June 20, 2025 • 26 mins
Tarot and the Solstice
Welcome to Season 10 of Every Day Tarot! This season, I’m exploring the rich, magical intersections between tarot and witchcraft.
What we explore in this episode:
The spiritual significance of the Summer and Winter Solstices in tarot and witchcraft
How solstice energy connects to the zodiac sign Cancer, Venus, and the Two of Cups
Ancient traditions that honored the height of the sun’s power and what they can teach us
Ways to channel solstice energy into creativity, ritual, and emotional renewal
Resources referenced in this episode:
Tarot and Astrology: Enhance Your Readings with the Wisdom of the Zodiac by Corrine Kenner
The Goddess of Love Tarot Deck: A Book and Deck for Embodying The Erotic Divine Feminine by Gabriela Herstik and illustrated by Julia Popescu
We’ve reached a turning point in the year—the Solstice, when the sun stands still and the earth shifts its breath. It is an invitation to reflect on the light and the dark, the fullness and the stillness, and the stories unfolding in our own lives.
Whether you're basking in the radiance of the Summer Solstice or tending the quiet of the Winter Solstice, this threshold marks more than a change in season. It offers us a moment of cosmic perspective. It circles back to what we’ve planted, what we’ve harvested, and what remains unseen beneath the surface.
In the North, the Summer Solstice brings the longest day of the year, a culmination of growth, expression, and outward movement. In the South, the Winter Solstice invites us into deep rest, quiet contemplation, and the slow work of becoming.
Wherever you are in the world, this is a moment of threshold energy—a chance to ask yourself:
What am I carrying forward with intention?
What am I ready to release or compost?
Where is light returning in my life?
Where am I being called inward?
The Solstice is not about achieving a perfect balance. It’s about honoring the sacred shifts in our own cycles of becoming. It's about pausing long enough to notice: what has changed in me? What is asking to be seen, felt, or tended with care?
You are part of the earth’s breath.
And you are magic.
If you haven't listened to my other seasons yet, go check them out!
Season 1 - Tarot basics
Seasons 2 & 3 - Major Arcana and 4 suits
Season 4 - Tarot in Pop Culture
Season 5 - Tarot Spreads
Season 6 - Suit of Wands
Season 7 - Suit of Pentacles
Season 8 – Suit of Swords
Season 9 – Suit of Cups
From The Desert Illuminations Tarot by Lindsay D. Williams, I pulled the Five of Jugs (upright). This card is a reminder that grief and hope often coexist. This card speaks to what has been lost—and what still remains. It invites gentle self-forgiveness, present-moment awareness, and the courage to look toward what is yet to grow.
Reflective prompts on this card:
What past disappointment am I still holding onto?
How can I honor my grief without letting
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Hello and welcome to Everyday Tarot, your daily dive into the
divine wisdom of the tarot. I'm your host Camille, a
Saunders healer, tarot enthusiast, and your local witch
next door. And today I'll be talking about
Tarot and the Solstice. Whether you're a seasoned tarot
reader or just starting to explore, this podcast offers
daily insights, intuitive messages, and practical advice
drawn from the cards. Each episode is designed to help
(00:23):
you connect with your inner wisdom, find clarity in your
decisions, and tap into the energy of the universe.
TuneIn everyday, Monday through Friday for fresh perspectives
and empowering guidance from theTarot as interpreted by me.
Tonight, Friday, June 20th, at 5:00 PM Pacific Daylight Time, I
am hosting a virtual tarot card creation event.
If things are feeling hard rightnow, maybe you could benefit
(00:45):
from an hour dedicated to channeling your feelings into
something creative. I'll give you a list of
recommended supplies when we online, and I'll walk you
through the magical process of creating your own cards.
No tarot experience necessary. Link to sign up will be in the
show notes. And if you're unable to make it
live, no worries, once you register, everyone will get the
(01:06):
replay recording as well. If you're not able to make it or
if that time doesn't work for you.
If you love the show, the best way to support it is by
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If you want to support me financially to keep doing the
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(01:26):
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(01:47):
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(02:09):
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(02:30):
and photos of my day-to-day life.
If you don't already know, I'm asex and relationship therapist
seeing clients virtually all over Washington State.
I love working with queer, Pollyand witchy clients.
If you'd like to work with a therapist that doesn't judge
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(02:52):
consultation now to start your journey.
You can find the links for any of these offers, and the show
notes are on my website, camilleacesaunders.com/everyday
Tarot, in addition to the imagesof the cards I pull on each
episode. So welcome to season 10, where
I'm talking all about tarot and witchcraft.
If you haven't listened to my other seasons yet, you can check
those out. In season 1 I talk tarot basics.
(03:14):
Seasons two and three were all about the Major Arcana.
Season 4 I talked to tarot in pop culture.
Season 5 was about 13 common tarot spreads, and seasons 678
and 9 were about the suit of Wands, Pentacles, Swords, and
Cups. So I've actually gone through
all 78 cards of a traditional tarot deck.
So there are episodes about all of those.
(03:36):
And right now I'm up to season 10 where I'm diving all into
tarot and witchcraft. And today I'm talking about
Tarot and the solstice mostly because tomorrow for me and for
many views, if you're listening to this live, is the summer
solstice or Midsummer generally happens around June 21st, sort
(03:59):
of slightly varies depending on the astrology, but that's sort
of how it goes. And if you're in the Southern
Hemisphere, you are entering thewinter solstice or celebrating
Mule. So when we think about solstices
versus equinoxes, I had to sort of like wrap my head around
this. So solstices and equinoxes are
(04:20):
key astronomical events that mark the beginning of seasons.
