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The Astrology of June features Venus, Jupiter, Saturn and as well Uranus, Neptune and Pluto. This is another extremely intense month, with Uranus square to Pluto, exact for the first time, and with Neptune strong in Pisces, being squared by last month’s New Moon eclipse. Venus, newly retrograde, has its helical rise on June 12th, when it becomes the Morning Star. The Mayans thought of the time of Venus’ transition from the Evening Star as a symbolic journey through the underworld, a time of lawlessness and disintegration in earthly affairs. On the political scene, it has in fact been a time of great ferment and continues to be so, with the Occupy Movement gearing up world-wide. Our political connections with each other, and indeed our relationships in general, are subject to revision and deeper thinking, as President Obama’s recent endorsement of gay marriage also shows.
The current monthly cycle began with the powerful Solar Eclipse and New Moon of Sunday, May 20th. Mercury, the ruler, conjuncted Jupiter within 2 degrees while their midpoint was exactly quincunx, to the minute, with Saturn. Coupled with the eclipse energy, and noting that the Sun and Moon at the eclipse degree were closely bi-quintile to Saturn, while Chiron also aspected it, we therefore this month have a very potent hit of Saturn as well as of Gemini. The Gemini energy of open-minded curiosity, enhanced by Jupiter conjunct Mercury, is starkly contrasted by dour and grim-faced Saturn, enforcer of narrowness and of limitations. Meanwhile the paradoxical and out-of-focus energies of Neptune remain high-lighted as well for this cycle, providing a dreamy and idealized antithetical conception to Saturn’s hard-nosed reality orientation.
With the Lunar Eclipse and Full Moon of June 4th, Venus is nearly at her conjunction point with the Sun, while Mars is in square with Venus, the Sun and Moon, making a Grand Cross in Mutable signs when you include the fading opposition between Mars and Chiron. The Transit of Venus the very next day is another dramatic indication of the profound nature of these times. We are being stretched nearly to the limit, but we are not pointlessly on a torture rack but instead must choose how best to move beyond the limitations of our current situation in a way that is consistent with our own higher purpose. We do this not only for ourselves but in order that we may take part in revitalizing our failing society.
Jupiter enters Gemini, touching off the eclipse degree, just at the moment of the Last Quarter Moon, on the 11th, so that the days surrounding this event will be a special time of increasing awareness, and the chance for important positive actions. After symbolically passing through the underworld, Venus makes her Helical Rise to become the Morning Star on the morning of June 12th. The Summer Solstice comes along in a New Moon phase, just one day after the late-Gemini New Moon of Tuesday, June 19th, providing fresh energy for our process. This late June period is also the time when the Uranus-Pluto square – which astrologers have been speaking of for several years now – perfects, on the 24th. The energy has been increasing for months and even years and this first moment of exact provides one peak of that building energy, touched off by the First Quarter Moon of Tuesday, June 26th – at which time the Sun in Cancer opposes Pluto and squares Uranus, forming a Grand Cross with the Moon in Libra. Jupiter squares Neptune almost exactly. This Cardinal Grand Cross will bring out the inherent tensions and contradictions of our challenging times, with also the spiritual opportunity, and even perhaps the necessity, to rise above.
The Full Moon of early Monday, June 4th, is another eclipse, the second of a pair. Coming as it does as the flowering of a big cycle begun with the Solar Eclipse of last May 20th, in which not only the mystical and subtle energies of Neptune but also the stormy transformative strength of Pluto was invoked, this Full Moon eclipse in mid-Sagittarius is guaranteed to be special, if only by virtue of its position in a climactic cycle, a cycle in which Venus retrogrades and crosses the Sun for the last time in this century while the Uranus-Pluto square draws ever nearer, to complete by the last week of the month in the extremely dynamic First Quarter Moon of June 26th.
There are further echoes of Uranus and Pluto in this Full Moon configuration, since Jupiter in the last few degrees of Taurus is now in close contra-parallel with Pluto, while the eclipse Moon trines Uranus, just as their square draws closer than 1 degree. Then, Jupiter enters Gemini, touching off the solar eclipse degree, on the powerful day of Monday, June 11th, and reminds us one more time yet again to remain as conscious as possible as we go through this climactic time period. We must remember, always, that the real reason for whatever happens to us as we move through these difficulties is the potential for change. As a noted astrologer remarks, if you have a difficult experience and do not learn from it, and use that experience to ratchet yourself upwards a notch on the ladder of your personal evolution, what's the point?
