Summer Solstice – June 21, 2022, 09:14 UT

The Full Moon in Sagittarius on June 14 is square to Neptune in Pisces. The Moon is in conjunction with the trans-Neptunian Varda. Mercury has just entered Gemini and it is semisquare to the Mars-Chiron conjunction, which will be exact the next day.

This is the first super Full Moon of the year. A supermoon is a term that astrologer Richard Nolle coined in 1979, describing a New Moon or a Full moon at or near its closest point to the Earth in its elliptic orbit. The Full Moon appears now bigger and brighter than usually, and you may feel edgier than usually.

The brightness of the Moon is emphasized by Varda, the Star-Queen of J. R. R. Tolkien. Varda created the stars and constellations, and also set the vessels of the Sun and Moon upon their courses above the girdle of the Earth. She is said to be too beautiful for words, and her face radiates light. In light is her power and her joy. “Of all the Great Ones who dwell in this world the Elves hold Varda most in reverence and love. Elbereth they name her, and they call upon her name out of the shadows of Middle-earth, and uplift it in song at the rising of the stars,” writes Tolkien.

Manwë and Varda complemented each other. If Varda is beside Manwë, he “sees further than all other eyes, through mist, and through darkness, and over the leagues of the sea. And if Manwë is with her, Varda hears more clearly than all other ears the sound of voices that cry from east to west, from the hills and the valleys, and from the dark places that Melkor has made upon Earth.”

Manwë is at the Aries point conjunct Jupiter in early Aries. Manwë is changing signs from Pisces to Aries in 2021 – 2023, so it is topical now. The final ingress takes place in January 2023.

J. R. R. Tolkien wrote: “Manwë has no thought for his own honour, and is not jealous of his power, but rules all to peace.” According to Tolkien, poetry is the delight of Manwë, and the song of words is his music. In the Full Moon chart Neptune is squaring the luminaries, and thus we may not see things clearly. On the other hand, Manwë can see through mist and darkness, and Jupiter is strengthening his ability further.

A week after the Sagittarius Full Moon, on June 21, the Sun enters Cancer. The Sun’s ingress into Cancer marks the Summer Solstice, when in the Northern Hemisphere we have the longest day of the year. This is the time when the Sun, in its apparent annual motion along the Ecliptic, reaches its most Northern point. In the solstice chart the Moon in early Aries is squaring the Sun in Cancer. The Moon is in conjunction with Jupiter and Manwë.

It feels almost repulsive to have all this light present, when at the same time the world is facing dark times: the ongoing war in Europe, the worsening global food crisis while millions of tons of grain are stuck in Ukraine, Turkey blocking the NATO membership application process of Finland and Sweden for whatever the reason, etc. However, light and shadow take turns in life. We need light at times in order to be able to get on. Life is dualistic, as is the nature of astrology too.

I have found a prominent Manwë for instance in many charts of astrologers, occultists, writers and gifted speakers. When I was searching Wikipedia for examples of the Sun-Manwë conjunctions, the following event caught my eye and touched me.

On Dec. 20, 1939, a fundraising rally for the Finnish Relief Fund called “Let’s Help Finland” was held at Madison Square Garden in New York. Former U.S. President Herbert Hoover made a speech at the event which was also broadcast to the American people. The Finnish Relief Fund was a humanitarian aid organization intended to support Finnish civilians during the Winter War, a war between the Soviet Union and Finland, which began with a Soviet invasion of Finland on Nov. 30, 1939. Hoover’s campaign was advertised in 1,400 newspapers across the United States, and by March 1940 it had raised 2.5 million US dollars. The largest contributions came from private donors.

In the chart cast for the rally, the Sun is in conjunction with Manwë in late Sagittarius. Jupiter in the last degree of Pisces squares the Sun-Manwë conjunction. Mercury at 6+ Sagittarius is sextile to Varda in Libra. The transiting Sun-Manwë conjunction was conjunct Finland’s Mercury and North node of the Moon in early Capricorn. Finland’s Manwë is at 6+ Sagittarius, so the transiting Mercury was in exact conjunction with it.

In the chart of Herbert Hoover (Aug. 10, 1874 – Oct. 20, 1964), his Leo Sun is sextile to his Manwë in Libra. His Moon-Mars conjunction in Leo is conjunct Varda. At the time of the rally at Madison Square Garden, the transiting Manwë in late Sagittarius squared Hoover’s Venus-Jupiter conjunction at the Virgo-Libra sign cusp, and the transiting Varda at 6+ Libra was sextile his Moon-Mars-Varda conjunction in Leo.

The income from first screening of the film Gone with the Wind in the state of Washington on Jan. 27, 1940, was also forwarded to the relief fund. According to Peter von Bagh, a Finnish movie historian, the national anthem of Finland was played before the showing, which began at 8:30 PM. The transiting Sun at 6+ Aquarius was trine Varda in Libra and right at Hoover’s Midheaven. The ascendant of the screening chart at 15+ Virgo was conjunct Finland’s Moon-Mars conjunction in the middle degrees of Virgo.

Ukraine needs help of the world now.