Astrology: Summer Solstice - June 21 2018

Retro Cool Summer

The Spring season really ushered in a whole new phase as volatile Uranus in Aries shifted to Taurus, marking the end of a turbulent seven year passage.  Moreover, Chiron has moved into Aries, after a six-year stay in Pisces.:

Uranus enters Taurus (May 15th) (last in Taurus from 1935 – 1942). 1. Challenges and transformation of our values, including our self-value. 2. Radical innovations of our financial system on a personal and collective level.3. A shift from external ‘security’ props to internal security. 4. The breakdown of inauthentic false values in the collective. 5. A radical change in our understanding of beauty. 6. Innovations in taking care of the resources on our planet. 7. Major changes in the concept of ‘home’ and ‘housing’.8. Changes in our relationship patterns. (Cosmic Intelligence Agency)

 

Chiron in Aries (April 17th – June 2026): ( last in Aries from 1968-1977) understanding and integrating gaps in your sense of personal empowerment, engaging with your inner fears in a courageous manner, taking chances, in spite of your fear and healing energetic blocks that are connected to the planets that Chiron aspects in your chart during his travels through this sign. (Cosmic Intelligence Agency)

 

Morever, due to retrogradation, Saturn is still at the beginning of Capricorn:

Saturn in Capricorn:  conservation, restrictions, and boundaries to be put in place. […]- Saturn gives you what you deserve and no more. There will be no easy way or shortcuts up the career ladder as Saturn transits Capricorn. Only concentrated and steady progress will bring you the rewards that you deserve. (Café Astrology)

 

The more difficult aspects from the outer planets have faded, leaving three easy aspects, according to Café Astrology:

Jupiter trine Neptune: idealistic and humanitarian goals or impulses surface now. Making connections with others from a different background may figure. Widening our minds through unusual or different experiences can be part of the picture. Generosity and compassion increase and our faith is boosted. We more easily make personal sacrifices.

Saturn trine Uranus: This can be a time of firsts in the primary structures of our lives. Changes we make tend to be deliberate or calculated, but possibly also quite quick. Original ideas may take form, or they might be developed quite successfully now. There is an opportunity to combine stability and improvement or excitement with good results. The same can be said of innovation and tradition.

and the ever-present Neptune sextile Pluto. This is a whole new deal and although the spring quarter saw its share of turmoil, overall, the level of intensity and conflict seems to have mellowed.

 

Retro Cool Summer

At the solstice, four outer planets (Jupiter, Saturn, Neptune, Pluto) are retrograde and by the end of the summer, six planets will be retrograde; add Mars (June 26-August 27) and Mercury (July 26th-August 19). Retrograde motion can signify revisiting past experiences that are linked to the planets domain and also revealing elements pertaining to that planet’s energy that were not properly processed, causing a slowing of forward movement. It’s an ideal period for reviewing and fine tuning, and so after the brisk rush of the new spring energies, it’s a good time to slow down and evaluate how the new direction is going as well as dealing with loose ends and unfinished business from the previous turbulent periods. Here’s a quick breakdown, courtesy of Astrology King:

Jupiter retrograde (March 9- July 10) represents a time of philosophical or spiritual introspection and reflection. This year the main theme of Jupiter retrograde is poisoning of your personal value system and morals that affects your physical health.

Saturn retrograde(April 18-September 6) is a double dose of karma. The lessons associated with Saturn retrograde 2018 relate to your thoughts and words. Saturn retrograde 2018 will be especially challenging if you have a history of teasing or verbally abusing people. Gloomy thoughts, bad news or loneliness could have a negative effect on your mental well-being.

Neptune retrograde (June 18- November 25) is the ideal time for spiritual self-development. The grand trine aspects and fixed stars involved make Neptune retrograde 2018 especially good for undertaking a spiritual quest to seek the truth.

Pluto retrograde Pluto (April 22-October 2) this is ideal for taking a direct, even aggressive approach to dealing with your Pluto retrograde power and control issues.         

 

Mercury-Neptune-Jupiter water grand trine

A grand trine brings strong, stable, beneficial energy. This grand trine brings happy, warm, optimistic, idealistic feelings, with intuitive, creative thinking – good vibrations!

