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There is only one birth - and this birth takes place in the being and in the ground and core of the soul. . . Not only is the Son of the heavenly Creator born in this darkness - but you too are born there as a child of the same heavenly Creator and none other. And the Creator extends this same power to you out of the divine maternity bed located in the Godhead to eternally give birth. . . .The fruitful person gives birth out of the very same foundation from which the Creator begets the eternal Word. It is from this core that one becomes fruitfully pregnant. Meister Eckhart
Winter Sunset by Cathy Pagano
Each year
the Sun cycles down to the Tropic of Capricorn, leaving the northern hemisphere
in the cold and the dark. Then, it
reaches the point in its journey south when it pauses and stands still. As if by magic, it reverses itself and begins
to journey back north. But those of us
back north must take it on faith that the light and warmth will return. We have to wait.
The Winter
Solstice marks a season of grace, faith, hope and also testing. The Baby
of Light has been reborn, but first we give birth to the Light
within our own hearts as we await its outer manifestation in the Spring. We have to give birth spiritually at Winter Solstice, deep within our own inner darkness. Who we are determines what we give birth
to. In the midst of the hounds of winter,
we labor to give birth to the divine Child of Light within. As Meister Eckhart says, the divine power of
creation is also in each of us.
Like the
medieval tale of Sir Gawain and the Green
Knight, this labor is a test of and testament to our values and beliefs
about Life. This is the time to look at Life and Death and celebrate them
both. This season, especially the 12
Days of Christmas which begin at sunset on December 25th and end at sunset on
January 6th, (see my dream
blog
for a ritual for the 12 Days of Christmas) is a time when "spectres and spirits
walk abroad' and interact with our world.
We get to see if we really laid our fears and trouble to rest, or if those
dark emotions are lurking "in the halls and in the bowers' to haunt our days
and nights. While this season is a time
of rejoicing and celebration, it is also a testing time, when we have to make a
conscious decision to embrace the Light again as we begin another year of life
on Earth. It's traditionally a time of divination, as we try
to foresee what the new year will bring us.
While many
people are looking forward to Winter Solstice 2012, it might be wise to
contemplate the meaning of this Winter Solstice, which once again has potent
planets marking the Cardinal Axis - similar to what happened at last summer's
June 26th eclipse at 5* Cancer/Capricorn. Perhaps some issues you had this summer will
come up again to be reviewed and released.
Gemini Lunar Eclipse Chart by Cathy Pagano
This Winter Solstice is
marked by a total lunar eclipse, with the Moon close to the South Node of the
Moon in Cancer while the Sun stands not only with the Capricorn North Node but
also Mercury, Pallas and Pluto. These
energies will come into play when the Moon is eclipsed, creating new
psychological patterns that will help us meet new challenges.
"Lunar eclipses emphasize
awareness of personal matters and relationships, now doubly so since this
Solstice eclipse deals with releasing old emotional patterns of a Cancerian
nature. ". . .total lunar eclipse . . . amplifies our opportunities for
transformation. New pathways and options
appear as old networks dissolve. During
an eclipse, the continual streams of electromagnetic energy from the Sun and
Moon are interrupted, weakening the Earth's force fields as well as our own and
thus making it easier to shift grids, dimensions and the configuration of our
consciousness." Stephanie Austin, The Mountain Astrologer, Dec/Jan 2011
Watch your family dynamics during the
holidays. So often, family issues
originate in the Mother/Child emotional body and have to do with survival and
nurturing issues - how comfortable we are with ourselves and with being "home'. We have to heal our personal wounds so we
can go on and deal with the bigger survival issues that face our world.
This Solstice is important
too because in 2011 the dance between Uranus (revolution) and Pluto (death
& rebirth/evolution) intensifies, eventually forming seven exact squares
between 2012 and 2015; these energies will continue to push us to demand
personal, cultural and political reforms.
With these squares, we will be entering the first -"quarter phase of the
60s conjunction of Pluto and Uranus.
Echoing the Hero's journey, this is the phase of the cycle when we have
to over-come obstacles, where our determination is tested. You just have to look at the world news to
understand that all of these energies are at play in the world, asking us to
work with them creativity. When Uranus
finally enters Aries in March 2011, we will discover new identities for
ourselves, new ways of entering into the life of the world. This new Birth therefore, is important for us
since it is our new Uranian identity that's being born in the Light.
One way to
understand what we have to do now is to entertain the possibility of making our
instincts conscious by seeing them as archetypal patterns; the work is to
recognize what our instincts are telling us about ourselves. Are we warriors,
nurturers, inventors, artists, scientists, environmental visionaries? The Child
of Light is a redeemer and savior. S/He
redeems the Dark -" brings what is still dark into the light of consciousness. What talents and abilities are waiting to be
recognized and born in that divine maternity bed this Winter Solstice?
The full Moon occurs just
hours before the Sun enters Capricorn. This
Gemini-Sagittarius Full Moon is not only a lunar eclipse, but also a Super
Moon, swinging closest to the Earth and intensifying its gravitational pull on
us. So we might get more emotional, more
dreamy, more unconscious. It also occurs
at the last degree of Gemini/Sagittarius, signs which rule how we think and
what we believe about life, pushing us to resolve the full energies of the two
signs with wisdom and compassion. The
Eclipse is visible in Europe, in South & North America and Japan, and is
total at 8:13am GMT/3:13am EST/12:13am PST. (You'll find more information at my astrology blog .)
