SOLSTICE (Sun enters Cancer) – June 20, 2020 (22:44 GMT+1)
SOLAR ECLIPSE [0 Cancer 21] – June 21, 2020 (07:41 GMT+1)
This weekend’s astrology feels pivotal as it’s time to celebrate the Solstice and there’s a Solar Eclipse at 0 degrees Cancer, both symbols of powerful new beginnings.
A traditional way to celebrate the Solstice and honour the Sun is to light a fire. And, this weekend’s Solar Eclipse is an annular eclipse, sometimes called ‘Ring of Fire’ – similar themes.
Yet, it’s such strange timing that as the Sun hits its peak (in the northern hemisphere), it’s almost immediately blotted out by the eclipse, less than 10 hours later.
It definitely feels as if the universe is demanding our attention, calling us out to sit up and take notice. Find the still point this weekend during the Solstice & Solar Eclipse – I’m planning to light the fire pit – & meditate on what this means for you. Here are some key pointers to guide you:
- Eclipses are often feared because they bring what’s hidden to light, they represent the unknown. They often coincide with external events in your life, where you have to let go of control. Once you know this, you can be more in flow.
- Eclipses are often concurrent with turning points. This is why they are considered game-changers as they move the goalposts of life. Fundamentally, eclipses are neither positive nor negative. It’s how you perceive and respond to what happens in your own life and out in the world that’s important.
- Sometimes, eclipses act as a catalyst for change but you don’t recognise this until later on. Their effect can last a few months after the exact date of the eclipse, even up until the next set of eclipses, which will occur in November/December 2020, the end of this particular eclipse cycle. This eclipse is closely linked to the Solar Eclipse on December 26, 2019 which fell at 4 Capricorn. What’s returning or completing?
- Traditionally, it’s wise to wait a few days after an eclipse before taking action or making a big decision. This time around, you’re wise to wait until mid-July at least because Mercury is retrograde until July 12th, another planetary event that has a hidden theme.
- During an eclipse, the karmic nodes, points of destiny in astrology, are pulled into the cosmic dance of the Sun, Moon & Earth. A shadow is thrown as the Sun/Moon/Earth are in close alignment. This is why eclipse symbolism is said to be ‘shadowy’. Once the shadow clears, it brings what’s hidden to light or sheds a new perspective on a current situation.
- A Solar Eclipse is a turbo-charged New Moon, a symbol of new beginnings. However, the beginning often comes into being from an ending as the light emerges from the dark. It can open a door or a portal in your life inviting you to step through. Pay close attention to the events that occur and listen out for synchronicities around this powerful eclipse.
- This eclipse will be visible in the Eastern hemisphere and move across parts of Africa, Asia and the Pacific Ocean. It’s relatively swift-moving. At greatest eclipse, it peaks above the border of India, Nepal & China. These countries are in the spotlight of change during the eclipse & over subsequent months.
- This Solar Eclipse is part of the eclipse cycle which began in July 2018 and completes next month, July 2020. It’s been hugely powerful for many people. This is the ideal time to reassess the events of the past two years and notice where you’re being called to move forwards or required to start over.
What It Means For You
On a personal level, see where the Solar Eclipse falls in your birth chart, which house and which area of life, it triggers.
Does the eclipse fall close to any specific planets/angles? – use a tight orb, 1 degree either side. Here’s a quick guide:
- Cancer – personal goals, image & identity
- Leo – your inner world, retreat & surrender
- Virgo – friends, groups & wider society
- Libra – career & status, future path
- Scorpio – your place in the world, study & education
- Sagittarius – joint finances & sexuality
- Capricorn – love & relationships, contracts
- Aquarius – job & health, service to others
- Pisces – birth i.e. kids, romance, creative projects
- Aries – home & family
- Taurus – community, siblings, communication
- Gemini – money & assets, self-worth
Reading back through some previous articles I’ve written about the Solstice, I found the following quote which was taken from an article in the Guardian.
Notice the first two sentences – how fitting for the current situation in our world when more than ever we need to stop engendering hate & favour unity over division.
I’ll leave you with that thought to ponder on this potent & powerful Solstice Solar Eclipse. Enjoy the words below & consider the invitation that’s being offered to you during this time.
“The summer solstice by definition transcends borders, religions, ethnicities. It unites rather than divides. Reassuringly, it harks back to a time long before Hinduism and Buddhism had entered the world’s consciousness, far earlier than the three great Abrahamic faiths that divided the planet’s population into rival God-fearing monotheists.
In our endlessly, celestially revolving world the solstice demands a moment of stillness and reflection. Its very etymology – from the Latin sol (sun) and sistere (to stand still) – indicates that almost miraculous point of transition, sandwiched between cycles of movement, when the sun appears from Earth to have reached its most northerly or southerly excursion relative to the celestial equator and then, after “standing still”, reverses course. It is the longest day, the triumph of the sun, a celebration of midsummer and a marker that the days will start to shorten.
For a fleeting moment the entire year is on hold, a moment of flux and suspense beautifully caught in Margaret Atwood’s Solstice Poem:
This is the solstice, the still point
of the sun, its cusp and midnight,
the year’s threshold
and unlocking, where the past
lets go of and becomes the future;
the place of caught breath, the door
of a vanished house left ajar.
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