Monday, January 29, 2024

The Cosmic Story: The Wheel of the Year: Imbolc 2024

 

The Cosmic Story: The Wheel of the Year – Imbolc 2024

Re-Aligning Ourselves with Our Instinctual Wisdom

 


 

Our Dis-connect From Nature

We modern humans have to face the fact that we have divorced ourselves from Nature and from our human nature. We’ve lost our connection to our INSTINCTS. We no longer read the signs that Mother Nature shows us, depending on our ‘weathermen’ to tell us what’s going on around us. (Remember the 2004 tsunami in Thailand – how people just watched the waters receding instead of heading for hills like the Native people and animals did?) And so we find ourselves in a dangerous moment when climate change needs to be addressed but it isn’t, because we no longer understand our body’s wisdom and our instinctual nature.

If we were in touch with our instincts, we wouldn’t stand for the poisoning of our waters, our land, our food, our air. Our senses would revolt. We would know that we have to change the way we’ve been programmed to live, especially now that corporations have us hooked on technology. No leaders are asking us to sacrifice our unnecessary things for the greater good, which we did during wartime. (Because it would wreck the economy?) Remember how George Bush told us all to go out and buy things after 9/11 to show Osama Bin Laden that he wasn’t going to defeat us? He didn’t tell us that we need to change our ways and learn to compromise if we want a peaceful world. And so war and genocide are still viable options for nations. Revenge, domination, greed and pride shape our world instead of peace, love and cooperation.

Instead, we bear our sicknesses without pointing our finger at the source of that poisoning; by not insisting that our leaders hold corporations accountable for the mess they’ve made of our world. And we would also look at our own part in that poisoning, for we consume what isn’t necessary for life. We trade our health and our children’s future for things that we often throw away or ignore soon after we buy them.

Another thing we’ve lost touch with is our IMAGINATIONS. Our psyches are filled with images from TV, video games and movies – often violent images which stay stuck in our psyches, which result in the violence we see all around us in the world today. Without a deep connection to our instincts, our imaginations languish. We lose touch with the values and beliefs that sustain life.

Americans are especially susceptible to media mind control, because we do not have the deep roots that Europeans, South Americans, Africans, Middle-Easterners and Asians have from living for millennia in their homelands. America was founded by corporations and our society has been shaped by corporations. Corporations have destroyed the power of families to create culture. I’m not talking about white Christian culture. I’m talking about the little rituals that families and communities develop by eating together, playing together and working together.

If anyone wants to point to the Anti-Christ of Christian mythology, it is the flat-earth, materialistic culture that America has fostered on the world. Anti-Christ means against spirit. Christianity mistakenly chose the image of the Christ’s crucifixion as its central image, rather than his Resurrection, which was the whole point of his story – that we are spiritual beings having a human experience. Mary Magdalene chose the resurrection. The Divine Feminine knows about life and spirit and soul.

But that human experience means that we have to understand our instincts rather than reject them, which is what so many of our religions have pushed us to do. They tell us that earthly life is evil and only heaven is important. They reject the Goddess of Life, and so we have learned to reject life’s magic.

And when these masculine religions rejected the beauty of earthly life, they also rejected and dominated women and their feminine ways of knowing – our instincts, our intuitions, our emotional intelligence. And our imaginations, for our right brain speaks to us through the creative imagination’s symbolic language.

Carl Jung said that in the Aquarian Age, the archetypes would be poured out of the unconscious and made conscious. He also said that there is a spectrum – like the light spectrum from infra-red to ultra-violet – that stretches from instincts to archetypes. The archetypes are the structures that shape the Earth’s instinctual nature. And so now we find ourselves having to get back in touch with our instincts through the archetypal figures of our dreams and visions. We pull animal cards to make us aware of which instincts are pulling at us. We pull Goddess cards to name the feminine instincts that have been suppressed by patriarchy.

That’s why it’s so important to reclaim and work with our imagination. It isn’t good enough to just pick a card and read what it means. We have to take that meaning into ourselves and embody it. We have to re-birth our instincts. We can do this through listening to our imagination.

 


 

I also believe that our original language is the symbolic language of the soul. In the story of the Tower of Babel, everyone spoke the same language until men built a tower to the heavens. They were punished by forgetting that original language and speaking different languages so people couldn’t understand each other. Perhaps if we all became proficient in symbolic language once again, we would understand each other better.

If we are to survive this time of cultural chaos and change, we all need to ground ourselves in our body’s instincts and our soul’s language. We can begin to do this by syncing once again with Nature’s natural cycles.

That’s what the Wheel of the Year can teach us.


The Wheel of the Year – Imbolc: A Time of Visioning

 



The Wheel of the Year sets out 8 specific turning points of light during the year. These gateways initiate the different seasons. There are the two solstices, when the Sun is either at its extreme northern or southern boundary. At the two equinoxes, the light is balanced. And then there are the 4 cross-quarter days, which occur midway between the solstices and equinoxes in the power signs of the zodiac. There four signs – Taurus, Leo, Scorpio and Aquarius – are where the seasons are concentrated and take hold. Even with climate change, the relationship of the Sun to the Earth stays the same. So while the exact dates sometimes change, the message and meaning of the season remains the same.

