Winter Solstice peaked about 3:15 A.M on December 21, 2012. At the time of the Winter Solstice in the Northern Hemisphere, the Earth tilts on is her axis causing the Northern Hemisphere to reach its maximum tilt away from the Sun. Depending upon our latitude, the daylight hours vary from O in Barrow Alaska, 4 in Iceland, 7 + in London and around 8 in our region, the Pacific Northwest and above the 45th parallel. The Sun takes its shortest and lowest path across the sky After the Solstice, each day will regain some light,days will begin growing longer. In the Southern Hemisphere, it is the Summer Solstice, and the opposite is occuring.
Christmas Day, the Moon will be in Gemini bringing a fresh infusion of energy provided by Luna’s aspect to Mars in Aquarius late in the day on on into the evening. The Sun in Capricorn squares Uranus too calling for a release of tension and pressure (maybe a long walk, a trip to the yoga studio, or a little dancing to let off steam and channel excess energy).
Last night the first quarter square of the Moon at 28 degrees of Pisces to the Sun at 28 degrees in Sagittarius, may have made you feel like you had been hit by a truck. I know I was feeling sore and achy, and weighed down. As I led a meditation last night, it seemed that many of us were feeling similarly tired, stressed, and depleted. Whether or not this has been the case for you, the square of the moon often makes us feel a bit challenged, under the weather, or at the very least, more aware of any area of weakness or disharmony in our body, mind, or spirit. The area of your chart/life where you might notice it most is within 27-30 of any of the mutable signs (Gemini, Virgo, Sagittarius, Pisces) or 27-30 of the cardinal signs (Aries, Cancer, Libra, and Capricorn). Look at this aspect in the houses affected, and you will note where you may find some challenges during this First Quarter Square influence.
As the Sun shifted into Capricorn in the middle of the night (3:19 A.M. PST), we find ourselves more grounded in the material rules, foundations, and limitations of our being. Staying within necessary limitation, maintaining appropriate standards, and watching to make certain we are operating on sound principles and healthy practices, is necessary and becomes more so from here on out. Having a long-term goal (dreaming big under the influence of the Sagittarius Sun), now requires that we take care of ourselves and allot ourselves the necessary restorative, recuperative, and regenerative activities to prepare us for whatever work we have to do, whatever goals we have set for ourselves, and whatever dreams we hope to achieve. We now can trust our intuitive senses to let us know what is feasible in our lives and what is not.
Mercury in Sagittarius until the 31, continues to generate a multitude of ideas and interests, motivating us in new ways, paths, and directions. We make serendipitous connections, dream prophetic dreams, and visualize new ways, creations, and ideas that we feel a great urge to help birth. In Sagittarius, our communication hinges on what we believe to be fair or not, and that includes how we spend our own energy, time, and resources. Failure to take into account our own limitations, can create major problems for us down the road. Pull in the reins if you think that is best. Do what nourishes and refreshes you, and allow yourself to find healthy ways to connect and relate to one another.Mercury trines Uranus bringing about synchronistic events, meetings, and communication.
Venus in Sagittarius until January 8, features more down to earth types of romantic gestures. Love is based on a more universal norm, and Venus in Sagittarius is ruled by the direct, honest, and straight forward professions of love. Trusting our higher natures in matters of Love is necessary for us to understand and experience what love really looks like as it is expressed to us and by us. It’s not the intention alone that counts; it’s how the intention is backed by actions that bring it into experience, fulfillment, and manifestation.
Mars has been in Capricorn since November 16, and on Christmas Day, December 25, it will move into Aquarius. Mars transited over the path of Pluto, the Great Transformer, during this passage, and stirred up whatever was needed to bring forth a knowledge of long term consequences and and energy for major changes ahead. We may have had sudden and drastic experiences that shook up our view of reality, reminding us of the polarity between our temporal and spiritual natures. If we have been at all frustrated in our transformative work, we may have experienced a sense of being cut off or alienated from some part of ourselves. This often manifests as a belief that we are cut off from others when in fact, it is we who cut ourselves off by our false beliefs and emotional attachment to them. So for example, if I had an irrational thought that I had lost something or had run out of a necessary resource, I might emotionally begin reacting as if I had when in fact, I hadn’t.
We need to be mindful of how we respond to thoughts, intuitions, and dreams. We need to be discerning, to check our perceptions out against the verifiable facts. We need to be aware of how we can let our emotions and thoughts run wild if we fail to seek balance. Mars triggers this kind of energy, and knowing this, we can take steps to be more calm in reacting and responding to life experiences, communication, and conflicts with others. Venus in Sagittarius does bring out the spirit of adventure and the desire and movement toward fun. On the 20th, when Venus squared Chiron (the Wounded Healer), something might have been triggered that made you fearful of commitments, made you question things. Being reminded of past hurts, on a subconscious or conscious level, can be helpful for reminding us of whether or not the present circumstances are equal to or the same as past experiences, or whether they simply tread on the same area of your heart.
