Spirit at the Crossings II

Go Play!
Joyce Mason

Photo credit: Fotolia.com. .

I stumbled across a website recently that taught me a lot about summer.  I wrote The Summer Signs as a result.  With its vivid artwork of Cancer, Leo and Virgo, this article about the summer quarter of the zodiac will take you deeper into the meaning of the season and its magical alchemy.  Find out how Cancer’s transformative job is dissolution; Leo’s is absorption; and Virgo’s is distillation.  Speaking of a Virgo distilling, I derived two tips from my recent contemplations on summer, keys to enjoying the season to its fullest:

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• Play, the Child’s Work We Never Outgrow

Summer is for the inner child in us all.  When we are having fun and “just being,” we have more opportunity for wisdom and close interactions to slip in—to delight us and teach us more about being human.  Vow to have more fun this summer.  Play was the growth medium of your earliest learning.  For a third of every year, get back to this basic—and keep as much of it as you can all year through.

• Stay Connected with the Earth

Let’s get away from all our electronic gismos, at least part of the time, and get our hands and feet back into the dirt we walk on.  I took a free teleseminar recently with holistic energy expert Dr. Robyn Benson on how to reboot your energy with self-care tips for increasing vitality.  It was an eye-opener.  My plan is literally to be barefoot in the park this summer or on the beach—to plant flowers and hug a tree.  We need our connection with the Earth’s energy to thrive.  I’m coming back to life from a long energy slump, thanks to finally “getting” this point.

This Summer’s Sky

Summer Solstice – June 21, 2014
11:57:27 am, Greenwich, England
Geocentric – Tropical – 00° Aries – True Node

How was your spring adventure with the Cardinal Grand Cross?  By now you may feel less pulled in all four directions and more trusting of your inner guidance to get you to where you’re going next.  While Jupiter has fallen out of the Cardinal Cross pattern with Pluto, Mars, and Uranus; it’s not too late to ponder this amazing cosmic signature and the opportunity it offered for your creative potential.   Remember that hindsight is 20/20.  You may only be getting a glimmer now of what this Astro-dynamic meant to you personally and what it has catalyzed for your future.

Summer opens with a cosmic nudge to slow down via Mercury Retrograde (June 9 – July 1).  If you haven’t already, take advantage of what Mercury Retro is best for: rest, editing and doing things with “re” in front of them: reconsider, revamp, relax and recreate, including recreation (play).  Let this Mercury Retrograde be the one where you quit expecting things to go wrong and decide you’ll have a good laugh and good time, if you experience delays and some of its typical mischief with communications, commerce and short trips.  Children don’t take themselves too seriously.  Read this daily during Mercury Retro to set your intentions: A Blessing for Mercury Retrograde.  See how this adjustment in consciousness changes everything for you.  If you have planets located between 4 Cancer and 24 Gemini, you’ll have a closer encounter with Mercury Retrograde this time around.

There are a lot of other changes in the Summer Solstice chart, too.  Setting an overall tone, the Moon is conjunct Uranus.  The Astro-weather is storming mood swings and sudden surprises.  These may shock and/or excite us emotionally.  Given summer’s inner child theme, it provides the variety kids crave.  They go nuts when they’re bored, and this summer there’s little chance of that.  Uranus/Moon opposes the North Node in Libra.  While the general atmosphere is about concern for others, there’s a pull in the other direction toward self.  Uranus, Moon and South Node—all in Aries—are hollering for “me time.” From your inner kid’s worldview, the self/other seesaw is up on your side for now.

Venus is about to wrap-up its stay in its own sign, Taurus.  The relationship planet moves into to Gemini on June 24, just after Summer Solstice.  Love of beauty, ambience and all things sensual may give way toward loving, partnering and spending money centered on communication.  Need a new cell phone, TV or computer?  Want to meet someone you can really talk to?  Find the neighborhood café with the best cappuccino and conversation?  The season for love of interaction is upon us.

