Holidays

Happy Yule and Christmas, and preparing for the New Year

artist unknown

A portion of this article has been posted several times since 2011. Anyone who has read this blog for more than five minutes will know that I am rather skeptical not only of Christianity but of any organized religion.  Still, I love the Christmas season, with its pagan-derived trappings of pine trees decorated with colorful balls and lights, songs of celebration, and the sharing of food and sweets with family and friends.  After all, the week of the Winter Solstice has been celebrated for thousands of years as Yule.  And even if it’s only for a week, it’s lovely to hear people of all religions talk about peace on earth and goodwill to men.

The timing of the celebration of the birth of the Christ on December 25th likely comes from the pre-Christian Roman holiday Sol Invictus celebrating the invincible Sun and the patron saint of Rome and her soldiers which was established in 274 ce.  Christianity was established  as the official religion in Rome in the mid 300s.

Around this time of year people always ask about the astrological meaning of the Star of Bethlehem, and an MSNBC article presents a compelling case for the actual birthdate of Jesus based upon the astronomical Star of Bethlehem:
Historical records and modern-day computer simulations indicate that there was a rare series of planetary groupings, also known as conjunctions, during the years 3 B.C. and 2 B.C. [astronomical groupings, not zodiacal.]
The show started on the morning of June 12 in 3 B.C., when Venus could be sighted very close to Saturn in the eastern sky. Then there was a spectacular pairing of Venus and Jupiter on Aug. 12 in the constellation Leo, which ancient astrologers associated with the destiny […]
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By |2022-12-25T08:27:08-05:00December 25th, 2022|Holidays|1 Comment

The astrological roots of Rosh Hashanah

art by Karin Foreman

The correlations between astrology and religion has always fascinated me. Religion denigrates astrology as fortunetelling, but also utilizes it to date all important holidays.  A portion of this article was posted back in the mists of the history of this blog, but it is still fascinating to me.  Back in 2010 an article from Gahl Eden Sasson in Huffpost offered this fascinating connection between Rosh Hashanah and astrology:

According to rabbinical lore, Adam and  Eve, our primal parents, were created on Rosh Hashanah, which traditionally falls on the New Moon of the seventh month (see quote above). A closer look at the biblical text reveals that God did not only create Adam and Eve on the sixth day, but also gave birth to the concept of relationships. Friday, Veneris in Latin, named after Venus, is the day Adam and Eve were born. The fact we were created under the influence of a benevolent planet is a reassurance that we cannot be that bad after all.

Since the biblical and zodiac year begins in Aries, then Libra, the seventh sign is the month mentioned in Leviticus. Libra, ruled by Venus, is the sign of relationship, marriage and contracts. The fact that our common ancestors, Adam and Eve, were created on a New Moon in Libra is a great sign for all of our relationships. It means that embedded in our mythological “DNA” is the potential of having harmonious and balanced relationships. To this affect, at least according to Astrology and the Bible, we are innately good.

On Rosh Hashanah it is a custom to blow the Shofar, the ram’s horn. This ancient ritual is multi-layered and carries a great deal of symbolism. […]

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By |2021-09-03T07:58:31-04:00September 3rd, 2021|Holidays, Religion|6 Comments

Weekend update June 19, 2021: The Summer Solstice and Jupiter station

art by Laurel Burch

It’s been a quiet week astrologically, but this weekend we are making up for it.  Technically Jupiter has been stationary for the past week but it actually is at a standstill this weekend as it prepares to turn retrograde on Sunday.  You can catch up here for more on what that means, but with Jupiter’s influence extra strong right now everything may seem larger than life.

That also means that stationary Jupiter is a big presence in the chart of the Summer Solstice (or June Solstice for my friends down under).  The astrological Solstice occurs at the moment that the Sun enters the sign of Cancer, the cardinal sign of June. Each of the cardinal signs marks the turning of the seasons: from the Summer in Cancer we move into the Autumn of Libra, followed by the Winter of Capricorn and the Spring in Aries.

During the solstice the Sun appears to stand still as it beams its nourishing light across the northern Hemisphere.  The energy of the Sun feeds us and is crucial for our vitality, and the Summer Solstice offers a peak of creative potential.  The Sun is in Cancer, the sign of the Moon, and lunar feeds the soul and opens the heart.  That makes the June Solstice particularly potent and fertile.  This is the perfect time to nurture the seeds of our dreams and our sweetest imaginings.

The Solstice chart is a powerful one, with the Moon, the Solstice ruler, in intense Scorpio and squared by Mars, planet of aggressive energies.  Mars is the traditional ruler of Scorpio, so this linkage is even more profound and indicates a strong drive towards Truth and the satisfaction of our pure desires.  The […]

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By |2021-06-19T07:04:43-04:00June 19th, 2021|Holidays, Planetary news this week|0 Comments

Mother’s Day musings and thoughts about the Moon

mother's day Mother and Baby by Gustav Klimt

No wonder mothers have their own day – one could argue that they are the single biggest influence on our lives. A father can be absent at a birth, but never the mother! We spend nine months in the womb of our mothers, wrapped in her energy imprint and (some say) absorbing her experiences. She is the first human that we meet upon emergence from her womb, and if we are immediately taken away the longing of separation persists throughout our lives.

The astrological Moon represents our relationship with our mother, and sometimes describes the mother herself.  Each sibling in a family may have a completely different experience of the mother, and not understand why their siblings feel differently about the mother than they themselves do.  My own Moon conjoins Pluto, the planet of  and for much of my childhood I felt annhilated by and terrified of my mother.  We spent years without contact as I regained my footing after a difficult childhood.  My sister’s Moon is in Virgo, and she felt (and was) deeply criticized by our mother – a challenging relationship but different in its nature.

Any contact with Pluto shows a dynamic in one’s life that is exceedingly important, and despite long periods of separation I always felt attached to my mother and somewhat desperate to find some kind of resolution.  I’m happy to say that over the past ten years we have found that resolution and there has been a powerful transformation in our relationship with each other.  I tell this story to demonstrate that there is always hope for important relationships in our lives.

Often clients will come to me to better understand their children, and these […]

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By |2021-05-09T07:31:54-04:00May 9th, 2021|Holidays|2 Comments

Weekend update: 3.20.21. The meaning of the March Equinox

art by Sue Wookey

With the Sun entering the sign of Aries at 5:37 am, the season of Spring has officially begun in the northern hemisphere.  On this day, the light and dark have achieved equal status: day and night are in balance.  Aries is the first sign in the zodiac and as such it is the sign of initiation and the point of beginning.  There is a burst of energy at the Aries point: an unbridled explosion of pure potential and action, and this is the energy that we are experiencing when we talk about “Spring Fever.”

The return of the ascendancy of the light has been celebrated for millenia, and the pagan celebrations of old became the spring celebrations of our major religions.  The Jewish festival of Passover is timed to the first Full Moon after the spring Equinox (the Paschal Full Moon), and Easter is celebrated the first Sunday after the Full Moon.  The idea of resurrection and freedom are a thread that runs through all of the celebrations at the spring Equinox which is essentially a Northern hemisphere holiday (in the Southern hemisphere of course this is the first day of autumn).

Aries season is beginning to build, and on Sunday Venus enters Aries at 10:16 am at which point there will be four planets including Chiron and Ceres, Sun and Venus in Aries.  The fire is emerging to energize and fuel a new beginning, a resurrection from the dark and an opportunity to shed the old skins of winter and open up a new chapter in the story of our lives. ❤️


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