Spiritual Sovereignty

Ostensibly, this article is about the Cancer Solstice, summer solstice for the northern hemisphere, and the subsequent new moon in Cancer. When viewed as a psychological type, in the Jungian sense, Cancer is the sign of the integrated individuality which gives rise to our individual power or Self. As a phase, Cancer is the opening square of Aries, representing a phase of crisis in the cycle that began in Aries, a crisis that requires a decision to be made in order to keep moving through the cycle. Every cardinal sign, not just Cancer, is a decisive and active response to nature’s crises at the equinoxes and solstices.

I said ‘ostensibly’, however, because this solstice and new moon are full of nuances that may be felt by sensitive individuals. In particular, both occur forming a conjunction with Jupiter, squares with Saturn and Neptune, and a quincunx with Pluto. Other than the Pluto quincunx, the aspects fall in the world axis, defined as the cross of equinoxes and solstices with a tight orb (1°–1.5°), where they tend to manifest as external events. Moreover, the squares with Neptune and quincunxes with Pluto activate the Minor Grand Trine of the transpersonal planets, so we will likely witness world-axis events related to humanity’s current evolution in consciousness.

Beliefs System and Spirituality

In the last article, we talked about the entrance of Jupiter into Cancer on June 9 and of the Jupiter–Saturn square which was exact on June 15. We said little, however, of the square between Jupiter and Neptune which just took place on June 18 (June 19 in Europe). Their planetary processes deal with aspirations beyond materialism regarding our personal evolution. Jupiter symbolizes the expansion of the mind achieved by building ever more inclusive relationships through knowledge, from science and philosophy to religion and the occult. Above all, Jupiter refers to our beliefs system. Meanwhile, Neptune refers to processes for a more direct relationship with the spiritual realm, ranging from inspiration to mystical experiences. In the end, Neptune refers to our spirituality.

The emphasis on our spiritual sovereignty, symbolized by Neptune in Aries, will be with us for the next fourteen years. Besides, Neptune will return to Pisces later this year before moving on to Aries next January. However, this is a uniquely opportune time to work on our spiritual sovereignty, due to the square currently formed between Neptune and Jupiter. It will provide energy to align our highest beliefs with our spirituality, a necessary first step to take ownership of our spiritual life. We must find out if our beliefs are against our spirituality before embarking on a particular spiritual path. Having Saturn in conjunction with Neptune will inject a needed dose of realism. Furthermore, the squares of Jupiter with Saturn and Neptune will be active at the new moon so the energy will be available throughout the Cancer lunation, as we will see shortly.

Mars and Uranus

Another aspect mentioned prominently in the last article was the square formed between Mars and Uranus in the fixed signs of Leo and Taurus. At some level, it energized the back-and-forth bombing between Israel and Iran. We said the aspect would bring out even more erratic behavior from Donald Trump since Mars was on its biennial return to his natal position, implying that Uranus also formed a square with his natal Mars. Indeed, he bolted out of the G7 meeting a week ago, when the square was exact, only to return to Washington and eventually declare that he will decide “within two weeks” whether to enter the war or not. Yet, he ordered to bomb Iran last night.

In a natal chart, a Mars–Uranus square often depicts an individual prone to accidents and, unfortunately, we had the Air India catastrophe; recall that Uranus rules the atmosphere and thus flying. On the other hand, Mars tends to activate the revolutionary side of Uranus and that Saturday saw the “No Kings” demonstrations in many American cities, with an estimated 4–6 million participants, The square will continue to be in orb for several days but, on June 17, Mars entered Virgo so it became an off-sign square. Mars in Virgo refers to productive energy available for work and it is an aspect often featured prominently in the charts of workaholics. In this case, the combination with Uranus will be less about expressing anger and more about working with it.

Cancer (Summer) Solstice

June 20 was the longest day of the year, the Cancer solstice happened that night, at 7:42 p.m. in California, 8:42 p.m. in Mexico City, or on June 21 at 4:42 a.m. in Central Europe, marking the beginning of summer in the northern hemisphere and winter in the southern one. In astrology, the solstice is defined as the moment when Sun enters Cancer, found at the bottom of the following Aries chart:

The charts of the equinoxes and solstices represent background energies for the next three months, the energy of Sun is used to generate power that will be concentrated when it transits the subsequent fixed sign and then disseminated when moving through the mutable sign that ends the quarter. As soon as it entered Cancer, Sun formed the aspects mentioned earlier. The conjunction with Jupiter will energize its aspects; in particular the square to Neptune already mentioned, so we can continue working on aligning our beliefs and spirituality well beyond the Cancer lunation.

