The players are moving into position.  The movements of the planets are like a giant chessboard, the archetypal patterns interweaving and intermingling to form alignments that have resonance to the past and the future planetary shifts.  As we understand more and more the fact that our universe is like a holograph, that each of the pieces (us) contains all the information about the whole (the world), we begin to wonder about the meaning of our solar system’s movements. Astrologers, using this ancient system of combining art and science, have studied the planetary movements for thousands of years, long before technology and Big Science, and have been recording these patterns and the historical and personal significance of such movements. With the coming of June Solstice and the New Moon, we are moving into the second act (see Full Moon Eclipse in Sagittarius) of the dramatic play of 2012.

As mentioned, the players are moving into position. This New Moon takes place just 32 hours before the Summer Solstice in the Northern Hemisphere, and the Winter Solstice in the Southern half of our planet.  For a few days around this time, the Sun appears to stand still (sol-stice) as it stops moving North at the Tropic of Cancer and begins its six month trek to the southern latitudes stopping at the Tropic of Capricorn on December 21st. 

Six days later, on June 25th, Saturn will end its retrograde period of five months and go direct. Two days after that, Venus in Gemini will follow suit and also go direct. Jupiter, just having entered Gemini, will closely pair with Venus for about a month.  Most importantly, the first square aspect (planets at 90˚ from each other) between those slow-moving outer planets Uranus and Pluto will happen on June 24th.

What does this all mean? First of all, the New Moon is a beginning of a cycle, and in Gemini, it serves to necessitate community on a local level.  Gemini rules the area of the neighborhood, our brothers and sisters, the ones close to us we turn to when we need support.  Our day to day world is changing ever so fast, and unless we reach out to others and form community at the local level, we will feel too swept away by the changes at the larger levels. With Saturn retrograde for the last five months, we have been experiencing the need for changes in the ways we structure our lives.  Now as it goes direct, it is time to make those changes apparent and evident.  It is time to turn our hopes into action. 

Venus, having transited across the face of the Sun for the last time in our lifetimes, and having been ignited by the power of the greatest light in our human experience, is ready for a rebirth as well, a renaissance of the power of the feminine in our lives.  The soft and gentle qualities of our psyche can no longer suffer the derision and contempt of the warrior culture’s thirst for superiority and power over others.  We now know that our very sustenance depends upon how we treat those parts of ourselves, and each other.  Look up “meek” in the dictionary to see how our culture has come to characterize this quality of softness and gentleness. With Jupiter, the planet of expansion and spirit, following on the heels of Venus now, we can expect to feel a great resurgence of feminine wisdom and power in each one of us, the power that is accessed when we are still, gentle, humble, and ready to receive information (Gemini) from a source greater than our own ego.

And then the bigger players, the outer slow-moving planets of Uranus and Pluto are facing off on June 24th.  This is the first of seven square aspects these two are making over the next three years.  The last time these two squared off was in the period just prior to World War 2, 1932-34. During that period they squared each other five times. Pluto was in Cancer then, fueling intense and obsessional feelings of nationalism, and the need for belonging, taken to their greatest and most fearful extremes.  Now that Pluto is in Capricorn, our systems of government and economy planet-wide are the locus of powerful revolutionary forces (Uranus is in Aries). Not only the systems themselves, but the underlying values which propel them are being called into question. Be especially careful with your energies around June 29th when the Sun will form a T-square, opposing Pluto and forming a right angle to Uranus, all this while the Moon is in Scorpio. T-squares are high-tension aspects.  Take care not to get involved in power struggles with others, as the world may seem to be turning upside down in many parts of the globe and in our personal world as well. 

There are other more peaceful and ameliorating aspects that day as well, and if we turn our attention toward peacemaking and healing, we can be amazed at the results available to us.  We must not underestimate the power of our attention; the ways in which we focus can turn a situation from disagreeable to acceptable, or even satisfactory for all concerned.  Each of us is an agent in this time of change and growth, and how we treat ourselves and others has a ripple effect that we often only vaguely perceive. 

The New Moon chart cautions us to be careful with our words, as Mercury squares Saturn in its last days of retrograde.  Venus and Jupiter also square Neptune, and so we must be also careful with our generosity, to make sure it isn’t overdone.  And for the past few weeks, Mars and the Sun have been squaring each other as well, causing tempers to flare and motorists to take unnecessary risks (that’s a nice way of putting it!).  But the New Moon also trines Saturn, bringing us the necessary energy to give thought to what we do, how we do it, and what structures in our lives need to be maintained or changed.  Be open to being taught, as well as to sharing your wisdom with others.

This is a time of tremendous possibility; the old guard will resist change but it is inevitable.  The movements of the planets are inexorable and irrefutable.  Over the next three years we will see many changes on this planet.  What will remain for us will be the truths of our lives; some of these truths are difficult to swallow, others will be evidence of our growth and maturity.  When we align with our truth, we can flow with the rivers of change, knowing we are living within our integrity, no matter the cost.  That brings us a strength that is healing and transformational to ourselves and everyone in our community.