A Seasonal Astro-Soul Check-In with Jonni & Marielle

Summer is supposed to be the season of ease with long days, slow mornings, and warmth that makes you forget you ever needed to hurry. And yes, there’s some of that medicine in this season too. But this summer, there’s also an urgency humming under the warmth. It’s a sense that we’re being asked to wake up to something we’ve been able to ignore for a very long time.

I’m back in conversation with astrologer Marielle Croft, and what she’s tracking this season I’d say is both beautiful and bracing. We’re talking about a generational coming-of-age, a rare planetary mastery decades in the making, and a wounded healer pointing straight at our relationship with the Earth itself.

This isn’t a season for racing forward, but for slowing down enough to actually see what’s in front of us so we can consciously choose what we do about it.

Jonni: Marielle, here we are just before the summer solstice, the longest day and shortest night. I know it’s official on June 21st at 1:27 am PDT when the Sun moves from Gemini into Cancer. But I’m sensing this isn’t your typical “throw open the windows and celebrate” kind of summer. So, what’s the energy this season?

Marielle: You’re right. There’s a beautiful softness in this solstice, but also a real seriousness. The Moon, which rules Cancer, is in Virgo, very comfortable with Mercury in Cancer. We have a mutual reception happening. Mercury in Cancer rules Virgo, and the Moon in Virgo rules Cancer. They’re speaking each other’s language. And Mars in Taurus holds a perfect trine to the Moon, which is the very best kind of connection.

Jonni: So, we’ve got this lovely cooperative energy between these planets. Now, what tone does that set for summer?

Marielle: There’s a feeling of frugality in the air, as if preserving natural resources becomes more important than ever. The philosophy of encouraging local farmers, local services, comes to centre stage. It’s suggesting that collaboration and rediscovering how important nature is for our survival will become especially obvious.

Jonni: “Frugality” is such an interesting word for summer. We usually associate summer with abundance and indulgence. I mean, the season practically invented the word “splurge”, but you’re describing something more like conscious consumption, as in a return to what actually sustains us.

Marielle: Exactly. And it connects to something much bigger happening this season. Uranus, freshly in Gemini, and Pluto, in Aquarius for the past two years, are coming into a very strong connection, a trine. This is significant, and it’s the heart of what this summer is really about.

Jonni: Okay, I definitely want to come back to that trine and give it the attention it deserves. But first, what else is shaping this solstice chart? 

Marielle: Well, the wounded healer, Chiron, just made a move out of Aries and now sits at zero degrees Taurus. Taurus represents the Earth itself, the natural world, our nurturance and the nurturance of all living beings. Here, Chiron is locked in a t-square with Pluto in Aquarius and Venus in Leo. It’s as if Chiron is highlighting an abrupt awakening about the consequences of our habits. Careless times and distracted lifestyles cultivated for decades that were oblivious to nature’s needs.

Jonni: Oh, that lands hard. It’s like we’ve been living as if there’s no tomorrow, and suddenly…

Marielle: And suddenly the evidence hits. There is a tomorrow, and it’s become today.

Jonni: That gives me chills. Because that’s exactly the collective reckoning we’re in. It’s a dawning realization that the bill has come due for how we’ve treated the Earth. And Chiron at zero Taurus, right at the threshold of that earth energy, is making it impossible to look away. This is where I feel the soul-level invitation so clearly. The wound and the medicine are the same thing. They’re our relationship with the living world.

Marielle: Yes. And Neptune sits quietly at the beginning of Aries, making a square to the solstice Sun. It’s as if for a while we need to “sleep on every decision.” Nothing is crystal clear. We just know we must honour nature’s needs. The question is how, and with whom, and with what systems we’ll begin to reconstruct toward permanent improvement.

Jonni: So we know that we need to change, but the how is still forming. Okay. That’s such an uncomfortable place to sit for action-oriented people who want the roadmap. (Those who’d like the universe to just email a step-by-step PDF, please.) But you’re saying this season asks us to tolerate not knowing yet.

Marielle: It almost looks like “five minutes before midnight.” We want to engage in collaboration in our personal circles and communities. Collaboration, respect, and equality are the methods. Joy, enthusiasm, and love are the vitamins that fuel it.

