#370-"As if Joy Weren’t Strewn All Around"-Week of June 22, 2026

A brief note. These episodes are prerecorded during a five-week period away. I am not tracking current events in real time. Hold what I offer here alongside what you are actually living.

Tend What Is Real

We are in the first full week of Cancer season. The Solstice has turned. The light is beginning its slow arc back toward darkness, not as loss, but as the natural rhythm of a living world that knows how to move between fullness and rest. This week is quieter in its archetypal signature — an invitation to let what has moved through in recent weeks begin to settle into meaning.

Key Cycles This Week:

Thursday, June 25: Venus in Leo trines Saturn in Aries. Sun in Cancer squares Neptune in Aries. 

Two movements pulling in different directions. Venus trine Saturn brings grounding to the heart. After recent intensity, this transit supports commitment to what genuinely matters — relationships, creative work, values lived as practice rather than ideal. 

At the same time the Sun squares Neptune, bringing emotional blur and permeability alongside that clarity. Stay close to what grounds you. Let the blur be present without letting it make decisions.

Saturday, June 27: Mars in Taurus sextiles Jupiter in Cancer. 

A genuinely nourishing contact. Embodied action in service of what genuinely nourishes. What you are doing and what you genuinely value may feel more aligned than usual today. Let this ease be felt. Mars is preparing for a significant transition and Saturday offers a good closing note before the crossing.

Sunday, June 28: Mars enters Gemini, remaining until August 11. 

Six weeks of deliberate Taurus momentum gives way to something quicker and more multi-directional. Mars in Gemini brings ideas that become impulses, communication that becomes action. In a field already electrified by Uranus in Gemini, this adds further activation to the mental field. The invitation is to carry something of Taurus into the new sign — the deliberateness, the knowing of genuine resource — so that speed and discernment move together.

Larger Frame

Cancer season asks not what you are building or achieving but what you are genuinely tending — with care, with patience, with attention that nourishes rather than extracts. That question is its own orientation in uncertain times.

The large thresholds of recent weeks are working in the background as large transits do. Slowly. In the body. In ways that will take months and years to fully reveal themselves. This week offers something simpler: a moment of grounding in what genuinely matters, a closing of one chapter of action and the opening of another.

Reflection Questions

1. Where this week does what I am doing and what I genuinely value feel more aligned than usual, and what does that alignment want me to notice?
2. As Mars moves from Taurus into Gemini, what quality of the deliberate and embodied do I want to carry into faster more multi-directional terrain?
3. In Cancer season's invitation to tend rather than achieve, what in my life is asking for more patient nourishing attention?

Tend what is real. Move with discernment into what is new. Let Cancer season do its deeper work in you.

The web of life is patient. It knows how to hold what is growing even when we cannot yet see it.

If the themes of this transmission are resonating — the healing of our relationship to body, earth, and what genuinely nourishes — I want to let you know about two upcoming offerings rooted in exactly this territory.

On July 11 I am offering a free Earth element taster workshop, Root in the Sacred. And on July 16, the Root in the Sacred group coaching program begins — a deeper container for those ready for sustained work with the Earth element, with the body, with what it means to belong to the living world on your own terms.

You can find details on both at ontheedgesofchange.com under What's Open Now.

Both are invitations, not urgencies. If they are calling to you, trust that.