A solstice is the longest or shortest day of the year.
So again, if you're in the Northern hemisphere, we are
entering the summer solstice, which will be the longest day of
the year, meaning the most daylight hours.
And if you're entering the winter solstice, then you are on
(04:41):
the shortest day of the year, orright the least amount of
daylight hours, or the longest night, however you want to view
it. And then an equinox is actually
when the day and night times areequal length.
So we have equinoxes in spring and fall as a halfway point
between solstices. So yeah, solstices are about the
(05:02):
extremes of daylight hours whereequinoxes probably, we could
have been maybe figured that outby the name of equinox, which
probably means like equal Knox, meaning light, I think in Latin.
And so it's about equalizing dayand night times of year.
(05:23):
And I will put up an image, there's a really good image of
in the Tyrone astrology book by Karine Kenner that I used a lot
last episode that shows sort of like the Earth, the North Pole,
the South Pole, the latitudes, longitudes, and how like we how
(05:46):
the Earth's rotation and the different aspects of it create
the autumn, spring equinoxes andthe solstices because our Earth
is rotated. Also, we're not directly like
north-south as a planet. We're we're slanted slightly or
(06:08):
like off kilter. And so that's part of what makes
these grand swings. Yeah.
So that is sort of what we're getting into today.
That's probably not going to be super long, but yeah, let's talk
about the summer solstice, sincethat's what I am entering right
now. And a lot of us in the Northern
Hemisphere are entering. It represents kind of going into
(06:32):
true summer. In large Scandinavian places
they celebrate Midsummer which sort of like Pagan, like I said
about Yule for winter solstice this is sort of a Pagan
celebration. But honestly a lot of places
celebrate like again the longestand shortest days of the year in
(06:57):
different ways. So in a book, I have not talked
to oral before, but that is wellloved by me is called The Great
Work, Self Knowledge and Healingthrough the Wheel of the Year by
Tiffany Lasik. I've worked my way through this
book multiple times that has something to do every day of the
year and it has journaling prompts actually for every day.
(07:17):
And then it sort of has like themed sections.
So we are entering part seven cycle 5, which is June 21st
through August 1st, which is allabout shining our truth and
creativity and walking your talk.
So they talk about you can go through this section if you're
experiencing any of the following things or if you're in
this time of year. So it would be, yeah.
(07:40):
It says some themes about it areearly adulthood, voice and
choice, fermentation, throat chakras, elementals and tarot,
celebration of effort and aetherand journaling.
And it says maybe you're going through difficulty sharing your
thoughts and beliefs, right. This is when our throat chakra
gets activated. Maybe repressed creativity,
(08:01):
which if you are feeling that again, please come to my tarot
card creation night or register and watch the recording later
because we're going to talk a lot about creativity as that's
really what we're going to be doing.
Maybe you're going through a sense that what you say doesn't
matter, an excessive need to communicate or depleted sense of
(08:22):
will or belief in the efficacy of your choices.
So again, if winter solstice is the celebration of the birth of
the sun, the summer solstice sees the sun coming to full
strength. Again, we get the longest day of
the year and the shortest night.Where I live in the Pacific
Northwest, in like the Seattle area in Washington, we are
(08:43):
entering like on solstice, we will have over 16 hours of
daylight. It's getting to the point in the
year for me because I live fairly far north, that there's
like not enough dark hours to sleep in my opinion.
And so I honestly spend a lot more time around this time of
year, just like outside in the garden awake because it's just
(09:10):
hard to sleep when it's not dark.
So again, it's the longest day of the year and the shortest
night. In ancient times, this was
considered Midsummer, the culmination of work and effort.
The wonder child who was born inthe darkest part of the year has
now grown into a strapping adultfull of vigor and dry.
So again, this is sort of like ametaphorical child.
(09:30):
If we think of like sort of how the new moon and the full moon
work, where the new moon work, we're planting seeds, we're
starting things, and then at thefull moon we're sort of
harvesting or culminating, right?
The solstice, the summer solstice is about that
culmination time of year. Or again, if you're in the
winter solstice around rule time, like you're in that
(09:50):
plantain seeds time of year. And so the ancients were aware
of the turning of the wheel thatthey had a festival to, you
know, sort of, but remember this, the long hot days of
summer, we're fully embraced knowing the movement from this
point on was towards the dark, which is always interesting
because at least for me, like our climate wise, our summer
(10:15):
does not really start until about, I mean, we don't really
start getting hot consistently until July.
So for me, like this sort of summer solstice is like the kick
off to summer, even though I think in a lot of places it's
maybe slightly less so or you'vebeen having warm weather for a
while or perhaps all the time ifyou're close to the equator.
(10:39):
So again, the hot full days of summer are embraced.
If winter solstice holds this echo of fullness of life born
out of the dark, the summer solstice holds the echo of
decrease of death and life. Because again, once we start
this point of the year, again, if you're in the Northern
hemisphere, the whole rest of the days until December 21st,
generally it's getting darker every day.