Venus too is highlighted now, just one day before the Transit of Venus, during which time it will be possible to see the tiny shadow of the relationship planet cross the massive solar disk. This symbolically implies the potential for greater consciousness in application to all our relationships; so that in the best of outcomes the concept of "right relationship" can come into its own. The artist within you is also inspired, and might find a very different way to actualize as the Venus retrograde phase completes by month's end. This also implies a shift in the way that you find relationship operating in your life, as Venus changes from the Evening Star to the Star of Morning, rising for the first time on the 12th. It might benefit you to imagine what that might mean symbolically for you and your relationships, and for how the concept of relationship impinges on your life. Is there a place within you where you do not fully meet the Other as you go through? And is there any way that you can shine more brightly? It is important not to neglect that all-important important relationship with yourself, or, if you prefer, with the divine – as represented by your Higher Self.
This powerful monthly cycle opens a doorway into the last half of 2012 and to the further metamorphosis of our society that awaits. We ourselves in our individual lives are in the midst of massive change that will eventually take us to a farther shore. The magical grace of the cosmos holds us up, on that we can and must rely or everything is dark and gloomy. And with that fundamental optimism as our guide, we can only benefit from whatever goes down.
The Last Quarter Moon that comes along early on Monday, June 11th, is a potent one, and brings several strands of meaning together as we contemplate our current state of personal evolution. Any Quarter Moon is characterized by an increase in tension, and now it is the tension implicit in sudden new realizations. Traditionally this phase is a time of reevaluation as we look back over the preceding three weeks of the cycle. We are a bit older and a bit wiser, and we might begin to see things differently, having gone through the challenges and changes of this lunation cycle, that featured Pluto as a strong component of the original end-of-May New Moon eclipse configuration. This tendency to look back in the light of recent understanding is heightened in this instance by the retrograde of Venus during this same period, planet of values and art as well as of relationship, all up for reassessment. This has indeed been a time when we both value our interpersonal connections more highly and also take a good long look under the covers of all our motivations, including the way that we conduct ourselves in relationships.
Venus is at an interesting point now in her cycle with the Sun, about to make her Helical Rise. On Tuesday, June 12th, she re-appears as the Morning Star after spending ten to twelve days “in the underworld” between visible earthly assignments. This moment begins a new 584-day Synodic Cycle with the Sun, which culminates a little over a year and a half from now, in a different sign. Venus is coming off of a Scorpio phase and entering into a Gemini phase, the sign of her first rise ahead of the Sun on Tuesday. A few days later she can be seen before sunrise accompanied by the waning crescent Moon, which the Mayans felt was her vehicle. In Gemini she brings consciousness, curiosity and intellection to our ongoing study of ourselves as relating souls. The poet William Blake remarked on how fundamental was the act of connection between humans when he stated: “The bird a nest, the spider a web, man friendship.”
Since Venus is also inconjunct Pluto as she begins her new cycle, we have a touch of the Scorpio period still remaining and with it a touch of the power complex emerging or perhaps the issue of sexuality raising its head. And this potential for difficult realizations is another theme that finds it way into the mix of energies surrounding us now, as we enter the final stages of this first exact hit of the Uranus-Pluto square that may be considered the hallmark of our troubled decade. There will be a total of seven more hits still to come, over the next several years, with an aftermath that will last into 2020, but in many ways this first cut is the deepest. After this year we might almost get used to the idea of radical transformation as a fundamental part of our lives. And during this fragile and powerful time of dark beauty we win when we reconnect with ourselves at deep levels and give our little selves the benefit of the doubt. Self-acceptance goes a long way toward compassion for friends and partners, which in turn goes a huge distance toward the ultimate healing that we collectively seek.
The New Moon that comes along on Tuesday, June 19th, is an interesting one, being the second New Moon in the curious and thoughtful sign of Gemini, the Air sign most closely connected with intellection and communication. This introduces a long series of New Moons that take place near the end rather than the beginning of their respective signs, producing a more muted and also a more spiritual feel for the particular sign involved. This placement in late Gemini, called the Aquarius decanate (the last third of the sign) is really very different than the early degrees, being concerned with the ultimate result of thought process in terms of philosophical groundbreaking and social benefit, and indicating that it is now high time to put our actual money and our concerted actions wherever our deepest thought process might take us. This New Moon happens just one day before the June 20th Summer Solstice, when the Cardinal sign of Cancer –oppositional to Pluto’s Capricorn placement – comes into its own.
