The Moon enters its last quarter while traversing mid-Virgo at 10:30 am EST Thursday morning. Sunrise tomorrow will find half-lit Luna already ascending to its highest point in the sky, closing in on a square to the Sagittarius Sun. Like all square aspects, the lunar last quarter is often accompanied by tension originating from within, what Dane Rudhyar called a “crisis in consciousness.” This month, that crisis will be more like an opportunity to practice raising consciousness.
With practice, you get better. It is no stretch, therefore, to see this last quarter of the Moon’s monthly cycle as practice for when the Sun enters the the last quarter of its annual cycle at the Capricorn Solstice on Dec. 21.
When the Sun enters Capricorn this year, it will come with a lot of baggage. Some of that baggage you will need to lift and carry. The rest of it, you will not need at all. Discerning what you need to lift, and how to carry it forward, will take some practice. Among the baggage that will accompany the new season initiated by solar Capricorn is some conjecture about a miraculous ascension, variously interpreted as a crisis — or delivery from one.
Anybody who is conscious knows that Earth is already in crisis. Anybody who is practical knows that the crisis confronting our planet was brought on by human beings. We have mined the oceans to depletion, deforested nearly all of the land, and poisoned the air. Clearly some type of ascension is in order. The only question is what form that will take. Only one form is supported by practice.
Your own practical experience tells you that any mess you make will not miraculously clean itself up. Rather, you must step up to responsibility, and act to resolve the situation. That is the do-it-yourself sort of ascension Thursday’s last quarter Moon is likely to provide. Either that, or the opportunity for you to practice helping somebody else.
Regardless of what form they take, the events that accompany Luna’s closing square to the Sun will prepare you to better participate in bringing about the ascension that some have said will be delivered when the Sun enters Capricorn just over two weeks from today.
Long practical experience does not support any expectation that we will receive supernatural deliverance at this Capricorn Solstice, any more than has been the case with solstices past. Actual observation of the Sun, just like actual observation of the Moon ascending to the last quarter, will serve only to tell us what time it is.
What time it is will, in turn, indicate what the times would have us do in order to be in harmony with the Earth and Cosmos once again. Indications are that the only deliverance to be had will be what we provide for each other, which could lead to some amazing results if enough people accept that responsibility.
What we will actually see on Dec. 21 is actually so amazing, that for a long time our ancestors thought it was supernatural. For the last half year, the Sun has ascended in the morning and set in the evening a little bit further south than the day before. At the Capricorn Solstice, that southward motion will stop to eventually turn north. Ancients in the Northern Hemisphere saw it as miraculous deliverance from cold, darkness and starvation. Eventually nearly all people, regardless of location, ascended to an awareness of seasonal cycles that would repeat as a practical matter, and not as an unaccountable miracle. With that awareness came responsibility and authority.
With an awareness of seasonal cycles came the responsibility for keeping track of them for the practical purpose of feeding ourselves. That’s how calendars, and the authority to issue them, came to be. Even more recently, our awareness ascended yet again.
Now we know that everybody has a common and simultaneous experience of the Sun changing direction at every solstice. The authority conferred by that awareness is both personal and political. It is the authority to abandon the baggage of separation. That includes any notion that nationality, race, religion or location will somehow make a difference to your fate. So long as the planet is in crisis, all of us are in crisis, equally and at once.
All Earthlings are in the same boat. There is no exception. If there is any ascension to accompany this year’s Capricorn Solstice, it will be to a practical awareness that consciousness is just as common and simultaneous an experience as the pivoting Sun. That there is no separation on any level. The better we get at taking responsibility for that awareness, and behaving in accordance with it, the lighter our common and necessary baggage will be. If the Moon is any indication, you can begin practicing this week.
Offered In Service
Len is available for astrology readings. You can contact him at lenwallick [at] gmail [dot] com.
As you say, Len. This is our newest chance to regard a moment in human evolution (a moment that’s being marketed and hyped mercilessly) not as crisis but as opportunity to see that all life has cycles and be reminded that we are part of them. That is what this Solstice is all about, isn’t it. As you point out, this one and every one.
Thankfully this one has our attention, and hopefully we will indeed be attentive.
My oar is at the ready; if anyone’s rocking the Practical Ascension boat, it won’t be me.
🙂
Thank you, Len, for another thought provoking beautiful article. You have gone right to the heart of the matter for each of us, individually and collectively.
Mia
Len- a pleasure!
Many thanks to Amanda for correcting my sunrise/sunset error.
Chief Niwots Son: You are correct. Thank you for catching my error. The text should have read “Sunrise tomorrow…” rather than “Sunset tomorrow…” When the Moon is at its first quarter (separating square) it is at its peak in the sky at sunset. In the last quarter (or closing square) the Moon is at its highest point at sunrise. Only a very good friend is willing to catch and point out errors. Thank you for being such a friend.
“Sunset tomorrow will find half-lit Luna already ascending to its highest point in the sky, closing in on a square to the Sagittarius Sun.”
Forgive me Len, in my zip code Luna has been visible in the morning. Have I been relocated to a different plane of reality, or am I reading you incorrectly?
I LOVE the vision of Practical Ascension, thank you for these words.
Thank you Len for once again providing the voice of reason. I remember when I first heard about anything being special about December 21, 2012, it included certain doom in one form or another. Over the last 5 or 6 years we, the masses, have been exposed to the extremes of conjecture, only to witness the continuing predictability of sunrise and sunset, spring following winter, full moons followed by new moons. Everything you say is true; we must clean up our own messes. Still. . . .
How exciting it would have been to live in the time when we human beings discovered that the world was not flat as we were so sure it was then. Or when human beings discoverd that they could create a fire with the right tools in the right hands and not depend on the wrath of gods to produce it. If there are other beings on other planets in other universes and other dimensions, how glorious would it be to meet them and learn from them? That alone would be ascension enough for me.
One of the things we love about astrology is its ability to free up our imaginations through the syncronicities of scientific facts (planet locations) and the symbolical use of mythological heros and villians assigned to our planets. That imagination can open doors that reveal beauty and love through arts of all kinds, and it can motivate people to believe in what seemed impossible yesterday. I hear tell that, through channelers, the aliens from places other than Earth insist that they will not provide the healing we need for ourselves and our planet, but they will teach us how to do it ourselves. If those doors opening to imagination can provide a better world and greater joy then wouldn’t it be just the most marvelous thing since sliced bread? Wouldn’t that be evolution at its very best?
It’s tough to wade through all the yadda yadda we are exposed to these days, but hey, we survived the primaries last year in this country, and the national presidential election this year, so I think that proves that human beings have at least enough discernability to sense that change is upon us and we can’t run away from what needs to be done. Best done with a little help from our friends!
be
Len…beautiful heartfelt expression.
“So long as the planet is in crisis, all of us are in crisis, equally and at once.”
“If there is any ascension to accompany this year’s Capricorn Solstice, it will be to a practical awareness that consciousness is just as common and simultaneous an experience as the pivoting Sun.”
Yes! So ordinary and extraordinary, there all along. Blessings.