fresh snow    I can hear    every star

Hi everyone. Here in the Northern Hemisphere we will experience the Winter Solstice on Thursday December 22, 2011. (In the Southern Hemisphere it is Summer Solstice, the height of light, and of summer.) Because of the earth's tilt, there are two solstice points in the year, one when the Light tips over into Darkness, and the other when Darkness tips over into Light. (At the other two cardinal points, Light and Dark are perfectly balanced in a harmonic field: the Spring and Summer Equinoxes.)

Today and tomorrow the darkness rules with a velvety touch, it is at its peak. On Thursday we will breathe through the longest night of the year and a tiny flame of light will ignite and will gently lead us to the height of summer on June 21, 2012. The month of June 2012 offers continuing beautiful opportunities for transformation and consciousness expansion . The full influence extends from May - October 2012 and includes eclipses, powerful squares between the planets Uranus and Pluto, as well as a historic transit of Venus across the face of the Sun on June 5-6, 2012. And so, for these next 6 months we are gearing up for an enlightening time in the Spiritual Sun.

In addition, we have a New Moon on Christmas Eve, Saturday December 24, 2011. This week is a very sacred week. Scroll down for a brief discussion of the Solstice and the Christmas Eve New Moon, and don't forget to  purchase your 2012 consult for yourself or as a gift for someone, by clicking here: http://bit.ly/f7Lb7u


Tidings of Comfort & Joy
and happy holidays

Solstice. December 22, 2011 @ 12:30am EST. If you pause for one moment amidst the beautiful madness of the holidaze as we know them, you might slip into a very mystical place. The Solstice light provides this gift for you.

Every year at Winter Solstice I *lecture* myself and others concerning the need for rest and inner contemplation at this time of year. If you would like to read my annual lecture, click here for last year's Solstice newsletter: http://conta.cc/g4H01B This newsletter has a lot of information about the Solstice that I won't repeat here.

Suffice it to say that the Sun seems to stop at the time of Solstice, and seems to hover in the sky in the same spot for 3 days. This spot is currently aligned with the Galactic Center in a way that only occurs every 26,000 years. This is the short reason why the December Solstice (whether north or south) is so important now: there is a stream of light and information coming from the Cosmic Heart of our Galaxy on a channel that is easy to tune into. That channel is LOVE.

The center of our galaxy is a black hole. Scientists can't say what is on the other side of the journey into a black hole, but they can say it would rip you into shreds. How about a black hole of Love? What is on the other side of that? Would you be exquisitely devoured, rearranged, and spit out into some other universe of greater love? In keeping with a sci-fi mindset, I like to think that on the other side of a black hole is a white hole. It is a universe where black is white, white is black, light is dark and dark is light. Just like it is here but in technicolor.

If, like the sun, you stood still... if you simply stopped sometime during these three days, you might be surprised at what happens. The Galactic Center is a heart experience. The subtle voice you might sense is drenched in love-wisdom.  You might be hugged by Galactic Arms. Eaten up by love and transformed into bliss.

I find that the best times to tune in to this singular experience are at dusk, or during the deep night when all activity around you has calmed. It can be as simple as lighting a single candle and sitting in silence, breathing, listening.

Light pierces the darkness.

New Moon @ 3 degrees Capricorn. December 24, 2011 @  1:06pm EST.  A few days after Solstice, we have a New Moon on Christmas Eve. A New Moon is a time of new beginnings and is similar to the Winter Solstice in its expression. A time of inner goal-setting and contemplation.

Earthrise: a photo taken from the orbit of the moon by astronaut William Anders on Christmas Eve, December 24, 1968 during the Apollo 8 mission. It has been called "the most influential environmental photograph ever taken."

Capricorn is a key energy of our times. The planet(oid) Pluto is dwelling in Capricorn from 2008 - 2024 (we have 4 years down, only 12 to go!). This is why the corruption of financial systems is now exposed for all to see. The economy is pretty much being bulldozed as we are forced to take a hard look at the brass tacks of life and the institutions we have built to support it. Over the next 16 years, the work that Pluto began during the past 4 years will ramp up as we are given no choice but to face the death of the unhealthy systems of our world. The restructuring is focused on Capricorn themes: government, the economy & corporations are key targets. By the year 2024 our economy will be entirely revolutionized (thanks to some help from the planet Uranus in Aries which is challenging Pluto to get the work done quickly).

During your quiet time on Solstice and Christmas Eve, focus on your own private Capricorn *issues*. In other words: how is YOUR economy doing? Are you on budget or running a deficit? How about your own personal government: are you governing yourself properly, i.e. sticking to a structure that supports your welfare and that of those around you? Who's in charge here anyway? And how is your corporation? No, I'm not talking about your LLC - I'm talking about your BODY. The word corporation/corporate stems from the Latin corpus, or body. Check out the full etymology:


In short, you incorporated the day you were born. You came in through the womb, the belly, the belly button. That was the day you "appeared" in the world of form and took on a body, the earthly structure you need for your time here on earth. I think it is very interesting that the word corporate can be traced even further back than body, or even than the the word "appear" -- it goes the whole way back to the womb, the belly, the abdomen. (And I won't even mention that the word "united" is included in this definition, as in UNITY consciousness. I simply don't have time or space to comment on that now! :)

The Galactic Center is a feminine/mother influence. Winter Solstice is often compared to a womb of creation, a place for conception of things that will later take physical form, and be embodied. So, dreaming of conception at the annual Capricorn New Moon is very significant, perhaps more so than at any other New Moon during the year. It falls fairly close to the Solstice this year, and that adds to the potential. Think on the Capricorn themes and explore intentions and goals for the new cycle coming up in 2012.

P.S. What's sparkling sweet about Christmas Eve/Christmas this year is that the Santa Clause planet Jupiter (in the delicious sensual sign of Taurus) is also seemingly standing still in the sky (stationing direct on December 25). Santa Clause really is coming to town this Christmas! And so it is a wonderful time in your life to exchange gifts of all kinds and to really enjoy the sights, sounds and tastes of the holiday season. You can balance your solstice contemplation with some merry-making, and taste from the sacred garden of earth.

 

I salute you. There is nothing I can give you which you have not already, but there is much, very much, which though I cannot give it, you can take. No heaven can come to us unless our hearts find rest in today. Take heaven. No peace lies in the future which is not hidden in this precious little instant. Take peace. The gloom of the world is but a shadow. Behind it, yet within our reach, is joy. There is radiance and courage in the darkness could we but see; and to see, we have only to look. Life is so full of meaning and purpose, so full of beauty beneath its covering, that you will find earth but cloaks your heaven. Courage, then, to claim it, that is all! But courage you have; and the knowledge that we are pilgrims wending through unknown country on our way home. - Giovanni da Fiesole (Fra Angelico)