If you were expecting some kind of sun sign nonsense, forget about it. This is real astrology for the real world. If it's real astrology for yourself that you want, you can get it by phone or in print. And if you need help deciphering the astrological glyphs in the graphics accompanying this article, see Astroglyphs: Astrological Symbols Guide. Please note: this forecast is expressed in terms of Universal Time (UT).
Stars ache with beauty
through the swooning bamboos.
-- Dane Rudhyar
June promises plenty of action and drama, possibly more than many of us would like. Mars aligns with Saturn on the 18th, remaining within a few degrees of that alignment for a week either side of that date. This is a period that stretches from the full moon (conjunct Pluto), to the Uranus station (retrograde) and a couple of notable quadratures (90° arcs, one involving Mars and Jupiter, the other Jupiter and Saturn). It winds down on the day of the extreme high declination new moon in Cancer. In combination, this is a celestial portrait of action, aggression, conflict and confrontation at all levels of human experience, from the individual to the collective. Fires, explosions, crashes and crime always make headlines, but they'll make more than usual during this stretch of the month. No apocalyptic end of the world stuff, this - but it's the kind of thing you don't want happening in your vicinity. Accordingly, June is a month to be alert and cautious, to steer clear of danger and conflict as much as possible - and otherwise, to go in as well prepared as you possibly can. Particularly during the indicated period . . .
Action and drama of the crash and burn, shoot 'em up variety makes for lots of the "if it bleeds, it leads" kind of headlines this month, most especially from about the 11th through the 25th and around the 18th in particular. But there's a lot more to June than that. Jupiter's on and off 2005-2006 waxing quadrature to Saturn is on again this month, exact on the 22nd but within a few degrees of from the 4th through mid-July - only to pick up again in late September, heading into the final quadrature on October 25. And of course, the year's signature T-square includes the Jupiter-Saturn square as a fundamental component. So this is big stuff.
This is the second in a series of three quadratures (square aspect, a 90 degree arc between these two planets as seen from Earth) of Jupiter and Saturn since the epochal conjunction in the year 2000. The last time there was a Jupiter-Saturn square from Scorpio to Leo like this was in 1946 (the start of the Cold War, the World Bank and IMF). The last time there was a triplet with this sign configuration was 417 (a few years after Alaric and the Visigoths sacked Rome on August 24, 410).
Any Jupiter-Saturn square represents a critical moment of social, cultural and political change. It's a time when ideology and reality are so out of balance that a readjustment is not only inevitable, but almost easy - even if the medicine tastes awful going down. Certainly this will be played out in American politics, and in international relations as well. Tensions and conflicts won't disappear, but adjustments will be made so that stalemates will grudgingly turn into progress. Iraq will still be a bloody mess and a huge problem for the US, but it will slowly start turning into a more organized bloody mess. Congress will likewise continue to be a huge problem for the US, but the fall elections, held under the aegis of the third and final Jupiter-Saturn square in this series, will shift the balance of political power and momentum.
The kind of social, cultural and political change signified by the 2005-2006 Jupiter-Saturn square is not something one side forces on the other, but an arrangement that each side settles for because it can't force the issue its own way. Think of the 1945-1946 stalemate between the US and Russia. In the aftermath of the 1945-1946 triple Jupiter-Saturn waxing square, two ideological foes who had become allies of convenience, found themselves face to face and armed to the teeth once their common enemies had been defeated. Neither had the strength nor resolve to defeat the other in outright conflict, so they settled into what came to be called the Cold War. There's another Cold War brewing again, now that the triple waxing Jupiter-Saturn square has returned: an uneasy, probing confrontation in domestic politics, in international relations, in the clash of civilizations at the economic, social, political and cultural levels, as old structures more and more come to be seen as obsolete, even irrelevant - especially those establishments that have held sway since the Jupiter-Saturn alignment of 2000. New faces and theories populate the various governmental establishments, old standards lose their currency - and old currencies lose their standards. (That's what gold and silver are for.)
Likewise, the tension between the Visigoths and the Romans around the time Alaric sacked Rome faded by means of assimilation in the following years. The Visigoths became Romanized, in other words; and the Roman Empire became more and more a melting pot. Think of the migrations piling into the US and Europe, into Australia and South Africa, into China from Korea, etc. These are not invaders who come to conquer, but outsiders who want to be a part of something better. (A Mexican immigrant who was picked up by the US Border Patrol plaintively told a TV interviewer that "the American dream is so hard.") In the face of the cosmic quadrature, fences and border guards are not impassable: some accommodation will be made, and it won't be the kind that completely satisfies either side.
Since the quadrature is a turning point in the 20-year Jupiter-Saturn cycle, none of this happens overnight. It's an ongoing process that began late last year, and continues into the fall of 2006. But you'll see signs in the news of the day throughout June, indications that we're at a threshold. Shaky equity and commodity markets - although oil does well, especially around the 19th - continue this month, the turnaround coming only when Jupiter goes direct. This actually happens in July, but the Giant Planet is within a fraction of a degree of its turnaround in late June.