Transcript

0:07

Hello, welcome to Astrology Alchemy. I'm Sheela Bélanger, your host for this podcast. Alchemy is defined as a seemingly magical process of transformation. Spiritual alchemy is the process of pursuing the gold of your true nature by transmuting the unrefined, limiting parts of yourself. In this podcast, I'll offer you inspiring insights from current astrology cycles that support your path of turning your personal lead into gold. More resources are available at the website ontheedgesofchange.com. Hello, and welcome to episode number 370 of the Astrology Alchemy Podcast. This is for the week of June 22nd, 2026. I'm your host and guide, Shelagh Bélanger. Just a reminder, this episode was pre-recorded during the five-week period that I'm away, so I'm not tracking current events in real time. Hold what I offer here alongside what you are actually living in this week Phrase from this week's poem, "As if joy weren't strewn all around." We are in the first full week of Cancer season. The solstice has turned. The light is beginning its slow arc back toward darkness, not as loss, but as the natural rhythm of a living world that knows how to move between fullness and rest, between outward expression and inward depth. Cancer invites that inward turn, the feeling body, the relational field, ancestral memory, the question of where genuine belonging lives. These are the waters we're moving through now. This week is quieter in its archetypal signature than last week. Fewer major contacts, more spacious in rhythm, which is itself an invitation to let what has moved through in recent weeks begin to settle into meaning. Here are the key cycles. On Thursday, June twenty-fifth, Venus and Leo trines Saturn in Aries, and the Sun in Cancer squares Neptune in Aries Two movements on the same day pulling in different directions and worth holding together Venus in Leo trine Saturn in Aries is a grounding of the heart. After last week's intensity, Venus moving through opposition to Pluto, the solstice threshold, and Chiron's arrival in Taurus, oh my goodness, this trine brings something steadier. The warmth and creative aliveness of Venus in Leo finds structure and form through Saturn's reality principle. This is a cycle that supports commitment, not the forced commitment of obligation, but the kind that arises when what genuinely matters becomes clear enough to be honored with real investment. Relationships, creative projects, values held not just as ideals but as lived practice, these are supported today And at the same time, the sun in Cancer squares Neptune in Aries. Where Venus finds ground, the conscious self meets dissolution. There may be a quality of confusion or emotional blur alongside the clarity Venus-Saturn offers. A sense that what you are feeling is larger than the personal, that the collective grief, the collective longing is moving through you as much as anything that is specifically yours This is not a problem to be solved. It is the particular permeability of Cancer season meeting Neptune's imaginal field Stay close to what grounds you. Let the bird be present without letting it make decisions Saturday, June twenty-seventh, Mars in Taurus sextiles Jupiter in Cancer. This is a genuinely nourishing contact. Mars in Taurus has been moving with characteristic deliberateness since mid-May. Slow, embodied, acting from genuine resource that are-- rather than from urgency. Jupiter in Cancer has been expanding the feeling field, amplifying what nourishes and what belongs. Their sextile brings these two into easy alignment, embodied action in service of what genuinely nourishes, the capacity to move toward what actually feeds life rather than what merely performs productivity. You might notice this as a day when effort feels less effortful, when what you are doing and what you genuinely value feel more aligned than usual, when the body finds pleasure in its own competency and care. Yes, this is Mars preparing for a significant transition. Let Saturday's ease be felt before Sunday's crossing arrives. And then on Sunday, June 28th, Mars enters Gemini. It will remain there until August 11th. Mars in Taurus has given us six weeks of deliberate, grounded, embodied momentum, the kind of action that knows its own resources and does not waste them. Now the instinctual force moves into Gemini, and the quality of action changes entirely. Mars in Gemini is quick, curious, and multi-dimen- directional. Where Taurus moved with one steady purpose, Gemini moves across many threads simultaneously. Ideas become impulses. Communication becomes action. The mind and the will begin operating at the same speed. In a field already electrified by Uranus in Gemini, Mars arriving here adds further activation to the mental field. This, excuse me, this can bring tremendous creative energy, the capacity to pursue multiple directions with genuine enthusiasm. It also brings the risk of dispersal, of moving so quickly across so many things that none of them receive sufficient depth of attention As Mars enters Gemini, the invitation is to carry something of Taurus into the new sign. The deliberateness, the knowing of genuine resource, the willingness to slow enough to feel whether what is being pursued actually belongs to you, or whether it is simply the next bright thing that activated mind has latched onto. Really key to track that. Speed and discernment together. That is what Mars and Gemini at its best can offer So lensing back. This week offers a breath within the larger arc. The enormous thresholds of recen-recent weeks, Chiron into Taurus, the solstice, the restructuring of relational and healing fields, these do not need to be revisited again today. They are working in the background as large cycles do, slowly, in the body, in ways that will take months and years to fully reveal themselves What this week offers is simpler. A moment of grounding in what genuinely matters, a cycle that supports commitment to what is real, a closing of one chapter of action and the opening of another. Cancer season asks, what are you tending? Not what are you building, achieving, or optimizing. What are you genuinely tending with care, with patience, with the kind of attention that nourishes rather than extracts? That question is its own orientation in uncertain times And here are some reflection questions to support you this week. First, where this week does what I am doing and what I genuinely value feel more aligned than usual? And what does this alignment want me to notice? Second, as Mars moves from Taurus into Gemini, what quality of the deliberate and embodied do I want to carry with me into faster, more multi-directional terrain? And thirdly, in Cancer season's invitation to tend rather than achieve, what in my life is asking for more patient, nourishing attention? And the podcast poem for this week is Mind Wanting More by Holly J. Hughes. It's a wonderful poem to invite you to slow down and be with Mind wanting more. Only a beige slat of sun above the horizon, like a shade pulled not quite down. Otherwise, clouds Sea rippled here and there. Birds reluctant to fly The mind wants a shaft of sun to stir the gray porridge of clouds, an osprey to stitch sea to sky with its barred wings, some dramatic music, a symphony, perhaps a Chinese gong. But the mind always wants more than it has. One more bright day of sun, one more clear night in bed with the moon, one more hour to get the words right, one more chance for the heart in hiding to emerge from its thicket of dried grasses As if this quiet day with its tentative light weren't enough, as if joy weren't strewn all around Thank you. If themes of this offering are resonating, the healing of our relationship to body, earth, and what genuinely nourishes, I wanna let you know about two upcoming offerings rooted in exactly this territory. On Saturday, July 11th, I'm offering a free earth element taster workshop called Root in the Sacred, a gentle entry point into the elemental work I do and a chance to feel what the container is like. You can learn more and register at the link in my homepage And on July 16th, the root in the sacred six-week group coaching session begins. A deeper containment for those ready to do sustained work with the earth element, with the body, and with what it means to belong to the living world on your own terms. Again, at my website ontheedgesofchange.com, you can go right to the homepage and you'll see the details under What's Open Now. Both the free taster workshop and the six-session group coaching program are listed there. Both of them are invitations, not urgencies. If they're calling to you, trust that You have been listening to the Astrology Alchemy podcast with your host, Sheila Bélanger. Resources are available at the website ontheedgesofchange.com. Thank you for listening. Bless your alchemical journey to embrace the gold of your true nature