HAPPY DECEMBER
and welcome to all new subscribers!
I look forward to the Winter every year. It's my hibernation period. Oh, I keep up with my work -- and enjoy it -- but I'm less likely to engage in social activities. I like to leave myself extra time to sleep, to dream, to meditate, to take stock and clean house, both physically and psychically -- in short, to not be frenetically doing all the time. For me, Winter is the annual gestation period of vision.
If you, too, are taking stock and seeking vision, then it's time to book your 2006 update consultation! Rates are going up in 2006 -- it's the economy, folks -- but if you get in touch with me this month, I can still give you the 2005 rate even if your session doesn't take place until 2006.
With Winter coming on, I'm acutely aware once again of how easily holiday cheer can devolve into Winter doldrums. The Solstice on the 21st is a powerful moment, a turning of the solar tide here on Planet Earth. You can ride that tide into 2006 without falling into depression and despair. My thanks to Moira Ashleigh of Solstice Sun Design for inspiring this article on the magic of the Solstice.
If you're curious about global trends for the new year (and it's looking like a particularly dynamic one!) join me on January 4th for a one-hour teleclass.
This issue also includes a roundup of December celestial events and the first announcement of the upcoming teleclass series! This Winter, in addition to the 2006 overview session, I'm offering classes on the major turning points in adulthood -- the Saturn return and the "midlife crisis" I'm renaming the "Fabulous Forties".
As always, feel free to drop me a line sometime. I love hearing from you, whether you're reporting your personal adventures or just an insight you had, related to your transits or not. Keep in touch!
Blessings,
Miriam
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WHAT'S GOING AROUND
December 2005
And now, the news you've all been waiting for: both Mercury and Mars came out of their retrograde trances early this month, stopped, turned around and started moving straight forward again. If you were using this phase constructively (which I know you were, having taken my sage advice ;-> ) you've been catching up on projects that were on the back burner, reconsidering your direction, and doing more listening than talking. Now you're poised to begin afresh with new ideas and a new sense of purpose. The Moon is waxing too, helping the energy build.
Jupiter's midmonth square to Saturn is part of a larger pattern of transits that form a Grand Cross over the course of the coming year. I'll be posting more about this dynamic, high-energy series in the January issue, and you can learn more in the teleclass January 4. But for now, let's focus on what's right in front of us. The current square peaks on the 17th but is in effect all month. Somewhere in your life the urge to dig deeper and take risks to create change -- that sense that "there must be more to life than this" -- is butting its head against a brick wall. Current and past responsibilities and achievements don't seem like enough anymore, but you resist letting go of things that have always been a source of pride for you. This can feel like "something's gotta give", but you have the power to ease the pressure by recognizing both priorities and giving both their due.
The Solstice on the 21st is the still center of this extreme darkest time of the year. Soon we'll begin to see the light return to the Northern Hemisphere. See below for a few tips on riding this energy into 2006.
Toward the end of the month, yet another retrograde period begins. Venus makes its about-face on the 24th in early Aquarius, and continues slowly in reverse until February 3, spending most of that time in sober Capricorn. This is a call to put serious time and energy into our relationships -- the ones we want to create as well as those we want to preserve. We're also being asked to review our values. Are we living in accordance with them? Do we need to revise our habits (especially our spending habits) or is it the values themselves that need adjusting? The Capricorn area of your chart and the aspects the retrograde Venus will make can shed more light on what this 6-week period holds for you.
If you'd like to know more about Venus Retrograde, join me for a one-hour teleclass on Monday, Dec. 19 at 3:00pm EST. Register here at no charge.
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EASE ON INTO 2006
in tune with the Winter Solstice
Now is the classic time of giving, of celebrating with friends and family, and reveling at social and cultural events. The kickoff for this festive period was the annual entrance of the Sun into Sagittarius, just before Thanksgiving. Sagittarius is ruled by generous, bonhomous Jupiter, the Santa Claus figure in our planetary lineup. Jupiter loves to party and give out presents; he wants to see everybody prosperous and happy. Mind you, not everybody will feel like going along with his expansive (and yes, often expensive) agenda, but it's the prevailing wind for the Sagittarian month (Nov. 22-Dec.21).
Come Solstice, though, a major shift occurs. The Sun moves on into Capricorn, Saturn's domain, and a sense of serious purpose settles over us. Especially this year, with Venus turning retrograde just three days later, pleasure slinks into the back seat to wait it out. But by then, most of us are so caught up in the rush of holiday busy-ness that we don't notice. We're distracted by all the frenetic holiday preparations, and then the holidays themselves make their claims on our time and attention. Yet all the time we're headed straight into the heart of the darkest time of the year. And the coldest too. There's an undercurrent of desperation, as if we won't really get to enjoy ourselves again until Spring. And we wonder why the holidays feel like such a letdown!
As a culture, we're afraid of the dark. So strong is our fear that we equate darkness with evil. We hide it behind lots and lots of lights, the brighter the better. But the wisdom encoded in nature tells us that there has to be a balance. No light without dark. No day without night. No life without death. No growth without decay. That's the way of things. This year's compost feeds next year's garden. But compost doesn't happen overnight; there's a period of waiting while it works its magic, turning refuse into rich nutrition for the soil. That's what Winter does for the soul.
On that account, I urge you all to find a moment this Solstice to enter into the the spirit of stillness. The word "solstice" translates as "the Sun stands still". The Earth breathes but one breath each year: from Summer to Winter, a long exhalation, a letting go; at the Winter Solstice, a moment of stillness and emptiness between breaths; then the long inhalation back into the time of fullness. We all like to be full. We fear the directionless void. But emptiness is the place of infinite possibility and infinite opportunity, the culmination of Jupiter's limitlessness and the beginning of Saturn's work of translating concepts into concrete form. In short, emptiness is essential to all acts of creation and of change. Only in nothingness is there room for anything new to germinate and grow. Give yourself the gift of nothing this Solstice!
