The Winter Solstice or Summer Solstice, wherever you’re situated in the world, happens this week. The moment that the Sun enters 0 degrees, 0 minutes and 0 seconds of Cancer will be the official moment of the Solstice. This exact moment is the picture of the sky that astrologers capture and call the Cancer Ingress Chart and we use this Ingress chart to understand the worldly trends for the next three month period.

The word ingress comes from the Latin word, Ingressus, which means to enter or to go in. At this Cancer Ingress which will occur on 21 or 22 Jun depending on your location, we enter into a cardinal water sign symbolic of fertility, connection and the beginning of a blossoming ‘something’ be it a relationship, project, plant, etc. 

Some say that the Solstice and Equinox points are times when the veil is thin between realities. In this week’s case, we have a Sun square Neptune (19 Jun) which will greatly assist in the unveiling of our perceptions. Take note of your dreams, both waking and sleeping one. Open up to the imaginal. Honour the thinking spirits. Listen to the spirits of place and lineage. The merging of realities and worlds this week is not as strange as it sounds. A good opportunity for world building be it in a painting or designing a life you want to step into.

For thousands of years, the Cancer Ingress was the moment of the Heliacal Rise of the fixed star Sirius which signalled the flooding of the Nile and the beginning of a New Year and the new growing season. But due to the ever evolving movement of our Universe, the Heliacal Rise of Sirius no longer aligns with the Cancer Ingress, though the symbology is still eternally remembered in the skies and our hearts. We can say that every year, the Cancer Ingress is the dreaming of new beginnings of connection, coming into relation with our allies – both human and non-human, physical and supernatural, as well as the dreaming to birth newness into our lives, the lands and our communities be it within the dark of winter or the longest of days.

The Cancer Ingress also opens us into the first Decan of Cancer, ruled by the graceful and receptive Venus and symbolised by the 2 of Cups in the Tarot. To this card, known as the Lord of Love, Tarot master T. Susan Chang writes:

“…it may or may not be an invitation to romance.  But it is certainly an invitation to enter a delicate, receptive mindset.  Observe and appreciate the beauty in others – particularly the beauty that is subtle and hard to see.  Offer to another your respect and your benefit of the doubt, for you are strangers.  You may come to realise that courtesy is only a mask worn by great love, for beneath the surface – beneath what you think you know – you may find yourselves to secretly be lovers, family, fast friends, or even your very own self in disguise. 

This is also reflected in the Cancer Ingress chart which features a passionate union of Venus, Mars and the Moon in the hot, fiery sign of Leo. Perhaps romance and connections are fast-tracked this quarter or possibly fast-lived seeing as Venus will eventually change directions and never end up forming a union with Mars this time around. We call this a ‘Refrenation’ – when planets look like they’re about to meet in a conjunction but split off into different directions right at the last minute. 

In real life, this could symbolise two people seeking to form a union but circumstances prevent this from happening. It’s not necessarily solely a lovers dilemma – it could be two areas of life symbolised by your Mars and Venus houses that don’t get the opportunity to merge right now as the time is not right. So check your Libra/Taurus and Aries/Scorpio houses so see whether this ‘refrenation’ theme plays out over the next quarter. Venus and Mars will eventually meet in February 2024.

This quarter will see Venus making her Retrograde motion, so relationship themes are certainly top of mind this quarter, but definitely not straightforward! Allow plenty of heart space for you to review and reassess, for this is an important time in the Venus cycle as she prepares to move into a new eight year cycle. More on the 2023 Venus Retrograde in this video where I show you how to use this Venus Retrograde phase to design your own praxis that aligns in real time with the cosmos. You might also be interested in a limited special Venus Rx consultation where I can assist you with this.

With the Venus Mars Moon stellium, a truthful receptivity and exchange will be the general sentiment of the people. With Mercury exactly sextiling Mars at the Cancer Ingress, some honest conversations are bound to occur. The strong Mercury in Gemini will help you to find your voice and elevate those of the people with great clarity and rationality – this will greatly assist the quest for honesty in levelling up relationship matters this quarter. Plus this is likely to extend to broader social and political spheres as well.

This combination of planets also brings a powerful creative ability to the quarter. The urge to create and express will be strong especially within collaborations, unions and partnerships. Behind the urge to your creative impulses is the need to explore deeper facets of your identity that require people as mirrors for self understanding. It’s a dance that allows beautiful aesthetics and the unwinding of the inner Self.

Lastly, a broader social feature of this Ingress Chart is that Saturn sextile Jupiter (19 Jun) which coincides just two days before the Solstice. Cast your mind back to the Jupiter Saturn Conjunction that occurred on 21 December 2020 which you can get a backgrounder in my article Jupiter Saturn Conjunction: A New Kingdom Unfolds written in December 2020. In this Ingress, the Saturn Jupiter cycle reaches an important milestone in its 20 year cycle where archetypically, it is the Old King supporting the youthful Puer to one day take over the reigns. This signature is something that I’m looking forward to in this quarter because it is the feeling of our systems and structures (literal or metaphorical) finally starting to reflect a semblance of our intended dreams and visions. 

Prior to this, the Saturn Jupiter cycle may have felt like a clash between the old and the new. This quarter, you could get a sense that things are slowly coming together after the last three years of conflict, disagreements, changes and differences. It’s certainly not perfect but the wheels are newly lubricated and in smooth motion. So this quarter, make some time to review your past three years and acknowledge how far you’ve come. Recognise the difficulties you’ve had to overcome and the new systems you’ve put in place that now form your living reality. More on the Jupiter Saturn conjunction is my interview with Charles Jameson. 

Happy Yule or Litha to you!

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See you next Sunday for the next installment of planetary news.

Shu xx