The Heartfire of Summer, Part 1

The Summer Solstice initiates us into the season of the heart, with its all embracing joy for life. Here we burn through the chi that was restored during winter’s rest and deep nourishment (hopefully), though learning to balance ones energy output and caring for ones spirit, which inhabits the heart, is vital for enjoying this season in full health. This season opens opportunities to deepen an awareness of ones emotional needs and courageously express them while forging stronger and more authentic relationships, with others and with oneself.

There’s an externalization of focus and energy that is celebrated culturally here, as outdoor recreation, parties and barbecues, and generally a lot of travel are requisites of how to “do” summer. (If nobody ever asks me again what my non-existent vacation plans are, I might enjoy this season a bit more). The Sun makes his way through the energies of Cancer, Leo and Virgo these next few months, gracing our northern skies with long, simmering days for basking in all of its radiant glory. While this all sounds lovely, this summer’s aspects are initiating “opportunities” that will require immense tests of ones courageous heart, breaking down inauthentic power structures and relationships that have served to strengthen narrow sighted and corrupted entities.

Just two days before the Sun peaks in its entrance to Cancer, on June 19, we will experience Chiron galloping into the bullpen of Taurus for the first time in nearly 50 years. This is a notable shift as it is the first time humanity has experienced this consciously. Chiron was discovered in 1977 when it was at 3º Taurus, so technically we’re still in discovery mode of embodying the energies of this wound healing asteroid for another year when next June he’ll hit his natal discovery point. Historically though we can look back and see that this transit has contributed to some key times of hardship in this last American century, specifically the Great Depression’s most intense years from 1929 - 1933 and the Iranian revolution in 1978 that began the oil crisis in 1979, further compounding the pain of inflation, high unemployment and economic contraction. History doesn’t repeat but it sure does rhyme, and if you’re not living under a rock you can see how setup we are for echoes of these periods to reverberate.

Picking up where Uranus left off, we are set to experience where our inner and outer security systems lack integrity and care. Personally this will bring up past wounds of scarcity, conditional relating, lack of self worth, disembodiment, and the ways one reaches outside of oneself for validation and stability. While affordability of the basic necessities such as food, water and shelter are going to continue to challenge many people, we must also consider if these things will even be available at times as systems collapse under their own weight, furthering the instability and insecurity felt. What is of actual, tangible value is getting an entire reset, disentangled from the money systems that have enchanted the hearts and minds of the population. The teaching that humanity will be tasked with learning is how to return to long term, Earth focused systems of survival and resilience that are rooted in thousands and thousands of years of wisdom by being in direct and meaningful connection to our home planet. Uranus’ 7 year overland journey cracked the shitty city beams that have been propping up these misguided ways of being, and now Chiron is shepherding us on the perilous walk through the dark city to hopefully land in the real, real world that has held us in her embrace for so long. Chiron’s first earthen foray lasts until September 16, when he’ll backtrack to Aries for about 7 months, so this is just the first little taste and glimpse into what will set into the skies next spring.

June 30 brings Jupiter’s expansive influence to the fixed fire of Leo, while in a tense square to Chiron’s fresh landing in Taurus. Demanding desires are amplified, which we’ll definitely see this energy taken to new abhorrent heights on the stage of political theater, but also in any places where power condenses into a singular well. We’ll also see this in our daily lives, as people’s egos may feel even more entitled to getting what they want, when they want it. Note that around July 9, a small humbling fall from glory may quiet these cries for a bit at least when Venus leaves Leo and conjoins the South Node at 0º Virgo. The other big aspect building these first weeks of Jupiter’s performance is an opposition to Pluto in Aquarius that perfects mid-July. This is actually one part of a pivotal sky-shift that occurs on July 19, when the Moon sits at 4º Libra, sextile to Jupiter at 4º Leo which is sextile Uranus at 4º Gemini which is sextile Neptune at 4º Aries which is sextile Pluto at 4º Aquarius! (And if you’re lucky like me, you have a natal planet at 4º Sagittarius to complete the full zodiacal hexagon!)

Jupiter’s opposition to Pluto that is really in effect the whole month of July is a potent struggle between what may be a well-intentioned attempt to go big on something held dear to ones heart and the over-compensation of trying to make it appeal to the larger collective, to where it, or you, gets eaten alive in some manner. Whether there’s a true plot against one by a force larger than yourself, or the inner saboteur hijacks the energy, the battle for power and who wields it is loud. I’d expect rallies, protests and public displays of general rowdiness to dominate headlines, along with the usual stories of subversive tactics undermining these collective liberation movements, territorial religious lines drawn in the gravel pit, preachers of all kinds holding bigger megaphones to amplify their agendas with an unearned confidence of knowing “the way”, and of course perpetual war for peace. With the fixed energies at play here, there will be tense build ups of energy until the container, body or narrative can no longer hold and then an explosive release of fire and lightning. If you’re into drama, this is your month, get the kettle corn ready. Patience will be tested. The strength of ones integrity, authenticity, and faith in ones personal process of becoming will be tested. This tempering process builds true character and a courageous heart. Jupiter’s teachings this year are giving ample opportunities to have to stand up and defend the ones and things held dear. It’ll also open us up to see where we have accrued enough humbling wisdom to dissolve outworn self concepts that were useful and powerful in the old social structures of extractive consumerism and materialism, forming a new identity that is more animistic and vibrating with much larger forces of spirit. This is a literal heart expansion written in the stars, and it’s going to force anything that is held here that is misaligned with these new energies to the forefront of ones life. People and situations will show up as echoes of past hurts to see where we need this repair work.

This opposition isn’t in a vacuum though as you can see there are supportive harmonics with Uranus and Neptune holding creatively liberating outlets for the facing off of Jupiter and Pluto. Neptune’s slippery trine to Jupiter may provide an easy fall into fantasies of being the lone wolf warrior and pioneer that can face the world on his own terms. But it can also initiate some beautifully raw works of art and cutting edge cosmological structures of this new reality that provide enlivening tinder for burgeoning friendships and connections. Meanwhile the sextile to Uranus lights up our minds where we can off gas the intensity of the world into creative play that reconnects our hearts to the true beginner’s mind of a child, where every experience is held in awe and wonder at the workings of such a vast universe. Various takes on this: writing modern day parables set in the backroom of your local corner store, starting an apocalyptic Dungeons & Dragons group, organizing alien themed slam poetry readings, or staging an improv musical performance of The Labyrinth.

Uranus is also here revolutionizing our mindscapes, cracking open the head to shatter straight line information gathering and purely data driven perceptions of reality, to the liberating truth that our reality is far stranger than what we were taught, thereby transforming entire population’s cosmological structures by questioning who has benefited from holding power over our multi-dimensional origin stories, scientific driven consensus reality, and educational systems that are anything but that.

The pace of change is furious and fast, as every planet is channeling either fire or air energy. Overstimulation may be an understatement. Adaptability is the winning strategy. Get comfortable with what is, in the moment, and then again when that moment changes, and again, and again. It is go time.

There’s more to come… much more.