(11:01):
And so even though you're at thesort of culmination point, like
it's we're going on the downhillas some people would view it,
where you start to get sort of especially in right October,
November, December, this like very dark again, especially
where I live, we have a very fewdaylight hours around in
December and we start to see things through this like
(11:25):
movement, this pinnacle, the height of perfection, right.
Again, if you have kids and they're in school, they're
probably out of school by now. Like we're in a very like
transition time. In general, the ancients saw
life as a cycle, which was most acutely appreciated when one is
aware of the cyclic dance of increase and decrease and
(11:45):
increase once again of life. Death and Weaver at Midsummer,
when the heat of the sun is feltmost vigorously, there is
celebration for the work that has to be done.
The crops have all been planted.For the most part.
There's nothing to be done except pray the balance of rain
from the energy drawn from the sun.
Strength will nourish these crops into full bounty.
The young of the livestock have all been born generally in
(12:07):
springtime and nurtured through the early months.
What can be done has been done, at least for the time being.
So again, you're in the sort of phrase of like maintaining
watering the garden often, right?
Maybe wedding or harvesting, butless so in like a planning
stage, right? At this point, often again, it's
like all the things are in the ground.
(12:29):
Things are happening the the livestock has been born and
again, now you're just sort of growing them up, feeding them
for the rest of the year. The festivals of old were
joyful. The work of the harvest was yet
to come. Again, that sort of often comes
towards the ends of summer or come fall, but it's just around
the corner, right? We had the sense of
accomplishment to fill us with pride.
(12:51):
We are in Pride month right now in June in the US.
So that is fun, happy pride. But in a lot of ways, right,
Like depending on where you are,how, which you are or how
seasonally you live your life, like a lot of our maybe more
modern society has lost a lot ofthese ancient traditions of the
(13:11):
festivals. Again, we have the like, kids
are out of school. Like that's its own celebration
in some ways. But traditionally on Midsummer,
again, you would sort of have these huge bonfires in a lot of
parts of Britain. Wheels of straw were lit on
fire, roll down the hills. Nowadays, we celebrate with long
weekends and vacations. The dog days of summer have an
(13:32):
energy relaxation as we rest in the knowledge that we put in
good effort. We're not able to sit for a
moment, allowing the work of ouraccomplishments to take hold.
We relish the heat of the sun. We drink cold drinks.
We lose ourselves in summer movies and books.
We slip away from the city bustle to spend days or weeks
(13:53):
camping in the wilderness, beingmesmerized late into the night
by the dance of the campfire flames.
The muscle gripping tensions of winter's blast is a far off
memory as we feel our muscles soak up the warming rays.
For many, it feels as though these days are bored for all the
hard work we've done, and they are to be thoroughly enjoyed.
(14:13):
And in this book, they talk about the celebration of the
summer solstice marks the attainment of the plateau.
So again, like I said, we're in that place of like now we
maintain, we've put in great effort of achieving this like
high level of things, right? Again, we've sort of put in a
lot of work in the springtime, especially if you're gardening
or farming or doing anything like that, right?
(14:34):
Spring cleaning, like all those sort of like high energy things.
And now we get to sort of celebrate this accomplishment of
having like sowed those seeds. And now we get to just kind of
watch things come to fruition. So some of the cultural
archetypes of this like attainment of light or this like
the most light, we have different gods across different
(14:58):
pantheons. Maybe is the right word.
So there's Aten, who's an Egyptian God, a reflection of
the sun God. Raw Aten is usually depicted as
a sun disc with emanating rays. There's Sakhmet, which I
actually talked about in last episode because that is the
goddess who is on the sun card and the goddess of love tarot
(15:22):
deck by Gabriella Herstick and illustrate the budgetary
Papescu. So again, like if you were
looking at your sun tarot cards for the solstice, right?
The celebration of sun, time of year, you can check out what
sort of images or symbols are onthere.
Sekhna is a lion headed sun goddess who offers strength and
(15:42):
power. There's Helios, which is the
Greek God. It's the Titan who drove his
chariot across the sky, bringingthe sun every day.
He's eventually replaced by The Olympian Apollo.
There's Hyperion. He was Greek, sometimes confused
with Helios, but Hyperion was disguised as a God of
watchfulness, wisdom and light, distinguished on disguise as a
(16:04):
God of watchfulness, wisdom and light.
Whereas Helios was considered the incarnation of the sun.
There's Apollon, Greek or ApolloRoman, the son of Zeus and the
mortal Leto. He's the twin of Artemis, the
sun to her moon, replacing Helios as the God of the sun.
Apollo's also known of the God of medicine and healing, music
(16:24):
and poetry, flocks and herds andoracles and prophecy.
There is AINEAN, I'm not quite sure, but that's Celtic is the
goddess of sun, wealth and sovereignty.
There's Arnon Rod. Celtic is a goddess of celestial
rhythms and cycles who guides usto empowerment.
There's Bell and it's also Celtic is a sun God whose name
(16:47):
is the shining one. There's Lug, or that makes me
think of like the Lug. NASA celebration is a hero God.
Much love for his success at allendeavors.
And there's also a Welsh counterpart Lulogius to mean the
fair haired one with the skillful hand.
(17:08):
There's Thor, which comes from Norse tradition, is a hammer
wielding hero God known for his strength and virility.
He's associated with Thunder, lightning and oak trees.
And there's soul that is also Norse is the sun goddess and
twin to Mani, the sun to his moon.
Both twins are chased by wolves,scroll and hottie respectfully.