Jonni: I love that framing of method and vitamins, because urgency without joy just becomes panic and burnout. But urgency fuelled by love and connection is sustainable. That’s the kind of change that actually holds. Now, let’s get into that trine you’ve been wanting to discuss. Uranus and Pluto. Why is this such a big deal?

Marielle: A trine is the most harmonious, desirable, mature, masterful of all planetary relationships. But what most people don’t understand is that planets have to earn a trine. They travel from conjunction to sextile, to square, working through excess and tension, before finally graduating into the trine. Uranus is the planet of awakening; Pluto is the planet of deep transformation, the death and decay of what no longer serves so new life can emerge. This trine is in full swing now and for the coming two years.

Jonni: So… this is a graduation moment? It sounds like decades of tension and transformation finally maturing into mastery. When did this actually begin?

Marielle: This is the beautiful part. The journey began when these two planets were conjunct, and that was from January 1962 to October 1968. Everyone born during that period has Uranus-Pluto conjunct in Virgo, a sign related to nature and healthy living. It’s a tone belonging to an entire generation. And that age group is today 58 to 64 years old.

Jonni: Oh, this is fascinating. So this isn’t just abstract planetary movement. It’s about a specific generation reaching a specific moment of maturity. Tell me what you see happening with them.

Marielle: This is a very mature group, rich with life experience. The younger members are going through their second Saturn return right now, which is a major coming-of-age and crossroads. I expect this age group is about to come out of a growing phase and engage with real maturity, taking the lead in whatever part of society they’re in.

Jonni: This speaks so directly to where a lot of my clients are right now. This is not the striving of youth, or the building of midlife, but this turn toward legacy, depth, toward holding wisdom for the collective. We’re not done. We’re actually just getting to the part where our experience becomes genuinely useful to the world.

Marielle: Beautifully said. And we’re likely to begin hearing messages that change cultural politics. Politicians who are more collaborative rather than racing for power, more humble, and more open to listening and working with the masses.

Jonni: That feels like such a hopeful counterpoint to the power-grabbing we’ve been watching. Having lived through so much, this generation is stepping into a different kind of leadership that’s rooted in cooperation rather than domination. Though I imagine the Uranus-in-Gemini piece also means technology keeps accelerating.

Marielle: Absolutely. Uranus and Aquarius are strongly linked to technology, so no doubt more will come from this fast-developing field. We may feel like we must brace ourselves because change and reorganization are likely to go faster and faster. My advice is to stick to your high values and engage with your loved ones.

Jonni: That’s the anchor, I agree. When everything’s accelerating, the answer isn’t to keep pace with the chaos. It’s to root deeper into what matters, meaning your values, your people, your connection to the living world.

Marielle: Yes. The time is about being frugal, thorough, and accurate without speed, but with a feeling of urgency where every step counts and must be done with clarity, care, and commitment.

Jonni: “Urgency without speed.” That’s a koan I want to sit with all summer. Now, I know we have eclipse season arriving in August. What should we be watching for?

Marielle: Eclipse season begins with a New Moon on August 12th with a total eclipse of the Sun in Leo, followed by a Full Moon on August 27th with a partial eclipse of the Moon in Pisces. On August 12th, the passionate Sun, at home in Leo, moderates its kingly light under a total eclipse. The south node is causing the eclipse, and south node energy always gradually floats toward the north node, the soul purpose of the situation.

Jonni: So the eclipse is dimming the Sun’s “look at me” energy on purpose. Hmmm. What’s the deeper message there?

Marielle: Toning down the Sun’s brightness is about channelling it through a kind of graduation where awakening emerges. Instead of enjoying the limelight for oneself, one wants to use that visibility and maybe stardom to be of greater influence for the good of all, because the north node is in Aquarius. At the time of the eclipse, it’s just an embryo, but it has all the codes to blossom into that greater Light as it matures.

Jonni: I find that so moving. It’s the journey from “How can I shine?” to “How can my light serve something bigger than me?” That’s the exact maturation we’re talking about with that whole generation. The ego stardom transforming into something in service of the collective. And the second eclipse?

