Today at 11:48 pm EST (4:48 UTC Tuesday), the Sun enters Capricorn for the solstice. The shortest day and longest night of the year here in the Northern Hemisphere; after this, the days begin getting longer — though it takes a while for the effect to be noticeable.

This year’s addition to my Christmas tree, courtesy of Planet Waves; photo by Amanda Painter.

This year, these longest nights are graced with a waxing Moon that will reach its Full phase at 6:11 am EST (11:11 UTC) Dec. 25 — Christmas Day. It’s not the same thing as having a couple more of hours of daylight, but as a metaphor, it’s encouraging: the Moon in watery Cancer reflecting the Sun in earthy Capricorn. Along with the flow, there is grounding.

I’ll have more to say about the Full Moon chart in Thursday’s blog post. For now, keep a finger on the pulse of your emotions and anything that feels like it could become a bone of contention or polarization.

If you celebrate Christmas and are navigating family traditions (with the attendant expectations, warm nostalgia, difficult baggage and new curveballs), keep the Full Moon in mind. Emotional energy is peaking all this week, layered on top of the practical demands on your time, attention and resources.

Speaking of emotions and stress: this time of year it can seem as though everyone is too busy and wrapped up in familial and social obligations to stop and notice when others are truly struggling; the holidays can be a brutal time of year for many people. If you’re doing okay, I’d encourage you to stay tuned to subtle clues from those you interact with that everything is not all right; a little authentic empathy can go a long way.

Continue reading →

By Sarah Taylor

What’s the best way to deal with actually getting what you wish for, for a change?

This is the focal point of this week’s reading: being able to ask for what you want — whether to someone else, or as an inward prayer — and having a good chance of getting it.

Knight of Disks, Strength, Nine of Cups from The Röhrig Tarot deck, created by Carl-W. Röhrig. Click on the image for a larger version.

The first thing that came to me when I turned all three cards over was their beauty. Can you see it too?

The colours made my heart want to sing out loud: they are warm, light, and entirely in sync across the spread. Then, I looked at the composition of each of the cards, and they, too, are complementary. In fact, the correspondences between the Knight (King) of Disks and the Nine of Cups is, to quote my initial response, (and excuse the language of spontaneous wonder) “Fuckn AWESOME!” I don’t think I’ve been hit by the lyricism of a reading like this for a long time.

And this, too, is key to the reading. It’s the subtle, but significant, heads-up that lies behind the transcendent imagery.

Let’s explore the Knight of Disks and the Nine of Cups first. The Knight of Disks is described elementally as the fiery aspect of earth. He is the masculine ruler of the realm of all things material — the physical world. He is, in this deck, the “Healer”: the word inscribed on the golden circlet of his headdress, which stretches up and past the top of the card. The Knight is known for his groundedness. Look at his eyes, his gaze: centred, calm. It looks like he has reached a state where he is able to maintain the kind of inner equilibrium that enables him to get things done — to get down to the business of extending that equilibrium to others in order that they might heal.

The Knight is an active element of your psyche, whether you are aware of him or not, whether you choose to work with him consciously, or not.

But then there on the other side is the Nine of Cups. This is popularly known as the ‘wish card’. Could this idea be any better-illustrated than in this deck? I think not. And like the Knight, the Nine of Cups is active, too, whether you’re aware of it or not.

Both are active. Look how they’re working together: they are essentially mirroring each other while each staying true to their individual feel and meaning. The Knight’s beard is reflected in the feathered striations in the Nine; the Knight’s headdress — sand, coins, and keys — is duplicated in the hearts, cups, and tiles of the Nine; the “Ritter der Scheibe” to the Knight’s left becomes “Love, deep joy, happiness” in the Nine. The Knight’s face is a dream-like swirl that feels otherworldly in the Nine. Fantastical. So unlike the Knight who lives and walks very much on the firm ground of this world.

Here is the call for balance — but this balance is between two potential ideals rather than one that’s typically considered preferable and another that you would typically want to avoid.

It may seem, then, that you wouldn’t need to tread as carefully. Yet I think that would be an underestimation of the reading — and, paradoxically, the power of your position in all of this.

Think of it this way. You are in a position to get what you want. But is it really want you want? Is it really what you need? These are two questions worth asking. It may be that the magic at your disposal is just that: ‘disposable’. It may be that you are working with finite resources here; except, unlike the fairy tales, you may not even get three wishes. It could be that it is one wish, spoken from your gut, that is available to you.

If you slip over into the territory of the Nine, your flight of fancy could be as nourishing as candy-floss. If you stay wholly with the Knight of Disks, your conservatism may cause you to ask for only what you believe you deserve — which may not be very much.

