The full moon occurs on Monday, June 17 at 4:31 a.m. EDT. The June Full Moon was known to the Algonquin Indian tribes as The Strawberry Moon, the time when strawberries are ripe for the picking in the Northeast. In Europe it's called the Rose Moon, because in northern climes roses blossom in June.
Jane and I are back in Florida after a week's vacation we spent hiking in North Carolina on beautiful mountaintops with 100 mile views into Virginia, viewing a series of cascading waterfalls, up to 75 feet high, and visiting the elaborate, highly sculpted Arboretum near Asheville. We saw wild low bush and high bush blueberries in the mountains, only a couple weeks from maturity. So frustrating! But we got some juicy, sweet ripe farm blueberries from some local growers. In North Carolina this month promises to be a Blueberry Moon to remember.
Window Falls at Hanging Rock near Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Photo by Jane Sherry.
Jane and I enjoyed the rolling hills of the North Carolina Piedmont around Winston-Salem, where we noticed that the forests are healthy, vibrant, lush and green, the air quality extremely pure. We remember all too well the sick forests of the Hudson Valley, extending all the way into the Adirondacks, where acid rain has taken its toll, and mold is a problem year around. You can literally see, smell and feel the difference in North Carolina!
June 2019 Cosmic Weather Forecast
Monday's early morning Full Moon occurs at 25 degrees 53 minutes Sagittarius. With the Moon, planet of empathy and unconscious wisdom, conjunct planetary Guru Jupiter in its ruling sign of Sagittarius, this is the ideal moment to embark on a vision quest or just meditate on your true purpose at this time in your life. You're likely to experience intuitive flashes of inspiration, and can more easily connect with inner spiritual guidance.
It's the Gemini Solar Festival too, and we all know that Geminis love company! This is a great weekend to join together with friends, family, and serendipitous new acquaintances to discover or rediscover all that you have in common and enjoy all that you have to share.
All this year through November 20, Jupiter in Sagittarius squares Neptune in Pisces, so it's possible that the glamorous astral atmospherics of Neptune in Pisces could fog out our idealistic, even visionary Jupiter-Full Moon in Sagittarius moment of illumination. It's possible to be deluded by our unconscious desires at this time. We must beware of overestimating our abilities, pursuing unattainable dreams, being influenced by charismatic characters in the grip of illusions and delusions, or fixing our sights on idealistic visions that have little grounding in reality and little chance to manifest in our lives.
The Full Moon/Jupiter in Sagittarius square Neptune in Pisces could also trigger unconscious desires to escape from unpleasant realities, or to pursue pipe dreams and mere fantasies. It may be tempting to overeat, binge watch TV, overmedicate, and generally overindulge in whatever makes us feel good short-term.
This year the practice of discernment is crucial, in all that we do. Fortunately, this Full Moon week Saturn sextile Neptune provides us with the self-awareness, self-discipline and inner wisdom that offers the perfect antidote to Jupiter-Neptune glamours.
There's an inflammation alert this Full Moon, as Mars and Mercury conjunct in Cancer oppose retrograde Saturn and Pluto in Capricorn, creating peak tension.
Mind symbolized by Mercury and will forces symbolized by Mars combine in Cancer to direct us toward goals formulated in our minds but held strongly in the emotional body, so we can be very attached to egoistic desires at this time.
Heightened drive to work our will in the world conflicts with Saturnine limitations, laws, and boundary issues, and Plutonian pressures to abandon our plans and completely transform how we live our lives.
If we are dominated by egoistic desires and the machinations of the rational mind, the drive to manifest our goals could run into a wall of Saturnine and Plutonic energy that could utterly atomize our mental maps of the world, blocking the manifestation of our willful desires and leaving us feeling angry, depressed, frustrated and ready to explode.
On the other hand, if our minds tune in to intuitive guidance and our will forces are subordinated to the goals set by our Higher Purpose and revealed through that guidance, we will find that the powerful energy of the Mars/Mercury opposition to Saturn/Pluto can give us the strength, courage and persistence to overcome virtually any obstacles in our path.
We must beware of bulldozing obstacles in our way in any event, since this aspect can trigger explosive opposition in the outer world and inner resistance sparking physical, emotional and mental overheating.
