Showing posts with label #WinterSolstice. Show all posts
Showing posts with label #WinterSolstice. Show all posts

Thursday, December 21, 2023

The Cosmic Story: The Wheel of the Year: Yule -- Winter Solstice

 

The Cosmic Story: Winter Solstice 2023

What Are We Birthing?



The Wheel of the Year: Yule – Winter Solstice

The Wheel of the Year keeps on turning, and here in the northern hemisphere, it’s now returning to its beginning – the Rebirth of the Light.

As I write this, we are in the shortest days of light this year here in the northern hemisphere – the Longest Nights are upon us. (And to you in the southern hemisphere, have fun with the longest days– Summer Solstice!)

If you’re able to, go out and be in the dark night. Feel the darkness, with its starry fields and glowing Moon. Listen to the voices of the night. Feel the chill as you breathe in the Winter air. Isn’t a night walk a time when we often experience the mystery and magic of life? The darkness awakens our imaginations. Especially when we’re out in Nature.

The Wheel of the Year is the story of how we humans experience the ebb and flow of light. It tells the story of Earth’s relationship with the Sun, just as a month tells the story of Earth’s relationship to the Moon. In modern times, with our insulated homes, electric lights and supermarkets, we no longer have the experiences our ancestors had, with their intimate relationship to nature and dependence on Her.

Yet we still participate in the story, whether we are conscious of it or not. Our religious holidays often celebrate these times under other names. But our connection to Nature and our cosmos is bound into our DNA.

So celebrate this Solstice – whether Winter or Summer – with a conscious intention of letting the light within you be reborn and to shine out. Let love, kindness and peace, beauty, courtesy and truth, honor, strength and courage become a bright 9-pointed star of light within you, a star that will shine out into the world to help overcome the darkness of fear, hate and ignorance that is swirling in our world. 

 

Winter Solstice 2023

 


 

Once upon a time there was a land shrouded in darkness. This was not always so; at one time, it had been a land of great Light and depth and beauty.

Thus began my Winter Solstice story, about the loss of the light of Summer Solstice. But re-reading it now, I find that it could also describe our own times. Once we lived in a world of light, but now we live in darkness.

It feels that way for many people. After COVID, our world is different but the same. It seems out-of-phase, not quite settled back into the old ways we lived. And it shouldn’t. Even though people are trying to force it back because they are afraid.

           The World that we counted on is shaken. The unexpected endless wars go on. Innocents are murdered, both through physical violence and legal violence. The Earth is going through cataclysmic changes. People are afraid and suspicious. There are extremes on both sides but most people live on the middle ground. What can we do to bring things back into balance? Will we? Will we survive as a species or will we die out as so many other species have done throughout the ages?

           The Christians talk of the End Times, the Native people tell us The Emergence to the future Fifth World has begun. It is being made by the humble people of the little nations, tribes, and racial minorities. It will be made by all people of good will. Astrologers tell us to hope for the future once Pluto goes into Aquarius next year. One of the things Aquarius symbolizes is the ‘group mind’ and Pluto is going to evolve it.

        It’s not the end of the world – it’s the end of an old collective system of belief.

        What we are going through now is a collective ‘dark night of the soul’ where we are being given the chance to really look at ourselves – our shadows and our light – and choose to believe that Spirit is guiding us, even in the darkness of unknowing.

          We can’t heal ourselves and our society – and our world – if we don’t reflect on what has been festering for millennia. The harsh inequality between people and humanity and Nature. This might seem too simplistic for the mess we find ourselves in, but it is the cause of so many of society’s ills.

The need to dominate both others and Nature. To take more than our fair share. The fear of the Other and of the magic of the Feminine. This Shadow wound won’t allow that we – humans and all aspects of Nature – are One Being – Mother Earth.

We begin to heal when we love thy neighbor as thyself. But first we must love ourselves in the right way. Can we learn to see ourselves so we can truly see others? Can we forgive ourselves and heal? If we can, we will know we are the same. One people, one world. One Spirit. This is the ultimate lesson of the Piscean Age, which we have to learn if we want a truly equal Aquarian Age.

Love One Another.

It will take is the death of patriarchy to allow it to happen. (Those Greek gods never passed on their power peacefully.) Patriarchy has shaped our world view – the good and the bad. When we break out of the patriarchal mold, we will see the world differently. Success won’t be measured in money, but rather by integrity and self-worth. Religion will become a deep connection between each person and Spirit. Education will focus on different learning styles and gifts. (Not everyone needs to go into finance.) We will consider Nature an equal partner in decisions that affect society as a whole.