The Jupiter-Saturn square isn't the only long term cycle at work in June. All year long, the Moon remains very near the peak of its 18.6-year declination cycle, and will still be in the extreme range (in excess of 27.5°) of this particular cycle through the summer of 2008. This means we'll be years getting back to what passes for normal in terms of storm and seismic disturbances; which in turn means that even a lack of SuperMoons and eclipses leaves June in a more dynamic than usual state of geocosmic flux - less than September (the next SuperMoon and eclipse month), but enough to warrant paying attention. Last month saw killer earthquakes and storms, plus volcanic eruptions, on or around the dates of key points in the lunar cycle; e.g. the Richter 6.3 quake that killed thousands in Indonesia on Saturday, May 27 (May 26 Universal Time), within just a few hours of the new moon. That was one of the key dates mentioned in my May forecast as being at risk of "seismic disturbances (including Richter 5+ earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, with consequent risk of tsunami where appropriate)."
June has its own set of geocosmic risk windows, raising the likelihood of strong storms with high wind and heavy precipitation (engendering an enhanced potential for flooding, mudslides, avalanches and the like); as well as moderate to severe (Richter 5 and up) earthquakes plus volcanic eruptions. Apart from a somewhat elevated earthquake risk along strike-slip faults (e.g. the San Andreas) from the 2nd into the 6th, the first really notable geophysical stress period is a rather long one, running from the 8th into the 20th. This one is associated with a string of lunar factors. They begin with the full moon at 21° Sagittarius on the 11th, within a day of the Moon's south declination extreme. Next comes the Moon's perigee (closest approach to Earth) on the 16th, followed closely by the northward lunar equatorial crossing on the 18th. The most threatening points within this period are likely to be on or about the 11th-12th and 16th-18th.
The next geocosmic stress windows stretches, in full, from the 22nd through the 28th; but its peak comes on or about the 25th - the day of the new moon at 4° Cancer, and the nearly simultaneous north lunar declination extreme. Again, you can expect news-making strong storms and moderate to severe seismic activity (Richter 5+ quakes and subsequent tsumanis where conditions permit, plus volcanic eruptions).
If you or someone you know has travel plans during any of the above indicated geocosmic stress periods, it would be a good idea to allow for weather delays. Bear in mind that Mercury's intersolar cycle begins on the 20th, as the little planet reaches its greatest elongation east of the Sun. Mercury's intersolar period corresponds to the segment of its orbit which lies between Earth and the Sun. (If this sounds a little abstract, I'm hoping the accompanying animation I have prepared will help clarify things.) The intersolar cycle includes the little planet's July 4-29 retrograde, when Mercury appears to reverse its normal course through the sky, as this swift inner planet catches up and passes the slower-moving Earth on the 'inside track' as it were. It concludes with Mercury's maximum western elongation on August 6. So scratched schedules, strikes and other snafus are likely to complicate weather-induced travel messes toward the end of June.
As you can see from the animated diagram, Mercury is much closer to Earth than usual during its intersolar phase. This is nature's way of telling us that all things mercurial are a higher than normal priority at these times. The mercurial elements of human experience are thought, communication, commerce and transportation, primarily: these will be prominent themes during the June 20-August 6 Mercury intersolar period. People who see it coming, who prepare and act accordingly, will prosper during this cycle. Nearly everyone else ends up falling farther and farther behind. So plan, study, research, gather information and documentation in advance, and have fallback positions ready. Anticipating the importance of all that is mercurial means being alert, paying attention, being sharp and perceptive. Assume nothing, follow up on everything; stay informed, in touch and on top. And starting with the beginning of Mercury's intersolar cycle on the 20th, that's exactly what the smart people do. Those who don't will get caught up in the miasma of missing information, missed connections and all kinds of messes and delays.
You'll see it starting on the 20th: strikes and other disruptions affecting transportation and communication (e.g. postal, phone, mass transit, trucking, airline, shipping, dock and warehouse workers, teachers and all manner of media). Weather both terrestrial and solar (including geomagnetic storms) can play a part in the kind of breakdowns described here, but human effort (and sometimes malicious action) is a part of the mix as well. Power failures due to infrastructure breakdown and computer network disruptions caused by hacker attacks, software vulnerabilities and the like are also just a crossed wire or a keystroke away from a major mess at these times. It's not so much that disaster is destined to strike when Mercury is in its intersolar phase. Rather, it's that everything pertaining to Mercury becomes crucial; and unless it's treated as such, then it goes awry. Unfortunately, few people keep their eye on the ball with any consistency and diligence. Most people spend most of their lives sleepwalking around on autopilot. And that's the reason these Mercury cycles tend to turn into Murphy's Law festivals. You've been put on notice.
SPECIAL FEATURE: This month's birthdays of the famous and infamous (with astrological birth charts)
