Looking Within to See the Future
Winter Solstice 2019 – The Sun enters Capricorn at 11:20 pm EST on Saturday, December 21, marking the moment in the Northern Hemisphere when the night is longest and the day is shortest.
Traditionally, the solstice is celebrated by candle light, honoring both the rejuvenating darkness of the void and the impending return of the life-giving Sun. Moving forward, the days will begin to grow ever-so-slightly longer, until (we hope) spring eventually comes again in all its abundance.
With five planets – including Saturn conjunct Pluto – two centaurs, and the South Node in Capricorn, this solstice is packed with transformational power.
The astrology of the 2019 Winter Solstice emphasizes the power of getting quiet, letting go, and going within to find wisdom and strength. This year’s solstice happens with the waning Moon in Scorpio, just a few days before the last New Moon of the decade, a Capricorn solar eclipse on December 25/26.
Water sign Scorpio is willing to plunge into the darkest depths of the soul. Scorpio knows that the key to power in the external world is found in the shadows. Scorpio knows that we can only become the powerful creators we were born to be when we are willing to face our un-healed trauma, our deepest fears, and the parts of the Self we were taught to be ashamed of and to hide from ourselves and others.
Solar eclipses are also powerful times of letting go. This eclipse comes with some very fortunate aspects. The Sun and Moon are conjunct benefic Jupiter and trine Uranus, the Awakener, in Taurus, the sign of the Earth. So we really want to use this moment to look within and let go of roles, beliefs, and identities we have outgrown as we step into the unknown potential of a new decade.
John Sandbach’s Chandra symbol for the first degree of Capricorn is “A canopy bed with curtains.”
“This symbol signifies a private place in which to dream and retreat from the world,” Sandbach writes. “It may seem like a strangely introverted symbol for such a social and gregarious sign as Capricorn, but the fact is that unless this very private inward place is established as a base there can be no effective operating out in the world.”
On her Edge Magazine 2020 preview radio show, Cathryn Taylor and I talked about the fear factor in the collective psyche right now. Beneath the heavy gravity of January’s epic Saturn-Pluto conjunction, the old patriarchal structures are visibly crumbling and cracking.
When the entire world is transforming at this accelerated pace, the only security we have — really the only security we have ever had or can ever have — comes from our connection to the Divine within ourselves…and from being part of a community of like-hearted souls.
I believe this Winter Solstice is designed to help us go within and find our resolve to break free of old 3D baggage and live the lives we came here to live. Even if you don’t normally celebrate the old Nature holidays, I encourage you to do a little ritual on Saturday evening.
Centaur planet Pholus, a patron saint of ritual, is conjunct the Sun at the solstice. Pholus bridges the orbits of Neptune and Saturn, opening a link that can help us ground some of our most beautiful visions of the future into the world of 3D reality.
This next-level 5D energy (a quality of all the centaurs and TNOs) is further emphasized by centaur Chariklo’s tight conjunction with Saturn and Pluto. Chariklo was a powerful healer, and also the wife of Chiron and mother of Tiresias, the blind hermaphroditic prophet who appears in both Homer’s Odyssey and T.S. Eliot’s The Waste Land.
Chariklo brings the ability to “see” the unseen, that which exists in quantum potentiality but must be named in order to become part of this reality.
We are the ones who can ground those potentials, here and now, and change our reality.
As Mercury was stationing to return to direct motion (Wednesday, 11/20, 2:12 pm EST), I did a little tarot spread from the 
As the black sky rolled by outside the window, I was falling into slumber, lulled by the sound of the wind outside the car and the hum of the tires beneath me. And then.
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Today’s Libra New Moon opposition Chiron in Aries empowers us to create or attract the supportive relationships we desire. It also highlights the evolutionary imperative to own your own shadow.
September 18 – December 2
Because we’ve done it. We’ve demonstrated that dreams do come true. Not through ceaseless striving or self-sacrifice but simply by surrendering the egoic mind and making the radical decision to always trust your inner guidance.