Winter Solstice 2022: the Divine Mother gives birth to the Light.

 

The Wheel of the Year: Winter Solstice, 2022

The Divine Mother Gives Birth to the New Light

 

 

The Wheel of the Year: Winter Solstice

Each year the northern hemisphere of Mother Earth celebrates the re-birth of the Light from December 20^th -25^th. Whether we celebrate Christmas, Hanukkah, Winter Solstice, or New Year’s Day, we rejoice in the return of the light. Many of our cultural holidays, such as these, are aligned with the Wheel of the Year, the yearly cycle of the Sun and Earth.

We are just leaving the energy of Samhain/Halloween, the Gateway of Death. When we began the season of Samhain, we invoked the ancient goddess Hekate, Goddess of the Crossroads (and of Witches – Women In Total Control of Herself) as our guardian spirit. Did you ask her for guidance? Her dogs sniff out what lies beyond our seeing. Her torch gives us light in the dark. Her power is the power of choice and transformation. 

 

Hekate

 

Did you decide what you’re leaving behind? Have you chosen a road? That’s all it needs to be right now. A decision, a knowing, a casting off of an old attitude. We are in the very darkest days around Winter Solstice. Surrender to the Dark one last time and see what you find out about yourself.

With Winter Solstice, the Wheel of the Year begins the new cycle with (Re)Birth – the (re)birth of the new Light. Because we simultaneously live in a linear consciousness and a cyclical one, this light and our individual consciousness, are something we know and yet the light contains a mystery, the unknown future light. Together, a straight line and a circle create a spiral – and suddenly, we’re in tune with the universe.

We get a chance each year to create something new with the light, with our energy, with our consciousness: still rooted in who we are – our BEING – while giving birth to a new DOING. The Feminine Being is eternal. The Masculine Doing is eternally re-incarnating. (Or not. We might be content with how we’re living life and so we just renew our energy and continue doing as we’ve always done.)

While at Winter Solstice/Christmas, we celebrate the Light and the Child, let’s not forget to celebrate the Mother, who gives birth to the Child of Light. She is the source of this new life and light. For me, this is the season of The Mother Goddess.

 

 

For those of you who haven’t experienced the birth of a child, it is the mother who is, and needs to be, the center of this archetypal drama. Without the Mother’s body, there would be no baby’s body. Without the Mother’s labor, there would be no birth into this world of ours. Without the Mother’s caring, the new life will not thrive. While we are blessed to live in a time when fathers are becoming great caretakers, it is still the realm of the Divine Mother who oversees the care and growth of new life.

In patriarchy, motherhood has been elevated (Madonna) as well as devalued (negative mother/witch). Supermom, especially a single mom, is often exhausted and stressed over her children’s expectations. And in our present patriarchal world-view, those expectations have become excessive and unrealistic.

Modern moms need a break from patriarchal expectations that are being planted in our children. Moms need to remember who we are before we can expect others to respect our needs and vision.

So let’s go back to basics and explore our ideas of Mother.

 

 

First, there is the archetype of the Great Mother – Mother Earth. This divine being created life here on our planet and continues to do so, despite the devastation of her natural habitats which help sustain Her life. A good metaphor for what is happening to Mother Earth with climate change is that She is in MEN-o-pause – she is putting ‘hu-men’ beings on pause as she tries to regulate her systems. Hot flashes and cold sweats are all part of ‘the change’ older women go through. Whether we believe it or not, women are created in the image of this Divine Mother, so thank goodness we have so many healthy, intelligent, creative post-menopausal women to help re-set our human systems as Mother Earth works to re-set hers.

Don’t you think it’s time to listen to the wisdom of the Grand-Mothers?

Aside from Mother Earth, how does this archetypal Mother manifest on a human scale? Basically, Mother is the doorway into life. It is the only way (for mammals) for a new baby, whether human or animal, to enter this world. Not only does Mother create our bodies out of her own, but she willingly suffers the pains of birth (a sacrifice, which means to make sacred – because pain and blood are the payment for the power of birthing something new into the world).

So with power and love, Mother births us into the world.

