I’m fond of books whose titles reveal everything you need to know without having to read them. I’m thinking specifically of Jack Kornfield’s, After the Ecstasy, the Laundry: How the Heart Grows Wise on the Spiritual Path. 

You get it in the title. We grow wise by gaining equanimity—experiencing pain and pleasure as both as the same.

If the month of June were such an entitled book, it might read— After Grief, Gratitude: How the Heart Heals After a Pandemic.

In June, we’re searching for healing, for fulfilling the second half of this year’s book title. 

By June 10th, with the annual solar eclipse, we’ll start to gain a middle ground emotionally after an extremely trying period for the entire planet. 

The solar eclipse comes on the heels of the year’s first lunar eclipse that took place on May 26th. The two eclipses that occur within weeks of each other are like a reset button, which is why here in India, pilgrims take a holy dip in the Ganges River on these occasions. 

Eclipses cleanse your spirit of the emotional state that’s been dominating in your life for the past six months. Now you get to experience the opposite. 

Coming to a complete circle allows us to look at the past differently than how we remember it. On June 20th, three important planets—Saturn, Mercury, and Jupiter—all turn retrograde, providing a moment of déjà vu. 

You may feel you’re back again, facing something you thought was behind you. With Mars (debilitated) in Cancer for the entire month of June, you may feel battered emotionally with the memory of past traumas. 

By June 23rd, however, with Mercury going direct and the entrance of Venus in Cancer joining Mars, there is a reconciliation of both sides of your emotional being. You realize you’ve grown by experiencing extremes. 

These are just passing states. After the Tragedy, the Triumph.

You are not your changing emotions. After the Longing, the Love. 

You are an immortal soul. After Death, Life. 

The Full Moon on June 24th may send you a test. It may tempt you with a repeat of an old story. It may trick you into believing whatever you’re going through is forever. 

It’s not.