Marielle: On August 27th, the Moon in Pisces falls into partial shadow. It will have just travelled over the North Node in Aquarius before bringing its messages into Pisces. The seeds planted here are about compassion, empathy, and deep care, and again, nature and all living beings are central themes, with the Sun in Virgo and Mercury at home there. There’s no returning to the past or to the familiar life we’ve known as a society.

Jonni: So both eclipses are pointing us in the same direction, which is away from the old self-focused, extraction-based way of living, and toward compassion, care, and conscious presence. It’s like the cosmos keeps tapping us on the shoulder, saying, “The old way is over, the old way is over.”

Marielle: Every day we’re invited to live consciously, with presence and attention, to act carefully with clarity, not impulsively or distractedly. That attitude will guarantee our successful integration into the New World of the Aquarian Era we’re already living in.

Jonni: Got it. Okay, let’s talk retrogrades, because I know we have a notable Mercury retrograde this summer. And I have a feeling it ties into all these family and community themes.

Marielle: It does beautifully. Mercury is in its second of three retrograde cycles this year, from June 29th to July 23rd, entirely in Cancer. That means it’s inviting us to review our family, community, and social ties, and even to explore family constellation work to reharmonize our alignment with our bloodline if needed.

Jonni: This is right in my wheelhouse. So much of the deepest work I do with people is exactly this, healing the relationship with our lineage, our ancestors, and the patterns we inherited. Mercury retrograde in Cancer is almost an invitation to do that sacred ancestral work.

Marielle: Yes, and there’s a teaching I love from the spiritual teacher Albert Bissada. He says that if we hold judgments toward our parents, it stays within us and becomes a limiting belief. But if instead we see them as beings of light, as humans who expressed genuine love toward us at times, it sets them free from the negative energy ties we hold, and it sets us free from our limiting attachments to judgment.

Jonni: That’s such beautiful medicine, because the judgment we hold toward our parents isn’t actually hurting them, but it’s a stone we carry in our own chest. So, releasing them is how we release ourselves. And I want to be careful here, because this isn’t about bypassing real harm or pretending abuse didn’t happen. It’s about not letting the unfinished business with our parents keep running our lives from the inside.

Marielle: Exactly. It’s about our own freedom. And there are several other planets in their retrograde cycles around this time. Pluto through October 16th in Aquarius, Neptune from July 7th in Aries, Saturn from July 26th in Aries, Uranus from September 10th in Gemini, and Jupiter beginning in December in Leo.

Jonni: That’s a lot of backward motion. What does it mean when so many planets are retrograde at once?

Marielle: When these planets go retrograde, life slows down somehow. It gives us time to restore, realign, complete, and review our directions. And it coincides with the warm seasons, when most people take time off to travel or just chill.

Jonni: So even the cosmos is giving us permission to slow down this summer. Which brings us full circle, doesn’t it? This whole season is about slowing down enough to see clearly, honour what sustains us, do the inner and ancestral work, and step into a more conscious, collaborative way of being.

Marielle: That’s it exactly. Slow down, but don’t go to sleep. Stay awake to what matters.

Jonni: Sounds perfect. So, here’s to a summer of conscious slowing, sacred attention, and the courage to truly see what’s in front of us. And to that whole generation stepping into their eldership right when the world needs their wisdom most.

Marielle: May we all use our light in service of the greater whole.

If you’ve already been feeling the strange tension of this upcoming season, the warmth that says “relax” and the undercurrent that says “wake up,” you’re reading the room correctly. Summer 2026 is asking us to hold both. To rest and to reckon, to slow down and to pay fierce attention.

This is the season to look honestly at our relationship with the Earth, with our resources, and with the lineages we come from. It’s a season that rewards collaboration over competition, presence over speed, and the kind of conscious choice-making that builds something lasting.

And for those of us in the second half of life (those of us being called into our eldership) this is our moment. It’s not the time to fade quietly into the background, but to step forward with everything we’ve learned and offer it in service of what’s being born.

The clock might be saying five minutes to midnight, but that’s not a reason to panic. It’s a reason to get clear, rooted, and get to work together, with joy and love, with every step taken in care.

Welcome to the great awakening, the season when our light finally learns what it’s for.

Jonni