When did we forget that power and love? That divine purpose? Not every woman can or should have children, but the process is imprinted in our bodies. Women’s bodies are shaped to create life. Isn’t it time we remembered to honor it? Hint: It’s not by legislating that creativity though. Sometimes Mother Earth grows weeds that don’t support life and so die out early on. We really need deeper, feminine, spiritual insights into pregnancy and developing life. And we also have to speak to the issue of free will. This is about a woman’s choice.

Let’s also honor the ground we live on, since Mother Earth sustains us. I live in a tidal river valley that slopes up to cliffs that overlook the Atlantic Ocean just as it begins to become Narragansett Bay. I am embraced by water, sheltered by water birches and old oak trees.

This specific landscape shapes my everyday world with earth and sunlight, wind and water. The four elements are constantly moving and shaping not only the landscape but my life. I’m seeing that the wind plays a big role in my landscape, blowing leaves and trash cans with abandon. I’m going to have to go talk with the wind and understand its fierceness.

What landscape are you a part of? How is it birthing you this year?

Winter Solstice Goddess: the Divine Mother

With the Christian Christmas story, our focus is on the miraculous Child being born. Winter Solstice is the right time to celebrate the birth of this new Child of Light being born into the world, since that’s what happens on Winter Solstice.

For the northern hemisphere of Earth, the weeks before Solstice are the darkest of the year. There is less daylight and more dark night in our 24 hour cycle. At Winter Solstice, the Sun descends to the tropic of Capricorn in the south, stops and goes no further south. It ‘stands still’ (the meaning of solstice) for about 3 days and then begins to move north again. The darkness feels just like Susan Cooper imagines in her magical Winter Solstice book – The Dark is Rising.

In the Christian Christmas story, there are Three Wise Men (magi meaning astrologer) who came to worship the Child and leave gifts. Perhaps they suggested that we celebrate the Divine Birth of the Christ Child on Christmas Day, like the Persian god Mithra, who was also born on December 25^th, because that is the day the Light begins to move north again for another year.

In looking for an aspect of the Goddess who embodies the virtues and gifts that are necessary at this point in the Earth’s life cycle, it is obvious that we are calling on the Great Mother. Whether we see her as Mother Mary or Isis or Haumea or Demeter, we do have archetypal stories that show us what the positive Mother energy is for. (In patriarchy, which devalued and suppressed so much of feminine wisdom, we often have too many stories of the negative mother/ stepmother/ witch.) 

Haumea

 

Haumea is the guardian goddess of the Hawaiian Islands, a goddess of fertility and childbirth and the mother of Pele and her sister, Namaka, the waters that surround the island and which receive Pele’s fiery lava, as well as many other Hawaiian deities. Haumea, like the Greek Mother Goddess Gaia, creates out of her whole body – not just her womb. Like the Earth, Haumea changes from maiden to mother to crone as the seasons change, so she takes many forms and comes back in many rebirths. Haumea is the archetypal energy of earthly creation and abundance, as well as the necessary death that proceeds new life. (Also see Pachamama.)

Demeter, the Greek Mother Goddess of the growing grain and agricultural abundance, was also the Mother of Kore, who became Persephone, Queen of the Underworld. This is an archetypal imagination of the Great Mother who is a nurturer of human life – providing not just for our physical needs but for our spiritual needs as well. 

 

      Demeter & Persephone

In the ancient world, there was a mystery religion that centered on women, abundance, life and death as well as the knowledge of re-birth. The Eleusinian Mysteries, dedicated to Demeter and her daughter Persephone, was one of the most sacred and secret initiations in the ancient world; it’s mysteries celebrated for over a thousand years. While we don’t know all the particulars of these ancient mysteries, (not one of the initiates ever revealed the secret knowledge – pretty impressive statement of the power of these initiations), we do know it was an experience of the immortality of the soul and possibly the knowledge of reincarnation. This story shows that Demeter was more than just a fertility goddess; she was the guide and guardian of our human soul – a fitting job for a Mother.