We begin at Winter Solstice, when the Sun is at its lowest southern point and begins its journey back north. (Of course those of you in the southern hemisphere experience the opposite seasonal shifts.) At Winter Solstice, the Light is re-born. The instinct of this season is the feeling of hope that we get in the darkest times that life will return to nurture us. The shift in light begins the yang part of the year, when the Light begins to grow. Our instincts tell us to go within, rest and restore ourselves.

We have arrived at the next gateway of the Wheel, one of the cross-quarter days that occur between the solstices and equinoxes. This second gate occurs when the Sun reaches the 15th degree of the sign of Aquarius, the power degree of the power signs of the zodiac. This is the festival of Imbolc or St. Brigid’s Day – or even the Catholic Candlemas. While we celebrate it on February 2nd, because of the changes that occur due to the Earth’s wobble, true Imbolc is now on February 4th.

This is a festival of the returning light. Despite the cold and snow still on the ground, we sense a shift.  We look for the light.  Soon we’ll notice that the light grows more quickly, the daylight hours growing while the dark of the night recedes. We celebrate it here in the US as Groundhog’s Day, when this large rodent peeks out of its underground burrow to see its shadow. In Ireland, snakes were the animals that would come above ground to see if winter was receding. The instinct here is to envision the future when light would bring warmth and growth back to the land.

The Sabian symbol for 15* Aquarius is: Two lovebirds sitting on a fence and singing happily. This power gate calls us to let our soul unite two complementary spiritual (birds) energies to achieve real happiness or bliss – at a midpoint in time/the fence. One way to understand this is to let our imagination (right brain) show us our path and to use our rationality (left brain) to help us walk it.

The inner light of the unconscious unites with the heavenly light of consciousness to bless our lives. Love is what unites them.

Imbolc was called Candlemas by the Catholic Church, a time to bless the candles that the church would use during the coming year. In Ireland, they celebrate St. Brigid’s Day, as she is the Patron Saint of Ireland along with St. Patrick. But in reality, Brigid was a goddess before she was a saint. One of the most important Irish goddesses, such that the Church had to adopt her as their own, since the people would not give her up.

The Imbolc festival is a fire festival. The fires are lit as sympathetic magic to help bring the sunlight back. And with the Light comes vision. Just as we look to see more light at Imbolc, it is also a time to envision the new life that will emerge in the Spring

 

To honor the energy of Imbolc, light some candles and be present to the light. Gaze into the flames, and let images arise within you. Ask for a vision of what your inner child of light wants to do this year. How is the baby of Light growing? What does your soul need from you to grow strong enough to emerge in the Spring and root into the deep soil of your life?

If you need help, ask the Mother Goddess who helps us grow in this second part of the Winter Solstice season: Brigid, the Gaelic Mary and the foster-mother of Christ. (The Celts placed great value on fostering their children and one’s foster mother was just as beloved and important as one’s birth mother.)


Brigid, Goddess of Imbolc: How do we work with the Light?

Since the Winter Solstice is about the re-birth of the Light, the purpose of that season is to nurture and grow that light until it is strong enough to stand on its own. The Goddess energy that works in the Winter Solstice season is the Divine Mother – the birth giver, the nurturer, the bestower of gifts and talents.

At Winter Solstice, Mother Mary embodies the archetype of the Divine Mother who keeps her child nourished and safe and secure from death. At Imbolc, the Goddess form changes to one of Teacher, Healer and Inspirer. We look now to Brigid, whom the Irish call Muire na nGael or Mary of the Irish. She is called the foster Mother of Christ.

If we acknowledge that the Christ is the part of us that is the Eternal Spirit of the Creator, then Brigid is the Divine Feminine Mother who now takes that spirit and helps shape it into life-giving purpose.

Brigid is the Celtic goddess of the fires of the forge and the hearth, of poetry, healing and childbirth. The name Brigit itself means either ‘Fiery Arrow’, ‘Bright One’, or ‘High One’ in the ancient Celtic language, referring to her solar aspect, as she is a goddess of Light and Flame. She is an ancient image of the solar feminine – from a time before the masculine deities took over the rulership of the Sun and its gift of self-consciousness.

 

Brigid, Brigit or Brighid (pronounced Breed) is an important Celtic Triple goddess, changing form from Maiden to Mother to Crone. At Imbolc, she comes to us in her Crone aspect and leads us to the inner depths where the Cauldron of Inspiration waits for our gaze to seek a vision. When we emerge, Brigid comes with us as the Maiden, renewed once again. She is the Mother of our spiritual birth, when we recognize our soul’s gifts and potentials and purpose.

