The Cosmic Story: Gemini’s June Story
June is Juno’s Month
June breezes in on the fragrances of May, as the blossoms blow away and the buds and leaves begin to appear. Much more secure and comfortable than in early Spring, we feel summer on the way. June is the month of Nurture, for it is the goddess Juno – Queen Mother of the Roman pantheon – who holds rulership over this month.
As the Sun approaches Summer Solstice, its gifts of life and warmth promote growth and ripening in nature and in our human lives. June’s warm comfort is like the contentment and feelings a mother has nursing her newborn baby – or any parent with a bottle and a rocking chair. If any of you have experienced that calm and peace of feeding your precious child, you know how the Romans experienced the month of June. (Remember, they didn’t have heat or electricity!)
During June, we begin to feel contentment; we know life holds promise. The month of June was dedicated to the Goddess as Mother nurturing her young, the Queen of Heaven and her Child. It was also a time when Heaven and Earth join together to produce Life, this Sacred Marriage celebrated at the Summer Solstice.
Both these acts are her Blessings. Juno, Mother of the Gods and Queen over Rome, was both nurturing mother and equal partner with Jupiter. (Italians and their mothers!:) She represents a vital energy of life; the energy of youth, of possibilities. That’s what mothers do while they nurse their babies – they dream a life for them.
She was like her Greek counterpart, Hera, who was called ‘the perfect one’ and who was celebrated as the Full Moon. Juno was the Goddess of Love and Marriage, and we all know about the ‘June bride’. Yet, Romans considered it dangerous and unlucky for a woman to marry until June’s Full Moon. Romans believed that the Moon brought good fortune to women – perhaps in memory of that earlier Goddess, who could be perfected at the Full Moon.
While the Romans honored their Divine Mother and Queen during June, the Goddess Vesta was also honored. Vesta was the goddess-energy of Fire – the village/city/home fires. Vesta was the life-force of the village, and later for Rome, the state. For Romans, the Vestal Virgins had to stay virgins. But their real purpose was to be a light to their community. We remember them whenever we do rituals, for all ritual begins with the lighting of the sacred fire. That is Vesta, the sacred fire of life, used for life. And that’s what was – and still is – celebrated in June.
June’s Astrology
June begins with an end-of-May Gemini New Moon on May 30th. There are a few astrological energies that occur in this last week of May that are connected to June’s astrological signature.
The Sun entered Gemini on May 20th and on May 21st met up with Mercury retrograde in the first degree of Gemini, initiating a new 4-month mindset that will (hopefully) make us look within ourselves and at our shadows (both collectively and personally). The Sabian symbol for 1* Gemini is: A glass-bottomed boat reveals undersea wonders. Will we see monsters or mermaids, horrors or exquisite beauty? Will we see the Other and know that it is really ourselves we are seeing?
First
though,
our
collective task is to deal with
the planetary energy that is already creating waves in
the U.S. and around the world.
Mars
left his deep dive into the
undersea wonders/horrors of Pisces
and entered
his own sign of Aries on Tuesday May 24th,
just hours after the horrific elementary school massacre in Texas.
Mars
is associated with anger, violence and battle. But it is also the
energy of engagement, of stepping up, of protection. It’s
time to force our leaders to do something or vote them out! Integrate your Mars and become the protector of life!
Mars was in the last few hours of his stay in Pisces (where he met up with Neptune) as the tragedy occurred, creating a tsunami of cries for a better world. Our collective unconscious wants to get it through our thick collective heads that our leaders are complicit in all these deaths by not doing anything to stop the violence. In fact, they are creating the violence with their hypocrisy and vitriol.
Hopefully, the death of these children will finally open people’s eyes to the state of our decaying political system – our Pluto return can show us the swamp and also how to drain it. Hopefully, we will rise up and have a peaceful revolution this year and let this tsunami of sorrow and anguish over unnecessary deaths and twisted psyches wash away the ‘old white boy system’ here in the U.S. and around the world. These ‘dominators’ keep allowing our precious babies to die to defend the ‘freedom’ to buy a gun, yet want to force women to have unwanted babies. Their so called prayers are worthless, for their connection to the god-force is lost. They are not leaders. They are dominators.
While the Earth changes intensify, patriarchy goes on a killing spree – it would rather kill everybody and everything rather than die. Instead of turning our energies to healing ourselves and the Earth, we are being led to turn our energies to fear and hatred. It’s time to break out of our old paradigm of power, domination and death, for it is killing us and killing the Earth.
With Mars, Jupiter, Chiron and Eris in Aries as May ends, it’s time to discover who we really are and what we really want. Mars and Jupiter will meet up on Sunday, May 29th. Jupiter will lend its expansive energy to whatever Mars actions we choose to take. Will we choose more death and destruction, or will we stand up for a better world? Find Aries in your natal chart and see if you have any Aries planets – they will help you channel Mars and Jupiter’s energies, as will planets in any of the cardinal signs (Aries, Cancer, Libra, Capricorn).
Mercury has backed up into Taurus, grounding our Minds in our bodies again. How do we feel now? The world is in total chaos, the hypocrisy is overt, the climate is extreme, and people are devastated by the inflation caused by corporate greed and monopolies. What keeps us as complacent as cows in a field? What stops us from participating in creating a new, better world?
Mercury’s initial energy this retrograde calls for us to re-align ourselves with the cosmic OM, the vibration of creation. Mercury is slowing down at this New Moon so it has a more powerful effect on us. What are we going to do about our world, our life?