Isn’t that what mothers do? We want to guide our children so they have the tools to survive in the world and the values that will help them thrive. The world needs this wisdom of the eternal return of life so we can step away from our fear of, and fascination with, Death. Since the Great Mother is not only the life-giver but the death-bringer, she can give us the faith and courage to face death without fear and in hope of our spiritual survival. That’s what Christianity was supposed to teach us but it looks like it failed, because the Church concentrated on sin and death rather than resurrection and renewed life.

The other two Mother Goddesses, Isis and Mary, have similar birthing stories. Both are impregnated by an absent Father god. Isis is more pro-active about it than Mary, but she began as a goddess while Mary had to deal with being human. And of course, we’ll never know how pro-active Mary actually was!

The importance of these two Mothers is that we know their personal stories. We can connect with them on a human level. Both gave birth in hidden places; both had to deal with someone (a king, a brother) who wanted their baby dead.

 

 

With Mother Mary, she was the Virgin who gave birth to the Sun King. While she ended up playing an archetypal role, Mary as a human mother was the source of life for her son Jesus. Mary went into labor and gave birth to a son. She nursed him and kept him warm and safe, even though the world was turned against them. Mary gave all her attention to making sure that her son survived those first few months of life. She was his world, and he was hers. That’s what mother’s do after a baby is born.

If we want to ask for guidance on mothering this new Light that is coming into our world on December 21^st, Mary tells us that it takes focus and love and nurturing to make sure that our child’s life force gets strong. It’s hard work and it takes a while to get to those quiet nights, but contentment washes through us every time we hold our child. That’s what this winter time is for – that quiet focus and contentment. To stop our patriarchal programming to do, do, do, we have to turn to our inner mother and ask to be held in her loving arms. Even when we try to squirm out of them!

This Winter Solstice season (from December 21, 2022 to February 2, 2023), skip trying to exercise and diet your way through January. Instead, listen within and ask yourself what does your body need. What does your heart need? What does your soul need? You can start your new programs after Spring Equinox, with big planets changing sign, therefore of focus, from March to May.

Winter Solstice December 21, 2022

The Sun enters the sign of Capricorn on Winter Solstice, December 21, 2022 at 1:48pm PST/ 4:48 pm EST/ 9:48pm GMT.

The Sabian symbol for the Sun at 1* Capricorn is: An Indian chief claims power from the assembled tribe. Each year at the Winter Solstice and the birth of the light, this symbol asks us to take on our authentic authority. It is wonderfully symbolic that our most revered mythic leader, King Arthur, was born on Winter Solstice. This need to step into our own power is a repeating theme this year. The power of leadership means to take responsibility for our world, our people and ourselves.

The Sabian symbol for the Moon at 9* Sagittarius is: A Mother leads her small child step by step up a steep stairway. Our emotional body wants the Mother to teach us how to move in our new life. How do we do things differently? How do we learn things thoroughly? How do we build the muscle to get up to this next phase of human consciousness?

We can read this chart as shaping the cosmic energies for the next three months until the Spring Equinox. I cast the chart for Washington, D.C. so the Cancer ascendant is specific to the United States.

The first thing I noticed in this Solstice chart is that the Moon is in its Balsamic phase, the phase right before the New Moon. This is a finishing up and ending energy. It’s interesting that as the US Pluto return is energized for the last of three passes on December 28^th, the January 6^th committee has recommended criminal prosecution against Donald Trump for inciting a riot against the US government and against the rule of law. A country’s Pluto return is often experienced as a disintegration of its power, but ultimately as a renewal of that country’s ideals. If Pluto’s evolutionary energy can stabilize the rule of law over personality here in the US, it will finally and truly mark our independence from the mindset of ‘divine rule’ by kings or despots. We have to stop idolizing the ‘rich and famous’ – our homegrown, American bourgeois royalty.

Personally, we might find these next 3 months to be a time of finishing up old business in many ways. Mars and Mercury will be retrograde as we begin 2023, so both our mind and our energy are being reconfigured. After they turn direct on January 12^th for Mars in Gemini and January 18^th for Mercury in Capricorn, we’ll still need to re-orient ourselves to a new year. When Uranus also turns direct on January 22^nd, a day after the Aquarius New Moon, we can begin to make some changes in our outer life.

