I recently attended a Summer Solstice Ceremony held in a nearby community.  Part of the ceremony was an interpretation  of a chart for the moment when the sun was at zero Cancer — the Summer Solstice.  I had never looked at such a chart before, even though I had looked at a Capricorn Ingress chart for many, many years.

It is traditional among astrologers to look at ingress charts to gauge the upcoming year.  The most  common of these is the Capricorn  Ingress chart, since the ingress of the Sun into the sign of Capricorn — the official start of the Winter season — is near the beginning of the New Year in modern societies.   But since I was at this ceremony, I decided to also look at the Cancer Ingress chart,  and I was a bit surprised.  The hostess of the ceremony pointed out some interesting features of the chart, but her interpretation was a bit more “New Age” (appropriate considering the people gathered) than I would take.  But  I did see some things of interest for readers of this blog, and later I did a more in-depth interpretation of the chart.

The first thing to note is that the Sun is conjunct Mars with an orb of less than two degrees.  This is especially of note since the position of the sun is fixed at zero degrees cancer.  Mars – Sun indicates violent, anger, warlike conditions.  Not very peaceful.  Lots of energy.  Not a suggestion that the next year will be calm and gentle.

The next thing I noticed was that Saturn was tightly square the Moon with an orb of less than 15 minutes.  Again, since the position of the moon is fixed because of the nature of the chart, this aspect with the moon is also important.  Moon-Saturn is depressed emotions or feeling on a personal level, or sad or constricted people on a nation level.  Doesn’t sound like a lot of joy.  But then notice the tight semi-square between Saturn and Pluto – orb less than three minutes.  We’ve seen before the problematic nature of hard combinations of Saturn and Pluto,  as in the start of the Spanish American War, World War I, World War II, the coup in Chile, and the 9/11 attacks.  Completing the triangle is Moon sesquiquadrate Pluto, also tight with an orb of under 15 minutes.  So this whole configuration of Moon, Saturn, Pluto  are quite close to exact, and since the personal point the Moon is involved, this Saturn-Pluto is involved with the people of the world, the people will feel the troubles that ensue.   And combine this which what was said above about Sun-Mars, and the near future seems like an explosive situation, though most likely in a figurative sense.

In the fourth harmonic version of this event, we see that many planets are involved in the Moon-Saturn-Pluto complex.  There is what is called a “Mystic Rectangle” formation, which involves two oppositions, two sextiles (short side of the rectangle) and two trines (long sides of the rectangle).   The oppositions in this case are Moon-Saturn opposition Pluto and Venus opposite Sun.  You can see how wide the Sun-Mars conjunction is when stretched by a factor of four in this harmonic chart.  The sextiles are Sun-Pluto and Moon-Saturn-Venus.  The  trines are Pluto  Venus and Sun-Moon/Saturn.

In the two weeks since the start of Summer, we can already see this playing out.    What I  notice most strongly is the drama being played out between Europe (and especially Germany) and Greece.   As I write this, Greece had already defaulted in the money it owes the notorious IMF (International Money Fund).  The IMF was set up in the aftermath of World War II  to support financial cooperation among nations of the world, but it has acted as an extortionist for a long time.  The IMF is famous for the ravages — the demands that countries  undergo Structural Adjustment — it has laid on Central and South America during the decade of the Nineteen Eighties — the decade of the start of neolibralism in the world stage, the decade of Reagan and Thatcher, and it seems to be living up to its promise.  Germany and  Greece had difficulties during World War II, when the Nazis took over in Greece, and it appears that the post-Nazi German government is still intent on taking a bite out of Greece, and the Greek people have not forgotten World War II.

Here is a chart for Sunday, the day a referendum has be called in Greece to determine if they will remain with the austerity program.  In this chart Saturn is still semisquare Pluto, but now Sun is opposite Pluto and sesquiquadrate Saturn, so it looks like Sunday is another Plutonian day,   one in which the long knives come out.  Whatever the outcome of the referendum on Sunday, things won’t improve, at least not in the short term.

Those words were written before the vote in Greece.  Now, several days after, and with a large “No” vote, we can se the Plutonian repercussions around the world.  Some commentators a have said that the vote was the most important event in Europe since the fall of the Berlin Wall.  It is certain to affect the political situation in many other members of the Eurozone, such as Spain, a well as the electorate in other countries such as the United States.   The vote is being seen as a large protest against the wave of neoliberalism that has swept the world since the late 1970s.

But of course other things are happening in the world.  The day before the referendum was the 239th birthday of the United States  and the beginning of a (very) long election season for the President of that country.   That country is currently roiled with church fires and the killing of black people; the justice system of the United States is coming under increasing criticism.  Extreme weather is attacking the West Coast of the US, and the major agricultural state California is seeing a news-worthy drought.  The Middle East is seeing wide spreading wars. At this rate who knows what the world will look like in another 14 months.