A solar eclipse on the summer solstice – what an interesting concept! And yet, that’s what we get to experience soon! What does it all mean? Is it a sign of impending doom? Or maybe a signal from the heavens that things are going to change? Let’s look at this Solar Eclipse in Cancer and distill its essence!
Viewing Details:
As I mentioned above, the Cancer Solar Eclipse is on June 21st for most of the world. In Toronto, it starts at 11:45 pm on June 20th and will be occurring overnight. It will be visible in Asia, the Middle East, Africa, most of Russia and Eastern Europe. As seems to be a common theme with eclipses, North and South America will be missing out on this one as the sun will be below the horizon.
But in the event, you want to observe the energies, here are the times:
Eclipse start time: June 20th – 11:45pm (EST)
Eclipse end time: June 21st – 5:34am (EST)
This is an Annular Solar Eclipse, meaning that the shadow of the Moon will leave a “ring of fire” as it passes in front of the Sun. If you’re going to observe it, please do so with the appropriate safety glasses or view it online as a safer option.
Key Essence of the Cancer Solar Eclipse
Personally, I’m eager to see how this eclipse pans out to be honest. There are a number of themes that are coming up around this time, especially themes around sensitivity (you can read up on that in my article on Mercury Retrograde in Cancer). This eclipse goes beyond that though. Why? Because it’s happening on an incredibly special day.
The Summer Solstice is the day of maximum light in the Northern Hemisphere. In the Wiccan tradition, the Sun’s powers are at a peak on this day and it is a day to celebrate the virility of nature and ourselves. In case you’re wondering, I use fertility and virility in specific ways:
Fertility = creative power of the feminine Virility = creative power of the masculine
The Summer Solstice is the day of maximum virility – the day the male forces of creation are at their most potent. The Sun is the father, the giver of life and the emanation of light from his celestial body warms the feminine energies of the earth, and together they create the bounty that we call life. Coincidentally, the Summer Solstice marks the passage of the Sun into the zodiac sign Cancer, which is governed over by the Moon. The Moon is the mother hovering over the cradle that we call the earth. When the masculine and feminine aspects are in harmony, creativity flows with relative ease and abundance.
That harmony of the Sun (the father) in the sign Cancer (the mother) is part of what makes this day so special and so potent. The Summer Solstice is a time of manifestation! If you question that, look outside! Nature is in abundance and the promise of fruits, vegetables, flowers, and herbs is clear! Since we cycle with mother nature, when she is productive, so are we!
Since the Sun is eclipsing in the sign of the mother, the main theme of this solar eclipse is that of birthing/manifestation. The next solar eclipse won’t be until December 14th, so we’ll be working with this theme until then.
In this post, there are 2 main question that I’d like to address as tools of reflection and growth. They are:
1) Are my masculine and feminine creative energies in harmony? Am I fertile and virile?
2) How can my feminine energy better support the creative urges of the masculine?
Before I move on, I just want to make a quick commentary about your sex here. Remember that it took both male and female input for you to make it into this world. Every one of us has male and female aspects of the self. If either were lacking, we would be unable to create anything (not just procreation). It takes 2 to create (whether that is the 2 aspects internally, or 2 partners flowing the masculine and feminine energies regardless of their sex).
Are your Inner Masculine and Feminine in harmony?
Oftentimes, people ask me if their masculine and feminine energies are in balance. The concepts of 50/50 or 70/30 being used as a measure of the health of their internal dynamic. But let’s look at this a different way and if you look at the question I wrote just above, I asked if they are in harmony, not balance. Perhaps being a more functional/tangible person, the concept of constantly weighing to assess success seems a bit ludicrous. It’s not the balance that will throw off manifestation, it’s the ability of these two aspects of the self to work together and support each other that will determine your success.
Here are some traits that will help give you an idea of how your masculine and feminine ideas work together positively:
· You follow through on your ideas from start to finish
· You are diligent and take time with all parts of the creative process (idea, thought, plan, action)
· What you create lasts or endures through time (when it’s meant to)
· The creative process feels nourishing and uplifting to you
· You feel balanced and centered in the creative process
· You have a high success rate in your creative endeavours, generating lots of abundance
· You attract the right opportunities, people, and resources to fulfill your goals
This is a list of the positive qualities that happen when the masculine and feminine creative energies are in harmony, but don’t forget that if you would like to harmonize them, use this list as suggestions for action, i.e. follow through on all your projects, be diligent and take your time with all aspects of creation, etc.
Even if you feel like none of these statements is true for you right now, choose 1 or 2 from this list and focus on them until the next solar eclipse in December. Watch how your ability to manifest will shift even if you only work consistently with 1 or 2 of these actions.