But remember the Mother Goddess, who is our guide this season, and go slowly. Kids learn to crawl before they learn to walk, and walking is a pretty shaky business for awhile, until they get running down pat. Climbing steep stairs is also a challenge. So start slowly and make what you do now count.

Both luminaries make major aspects to one planet each. The Sun at 0* Capricorn squares Jupiter which just entered 0* Aries. The Sun in conservative Capricorn will be challenged to act too quickly by Jupiter in Aries if we don’t pay attention. Jupiter in Aries is all set to explore new possibilities. But remember, Mars will be in Gemini (ruled by Mercury), the realm of ideas and the mind, until March 25^th, so let your imagination and mind explore and play with ideas until then. Those plans can begin to manifest when Jupiter moves into the sign of Taurus in mid-May.

The Moon in Sagittarius is opposite Mars retrograde in Gemini. Our lunar emotional body will want to light up the night and go on our quest, but Mars will stay stuck in his head for a while longer. Moon in Sagittarius will need to move and possibly shake things up, so spend the first few months of 2023 organizing and consolidating files, throwing things out, planning a trip or a quest. Give your Sag Moon something to do while you’re contemplating what you want to do with the rest of the year.

Saturn will finish up his business in Aquarius and move into Pisces for the next 2 ½ years on March 7^th. After about 5 years in two signs (Capricorn & Aquarius) he rules, Saturn is going to let go of control and sink back into the collective unconscious to reacquaint himself with the heart of the Anima Mundi/World Soul.

Saturn takes 28-30 years to complete its cycle. Looking back, in April, 1966, when Saturn was in Pisces, Time Magazine asked the question on its cover, Is God Dead? Looking back, it seems like that was a pertinent question. What will Saturn’s passage through Pisces ask us this year?

In early 1994, with Saturn in Pisces, “Ukraine announces that it will give up the world’s third biggest nuclear arsenal. Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, Ukraine had received over 1,800 warheads and 175 long-range missiles. After two years of talks between Ukraine, Russia and the United States, the country agreed to get rid of all nuclear weapons if Russia would respect its sovereignty.” Perhaps Russia will remember its promise when Saturn returns to Pisces.

Chiron in Aries turns direct right before the Capricorn New Moon on December 23^rd, moving us forward again to reclaim our own unique identity from our patriarchal patterning. This is echoed by the Sabian symbol for the Winter Solstice sun. Take on your authority, with humility, grace and wisdom.

 

 

Winter Solstice is the time of the Longest Nights. During this time of great darkness, why not let your imaginations run wild, much like we did as children.  It is a time to return to the child-like wonder of life.

This year on December 20^th, Jupiter passes out of the Omega sign of Pisces into the Alpha sign of Aries, signaling a shift from deep spiritual connection to a cosmic curiosity, which can have us exploring (at least in our minds with Aries’ ruler Mars retrograde in Gemini) what we envision for next year in this new light.

This time between Winter Solstice and 12^th Night/January 6^th was once the Roman celebration of Saturnalia, a time out of time when the world descended back into chaos so it could be reborn anew. After the past few years, it’s time to really renew ourselves and our culture. Use this time to let go of your old story and experience each day without expectations – but with delight. Set your world on its head – let the servant be the master, as it was during these ancient celebrations. Let your imagination be the master during these magical days. Let your rational side take a control break and serve the imagination. Use both to create magic, which will filter down through the year. What we do now sets up a template for the coming year. (Check out how to record your dreams for the 12 Days of Christmas.)

And check out my Winter Solstice Story.

May the peace and the love of the Goddess and the God be ever in your hearts. Merry meet and merry part and merry meet again.

See you next year!