Hopefully, we’ll lose our fear of life and of the Other. If we can break out of patriarchy’s rules, we’ll get to shape our future collective mindset (Aquarius) to embrace diversity, spirituality and community. This is the Piscean Love which needs to be the foundation of the Aquarian Age, for only Love can shape our equality and our sense of oneness.

It always begins in a small way. A single light to shine in the darkness. A light that gives people hope.

This is what Winter Solstice is to us. A Light in the Dark, like the prism light that Galadriel gave to Frodo. To lead us back into life and light. This is how we need to meet 2024, which is shaping up to being a year of great change.

Stay intentional – live in Love and Peace.


Winter Solstice, December 21-22, 2023


This year’s Winter Solstice occurs on Thursday, December 21, 2023 at 6:27pm Alaska time, 7:27pm PST, 8:27pm MT, 9:27pm CST, 10:27pm EST and on Friday, December 22 at 3:27am GMT. For three days, the Sun will ‘stand still’ before turning around and heading north again. The day it moves forward is Christmas Eve/morning – the Birth of the Sun/Son of God.





This year’s Solstice chart is very grounded, with 6 planets and an asteroid in Earth signs. The Capricorn Sun is in an easy flow (trine/120*) to the Taurus Moon, which is conjunct the great benefic Jupiter, bringing good luck and grace to us.

The Moon is our operating system if you will – how we experience life. Taurus Moon wants to enjoy the pleasures of life. This is a good reminder in these dark days that we can still enjoy life and give thanks for it, even while feeling deep sorrow for those who are enduring death, hunger and fear. With Jupiter so close to the Moon – don’t forget to go out and look at them – we can expand our enjoyment by including others. How do we want to embody our unconscious need for comfort, peace, beauty and love? We can also over-indulge with our eating, buying and celebrating. It’s all up to us how we engage with these cosmic energies.

Taurus is all about simplicity, enjoying the basic energies of life – love, community, enjoyment, pleasure, beauty. 

 

Tis the gift to be simple, 'tis the gift to be free,
'Tis the gift to come down where we ought to be,
And when we find ourselves in the place just right,
'Twill be in the valley of love and delight.
When true simplicity is gain'd,
To bow and to bend we will not be asham'd,
To turn, turn will be our delight,
Till by turning, turning we come round right.


Jupiter is the great benefic, the luck-bringer, the energy of expansion and questing. But he is also the energy of spirituality and moral values. With both planets in Taurus – along with Uranus – it’s time to include Mother Earth’s needs and comfort as well as our own. Our physical body is our connect to Mother Earth. If we don’t keep our own bodies healthy, we will lose out on a strong connection to Nature’s biosphere.

This Solstice offers us an opportunity to center ourselves in our physical body (Taurus) and its needs so we consider what that means for our society (Capricorn). Do we really want our resources – those of our work and our money – to go towards war and consumerism, or do we want to share our resources with our communities, our nations and our world to bring about that peace we all hope for at this time of year?

Taurus is the sign that embodies the spiritual fire of Aries. What do we want to build? “If you build it, they will come.” The Field of Dreams wasn’t only for baseball. It’s for all of us. What dreams do we want to manifest this next year? Go out and build it and others will come.

Venus rules this Taurus Moon/Jupiter. She is traveling through Scorpio, opposite Uranus in Taurus. It’s the right time for a breakthrough in consciousness. While Venus is in the underworld of Scorpio, she is shedding her skin and being reborn on an emotional level. Venus is in an easy flow with Neptune in Pisces, opening her heart to the sorrow and sadness in the collective unconscious. Children should not be dying, and the elderly should not be abandoned.

Venus in Scorpio is opposite Uranus in Taurus. With Uranus’ awakening kiss, Venus can see what the Earth needs from us and what we need from Earth’s wisdom. So many of us are sick – from flues, COVID, nerves, depression, sleeplessness, confusion. We can go back to Mother Earth and be healed. We need to ground ourselves – 5-10 minutes of standing/walking barefoot on the Earth can reduce pain and inflammation, lower stress, and improve sleep. Taurus says, Simple is best. We don’t need drugs to make us better. We need to connect to the Earth’s energy and we need to learn to breathe right. (Reading a fabulous book called Breath by James Nestor – it’s absolutely worth reading. You’ll never take your breathing for granted again. And you’ll get healthy by breathing right.)

If the Moon is our operating system, then the Sun is our power source. This Solstice is powered by Capricorn, the need to contribute to our collective welfare – our dharma. On a mundane level, it rules our social structures – governments, finance systems, corporations, education, etc.