(17:30):
They close in on them during eclipses.
And like I said in this book, the wheel of the year it goes.
You kind of have these themed sections and then there are
reflection questions in here. So the one for today or you
know, for June 21st, which wouldbe the solstice is in what ways
do you restore your energy? So again, this feels very
(17:53):
appropriate. Sign up and come to my tarot
card creation event because we're then we're going to be
talking about how this is the thing that can restore your
energy so that you can put sort of maybe your rage into as well.
And the tarot and astrology bookby Corinne Kenner I met, I did
(18:15):
talk about before. So I will put the image in the
podcast, like on my website and my blog, where I will have all
the podcast episodes and the cards that I show.
So I'll put that image up that shows sort of how the equinoxes
work. And then the card associated
(18:39):
with June 21st in general or starts between June 21st, which
just means that the first beaconof Cancer astrologically falls
between June 21st and July 1st, usually when the Sun is between
0 and 10° Cancer. And so the tarot card associated
with this is the Two of Cups, which is associated with Venus
(19:03):
and Cancer. And again, on June 21st we are
entering Cancer season as well. So it says that the young lovers
in the two of Cups seem a littlestar struck.
It's no accident powerful forceshave drawn them together.
You have Venus, the planet of love and bromance has made her
way into the nurturing sign of Cancer, playing matchmaker.
(19:24):
The young couple in the card could very well be the
adolescent version of a charityer in training and the
girl who will someday assume theEmpress's throne.
Which is again interesting because we the chariot is right
again. A very fiery card it, the
chariot is the card associated with the Zodiac sign of Cancer.
(19:46):
So the whole like, season of Cancer.
And then you have Venus, Venus associated with the Empress in
this sort of season. Let's see.
Yeah, Venus rules the fixed Earth sign of Taurus.
So you have this comfort and stability partnership.
I think there's also a lot of like socializing this time of
(20:06):
year. I think of Venus also as being
very embodied, like in your body, planet, pleasure and
attraction, which for me, when Ithink about summer, I'm like,
oh, swimming, being out in the sun, reading sort of again, sort
of indulging these really enjoyable, pleasurable
activities in this time of year.Let's see here what else is
(20:33):
interesting. Yeah.
So generally the two of Cups andTarot represents love pressure
between childhood sweethearts, injured spirits or soul mates.
Again, sort of that like sort ofthe minor Arcana version of the
like twin flame soulmate kind ofthing that is often depicted in
(20:54):
the lover's card, symbolizing equal partnership and attraction
of opposites. And like I said, the first
Deacon of Cancer usually falls between June 21st and July 1st
when the sun is between 0 and 10° Cancer, which is basically
what makes this time of year associate like astrologically
associated with Cancer. Again, we're entering into
(21:17):
Cancer season, season of the Crab and that, yeah, it's kind
of how that works. So I will show again the goddess
of love, Sun Card, and we'll talk about that.
I will pull A2 of cups to show as well.
And then yeah, I think I'm goingto end there.
(21:39):
For now, we'll keep it short andsweet today.
Happy Solstice. Whichever 1 you are celebrating
tomorrow or today, I know I'm going to be hanging out outside
a lot where I am. We have a rhubarb festival this
time of year, so I will be goingto that, being outside and
(22:01):
eating delicious rhubarb goodieswith friends and family.
And then like I said, yeah, I'm going to like a solstice sort of
like witchy bonfire thing. So that's sort of the
traditional thing to do on solstice is to sort of celebrate
the fiery aspect of the sun withlike even more fiery aspects.
(22:21):
And so this also can be a very like, again, creative time of
year. And we have a lot of energy just
again, generally, because if it is summer solstice for you, it
was literally the longest day ofthe year.
You have the most sunlight, which really does fuel us
generally. Again, I get sunburned very
easily. So it's a little of a double
(22:42):
edged sword for me, but I am awake for a lot of the day when
it is very light out. Yeah.
And then I'm going to pull a card, probably.
We'll see which duck is calling to me right now.
Oh, I'm going to pull it from the Desert Illumination Tarot
deck because I also think of this one as sort of sun related
(23:03):
because it is a desert deck. And this is by Lindsay D
Williams. I haven't pulled from this one
in a while, so this will be fun.Oops.
Some of my curves are backwards.All right.
This has very kind of fiery colors too.
So let's see what the cards haveto say today on this topic of,
(23:28):
again, sort of solstice, summer solstice energy and the
celebration of sort of the wheelof the year and the changing of
time, or at least our Yeah, not not really changing time, but
transitioning. OK, interesting.
(23:50):
I pulled the five of jugs, whichis equal to the five of cups
traditionally. Oh, I opened right to it.
A masked bandit in a long black Cape stands under the night sky
in the middle of a painted desert.
He's surrounded by a bunch of whiskey jugs tipped over and
spilled their contents onto the sand.
There's an ominous scene that issurreal and mysterious.
(24:13):
This vibe of jugs is symbolic oflost opportunities and
disappointments and life. Sometimes plans fall through or
situations don't turn out exactly as you expect.
Instead of dwelling on those lost moments, consider how you
could learn from the experiences.
You may run the risk for gettingstuck in the past.
Remember to try to stay present and focus from moment to moment,
(24:34):
one day at a time. It's very easy to get anxious or
stressed out from ruminating on what happened.
Practice forgiveness and patience for yourself.
