June 2020’s Solar Eclipse in Cancer occurs at a pivotal time in the soli-lunar calendar – the Cancer solstice point. In the northern hemisphere, this coincides with midsummer and the longest day, when the amount of sunlight bathing the Earth’s surface reaches its peak, before the balance between light and dark once again begins to tip towards autumn and then winter. The energy of this eclipse, which sets the tone for a brand new six month cycle, is therefore joyful, upbeat and life-affirming, keying in as it does to the maternal and nourishing energy of the mother goddess, symbolised by the Sun’s ingress into the sign of the Crab. No doubt, this will come as a welcome relief after all the heavy, dark energy of the last soli-lunar eclipse cycle, over-shadowed as it was by the challenging energy of January’s Saturn-Pluto conjunction.
Solar eclipses, which occur at the New Moon, tend to manifest change largely through external events or shifts in circumstances, often introducing new dynamics, variables or initiatives that send you off on a different path. The important thing to remember is that a solar eclipse usually sets or activates an overrriding theme for the six months that follow.
The Cancer New Moon eclipse also occurs at a cosmic ‘zero point’ – the first degree of Cancer, which in many ways, represents the birth canal of the anima mundi or world soul. The ancient Egyptians and Greeks believed that the solstice axis, linking the zodiac signs of birth and death, Cancer and Capricorn, was actually a gateway for souls entering and leaving the earth plane. So these positions in the zodiac – and the solstice and equinoxes that mark them in the western tropical zodiac – became highly significant. Indeed, the ancient Egyptians celebrated this time of the year with their New Year festival, which also coincided with the heliacal rising of Sirius, the brightest star in the galaxy (associated with their mother goddess, Isis) and the annual inundation of the Nile, which brought fertility and abundance back to the desert sands of Egypt.
These themes are all repeated in the astrology of this particular event. Not only will Mercury be exactly conjunct Sirius (something I discuss in more detail in my video forecast) but the Sabian symbol for this soli-lunar event also speaks of a watershed moment, a turning of the tides and a shifting of paradigms. the holds strong water-maritime themes
MAJOR THEMES
For more detail on these themes, check out my video forecast on the June-July Eclipses.
Sign
As with the solar eclipse of 2 July 2019, the June 21 eclipse will take place in the nurturing and family-oriented sign of Cancer. This soli-lunar event calls on us all to examine our relationships with our ‘tribes’ – family, friendships, as well as the concept of home and where we feel we belong.
Cancer is a cardinal water sign, so the Crab is all about emotion, feeling, nurturing, raising/caring for others and being cared for. It is also about home and belonging, in terms of where we live and how we live within the private or domestic sphere, so dynamics with your soul family, as well as lifestyle, nutrition and our everyday or home environment are also likely to loom large.
As a follow-up to themes played out at the 2019 solstices and Saturn-Pluto conjunction of January 2020, its a good time to take all you have learnt about unhealthy family dynamics, self-care and attachment patterns and form new bonds or associations for new and better ones. , continue the inner work done by many during the past year and will provide circumstances that confirm how much we have all grown since then.
Other key themes associated with Cancer include:
- Food, nourishment and cooking – expect to see more developments in terms of permaculture,
- Home, lifestyle and domestic arrangements
- Childhood, motherhood, conception and birth
- Habits, unconscious patterns/psychodynamics, instinctual reactions
- Family welfare, protection of loved ones/self, security of your home
- Self-care, self-nurturing, psychological wellbeing and emotional sustenanceIn many ways, I think this eclipse will see people making big lifestyle adjustments after the COVID-19 ‘reset’, which gave plenty of families pause for thought when it came to quality of life, health and work-life balance.
In many ways, I think this eclipse will see people making big lifestyle adjustments after the COVID-19 ‘reset’, which gave plenty of families pause for thought when it came to quality of life, health and work-life balance. Over the next six months, I expect to see more news emerging of families downshifting, relocating to rural areas, as well as new trends emerging in home construction and design that will facilitate this growing desire for a better way of life, from ‘off-grid’ power (think Cancerian, Elon Musk’s solar roof tiles, for example) to an increase in sustainable co-housing developments. All will serve as an inspiration and springboard for the New Aquarian Age, which I see truly coming to life at the December 2020 Eclipse Gateway that leads to the winter solstice and the conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn in Aquarius. These two planets come together every 20 years, but this will be the first
Sabian Symbol
This to me, emphasizes both the idea of the changing of the guard – the departure of the ‘old ways’, paradigms or political dispensations and the arrival of the ‘new earth’ – the Divine Feminine energy – in fuller, more obvious form on the earth plane.
