The Tempest: Astro-Archetype of the Week (June 16 - 22)
Our bodies will need to feel what has barnacled to us.
Astro-Archetype of the Week (June 16 - 22): The Tempest
Key Astrological Transits:
June 16 | Venus square Saturn
June 17 | Mercury square Neptune
Mercury conjunct Venus in Cancer
June 20 | Sun square Neptune
Sun enters Cancer (Summer Solstice)
June 21 | Mercury sextile Mars
Full Moon in Capricorn
The following is written as a synthesis of all the archetypal energies at play in our current sky. The emphasis on Cancerian and Neptunian as well as the Solstice and Full Moon in Capricorn is much of my focus for this week.
For a brief moment, all of us are here, alive. It’s what we allow ourselves to feel that punctuates our experiences here. And the realities of our collective suffering is as present as we allow it at any given time.
Personally, I have seasons — short and long — of internal tempestuousness. Seasons where I can’t get away from the crashing, the deeply felt emotions of what I’m perceiving.
Last year, I lost two dear friends. Both writers. Both fiery (an Aries Sun and a Leo Sun) and self-assured realists. Both who had faced forward through their unique and trying illnesses. Both who eventually left the living because of these illnesses.
I picked a song for each of them, when I felt the news of their passings. I don’t know a better way to pull the waves over me in succession and intensity enough to fully honor the grief of losing them. And I played their songs on loop while driving through the mountains (thank you, Snoqualmie Pass) and the rolling fields (thank you, Kettle Moraine) until I couldn’t cry anymore. Until the buzz of tangible release took over my face and I could laugh. A strange relief-lifted laugh.
I am not saying this week’s energy is calling for you—or any of us—to cry or succumb to the tempestuous nature of loss.
But this week is asking us to evaluate within our bodies the state of our attachments: to people, to places, to ourselves, to our emotions.
Put differently, our bodies will need to feel what has barnacled to us. We do not need renewal or freedom from our attachments as much as we will need to float in the waves of what we long for, what we’ve lost, who we’ve held, and how we’ve felt as we’ve witnessed love and suffering around us.
Recently, the song I chose for my poet friend came up on my Spotify. I reached to turn it off because I was not ready. I had a couple weeks left of teaching and couldn’t afford to collapse yet. But I kept the song on and sang along. I felt surprised and relieved by how my friend’s song was entirely new now. Her song was groovy and fun, and still so much like her.
I wasn’t going to share what the song was but a part of me thinks she might enjoy my sharing it with others. The song became hers by random, and I keep it on all of my random playlists for when chance (or fate, or spirit, or who-have-you) wants me to listen.
I think of the role of the poet.
How the poem is written from a place of personally felt urgency but the poem is for more than just the one writing it. Particularly, the lyric poem has an “I” and sometimes a “you” but the speaker and the subject could be anyone the reader chooses. The poem is a lesson in attachments, and transience, and transference.
Just as much as you feel, just as deeply, intensely, or longingly, so does someone else about the same thing. It’s our task to honor the significance of our emotional reactions and to release them fully. This does not diminish the reality of how we feel but reminds our bodies of the changing quality of life. Emotions are momentary messengers to give us the news we need in order to act. We’re not physiologically meant to identify with our emotions — we’re meant to take them as the come crashing and let them return to the whole of the sea for the next movement.
Solstice, a Full Moon, Mercury and Venus conjunct in Cancer
This is a big week. A culminating week. A week full of what wants to be passed through.
Do you want homework?
The Capricorn Rising in me wants to make all of this information useful. It doesn’t have to be. But, if you did want homework, this is the week for poetry.
Mark what you’re feeling with symbolic language.
Write a lyric poem for the suffering you are witnessing.
Bring language to what is moving up and out of your body.
Three Poems for the Tempest Archetype
Sending you so much love. I hope you know what you’re feeling is exactly as it should be. There’s just so much to feel, no?
What’s coming up:
I’m pausing birth chart consultations until I return from Porto in July. Follow this link to schedule a reading with me after I restore myself with tinned fish, gouache painting on the beach, and witnessing sheep blessings in the mountains.
For those in the Milwaukee area,
is organizing a mini market on the lawns of Lynden Sculpture Garden on July 21st. If you would like to be a vendor, follow this link to apply!
After the Mini-Market on July 21st, I’m leading my first Astrology for Writers writing workshop at Lynden Sculpture Garden. There are limited spots, so please register early <3 I’d love to see you there!
In this workshop, we will pay special attention to (or: consider!) the planetary energies specific to the Full Moon in Capricorn (July 21, 2024) and discuss how writers are influenced by the Moon. As well, the writing prompts will be inspired by Mercury’s transit through the sign of Leo (July 2 - 25th and August 14 - September 9, 2024) and discuss how writers are influenced by Mercury.
This workshop is designed for people who are brand new to astrology as well as those who consider themselves advanced astrology practitioners. And the writing portion of this workshop is open to all types of writers -- poetry, prose, the experienced, and the excited. The energy of this workshop is full of curiosity, play, wonder, and open dialogue.
Thank you so much for this beautiful reflection and tribute to your friends, KP. Celebrating them and feeling their energy swirl around as I listen to the song. May you keep grooving to the song when it feels right, and may you cry and crack open when needed too. Love you <3
What a wonderful lead-up to Solstice! ☀️❤️