All the important aspects will be present at the new moon, which we will analyze shortly, with the notable exception of the exact sextile between Sun an Moon (Taurus 0°30′). Being the waning sextile, it lies within the Last Quarter phase, the crisis of consciousness when trying to make sense of what we felt or observed at the full moon. The sextile is a highly productive and energetic aspect that will try to resolve the crisis, in this case the signs talk about security (Taurus) at home or in the homeland (Cancer). Perhaps not surprisingly, the US bombed Iran right at the Cancer solstice, although events are seldom that exact in astrology. Moon was conjunct Chiron (Aries 26°30′) and in a square with Pluto (Aquarius 3°20′), suggesting a powerful opportunity to heal issues related to our personal sovereignty.

New Moon in Cancer

The Cancer lunation will begin with the exact conjunction of Sun and Moon at Cancer 4°08′, occurring on June 25 at 3:31 a.m. in California, 4:31 a.m. in Mexico City, or 12:31 p.m. in Central Europe.

At the time of the new moon, Sun and Moon still form tight conjunctions with Jupiter (Cancer 3°33′), just hours after they were exact. This triple conjunction forms a square with the near-exact conjunction of Saturn (Aries 1°40′) and Neptune (Aries 2°09′). Everything we have said about the squares of Jupiter with Saturn and Neptune will be activated by Sun and distributed by Moon during the lunation; this is why this article makes so much emphasis on our spiritual sovereignty.

Mercury Enters Leo

At Cancer 28°10′, Mercury will form a tight sextile with Uranus (Taurus 29°26′), its higher octave, when the new moon arrives. This is a wonderful aspect for working on science, electronics, mathematics and new technology like AI. Both planets form aspects with Pluto at Aquarius 3°15′, in the sign ruled by Uranus, which further shines the spotlight on those subjects. Mercury will also form trines with Saturn and Neptune so it will make contact with the entire Minor Grand Trine of transpersonal planets.

Mercury will travel quickly through the final degree of Cancer and enter Leo on June 26, a day after the new moon. Mercury will form an immediate on-sign opposition with Pluto, from which it will be capable of tricking it into providing secrets that it will readily divulge, especially being in Leo. One by one, the aspects will be exact and they will even remain in orb at the First Quarter phase. In general, Mercury in Leo has a lot to do with the power of the expressed word so this will be a great lunation for writing. Also, it wouldn’t be surprising to witness big pronouncements in the next week to ten days.

Mars and Pluto Yods

We have mentioned a few times the Yod configuration, also known as the Finger of Fate. Briefly, it is formed by three planets arranged as a tall and skinny isosceles triangle having a sextile aspect as base and two quincunxes (150°) as sides joining the base with the vertex. The energies of the base planets are focused on the vertex planet; the latter receives the joint energy of the sextile in a “fateful” manner. In the charts, the sextiles are shown as purple lines and the quincunxes are drawn dotted in green.

Looking at the new-moon chart, we can identify two Yods. The first one, with Pluto as vertex, has the exact sextile between Mars (Virgo 4°34′) and the triple conjunction (Sun, Moon and Jupiter) as base. The second has Mars as vertex and the sextile between Pluto and the conjunction of Saturn and Neptune as base. The quincunx between Mars and Pluto is common to both Yods and every time we have a contact between those two planets we deal with the tension between our individual will and the Cosmic Will. I should note that a quincunx occurs between two signs that have nothing in common; for example, Aquarius, where we find Pluto, is a Yang, fixed, air sign, whereas Virgo, where Mars is located, is a Yin, mutable, earth sign. Cooperation between such dissimilar energies often requires conscious effort, except when they are part of a Yod configuration.

Sabian Symbol

The Sabian symbol for Cancer 5, where the conjunction of Sun and Moon will take place, has the image: “An automobile wrecked by a train”, one of the 27 symbols (out of 360) that Marc Edmund Jones labelled “reversed”, sometimes also calling them “negative” in the sense that they portray tragedy and ill luck. He presented them as lessons in learning and tried to provide alternative ways to confront the symbol’s situation. In this case, he thought the symbol spoke about rushing things and thus emphasized the need for self control. For Diana Roche, the symbol is about Knowing When to Stop. Given the current bellicose environment, one hopes the Sun and Moon energies will instill such wisdom in a few world leaders.

