At dawn, on Wednesday 21, the Sun ends its ascent to the 23.4 ° parallel in the northern hemisphere, emitting its rays perpendicular to that area of the globe. Thus the Solstice phenomenon takes place. Our planet will have reached half of its annual journey, i.e., it will have fulfilled half a turn of its translation movement around our Central Star.
Wednesday, a day dedicated to the god Mercury, will be the longest day throughout the northern hemisphere. It is known as Summer Solstice because it initiates, in that hemisphere, the climatic season of the same name. Meanwhile, the opposite occurs in the south: it will be the longest and coldest night there, marking the beginning of winter.
The reason for this antagonistic climatic perception on both sides of our planetary sphere is the inclination of its axis, causing the Sun to spend every year one semester in the northern hemisphere and another one in the south, crossing twice the equator; going one way at the end of March, and backwards at the end of September, in what is known as the equinoxes. Each of these four moments determines the beginning of each season that manifests itself in an opposite manner above and below the inter-tropical zone, like a mirror image.
The 23.4 ° parallels’ imaginary lines are known as the tropics of Cancer and Capricorn, which correspond respectively to the Northern and Southern hemispheres. Such denomination comes from the stellar constellations through which the solar star is visualized in those moments, determining the sidereal space of the zodiacal signs identified with the names of those fictitious animal figures of the old mythology.
The instant when this Solstice occurs, beginning the period of the Sun in Cancer, coincides with the passing of Mercury by the same zodiacal point, and its entrance into the sign of the Crab. This astral conjunction also represents the central moment, and of maximum development, of its 128-day cycle, which began on April 20 and will end on the coming August 26.
The culminating moment of this Cycle of Mercury (June 21) indicates its eclipsing and positional change as regards the human view. Up to now the small planet of communications could be seen shortly before dawn, by the eastern horizon; these days it will remain hidden in the sunshine and, at the end of the week, it will be visible again, for the following 60 days, but only after sunset, like an evening star, in the west sector of the sky.
The symbology of Mercury’s conjunction with the Sun, and the changes in its position and schedule, allow for the deduction that matters of exchange and negotiation may become very relevant in the days to come, when controversial decisions, agreements or judgments may occur in organizations or groups with divergent positions within them, not before quite a few controversies and long discussions.
Last Saturday 17, from Pisces, the Half-moon started losing light and visibility, in conjunction with Chiron. It will enter a Balsamic condition between the nights of Tuesday 20 and Friday 23. Under this lunar mode, of the last 3.5 days of its cycle, the mercurial Solstice, in the portal of its own zodiacal sign (Cancer), takes place; a clear indication that this second semester of the year will be a very emotional, purging, reviewing, suffering, cleansing, detoxifying, purifying and healing period.
The second semester of the year is about to commence. It corresponds to the solar route through the inter-tropical zone, from the northern end, on June 21, in the Tropic of Cancer, to the southern end, on December 21, in the Tropic of Capricorn. Due to the above mentioned factors accompanying this Mercurian Solstice of Balsamic Moon, we can conclude that it will be a period for intense purification and catharsis.
The next December Solstice represents the other side of the coin. Not only because it will be a winter solstice, and in the south, but because the Sun will enter the portal of Capricorn, exceptionally accompanied by its ruler Saturn (*), in the place of Mercury at its climax, tiny sidereal body that will be in retrograde motion by that time; with a saturnine New Moon, instead of a chironian and balsamic moon, as it is now. It will be a golden opportunity for the beginning of a new era, where, standing out, there will be the impetus for the renewal, restructuring, regeneration and transformation of the status quo, after this cathartic semester shall have been overcome.
(*) It had not happened during the last three centuries.
Translated by Jorge Pardo Febres-Cordero, Certified Public Translator (Spanish-English-Spanish) – [email protected]
Photo Credits: Stephen Rahn