Summer 2010

We begin this column - the last in a series of four which have circled the zodiac - in the sign of Gemini.  Starting in late May, the sign of the twins represents the final month of spring.  The thaw is long since complete, flowers have bloomed and the leaves are on the trees.  Gemini is what astrologers like to call a "mutable" sign, one that stands at a transition point.  It isn't exactly typical spring anymore, yet we haven't really arrived at summer, either. 

Gemini is a very sociable sign, associated with doing things on a local level.  It is a time to celebrate connection for its own sake.  We are out on the street talking leisurely with neighbors we haven't seen since last year (except on Snow Shoveling Day, that floating annual holiday).  Neighborhood garage sales are planned, and in the evenings we meet around the ice cream truck, called by the distorted and tinny version of London Bridge which loops through the air every seven seconds. 

Gemini is a wonderful time for spring cleaning, and for taking care of whatever needs tending before the hot summer.  It is the time when we wrap up school for the year - colleges ending their semester as the sign begins, and public schools bowing out as the sign ends.  Interestingly, the school year begins with Virgo and ends with Gemini, both signs ruled by Mercury, the planet of communication, writing, and the verbal mind.

Sociable Gemini is also known as a time of marriages, as most June weddings will happen within this sign.  While Gemini is often depicted as the male twins Castor and Pollux, one mortal and the other immortal, it is sometimes pictured as a male and a female.  In Tarot, it is closely associated with the Lovers card.

As Gemini ends, we reach the summer solstice and enter the sign of Cancer.  The solstice is the beginning of summer, and the longest day of the year in the Northern Hemisphere.  The sun is as high as he ever gets in the midday sky, culminating his long climb northwards which began back in December.  Watch where the sun rises in the East this morning (or sets in the West, for those of you with sleep patterns like myself), and then look again at the autumnal equinox in September and the winter solstice in December.  You may be surprised how far south the sun rises and sets as we approach winter.

Cancer is the first month of summer.  It is associated with nurturing and growth, which is easy to understand if you spend any time with the plant kingdom, where growth proliferates throughout the sign.  It is a natural process and one which does not take too much effort on our part, a lesson we have generally lost as we have moved away from agriculture as a way of life.  Cancer is in a way the peak of activity for the year, but that activity is natural and spontaneous rather than deliberate and social.  On the other hand, to the extent that we lend our efforts to the growth process, we are likely to be rewarded. 

Leo is the central sign of summer, that which is most typical of the season.  The blazing heat of the Dog Days takes place within this feline sign.  Leo is a dry sign, and the lush foliage which proliferated during spring and early summer often dries.  Even if the only grass you see is on the sides of the Grand Central Parkway, you are likely to notice how it more closely resembles a field of straw than a lush meadow. 

If the dark winter solstice is the midnight of the year and the summer solstice is noon, then fiery Leo is siesta time.  Traditionally, it was a time to step back from the work of farming and more or less let nature take its course.  Our 24/7/365 culture has a hard time backing off, however, so we continue to push through the hot summer months as though all was business as usual.  While Europe closes down for most of August, we New Yorkers cross our fingers and hope for nice weekend weather and - please! - an easy Sunday evening commute across Staten (or Long) Island. 

Among other things, Leo is the sign of the child, and of creativity, and within the natural rhythm of the year it is truly a time to play, to build sand castles and indulge our imaginations.  Perhaps we would be more willing to live out the true nature of this sign if we could recognize the importance that playfulness and creativity have in the scheme of things.  "Work" only has meaning when it can be seen as supporting something which comes from the heart. If you can rest while the sun shines through Leo, you can absorb the energy of this season and be ready when work resumes with busy Virgo.

We've been looking at one cycle, that of the sun as it moves through the zodiac and marks the seasons of the year.  Yet there are other cycles - the moon goes through the entire zodiac each month, and the other planets have their cycles, too.  Saturn, the farthest visible planet, makes his rounds in thirty years, and distant Pluto takes 248 years to complete the circuit.  Thus we have cycles within cycles, each influencing the others, ensuring that no two cycles are ever the same as we spiral ahead on our evolving path.