Shape shifting is the order of the day as we enter the month of June 2012. It would be one thing if we knew what shape we were shifting into, but this early part of June can be anything but clear. Can we call it crazy-making?
As we start the month, we may be a little foggy, and certainly less than clear-headed, in our decisions and in our actions. Whatever we do at the beginning of this month, it would be wise to keep in mind that everything is tentative and subject to change, and change can occur in a nanosecond.
We may start the month juggling any number of things, but our pace, our rhythm and our focus can be lacking. We might not be able to keep up with our own self-imposed schedule, much less the demands and needs of other people.
We may be far more interested in having several things going on, with us jumping from one thing to another to another, but without being truly committed to any one thing nor even sure what our commitment should be. We could be all over the place as we start the month.
June begins with an over-abundance of Air. We have five planets in the Air Element as we start the month – the Stellium of three or more planets in Gemini with the Sun, Mercury and Venus all in the Mutable Air Sign and two planets in Libra with the Moon Saturn conjunction. And we have Jupiter finishing its transit of Taurus and knocking on Gemini’s door, which Jupiter crosses into on June 11th for its yearlong transit of Gemini.
We still have the Earth Element Grand Trine that began last November, thanks to Jupiter in Taurus, Mars in Virgo and Pluto in Capricorn. But with Jupiter entering Gemini this month, the Earth Grand Trine comes to an end.
We may begin the month of June with our schedule already filled in with various social occasions — reunions, reconnections, celebrations. June is considered a month of various celebrations — graduations for some, weddings for others, with a spate of other events, when we get back together with family and old friends.
We could have so much going on to begin the month that we could easily excuse ourselves if we merely gloss over the details and assume that it all comes out right in the end. Due diligence could go out the window, and we might discover further down the road that matters we thought resolved had only been papered over with true resolution and total completion needing to be addressed later on.
People can be making ‘nice’, but it would be wise for us to be certain that what people have said they would do, they have actually done. There could be too great a tendency to sugar coat things, to make things appear far better than they actually are. We all might be far more interested in having a good time, freed from our obligations and our responsibilities, and so we could easily do things in a half-ass manner.
In that concept of everyone playing at ‘nice’, people could easily take offense at any questioning of their ability or their commitment to the task at hand. There could be the liability to tiptoeing around, putting a good face on an otherwise shoddy job. Over the past few decades, we have engrained this lack of quality into our consciousness and society consensus. Everyone is a winner, and no one goes home without some sort of trophy, ribbon, or recognition.
To some degree, we have excelled at raising the bar of mediocrity to a level of distinction and a belief that mediocrity is as good as it gets. Unfortunately, such a disposition can work during the slide times of easy expansion and everything going our way, but it might not work as effectively when we are having to be resourceful and need to operate at our most effective.
While the month begins with everyone playing at ‘nice’, the mood can shift quickly as we come to the 4th of the month, when we have the Sagittarius Full Moon and a Lunar Eclipse. With a Mutable Sign T-Square with the Sun Moon opposition squaring Mars and with Neptune turning retrograde shortly thereafter that day, we could feel ourselves as if on a carousel, whirling around, picking up speed to the point of losing our balance. This Mutable Sign T-Square is also a Mutable Grand Cross by Sign with Neptune in Pisces filling in the Mutable Water Element.
Around this time, people could become hypercritical. As if they have an itch under their skin that they are unable to relieve, people could feel that something is wrong, even if they cannot put their finger exactly on the culprit. Instead, there could be a general sense of dissatisfaction, a liability to critique and criticize, all with the sense that none of it is our personal fault but rather someone else’s fault to blame. We might feel as though we have walked onto the mean streets, with everyone having a chip on their shoulder and all ready to excuse their own actions and shift responsibility to someone else.
Around the time of the Full Moon, situations extraneous to our personal life conditions, those situations foreign to our daily existence, could become aggravated, demand our attention, but with a certain attitude of futility that such events are beyond our influence or our ability to make bad things right.