Mars finishes its stint in Libra, sign of relationship, justice and peace on July 25 when it moves into one of its most compatible signs, Scorpio, until September 13.  Mars is the co-ruler with Pluto of the intense Scorpion sign.  This will fuel your desires to go forward with projects you’re passionate about and also for physical and deep psychological work.

A big shift is in store on July 16 when Jupiter changes signs from Cancer to Leo.  I love what astrologer Carol Barbeau says about it: Our teacher becomes fire, passion, joy, creativity and opening our heart.  Returning to my kids-and-fun theme, Jupiter—often the playful benefic—is in the two signs associated with childhood this summer.  Getting into kid mode will enable us to open to all the fun Jupiter has stored up for twelve years since its last visit to the sign of Leo.   Don’t be afraid to be dramatic or to do what you love with gusto.

Saturn goes direct on July 20 to finish its stint in Scorpio on Christmas.  Let go of old structures that no longer serve you, including being stuck in psychological ruts.  “In a related story,” as they say on the news: Chiron in Pisces is just stationing and going direct at Summer Solstice, making a close trine to Saturn while it’s still retrograde.  We may experience our wounds and disowned parts of ourselves coming more to the surface.  We cannot fix what we’re not aware of.  We may find both personal and collective secrets uncovered as Saturn in Scorpio brings them into form.  While Saturn is still retrograde, this revelation of ways to re-form and heal ourselves may not happen all at once.  Some information we need to complete the process is still underwater.  We only see the tip of the iceberg of solutions.  The blessing?  We probably couldn’t process more than a bit at a time, anyway.

Neptune, too, has recently gone retrograde (June 9).  This turns us to what my colleague and one of my favorite astrologers, Anne Whitaker, calls “the inner sea.” Time to do dreamy, artsy, musical and imaginative things.  Neptune remains retrograde until November.

Uranus in Aries and Mars in Libra form a T-square that points to Pluto in Capricorn in the Summer Solstice chart.  There are tensions around power, war and aggression.  While political eruptions and difficult weather patterns are possibilities, we can all do what that wonderful holiday song advises us: “Let there be peace on earth and let it begin with me.” We can watch our words and “intensions.” (I typoed that and then realized it was more correct, metaphorically, than intentions.) If we take this summer’s strong cosmic hint to play, communicate, be creative and share our hearts more; we can only send a peace wave into the hot summer days ahead.

Summer Rituals

My Solsisters group always celebrates summer down by the river.  Any body of water is a great place to say hello to the Sun as it moves into Cancer, the ultimate nurturing water sign.  Baptize yourself in Oneness with Nature in your favorite local waters.

Because of the inner child theme I’ve been exploring, I did a process recently that I’d love to share with you.  See my two-part article series, Learning from Memory Lane.  It suggests how anyone can review his or her childhood in order to recreate a happy home and child within, even if you didn’t have one in the first place.

Tip along those lines: Go through your albums and find your favorite childhood photo or two.  Display them prominently and say hello to this “kid” every morning.  This summer, it’s your job to play until you can see him or her looking back at you in the mirror, no faded photograph needed.

Other ideas: Play some of your favorite childhood games—or introduce yourself to the Inner Child Cards by Isha Lerner, a tarot-like oracle based on fairy tales, perfect for the summer season.

Ponder your relationship with the Sun, particularly when the Sun is in Leo this summer (July 22 – August 21).  The Sun is Leo’s ruler.  Consider learning more about our cosmic relationship to Old Sol and how Sun worship was the original “religion” of humans—and how many spiritual paths replicate the death and resurrection cycle of that giant orb, repeated daily in sunrise and sunset and more broadly in the shifting light and length of days of the seasons.

Lastly, the final summer sign, Virgo, helps us distill our summer experience to reap the fruits of the growing season at harvest.  See you back on the Concordance blog then.

Meanwhile, have fun out there! Permission to play …

© 2014 by Joyce Mason

Photo credit: © photopitu – Fotolia.com.