When Mercury, the divine messenger, turns direct on June 3rd at 27* Taurus, it squares Saturn at 25* Aquarius, as Saturn stops to turn retrograde on June 4th. This aspect touches on the idea that we have to focus on what benefits the whole. But we also have to stay open to new ideas, not letting old, rigid beliefs hold us back from opening to the future. Watch your language and see if you go to extremes – always, never etc. It’s a time to stay balanced and hold the tension of opposites.
The Sabain symbol for Mercury turning direct at 27* Taurus: An old Indian woman selling the artifacts of her tribe to passers-by. This is a symbol of bringing our gifts back into the collective in a wiser way.
The Sabian symbol for Saturn turning retrograde at 25* Aquarius is: A butterfly with the right wing more perfectly formed. The butterfly is an ancient symbol of Psyche or Soul. This image speaks to the need to use our right-brain imagination the way it is meant to be used – as a spiritual tuning fork that aligns us with Nature’s evolutionary genius. If we open ourselves to our imagination, it will show us how to meet these multiple challenges.
Mercury will rise in the morning sky a few days after this New Moon. It will appear in the morning sky along with Mars, Jupiter and Venus. If you wake up early, go take a look at this beautiful sight.
Will our collective (Aquarius) Mind stop and focus on the real issues facing us? Will we grow up and take responsibility (Saturn) for our world and our society? Are we willing to sacrifice some of our comforts (Taurus) to make the changes necessary to create a healthy, peaceful world – a better world (Taurus). Can we play with our imagination to discover new ways to understand what is happening in our world?
Find the natal houses where your Mercury and your Saturn are, to understand how you are affected by these planets. And then find the houses where Taurus and Aquarius lie to see where these planets are moving through your chart, so you can look deeper into your soul to discover what you are being called to.
Gemini New Moon
Gemini is the first air sign of the zodiac wheel. It is the sign of the Twins, of our binary nature, of duality, of knowledge and perception. This duality can also symbolize the two sides of the brain – our rational, left brain and our imaginative, right brain. Reason, intuition, feeling and sensation help us understand our world. These are the Gemini tools that help us shape our world.
Mercury, as the ruler of Gemini, is a god who travels between realms, uniting different dimensions and different perspectives and learning how to communicate what he sees and understands. Gemini brings two opposites into a tension that can result in a new, 3rd thing or idea through the transcendent function. This brings about the new insight, the new understanding, the new integration.
This Gemini New Moon is interesting because the Sun and the Moon only form an aspect with each other. There are only weak energetic connections between this New Moon and the other planets – meaning there are no major aspects to this New Moon. Therefore this Gemini New Moon is openly on-track with the realizations of this Mercury retrograde. Is your mind free? Is it free to let your imagination shape your thoughts? Is your mind free to look at those thoughts and choose how you want to work with them – will they control you or will you use those thoughts to understand something new about your life? And where do your values comes in (Mercury in Taurus)? Can you come to an understanding of yourself and the world based on those values you want to shape your life?
With Mercury retrograde in Taurus, values will need to shape our thinking going forward. The world, our country, our people are at a cross-roads – we really are! The only resolution to this chaos is for each of us to contribute whatever our gifts and talents are to our families, friends, communities and world.
With this free-floating Gemini New Moon, we can shape what we want to plant without other energies shifting things. What do we really intuit/feel/think about the world (Gemini Moon)? What do we want to do about the world (Gemini Sun)?
Take all those Aries planets – Mars, Jupiter, Chiron and Eris – and use their energies to figure out who you are. You can always change things at a later date when you know more about yourself. But just be who you are now.
Be Here Now!
With Venus, Pallas, Uranus, the North Node, and Mercury retrograde in Taurus, let your body lead the way. Venus conjuncts Uranus on June 11th, so stay open for surprises. Listen to your body. What does it feel like? If you’re tired, rest. If you’re hungry, eat. If you’re nervous, go out into nature. Get back to your original nature. We’ve been so cut off from our body and its wisdom. It’s time to pay attention and begin to let go of old destructive behaviors that were generated by patriarchal advertising agencies and big corporations. Get over your negative body image and just be and love it.
Gemini/Sagittarius Full Moon
This Sagittarius Full Moon occurs on June 14th at 4:52 am PDT/ 7:52am EDT/ 12:52pm GMT.
The message of this Full Moon, which squares Neptune in Pisces, is this: are we going to listen to the voices of those in need – the children, the elders, the poor, the war-torn – and re-adjust our beliefs. Can we focus on what we’ve learned since the New Moon and reflect on our lack of understanding of the forces at work in our world? Can we be curious about what is happening around us as well as to us? Can we finally understand that we depend on each other to make life worth-while?
The Sagittarius Moon is out-of-bonds, meaning that it can embrace and encompass more than usual. Hopefully, we can embrace new beliefs and ideas and possibilities .
This Sagittarius Full Moon comes about a week before Summer Solstice, so I’ll end here and write something for the upcoming Cancer season.
Until then, stay grounded. Bring in peace, love and understanding to whatever you do. The world needs it.
Cathy
For a Parent on the Death of a Child
No
one knows the wonder
Your child awoke in you,
Your heart a
perfect cradle
To hold its presence.
Inside and outside
became one
As new waves of love
Kept surprising your soul.
Now
you sit bereft
Inside a nightmare,
Your eyes numbed
By
the sight of a grave
No parent should ever see.
You
will wear this absence
Like a secret locket,
Always
wondering why
Such a new soul
Was taken home so soon.
Let
the silent tears flow
And when your eyes clear
Perhaps you
will glimpse
How your eternal child
Has become the unseen
angel
Who parents your heart
And persuades the moon
To
send new gifts ashore.
~ John O'Donohue ~
(To Bless the Space Between Us)
In memory of those lost
in Manchester, United Kingdom
