Winter Solstice/Lunar Eclipse

David Pond’s Winter Solstice Newsletter: The Astrology for the next 3 months

From out of the shadows, a growing light


Winter Solstice. The longest night of the year. Quiet. Still. Last year’s growth dies back and the earth absorbs, composts, and transforms it into the food that feeds next years growth. Let yourself align with the season; quiet yourself and be still and let nature pull the wounds and struggles of last year into the earth. Let them compost.

Each year nature affirms this lesson; Dark as the hour appears, the light returns. May this be a metaphor for our times. We’re a bit in limbo; the old has crumbled not to return and the new is still in nascent form. Where to align?

There is quite a bit of buzz about the the Winter Solstice this year as it falls on the same day as a Full Moon Lunar Eclipse, punctuating the meaning and significance of the day. The Moon’s light, and therefore its message, is blocked during the eclipse. The pull of the past and ingrained patterns relinquish their grip and you get a chance to feel your life force without carrying the weight of your past. It is the best time to let behavior patterns and habits that no longer serve you be eclipsed. Out with the old to make way for the new. Use the Solstice/Eclipse to invite in your highest future self to fill the space you are making room for in your psyche by letting go of some unwanted behavior.

Mercury Retrograde and some Holiday Advice. Mercury will be retrograde through Dec. 29th, so check and double check travel plans and always allow more time; things happen; bring a book. When Mercury the messenger is retrograde you can assume the liklihood of miscommunications; what you thought you said and what others actually heard is not always a match, so keep a sense of humor about it. Expect the barbs masked as humor to be flying around the holiday season followed by the all forgiving, “Just kidding.” Be mindful of teasing and teasers, always a popular holdiay sport and only fun for one of the people involved. Mercury in Sagittirius is blunt; be careful of blurting out, even in humor, what later can’t be unsaid.

Visionary Opportunities. In times when logic fails us, we need our visionaries to illuminate the path forward and this season is very fruitful for visionaries There are some special oppourtunities available to tune into this solstice season, if we can set aside our worries long enough to listen. There are three outer planet conjunctions occuring in the in the final three signs, Capricorn, Aquarius and Pisces When outer planets (Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto) are involved, information that was not previously available is born. Winds are blowing in the collective consciousnes, as new ideas and inspirations are born from the conjunctions. This is the time for being innovative and visionary. Some will catch hold of this wave; why not let it be you? Take advantage of the new winds blowing.

Admittedly, most of us are feeling a long way off from visionary after the brutal last few years we’ve been through! But this is the type of astrology that vision can be born from if we can set aside our personal worries.

The Worry Basket: I've heard of an American Indian tradition called the "Worry Basket". In this tradition, if you were going to visit others in their lodge, you would pick up a few sticks along the way representing your worries and burdens. There would be a worry basket at the door of the lodge and you would put your sticks into the basket before entering. You wouldn't bring your worries in with you. When you left, you would reclaim your issues by taking your worry sticks with you.

I like this image--it provides a method for dealing with the worries that do arise. Let's expand on this image from not just the lodges of others, but where you visit them within yourself as well. When you think about someone, first place your worries in a basket in your mind. It's not that you don't have worries, you know you do. But you make these your issues and don't project them onto others. You can use the worry basket image with your own issues, to temporarily set them aside to allow you to align with the higher frequency energy available.

The Quickening: The quickening of the vibrational field around us continues to accelerate, like a video game that you learn at one level but it just keeps going faster, and faster and faster. Perhaps this quickening is from the background uncertainty that we all live with. One way or another our sense of time has accelerated and its best to get used to it.

Since everything is accelerated, you are forced to stay more conscious even of what you are thinking about. You know what is going to happen when you allow yourself to drift into negative patterns, you just get beat up in the energy, so you quickly learn, because you have to, to keep it together in accelerated time. We’ve been shown the tools, now we need to use them.

The benefits of keeping it together in quickened time is that you have heightened access to increased intution. Picture these intuitive flashes of downloads from the mainframe computer, the collective level of intelligence. This is the 85% of the mind that we have not accessed thus far. Yes we have all of these problems that the rational mind can’t solve; population, water, global warming, food, these are bigger than our rational mind can grapple with, but we are only using 10-15% of our mind’s potential! For the sake of accessing this intuitive level, you don’t want to wish this quickening away. Breathe into it, expand your self identity to allow for this increased energy and ride the wave.

Jupiter/Uranus Conjunction in Pisces. Although both Jupiter and Uranus are conjunct in Pisces now, both will be moving into Aries in 2011: Jupiter in January and Uranus in March. America has been in the left hand lane with Obama, but traffic has stalled, and with the Aries urge for individual rights coming up big time in 2011, we can expect movement to the right. For now however, they are in compassionate, creative Pisces.

