We will soon enter another period of the three most significant ones of 2026 and the entire month of June is being felt as if we are sitting at a concert hall, watching a large orchestra slowly fill the stage and begin to tune its instruments. We know the performance will be phenomenal; the musicians are the best in the world, the conductor excels at interpreting the pieces to be performed, and even the critics have written articles full of lofty expectations.
Slowly, the musicians take their seats waiting for the concertmaster (the principal first violinist) to enter the stage and the orchestra to settle. The principal oboist is then asked to play the reference note which begins the tuning ritual. The oboist will play a sustained, clear note—universally the musical pitch A (typically, 440 Hz). The oboe has a piercing and stable tone able to cut through the room and cannot be rapidly altered while played. The rest of the orchestra adjusts their pitches section by section, starting with the woodwinds and brass followed by the strings.
While players softly blow or bow the note to match the oboe’s pitch, the instruments begin to lock in and the hall will soon fall silent for a brief moment. Then, with the instruments fully calibrated and ready, the conductor will take the stage to begin the performance.
The Oboe: Uranus and the Nodes
Oboe’s pitch has been, and will continue to be, the squares of Uranus to the nodal axis. Even though Uranus and the axis formed the exact T-square yesterday, the squares between Uranus and the nodes were only 1°43′ from being exact at the time of the full moon in Sagittarius on May 31. Since they will continue to be operational at the full moon in Capricorn on June 29, we can say that Uranus will have been “rattling the cage” throughout June.
Recall that the nodal axis refers to our life experiences. In transit, the North Node symbolizes what life “throws” at us, and the South Node represents the tools with which we can confront them, based largely on what we have learned from our past (even karmic). When a planet forms a T-square with the nodal axis, it tends to color new experiences and our reactions to them in a significant way, and that’s especially true from Uranus, the planet which breaks through societal structures (Saturn) and opens the transpersonal gates to cosmic intuition.
Uranus’s modus operandi is through a combination of shock and fear upon the realization that societal, or in some cases tribal, structures are failing to provide us with the desired safety, along with the sudden revelation of alternatives. Indeed, this month has been so chock-full of surprises that few things can surprise us anymore. Those of us with a strong Uranus in the chart have seen our world turned upside-down by unexpected events that, to cope, are making us reach deeply in our tools arsenal.
Woodwinds: Neptune and Saturn
As the messenger of the gods, Mercury has been busy since it entered Cancer on June 1, a sign where it doesn’t feel very comfortable since Cancer prefers planets which communicate emotionally. However, Mercury is so adaptable that it rolls up its sleeves and tries to bring clarity to issues related to feelings, emotions, and even psychic energies. It does so by opening venues of communication about what goes on in those uneasy areas.
A few days later, on June 4, Mercury formed a square with Neptune, the dreamy planet of subliminal messages and ethereal visions. If Mercury in Cancer often brings out the desire to write our dreams or somehow make tangible what goes on in our subconscious, such a contact with Neptune might have turbocharged that urge.
Continuing to advance through Cancer, Mercury formed a square with Saturn on Wednesday, June 10. This is a powerful aspect with energy to embark in new endeavours related to organized information. If you started a project in the past few days, it is likely to be well-structured and advance very quickly.
Mercury will be in Cancer two full months, until August 9, so we better get used to speaking and communicating our emotions. The reason for such a long stay is that it will be retrograde between June 29, the day of the full moon in Capricorn, and July 23. As a matter of fact, today, June 13, it began moving through its retrograde shadow (Cancer 16°19′), namely the span of Cancer it will revisit while moving retrograde.
Brass: Pluto and Jupiter
Last Tuesday, June 9, we had a lovely conjunction between Venus and Jupiter at Cancer 25°47′, an aspect that tends to soften our disposition, perhaps bringing out artistic expressions and a desire for pleasurable experiences. Perhaps more importantly, the expansive nature of Jupiter prepared Venus for today’s Leo entrance. Venus in Leo provides generous energy to our relationships, along with a need to express our needs dramatically.
As soon as Venus entered Leo, however, it met Pluto right across the zodiac. Although their opposition won’t be exact until June 17, we may be feeling its effects already. A Venus–Pluto opposition may bring out a compulsive need for relationship, often one in particular, and there may also be an element of fear. In some cases, the compulsion is financial. Venus could be paving the way for Jupiter’s Leo entrance on June 30, followed by its own opposition with Pluto on July 20.