Flags also usually point to the arrival of a new leader or ideological paradigm – sort of like the cultural shifts that took place during the different dynastic periods we so often hear Egyptologists speak about when they discuss the reigns of various Egyptian pharoahs and their impact on the country. Unlike political leaders, however, ancient kings usually reigned for life, so a change of leader on the throne also meant a complete shift in both power and socio-economic dynamics, from the top down. Perhaps we need to see this metaphor in relation to our own sovereignty and see it as an opportunity to take the reigns away from our passions/ego mind and allow our Higher Self, which we connect to via the crown chakra, to instead ‘take the helm’, as it were.
Interesting, then, that we find very strong links between the meaning of this Sabian symbol and the fixed star Canopus, which is sometimes referred to as the Helmsman or navigator; together with its’s name, which may have originated for an Egyptian phrase which meant ‘golden earth’…More on this below in the section on Fixed Stars.
Saros Cycle
The last time we experienced a solar eclipse in this Saros cycle – 4 North – was 10 Jun 2002, so you may want to think back to this period to see if there are any parallels or recurring themes in what occurs or gets activated now. If you need a quick reminder of the astrology of these events, then visit my eclipse chronology page.
Astrological chart
Key Aspects
The Sun and Moon in Cancer will be keying into a mutable T-square between the nodes, now in Gemini and Sagittarius, and Mars in the late degrees of Pisces. This to me suggests a continuation of themes begun at the Sagittarius Lunar Eclipse, which opened up the Orion Gateway, providing opportunities for humanity to deal with (and heal) some collective karma and wounding around conflict, war, bullying and aggression.
With Mars also making two key aspects to Jupiter and Pluto before and after this eclipse, it seems as though the major difference between then and now is that we have realised how pointless it is to try and solve old problems with old solutions, and are now more open to attempting to resolve these issues in new ways. Mars has been very active since its T-square to the luminaries at the lunar eclipse, and will ingress into Aries – its ‘home’ sign, on June 28, which makes me think back to Aries season – marked by the March Equinox – and the themes raised then. It was during this period that Saturn first ingressed into Aquarius (a degree it has now retrograded back to) and we entered the 444 gateway, marked by the first pass of the Jupiter-Pluto conjunction. Interesting then that we will now be returning to this energy – the second pass of this hugely transformative transit is on June 30, but will be activated by the Mars sextiles that bookend this eclipse. So, for me, all of these astrological events are inter-linked.
Fixed Stars
Mercury will be conjunct both the fixed star, Sirius (a binary blue giant) and Canopus, the alpha star in the constellation of Carina (the keel) one of three constellations that together form Argo Navis, a large constellation that represented the ship on which Jason and the Argonauts sailed to Colchis to get the Golden Fleece.
According to Jamie Partridge:
Honored by Ptolemy with a Saturn-Jupiter simile the name has two possible origins: first, Canopus, or Kanobos, was the chief navigator of the Greek fleet that sacked Troy, 1183 BC, and who died near Alexandria, Egypt, some years later. …
But a still earlier source of the name is the Coptic-Egyptian Kahi-Nub, Golden Earth, with a truly alchemical connotation. And with this star practically on the center-line of Cancer, 14°58′, and conjunct with the wondrous Sirius, what better hope of mastery of Life can one ask than to have these two promising symbols well placed and aspected on one’s horoscope.
Given this emphasis on brightness, navigation, maritime travel and the sea, I think this particular alignment is going to help us find direction again after all the confusion and loss of momentum we experienced during the first half of 2020, so that we move into greater alignment with our soul’s purpose.
I will be looking more deeply at the Starseed activations and astrological significance of Mercury’s conjunction to these two fixed stars in my video forecast, so do check it out if this area of astrology is of interest.
Arabic Parts
The Sun and Moon will be conjunct the Part of the Honourable Acquaintance, as it so often is at eclipses, perhaps because its formula involves calculating the ratios between Ascendant, Sun and the Part of Fortune.
Geographical position
This particular solar eclipse occurs close to the tropic of cancer and will be visible from central Africa, southeastern Europe and southern Asia, including China and the islands of the Pacific.
Videos
Astrological overview – Cosmic Weather Forecast of the June 2020 Cancer Solar Eclipse – includes a detailed analysis of the astrological chart, Sabian Symbol, Saros series and Fixed Star aspects at play and the themes they are likely to activate for us all over the next six months.
ZODIAC GEOSCOPES – Personalised geomancy-style solar eclipse readings for all 12 signs
NEW! ALL 12 ZODIAC SIGNS SIX MONTH ECLIPSE VIDEOSCOPES – June-Nov 2020 – I have just finished the video forecasts for the June-July solar and lunar eclipses, so check them out now. A really in-depth personalised look at the upcoming soli-lunar energies of the next six months for EACH of the 12 zodiac signs.