Venus opposes Jupiter on December 22 making us more likely to idealize a romantic partner or over emphasize our need for love and companionship based on not being clear or in line with our true needs, nature, or own value. Discovering the love within our own souls helps us be less attached to the idealized and often unrealistic expectation of our “dream partner, lover, or even friend’. Be mindful of your own value, inner resources, and your ability to love yourself and others. For truly, if we cannot love and appreciate ourselves, we have no way of loving anyone else.
 |
| Reflections of Christmas Catherine Al-Meten |
All day today, the Moon has been transiting Aries, the powerhouse of assertion and rebelliousness as well as the activator and take-charge controller. If you have been working towards a long-term goal, or need to meet a deadline, this is a helpful influence. If, however, you have been trying to relax into a long, serene holiday weekend or vacation, it has been hard to get past the immediate demands and activities of the day.
During the night as the Sun sextiles Neptune in Pisces, the edges begin to soften and we can begin relaxing and finding a more moderate, restful way to move into the holy days. Saturday, December 22 at 1:26 P.M (EST; 10:26 PST), the moon enters into mellow Taurus. Jupiter’s quincunx to Saturn becomes exact as well. This long-term aspect makes us feel more ambiguous than we might normally feel. We need to bring our attitudes, beliefs, plans, and feelings into greater congruence, sorting out the debris that clutters different areas of our experience and aligning our lives more clearly and harmoniously within the context of our true desires and basic sense of purpose. When Venus opposes Jupiter Saturday night, watch for over-inflated emotional reactions, and quell the desire to go beyond the limits that are healthy for you.
And now about the Winter Solstice, the passage over the Gallactic Center, and the end of the Mayan Calendar. In Shakespeare’s play, Hamlet, Act One, Scene Five, Horatio and Marcellus, barge into Hamlet’s conversation with the ghost of his father. Horatio like Hamlet, were students at the University of Wittenburg, a “notable outpost for Protestant humanism,” so that Hamlet would be caught talking to his Father’s ghost, would leave him quite unwilling to have anyone oversee or hear him. In an age when reason, ethics, logic, and natural science provided the framework for all sound thought, Hamlet’s communication with ghosts would seem like something only a mad man would do.
Hamlet: Swear by my sword
Never to speak of this that you have heard (he pleads with Horatio and Marcellus)
Ghost: (beneath the stage) Swear by his sword.
Hamlet: Well said, old mole, canst work i’ the’ earth so fast? A worthy pioner! Once more remove, good friends (leave).
Horatio: O day and night, but this is wondrous strange.
Hamlet:
And therefore as a stranger give it welcome.
There are more things in heaven and earth Horatio
Than are dreamt of in your philosophy.
Why quote these lines from Shakespeare’s Hamlet! For those who have failed to understand or consider the depth and breadth of possibility, experience, and vastness of the Universe, the simple answers are best for they raise no doubts, call for no imagination, and rely on a vision of a limited universe and Divine reality. When we become trapped in the ‘way things have always been,’ kinds of political and philosophical behavior and answers, we live with eyes that are blind and ears that cannot hear. We trust only with our decaying senses, a world that is far beyond our understanding, knowing, or experiences.
The Winter Solstice occurs only on half the planet; the Summer is occurring in the Southern Hemisphere. Cycles are part of the spiral stories of our DNA, of the atomic and subatomic particles that flow endlessly inward and outward. What we can know in our limited physical reality, is but a tiny piece of what there is. We are being energized, infused, and evolved by the Divine Creation and Creator, to live out our that which feeds, enriches, and nourishes us, our world, and all that is. Use what you have to be all that you can be, to touch the planet with Light, to experience Love in all areas of your being, and to take up your hand to work from your heart for what is Good. Be that open channel for Love and Light, in each moment, regardless of what you do, who you are, and what you believe to be true or not. Go beyond belief and live according to Love. Create peace in your heart so it can spread and become the new foundation for life. Heal yourself so you can become part of the healing of all.
The yod that I wrote about with Saturn in Scorpio and Pluto in Capricorn triggered by an opposition with Jupiter in Gemini has set off the transformative shift and movement in our lives. We have another reminder, as we humans have always had, of our choice between what the Deuteronist said, "You have the choice between life and death. Choose life." As the folks of Newtown posted today a week after the tragedy of the deaths of the innocents, "We Choose Love." It's your choice. It's my choice. It's the choice we always have between actions that are life and love-giving or not. In the Holy Qur'an, the Prophet Mohammed (PBUH) passed on the Word of God saying basically that God sent the prophets before to tell us how to live with one another. We didn't listen then. God sent Abraham, Moses, Jesus, Mohammad and all the other holy ones to to remind us. We can choose. What do you choose?
No comments:
Post a Comment