It is the key to getting unstuck.
So being present, we are not, you know, getting stuck in the
past. We're looking forward again,
right? This is the perfect time of year
(24:54):
to look forward as we are at thesort of like halfway point for
the most part. Again, if you use the sort of a
Gregorian calendar that starts in January, then we are very
close to being done with Q1 and Q2 and we are halfway through
the years. So this is a very halfway card.
(25:16):
Also five, so they are between ace and 10, sort of the halfway
point in the sort of minor journey of the minor Arcana and
Fives are sort of challenging cards often.
And so it sounds like we're alsoin this sort of like, OK, we're
working on not being stuck. We're looking forward and we'll
(25:37):
be nice to ourselves, right? Which again, I think is really
important on these when we are in these big times of
transition, like it can be fun to celebrate because it just
sort of represents that like something is changing and like
it can be a lot. Again, like 16 hours of sunlight
in one day is kind of a lot. Like if it was like that all the
(26:00):
time, I would be exhausted, right?
So we also get to celebrate the fact that it will change, right?
Come December, I will swing the other way.
We'll have almost 8 hours of daylight and I'll sleep more,
right? And I'll do a lot of indoor
activities and things like that.All right, there we go.
(26:20):
So links to the tarot decks I talk about or is being a show
notes and on my website, you'd like to look at them or purchase
them. And thanks for joining me today
on Everyday Tarot. Just as a reminder, the podcast
comes out daily, Monday through Friday for all of 2025.
You can e-mail me and me at camilleasaunders.com with your
thoughts, questions and more. And I will see you soon.
Goodbye.
Hello and welcome to Everyday Tarot, your daily dive into the
divine wisdom of the tarot. I'm your host Camille, a
Saunders healer, tarot enthusiast, and your local witch
next door. And today I'll be talking about
Tarot and the Solstice. Whether you're a seasoned tarot
reader or just starting to explore, this podcast offers
daily insights, intuitive messages, and practical advice
drawn from the cards. Each episode is designed to help
(00:23):
you connect with your inner wisdom, find clarity in your
decisions, and tap into the energy of the universe.
TuneIn everyday, Monday through Friday for fresh perspectives
and empowering guidance from theTarot as interpreted by me.
Tonight, Friday, June 20th, at 5:00 PM Pacific Daylight Time, I
am hosting a virtual tarot card creation event.
If things are feeling hard rightnow, maybe you could benefit
(00:45):
from an hour dedicated to channeling your feelings into
something creative. I'll give you a list of
recommended supplies when we online, and I'll walk you
through the magical process of creating your own cards.
No tarot experience necessary. Link to sign up will be in the
show notes. And if you're unable to make it
live, no worries, once you register, everyone will get the
(01:06):
replay recording as well. If you're not able to make it or
if that time doesn't work for you.
If you love the show, the best way to support it is by
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(01:26):
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Tarot, in addition to the imagesof the cards I pull on each
episode. So welcome to season 10, where
I'm talking all about tarot and witchcraft.
If you haven't listened to my other seasons yet, you can check
those out. In season 1 I talk tarot basics.
(03:14):
Seasons two and three were all about the Major Arcana.
Season 4 I talked to tarot in pop culture.
Season 5 was about 13 common tarot spreads, and seasons 678
and 9 were about the suit of Wands, Pentacles, Swords, and
Cups. So I've actually gone through
all 78 cards of a traditional tarot deck.
So there are episodes about all of those.
(03:36):
And right now I'm up to season 10 where I'm diving all into
tarot and witchcraft. And today I'm talking about
Tarot and the solstice mostly because tomorrow for me and for
many views, if you're listening to this live, is the summer
solstice or Midsummer generally happens around June 21st, sort
(03:59):
of slightly varies depending on the astrology, but that's sort
of how it goes. And if you're in the Southern
Hemisphere, you are entering thewinter solstice or celebrating
Mule. So when we think about solstices
versus equinoxes, I had to sort of like wrap my head around
this. So solstices and equinoxes are
(04:20):
key astronomical events that mark the beginning of seasons.
A solstice is the longest or shortest day of the year.
So again, if you're in the Northern hemisphere, we are
entering the summer solstice, which will be the longest day of
the year, meaning the most daylight hours.
And if you're entering the winter solstice, then you are on
(04:41):
the shortest day of the year, orright the least amount of
daylight hours, or the longest night, however you want to view
it. And then an equinox is actually
when the day and night times areequal length.
So we have equinoxes in spring and fall as a halfway point
between solstices. So yeah, solstices are about the
(05:02):
extremes of daylight hours whereequinoxes probably, we could
have been maybe figured that outby the name of equinox, which
probably means like equal Knox, meaning light, I think in Latin.
And so it's about equalizing dayand night times of year.
(05:23):
And I will put up an image, there's a really good image of
in the Tyrone astrology book by Karine Kenner that I used a lot
last episode that shows sort of like the Earth, the North Pole,
the South Pole, the latitudes, longitudes, and how like we how
(05:46):
the Earth's rotation and the different aspects of it create
the autumn, spring equinoxes andthe solstices because our Earth
is rotated. Also, we're not directly like
north-south as a planet. We're we're slanted slightly or
(06:08):
like off kilter. And so that's part of what makes
these grand swings. Yeah.
So that is sort of what we're getting into today.