On the 7th, Mercury exits its own Sign of Gemini and enters Cancer. The Gemini Stellium of three or more planets comes to an end briefly, until Jupiter enters Gemini on the 11th to recreate the Gemini Stellium, which finally ends with the Sun moving into Cancer at the Summer Solstice on the 20th – 21st.
The 7th also has the Sun square Mars. People can become belligerent and even engage sabre-rattling or worse. The sense of irritation, frustration and aggravation can hang heavy in the air.
Mercury moving into Cancer on the 7th can shift our focus to our home and family. After the intensity of recent days, we might seek solace in our home, and by hiding out.
As Mercury moves into Cancer, Mercury trines Neptune on the 8th. Our intuitive sense can be heightened, and our thoughts revolve around the ‘what could be’, the possibilities of an idyllic future, all diametrically opposed to a feeling of present days’ hard cold reality. It is interesting that some of the greatest utopian literature was written at the darkest moments of human history. We may seek and hope for a brighter and better future, all with the backdrop of a dimmed present and even dismal circumstances.
With the personal planets moving into Cancer, the Cardinal Climax is reawakened. First with Mercury moving into Cancer on the 7th, then the Sun moving into Cancer on the 20th-21st and later with Venus entering Cancer in August, the Cancer transiting planets by Sign will contribute to the Grand Cross of Uranus in Aries, Saturn in Libra and Pluto in Capricorn.
Although we have gone through extraordinary changes, dramatic shifts and radical transformations ever since Pluto entered Capricorn in 2008, there is more to come, some of which are likely to become evident these summer months with the reinvigorating of the Cardinal Climax. We may have felt that enough is enough but to borrow from Yogi Berra: ‘It ain’t over ’til it’s over’.
And we’re not over it yet!
On the 11th, Mercury triggers the Cardinal Sign T-Square with Mercury square Uranus and Mercury opposed Pluto. The 11th is also the day that Jupiter exits Taurus, ending the Earth Grand Trine, and enters Gemini, recreating the Gemini Stellium as Jupiter joins the Sun and Venus in the Mutable Air Sign. Please note my Jupiter in Gemini article on the sidebar of my monthly e-letter indicating the emphasis on talk as Jupiter transits Gemini but more the talk than the walk. Talk will be cheap and plentiful. The potential productivity offered by the Earth Grand Trine since last mid-November comes to an end.
This time can be one when we may feel expansive and wanting to stretch our wings but feeling hampered or restricted as we try to do so. The blowback from other people or from the conditions as they appear to be could force us into a reticence, a stepping back and even withdrawing into a self-imposed seclusion.
Let’s keep in mind that with every action there is a reaction and that as we choose to consider changes in our lives, there can be various people that prove to be naysayers and situations that might hamper our move forward in new directions. Such incidents can be a tempering process and also provide the challenges necessary as to whether we are truly ready to move ahead or if we are all too willing to fall back into the complacency of discontent.
Even if we feel thwarted, we may rely on a trusted source for sound advice when the Sun trines Saturn on the 13th. We may feel amidst the turbulence of these times a newfound strength within ourselves and may gain an appreciation from someone for our determination.
The Gemini New Moon on the 19th can have us looking towards future projects and considering our options but perhaps without taking into account the specifics and the particulars. We can easily buy into wish fulfillment and a belief that what we can visualize with great intent has to come into manifestation. Nice concept, with an element of truth to it, but it would also allow for sitting back, making assumptions and just hoping for the change.
Spring comes to a close with the hypesters and spinmeisters out in full force. Should we be surprised? Problems needing solutions may have been postponed for a later day. Issues demanding resolution might have been mulled over, contemplated, still under consideration. While such inability to deal with reality may be the choice of the powers-that-be, let us in our personal lives not make that mistake but rather use the energies to deal with the hard questions, bring completion to outstanding matters and plant the seeds of our future endeavors in fertile ground.
