{"id":32361,"date":"2010-12-21T08:36:19","date_gmt":"2010-12-21T13:36:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/?p=32361"},"modified":"2010-12-21T12:00:17","modified_gmt":"2010-12-21T17:00:17","slug":"setting-in","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/daily-astrology\/setting-in\/","title":{"rendered":"Setting In"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Len Wallick<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Today, the Sun’s apparent motion southward reaches its limit. It stations directly over the Tropic of Capricorn in the Southern Hemisphere. That makes it the first day of summer below the equator, and the longest day of the year for those down under. For those of us in the Northern Hemisphere it’s the other side of the coin — the shortest days and mostly cold. For those wishing to mark the occasion with some sort of ceremony, the exact time is 6:38 pm EST.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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Concurrent with the Sun stationing over the tropic of Capricorn on our globe, it also moves into the sign of Capricorn on the zodiac. It is a change of season experienced in one way or another by every human being on Earth. Its a personal experience concurrently and publicly shared. That’s how cardinal point events come to be known — as the congruence of the personal and political.<\/p>\n

Your faithful correspondent is fortunate to have both residence and employment\u00a0 near the 48th parallel in the upper northwest corner of the United States. The two are close enough to each other to allow nearly two hours of commuting by daily perambulation. This has allowed for abundant sky viewing at dawn, dusk and during all hours of the night as the the duties of a salaried subordinate would dictate. During these long recent nights with the sky obscured by sleet-laden clouds, one has turned attention to the itinerant businesses that sprout up along the roadside at this time of year, providing frequent and ample opportunity to contemplate the odd tableau of trees nailed to crosses.<\/p>\n

Two pieces of wood affixed at right angles to each other has a powerful resonance this time of the year, representing the martyrdom of perhaps the most influential figure in Western Civilization. The meaning of the cross has evolved from a predominant method of torture and execution to an abstraction connected with faith. To get some perspective on this, just imagine wearing a golden miniature guillotine, hangman’s noose, electric chair or water board on a chain around your neck. Come to think of it, there may be a few who do.<\/p>\n

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In astrology, the cross goes even further back than Christianity, representing the relative orientation of signs that share a common quality — cardinal, fixed or mutable. It is especially associated with the cardinal signs as the first degree of each represents a solar station over one of the tropics or the equator, dividing the year up into four equal parts. It is thus that the beginning of each season has a direct correspondence between astrological sign and geographical location. Something conveniently left out of the lessons at a public school.<\/p>\n

Having a common quality or identity while being at right angles to one another symbolizes the tensions of a conflicted personality. The seasons of a human life, no less than the seasons of our planet, are resolved through oscillation to equilibrium and back again. Today, the Sun does its part to keep the cycle going. Our part is awareness.<\/p>\n

The awareness begins with the events that precede and concur with this solstice. The short term background is a Mercury retrograde cycle that thrice crosses the same cardinal point separating Sagittarius and Capricorn. Twice before with yet one more, Mercury, associated with electricity (among other things), has served to effectively galvanize the threshold in preparation for the Sun’s own crossing. This crossing results in a discharge of sorts, distributing the potential into the kinetic, literally turning the wheels as so many times before. But this time its with a bit of extra oomph. Indeed, it is this Mercury retrograde that most clearly distinguishes this particular solstice from the last time the Sun’s ingress to Capricorn was immediately preceded by a lunar eclipse — in 1638.<\/p>\n

And how about that eclipse? Those of you favored by weather and gifted with fortitude really got quite a show. The umbra’s shadow fluctuated over Luna’s face as if it were itself in demonstration of the energies that an opposition of the luminaries on a cardinal point would imply. Indeed, it is not just a close association in time but also the externalized qualities of polarity that is synchronous — the internalized tension of the cardinal points phenomena makes the eclipse and solstice essentially one event.<\/p>\n

The last time this happened, 372 years ago, the Holy Roman Empire was falling apart. All over Europe, Protestant and Catholic nations were playing out the polarity, bankrupting themselves by waging interminable wars that settled nothing. It was the time of the Three Musketeers and others of their ilk working out the internal tension of a cardinal square between serving as a mercenary or being true, at the very least, to one’s self. In Great Britain, King Charles I was holding out for absolute monarchy, a position that ultimately led to his execution with a swing to the opposite extreme in the person of Cromwell. And the astute, erudite Anne Hutchinson was banished from the Massachusetts Bay Colony for daring to speak her mind in the presence of men.<\/p>\n

Ah, but they did not have Mercury in retrograde providing reiterated perspective and activation. Nor did that time bear witness to the collection of outer planets near the cardinal points, focusing creative awareness and initiative. As a result, the last time the sound and fury accompanying an anaretic lunar eclipse immediately preceding a Capricorn solstice did little more than provide the founders of the United States an example of what not to do. And that’s the long term against which today’s change of season can best be interpreted. We are\u00a0 closing the year of the cardinal T-square that found so many of us at odds with the mercenary pursuits to which our lives had been devoted with no return but betrayal. We are setting in to a new rendition of that cardinal square phenomenon. That rendition begins the new year when Jupiter’s expansiveness becomes more sudden and unpredictable in the presence of Uranus at the Aries point — astrology’s greatest mystery. All this while Pluto patiently prepares to meet this energy and transform it from molten potential to a transformed expression of that potential to endure for a long time.<\/p>\n

So whether your day be longest or shortest, whether your nights be cold or balmy, take a moment to contemplate. You are alive and aware as none who have gone before. You are available to participate as none have before. Step back and take this perspective of your self thus. It has always been that our choices have defined who we are. But now, as no other time, our choices are functioning to determine what and who those who follow us will be. Think of them, be kind and be wise. Those yet unborn are depending on it.<\/p>\n

Offered In Service<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Len Wallick Today, the Sun’s apparent motion southward reaches its limit. It stations directly over the Tropic of Capricorn in the Southern Hemisphere. That makes it the first day of summer below the equator, and the longest day of the year for those down under. For those of us in the Northern Hemisphere it’s … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":537,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"generate_page_header":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32361"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/537"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32361"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32361\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32361"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32361"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32361"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}