New Moon in Gemini
The Gemini lunation will begin on June 14 at 7:54 p.m. in California, at 8:54 p.m. in Mexico City, or on June 15 at 4:54 a.m. in Central Europe. The Sun–Moon conjunction will occur at Gemini 24°03′ as shown in the following chart:
June 15, 2026 at 02:53:58 hours (GMT)
Looking at the chart, we see Venus (Leo 1°57′) already in Leo and moving towards the exact opposition with Pluto which, at Aquarius 5°10′, is yet to leave the degree where it began to move retrograde on May 6, more than an month ago. Meanwhile, Mercury (Cancer 18°32′) will already be two degrees into its retrograde shadow, still forming an operational square with Saturn (Aries 13°19′) and a sextile with Mars (Taurus 20°08′), which is the only major aspect formed by the red planet.
Sabian Symbol
In general, the new moon in Gemini starts a soli-lunar cycle, a lunation, in which we are encouraged to “name” things, events, and even feelings, for Gemini is the sign of gathering and categorizing information. What is most unusual about this new moon is that the Sun–Moon conjunction will not form any major aspects with another planet; I will say more about it shortly.
The symbol for Gemini 25, where Sun and Moon form the conjunction, has the image: “A gardener trimming large palm trees”, further explained as bringing under control nature’s power of expansion. Diana Roche gives it the keyword Dedication and writes of the effort required to make one’s mark in the world. There is a connotation of enhancing and of shaping the world’s natural resources to one’s liking. Rudhyar reminds us that Gemini is the sign of mental expansion, which needs to be “reeled in” periodically. Not surprisingly, he gives the keyword: Pruning. To me, it is worth noting that pruning implies getting rid of that which is old and obsolete.
Aspects and Relatedness
We have often stressed the importance of relatedness in life. Most Indian philosophies teach the concept of emptiness (in Sanskrit: Śūnyatā) which is a foundational Buddhist concept asserting that no phenomenon has an independent, inherent or permanent existence. Everything is not only interrelated but in constant flux so nothing arises or exists in isolation. In our process-oriented astrology, we can speak of intra- or inter-process relatedness, depending on whether we consider the relationships within a single planetary orbit (one process) or between two orbits; recall that the planets themselves represent the current phase and meaning within their process.
Whereas intra-process relatedness refers to the sign and degree where the planet is located, inter-process relatedness is primarily determined by the aspects (angular distances) between planets. Traditionally, the aspects have been classified as major, also called Ptolemaic (conjunction, sextile, square, trine and opposition), or minor (many others). A planet which does not form any major aspects with another one is said to be “untamed” and behave wildly. Following the terminology used by Spanish astrologers, I will call them feral planets1 without the negative connotation of savage or brutish energies. A feral planet simply acts as a pure expression of its energies combined with the sign and degree in which it is located. In a natal chart, it is not even anchored to the house where it is found but “roams free”, often giving a background energy to the entire chart.
Strings: A Pseudo-feral New Moon
Strictly speaking, a new moon cannot have a feral Sun or Moon; their conjunction is definitely a Ptolemaic aspect. However, the lights should be taken as a unit, the quintessential seed of the entire lunation. From that point of view, the Sun–Moon conjunction is pseudo-feral. The urge to categorize and name information will be available everywhere, along with the energies to prune what is obsolete from our lives.
Do not forget that Gemini is ruled by Mercury, still in Cancer and forming a square with Saturn, which will help us give form and structure to our emotional communications, and powered by a sextile with Mars. Besides, Mercury will spend the entire lunation visiting its retrograde shadow, in degrees that will give meaning to those communications, but which will be reexamined and perhaps reconsidered before they are traversed once more in July. By that time, the finely-tuned orchestra will be enacting the monumental performance that will be the subject of the next article.
Chiron in Taurus
Due to its highly-elliptical orbit, Chiron spends a lot of time in some signs and speeds through others. The Chiron return is felt at around 50 years of age and it is an important psychological milestone. As we have repeatedly said, Chiron represents a wound that is initially felt as a deep insecurity but which can be overcome and then turned into a source of self-power. Chiron made a preliminary five-month foray into Aries in 2018 and has been in that sign since early 2019, wounding and healing our collective sense of identity, individual willpower, and the raw right to exist.
Similarly, Chiron will leave Aries on June 19 for a short, three-month incursion into Taurus, although it won’t change signs definitely until April 14, 2027. In Taurus, the healing crisis shifts from Who am I? (Aries) to What am I worth, and what keeps me secure? (Taurus). It will expose wounds around resources, our physical bodies (and their pleasures), the Earth, and financial survival.