This is walking the line between two extremes of staunch, staid pragmatism on one side, and frivolousness or delusion on the other. The Nine could have you asking for too much chocolate cake. So let the Knight of Disks ground you somewhat, so your wish serves you in a way that is enduring — and, yes, healing. (Just remember: not all medicine needs to taste bad.)

The result is the central card, Strength: the ability to experience the kind of freedom you may have thought was beyond you, while still having boundaries that enable you to explore that freedom without losing yourself, or having to give yourself up to ideals and demands that don’t serve you in the least.

Boundaries allow you to explore heretofore inaccessible lands.

Use that wish wisely. You have every right, and ability, to do so.

Astrology/Elemental correspondences: Knight of Disks (the fiery aspect of earth), Strength (Leo), Nine of Cups (Jupiter in Pisces)

If you want to experiment with tarot cards and don’t have any, we provide a free tarot spread generator using the Celtic Wings spread, which is based on the traditional Celtic Cross spread. This article explains how to use the spread.

Vision Quest, Planet Waves’ 2016 annual edition, is fast approaching publication. Pre-order all 12 signs at a great value or choose your individual signs.

By Judith Gayle | Political Waves

It’s the holiday season, which — in case you missed the obvious — has become something of a corporate wet dream, a marketing franchise beginning mid-September and ending mid-March, when the presidential white sales have petered out. ​It’s an emotional roller coaster of frenetic frivolity and family anxiety, of pressure to pick just the right gift for the beloved(s), which you may well have purchased on-line in the consumption glut of Black Friday and the cyber-hype that followed. It’s the season when government comes to a halt so that politicians can go home and have cozy photo ops with family, glad-hand a few constituents and count up the booty of lobbying perks with an eye to tax returns.

As something of an addendum, it’s also the season when two out of the three Abrahamic religions — Christian and Jewish  — celebrate essential traditions. The third, Islam, did NOT arbitrarily decide to celebrate the Prophet’s birth on Christmas Eve just to goad the infidels, by the way. It won’t matter that Snopes explains this “other culture” incident rationally. It’s another of those silly stories trumped up (pun, no pun) by haters to sell the War on Christmas meme, perpetrated not just by the secular gawdless liberals, but — now that just about every outing has become a security risk — by the demonic jihadists as well.

Those with some skills at nuanced thought might note that the Prophet’s birthday celebration takes place on the 12th or 17th day of the Islamic month of Rabi’ al-awwal each year, the timing of which has nothing to do with the Gregorian calendar. I am reminded, once again, that those who go looking for trouble always find it, especially when they don’t know what the hell they’re talking about.

But despite all the nonsense spewed by those who clutch the legend of the Christ child in an inflexible fist while ignoring the spiritual teaching that came after (much as they raise Cain to protect an unborn zygote while refusing to fund the feeding or education of those born), I’m taking the season lightly this year. Whatever is fun or amusing has my attention.

Laughter is the language of the angels, and I’m confident that we need to speak more of it. Like most everything else, taking things lightly is a choice, a muscle that needs exercise. We can make that happen if we will. In that vein, there’s a smile or two, perhaps a snort or hoot, to follow.

Here’s a YouTube called “Let’s All Get Elfed,” by the Holderness family, who have been having this kind of Christmas fun since 2013. If you appreciate their unabashed joy and want more, watch their Thanksgiving offering. All highly festive and toe-tapping, and if children’s giggles don’t lighten you up, you’re too far gone to continue reading.

Singer and songwriter Macy Gray released a holiday song this year, a catchy little anti-Trump offering titled “All I Want For Christmas.” I give her lyrics a hearty thumbs up,

Here’s a really cute clip that’s both a holiday advertisement for Britain’s Sainsburys retailers and an announcement of a children’s book featuring a resurrected and beloved kitty named Mog, the proceeds of which will go to the charity Save the Children. That’s the kind of collaboration between capitalism and private concerns we can all approve. Note that it’s a win/win, which is the model that will prove most effective in taming the beast of rampant capitalism.

Like Macy’s and Gimble’s putting aside their competition in “Miracle on 34th Street,” good will has a powerful signature. Here’s a clip — the lesson apparent and the cynicism biting — from a 1955 made-for-tv remake, and to indulge in a celebration of Maureen O’Hara who transitioned this year, along with the sweet face of an iconic Natalie Wood, a bit of the 1947 movie to warm your cockles.

This brings up my other aim this season, which is to give my attention to whatever’s moving and heartfelt.

Last year I posted a YouTube from Pentatonix, who rode the “Glee” zeitgeist into fame. They’ve been on a number of musical programs this year, and sang for the tree-lighting in Rockefeller Center. My favorite song of theirs — and surely favorite lyrics — is the same as last year, so here it is again: “Mary, Did You Know?”

