Astrology for Friday, 19 June 2020:

Today the Moon makes a conjunction to Venus retrograde in Gemini. Today is also Juneteenth, commemorating the end of slavery and the freedom of enslaved people in the United States. It is not merely a celebration of the work of the Emancipation Proclamation finally reaching Texas and freeing those who were still enslaved over two years after the executive order; it is also a celebration of hundreds of years of struggle for freedom, the efforts of enslaved African and African American people working across generations to be free. It is a celebration of survival, including the ongoing survival of Black and Brown people in a world that is still shaped by the afterlife of slavery. What does it take to survive? Audre Lorde writes of raising Black children in “the mouth of a racist, sexist, suicidal dragon”: “If they cannot love and resist at the same time, they will probably not survive. And in order to survive they must let go … For each of these, the ability to feel strongly and to recognize those feelings is central: how to feel love, how to neither discount fear not be overwhelmed by it, how to enjoy feeling deeply.” As we both celebrate and struggle for freedom today, as we connect to Venus’ retrograde cycle, may we all learn to love and resist at the same time. And for those of us who are white, may we continue to do the work of loving and supporting the love of Black and Brown people, creating conditions in which those who have survived hundreds of years of oppression might feel more deeply, might feel love, without being overwhelmed by fear.