That's probably not going to be super long, but yeah, let's talk
about the summer solstice, sincethat's what I am entering right
now. And a lot of us in the Northern
Hemisphere are entering. It represents kind of going into
(06:32):
true summer. In large Scandinavian places
they celebrate Midsummer which sort of like Pagan, like I said
about Yule for winter solstice this is sort of a Pagan
celebration. But honestly a lot of places
celebrate like again the longestand shortest days of the year in
(06:57):
different ways. So in a book, I have not talked
to oral before, but that is wellloved by me is called The Great
Work, Self Knowledge and Healingthrough the Wheel of the Year by
Tiffany Lasik. I've worked my way through this
book multiple times that has something to do every day of the
year and it has journaling prompts actually for every day.
(07:17):
And then it sort of has like themed sections.
So we are entering part seven cycle 5, which is June 21st
through August 1st, which is allabout shining our truth and
creativity and walking your talk.
So they talk about you can go through this section if you're
experiencing any of the following things or if you're in
this time of year. So it would be, yeah.
(07:40):
It says some themes about it areearly adulthood, voice and
choice, fermentation, throat chakras, elementals and tarot,
celebration of effort and aetherand journaling.
And it says maybe you're going through difficulty sharing your
thoughts and beliefs, right. This is when our throat chakra
gets activated. Maybe repressed creativity,
(08:01):
which if you are feeling that again, please come to my tarot
card creation night or register and watch the recording later
because we're going to talk a lot about creativity as that's
really what we're going to be doing.
Maybe you're going through a sense that what you say doesn't
matter, an excessive need to communicate or depleted sense of
(08:22):
will or belief in the efficacy of your choices.
So again, if winter solstice is the celebration of the birth of
the sun, the summer solstice sees the sun coming to full
strength. Again, we get the longest day of
the year and the shortest night.Where I live in the Pacific
Northwest, in like the Seattle area in Washington, we are
(08:43):
entering like on solstice, we will have over 16 hours of
daylight. It's getting to the point in the
year for me because I live fairly far north, that there's
like not enough dark hours to sleep in my opinion.
And so I honestly spend a lot more time around this time of
year, just like outside in the garden awake because it's just
(09:10):
hard to sleep when it's not dark.
So again, it's the longest day of the year and the shortest
night. In ancient times, this was
considered Midsummer, the culmination of work and effort.
The wonder child who was born inthe darkest part of the year has
now grown into a strapping adultfull of vigor and dry.
So again, this is sort of like ametaphorical child.
(09:30):
If we think of like sort of how the new moon and the full moon
work, where the new moon work, we're planting seeds, we're
starting things, and then at thefull moon we're sort of
harvesting or culminating, right?
The solstice, the summer solstice is about that
culmination time of year. Or again, if you're in the
winter solstice around rule time, like you're in that
(09:50):
plantain seeds time of year. And so the ancients were aware
of the turning of the wheel thatthey had a festival to, you
know, sort of, but remember this, the long hot days of
summer, we're fully embraced knowing the movement from this
point on was towards the dark, which is always interesting
because at least for me, like our climate wise, our summer
(10:15):
does not really start until about, I mean, we don't really
start getting hot consistently until July.
So for me, like this sort of summer solstice is like the kick
off to summer, even though I think in a lot of places it's
maybe slightly less so or you'vebeen having warm weather for a
while or perhaps all the time ifyou're close to the equator.
(10:39):
So again, the hot full days of summer are embraced.
If winter solstice holds this echo of fullness of life born
out of the dark, the summer solstice holds the echo of
decrease of death and life. Because again, once we start
this point of the year, again, if you're in the Northern
hemisphere, the whole rest of the days until December 21st,
generally it's getting darker every day.
(11:01):
And so even though you're at thesort of culmination point, like
it's we're going on the downhillas some people would view it,
where you start to get sort of especially in right October,
November, December, this like very dark again, especially
where I live, we have a very fewdaylight hours around in
December and we start to see things through this like
(11:25):
movement, this pinnacle, the height of perfection, right.
Again, if you have kids and they're in school, they're
probably out of school by now. Like we're in a very like
transition time. In general, the ancients saw
life as a cycle, which was most acutely appreciated when one is
aware of the cyclic dance of increase and decrease and
(11:45):
increase once again of life. Death and Weaver at Midsummer,
when the heat of the sun is feltmost vigorously, there is
celebration for the work that has to be done.
The crops have all been planted.For the most part.
There's nothing to be done except pray the balance of rain
from the energy drawn from the sun.
Strength will nourish these crops into full bounty.
The young of the livestock have all been born generally in
(12:07):
springtime and nurtured through the early months.
What can be done has been done, at least for the time being.
So again, you're in the sort of phrase of like maintaining
watering the garden often, right?
Maybe wedding or harvesting, butless so in like a planning
stage, right? At this point, often again, it's
like all the things are in the ground.
(12:29):
Things are happening the the livestock has been born and
again, now you're just sort of growing them up, feeding them
for the rest of the year. The festivals of old were
joyful. The work of the harvest was yet
to come. Again, that sort of often comes
towards the ends of summer or come fall, but it's just around
the corner, right? We had the sense of
accomplishment to fill us with pride.
(12:51):
We are in Pride month right now in June in the US.
