Hudson Valley Astrologer

Happy Solstice! The Sun moves into Cancer tonight at 10:42 p.m. and the chart for the summer solstice appears to be focused on power dynamics. Issues of authority and power emerge from dark hidden places that eventually come to light.

These forces may alter the world as we know it! A change of perspective that is transformative is in the offing. It’s time!

Let me digress. When I was 5 I recall going to the McDermott’s house for a birthday party. It was a lot of fun and the household was filled with my friend’s older sisters who thought it was a good idea to teach us to play spin the bottle. The object of the game is to grab a bottle and spin it like a top while sitting in a circle, and wherever the spout points when it comes to a stop, is who you have to kiss. As a kindergartner I didn’t have any conception of kissing or having a crush on someone, but this was apparently not true for my friend’s older sisters who giggled uncontrollably at the prospect that the bottle might spill out the impetus for new love, and they tried, vicariously, to drink it all up to their hearts content.

It was my turn. I was unsure of how to spin the bottle and even more unsure of what to do if it pointed at anyone. I was still in the cooties stage of development and thought for sure I might catch something. I grabbed the bottle below the neck and gave it a spin. It twirled remarkably fast, and whirred in A♭ (flat), which happens to be the same key Ed Sheeran’s song Perfect is written in. When it came to a stop it was pointed directly at a girl older than me. I did the obligatory thing, got up on all fours, crawled over the bottle and across the floor and gave her a peck, on the cheek. The room erupted into the sounds of a screaming sea creature, but quickly settled down into a wave of chortles and indignant commentary, “No! No! No!” the sea creature said, “On the lips!” At this point I froze and I am pretty sure that a combination backhoe and bulldozer couldn’t have moved me. Thankfully someone else eager to show the crowd how it’s done grabbed the bottle and gave it a twirl. I was rescued from my embarrassment.

But that first kiss that could’ve been haunted me for the next several years until the day I saw my first crush, I was in the fourth grade if I remember correctly. Finally, I understood what the McDermott girls were all excited about. Judy was her name. She was the prettiest girl in school. I didn’t even want to spin the bottle, I just wanted to point the neck and spout straight at her, the lip already pursed, and ready to pour. I felt like I was the bottle and that I was spinning. I’d kiss her! In a New York minute! No chortling required. That was 54 years ago.

Back to the Summer Solstice, the world is playing spin the bottle with authoritarianism. But what belies the innocence of a first crush, is in no way comparable to an authoritarian takeover save one. That is, we have no choice but to notice, that this allure we have for the unknown, as a group, is unworthy of a kiss, and is not love. When the game is over, may we put ourselves back together again, picking up the shards and pieces of what we cling to, a shattered addiction to order.

HVA

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