HAPPY SOLSTICE!!!
There is a hedonism and lust for life that comes alive for me this time of year.
A vivaciousness that has always been in contrast to the backdrop of working summers and 9-to-5 adulting of some form...but this year feels different.
Because while I listen to birdsong on the back deck, letting the juice from the softest, sweetest mango drip down my chin...
—a mango that was imported, burning coal on cargo ships and transported freight; a fact my brain won't let me forget—
...I'm swept up in the absolute pleasure of the moment, having plush, sweet fruit on my tongue.
And contemplating the reality we live in.
That half a world away is a Palestinian mother, holding onto the last memory she has of her children, when they were laughing with fruit juice running down their chins, too. As sunlight made their eyes sparkle instead of dust settling onto lashes of vacant stares.
And yet, I'm eating mangoes and enjoying birdsong.
Being human is messy, often contradictory business and it's these quarterly thresholds and cross-quarter holy days that help to anchor us back into a sense of grounded balance.
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We didn't get here without navigating through a lot of dark. And it's not gone, it's just waiting for us, on the other side of sunset.
What I love about the solstices is that acknowledgement: that darkness is never "defeated." It's only ever kept at bay.
In the Winter, we embrace its totality, it's all-encompassing nature on both our landscapes and psyches. But we do so without letting it take us. We become the light in the darkness—for ourselves and each other.
And this is what we celebrate in December with lighted festivals and revelry. With long tables and a thousand candles. We get through the dark together.
The Summer Solstice is a celebration of life on the opposite end of the spectrum. It is gratitude for the burning hearth of community and the transcendental magic of shared hopes and dreams.
It is this fire we light on the Summer Solstice—to honor the journey it took to get here, as we look ahead, braving for the return of darkness and the battles ahead.
So today we eat the mangoes and listen to the birdsong because this lightness is fuel for the soul. This hazy bright memory of the days we're currently walking through right now will be the very ones we'll call upon in darker days.
So eat up, my friends. Be merry. We've made it this far together and we will make it even farther yet.
So today we celebrate in sun-soaked jubilation.
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How to Celebrate The Solstice
GO OUTSIDE! Watch the sunrise or the sunset! Make sun tea. Sun bathe.
Anything you can do to soak up the rays of the sun on the longest day of the year is the move here.
The Solstice also marks the first day of Cancer season, bringing us into the gentle womb space of the divine mother.
Whether it's today or not, it's CRITICAL that you spend some time in a body of water this month. A lake, ocean, pond, pool—shoot even a bath or shower will work!
Embrace the nourishment that comes with this day and this season.
Happy Solstice, Reader!!!
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SOLSTICE TAROTOSCOPE
Light is never a victory, at least not a singular one. It is an inner fire we feed with passion and frustration and tend to with the charred and bloody knuckles of our most desperate hope.
I've pulled a few cards to honor this threshold; of embracing the light while acknowledging the dark (and putting boxing tape on our Hope so its ready to whether what the future has in store).
This is a simple 2-card spread:
✨ The first card is what we most need to hear (our shared Hope and source of light): Queen of Pentacles
🙏 The second card is what we're ready to surrender (how we prepare for the road ahead): The Chariot
Queen of Pentacles is a regulated nervous system and protected peace. She is at home in herself, her timing, and her own gifts and brings a grounded sense of possibility to the planning party.
This is what we most need to hear: that tending to ourselves, helping each other through the fog of confusion and overwhelm and into the sacred lands of co-regulation and shared laughter is the most potent form of community care that we need right now.
Our jobs this solstice is to remember each other, quite literally. Your neighbors, closest friends, and family. Check on your people and remember we are doing this together.
The Chariot, on the other hand, is a major arcana card (big energy card, I call 'em) and represents what we're ready to let go of. The Chariot here is an invitation to review our containers. Which ones are nourishing us and which ones have taken us as far as we can go?
Sometimes this isn't obvious or intuitive. In these circumstances, we're invited to use our cleverness and Vision for where we most want to be and work backwards to assess...is what I'm currently doing going to help me get there? And then answer honestly.
Together, we've been given a lovely gift of both rootedness and community care...and discernment of who (or what) has access to our energy.
(Too perfect because The Chariot is also ruled by Cancer season so...💁♀️ I love when this happens!)
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🌞 ASH'S UNSHAKEABLE SUMMER! 🌞
I've had to tell myself often recently that it's okay, imperative actually, that I focus on my little corner of the world. That being informed is okay...but I needn't punish myself for having joy and pleasure and lightness in my life when I know of so many terrors happening, both foreign and domestic.
Because when it comes down to it, if the horrors persist, then so must I. And it's not enough to just persist. I must persist with pizzazz. Unhinged sparkle, if you will.
So my recent mindset shifts as part of Ash's Unshakable Summer have included reminding myself that it is my highest gift to humanity to be the goofiest goober I can be.
It is resistance to be silly and unserious in a new-cycle that wants me panicking. It's rebellion to find moments of stillness and contentedness in this capitalistic hellscape that wants me grinding and burned out.
I'm harder to control when I'm full of whimsy. I'm harder to propagandize when I stay full of empathy for my fellow humans, deep feelers and weirdos.
So that's exactly what I'm going to do: I'm going to keep doubling down on being my technicolor self and continue creating a little sanctuary of love + mundane glimmers with the people and places I share my life with.
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DON'T MISS THE sOLSTICE sALE
If your version of resistance also looks like reclaiming joy, clarity, and cosmic confidence—then you’re gonna love this.
From now through Friday, June 27, grab the Big 3 Breakdown and get two magical bonuses to help you live louder, truer, and more you this summer:
💫 Bonus #1: Chart Check – Send in your takeaways and questions from the workbook and get personalized reflections (via video!) from me. I'll help you connect the dots and get unstuck!
💬 Bonus #2: Pop-Up Voxer Q&A – For two weeks, pop into the community chat and ask me anything Big 3-related, astrology, or spirituality related! It's gonna be the wooiest groupchat everrrrr. Extra points that you don't have to show up on zoom to ask your questions. :)
Whether you’re brand new to astrology or deep in your woo truth, this is your nudge to find your spark again.
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Thanks for reading!
In cosmic camaraderie,
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One Last Sip
for October 1st-15th, 2025
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CURRENT ASTRO SEASON 🪐
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UPCOMING BIG SKY EVENTS 🌛
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Welcome to LIBRA SZN, BB!!!! It's about harmony, aesthetic, and balancing social finesse with the collective action demanded of our time. Who says we can't serve looks AND justice at the same time? As an air sign, Libra is about ideas and this season we're all about inviting in ideas that bring harmony and tip the scales back into a semblance of balance that works for US, people like YOU AND ME! Libra is as collective sign so we gotta work together in this, ok?
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Cue Neil Young "Harvest Moon" because October 7th, we'll witness the Aries Full Moon rise into the sky. Bonus points is that this is the first lunation we're having outside of the eclipses AND it's a supermoon! We're reflecting on intentions we set back in May and releasing or rededicating ourselves to what Aries asks of us (look at what house you have Aries in for more clarity).
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WHAT I’M WORKING ON 🤓
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AFFIRMATION OF THE WEEK 📚
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Thank you to all my early backers that were patient with me while I figured out how exactly I want to deliver this workshop! Deets are now locked in for Wednesday, November 5th at 12pm because we're running it LIVE, BABY!
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To conduct an orchestra, you must turn your back on the audience.
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