Cathy

The Cosmic Story: Part Two -- Solar Samhain, Taurus Total Lunar Eclipse and Hekate, Goddess of the Crossroads

 

The Cosmic Story: Part Two

Samhain, Taurus Total Lunar Eclipse and Hekate

The Taurus/Scorpio Total Lunar Eclipse 2022

We’ve had a few weeks of tremendous stress and change, starting with Jupiter retrograde heading back into Pisces for a check in on October 27^th – 28^th, Mars in Gemini going retrograde on October 30^th and All Hallow’s Eve/Halloween and Dia De Los Muertos/the Day of Dead on November 1^st – 2^nd. And don’t forget the Scorpio Power Gate of Samhain on November 7^th.

These weeks are bracketed by this season’s eclipses. Eclipses occur when the Sun, Moon and Earth are on the same plane in space. Then the Earth or the Moon can block the light of the Sun – the Earth for lunar eclipses and the Moon for solar eclipses. The solar eclipse on October 25^th highlighted a release of an old story, habits, behaviors and a planting of a new spirit of regeneration. (You do know the old story isn’t working anymore, don’t you?) We get this blessing because the Moon – our unconscious psyche – faces directly into the Sun, our consciousness. There is a sacred marriage between our unconscious and conscious sides. Our energies come into a different balance and open us to change. 

 

Tuesday's Taurus lunar eclipse indicates what we are directed to learn and incarnate, since it’s conjunct the lunar North Node in Taurus. The North Node indicates our collective destiny. A Full Moon is the full blossoming of what was planted at the proceeding New Moon. It is fully illuminated so we can see the result of our plantings. Did something grow or did it fail to prosper? 

 

With a lunar eclipse, that Full Moon blossoming is overshadowed with our Shadow! We get to see what is stopping us from that blossoming. Lunar eclipses can change us by showing us what we haven’t wanted to look at. Our earthy nature gets in the way of us manifesting that perfect blossoming. But once we name it and own it, we change things. Our shadows turn into the golden light of consciousness and open our awareness in unexpected way. Especially this lunar eclipse. Let’s look at it.

The Taurus Full Moon total lunar eclipse occurs on November 8, 2022 at 3:02am PST/ 6:02am EST/ 11:02am GMT. 

 

 

The Sabian symbol for the Sun at 17* Scorpio is: A woman, fecundated by her own spirit, is “Great with Child”. This beautiful image reminds me of the Woman of Revelation – A portent appeared in the heavens. A Woman, clothed with the Sun, standing on the Moon, crowned with Stars, in labor giving birth to the Savior. The Divine Feminine and women will save the world!

 

 

This image calls on the Divine Feminine within each of us to birth our original blessings and soul-purpose. This idea aligns with the Gene Key for this eclipse, for the Taurus Moon has the Second Gene Key, which is associated with the second trigram of the I Ching – the Receptive/the Feminine. The Second Gene Key is called, Returning to the One.

This Gene Key’s shadow is called dislocation. It is a feeling of not knowing where we are in time or space. It feels like now, doesn’t it? Since this is my birth Gene Key, I can say that it makes us feel like we’re isolated, that we don’t fit in, that we’re lost. But the reality is that we are never lost on a soul level, that we are part of Mother Earth’s biosphere. Our human consciousness feels like that because we’ve been separated from Nature by our patriarchal culture. But once we look at this shadow and embrace it, we find the gift, which is called orientation. When we re-orient our awareness of life toward spirit, we can live more harmoniously, with an increased electromagnetic field that attracts what we need to live a full life. The blessing of this Gene Key is Unity, being able to live in an awareness of our interconnection with all of life.

We do all this through our connection to the Divine Feminine within, to our soul’s song for us. Once we shake off our patriarchal paralysis, we can embrace our bountiful Being. What a gift that will be for all of humanity – and for all the rest of nature which has had to deal with our destructive ways for too long.

The Sabian symbol for the Moon and Uranus at 17* Taurus is: A symbolic battle between ‘swords’ and ‘torches’. This speaks to our cultural polarization, doesn’t it? The swords/guns of one side, the torch of freedom on the other. (See below for the symbolism of the torch and Hekate, the Goddess of this Samhain season.) It’s so much easier for the ‘old’ to go to war than to carry the light into the future. Everything going on in the world is a result of the negative energies of the patriarchal paradigm. Instead of allowing people our freedom, the dominators would rather kill us and the Earth than retire to their easy chairs and let go. Whether they use weapons or money, they refuse to create a better world – and the saddest part is we have the intelligence and the resources to do it. We just don’t have the will. Perhaps this eclipse will give it to us.

