It was jammed in the ice, but I saw in a thrice, it was called the Alice May.
It’s something of a Christmas tradition at Planet Waves for me to read this poem — The Cremation of Sam McGee by Robert W. Service (1878-1958). Here is a new reading, done a few minutes ago — my warmup to the the next-to-last audio reading in Cosmophilia.
Looking back at 2014 might tempt you to live in a geodesic dome, forever banning 90-degree angles from your life. It was a year when Jupiter, Mars, Venus, Mercury, the Sun and the Moon took turns elaborating on the backbone of Uranus and Pluto — in a functionally continuous square aspect with a legion of periodic T-squares and one exceptionally long-lived grand cardinal cross.
Whew! It was enough to make you cut corners. So you must not be cross. Indeed you must be amused, and amazed at the fact that the last major lunar aspect of 2014 will be a first quarter Moon.
Not just any first quarter Moon, mind you. At 1:31 pm EST (18:31 UT) Sunday, the Moon in early Aries will have opened a separation of 90 degrees from the Sun in early Capricorn just one week after a profound solstice and New Moon conjunction of the luminaries all rolled up in one.
In other words, the last lunar first quarter of the year will be an opening square from cardinal signs — the template through which all other opening cardinal squares (including Uranus and Pluto now) are interpreted.
It’s not like opening square aspects are bad. They augur and argue for good — the good that comes of strength, growth, evolution and life’s way of finding a way.
It’s just that variety is the spice of life. It’s been rumored (although not conclusively proven) that even great sex gets old after a long period of unrelenting abundance.
Yet, if Sunday’s last quarter Moon indicates anything, it implies that we are not done yet in any sense of the word.
We are not done with square aspects, whether major and rare or minor and frequent. You are not done getting stronger. We are not done growing. Our kind is not done evolving, and life on Earth is not done finding a way to keep on keeping on.
Looking at it that way, you might not want to cut corners after all, as we all turn a corner together after Christmas, and before New Year’s Day 2015 — along with the luminaries, Sun and Moon.
Offered In Service
Len is available for astrology readings. You can contact him at lenwallick [at] gmail [dot] com.
What if everything in your life, all the improvements you want to make and every issue you’ve identified, hung in the balance on the food that you eat? Any nutritionist would tell you this is true every day of your life, but your astrology says it’s something to consider now. Whether you’re considering how to advance your professional goals or your emotional state (which are related), or how to make your relationship a better place, think food. More to the point, think differently than the food your parents taught you to eat. They didn’t know everything, and a lot has changed since you were a kid. You’re older and you can’t live on your old diet of ramen and ghetto pasta. You need actual flavor and nourishment.
The Daily Oracle offers a horoscope selected randomly by our Intelligent Archive Oracle program, unique to Planet Waves. It’s also a database of my horoscopes going back to the late 1990s. You can use the Intelligent Archive Oracle to answer questions and give you ideas for how to handle problems and situations you cannot see through. This feature is available to our All Access and Core Community members. See this link for more information.
Note — I’ve taken the password off of the December extended monthly forecast, which is part year-end, part year-ahead, part current moment. –efc
The other day I had my dad on the phone. We were talking about media theory, one of my favorite subjects (which I happened to be writing about that day, and needed help). It’s a topic that he’s somewhat versed in, as a communications professor. At one point he was poking fun at me for being totally oblivious to the holiday season.
Store decoration on corner of Wall and John, Christmas Eve, Kingston, NY. Casey points out that the five-pointed star is often displayed in its ‘satanic’ rather than ‘pagan’ position.
He’s correct, in that I’ve made it my business to participate as little as possible in the cultural rituals that surround the winter holidays.
They used to be just dismal for me, particularly as an adult. I would experience actual depression at the annual onset of Christmas — a feeling I could not control or even seem to influence, which was scary.
You know, that feeling of carols playing over the Muzak channel in supermarkets, decorations going up, and all these things that people would do that seemed to make them happy, but to which I could not relate. Everyone driving around with a chopped-down tree lashed to the roof of their car, rushing home.