In addition, Alice Bailey (the queen of esoteric astrology) recommends the use of Alternate Nostril Breathing (a Yogic practice) as a method of harmonizing the masculine and feminine energies and of clearing the channels of energy flow in the body. In this Yogic practice, the left nostril is representative of the Moon (female) energies, and the right nostril is that of the Solar (male) energies.
I am not a yoga instructor so I won’t give you any specific directions, but I have linked an article with great background info and the technique. Alice Bailey writes that this is an incredibly powerful technique that can be done daily but for no longer than 5 minutes as it’s potent!
How can your feminine energy support your creativity?
Alice Bailey states that Cancer is the sign that governs over our birth into the physical world – our emergence into physical manifestation. In Cancer, we arise from the ocean of souls waiting for their turn to play upon the earth and claim our individuality. Being the sign of birth, it begs the question of how feminine energies can be unsupportive to the masculine urges for creation.
To help you understand this concept of the feminine energies needing to be receptive, I want to use the miracle of birth and the magick of the womb as an example. For a new life to be created, the male and female energies must have sparked together. This creates a seedling, a potential that is nourished within the womb of the feminine until it comes time for its grounding in the physical that we call birth.
The womb is both hospitable and inhospitable to that masculine spark at different times. The intelligence of the human body is amazing! For example, the womb secretes mucous that traps sperm and carries it out to protect itself from fertilization at the incorrect time, preventing tubal (ectopic) pregnancies – pregnancies that can damage the womb itself. Once pregnant, it also creates a plug to stop further sperm and bacteria from entering to protect the baby (the creation) and prevent outside energies from interfering with the outcome. These are positive examples of the womb protecting both itself and the creation by making itself “hostile” to the incoming male (or outside) forces.
But hostility of the womb (female energy) to male energy doesn’t always lead to a positive outcome. In fact, that hostility leads to the sadness and difficulties that many couples experience when trying to conceive. For us as individuals, let’s look at how hostility of our own womb can block the manifestation of the sparks our masculine side provides.
Conditions of the womb that influence the outcome include temperature, nourishment, safety, and the correct methods/procedures. Here’s how that applies to your own womb:
1) Temperature – hot/cold/temperate? How do you react to your own ideas? Do you give them too much heat and criticism and kill them off? Are you cold, unwelcoming, and indifferent? Are you judgmental of the inspirations that your masculine side provides? How can you shift yourself to a more welcoming temperature?
2) Nourishment – overfeed/underfeed? This shows up in your thinking and preparation. The womb provides the building block necessary for the child (creation) to grow. Do you overfeed and try to gather too many thoughts and resources, slowing down or distorting the process of creation? Do you underfeed and not give your creative urges enough thought and resources or skimp and cut corners where you can? How can you bring yourself into balance with supplying the proper thought and resources without overkill?
3) Safety – secure or insecure environment? The womb establishes many measures to protect the unborn child so that it can grow safely without interference. Do you attend to the environments that you create in? Are those environments capable of supporting your creations? Are they clean enough? Big enough? Secure from outside interference? How can you shift your creative environments so that they are more supportive of your projects and creations?
4) Correct methods/procedures – over planning/under planning? If the child’s legs start forming before the torso, there’s going to be a problem. The torso might end up too tiny or the legs may attach to the chest. This would absolutely affect a child’s final outcome and quality of life. The proper plans and procedures ensure that the child or creation can manifest in the highest potential quality. Do you over plan and waste time before acting (maybe even letting the spark die)? Do you plan poorly and end up with an outcome that doesn’t work, is non-functioning or is low quality? What are the essentials of the plan that you need to be diligent with completing?
Remember, the Sun is the force, the spark that initiates the process of creation with the female. If you haven’t noticed, one of the best ways to make your womb welcoming of the male sparks is to care for the womb itself. If you honour the womb (the feminine) it will be more welcoming of the masculine and you will produce with abundance in quantity and quality.
It always takes the masculine force and the feminine form to create and this Solar Eclipse in Cancer is inviting you to harmonize these powers within you so that you can become more creative and abundant. It is an eclipse and so don’t forget that you will find the disruptions and ways in which your womb is “hostile”, but there can be no improvement if there is no discovery!
So be observant, honour your womb (female) and creative spark (male) and act on the wisdom of your observations! Remember that this theme will be with us until the next Solar Eclipse on December 14th, 2020. Make a list of the things that you’ve accomplished and remind yourself when the next Solar Eclipse hits!
And don’t forget to stay tuned because we have one more lunar eclipse this season happening on July 5th!
Wishing you harmony of the divine masculine and feminine!
Aleks