For the solstice this year, I started my new course, celebrated with my husband, and generally had a chill quiet day. Here on the top half of the planet where I live, the longest day is about 15.5 hours between sunrise and sunset. But if we look at civil dawn and dusk timing, it’s 17 hours.
I love the sun, but I find Cancer season tiring. Every year, as we head into the summer solstice, I find that I’m sleeping less and feeling more tired and eating less well. For the next month I’ll be a little out of it, more insular and sensitive and emotional. Why? Well, my best guess is because I’m a Leo rising, so Cancer is my 12th house. And I have Venus and the Moon and my South Node in Cancer, so it’s bound up with the sensitive and deep diving, hidden emotions. If I had complete control over my schedule — this is a euphemism for “if I were independently wealthy” — I’d hermit up for all of Cancer, going to my private island for a beach retreat (what? I can dream).
I also notice that emotionally challenging events in my life tend to start on or around the summer solstice.
It’s an interesting exercise to look at your own chart (I recommend using whole sign houses) and see how the solar cycles match to your life, year over year. Of course not every year is the same, but over time you might notice repeating themes. When do you feel most creative? Most isolated? Most social? When do big changes happen? When does the shit, inevitably, seem to hit the fan?
Someone I know has had a lifetime of weird and unpleasant Halloween events. Illnesses, drama, problems. The common theme is that they need to experience this time close to home and focused on the more liminal and ancestral elements. If they try to engage more externally (party, travel, etc.), things will get weird and go sideways. I can see how this might be reflected in their whole sign houses. In another case, a person’s birthday ends up being massively personally significant (beyond the weight we all tend to put on our natal days) and I can specifically point to why by looking at their placements.
It’s a process of shining light onto the repeating motifs that we live, but sometimes don’t recognize. For example, I’m well aware that Capricorn season is initiatory for me (in my sixth house, with my north node). And even if the sun isn’t in Capricorn, something major will be (Pluto in late Capricorn has not been my favorite thing ever, let me just say). Capricorn season in general is very important to me in terms of that theme.
Of course, the connections will be subtle. There’s a LOT more to how your chart manifests in your life and this is just a tiny glimpse at the surface of a very deep lake. But it’s still an interesting exercise, similar to my ongoing efforts to describe the landscape of each of the signs by journeying through them.
Of course, not every year is exactly the same. This year, Cancer season isn’t a particularly good one for practical enchantment (by my method of analysis at least). So my desire to focus inward on journeying and self-discovery makes a lot of sense in that context as well.