Rudhyar expanded the image to: “At a railroad crossing, an automobile is wrecked by a train”, explained as the tragic results which are likely to occur when the individual’s will pits itself carelessly against the power of the collective will of society. He writes: “The automobile symbolizes individualized consciousness eager to pursue its own course of action regardless of how it may affect the collective consciousness of a community (the train).” That said, most of the lessons we learn are the result of relatively destructive experiences, so the symbol could refer to a Karmic Readjustment, which is its key phrase. Interestingly, the symbol refers to the same tension of wills we noted earlier, when talking about Mars and Pluto forming an aspect.

On Cycles

As we have discussed, Dane Rudhyar’s philosophy is based on holism, as defined by Jan Smuts in his 1926 book “Holism and Evolution”. Rudhyar defines a ‘whole’ as a field of activity in Space and Time. Loosely speaking, a whole in Space is a three-dimensional object made from interrelated parts working together for the proper function of the object (the whole). As an example, a whole can be a living organism composed of various organs, but we can extend this concept of whole to an atom or a galaxy. A whole in Time is a cycle, having a beginning, an end, and a number of phases in between, notably the middle. A cycle in Time is often built out of subcycles just like a whole in Space is composed of parts, themselves wholes, in a hierarchy based on encompassment that we call a holarchy. From this holistic viewpoint, astrology is a discipline for the study of cycles.

Broadly speaking, we can identify two types of cycles in astrology: of position and of relationship. Position cycles simply track the location of a celestial body against the zodiac. The most important position cycle is Earth’s orbit around the sun, for it defines the zodiac. It is plotted in the charts as Sun moving through the signs. The zodiac arbitrarily begins at the spring equinox in the northern hemisphere (Aries 0°), so Earth will have traveled a quarter of its 360° orbit, or 90°, when the summer solstice (Cancer 0°) rolls around, as it did a couple of days ago. The position cycle of a planet, in other words, its orbit, represents a specific process moving through the zodiac at its own rhythm. On June 9, Jupiter’s entered Cancer and will remain in that sign (phase) until June 30, 2026.

Conversely, relationship cycles are formed by the relative angles between two celestial bodies. Their relationship cycle begins and ends when they are exactly conjunct, so their opposition marks half of the cycle. Unlike position cycles, relationship cycles may begin anywhere in the zodiac. By far the most important relationship cycle is the lunation (Sun and Moon) which begins with each new moon. Relationship cycles represent the ebb and flow of two planetary processes collaborating (or competing) jointly at the conjunction and separately at the opposition.

Current Conditions

When observing the new-moon chart, the most prominent feature are the squares formed between the triple conjunction of Sun, Moon and Jupiter in early Cancer with the double conjunction of Saturn and Neptune in early Aries. As we mentioned, the square of Sun and Neptune will energize the Minor Grand Trine responsible for the current evolutionary leap in consciousness. At a personal level, the Jupiter–Neptune cycle tracks the relationship between our beliefs system and our spirituality. Once again, its opening (waxing) square will enable us to work on taking charge of our spiritual sovereignty.

The twenty-year relationship cycle of Jupiter and Saturn is special because it relates the two social planets and thus symbolizes the pulse of society. The current cycle began with the Great Conjunction of December 21, 2020 which occurred in the first degree of Aquarius (at 0°29′). Last June 15, we had the last of a triple waxing square, a moment of crisis in a relationship cycle. It is time to ask ourselves if we are living in fear of repetition—for example, more wars or economic woes—or from a creative point of view where we recognize old patterns but act differently. Our planet is itself going through a transformation heralded by huge solar flares and experienced in part as climate change, earthquakes, floods, etc. By being conscious of the cycles, we can navigate the changes creatively, instead of fearing them.

Wrapping Up…

After one of the most chaotic lunar months in recent memory, the Cancer lunation (June 25 to July 24) will feel like a deserved relief. When Uranus enters Gemini on July 7, we will begin two months of fast sailing through changes; until September 1, when Saturn returns to Pisces, followed by Neptune on October 22, and Uranus back in Taurus on November 8. I encourage you to be as observant as possible for this is a rehearsal for the next seven years.

Every new moon is full of potentialities and so it is difficult to predict even broad tendencies. This is why we are encouraged to declare an intention prior to the new moon itself. It should be declared in the present tense and relating it, if possible, to the field of experiences of the house where the new moon will fall in your natal chart.

In the next article, we will analyze the entrance of Uranus in Gemini and the full moon in Capricorn on July 10. However, it is clear that we must work on aligning our beliefs system and our spirituality, at least between now and the autumnal equinox.

Always Love. 🌹🙏💖