{"id":51369,"date":"2012-01-02T00:02:24","date_gmt":"2012-01-02T05:02:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/?p=51369"},"modified":"2012-01-02T00:30:52","modified_gmt":"2012-01-02T05:30:52","slug":"welcome-to-2012","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/astro-daily\/welcome-to-2012\/","title":{"rendered":"Welcome to 2012"},"content":{"rendered":"
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What is the meaning of 2012? It meant that City Court Judge Larry Ball swore in the new Common Council of the City of Kingston. Many other extremely mysterious things happened as well, all of which were predicted by the Mayans. Photo by Eric Francis.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Today is Monday, Jan. 2, 2012.<\/a><\/strong> We\u2019re here. We made it \u2013 some of us against formidable odds \u2013 to a new year. But not just any new year; this is the<\/em> new year of popular western culture, fabled and fantasized about like no other year in recent memory. Not even the famed Y2K, with its computer-failure mythology, really comes close to the anticipation and expectation piled onto 2012. <\/p>\n

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So, um, now what? <\/p>\n

Don\u2019t answer that.<\/p>\n

Really \u2013 I mean it. Resist the temptation to fill in the blank of what this year will be \/ must be \/ can be \/ ought to be. I\u2019m not saying you shouldn\u2019t set intentions or hold a vision or outline steps toward your goals in life. Rather, in the wake (really, still the midst) of apocalyptic doom saying and great-awakening prophesying about 2012, we might do well to hold the middle ground of a third option. It just happens that third option is to surrender to not knowing. <\/p>\n

Accepting that we don\u2019t know can be hard enough with mundane things like whether or not the person we just called to ask on a date will call back. What do we do with bigger mysteries if we don\u2019t busy ourselves creating stories or consuming stories or weighing conflicting theories? Can we hold space for this span of time that has been so over-hyped, without panicking? What do we do if we don\u2019t rush to fill the void in our understanding as a means of staving off fear? It\u2019s true enough that nature abhors a vacuum. But is living with a mystery like \u201cwhat is 2012\u201d really a vacuum? <\/p>\n

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There is a famous bumper sticker I\u2019m sure you\u2019ve seen: \u201cMinds are like parachutes; they only function when open.\u201d The same could be said for hearts. That gives an image and ideal for what it might be like to stay open and mindful about 2012. It\u2019s less like a vacuum and more like letting the year unfold in whatever way that allows for our own best functioning. And that includes living with mystery each moment as we go from one to the next, and from one major astrological event to the next.<\/p>\n

Speaking of astrology (since this is an astrology blog): astrologers don\u2019t know what 2012 is or means, either. Sure, Eric and the rest can look at the charts, see some amazing, rare and powerful events, and then interpret the symbols and energy. Astrology can show us some signposts and indicate possible narratives. But done ethically, it\u2019s more like a weather forecast than a prediction or gospel or prophecy. <\/p>\n

If the meteorologist says a low-pressure front is coming through, you know to bring your umbrella with you. You know it might sprinkle or pour, or simply be overcast with no precipitation. But the weatherman can\u2019t tell you that your windshield wipers will fail on the commute to work, forcing you to drive extra-slowly, which will then allow you to stop safely instead of hydroplaning when the car ahead of you cuts across your lane on the highway \u2013 and that you will learn a lesson about keeping your car in good repair, as well as change your driving habits in the rain from then on. No one could possibly know.<\/p>\n

We\u2019re fond of projecting all kinds of things onto a new year, for all kinds of reasons. If we feel like the last year has been hard, we want to wash our hands of it and convince ourselves that the new year will be better, because it has to be, we want it to be, our morale needs it to be. If the last year has been predominantly positive for us, it can feel like the momentum will just continue, that the world is our oyster and that no matter what crops up, we\u2019ll be facing it from a place of strength. Neither of those approaches is wrong or bad, and the law of attraction suggests that, overall, they\u2019re good approaches. But right now, with so many things creating so much pressure on us \u2013 psychic, economic, social, technological, emotional \u2013 let\u2019s stop and take a breath. <\/p>\n

We can afford to give the meaning of 2012 some space. Most people talking about \u2018what is 2012\u2019 are not Mayan scholars, and neither am I. The Mayans apparently tracked time in a much less linear and restrictive way than we do, giving space for coinciding cycles that are rather mysterious. We\u2019re in a phase significant to those cycles without a clue to what is signified. Can we allow mystery to be its own form of presence, rather than an absence \u2013 something that gives us room to actually grow? Let\u2019s live with the mystery of 2012 for a while, knowing that the more we can hold that space open for this to unfold and become itself, the better it \u2013 and we \u2013 are likely to function. <\/p>\n

Yours & truly,
\nAmanda Painter<\/p>\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 Monday, Jan. 2, 2012. We\u2019re here. We made it \u2013 some of us against formidable odds \u2013 to a new year. But not just any new year; this is the new year of popular western culture, fabled and fantasized about like no other year in recent memory. Not even the famed Y2K, with … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":191,"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\/51369"}],"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\/191"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=51369"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51369\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51369"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51369"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=51369"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}