The summer solstice came this morning, June 21 at 08:24 UTC, or 4:24am on the US East Coast—so, welcome to the official start of summer 2026!
I was driving after midnight last night and so enjoying the first quarter moon—so-called because it looks like half the moon is visible to us on Earth—as it was gently setting in the Western skies.
In one of Nature’s elemental ironies, the summer solstice somehow represents both the onset of the season of max expansion—only now do serious people begin contemplating long, skin-clad days at the beach, and entering cold bodies of water to refresh—as well as the sober realization that actually it’s all downhill from here, or as the Book of Changes pouts it: “at the summer solstice the principle of darkness gradually becomes ascendant again.” Welcome to the slow countdown of the minutes that inexorably lead us to the depth of winter, because only then do we re-enter the time of expansion, a moment more truly deserving of our gratitude and relief…
In the I Ching calendar cycle, this solstice moment takes place firmly within Hexagram 44, Coming to Meet, which “indicates a situation in which the principle of darkness, after having been eliminated, furtively and unexpectedly obtrudes again from within and below…” The Ching pulls few punches in its guidance for this moment: “It is an unfavorable and dangerous situation, and we must understand and promptly prevent the possible consequences.”
Some further counsel:
“The rise of the inferior element… would not be possible if the strong and light-giving element had not in turn come halfway. The inferior thing seems so harmless and inviting that [one] delights in it; it looks so small and weak that [one] imagines [one] might dally with it and come to no harm.”
On the upside of this meeting of dark and light, we also find this: “it is necessary for elements predestined to be joined and mutually dependent to come to meet one another halfway. But the coming together must be free of dishonest ulterior motives, otherwise harm will result.”
Of course, let us always remember that perspective is everything, and that our sistren and brethren in the Southern Hemisphere are experiencing the inverse of this: for them, the shortest day has just been spent, and the long march to longer days and warmer eves is just beginning. The cosmic balancing act is always at work, grinding (as they say) slowly, but finely…
So let this moment of the seasonal turning of the wheel inspire us with light, and remind us of the importance of coming together with pure motives. May we find our own unique place in the cosmic cycles as they unfold within us and without us.
Blessed solstice to you and yours today!