And here’s another group that hits all the right Christmas chords, a group called Home Free, just making a name for themselves. This video of “I’ll Be Home For Christmas” is poignant and moving — prepare to smile or even laugh, swallow the lump in your throat or tear up. Either or both is a perfect response.

The Earth religions have a stake in this season, of course. Winter solstice is upon us, and it couldn’t come too soon, in my opinion. I’m already anxious for the return of light, the days gradually growing longer and the countdown for spring’s return begun. Global warming (yes, it’s a thing, PC or not) and the gathering energy of an unprecedented El Niño have already provided us challenges, worsened by the conservatives’ insistence that since it’s cold in some spots, climate change is a hoax. If anything proves the conservative lack of ability to contextualize nuance, there’s the whole enchilada. I’m determined to be more patient with the process than the politics, though. There’s a fledgling snow-pack in California, and that’s very good news in the drought-stricken state of my birth.

And solstice has its own magic, doesn’t it? It’s said that Jesus — presuming him a historical figure and not just a compilation of itinerant rabbinical activists during the Roman colonization of the Mideast — wasn’t actually born on December 25th. In fact, charting the astrology of the times, it appears that the Star of Bethlehem may well have been an alignment of Saturn and Jupiter in 7 BC. The first conjunction of those big Titans occurred in April, the next in October and the last in December, producing impressive light shows. Perhaps one of them blazed the light that the Magi charted into Bethlehem. Who knows? The details of those events are lost to antiquity, but the cookie crumbs of intuition are there to follow.

The return of natural light might have been conveniently associated with the awareness of Light, as revealed in the advent of Christedness. We had need of the realization of the sacred in every day life in counterpoint to all that was profane in the 3rd dimension — we still do. The birth of a Messiah can be interpreted as a political statement, as was supposed of Judas who favored rebellion against Rome, or something even more alchemical in nature. Something like Light, that dawns on us, that illuminates our own divinity, that lightens our burden of Illusion, that banishes the darkness of our unevolvement. Light that transcends the Illusion.

Yes, the church fathers, perhaps selecting a date that aligned with the temperament and traditions of the people, couldn’t have picked a better date than December 25th to bring forth an Avatar, just as the effects of Solstice are making themselves felt and the Pagan celebrations of Yule are completing. Timing is everything, they say. And the remembrance of our own innate Christed energy, a glimmer in the darkness of our sleeping consciousness, would certainly feel at home at a time of celebration so ancient that it’s built into the DNA of every living thing.

A question, my dears. With those long centuries behind us, are we ready now to shine?

There are days ahead to contemplate what Christmas will bring us this year. There will surely be shopping days and working days and festive days and more, but the spark that shone in the night, once upon a time, is still shining for us to notice. As Clarissa Pinkola Estes wrote (quoted by our Amanda Painter), “The light of the soul throws sparks. …” The brightest, most joyful Christmas memory in our consciousness was shining with that Light when it imprinted itself; not yesterday’s business, but today’s.

The reason for the season, as they say, is not the worship of transcendence — wherever we think to find it outside of ourselves — but the realization of it within our capacity to love and forgive and offer at-one-ment to one another. We are star-shine, pretending at less. We are Light-filled, still afraid of our power, yet as Marianne Williamson has said, this is no time to play small. So shine through the darkness this season, and shine through the silly stuff and shine for those who are eager for the Light. It’s what we’re made of, it’s what we brought here with us and it’s what we came to do. Listen! Can you hear the laughter?

Blessed, fun-loving, heart-felt and Light-filled holiday to us all!

All that you touch, all that you see, all that you taste, all you feel. All that you love, all that you hate, all you distrust, all you save. All that you give, all that you deal, all that you buy, beg borrow or steal. All you create, all you destroy, all that you do, all that you say. All that you eat, and everyone you meet, all that you slight and everyone you fight. All that is now, all that is gone, all that’s to come, and everything under the Sun…

— Roger Waters and Pink Floyd

So far as we know for certain at this time in our history, we are the only people anywhere. So far as we know, all of us are gathered together on only one planet in all of the Universe.

Someday we may know differently, but that’s what we know for certain now.

We are all children of the Earth. You are among us. We, all of us, resemble the Earth just as children resemble their biological parents.

One of the things that characterizes life on Earth is its seasons. One of the things that distinguishes astrology as it is practiced here at Planet Waves is that it is synchronized with the seasons.

You experience the seasons as a cycle. That cycle oscillates between two extremes, with two points of equilibrium in between. Hence the seasons are four: two seasons begin at the extremes, and the other two begin at the points of equilibrium.

The season initiating either late Monday or early Tuesday (depending on your time zone) is synchronized to begin at the precise moment the Sun enters Capricorn. That moment represents one of the two extremes on the seasonal cycle.

Regardless of what time it is wherever you are, the extreme known as the Capricorn solstice will take place at the same moment for all of us. It will be a reminder that we are all in this, whatever it is, together.

