A `Standing Still` Solstice?

First a little explanation about the astronomy of all this. Put in a nutshell, this is the day when we have the longest daylight day. For over the course of the year, the Sun rises and sets in a slightly different place each day. On the winter solstice on December 21st it only rises a bit before sinking below the horizon again. And because we only see a bit it, it only takes a few hours before it’s dark again. Then slowly each day it rises it rises a little bit further around the horizon, climbing into a higher and higher position until it rises in its most northerly position, goes right overhead during the day and sets in its most southerly position. So, (for instance) tonight its sets over your neighbour’s garage and in winter it sets at the bottom of the road.

This year, up until now, the Sun has increased its position every day, but now it is going to stand still. The word `solstice` literally means `Sun standing` for it is at this time of the year that the Sun `peaks` and appears to rise and set in the same place on the horizon for 3 days in a row, before rising and setting a little bit lower each day as we head towards winter and the shortest daylight day.  Simple right??  Oh...come on.....

The Sun is our calendar and our year is based on this movement. All of nature works with it too. Plants know it and animals know it. My cats certainly do for it is the one time of the year they go and sit on the neighbour’s garage roof for the sun-basking. Birds too, change the trees they sit in for their dawn chorus, so they have a direct access to the Sun’s rays.

So the meaning of the Summer solstice is about the height of strength and stamina. So much light is surely about so much clarity, but also vigour and energy. We can feel almost intoxicated with so much electromagnetic energy, as if we were in the Med on holiday, doing the sort of stuff that is best left on holiday!

But this year doubly so. For the Sun joins a pile up of planets that are changing our landscape. Most commentators understand that Saturn, Uranus and the Sun take up a corner of a Grand cross each, but most then assume that Pluto makes up the last corner.

They are missing something, for Ceres is in that position too and she will bring her own meaning to join that of her husbands. Perhaps representing child abductions, as she has so often recently. My thoughts immediately go to the plight of Madelaine McCann, whose Saturn is at 27 degrees of Gemini, squaring her Vesta at 28 degrees of Virgo. Is her isolation and ordeal about to become revealed by transiting Ceres at 27 degrees of Sag and transiting Sun at 27 degrees of Gemini? How wonderful that would be.

For the rest of it, well...... I expect more from our revolutionary new government and its ground-breaking reforms, for here in England, this has been the manifestation of the T-square so far. Oh and then there is the BA cabin crew dispute, which has given a text book expression of the Uranus/Saturn opposition over the last year or two.

Apart from that, can we expect a quiet solstice? Yes, I think so, because often the tensions of a Grand Cross are like those of 2 tug-of-war teams pulling on a centre point. Everybody digs their heels in and there is not much movement but lots of grunting!

There is one last aspect that whispers quietly at us from the wings - the Neptune/Chiron conjunction which the Sun trines with all the warmth and love he can muster. Ah...NOW we have the real underlying story. Firstly we should remember that the Sun IS a positive planet and especially at this time of the year. Then we need to understand the message of the Neptune/Chiron conjunction which currently sits at 28 Aquarius and 00 Pisces.

The last time these 2 were exactly conjunct General MacArthur stood up and made a speech. For two days earlier Japan signed an act of unconditional surrender and brought to an end 6 years of World War. Hundreds of thousands had died and terrible atrocities had occurred. But somehow, in the blood and carnage of the Dark Night of the human race, the collective heaved itself back from the grip of destruction and General Douglas MacArthur was inspired to speak these words on behalf of the shattered Collective: -

“It is my earnest hope and, indeed, the hope of all mankind, that from this solemn occasion a better world shall emerge out of the blood and carnage of the past; a world founded upon faith and understanding, a world dedicated to the dignity of man and the fulfilment of his most cherished wish, for freedom, tolerance and justice.”(1)

The Sun today takes these words and weaves them into the fabric of human kind once more. For as Terry Pratchet has Death say in the Hogfather "Humans need fantasy to BE human. To be the place where the falling angel meets the rising ape, with tooth fairies and Father Xmas.  We need to believe in things that aren't true, for how else can they become?"

But then there is one last REALLY special event today. One that most commentators have missed. For just as the Sun reaches 00 Cancer, he is joined by some very special support. Silently and gently the Moon slips into position at 00 Scorpio, making up a Grand trine in Water with Chiron ............right at the exact moment of Solstice!

The two supreme representatives of our life here on Earth, take our wounds (Chiron) in their care and bathe them in this very special energy. For in Water all life began and all healing takes place. Surely the most special of signs from our Divine cosmos.

So put all your energy into wishful thinking, get creative and have a happy solstice!

References:

 (1) ANON, (1945) 1945: Japan Signs Unconditional Surrender; BBC. http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/september/2/newsid_3582000/3582545.stm