Star Weather Astrology Report 6/16–6/23
©2024 Ronnie Pontiac
All times Pacific.
Friends, we have before us another somewhat challenging week. Think of it as stormy weather. With three Neptune squares, three Pluto inconjunctions, and Saturn nearing stationary retrograde on 6/29, patience serves us well. Slow down. Double check. Ask for clarification. Be thorough and diligent. Squares can indicate a frustrating circumstances. To get the best from them effort is needed, like walking up the steps of stairs. Inconjunctions indicate two areas of life that just don’t seem to meet. We tend to emphasize one and then have problems with the other. Health issues sometimes come up with these inconjunctions, but even crisis is an opportunity for healing when Chiron is involved.
Consider all the effort it took to be you. All the physical growing you had to do. All the education. All the people who contributed to everything from the food you ate to the design, manufacture and distribution of the clothes you wore. You are an immensely complex wonder of cooperating individualities. You have memory, a mind, and emotions. You have dreams. You’re a veritable miracle in miniature. And yet, especially during bad times, we feel as if we are trapped in a nightmarish contrivance in a cold impersonal world where nothing escapes the grinder.
When a soul incarnates, the lower soul, the energy of the soul that creates and dwells with the body, falls in love with death. We play games where we kill and get killed. We watch movies featuring spectacularly gory scenes. We trophy hunt. We obsess on death statistics and morbidly dwell on apprehensive imagination. Or we consume ourselves with anger and hatred for those we disagree with, blaming them for the entire mess that it takes all of us to create, fantasizing a self righteous mayhem. This happens because the lower soul finds the body claustrophobic and disconcerting. The other side of the miracle that is the body is its physical limitations and the constant threat of succumbing to illness or accident, the impermanence of all existence amplified by all media daily because it’s a great way to sell soap.
If you are living in dread of your body and society, of what’s going to happen next, if you are dwelling on losses, depression, pessimism, and anger, if you feel life is only cruel, and that you are powerless, if you wonder what sort of cruel world subjects ephemeral beings to such mindless suffering, you are centered in the lower soul. You are also flushing your body with chemicals and hormones that become toxic when chronic. All the aggregate of beings cooperating to be the physical you are shaken with doubt about the whole project.
Be mindful about what you are thinking, what you visualize, and what you allow your feelings to dwell on. You are the captain of your ship. A miniature universe of millions of individual parts, your body, looks to you to set the tone. If tragedy, loss and doom are your constant themes you will exhaust and harm your crew. So take it easy.
Sunday 6/16 Venus square Neptune is exact in the evening. Avoid over intoxication on Father’s Day. Moms will not take kindly to fatherly displays of excessive escapism. Make this a Father’s Day of art and music, or whatever kind of inspirational creativity dad enjoys most. Inspiration and compassion are available, even deep feels of soulful love. On the lower end of the spectrum the square can indicate confusion, illusion, lies, delays, intoxication that could enhance romance but could also ruin it. In romance a deep seeking that may delude itself and/or another. On the higher end inspiration is available for creativity, for activities involving beauty, art, and harmony. Debussy wrote: “Music is the expression of the movement of the waters, the play of curves described by changing breezes.” In romance compassion and imagination may not only bring greater harmony but could also catalyze soul evolution. At 11:20 PM Venus leaves sociable gossipy Gemini for home and family oriented Cancer, a good placement for holidays by water.
Mon 6/17 Mercury square Neptune is exact after midnight. Then Mercury enters Cancer at 2:07 AM. Next Mercury conjunct Venus is exact before dawn. Finally, Mercury inconjunct Pluto is exact in the evening. The square can be very confusing. Escapist tendencies, miscommunication, and manipulation are all possible. People tend to be spaced out, so drive with extra care. Verify the facts before jumping to conclusions. But inspiration is available, and meditation can help restore clarity. Mercury in Cancer tends to indicate a time when our minds turn to domestic concerns. Emotions may override reason. We may feel more sensitive about what others say. Imagination is especially strong with this placement.
Mercury in Cancer will be with us until July 2, which happens to be the day that Neptune is stationary retrograde. So we have both Saturn and Neptune slowing down to retrograde. Weariness and depression are possible, meditation can help. Childhood patterns sometimes reemerge with Mercury in Cancer. If so take some time to integrate the shadow revealed by habits that have outlived their usefulness. Mercury conjunct Venus adds grace to communications. A good time for creative and romantic communication. Enjoy or create something harmonious. Mercury inconjunct Pluto can indicate health problems related to nervousness, worry, brooding over potential problems, or avoiding thinking about things that do require attention.
Tue 6/18 Venus inconjunct Pluto is exact not long after dawn, indicating that over doing the good times could lead to a some sort of health breakdown, such as a major hangover, or the onset of chronic exhaustion, given the Saturn and Neptune stations. Find a balance between Venus and Pluto, have time for romance and art but also for reform, repairs and healing. Avoid extremes. A positive aspect of these station is the way Neptune can indicate profound vistas of imagination and Saturn the discipline and hard work it takes to capture it. An openness to inspiration and devotion to craft could have spectacular results for the worthy.
Wed 6/19 only lunar aspects are exact. Three difficult lunar aspects in the evening indicate it would be wise to avoid talking too much in the evening as something regrettable might be said impulsively. If feeling discouraged or afraid, as Saturn and Neptune stations often indicate, ponder this: “When I dare to be powerful, to use my strength in the service of my vision, then it becomes less and less important whether I am afraid.” — Audre Lorde
Thu 6/20 sun square Neptune is exact in the late morning. The summer solstice arrives as the sun enters Cancer at 1:51 PM. With so many Neptune squares this quote by Vladislav Khodasevich might capture the zeitgeist: “And so we lived in two worlds at once. But, as we didn’t know how to uncover the laws governing the events taking place in that second world (which seemed much more real to us than the real one was), we could only wallow in our dark and troubled premonitions. We perceived everything that happened then as an omen. But of what?” Don’t get caught up in apprehension. Stay focused on the present moment.
Fri 6/21 Mercury sextile Mars is exact in the morning adding energy to communications and work that requires dexterity. Convey enthusiasm with sensitivity as many are feeling overwhelmed.
Sat 6/22 sun inconjunct Pluto exact is another indication of potential health problems caused by indulging in self destructive habits that reduce vitality. It can also indicate problems with authority figures. It’s important not to ignore the situations that come to light. Repairs and reforms are the way to get good results from Pluto inconjunctions. When we have paid attention to fixing what we can and letting go of what we cannot Pluto can indicate tranquility and a feeling of rebirth. Plotinus wrote: “No soul, not even our own, enters into the body completely. Soul always remains united by its higher part to the intelligible realm. But if the part that is in the realm of sense dominates, or rather becomes dominated and disturbed, it keeps us unaware of what the higher part of the soul contemplates.”
Sun 6/23 only lunar aspects are exact. Satie is known for his haunting music, but he also had a great sense of humor: “The musician is perhaps the most modest of animals, but he is also the proudest. It is he who invented the sublime art of ruining poetry.”
The two weeks following this one are very quiet with few aspects but the first features the Saturn station and the second the Neptune station. If you meditate this is a time when you could deep your practice significantly. If you don’t meditate what a great time to begin. As Milarepa wrote: “The affairs of the world will go on forever. Do not delay the practice of meditation.”
Krishnamurti wrote: “Meditation is to be aware of every thought and of every feeling, never to say it is right or wrong, but just to watch it and move with it. In that watching, you begin to understand the whole movement of thought and feeling. And out of this awareness comes silence.”
