Reversing into the Summer Solstice
What we call the beginning is often the end.
You’re reading WOODRUFF. I cover the convergence of pop culture, psychology, and astrology. Join my entourage of subscribers—you’ve been missed.
THE WATER AND AIR elements are astrology’s oil and vinegar.
Water, the most irrational element, feels devalued by the air element’s reverence for rationality and skepticism. This is the classic argument between art (water) and science (air). Also, there is a baseline polarity in the psyche between the unconscious (water) and the conscious (air). Feeling vs. thinking. Being vs. knowing, and on and on.
The air element is driven bonkers by water’s response whenever they are asked to explain their reasoning for this or that—water’s common response: “I dunno. I just have a hunch about it. I can’t explain it.”
Ack! (Or ‘ha!’ if you’re a water sign).
With three-quarters of my horoscope in the water element, it was with relief (and anticipation) that I welcomed today’s early arrival of the summer solstice in the Northern Hemisphere. This is the earliest the solstice has clicked into place in about 140 years or so. (You air sign folks should appreciate that snippet of astronomical fact.)
As many of you might know, each solstice and equinox throughout the year gives a thematic underscore as to what we might expect during the three months that follow the Earth’s particular tilt.
Regardless of which hemisphere we reside in, the arrival of each season initiates an atmospheric modification within the psyche. This occurs as the biosphere moves from one core element of the Zodiac to another. True, Australia’s springtime corresponds to our autumn, but no matter. The same fiery impulse to break free from the previous season dominates.
Let’s look at the summer solstice chart and see what the return of water portends:
Sorry to dive directly into politics, but the chart’s Scorpio ascendant is set to experience a direct opposition from Mars in Taurus during the upcoming debate between Biden and Trump on the 27th of the month.
This is a harsh angle between Mars (the chart's ruler) and the point of origin (ascendant) for the chart. It’s like scenes from the movie Fight Club where the unnamed lead (Edward Norton) keeps punching himself in the face, thinking he’s being attacked by Tyler Darden (Brad Pitt).
As the chart is set for DC, Mars in the 7th would represent Trump (as he is the oppositional candidate to the existing ‘ruler,’ Biden). Viewed another way, the solstice chart is also a snapshot of Biden’s administration.
Traditional astrology declares that Mars is at a disadvantage in Venus’ sign, so this might indicate that Trump is off of his game, though I doubt that he’ll be hampered much as there is the trine between Venus and Mercury to Mars in the chart. With Jupiter in Gemini amplifying Trump’s Sun sign and Mercury and Venus in Cancer (where Trump’s natal Mercury and Venus reside), he’ll likely feel at home with the debate’s parameters despite the strict rules in place to monitor overtalking and shouting.
The aforementioned Fight Club metaphor probably bodes poorly for Biden for, well, obvious reasons. With a natal stellium in Scorpio (Biden’s Sun sign), the Mars (his Sun’s ruler) set up in the chart indicates a potential for self-sabatoge.
Through a more literal lens, it’s interesting that two days before the solstice (which is celebrated in the UK by a sacred ceremony at Stonehenge), an environmental (Taurus) group of activists (Mars) descended on the ancient structure and defaced the giant stones with orange paint (Mars). So, aside from Washington, DC, you sense the sort of tension this solstice earmarks.
As the full Moon occurs right after the solstice, we have a situation reminiscent of a line of poetry from TS Eliot:
“What we call the beginning is often the end. And to make an end is to make a beginning. The end is where we start from.”