This often exasperating, potentially empowering aspect continues through June 28, when Mars moves out of opposition to Saturn and Pluto. Soon thereafter Mars enters into a square with Uranus, so the probability of an explosion of pent-up tensions could actually increase at that time.
This weekend I intend to alternate between spiritual practices to honor the Jupiter/Moon conjunction, hard exercise to honor the Mars/Mercury opposition to Saturn/Pluto, and lazing around by the pool with my tabby cat Lila, to honor Neptune in Pisces. It's very pleasant in the shade, by the pool, listening to the many neighboring birds calling out, and watching Lila chase bugs and lizards. You can almost see the plants grow in South Florida this time of year. During our week away, the entire yard started to look like a jungle. Peak spring hits this Full Moon, soon to give way to summer.
Lila in the Boca Garden, photo by Jane Sherry
Celebrating the Summer Solstice
The Sun enters Cancer, signaling the Summer Solstice on June 21, the longest day of the year in the Northern Hemisphere, and the start of winter in the Southern Hemisphere.
This festival was called St. John's Day in the European Mystery School tradition.
It is a time for flowers, for weddings & betrothals, a time for community bonfires, dancing and singing in the fields.
This is is one of the four primary solar holidays of ancient, indigenous peoples and remains sacred to many around the world in the 21st Century. These four solar holidays are the Summer and Winter Solstices, and the Spring and Autumnal Equinoxes. Together they map out the great Cosmic Wheel of the four seasons.
In the Northern Hemisphere, the Summer Solstice Festival is the time of the yearly seasonal cycle when will forces are rising within human beings, plants dance toward the sun, and all of nature is energized by Mother Earth’s outpouring of Universal Life Force energy.
This outpouring energy is directed by Archangel of Summer, Uriel, who presides over the activities of the angels, devas, nature spirits and elementals in the mineral, vegetable, animal and human kingdoms. These beings of Light help minerals, vegetation, animals and humans to grow and develop to manifest the physical embodiments most closely corresponding to the energetic templates outlining each individual Earth being’s development in accordance with karma, environmental conditions, weather patterns and many other variables.
Summer Solstice is the time when the power of the individual to make conscious choices is at its maximum. The Sabian symbol for the Summer Solstice, and the first degree of Cancer is, On a ship the sailors lower an old flag and raise a new one.The revolution has begun. This is a pivotal moment in the annual cycle of seasons, a time to initiate dramatic changes in your world. Where in your world is a revolution needed? Resolve to be true to yourself and your personal beliefs. In truth is strength, and through strength, the world can be renewed.
For more on the Solstice, and for a beautiful Summer Solstice Rose Ceremony Honoring the Great Mother, check out our article entitled Summer Solstice, Archangel Uriel and St. John's Day 2019.
Invoking the Path of Spirit During the Festival of Goodwill
The Gemini Solar Festival, also known as the Festival of Goodwill, World Invocation Day or the Festival of Humanity, occurs on Monday, June 17. This is the third major spring festival of the Global Wisdom Tradition honoring the Ancient Wisdom Teachings of the East and West. The first two were Easter and Wesak, taking place at or near the Full Moon in April and May.
Join this global Sagittarius full moon meditation to align with the Forces of Reconstruction on The Festival of Goodwill. This is the moment when meditators, Lightworkers and practitioners of spiritual traditions both Eastern and Western around the world invoke the inspiration and guidance of their Teachers and Guides, incarnate and disincarnate. In response, the Spiritual Hierarchy transmits to each participant an energetic download containing guideposts on the path of Spirit for the next year, unique to each individual.
Every year, since 1952, people in all parts of the world have celebrated World Invocation Day. Meditation and various forms of individual and collective spiritual practices begin two days prior to the Full Moon, throughout the day of the Sagittarius full moon, and for two days afterward. People of different spiritual paths join in a universal appeal to Divine Source, using the Great Invocation.
If you are unable to meditate at the exact time of the full moon, choose a time within 12 hours before or after the full moon to be part of this global meditation.
Simply sit alone, or join with other like-minded individuals and visualize the planet Earth surrounded by a grid of light. 