 

So, back to this intense Full Moon. All the energies of life (Taurus) and death (Scorpio) culminate on November 8^th, the U.S. Election Day, with a total Lunar Eclipse in Taurus/Scorpio – seen over the whole U.S. This is the first Election Day total lunar eclipse in American history, not set to happen again until November 8th 2394. What makes this Full Moon eclipse so extra powerful (Scorpio and Taurus are powerful in themselves) is that the Taurus Moon is aligned with Uranus and the North Node opposite the Scorpio Sun conjunct Mercury and Venus, with both sides of the Full Moon square Saturn in Aquarius.

The heavens are showing us that there’s LOTS of FIXED energy around – six planets and the lunar nodes in fixed signs. Which means stubborn, intractable, powerful, building energies will be in play. Look at all the red lines (stressful) in the chart for Washington D.C. But I want to believe that the needs of the future will win out, and the surprises that Uranus, which symbolizes freedom, rebellion, unexpected surprises, always promises might be that the US election will go against conventional wisdom. I want a surprise finish! If so, there will be crazy challenges. Whichever way things go, we’re in a for wild ride.

The Scorpio Sun joins Mercury a few hours after this eclipse, while Venus has already connected with the Sun on October 22^nd at 29* Libra just a few days before the Scorpio Solar Eclipse. So these three planets are in harmony, having connected with each other in the past few weeks. Venus is our feminine nature, which is being renewed as an Evening Star of Wisdom. We are not supposed to hold onto emotions (e-energy in motion): they move through us in 90 seconds if we allow them to. Venus goes willingly into the dark to embrace what has been neglected, degraded and unloved.

Mercury is the Mind, which can name what is happening and even guide us on our underworld journey. The Sun is our conscious awareness of what we have learned. These three planets in Scorpio can take us deep within ourselves to discover hidden riches as well as old emotional pain. The work here is transformation – letting go of stuck emotions so new energy is available to us. So we can become ‘great with child’, with our new life and story.

Taurus is the most grounded sign in the zodiac. It’s the sign of Mother Earth, the one who takes cosmic energy and creates life. Taurus Moons like stability, security and pleasure. And of course, the beauty and simplicity of Nature. In a worldly way, Taurus rules safety and security, money, possessions, beauty, love and values. With Uranus conjunct the Moon opening us to Earth’s creative evolutionary genius, our ground might be shaken but we won’t necessarily collapse if we stay true to ourselves. (But the stock market might.)

The most important gift of Taurus is our values – what do we value? Patriarchy values money, domination and power. The Divine Feminine values love, heart-centered wisdom, community, beauty and truth. What do you value? What we value will come back to us, so meditate on what you truly desire.

This lunar eclipse can create a strong energy pattern that can help us manifest what we set our hearts on. (I keep saying manifest because Taurus is the zodiacal sign of manifestation. It is the foundation of whatever we build. Taurus takes Aries original spark of spirit and shapes it into something. Gives it a form.)

Scorpio is where we rub up against each other, where our emotional barriers stop us from connecting because of past trauma. This eclipse can bring down those barriers. With Venus and Mercury acting together to assist our descent into our Shadow lives, we can be gentle with ourselves and name our wounds for what they are. Once named, they can be healed.

I believe the basic wound we all share is that we’ve been told we aren’t the beautiful, abundant, creative beings that we are. Our wound is that we hide our true Self behind barriers erected through mistrust and fear, expectation and desire until we don’t know who we are. We all have been wounded emotionally, physically and spiritually. Our hearts have been ravished of their hopes and dreams. Isn’t it time to reclaim them? If we do, perhaps we can create a new society that opens up our spirits instead of shutting them down.

