The Northern Hemisphere Summer Solstice occurs 2:44 pm PDT, 10:44 pm BST on June 20. It's the longest day of the year in the Northern Hemisphere, said to be the time at which "free will" acts more powerfully than any other time. It is a point of decision, and kicks off Summer, the season of work, play, productivity, and lots of sunshine for those of us up north. If you're "down under," remember to have a little compassion for us up here when December 21, the Winter Solstice, rolls around and we're freezing while you're enjoying the beach! What follows explores elements we all can expect to experience over the next 3 months, regardless of where we live.

The June Solstice is the end of Spring in the Northern Hemisphere, the end of Autumn in the Southern. If you’re wondering how I reconcile the seemingly opposing energies between the hemispheres, when you’re done here please take a look at The Mirroring of the Northern and Southern Hemisphere Year Cycles in Astrology. It may help readers “down under” see how the important points of seasonal change, though opposite in physical manifestation, actually have similar challenges at each point of shift.

The Solstices and Equinoxes are excellent times for looking at what began in the past 90 days, whether new growth or signs of what is ending, what is emerging and what has slipped down the timestream. In any case, the Solstices are points of radical reorientation, whether toward emotional self interest in the Northern Hemisphere or personal power in the Southern.

The next 90 days are in any case a time to decide, consolidate, express, stabilize, and work toward what will shift at the Autumnal Equinox (or the coming of Spring if you’re down under.) The charts for the Summer and Winter Solstices provide guideposts for the symbolic and actual weather that will follow in the 90 days after those points in time, just as charts for the Vernal and Autumnal Equinox each show what will follow in the period after those points in time.

The Pluto Factor Past and Present

This is the twelfth Summer Solstice with Pluto in Capricorn. After many years of being an important factor in the Solstice and Equinox charts when it was near the Galactic Center, Pluto has moved on to an entirely different set of aspects with the Sun at these changes of season.

When Pluto was in very late Sagittarius and very early Capricorn, it was squared by the Sun at the Spring and Autumn Equinoctal points, and opposed the Sun at the June Solstice point between 2006-2010. It was close to exact from Dec 2006 through Dec 2009, and June 2010 through Sept 2010. The squares and oppositions of those turning points released a lot of energy, and either blocked or propelled events. Certainly those were seasons of great friction where many seeds were released into our gardens of Life.

Then, just as the Sun no longer made frictional aspects to Pluto during the Solstice and Equinox, Uranus began to make an exact square to Pluto, showing very volatile Plutonic energies in play. This began at the June 2010 Solstice, and except for the December 2010 Solstice, a mundane or actual square remained in play until the March 2016 Equinox. The last time the square happened was the December 2016 Solstice.

This is the first Summer Solstice since 2017 not to have Uranus biseptile Pluto in the Solstice chart. Though it is out of orb until mid-November, after that these two spiritual powerhouses will be back in aspect through mid-May 2021, promising a wild ride! However, this is the first Solstice chart with Sun septile Uranus! As both the septile and biseptile are “destiny producing” aspects, we can expect more radical events this season, and definitely late this year through next Spring. This is a major fork in the road for the entire world, and things may become extraordinarily irrational at times.

If things don’t make sense, they don’t have to. The only thing that matters is to know how to focus and not get distracted by the craziness in the atmosphere. Sometimes, when we keep our heads when all around us are losing theirs, we come out on the other side looking and feeling good!

Given the Solstice and Equinox charts show the weather patterns to come, the various configurations and weightings give us a huge amount of insight about the season to come. I will go more extensively into the outer planet aspects in the coming article on the Solar Eclipse New Moon, as well as the larger friction in the collective atmosphere and what we can do about it!

Decan and Element Distribution and the Solstice Jones Pattern

This Summer Solstice chart shows 4 planets in the first decan of their sign, 1 planet in the second decan of their signs, and 5 planets in the third decan of their signs. This indicates a three month period of activity involving a heavy emphasis on the actional-material and individual-mental and spiritual areas of life, with a lack of much energy devoted to the emotional, social, and cultural areas of life.

In this chart, we have a balanced distribution between 4 planets in Water, 3 in Air, and 3 in Earth, with no planet in a Fire sign. That makes this a season of a balance between practicality, emotional experience, and interactive experiences with little inspiration to warm things up.

