aries, Mars going into Taurus will be the time to slow down a little bit and stop moving so quickly for a while. And then, Mars will enter Gemini on August 20th, where it will eventually turn retrograde on October 30th, so, that’s going to be a protracted period of Mars being in Gemini. Also, during this part of the year, we’ll have another Mercury retrograde between September 9th and October 2nd. So, you can mark that on your calendar now and try to arrange your affairs in such a way that you can be a little more unscheduled during that period. It doesn’t always work out that way. We live in a modern world. We run by clocks and schedules. But that’s not how Mercury retrograde likes to operate. So, see if you can plan ahead and make it a little bit of a less structured time.
Also, during this Cancerian quarter of the year, in the United States, we’ll have the second exact Pluto Return for the US chart on July 11th. The first was on February 22nd, and the last will be on December 28th. I’ve mentioned the Pluto Return for the United States on a couple of different episodes, so I’ll go through and find those and link them for you in the show notes, so you can be reminded of some of the things we’re looking for this year with this particular Return. I know on February 24th, just two days after the first exact Pluto Return was the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which has been consequential for the world and specifically, I think for the US as a test of its world leadership, which would fit with the symbolism of the Pluto Return. So, we’ll take a look and see what comes up specifically around the time of July 11th in the second Pluto Return.
Astrology in the Southern Hemisphere
We don’t have a specific listener question this week, but there was a topic that I have been asked about many times before. And, I recently came across some work another astrologer is doing that I thought is really interesting and just wanted to throw that out to you. Now, as many of you know, in modern astrology, western astrologers use what’s called the Tropical Zodiac, and this means that we use the placement of the planets, not against the backdrop of the actual position of the stars, but rather we use a system that lines up the first day of spring with 0° of Aries. So, the system that we use, the tropical system, reflects our experience of the seasons here on earth and uses that as our compass in our charts. But the question has sometimes been asked of me, and frankly I’ve wondered myself: If Tropical Astrology is based on the seasons, how can it work in the Southern Hemisphere where the seasons are opposite what they are here in the Northern Hemisphere?
I’ve wondered about this for personal reasons, because I’m married to somebody from the Southern Hemisphere, and I always kind of wondered about it. Because, when I write about astrology, it’s very seasonally based, it’s how I experience it. And I’ve thought, Aries means spring to me, Cancer means summer. It has a particular feeling when I think about it. Whereas if you are in a place below the equator or born in a place below the equator, of course, the actual experience of the weather and the season and the light is 180° from what it is here in the north. So, there have been over the years, I think a few attempts by astrologers to come up with a way of contending with this great difference between the hemispheres.
And, last weekend I listened to a webinar by an astrologer I really like a lot. His name is Nathan Theo Naicker, he’s from South Africa and I will link to his website in the show notes. He’s done a lot of research about this question. He’s looked at many, many charts. He said that he found that when he was talking to people born in the Southern Hemisphere, using our usual tropical symbolism, they didn’t really react with as much of an emphatic ‘Yes’, as when he was talking to people who were born in the Northern Hemisphere. And so, he started reading their charts with the planets in the signs 180° opposite. So, if he were reading a chart for somebody who was born in early August, he would read them not as a Leo, but as an Aquarian. So, this is what he’s proposed doing for people born below the equator. And his webinar gave a very compelling thesis, and his examples were really convincing. I have tried it looking at my husband’s chart, the two of us together, and we’re kind of going “Well, is Jonny really an Aries with a Sagittarius rising and a Scorpio Moon? It just doesn’t feel right.” But of course, that’s very subjective, and I still find it a really interesting idea.
So, in particular if you were born south of the equator and you find yourself really not resonating with the descriptions of your chart that you read, or that an astrologer offers you, definitely, I would recommend that you look at this method. Inverting your chart is pretty easily done if you use software like Solar Fire, and I will put together a quick video on this to show you how to do it. I’ll also look at my copy of Astro Gold, I have it on a computer I don’t have access to very often, but I’ll go in there and see if I’m able to do it easily there and explain how to do it. And likewise, in astro.com where I know a lot of people go to do their charts. But to begin with, it’s probably as simple as knowing that if you’re born with the ascendant at 22 Gemini, then if you use this method, it would be 22 Sagittarius if you were born in the Southern Hemisphere. So, it’s an interesting idea. I think the work that he’s doing is fantastic. And you know, I was talking before in this episode about Venus going into Gemini and about the importance of drawing people to you with your words. And, oh my gosh, listening to Nathan, of course I really like different kinds of accents, but he has a very mellifluous voice. So, I’ll find the video for you where you can take a look on YouTube and listen, not only to the really interesting things he has to say, but the lovely way that he says them.
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© 2022 by April Elliott Kent