Mercury retrograde travels along with the Sun, and is open to considering whatever information comes its way. Let the information be informed by the Moon/Jupiter in Taurus and by Saturn in Pisces. Saturn in Pisces is preparing our emotional ground for new structures of reality. We need spiritual integrity and humility to ground us now. It’s time to believe again in Magic! (The real secret is that patriarchy has insisted that magic isn’t real. But we know it is and that it’s hiding in the rejected and reviled Feminine spirit.)

Pluto in the last degrees of Capricorn is once again squaring the Aries/Libra Nodes and also the Taurus Moon/Jupiter conjunction. It’s urging us all to stop being consumers so we can become citizens. Taurus isn’t only about possessions and money – it’s most basically about Values. What do we value? What is our self-worth, not our monetary worth? Pluto is in it’s last month in Capricorn before entering Aquarius again for 9 months. (Hint: Pluto returns to 29*+ Capricorn for the US elections next fall – our challenge to retain our democracy or collapse into fascism.) What will we value? If we value freedom and truth and the rights of all living beings, we need to stand up for it.

In the darkest days, we band together to ensure that life goes on. This is symbolized by The Emperor in the Tarot. The Emperor sets up the structure and rules of society. We are at a turning point, a time when the old Emperor is dying and a new King will soon arise. The old King doesn’t want to let go, but death is inevitable. It’s up to each of us to make it was painless as possible while making sure it happens! Patriarchy is making a last push for power. We the people have to stop it.

(I plan to give a free talk in January on Pluto in Aquarius, where we will do a past life regression to see if we were around during the American Revolution or any of the revolutions that occurred last time Pluto was in Aquarius (1778-1797). What did we learn then? Are we the revolutionaries we need today?)

Speaking of the New King, Mars in Sagittarius (which is out-of-bounds meaning it’s sort of a wildcard) is in a good flow with the North Node and Eris in Aries, enabling him to speak and stand up for the truth. Venus is inconjunct the North Node, making Venus feel like she has to sacrifice something to do the responsible thing. But since sacrifice means ‘to make sacred’ she won’t feel deprived. Venus is traveling just 30* behind Mars, putting her in the balsamic phase of their cycle. She’s telling him it’s time to grow up and choose the just and morally responsible thing to do.

While Venus is opposed by Uranus, Mars is in an inconjunct with Uranus. We are being challenged to act on our unique insights and on our own way of expressing our truths, regardless of what others think. Just remember that things take time to manifest. Go slow and let things gestate in their own natural time. Then watch things grow throughout the new year.

When Pluto goes into Aquarius for the next 20 years in December 2024, we will be working to transform the collective mindset and belief systems. It will be a time to learn to master our connection to the higher Mind (Uranus/Aquarius). Hopefully, humanity will expand its consciousness and learn to accept the multi-dimensionality of our being. I believe that there is magic in our world, and that the Divine Feminine holds it. As we integrate our feminine imagination with our masculine intellect, we will access those powers which are lying dormant in our DNA. We will become ‘the possible human’ as the transpersonal psychologist Jean Houston calls it. But first we need to consciously evolve.

So let your light shine out (don’t hide it under a bushel!). Make 2024 a turning point of collective awakening.


Wishing you a blessing Solstice,

Cathy 




The Winter of Listening

 

No one but me by the fire, 

my hands burning red in the palms while
the night wind carries everything away outside.


All this petty worry

while the great cloak of the sky grows

dark and intense round every living thing.


What is precious inside us does not

care to be known by the mind in ways that diminish its presence.


What we strive for in perfection

is not what turns us into the lit angel we desire,

what disturbs and then nourishes has everything we need.


What we hate in ourselves

is what we cannot know in ourselves

but what is true to the pattern

does not need to be explained.

 

Inside everyone
is a great shout of joy
waiting to be born.


Even with the summer so far off

I feel it grown in me now

and ready to arrive in the world.


All those years listening

to those who had nothing to say.


All those years forgetting

how everything has its own voice

to make itself heard.


All those years

forgetting how easily

you can belong to everything

simply by listening.


And the slow difficulty of remembering

how everything is born from

an opposite and miraculous otherness.

Silence and winter

has led me to that otherness.


So let this winter of listening
be enough for the new life
I must call my own.


~ David Whyte~


(The House of Belonging)




 


Monday, December 19, 2022

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 20th -25th. 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 25th, 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 21st, 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 28th, the January 6th 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 12th for Mars in Gemini and January 18th for Mercury in Capricorn, we’ll still need to re-orient ourselves to a new year. When Uranus also turns direct on January 22nd, 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 25th, 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 7th. 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 23rd, 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 20th, 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 12th Night/January 6th 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