At least my dad and I can kid about it, and at least he doesn’t take it personally. He knows I’m involved in a project every year at this time, one that (perhaps conveniently) precludes most direct participation — such as traveling. As for buying gifts, I prefer to do that at other times of the year, and I prefer that it be random, rather than associated with specific events.
Lately I’m not as mortified by the holiday season as I used to be. This is a huge improvement in my life. I even look forward to the holidays, so I can assure you that there’s sincere hope for getting over even the worst issues you might have with this time of year.
Mars stationing retrograde in your birth sign is a personal message, which is that the time has come to rise above your insecurities. But to do that, you need to know what they are, and that requires some unusual honesty. You need to know what you’re afraid of, and to some extent, why. Remembering the past is part of the process, but it needs to be the aspects of the past that you have, so far, overlooked, and that perspective is available. My friend Paloma Todd summed it up beautifully in an email this morning when she said that we have to go beyond our survival needs. Most of what hangs us up in life is some form of a struggle over survival, and most of it is old and getting older. It is time to discover something new. Here is the question: if your most basic survival needs were met, what would you do?
The Daily Oracle offers a horoscope selected randomly by our Intelligent Archive Oracle program, unique to Planet Waves. It’s also a database of my horoscopes going back to the late 1990s. You can use the Intelligent Archive Oracle to answer questions and give you ideas for how to handle problems and situations you cannot see through. This feature is available to our All Access and Core Community members. See this link for more information.
Dear Friend and Reader:
With the Capricorn solstice behind us, the days in the Northern Hemisphere begin getting longer (if imperceptibly so), while in the southern half of the world they begin shortening. Only about a week is left in 2014, and Eric is making great progress with your 2015 annual readings, called Cosmophilia: You Belong Here.
Christmas Trout invites you to slip into the astrological flow. Photo by Amanda Painter.
To facilitate the creation of your 2015 annual readings, there will be no subscriber issue this Thursday. The next issue will publish Jan. 1, with your first extended monthly horoscopes of the year.
On the Planet Waves website, we have several offerings to help you reflect on your past year, note the progress you have made despite (or even because of) any challenges, and then look ahead to the year to come. After all, Saturn enters Sagittarius today at 11:34 am EST (16:34 UT) — and Saturn in Sagittarius loosely translates to “get serious about your goals.”
Wondering what the declaration of renewed U.S.-Cuban relations means for your sign? Madame Zolonga has put together a “bad advice” horoscope on how to deal with your own personal “cold wars” at your holiday gatherings.
Sarah Taylor’s tarot reading for the week shows what it has taken to come this far; the presence of teamwork toward a common goal; and the breaking free from karmic chains with a new kind of energy.
Amanda Moreno reflects on the instinct she’d had at the beginning of this month to be introspective, and invites readers to join her in consciously integrating the experiences of 2014.
Judith Gayle turns her attention to the recent spike in international news, and reminds readers that if we give the day to love, there can be no fear in it — and we can find the expanding joy in these last days of 2014.
This week’s sex-and-relationships guest-writer, Andie Nordgren of Sweden, offers a short, straightforward “instructional manifesto” for relationship anarchy, full of ideas that can be applied to any conscious, intimate relationship model.
As always, you can find Len Wallick’s latest column on Planet Waves at about noon EST today. He looks at the “Astrology of the Night Before Christmas,” with a special focus on Saturn in Sagittarius.
Wishing you peace and joy this season,
Amanda Painter
P.S. Eric is planning to post the recording of Sunday’s All-Community Meeting either later today or tomorrow for those who were not able to attend the live event on the solstice.
Planet Waves (ISSN 1933-9135) is published each Tuesday morning and Thursday afternoon in Kingston, New York by Planet Waves, Inc. Annual basic subscription rate: $97/year. Core community membership: $197/year. Editor and Publisher: Eric Francis Coppolino. Business Manager: Chelsea Bottinelli. Web Developer: Anatoly Ryzhenko. Astrology Editor: Amanda Painter. Copy Editor: Jessica Keet. Research, Writing and Editing: Planet Waves is produced by a team consisting of Fe Bongolan, Brendan Merritt, Amy Elliott, Judith Gayle, Kelly Janes, Amanda Moreno, Casey Smith, Carol van Strum, Len Wallick, Lizanne Webb and Chad Woodward.
