Astrology of Now: Stop, Listen, Release

Friday June 19th 2020
Kay Nielsen's illustration for East of the Sun and West of the Moon

Kay Nielsen’s illustration for East of the Sun and West of the Moon

Eclipses open doors. Meanwhile, fleet-footed Mercury, the traveller, pauses to explore the realms of memory and buried emotion; and Venus is still under the hill, deep in fairyland, retrieving long-buried stories. You may be feeling some night magic already.

This is one of the most potent points of the year. On Midsummer night, the shortest night, we dream extraordinary dreams, enchanted.

But this Solstice is even more special, because half the world will see our glorious star shadowed, with only a corona of light for a while on the longest day.

The eclipse takes place between 3.45UT and 9.45UT on the morning of June 21, just hours after the Sun has moved from the Twins into watery Cancer. This is a momentous eclipse, both the end of cycle of evolution, and heralding the next one.

Any eclipse at 0° is remarkable, and this one is in the sign of tribes and family, a sign which is an emotional powerhouse, and it’s close to total, around 90%.

An eclipse is like a vortex of energy, sucking us in beforehand, and spitting us out afterwards. So you may well already have had an eclipse experience.

For example, today I had to go to the A&E department to get a ring cut off my finger. The ring is an heirloom, made the last time Neptune was in Pisces in 1849. However, yesterday, I realised that I no longer wanted to carry that family story on my hand, but the ring was stuck. A few hours ago, a nurse released me from the ring.

This is an eclipse in Cancer, the sign of memory, nostalgia, family, tribe. We may all carry stories we no longer want to hold on to. For example, here in Oxford, the statue of white supremacist Cecil Rhodes is slated to be removed after protests outside Oriel College. That version of history needs to be let go.

The eclipse, and this eclipse season which began on May 22, gives us the opportunity — all of us — to release certain tribal myths — and make way for new stories to be told.

Venus is underground now, in Gemini, rooting out some old tales that need to see the light of air. How much fresh history have your learned in the past few weeks? Mercury is retrograde in the world of memory, and will doubtless bring back some voices that have been muffled by time.

It’s time to listen now. And at this magical pivot of the year, during this extraordinary eclipse, the world can stop, listen, release.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

  1. louella McEwan says:

    `Dear Christina and Sally ~ Solstice greetings from Cape Town ~ always look fwd to and enjoy yr monthly audio posts ; disappointed however that this month audioboom will not load the listen now link ~ not sure if this is a glitch or if you have now restricted content for subscribing” members only” ~ kindly advise
    Best
    yrs, L

  2. Isy says:

    I felt curiously relaxed going into the eclipse/solstice/retrograde, very much at home in my skin. After the last year, that was both strange d wonderful 🙂 Then I felt pinned by the eclipse/etc, from Sunday to today, unable to be up for long; today the pressure lifted and I can rise and shine a bit.

    I was born the day Mercury stationed direct, so I usually find Mrx familiar, if not always comfortable. But this 9 day wonder has been rather out of the ordinary!