After months of shifting between a variety of different patterns, at this juncture they are arranged in a way that creates an almost perfect “Bowl” Jones pattern which leads with Pluto and ends with Mercury retrograde. We’ll become increasingly aware of divisions in the next season, since the Bowl is always aware of what it contains versus what it doesn’t. I’ll explain more about the Bowl in the Solar Eclipse article posting tomorrow.

Dispositors, Aspects, and the Lunar Influence

In this chart, we find Saturn and Neptune in their home signs, with the Sun in the sign ruled by the Moon in Gemini. The Moon is ruled by Mercury in Cancer, creating a powerful “Mutual Reception” which rules the Moon, Mercury, Venus, the Sun, and Uranus. As usual, Saturn rules the rest, including Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, and Pluto, so I must again recommend that for the next 90 days you get acquainted with your “Spiritual Master, Spiritual Friend,” learning all you can to accelerate your growth in taking command of your life and destiny.

The Moon is at 26 Gemini, promising all of us a look at the essentials, the “bare bones” of what’s going on. We’ll all be thrown into major Gemini growth due to the Moon conjunct its North Node in that sign. As the Moon is quincunx Jupiter and Pluto, biquintile Saturn, and square Mars, it will boost the tensions, and requires that we don’t get confused with too much going on and strike out at the wrong adversary.

We’ll all be “led out into the world of transcendent activity,” have to find inspiration in daily routines, and will have to demonstrate our duty to the greater whole we serve. This continues to sharpen our focus in a consecration to a greater group work we embraced in 2019.

The most powerful Solar aspects are the quincunx to Saturn and the septile to Uranus, which I’ll explain in the Solar Eclipse article coming out tomorrow. This coming season will clarify our loyalties, our dedication, our willingness to accept a new direction, and our ability to see the natural beauty in forms when the superficialities are removed.

The Moon rules Cancer, so it's the ruler of the Sun. In this chart we find the Sun and Moon are in a Balsamic phase, indicating the next 90 days are totally future oriented, with a need to open to “visions of the future” and sacrifice selfish intentions to the greater good of the greater whole. It’s clear this coming season is “the end of the end” of many things, where we’ll see the essence of the shapes of things as they are and as they are evolving.

In the Solstice chart there are a huge number of extremely important forming and just separating aspects showing the recent past has been very intense for many. These aspects indicate a season of important choices and changes that will transfigure all of us in some way! Again, I’ll go more extensively into those aspects in tomorrow’s Eclipse article.

Other Important Factors

The North Node shows us the line of greatest development. This one pulls us to see a higher standard, a more perfect demonstration of beauty, form, or whatever, and to follow our yearning for a new life to be led to where we need to go. We will all have another chance to embrace the World Soul and a great vision to be accomplished with others next year. In Gemini, we are learning to learn, to communicate, to gather information, and to allow our curiosity to find ways to externalize our discoveries.

With so many specializing, frictional, and productive aspects, we have major events promised in the next season. Lots of activity wherever we have Capricorn, Pisces, Taurus, Gemini, and Cancer, yielding reorganization, endings, deep feelings, bursts of closure, and a new look at how to ground the spiritual in the material world. With Sun septile Uranus and Saturn septile Neptune, we will continue to have a lot of unstable and irrational forces in play across almost every sector of our charts involving Sun, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. This promises another “fateful” time, for better and/or for worse, depending on how we handle these VERY unstable tides.

As always at this time in history, don’t get distracted by the craziness or irrationality in people and circumstances, and don’t worry if a lot doesn’t make sense. All the septile series aspects require that we keep a sense of the long range implications of our choices, even when it doesn’t make much sense why we have to make them when we do.

This is a season of initiating experience, feeling everything we need to feel to make our decisions and do the actions we need to do. After we act, it will be important to seek new understanding and a new vision to move toward. Keep it all practical and on track without getting too hung up on the past, since Mercury retrograde often requires a delay before we have all the information we need to make a solid judgment.

Use time wisely, since using a delay could bring serendipitous realizations about the poetry of our lives and/or the need to walk on, allowing each to do what they have to do in their own way, with or without our involvement. Navigate endings with flow and compassion, remembering the flaw of totalitarianism, which is that no one needs to conform to the exact conception of anyone else’s authority.

Aum, blessings, and Happy Northern Summer and Southern Winter Solstice as we stand on the threshold of a new season of life! Let go of fear, let go of the past, let go of feeling stuck in old limitations, and stay focused on the blessings to come your way that expands your life.