On the night before Christmas, for most of us here, the astrology of 2015 will begin to appear. It seems appropriate timing to invoke “Twas The Night Before Christmas” today, and not just because the famous poem was first published on this day in 1823.
The night before Christmas this year also will be delivering inklings of astrology yet to come. It begins with Saturn leaving Scorpio today for the first time since Oct. 5, 2012, with the first of two ingresses to Sagittarius.
After checking it twice, you will note Saturn’s transition to Sagittarius is the first item on Eric’s list of the top five astrological events for 2015, and justly so. If anything feels different about tomorrow’s legendary night, it’s likely to correspond somehow with Saturn in a new sign.
The second item on Eric’s Christmas list for you next year (which begins the final separation of Uranus and Pluto from a long continuum of square aspects) will be strongly represented in tomorrow night’s astrology as well, thanks to Mercury.
While many of you will be snuggled up in your Christmas Eve beds, Mercury will be making its appointed rounds through Capricorn. Beginning with a square aspect to Uranus in Aries at 8:31 pm EST (1:31 UT Christmas morning), followed by a conjunction with Pluto a little more than five hours later, Mercury will be making like Santa by appearing to cover great distances in a short time.
By the time Mercury returns to Capricorn next December, the last exact square from Uranus in Aries to Pluto in Capricorn will be long gone (it takes place March 16, 2015). At this time next year, Mercury’s trip from a conjunction with Pluto to a square with Uranus (which will still be in Aries) will take more than a day.
Also tomorrow night, distant Chiron will be within three degrees of the first of three Pisces conjunctions with even more distant Borasisi. That’s the third item on Eric’s list, which will be exact for the first time concurrent with next year’s Vernal equinox on March 21.
No matter which astrologer you ask, a separation of less than three degrees while applying to a major aspect (however slowly) is nearly as good as made by elves.
What Saturn’s years to come in Sagittarius, the eventual separation of Uranus and Pluto from their square aspect, and the slowly developing conjunction of Chiron with Borasisi all have in common is that we will receive anticipations of them in tomorrow night’s astrology.
In other words, if you awaken on Christmas morning with some sense of having been presented with a glimmer of the near future, don’t thank some white-collar guy in a red suit. Thank what appear to be the heavens, which are actually your home, your place of origin.
For the skies are not separate from Earth. All of us are a fully-fledged part of all that appears above. Perhaps simply knowing that all of us are children of the Universe is the greatest gift of all. And just think, it’s available to everybody on Earth. All you have to do is receive it.
Offered In Service
Len is available for astrology readings. You can contact him at lenwallick [at] gmail [dot] com.
Dear Friend and Reader:
In this world, having good information is a way of feeling like you belong somewhere. Relevant knowledge, when you need it, makes life easier. And someone offering you good information reminds you that they care enough to provide you with a hint, an idea, or when called for, a word of caution. Even better, a word of encouragement.
One thing that’s clear about our lives today is that we are responsible for knowing so much — even as the world gets less predictable, and information is relevant for less time. Our moment of history is the perfect time and place for astrology, which can embrace so much of who you are, and even help you see around the bend.
The Planet Waves annual edition, now in its 16th year, is a beautiful tradition of offering sound astrological guidance. I’ve been creating the Planet Waves annual since before most people had Internet access.
Year after year, I’ve conducted impeccable research on the coming four seasons. Then I’ve prepared readings designed to provide you with the ideas, guidance and encouragement to make the most out of your precious time and energy.
One thing you get with your Planet Waves annual reading is the benefit of experience. Lots and lots of experience, which is the result of astrology practiced every single day, year upon year.
In each annual edition, I cover the 12 Sun signs and rising signs in both audio and written format. The spoken word and the written word work differently in the brain, and I want to use both approaches.