To the extent that your life and all of us together are synchronized with the seasons, the events of your life should (and often do) reflect them. In the case of the season about to begin, we might earnestly hope so. Everywhere you look, things have gone about as far as they can in one direction.

When the Sun enters Capricorn next week, it will implicitly be time to come back from extremes and move in the direction of balance once again. If you will simply do what you can to be in tune with that motion, you will be participating in synchrony with the world. You will be doing your part to turn the cycle around, implicitly turning the world around, to keep things going.

What form your participation takes will be yours to choose.

That’s all we know for certain, but that alone is pretty darn special, and so are you.

Offered In Service    

  
Anyone in your life who’s seeking direction will feel blessed with all 12 signs of Vision Quest — or you can buy individual signs of the 2016 annual edition here.

Not long after human beings took to the sky, skywriting was invented. As the term is commonly used, skywriting is trails of smoke intentionally expelled from a small, acrobatic airplane so as to be visible as written messages from the ground. Not long ago, it seemed like such an innocent thing.

Now we know that exhaust from large scale use of aircraft is a prime contributor to climate change. That knowledge in turn casts a shadow on the whole idea of skywriting.

Yet, if that shadow serves the purpose of making you more aware, it will have been worth a loss of innocence. That’s an example of how literal and figurative shadows can be made useful in your life.

The astrology this week represents a form of skywriting emblematically replete with shadows that you can make good use of. The symbolism starts with Venus in Scorpio reaching 60 degrees of separation from Pluto in Capricorn shortly after 6:19 am EST (11:19:18 UTC) Thursday.

In astrology, a separation of 60 degrees on the zodiac (and in the sky) represents the metaphorical interpretation of one planet in support of another. The nature of that support is analogous to a scholarship or grant, in that it is earned.

When you consider how both our astronomical and astrological knowledge of Pluto has evolved since its discovery in 1930, you could very well say that the shadowy image implicit in its name has been integrated into a more productive form of knowledge, which has very real value.

Part of how Venus manifests in your life is through the realization of values. This means that its sextile with Pluto on Thursday shows how you might well apply yourself to looking for the light in any dark night of the soul you might be going through now.

Astrology’s skywriting regarding the theme of shadows and their association with the light of awareness continues when the Sagittarius Sun moves precisely halfway between the lunar nodes just after 9 am (14:01:10 UTC) Friday. The lunar nodes are in Virgo and Pisces, respectively.

The lunar nodes are not tangible objects like the Sun, Venus or Pluto. They are perpetually opposing points on the zodiac, representing the two points in space where the Moon’s orbit around our planet intersects with Earth’s orbit around the Sun.

The most important thing to remember about the lunar nodes is that eclipses take place when the Sun moves close to either one of them. Hence, the Sun equidistant between the nodes means we are about halfway between the most recent set of eclipses this year and the subsequent set of eclipses (and literal and figurative shadows associated with them) next year.

Even so, when the Sun is halfway between one node and the next, it also means the Sun is separated by 90 degrees from both of those points. A separation of 90 degrees is called a square, and is associated with tension originating from within. That’s how (as Eric has oft noted) being halfway between sets of eclipses often feels a lot like the shadowy experiences commonly experienced when eclipses actually take place.

Yet, if you had the chance to see the total lunar eclipse which took place on Sept. 27 (or Sept. 28, depending on your time zone) you also know how something very bright inevitably emerges from even the darkest of shadows. Fortunately, you will get an extended opportunity to apply that knowledge when astrology’s theme of useful shadows extends into Saturday

Saturday will be the first full day of Mercury in its so-called ‘shadow phase’, presaging its first retrograde period of 2016. That retrograde starts on Jan. 5.

To visualize how Mercury’s shadow phases work, imagine the motion of a windshield wiper on an automobile.

The first swipe corresponds to Mercury moving in direct motion over the same degrees of the zodiac where it will subsequently retreat. The second swipe of the wiper (going back the other way) correlates with the actual retrograde, and the third swipe represents Mercury’s third (and final) retracing of its steps before it moves on to other degrees and other signs.

The first shadow phase of a Mercury retrograde cycle (much like other emblems of shadow discussed in this piece today) is not to be feared. Rather, it corresponds with a period when you might receive enlightenment of what is yet to come. With such awareness you can be prepared, and with preparation you can overcome any downside of any shadow in any form.

That’s the metaphorical skywriting implied by the astrology of this week, the last full week of the current season. If you fear any shadows that go with it, however, it won’t be of much use.

On the other hand, if you can, proceed with a determination to gather awareness from any personal experience you have with shadows over the next handful of days. If you do, you will be moving not only into light but with it, as you emerge into a new season with the Capricorn solstice next week.

Offered In Service