The Christ Consciousness Grid, actually a set of seven grids in rainbow colors that surrounds the Earth, is in the form of a pentagonal dodecahedron with icosahedral caps. The Grid is said to play a crucial part in the quickening of humanity’s evolving spiritual consciousness at this time.
”Sacred geometry is the expression of geometry related to the evolution of consciousness, mind, body, and spirit in geometric terms,” explains Ronald Holt, Director of Flower of Life Research. “True sacred geometry is not just static angular forms. It is organic and living -- it is in constant evolution (transcendence) or devolution (materialization), ascending or descending from one form to another.”
“So the grid of the planet is an actual geometric and energetic expression of the principles of creation that can serve as a bridge between our planet's physical and energetic manifestations. To get an idea of how vast [and complex] the grid actually is, let's look first at our planet. On this planet, in order for the smallest particle, element or compound to congeal and materialize, it needs a blueprint and a template for its construction and purpose of existence.”
By tuning in to this matrix of light and consciousness on June 17, and by consciously focusing our intent to unite our energies with all individuals of good will around the world during a day of global meditation, humanity opens a door into the spiritual world, through which the many Ascended Masters of the Wisdom Schools both East and West can pour blessings and specific guidance appropriate to the time and place and situation of each and every person taking part in World Invocation Day.
At the Goodwill Festival the Spiritual Hierarchy, guided by the Christ, showers the Will-to-Good upon Planet Earth. The New Group of World Servers receives and distributes these energies into the world.
So, join in the worldwide meditation, asking that all individuals be given the grace and guidance they need during this coming year to fulfill their loftiest spiritual goals. Pray that all those working for peace, justice and restoration of this Garden Planet be given the will forces, the courage, the energy, the endurance and the opportunity to be of maximum service in the world. Use your crystals to light up the Christ Consciousness Grid around the planet! We'll see you then in the ethers!
Connect through the Christ Consciousness Grid with your fellow Lightworkers, feel their presence and energy, and seek to unite with them during this festival.
Open yourself to receive the blessings being poured down by Humanity’s Wisdom Teachers, both incarnate and disincarnate, and prepare to receive messages of loving wisdom designed to help accelerate your spiritual and material progress throughout the coming seasons of summer, fall and winter.
After your meditation, as the time of the Full Moon nears, place a flower on your altar or near your place of meditation. Place a bowl of water on your altar or near your seat. If you have some water you gathered during the Wesak Full Moon Festival, use that water at this time as an offering to Grandmother Earth.
If possible, light a candle to represent the kindling of the spirit, the awakening of the Higher Mind and the flame of compassion lit within the open heart. You may also burn some incense or sage, to create a spiral pathway from earth to sky, sending an offering to those Beings of Light who join their energies to ours during this Full Moon Festival.
Say the Great Invocation aloud:“From the point of light
within the mind of God
let light stream forth into our minds.
Let light descend on Earth. 
From the point of love
within the heart of God
let love stream forth into our hearts.
May love increase on Earth.
From the Center
where the will of God is known,
let purpose guide our wills,
the purpose which the Masters
know and serve.
From the Center
which we call humanity
let the plan of love and light work out,
and may it seal the door where evil dwells.
Let light and love and power
restore the plan on Earth.
Let light and love and power
restore the plan on Earth.
Let light and love and power
restore the planet Earth.
”Then sit in meditation, for as long as is suitable for you.
Finally, when you are finished, thank your fellow lightworkers, the Spiritual Guides and Teachers of the Wisdom Schools of the East and West, and Grandmother Earth. Drink the water in your bowl, save for a small amount, which you may sprinkle on living plants or grasses, preferably outside your dwelling, as a final offering to the Earth, and to the devas and nature spirits who work so diligently to optimize, structure and regulate the forces vivifying the natural world.
Sunset view of Pilot Mountain from the 15th Floor of the Downtown Winston-Salem Marriott, photo by Jane Sherry
View from a mountaintop near Marshall, North Carolina, photo by Jane Sherry
Curtis climbing up the trail around the top knob of Pilot Mountain, NC, photo by Jane Sherry