Happy Solstice everyone!
Doesn't it feel better to call the Winter Solstice the longest night rather than the shortest day?
The shortest day sounds like we are
missing out on something. The longest night sounds like we can lie in bed
and finish our book and still get a good night's sleep.
This is the perfect time during the busy holiday season to take stock of where we are, what we have, what we've done and where we are going. In the northern hemisphere we move into the challenging season of winter. And with Pluto still in Capricorn, since 2008, this is the space of our collective humbling. This is also the time of the season, maybe especially when things are not quite as we wish they were, when melancholy can set in. It is a good idea to check in with other people. See if they need anything we have to give. People are needing more than presents wrapped in big red bows this year.
In Capricorn, the Sun gets serious. We are heading into the
serious time of year - the time our ancestors could starve if they
hadn't stocked up properly or catch a cold that would turn into
pneumonia. They would celebrate the Winter Solstice and go into hibernation for a few weeks (exhausted from the harvest, escaping the cold and, intuitively, the germs and bacteria, too, I'm sure),
venturing back out sometime mid-Aquarius season for some social
interaction and hoping to trade whatever they still had plenty of to
restock whatever had grown scarce.
This is true for us today, too. Without structure, responsibility and
discipline - mandated by Capricorn's ruling planet Saturn - we'll be in
trouble when the cold settles in and the stuff we need to survive is
covered with two feet of snow and ice.
So Capricorn is a serious sign because it rules very serious things. Capricorn rules our collective 10th house of career, reputation, ambition, hard work, the pinnacle, fathers, patriarchal story-lines, safety, security, tradition, history, our structure, what we need to get us through the winter.
Saturn isn't about rushing and neither is Capricorn. Usually we can catch our breath, take stock of where we are and what we have (probably more than we think we do) before starting this new chapter.
With this particular Solstice though, as the Sun moves into Capricorn he moves into a square with Jupiter in Aries.
Jupiter in Aries is anything BUT patient.
This square can really help us. The square to Saturn will benefit Jupiter since he will want to go, go, go and he is answering to a retrograde Mars who is about to be answering to a retrograde Mercury, so he (as we) needs to be smart about this whole go, go, go thing. On the other hand Saturn can sometimes use a little or a BIG PUSH. So, Jupiter is pushing solid/practical Saturn to get moving/start and Saturn is giving Jupiter some limits/reality checks. They both benefit, which, of course, means we do. The takeaway from this energy is to get moving (don't allow the retrogrades and Saturn to stop you in your tracks), but, also, don't over-do anything, over-promise/exaggerate and don't allow yourself to be rushed. Keep in mind Mercury is going to station retrograde in Capricorn next week, so we are going to be going back and forth over our natal Cappy house themes and collectively our careers, reputations, goals and ambitions. This is good news because it gives us extra time to get things RIGHT before the real green lights start flashing in the middle of January.
With Jupiter freshly into Aries and the Sun freshly into Capricorn, both planets are tied to each other at the start of their new cycles. Jupiter's good luck/expansion is linked to Saturn's hard work and responsibility. And Saturn's achievements are linked to Jupiter's ability to TAKE A RISK. Have faith/confidence. Know what the hell he is talking about.
I think this Capricorn plus the retrograde hold-up with Jupiter in Aries will help us prepare (buy us some time) for 2023 when so many things will be changing and we are really going to start feeling Uranus in Taurus again. Uranus has been held at bay the last two years through his ongoing squares to Saturn, but once Saturn gets into Pisces in March that all ends and Uranus will just get stronger and stronger until he is really feeling his oats (when Mercury goes into Capricorn, my natal placement, I REALLY start talking like your grandma, do you notice?) when Jupiter joins Uranus in Taurus in late spring.
