winter solstice

Planetary news this week: Jupiter enters Aries and the Capricorn Solstice

Astrological update for the week of December 19-26, 2022

There are two major transitions this week: The re-entry of Jupiter into Aries after its retrograde time in Pisces, and the entry of the Sun into Capricorn which marks the December solstice point which will be followed immediately by a Capricorn New Moon.

A time of change. We have been stuck in a myriad of global problems for the past several years – stuck under the Capricorn stellia (groupings of planets) with Saturn and Pluto, stuck in conflict under the Saturn/Uranus square. As I and many other astrologers have been reporting (see Part I here, Part II will be published in the next week), the energies over the next few years will be dramatic and marked by change and transition. A New Moon just after the solstice, a point at which the Sun literally stands still, is a dramatic symbol of the changes to come.

The Capricorn solstice. In the solar cycle we celebrate the shortest day as the return of the Sun and the beginning of the new year.  The culmination of the solar cycle is at the opposite solstice, with the quarter points of the equinoxes, when light and dark are in balance, are equivalent to the waxing and waning squares, similar to the waxing and waning squares of the lunar cycle.  Honoring both the solar and lunar cycles helps to keep us in touch with the cycles of nature even in today’s world in which we are so disconnected from the natural world.  These cycles of nature can serve as an alchemical process of personal transformation, just as we follow the cycles of the planets as they unfold to bring experiences of knowledge and wisdom […]

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By |2022-12-19T08:40:23-05:00December 19th, 2022|Planetary news this week|1 Comment
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Astrological update for the week of December 20, 2021: Solstice, Christmas and the Limits of Freedom

art by Phoebe Wahl

 

Here’s what’s happening in the skies this week:

Saturn square Uranus. The final-ish square between Saturn (limits) and Uranus (liberation) occurs this week.  I’ve been calling this planetary combination “the story of 2021” and indeed it has been, thanks to the spread of Covid-19 around the world which has brought with it some peculiar re-alignments of ideas of control and freedom. Totalitarian influences which usually fall more on the side of control of society are now calling for liberation from Covid restrictions.  Liberal influences which typically rebel against restrictions are calling for severe mandates and lockdowns.

I’m calling this the “final-ish” square because the two will return to a tight alignment in the summer and fall of 2022, although they will not come to an exact aspect after this week.  Will that bring a solution to the world’s problems?  I doubt it, because it seems to me that these problems are caused not by the planetary alignments but by the general dysfunction of human life on planet Earth and especially here in the United States.  But the intense conflict over control and freedom is likely to subside, although that may not be true in the US where the Pluto return in 2022-2024 will continue bring up the poisons to the surface where they can be transformed and released (ideally!).

Retrograde Venus conjunct Pluto.  The alignment of Venus with Pluto is a potent combination which began in early December, and the second phase occurs this week on December 25th (just in time for those family gatherings!).  This alignment is not easy and could expose power conflicts, but it also has the potential to create deep transformation in our self-esteem as well as our interpersonal connections. Venus […]

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By |2021-12-20T08:55:32-05:00December 20th, 2021|Planetary news this week|1 Comment
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12.21.20 Winter Solstice, and the astrological update for the week of December 21, 2020

There’s so much astrological news right now it’s difficult to pack it in, but I try. 😃  Winter Solstice, the conjunction of Jupiter to Saturn in Aquarius, etc. etc. etc.  Also, Mars squares Pluto this week one final time and we’ll need to watch out for power conflicts and excessive aggression.  Take out your boxing gloves!   Also, of course, a forecast for the week ahead to help you be prepared and there’s a Christmas cameo of puppies because clickbait!  Transcript is below.

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Transcript (transcribed by electronic data points and roughly edited by me, please excuse errors)

Hey everybody, my name is Lynn Hayes. Welcome back to my channel. In today’s video, we’re going to be talking about the astrology for the week of December 21 in the year 2020. And what a year it has been!  This week is packed with astrological Juju so let’s get right into it.

The first thing I want to talk about is the Winter Solstice, which is of course on December 21 and astrologically. The Winter Solstice occurs when the Sun enters the sign of Capricorn in the southern hemisphere. For my friends in Australia and New Zealand. It’s actually not the Winter Solstice, and we call it the December Solstice for those people, but for those of us in the north, it’s the Winter Solstice, it’s gotten dark. At the Winter Solstice, the Sun appears to stand still up for three days before it starts moving through […]

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By |2020-12-21T06:50:50-05:00December 21st, 2020|Planetary cycles|4 Comments
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Sunday poetry for the Winter Solstice

Photo by Matt Champlin

Long dark mornings gradually awaken to frost covered landscapes
Green fields now hardened rock, trees with their cast iron fingers pointing
Accusingly at grey overcasts skies, clouds pregnant with water to fall as snow
Lights from house lined streets their a golden glow cascading before them.
A damp dark day filled with a monotonous languor that drags from morning to dusk.
The High Street fills with Christmas shoppers, Christmas lights garnishing a tree
Blinking red, gold, silver baubles, flickering lights beckon children pointing, tugging
At their mother’s hand.

Dusk filled streets with houses adorned with Christmas decorations on the outside
With brightly lit trees flashing their charm in front windows bordered with tinsel.
Gently falling snow crunches underfoot in the quite of a solstice evening, only the
Echo of carols sung outside nearby houses break the silence. The silence of the
Shortest night of the year where the earth takes its rest before it slowly, ponderously,
Starts to brighten our lives. This rest as the earth ends one year and before the start
Of fresh hopes for the coming new year. A new year of opportunity, of hope.
The winter solstice, a time to reflect on what was and what may be.

—poem by David Wood

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By |2019-12-22T08:01:01-05:00December 22nd, 2019|Inspiration|6 Comments
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The meaning of the Winter Solstice

art by Wendy Andrews

For millenia, the December solstice has been celebrated in the northern hemisphere as the time of the return of the Sun. Called Yule in the Celtic lands and Shab-e-Yalda by Persians, among others, the return of the Sun was worshiped as a god -in the Celtic lands the Oak King was the resurrected god, and in Persia it was Yalda, or Mithras.  In Rome the celebrations of Saturnalia and Sol Invictus was celebrated on December 25th, and while only the Sol Invictus was connected to the Sun god, it’s clear that these celebrations honored the return of the Sun.  In fact the word “solstice” comes from the Latin word for Sun (sol) and sistere (to stand still) – at the Solstice the apparent motion of the Sun literally stands still and then, out of darkness, new light is born.  At the Winter Solstice, the Sun emerges victorious over darkness.

The solstices celebrate the waxing and waning of the year – just as in the lunar cycle we celebrate the New and Full Moons, in the solar cycle we celebrate the shortest day as the return of the Sun and the beginning of the new year.  The culmination of the solar cycle is at the opposite solstice, with the quarter points of the equinoxes, when light and dark are in balance, are equivalent to the waxing and waning squares, similar to the waxing and waning squares of the lunar cycle.  Honoring both the solar and lunar cycles helps to keep us in touch with the cycles of nature even in today’s world in which we are […]
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