 

Inner planet pandemonium

Although the Moon is sextile to Venus and Trine to Mars making for an outgoing sociability, there are four heavy oppositions, and they actually form five T-squares, which are very difficult and powerful aspects. This could mean a day marked with a lot of minor tensions, conflicts, and mishaps. Perhaps this foreshadows the upcoming three summer eclipses, which should shakes things up. (a partial solar eclipse on July 13,  a total lunar eclipse on July 27–28, and a partial solar eclipse on August 11). Below is a brief look at the major oppositions:

Mercury opposite Pluto -  Intellectual conflict, resolving issues, introspection, one-track mind

Mars opposite Venus – Sexual tension (the Mars-Uranus square will  continue to add tension this summer, due to Mars retrograde)

Sun opposite Saturn – Restlessness, inhibition, isolation

On the more mystical side, the cross formed by the Sun/Pluto and Moon/Chiron oppositions is suggestive (although it is not quite a grand cross).

 

So there is a new sense of optimism and cooperation in the air, but the fallout from the sweeping changes of the previous period can still require considerable attention. The rebuilding process now slows down for the next four or five months as we progress in the vivacious early phase of a new direction. This can be a period akin to shaking the house to see if the new foundations are strong. Things will gradually pick up speed during the fall, more so when Jupiter enters its ruling sign of fiery Sagittarius  on November 8.

 

References:

Robert Hand, Planets in Transit

https://astrologyking.com/

https://cafeastrology.com/

http://foreverconscious.com/intuitive-astrology-retrograde-season-june-august-2018

Through the Gates of Gold Chapter 4 The Meaning of Pain, Part 2b

Once perceiving this sense of responsibility, derived from the awareness of the awesome potential of our divine nature, we begin to realize our power to act on human society. With this comes the practical realization that we reap what we sow (Karma or Nemesis).

The man of the world, pure and simple, is by far the best practical observer and philosopher with regard to life, because he is not blinded by any prejudices. He will be found always to believe that as a man sows so shall he reap. And this is so evidently true when it is considered, that if one takes the larger view, including all human life, it makes intelligible the awful Nemesis which seems consciously to pursue the human race, — that inexorable appearance of pain in the midst of pleasure. The great Greek poets saw this apparition so plainly that their recorded observation has given to us younger and blinder observers the idea of it.

One should be aware of the suffering of the body versus the suffering of the soul. The body may suffer, yet the inner or the soul has the power to move beyond the suffering of the body.

There is the inner man — the soul — behind, using all these mechanisms; and this is as evidently the truth with regard to all the existences we know of as with regard to man himself. We cannot find any point in the scale of being at which soul-causation ceases or can cease. The dull oyster must have that in him which makes him choose the inactive life he leads; none else can choose it for him but the soul behind, which makes him be. How else can he be where he is, or be at all? Only by the intervention of an impossible creator called by some name or other.

It is again emphasized that the key is to accept responsibility for one’s own destiny and not rely on the illusions of outside powers to justify one’s limitations; growing up and putting aside one’s superstitions as it were; and one does this by recognizing one’s own immortal, divine inner nature.
...for the soul of man is of that order of life which causes shape and form, and is unaffected itself by these things, — of that order of life which like the pure, the abstract flame burns wherever it is lit. This cannot be changed or affected by time, and is of its very nature superior to growth and decay. It stands in that primeval place which is the only throne of God, — that place whence forms of life emerge and to which they return.

Then one can focus on the heart of one’s being, and from that center, undertake a balanced development of all the radiating lines of one’s being. One reaches the Golden Gates by the process of the gradual recognition of the god in oneself.
That place is the central point of existence, where there is a permanent spot of life as there is in the midst of the heart of man. It is by the equal development of that, — first by the recognition of it, and then by its equal development upon the many radiating lines of experience, — that man is at last enabled to reach the Golden Gate and lift the latch. The process is the gradual recognition of the god in himself; the goal is reached when that godhood is consciously restored to its right glory.

Through the Gates of Gold Chapter 4 The Meaning of Pain, Part 2a

This chapter introduces the idea of the inner god. It begins by comparing humans to a kind of tree of knowledge of good and evil.

If we carefully consider the constitution of man and its tendencies, it would seem as if there were two definite directions in which he grows. He is like a tree which strikes its roots into the ground while it throws up young branches towards the heavens. These two lines which go outward from the central personal point are to him clear, definite, and intelligible. He calls one good and the other evil