This is the perfect time to be STOPPING bad habits, making long-term plans, getting our ducks in a row. The ruler of Capricorn, Saturn, is in Aquarius. This is all about clearing old group trauma/moving into a better relationship with the collective. We need other people. They need us. Aquarius is where we bring our individual selves to the group. How can we remain true to ourselves and also be part of something larger? How are we contributing to society? We are planting the seeds for our future self right now, so what's going into that cold ground? It needs to be hardy to survive until spring. The upcoming New Moon in Capricorn is about finding a more modest way to move through our remaining time on this planet.
It's not about building big things, so much as it is about building the right things.
Like my 5 year old nephew Joel's "Boys Rock" house.
"It's a moving house that moves around with people in it playing music in different boxes" ... Joel
"Are those musical notes outside? It must be loud" ... his dad (the musician/music teacher)
"No ... no. It's a satellite. It pushes the music to the people all over as it moves." ... Joel
The first time Jupiter went into Aries last May, he moved right into a square with Black Moon Lilith in Cancer (here is a post about that HERE and HERE) - the womb wound/the mother wound/the woman who chooses herself. The energy we carry of that time we were tossed from the plush garden/shamed for wanting something we are perfectly entitled to want. We were right in the middle of the Johnny Depp trial. You might remember both Johnny Depp and Amber Heard (born 23 years apart) have their natal Venus at 26 degrees Taurus, the space of fixed star Algol (they fell head over heels in love and then chopped each other's heads off). Here in the United States we had all the Roe vs. Wade stuff going on as Jupiter squared BML. This was around the time of the Cancer New Moon and now we are at the opposite time of year. We were working through the home/family/mother stuff through the summer and now we move into the world/work/father stuff.
As Jupiter returns to Aries (after his retrograde in Pisces) this week, he is also moving right into an opposition with Ceres in Libra. Poor Jupiter in Aries, can't catch a break, with these feminine archetypes. We will talk about this in the New Moon post next, but we can expect alot to be going on within our relationships. This is a kind of run-up to the South Node's entry into Libra in 2023.
Going to keep this post short and sweet (although it looks like it isn't) since I don't want to be repeating myself in the New Moon in Capricorn post and I am about to be. The New Moon is joined with asteroid Hygiea and the Sun joins her now. With Chiron about to station direct, Capricorn season (which lasts longer than the Sun's time in Cappy) seems to speak of our need for healing and self/collective care (as well as, I suppose, what is going on with flus/viruses, etc).
The Moon hasn't caught up with the Sun quite yet. Today the Moon moves into Sagittarius. This should feel better - at least until this evening when the Moon squares Mars and starts looking for trouble/an argument, watch your words! Shopping tonight, parking in crowded lots, can be aggravating - just sayin' - especially if you, like me, were feeling that Moon/Saturn square yesterday afternoon that took us back to the tense Eclipse energies. Keep in mind the days before the New Moon are the days of the Balsamic Moon, a time to rest/re-coup, so probably the less we have to do now the better we will be feeling.
Keep in mind also Mercury's retrograde station next week.
Besides the Cappy/career/goal stuff we will all be re-visiting/re-vising we can help to alleviate some retrograde madness by choosing to consciously release a bit of the Mercury shadow stuff we are carrying in our own lives that needs to go.
We might want to do some releasing on anything we are ruminating about with a Mercury angle to it - the wrong word we said at the wrong time. The conversation we didn't have. The email we didn't send or the one we did and wish we hadn't. The idea that didn't work out. The research we didn't do. The thought that stopped us in our tracks and so we quit or the thought that kept us going when we should have quit. The sibling crap. The lemon or 'beyond our pocketbook' car we bought when we knew better. The times we were less than neighborly. If we can somehow - between present buying, wrapping and gifting - toss our thinking/ruminating/self-judgements and recriminations about this stuff into the trash bin with those tiny bits of wrapping paper and balls of twisted tape we wrapped around our fingers instead of the packages, we would be much better off over the next couple weeks ...
When we personally let go of shadow Mercury the collective Mercury
shadow has less to work with/release during Mercury's more intense periods like next week..
Drive carefully and with a cool head.
xo all - back with the New Moon in Capricorn post
photo by the amazing Amanda-Diaz
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