{"id":50886,"date":"2011-12-21T00:01:07","date_gmt":"2011-12-21T05:01:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/?p=50886"},"modified":"2011-12-20T23:50:32","modified_gmt":"2011-12-21T04:50:32","slug":"the-capricorn-solstice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/astro-daily\/the-capricorn-solstice\/","title":{"rendered":"The Capricorn solstice"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Solstice ice sculpture and photo by Sally J. Smith, created in Lake Champlain, Essex, VT. You can see more of her environmental art at www.greenspiritarts.com.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Today is Wednesday, December 21, 2011<\/a><\/strong>. We are at one of the most significant turning points of the year: solstice. Are you feeling it? This shortest day and longest night for the Northern Hemisphere is marked by the Sun\u2019s ingress of Capricorn, which occurs overnight tonight or tomorrow morning, depending on your time zone. For the East Coast of the U.S., it occurs at 12:30 am Thursday.<\/p>\n

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Whether solstice, Yule, Christmas or Saturnalia, whether in ancient days or now, this time of year has held one of the most important and evocative holidays of the whole year. One might think that the summer solstice, with its long days and warmth, might have taken the most prominent position in our imaginations. But as much as we may love (even prefer) that time of year, now \u2013 the start of winter — is when the modern western world holds its biggest celebrations. <\/p>\n

True, for the non-religious, Christmas has become a commercialized event far from its Christian roots, to say nothing of its even more ancient Pagan beginnings. (One could make a case for some likenesses to Saturnalia, the ancient Roman holiday of food, drink, revelry and gift-giving that honored Saturn \u2013 though the current extreme seems to have more to do with modern escapism than tradition at this point.)<\/p>\n

Students of astrology understand that the Sun\u2019s ingress of a cardinal sign indicates an initiation into a new season, and Capricorn is a cardinal sign. But it\u2019s not even the sign that begins our zodiacal year \u2013 that\u2019s Aries. Why then isn\u2019t the spring equinox the time of the biggest, best, most-anticipated holidays? Can it get much better than the length of the days beginning to outweigh the nights? The start of the growing season with its \u201cforce that through the green fuse drives the flower\u201d (to borrow from Dylan Thomas)?<\/p>\n

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Apparently, the origin of that force is deeper, darker and incredibly evocative \u2013 and gets its start now, three months before equinox. And perhaps because it exists in this point upon which we balance fear and faith, despair and anticipation, contraction and expansion, grave and womb \u2013 and more so because we come to this moment in the year through increasing darkness \u2013 the winter solstice is very internal. Yet for all its sense of stillness, it drives us to search. For some, it’s a search for a reason to keep going; a search for a connection within ourselves to something larger: to Source. In this current era, we know that the Sun\u2019s annual conjunction with the center of our galaxy in Sagittarius happens just days before the solstice. But even hundreds (and thousands) of years ago, it seems this energy was understood.<\/p>\n

One of the terms for this time of year is Yule (or Jul), a Nordic word that also has associations with a Middle High German word for \u2018invocation of the Sun\u2019. In the far northern regions of Europe, the sun never even reaches the horizon in midwinter. After that region converted to Christianity, people continued to use the word to mean the Christmas feast. But at its essence, a yule is a cycle or wheel that carries us onwards on the path of evolution.<\/p>\n

In the book Odsmal<\/em> by Gu\u00f0r\u00fan Krist\u00edn, Krist\u00edn describes this time of year as it\u2019s depicted in the ancient sacred poems of Iceland:<\/p>\n

Sk\u00edrnir is the rising sun at winter solstice in the North. He signifies that now the days are growing longer. Birth of the light of life. Sk\u00edrnir is a ray of divinity, an avatar, geisli [geisli are rays of inner most subtle divinity, the spiritual Sun, the goddess] that makes the materially-oriented man realize how he shall wither away if he does not find his innermost divinity, his real core and essence, his nourishment.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Wolf-Dieter Storl, in Kr\u00e4uterkunde<\/em>, remarks: \u201cThe darkest night of the year was called mothers\u2019 night, because now the sun god, lover of the goddess, is reborn in the lap of the Earth. With him, the light of life is renewed. It is the moment of quietness, of contemplation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Is it any wonder that early Christians chose this time to commemorate the birth of Jesus, the Son of God? Not only were there powerful and compelling myths of birth and redemption already in place, complete with celebrations, but the metaphor of light returning to a dark Earth to bring it back to life may be the most powerful one we have. And during this time, the constellation Virgo appears on the eastern horizon, where the Sun will rise on Christmas morning (a son born of a Virgin). <\/p>\n

The return of the light signifies the process of making things conscious once again, and this past season in particular has ignited new opportunities to become conscious and bring healing to our darker nights of the soul. The Sun aspects potent planets in the winter solstice chart, including Uranus, Jupiter, Saturn, Neptune, Chiron, Vesta and even Pluto. We are being asked to increase our conscious understanding of the changes we have been through in many facets of our lives as we head into the next three months.<\/p>\n

The Saturnian boundaries provided by the Sun in Capricorn can provide respite, however. They provide us the opportunity to give structure and form to the visions we\u2019ve received during our descent, allowing us to shine the light of consciousness out into the darkness in a way that can help others to see a little more clearly. The solstice is a time for setting intentions that will grow with the lengthening of the days. You are being invited to go inside and figure out just what seeds you\u2019d like to sow in the magic of the darkness just before the dawn. <\/p>\n

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Close-up of solstice ice sculpture and photo by Sally J. Smith, www.greenspiritarts.com.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Looking for insights on how this week’s astrology affects your<\/strong> personal Sun and rising signs? Try out Planet Waves Light<\/strong><\/a>, our streamlined horoscope service. For deeper cultural context and astrological investigation, the premium Planet Waves subscription<\/strong><\/a> includes the same horoscopes, plus extensively-researched articles on Fridays.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today is Wednesday, December 21, 2011. We are at one of the most significant turning points of the year: solstice. Are you feeling it? This shortest day and longest night for the Northern Hemisphere is marked by the Sun\u2019s ingress of Capricorn, which occurs overnight tonight or tomorrow morning, depending on your time zone. For … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7221,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"generate_page_header":""},"categories":[1734],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50886"}],"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\/7221"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50886"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50886\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50886"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50886"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50886"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}