Summer Solstice 2026

​The Sun has just moved into the sign of Cancer, marking the summer solstice in the northern hemisphere where I live. As the Sun crosses into Cancer, it is at its maximum northern declination, giving us the longest day of the year. It is a time for celebrating the abundance of light, the power of the Sun, as well as the gradual turn toward the harvest seasons later in the year.

What can you see more fully now?
What is growing under the radiance of your attention?
What will you be harvesting in the months ahead?

The solstice is also a turning point: from now until the winter solstice, the path of the Sun will gradually move further and further south, crossing the celestial equator at the equinox in September, then reaching its maximum southern declination in December. Although today is the longest day of the year, moving forward, each day will gradually grow shorter until we reach the longest night of the year at the winter solstice.

What has reached its peak and can now diminish?
How have you been moving in one direction, and now it’s time to move in another?
What becomes more perceptible as light recedes?
 
Part of what I love about the Wheel of the Year, the cycle of the seasons, and astrology in general is how every part of every cycle has a purpose. Change is constant and necessary, so we do our work to come into right relationship with change—not clinging desperately to what things are or what they have been, but greeting change with open arms, with reverence for every cycle and season.
Happy solstice, everyone
 
[Sun card by Leonora Carrington + a gathering of earth kin]