Brigid is the patroness of poetry, healing and smithcraft, all different ways humans use the creative fires of life with practical and inspired wisdom. As a solar deity Her attributes are light, inspiration and all skills associated with the creative fire, especially the fiery power of inner healing and vital energy.

Imbolc is a great time to gather with friends and family to tell stories, recite poetry, make music and feel the joy of returning life to Mother Earth. It’s a time to use our imaginations, to listen to our dreams, and to feel the possibilities of life.

There are many foods the Celts made to celebrate this season, many tied to the fact that the sheep gave birth now and so had milk to share. This is a link to different recipes people made for Imbolc.

Magical Foods of Imbolc


The Astrology of the Imbolc Season – February to mid-March



The astrology of this season is full speed ahead – all the planets are moving forward now that Uranus turned direct on last weekend (only the asteroid Juno is retrograde now) until after Spring Equinox. That means, these archetypal energies can work for us in the world. Of course, it’s up to each of us to figure out how we want to be love, take action, speak our truths, engage in our collective society and channel the larger energies of life.

Since we are living in a time of evolution and revolution, each of us is responsible for evolving ourselves into the person we want to be. Each year we get this chance but this year seems to be crucial not only personally but collectively. If we want to change the world, we need to be the ones to do it.

The most important energy to engage with this year is Pluto in Aquarius. I did a zoom presentation on January 20th about this major shift and you can view it on my You Tube channel The Cosmic Storyteller.

But to recap the most important points:

Pluto dipped into Aquarius for the first time since the American Revolution last year from March 23 – June 11, 2023, when it retrograded back into Capricorn. During that time, AI really took off, with all the major companies releasing their version of AI. In October the US government released a study about concerns over AI.

On January 20, 2024, Pluto once again entered Aquarius, where it will move forward until May 2nd, then retrograde back into Capricorn from September 1 – November 19th – just in time for the US presidential election. It seems to me that the cosmos wants US citizens to make a choice between democracy and dictatorship, just as it did for those American revolutionaries back in 1778. The choice is up to us.

After November 19, 2024, Pluto is travel through Aquarius until 2044. Pluto in Aquarius is associated with revolution, social justice, scientific breakthroughs and technological advancements. We’re already seeing some of those breakthroughs – I just read that someone might have discovered the cure for cancer.

Pluto is going to evolve our Collective Mind, which Aquarius represents. It’s how we as a collective view the world, our beliefs and prejudices, our worldview. We are evolving out of a Newtonian cause and effect understanding of life into a quantum understanding that we are all one. Hopefully, it will be a time when humanity finally grows up and takes responsibility for our actions. It is definitely a time when humanity has to spearhead evolution if we want to survive as a species. Mother Earth will heal her wounds and birth new life, but humanity might not be part of that if we don’t take up our stewardship of the Earth.

Pluto in Aquarius will also bring up what is no longer viable for the Collective Mind, just as it brought up what wasn’t working in our society during the years (2008 – 2024) it traveled through Capricorn, sign of our collective institutions such as government, finance, the military, our justice systems. There is always the negative use of power, and so we have to watch what is happening with technology and put some stops on it until we find a balance there.

On the positive side, Pluto in Aquarius is all about freedom, equality, and the people rather than hierarchical rulers. It will be a time when we explore outer space as well as the inner space of our psyches. Perhaps we’ll learn mental telepathy and start to use the Innernet rather than the technology that is destroying so much of our human interactions. Connecting online is totally different from personal human interaction.

The New and Full Moons during the next six weeks occur in the signs of Aquarius, Pisces and Virgo, opening us to the collective energies we share as well as how we can be of service to the collective.

Venus, Mercury and Mars move through the signs of Capricorn, Aquarius and Pisces, and Mercury goes into Aries where it will retrograde on April 1st, conjunct the Aries Solar Eclipse on April 8th. (more on this in my Spring Equinox newsletter).

Jupiter and Uranus are moving forward in Taurus to their meetup on April 20th at 22* Taurus. (More on that in the Spring Equinox newsletter)

That’s all for now.

Let this season bring you insight into what your soul has planned for you this year. Whether you meditate, journey, dream, get an astrology or tarot reading, take a peek ahead now and let that vision and wisdom guide you into the Spring.


May you be blessed with inspiration this season.

Cathy

 

Dear God of Higher Love,

Beautiful Source, the Divine Within,

Let the soothing balm of love and justice

Pour over all of us,

Filling us with peace, kindness,

And the powerful, passionate will

To do what we must do,

To heal the ruptures, the corruption,

the transgressions and the wounds of this country.

I humbly ask you to let good win.

Give us the opportunity to do better,

To be better.

We will not squander it.

We are awake now,

It took us a long time to see

And we are grateful for your patience.

But we are here now,

We are ready.

We are warriors for love.

With your guidance,

We will make it right,

repairing the inequalities,

the injustices, the offenses.

We will lift this country,

this planet and its people

and finally be the beacon of hope,

the shining light, the loving heart

that we are destined to be.

-Pamela Bongas McIntyre, 10/27/20

 

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)