Summer starts with the summer solstice on the 20th – 21st, as the Sun exits Gemini and enters Cancer. This movement brings closure to the Gemini Stellium of three or more planets in the Mutable Air Sign as the Sun leaves Venus and Jupiter [the two ‘good guys’ of the zodiac] to juggle many activities and more social gatherings.
On the 20th, Mercury squares Saturn and Venus sextiles Uranus. If we don’t get what we want the way that we want it, we might be looking in new directions and for more exciting alternatives. The Sirens may be enticing us to step away from the tried and true to explore possibilities and delve into the unknown.
With Mercury sextile Mars on the 21st, we could go full speed ahead in the directions of our fantasies, of the grand illusions that could prove only delusions.
Our dance fancy free and in fantasyland could be strong around the 23rd when the Sun trines Neptune. While we might prefer concentrating on our own world, even a world of imagination, it would be wise for us to keep in mind the two keywords of these times: awareness and mindfulness.
No matter how much we might want to visualize our perfect world, we may find that we are occasionally banging up against reality.
The 24th has Uranus square Pluto and around this time situations could be earthshaking. Whether there is earthquake or volcanic activity in the physical world, we might experience the earth move in our personal worlds. A dramatic turn of events could leave us reeling, especially if we have bought into a sense that everything has straightened out, all problems resolved and that we are back on the straight and narrow. Not happening!
This summer could prove daunting and brings to mind the admonition in Rudyard Kipling’s poem ‘If’. I have referred to this poem before, refer to it again, with urging that we see the gender specific as gender neutral [with the recognition of when the poem was written: 1895].
If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too:
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or, being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or being hated don’t give way to hating,
And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise;
If you can dream—and not make dreams your master;
If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim,
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same:.
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build’em up with worn-out tools;
If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings,
And never breathe a word about your loss:
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: “Hold on!”
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with Kings—nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much:
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And—which is more—you’ll be a Man, my son!
I am also reminded of a British film entitled ‘If’ that created quite an uproar in 1968 on the heels of the Student Worker Revolution in France. ‘If’ was the first screen role for Malcolm McDowell who stars as the leader of a student insurrection at an English public school. I vividly remember the last scenes where McDowell and his cohorts are on the roof, armed and open fire on the staff, students and parents below. The headmaster tries to quell the insurrection by calling up to them: ‘trust me, boys’, but instead is shot in the head.
A chilling scene, and a movie reminiscent of its times, and one that I mention because of the level of trust during this period when talk is plentiful but the walk could prove lacking.
This latter part of June, early summer, can be quite frenetic and highly active. Not only do we have Uranus square Pluto exact on the 24th.
The 25th has Jupiter square Neptune, Saturn turning direct and Mercury exiting Cancer to enter Leo. Illusions can be plentiful, assumptions made that have little basis in reality. There is greater forward movement but we have to ask ourselves: in what direction and for what purpose?
We may be raring to go, but it would be wise to give serious thought regarding our plans and even draw upon someone who is detached from our enthusiasm to evaluate whether our intentions seem on target or whether we are heading off on a wild goose chase.
Venus turns direct on the 27th. If we have had relationship issues over the past several weeks, those areas where the significant people have seemed squirrely or we squirrely to them, and as a consequence we have sought greener fields; then we could make amends and look to see the essence of our deep-rooted connections with other people.
The 29th has the Sun triggering the Cardinal Climax, as the Sun opposes Pluto and the Sun squares Uranus. Mercury sextiles Jupiter on this day. That itch of discontent that we may have been feeling and feeling for some time could find expression in our desire to change, to shift our focus and to explore new possibilities. We do have to be careful that such an impetus does not take us on a quixotic journey whereby we wind up only tilting at windmills.
This June can be fairly intense. Let’s be sure to take time, rest up, and realize that we are going through a shape shifting. And in this alchemical process, there may be times when we feel burned, other times when we might be at our wit’s end. We need not feel overwhelmed by all that’s going on in the world at large and in our own personal worlds. It is what it is and I would suggest we keep in mind that true and wise saying: ‘We never get more than we can handle’.
June 2012… Never promised you a rose garden…
