The astrology we're living through gets more interesting every week. Sometimes it seems like it's ramping up exponentially—and starting now, it gets more interesting every day. As this happens we will be able to see with our eyes the most visually spectacular Full Moon of the year.
We will experience the following:
Friday, June 21, the Sun ingresses Cancer. That's the Northern Hemisphere summer solstice, winter in the Southern Hemisphere. Consciousness spins on the axis of the solstices, which are the extremes of the longest day and the longest night. The Sun will be 90 degrees from where the zodiac begins, so this counts for an Aries Point event—along with everything else that's happening.
The Aries Point, one of the great mysteries of astrology, magnifies whatever astrological events and objects happen to make contact with it. World events seem personal and personal events fit a much wider pattern. Think of the Aries Point as the intersection where your life meets the bigger world. Aries Point events, which seem to come more frequently every year, are going to try to get our attention till we recognize we're part of something larger and actually do something about it.
Saturday, June 22, Venus is conjunct Vesta in Cancer. This is a conjunction of a planet and an asteroid, which takes us to the heart of the matter where sex meets spirituality meets service meets purpose. Mercury, slow and powerful before it stations retrograde, is in a very close conjunction to both Venus and Vesta. The Sun is exactly conjunct a radical feminine point called the Black Moon Lilith. The sensation of this setup is going deep into the heart of your feelings; deep into the core of your erotic reality and how this relates to nourishing our essential humanity (the sign Cancer).
Sunday, June 23, there's the Capricorn Full Moon just two days after solstice. When you put a solar/lunar event like the Full Moon on the Aries Point, the effect is multiplied exponentially. Also, this is the biggest Full Moon of the year, aligning with the Moon's closest pass to the Earth within one hour (see illustration).
Tuesday, June 25, Jupiter ingresses Cancer for the first time in nearly 12 years. This is some of the biggest and best news of 2013. It's not just that Jupiter is exalted in Cancer—that is, one of the planets most closely associated with that sign and most at home there. Jupiter does two impressive things as it passes through Cancer. One is that it makes a grand water trine, joining Saturn in Scorpio and Chiron and Neptune in Pisces; the other is that it will slip into the Uranus-Pluto square (the 2012-era aspect).
Wednesday, June 26, Mercury stations retrograde in Cancer. It'll be retrograde until July 20, the day the Sun ingresses Leo. This is the second of three Mercury retrogrades exclusively in the water signs, which describes our very watery year (link takes you to Planet Waves subscriber materials on this topic). Not only does Mercury spend seven months in water signs, it does so along with slow-movers Jupiter, Saturn, Chiron and Neptune.
When you combine all this Aries Point activity with Jupiter, the result is likely to be noticeable, as in unavoidable—particularly since Jupiter itself will be activating the Aries Point.
These days there is constant talk of change, and making the world better, and wanting to participate more, and do something more meaningful—but as you know, most of this is basically a combination of air and sound rather than anything substantial. While there are many factors that might seem to be blocking participation, I think that most of them are internal rather than external.
One quest of our times is learning how not to be so self-absorbed without losing ourselves at the same time. We are a culture that extols the virtues of narcissism, selfishness and competition. These same qualities are often projected into our 'self help' and 'spiritual' endeavors. Often the result is being a supposedly perfect person, connected to the universe, aligned in mind, body and spirit—and then offering nothing back except for how wonderful we are.
Part of being so enlightened often means ignoring or not being able to handle anything on the level of politics, civics, the news or developments in the world. It's an extremely disconnected form of spiritualism—perfect for a world where everything is a commodity and where often the goal is total fulfillment without taking any risks, except maybe pulling a muscle in yoga class.
There is an obsession with having clean hands: not discussing anything controversial, be it what you really think about something in the news, what you really want from, or do in, your relationships or who you really are in your sexual dimension. This is the illusion of purity—the only kind there is.
This is astrology that can get you wet, and dirty, and agitated, and sweaty, and excited and, most of all, INVOLVED.
