June 21, 2011

The Forward Leaning Solstice

The Sun’s entry into Cancer on June 21 is the beginning of summer in the Northern Hemisphere and the start of winter below the equator. It is a turning point as we shift away from the extremes of the longest and shortest days of the year and head back toward a day-night balance we’ll achieve at the equinox when the Sun enters Libra on September 23. Cancer is a water sign associated with the Moon. It represents roots, traditions, home and family. The essence of Cancer is its need for security that is largely determined by feelings of familiarity. Its opposite sign Capricorn seeks security through its status in the outer world.

Cancer, in a sense, is trying to connect the future to the past. It appreciates traditions and history and evokes nostalgia for the “good old days.” Cancer is about the desire to feel our roots, which can produce unreliable memories that cast a golden light on what were often less than golden times. There is often a presumption that the ancients or the founding fathers of faiths and nations encapsulated the truth for all time. The sacred texts and holy constitution are seen by many as immutable descriptions of ethics and practices that should be applied to the letter hundreds and thousands of years after they were written. There is undeniable wisdom in these documents, which warms the traditionalist Cancerian heart, but current astrological patterns are suggesting that it is time to turn the clock forward rather than attempting to turn it back.

On Sunday, June 26, the Cancer Sun crashes into a stressful square with revolutionary Uranus in spontaneous Aries, briefly cutting the cord between the present and the past. We may feel alienated and lost without this link, but it is a temporary process meant to put us in the present. We know what has already happened in our lives so personal history gives us a sense of place and of self. Uranus square the Sun is a shock, a blast of electricity that will excite some of us and scare the hell out of others. Yet when we are willing to live in the moment and experience life as an experiment, we can find the flexibility to explore the unknown present without freaking out about a disconnect with the past.

Resistance may be futile or, at least, a monumental battle that is not be worth fighting. Change is the natural order of things, especially when Uranus is on the prowl. On June 27 the Sun opposes Pluto, perhaps the only planet more disruptive than Uranus. This is yet another interference is the comforting flow from past to present to future. It is an energetic and psychological tollbooth that demands a heavy price if we want to pass through it. The cost is transformation, which comes by letting go of something we thought we couldn’t live without. Yet even as it seems to present an impassable barrier that blocks progress and leaves us stewing in the juices of discontent, it could be the best investment we can make. For in exchange for giving up on a situation, attitude, belief, behavior or person we think we can’t live without, we open the road to more fulfilling opportunities ahead. We discover that the security we seek lies not in blindly reproducing the past but in bravely opening fresh paths of experience that are sure enrich our lives.

As published here on my Tarot.com blog.

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