The Gemini Connection
The aforementioned pseudo-feral new moon does form exactly one Ptolemaic aspect: a sextile with Chiron! Since the latter is not a planet, it doesn’t diminish its “pseudo-ferality” condition. What it does is provide an outlet to the initial impressions of our personal Chiron-in-Taurus wound. Metaphorically speaking, Sun and Moon will behave like a feral creature, running wild through the woods of Gemini, naming whatever they like. Suddenly, they will stop to offer a hand to Chiron who is making a tentative entrance into a new sign after many years of dealing with the old sign’s wounds.
The Gemini new moon will act as a hostess for Chiron, using its brilliant, intellectual, and highly-adaptive mercurial energy to voice the transition from Aries to Taurus, or at least our initial impressions of what is like to experience a wound in those areas of experience. The new moon will give us the raw, uncensored curiosity to question our oldest concepts of worth and security just as Chiron prepares to rewrite them.
Percussion: The Summer Solstice
Whereas the timpanists tuned their instruments to the oboist’s pitch, most of the untuned percussion instruments—like snare drums, cymbals, bass drums, and woodblocks—are never tuned to the “A440” pitch. Instead, the player adjusts their tone, tension and resonance using mechanical keys or by selecting different mallets to fit the acoustics of the concert hall and the character of the piece.
On June 21, Sun will reach its northernmost point in declination, the beginning of summer in the northern hemisphere and the start of the Cancer season. In an Aries chart, this corresponds to the bottom of the chart:
June 21, 2026 at 08:24:18 hours (GMT)
Adapting to the concert-hall acoustics would be equivalent to the First Quarter, which will occur just half-a-day later, at 0°32′ of Cancer (Sun) and Libra (Moon). Therefore, neither the exact sextile between Mercury (Cancer 23°26′) and Moon (Virgo 23°17′), nor the very tight trine between Mars (Taurus 24°39′) and Moon shown in the solstice chart will be present. However, since such a chart is a great indicator for the background energies available in the next quarter, the symbolism of those aspects will be present in the summer. Briefly, they will allow us to deeply feel our emotions and communicate them accordingly. Given that Chiron will have already entered Taurus (0°03′), where it will stay until September 18, what we said earlier about Chiron in Taurus will apply through the entire summer.
Meanwhile, on June 23, Sun will be at Cancer 1°54′ and will form a Mystic Triangle with the nodal axis, perhaps softening the Uranus influence on the nodes. As a final note, I want you to see how the Minor Grand Trine of the transpersonal planets is reaching the exactness we will experience in July, when they will all be in the fifth degree of their respective signs and delight us with the expected performance for which we are tuning. At Aquarius 5°04′, Pluto is about to retrograde back into the fifth degree, Neptune (Aries 4°21′) is already there and has slowed down to 41% of its normal speed, while Uranus (Gemini 3°12′) is speeding up at 113%.
Wrapping Up…
I chose the analogy of orchestra tuning because there are multiple important points for the lunation that may seem disconnected but will lead to what comes next: the transpersonal planets in the fifth degree of their signs and, for a few days, joined by Jupiter also in the fifth degree of Leo.
Don’t fret over unexpected or rebellious (even revolutionary) events you are encountering this month. Uranus is shaking the cage so we don’t fall into a state of complacency, for we need to remain alert to perceive the subtle signs being sent by the Universe.
The need for pruning is real; we must shed as much of our baggage as possible. We will want to be nimble to take advantage of opportunities that will come—suddenly and unexpectedly, of course.
Should you feel Chiron tugging at your sense of self-worth and security, or should it be making you realize inconsistencies on how you relate to your body, let the emotions and feelings arise. You may want to record them somehow; there will be energies to do so. Remember that Chiron will go back to the first degree of Taurus in 2027 and we will be prepared that way.
Please declare your intention prior to Sunday night.
Always Love. 🌹🙏💖
Notes
- I used to call them peregrine planets, the term used by Noel Tyl but which is used in traditional astrology for planets that lack a “home-field advantage” or, in astrological terms, have no essential dignity: a set of complex rules regarding the combination of the planet and the sign it is in. The problem is that traditional peregrine planets are thought to be weak, whereas feral planets are simply not bound by their relationships with others. ↩︎
Comments
Thank you Rafael. I loved the orchestral analogy. The messages i am taking away are “deeply felt and communicated emotions” and “shedding baggage”, which seem very appropriate in these days. Love as always.