So that is fun, happy pride. But in a lot of ways, right,
Like depending on where you are,how, which you are or how
seasonally you live your life, like a lot of our maybe more
modern society has lost a lot ofthese ancient traditions of the
(13:11):
festivals. Again, we have the like, kids
are out of school. Like that's its own celebration
in some ways. But traditionally on Midsummer,
again, you would sort of have these huge bonfires in a lot of
parts of Britain. Wheels of straw were lit on
fire, roll down the hills. Nowadays, we celebrate with long
weekends and vacations. The dog days of summer have an
(13:32):
energy relaxation as we rest in the knowledge that we put in
good effort. We're not able to sit for a
moment, allowing the work of ouraccomplishments to take hold.
We relish the heat of the sun. We drink cold drinks.
We lose ourselves in summer movies and books.
We slip away from the city bustle to spend days or weeks
(13:53):
camping in the wilderness, beingmesmerized late into the night
by the dance of the campfire flames.
The muscle gripping tensions of winter's blast is a far off
memory as we feel our muscles soak up the warming rays.
For many, it feels as though these days are bored for all the
hard work we've done, and they are to be thoroughly enjoyed.
(14:13):
And in this book, they talk about the celebration of the
summer solstice marks the attainment of the plateau.
So again, like I said, we're in that place of like now we
maintain, we've put in great effort of achieving this like
high level of things, right? Again, we've sort of put in a
lot of work in the springtime, especially if you're gardening
or farming or doing anything like that, right?
(14:34):
Spring cleaning, like all those sort of like high energy things.
And now we get to sort of celebrate this accomplishment of
having like sowed those seeds. And now we get to just kind of
watch things come to fruition. So some of the cultural
archetypes of this like attainment of light or this like
the most light, we have different gods across different
(14:58):
pantheons. Maybe is the right word.
So there's Aten, who's an Egyptian God, a reflection of
the sun God. Raw Aten is usually depicted as
a sun disc with emanating rays. There's Sakhmet, which I
actually talked about in last episode because that is the
goddess who is on the sun card and the goddess of love tarot
(15:22):
deck by Gabriella Herstick and illustrate the budgetary
Papescu. So again, like if you were
looking at your sun tarot cards for the solstice, right?
The celebration of sun, time of year, you can check out what
sort of images or symbols are onthere.
Sekhna is a lion headed sun goddess who offers strength and
(15:42):
power. There's Helios, which is the
Greek God. It's the Titan who drove his
chariot across the sky, bringingthe sun every day.
He's eventually replaced by The Olympian Apollo.
There's Hyperion. He was Greek, sometimes confused
with Helios, but Hyperion was disguised as a God of
watchfulness, wisdom and light, distinguished on disguise as a
(16:04):
God of watchfulness, wisdom and light.
Whereas Helios was considered the incarnation of the sun.
There's Apollon, Greek or ApolloRoman, the son of Zeus and the
mortal Leto. He's the twin of Artemis, the
sun to her moon, replacing Helios as the God of the sun.
Apollo's also known of the God of medicine and healing, music
(16:24):
and poetry, flocks and herds andoracles and prophecy.
There is AINEAN, I'm not quite sure, but that's Celtic is the
goddess of sun, wealth and sovereignty.
There's Arnon Rod. Celtic is a goddess of celestial
rhythms and cycles who guides usto empowerment.
There's Bell and it's also Celtic is a sun God whose name
(16:47):
is the shining one. There's Lug, or that makes me
think of like the Lug. NASA celebration is a hero God.
Much love for his success at allendeavors.
And there's also a Welsh counterpart Lulogius to mean the
fair haired one with the skillful hand.
(17:08):
There's Thor, which comes from Norse tradition, is a hammer
wielding hero God known for his strength and virility.
He's associated with Thunder, lightning and oak trees.
And there's soul that is also Norse is the sun goddess and
twin to Mani, the sun to his moon.
Both twins are chased by wolves,scroll and hottie respectfully.
(17:30):
They close in on them during eclipses.
And like I said in this book, the wheel of the year it goes.
You kind of have these themed sections and then there are
reflection questions in here. So the one for today or you
know, for June 21st, which wouldbe the solstice is in what ways
do you restore your energy? So again, this feels very
(17:53):
appropriate. Sign up and come to my tarot
card creation event because we're then we're going to be
talking about how this is the thing that can restore your
energy so that you can put sort of maybe your rage into as well.
And the tarot and astrology bookby Corinne Kenner I met, I did
(18:15):
talk about before. So I will put the image in the
podcast, like on my website and my blog, where I will have all
the podcast episodes and the cards that I show.
So I'll put that image up that shows sort of how the equinoxes
work. And then the card associated
(18:39):
with June 21st in general or starts between June 21st, which
just means that the first beaconof Cancer astrologically falls
between June 21st and July 1st, usually when the Sun is between
0 and 10° Cancer. And so the tarot card associated
with this is the Two of Cups, which is associated with Venus
(19:03):
and Cancer. And again, on June 21st we are
entering Cancer season as well. So it says that the young lovers
in the two of Cups seem a littlestar struck.
It's no accident powerful forceshave drawn them together.
You have Venus, the planet of love and bromance has made her
way into the nurturing sign of Cancer, playing matchmaker.
(19:24):
The young couple in the card could very well be the
adolescent version of a charityer in training and the
girl who will someday assume theEmpress's throne.
Which is again interesting because we the chariot is right
again. A very fiery card it, the
chariot is the card associated with the Zodiac sign of Cancer.