Of course the big news this lunation is the Uranus-Pluto square which is now extremely close, and fully triggered by this New Moon cycle. The First Quarter Moon a week further on, taking place on the 26th, makes a T-square with Pluto, and hence also with Uranus in Aries, so that this latter configuration represents one peak this year of the energy for Uranus- Pluto and the total revolution that their powerful square brings to the table. In this New Moon configuration there is thus the incipient T-square of Sun/Moon on the edge of Cancer with Pluto and Uranus. Meanwhile, Venus, retrograde and stationing in Gemini, also closely aspects the dynamic duo of these outer planets. Mercury participates, now in Cancer and widely opposed to Pluto. The Sun/Mercury midpoint at the time of the New Moon is closely opposed to Pluto and square with Uranus, being a mere 1 1/2 degrees away from exact, and is also exactly trine Chiron in Pisces. The Chiron factor is important, bringing as it does an increased awareness of the painful places inside ourselves; our pain in the face of difficult transformation and loss. In the end it allows us to dwell more deeply on the metamorphosis that is underway, regarding both its individual and its collective aspects, and that is still accelerating. We recognize that we lose something of ourselves in the process, which is bound to be scary. This however does not mean that we lose our spiritual grounding; this is the great comfort symbolized by the prominence as well in the current skies of Jupiter and Neptune.
As this New Moon cycle launches us further into the maelstrom, with the first exact hit of Uranus-Pluto rapidly approaching, we do well to reflect on where we are in our lives and where ultimately headed. There is an important part of ourselves that is in the midst of radical change, and that as a result is likely to become forever lost to us, at least in its present condition. This is the action of Pluto, to make way for the new phase, our next stage as inspired by Uranus. It helps to reflect on where Capricorn and Aries fall in your individual chart, or indeed in your Solar Chart, where for Sagittarius, for example, Pluto lands in your second house of resources, with revelatory Uranus in your sector of creative self-expression. In the larger picture of the collective, the transformation that we might expect will be with government, power and control issues there, as well with re-constellating our very identity as a culture, as in the rebellion on various levels symbolized on our own national scene by the Occupy movement. Then there is the consciousness and human potential movement, reflected in the slogan that has lately become popular of “Occupy your Heart.” How we align with these various currents within our society will be one telling factor over the coming months and years, as we more fully explore the truth of what it means in this century to be human, and what it truly means to be nothing but ourselves.
The First Quarter Moon that comes along in the evening of Tuesday, June 26th, is an important one. Coming as it does mid-way in the first half of the lunation cycle, leading up to the Full Moon, this moment of tension is always interesting. Now, however, the Sun – newly in Cancer – together with the Moon in square to it, make a Grand Cross in Cardinal signs with Uranus and Pluto just as the square between these two outer planets perfects. This day, rather than the recent date of their exact, Sunday the 24th, is therefore the strongest moment of the period surrounding this configuration’s initial contact, presaging a dicey time of revolutionary change coming down, and intense adjustment to the recognition of the radical depth of that transformation.
Of course, this aspect between Uranus and Pluto is far from over, with six more exact hits over the next few years, and with an influence lasting right through to the end of the decade. We are in the soup, no two ways about it, and do well to remain as conscious as possible regarding the extended period of this transition, both individually and collectively. We likely will be hard-pressed to recognize either ourselves or our cultural matrix by the time that the 2020 mark is actually reached, so major is the societal transformation that the world and particularly America is entering into as we step through the doorway of this climactic year. As we cross this threshold we might remember to watch and weigh everything that happens with the utmost attention, reserving judgment as far as that is possible, and holding onto our faith in the essential benevolence of the cosmos to guide us through. The spiritual evolution that is here unfolding has a cutting back effect on whatever is not working in our society and in ourselves and – let’s face it – there is much that needs to be pruned away.
Other factors in these current skies are also significant at this time. Venus is ending its retrograde through Gemini as early as the next morning, the 27th, and in aspect to Uranus and Pluto, further emphasizing the increase in consciousness surrounding this revolutionary and transformative confluence of cosmic factors, while the Sun and Moon also aspect Neptune in Pisces, while Jupiter remains square, representing on the other hand a softer and more intuitive feeling tone that is also a prominent astrological archetype in these powerful times we are living through. Relationships that we hold dear are vital to us now, and deserve careful examination. The Neptune factor means that we must understand that not everything that is happening right now will be immediately obvious, or even clear. There is the possibility of deception, currently rampant in the news headlines, as well as the potential for self-deception also, and then on the other hand there is the idealism and the hopeful vision that we must nonetheless fall back on if we are to keep our sanity during what will be in many ways a difficult transition.
All in all, this is a time of great potential difficulty. We must give up some cherished notions and perhaps possessions. But this period of trial has its uplifting side in the thought that it is all quite necessary, and even in some sense planned, when we can keep faith in the creative potential of our higher selves, and in the universe that surrounds us, to see us through.
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