That’s what we had to release during the Scorpio solar eclipse. Our false selves, our wounded selves. Did we plant a need for a new blueprint for connecting our ego-selves to our inner Self/Spirit? At this lunar eclipse, perhaps we’ll see the results. At the first quarter Moon in Aquarius (November 1), we’ll be tested in our resolve to write that new story. How is it going for you?

Total lunar eclipses are points of closure, completion and endings, which shine a light on what we’ve been unaware of. The result is permanent change. This is a long lunar eclipse, with totality lasting about an hour and a half, and about six hours in total. The longer the eclipse, the more time afterwards it takes to work things out. So the next six month should see the results of what is manifested.

The important thing to remember is to not get caught up in the drama – we are living in a chaotic moment that needs to happen if real change is to occur. So hang onto your hats and enjoy the winds of change and don’t get blown off course. Stay in your heart and love your people, be kind to others and make connections with like-minded people.

There is so much fixed energy in this chart. Fixed signs – Taurus, Leo, Scorpio and Aquarius – want to hold on tight to the energies they’re working with because that’s their job! They want to concentrate the energy. With Saturn squaring this Full Moon eclipse and Uranus, last year’s struggle between the old vs the new, the past vs the future (Saturn/Uranus square) might get played out, especially here in the US.

In the larger world, we might expect earthquakes, with literal, financial and personal earthquakes. And in the US, I’m sure there will be fighting over the election results. Just BREATHE! Things need to breakdown so we can break on through the the other side.

These times will bring up great frustration, because there seems to be no outlet – Mars, the co-ruler of Scorpio, is retrograde and sort of lost in Gemini’s need to do a million things at once. Mars retrograde is also inconjunct Pluto in Capricorn, setting up a power struggle, and squaring Neptune retrograde, which can leave us mentally scattered, although it’s great for creativity and spirituality. As you can see, poor Mars will be confused, frustrated and uncertain how to act.

What is the thing that wants to be acted upon? What are you not doing and why? This is the thing that Mars going retrograde in Gemini (sign of learning, communication, perspective, travel and knowledge) will pose for us. What do we know and how do we want to perceive the world? Is it a matter of perspective? Of belief? Mars in Gemini is overloaded with ideas and perceptions. Mars turning retrograde will push that energy to stop moving so fast and really look at what is gong on NOW.

Jupiter is basically on the 0*Aries World Axis, but has moved back to 29* Pisces, the omega point, where it stays until it turns direct on November 23^rd. Jupiter aligns once more with Neptune in Pisces to remind us that we are the world, we are the children, we are ONE. Uses this time to imagine a better world (it’s getting easier to see since the patriarchal world is showing its worst side as it dies).

As you can see, these next weeks will be intense. And the dark is rising, since we’re in the season of Samhain until Winter Solstice. This dark time is a time for contemplation and inner seeking. Solar Samhain (when the Sun hits 15* Scorpio) is on November 7^th, so we are still in the energetic field of accepting Death as our advisor. Can we let go of fear and face the dark?

 

When we face the darkness which we associate with Death, can the Crone be our guide? Since it’s the season of Samhain and Halloween, and the witches are coming out to dance, I say we look to the Crone Goddess Hecate, the ancient guide to the human journey into darkness and death. And then back into rebirth.

Hecate, the Goddess of the Crossroads

 

It’s interesting that Christians called Hekate ‘the Queen of Witches’, a reminder of her power to free women from patriarchal rules and roles. As one young twitter user sang, a WITCH is a Woman In Total Control of Herself. All the patriarchal religions want to control women because we are powerful – we are the Mothers who give birth to life and men never lose their need for our comfort and support. Under patriarchy, a woman who was not controlled might not give men that love and comfort, so she had to be controlled.

Unfortunately, that’s just not the way it works. Freedom breeds love. Control breeds hate. In the Piscean Age, men condemned women (and some men) for being witches, not only because they feared magic, but also because they especially feared Women’s Magic.

How powerful must women be for such a long and consistent persecution?