(19:46):
So the whole like, season of Cancer.
And then you have Venus, Venus associated with the Empress in
this sort of season. Let's see.
Yeah, Venus rules the fixed Earth sign of Taurus.
So you have this comfort and stability partnership.
I think there's also a lot of like socializing this time of
(20:06):
year. I think of Venus also as being
very embodied, like in your body, planet, pleasure and
attraction, which for me, when Ithink about summer, I'm like,
oh, swimming, being out in the sun, reading sort of again, sort
of indulging these really enjoyable, pleasurable
activities in this time of year.Let's see here what else is
(20:33):
interesting. Yeah.
So generally the two of Cups andTarot represents love pressure
between childhood sweethearts, injured spirits or soul mates.
Again, sort of that like sort ofthe minor Arcana version of the
like twin flame soulmate kind ofthing that is often depicted in
(20:54):
the lover's card, symbolizing equal partnership and attraction
of opposites. And like I said, the first
Deacon of Cancer usually falls between June 21st and July 1st
when the sun is between 0 and 10° Cancer, which is basically
what makes this time of year associate like astrologically
associated with Cancer. Again, we're entering into
(21:17):
Cancer season, season of the Crab and that, yeah, it's kind
of how that works. So I will show again the goddess
of love, Sun Card, and we'll talk about that.
I will pull A2 of cups to show as well.
And then yeah, I think I'm goingto end there.
(21:39):
For now, we'll keep it short andsweet today.
Happy Solstice. Whichever 1 you are celebrating
tomorrow or today, I know I'm going to be hanging out outside
a lot where I am. We have a rhubarb festival this
time of year, so I will be goingto that, being outside and
(22:01):
eating delicious rhubarb goodieswith friends and family.
And then like I said, yeah, I'm going to like a solstice sort of
like witchy bonfire thing. So that's sort of the
traditional thing to do on solstice is to sort of celebrate
the fiery aspect of the sun withlike even more fiery aspects.
(22:21):
And so this also can be a very like, again, creative time of
year. And we have a lot of energy just
again, generally, because if it is summer solstice for you, it
was literally the longest day ofthe year.
You have the most sunlight, which really does fuel us
generally. Again, I get sunburned very
easily. So it's a little of a double
(22:42):
edged sword for me, but I am awake for a lot of the day when
it is very light out. Yeah.
And then I'm going to pull a card, probably.
We'll see which duck is calling to me right now.
Oh, I'm going to pull it from the Desert Illumination Tarot
deck because I also think of this one as sort of sun related
(23:03):
because it is a desert deck. And this is by Lindsay D
Williams. I haven't pulled from this one
in a while, so this will be fun.Oops.
Some of my curves are backwards.All right.
This has very kind of fiery colors too.
So let's see what the cards haveto say today on this topic of,
(23:28):
again, sort of solstice, summer solstice energy and the
celebration of sort of the wheelof the year and the changing of
time, or at least our Yeah, not not really changing time, but
transitioning. OK, interesting.
(23:50):
I pulled the five of jugs, whichis equal to the five of cups
traditionally. Oh, I opened right to it.
A masked bandit in a long black Cape stands under the night sky
in the middle of a painted desert.
He's surrounded by a bunch of whiskey jugs tipped over and
spilled their contents onto the sand.
There's an ominous scene that issurreal and mysterious.
(24:13):
This vibe of jugs is symbolic oflost opportunities and
disappointments and life. Sometimes plans fall through or
situations don't turn out exactly as you expect.
Instead of dwelling on those lost moments, consider how you
could learn from the experiences.
You may run the risk for gettingstuck in the past.
Remember to try to stay present and focus from moment to moment,
(24:34):
one day at a time. It's very easy to get anxious or
stressed out from ruminating on what happened.
Practice forgiveness and patience for yourself.
It is the key to getting unstuck.
So being present, we are not, you know, getting stuck in the
past. We're looking forward again,
right? This is the perfect time of year
(24:54):
to look forward as we are at thesort of like halfway point for
the most part. Again, if you use the sort of a
Gregorian calendar that starts in January, then we are very
close to being done with Q1 and Q2 and we are halfway through
the years. So this is a very halfway card.
(25:16):
Also five, so they are between ace and 10, sort of the halfway
point in the sort of minor journey of the minor Arcana and
Fives are sort of challenging cards often.
And so it sounds like we're alsoin this sort of like, OK, we're
working on not being stuck. We're looking forward and we'll
(25:37):
be nice to ourselves, right? Which again, I think is really
important on these when we are in these big times of
transition, like it can be fun to celebrate because it just
sort of represents that like something is changing and like
it can be a lot. Again, like 16 hours of sunlight
in one day is kind of a lot. Like if it was like that all the
(26:00):
time, I would be exhausted, right?
So we also get to celebrate the fact that it will change, right?
Come December, I will swing the other way.
We'll have almost 8 hours of daylight and I'll sleep more,
right? And I'll do a lot of indoor
activities and things like that.All right, there we go.
(26:20):
So links to the tarot decks I talk about or is being a show
notes and on my website, you'd like to look at them or purchase
them. And thanks for joining me today
on Everyday Tarot. Just as a reminder, the podcast
comes out daily, Monday through Friday for all of 2025.
You can e-mail me and me at camilleasaunders.com with your
thoughts, questions and more. And I will see you soon.
Goodbye.
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