The starry roots of why June is ideal for getting married are being spectacularly written across the sky this month, and I’d like to share them for this week’s “Storyteller’s Night Sky.”
June takes its name from the ancient Roman goddess Juno, protector and special counselor of the state of Rome. She was the daughter of Saturn and wife of the chief of the gods, Jupiter. Like the Greek goddess Hera, Juno also looked after women, and one of her emblems was the diadem, or starry crown, which, as a constellation, comes to its highest place in the night sky each year in her month of June.
This week, Saturn, father of Juno, comes to its annual opposition with the Sun. This will happen on Thursday; and Jupiter, Juno’s mate, and also a son of Saturn, has just returned to its direct motion, after four months of retrograde.
When you look into the sky this week, you’ll see the starry crown of Juno, known as Corona Borealis, nearly straight up overhead. It looks like tiara or a soft “u” curve. And below Corona to the left, is golden Saturn, her father, while standing guard to the right, is brilliant Jupiter, her husband.
So here we have these two males, the Father God, Saturn, with the Son God and Husband, Jupiter, like two pillars on either side and below the starry crown, emblem of Juno. It’s a remarkable image that doesn’t happen every year, and it brought to my mind the sacred pillars at the entrance to Solomon’s Temple.
These pillars were cast in bronze by the master builder, Hiram, and the pillar to the left, which I’m imaging as Saturn, the father, bore the inscription “In him is strength” while the pillar to the right, which I’m imagining is Jupiter, the son and husband, bore the inscription “He will establish”.
Only the worthy candidate to initiation could pass through the two pillars into the temple, and so attain universal knowledge, imagined here as the starry crown.
In this configuration lies hidden the mystery of the sacred union between the masculine and the feminine, and you can find it overhead this week.