 

So Hekate is the guide for those women who belong to themselves. Who are not afraid of their inner darkness, which is just unknowing. Women know this darkness with our bleeding. We know it with our giving birth. We know it in our body. Women live this cyclical nature, so we are not afraid to take Hekate for our guide.

Hekate is the great Goddess of the Crossroads, the initiator into the mysteries of death and rebirth. At her triple crossroads, magic happens – we can be blessed or cursed – but we will be challenged. What happens really depends on what’s in our heart. We curse ourselves when we let our fear of death stop us from making choices and changing. We step into our blessings when we trust our choices and step onto our path. But we have to choose. That’s the point of a triple crossroads. A choice is called for. Our world is at a crossroads. Will we pick freedom or fear?

 

One of my ‘big’ dreams while I was studying at the Jung Institute was about a triple crossroads and a dynamic change.

In the first part of the dream, I was facing a wounded lion. Then I was sitting on an old-fashioned buckboard wagon at a triple crossroads. I looked up and saw in the sky the waning Moon (the Crone/Hekate Moon) and a giant tidal wave about to descend on me. I closed my eyes and thought ‘this is it’. Then I opened my eyes and saw that the tidal wave was gone and there was a new crescent Moon shining in the sky what the old Moon had been. And then I was given a blessing.

This was the beginning of a big change in my life. Because I did make a free choice after this dream. I later discovered that Hekate, the Crone, often changed into Artemis, the Virgin.

Whether we think of her as a Goddess, an archetype or a cosmic law of life, Hekate is still vital to us today. Especially so, since She is well acquainted with death and rebirth. She saw Kore ravished away by Hades, the God of Death, and told her mother Demeter about what had happened. Hekate is the archetypal energy within us that sees our inner process and the possible outcomes (roads) we might consider taking. She understands our fears, our hopes and dreams and what we are striving for. She is our companion in the darkness, and lights the way with her torches – whether in the form of dreams, intuitive perceptions and most importantly, our heart’s desire. She is a great guide for the uncertainty of our times. While we don’t know what the future will bring, we don’t have to face it alone. We have Hekate to guide us safely through the dark.

Hekate was worshiped all over the ancient world and is still called upon by women and occultists as Goddess of Magic and Healing. She is an opener of the way, and the Goddess of Thresholds; hence her keys, opening the door to a new start while locking the door on the old story. She is a Goddess of in-between places, like dawn and dusk, places of transition and liminality. She carries two torches to light the way in and out of the dark. 

 (It’s interesting that the Statue of Liberty, holding a torch and wearing the 7-rayed crown of Hekate, lights our way to freedom – perhaps an echo of Hekate there?)

 

 

I’ve always thought of Hekate as a more ancient Goddess than the Olympians (she was a Titaness) because she was free to wander the three world – the heavens, earth and the sea, as well as the Underworld, where she ministers to Persephone, often known as another aspect of her triple nature. Hekate was free to wander the world, independent of the patriarchal need to marry off the ancient goddesses to their newer male gods. Although in different times and places, Hekate is associated with a god or children, she never loses her freedom.

Most importantly, Hekate gets her power over heaven, earth and sea from her mother, Asteria, the starry cosmos, who was associated with divination by dreams and astrology. Hekate’s association with dreams and prophecy comes from her mother Asteria as well as her association with snakes and oracles.

Just as you have to seek those in-between realms to open to prophecy, Hekate as the Goddess of Thresholds takes us into those other realms, using her keys to help us close one part of our life and open the door to another. As such, She is Goddess and guide to those transitioning from this world to the next in death.

She can help us get over the fear of Death, allowing us to go gently into that sacred transition. Our world could do worse than look to Her for guidance now, and at the hour of our death. 

 

courtesy of Katlyn Breene 

If we take her as our guide, Hekate stands with her two torches, her keys, and her protective dogs, ready to light the way, open the door and scent out the path we need to take to meet our Death – and awaken to our Re-birth.

In this time of great turmoil and transition, please go and vote. While neither side is perfect, it is up to we, the people, to initiate change. And while we might not trust the system completely, it is the only one we have at the moment. So vote for change and then make sure it happens.

Samhain Blessings,

Cathy