Picture these two positive, innovative and forward thinking planets as rubbing their hands together with excited glee of the yet to be discovered future, undaunted by the preachers of doom and gloom. Tap into this positive surge of compassionate, visionary energy. Do everything that you can to widen your empathy at the emotional, mental and spiritual levels. This in and of itself creates a growth in consciousness, expanding your range of receiving ability. You needn’t let go of your view, you move beyond it to consider another person’s experience.

This is considered a lucky aspect for goals. In Pisces, watery, imaginative sign that it is, you want to picture and imagine what your goals would feel like, more than specifically enumerate them. It is not just imposing your will on your life. It is important to sense what is emerging as your highest future potential. Reading The Tao Te Ching can help you get in the right frame of mind.

A key is to develop and maintain the authenticity of your individuality while contributing to the collective. Compare this to the Amish vision of creating group mind by removing all that distinguishes an individual as different from others. Or even more extreme is Kurt Vonnegut’s Siren’s of Titan, where in order to create an egalitarian society, gifted individuals were required to wear handicaps to compensate for their talent. Ballet dancers had sand bags tied to their arms during performance and so forth! So not this self denying way of becoming part of something larger than self, instead, this calls for offering the fullness of the awakened, individualized self.

Take advantage of this Jupiter/Uranus conjunction and move into Synthesis thinking: rising above polarity, knowing there is a larger solution that encompasses both polarities. Uranus is sudden knowing, direct insight. Put these two together and you have the possibility of creative genius. Genius type thinking is the type of ideas that come to you without your thinking them up. Go into your studio, your shop, or your writers den and have faith (Pisces) in the creative genius principle. Set to work and let it flow.

Neptune/Chiron Conjunct in Aquarius: (both moving to Pisces in 2011). This conjunction invites altruism and cultivating a vision for Humanity. Humanity must rise to save itself and our wound has been the lack of sacred awareness of life on our planet. The destiny of Chiron is not to be found in the wound, but what you are lead to for the healing. We see the wound and now must step forward to help with the healing.

Alternative energy healing of all sorts is supported by this conjunction, including subtle body energy healing. Those interested in communicating with other life forms like plants, animals, the spirit realms, etc., will get a boost.

Aquarius supports non-hierarchal systems and collectives, co-ops, free information via the internet, alternative energy, alternative lifestyles, the local food movement and Burning Man are all thriving, particularly with the younger generation.

Capricorn Conjunctions with Pluto: Pluto is joined with Mars, the North Node, and the Sun in Capricorn is fueling a strong drive to utilize everything available to you as best you can and dive into productive action. Use the Capricorn energy to help find your current sense of purpose. All of nature is here in response to a need that brought it here to fulfill; Its function is its purpose. To discover your purpose, look around and see the needs that you are drawn to and set about fulfilling them. In a major way, you look out into the world and see something not being done and consider this to be your job description. Figure it out and be relentless until you make it work.

Make it, build it, sculpt it, design it, paint it, write it, teach it care for it, but do it is the compelling call of Capricorn.

Commitment. Capricorn calls for making a commitment and helps you to rise up to levels of responsibility you didn’t even know you had it in you to do. Parents certainly know this, you find strength and wisdom and guidance because you have to, and somehow you find it in you to rise up to the responsibility. Wherever you are on your path, make a commitment to gain greater self mastery.

Ways to be with the energy.
Start by assuming this is a miracle, this body, this day, these people who love you. It gets you in the right mind set for awakening to vision. To get to the higher level of creative vision, you have to be running higher level energy. If you are depressed or even just flat, you won’t be able to hear the subtle tones of the visionary level.

The time is ripe for visionaries. Visionaries are known for having acute foresight and imagination (Jupiter/Uranus conjunction fosters this). This level is fostered by widening your circle of compassion (Pisces) and maintaining balance while holding opposing views (Saturn in Libra).
Don’t just lament what is missing, provide it! (At whatever level is available to you) What you see as missing in the world around you might very well be your cosmic job description.

Get up into your upper chakras and synthesis thinking. Rise above polarities; know there is always, always, a way forward. Taking one small step forward makes you part of the solution.

Quiet yourself as best you can to attune to the energy. Assume the events are happening outside of your normal range of perception so open, listen, and receive.

Inspiration Constipation? All backed up with ideas not acted on? Start building a rapport with the angels of inspiration and vow to follow through every day with the inspiration for that day. If you haven’t done it yet, don’t go to sleep. Follow through on the little inspirations to get to the higher inspirations. After all, who would the sources of inspiration bestow the highest revelations upon? To one who follows through on the daily inspirations or one who doesn’t act even on the simplest directions?

By providing hope and inspiration for others, you find it yourself.

Start living your life the way you think things ought to be. Be your own authority on what it takes to live a good healthy life.

Be determined: "I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work." ....(Thomas Edison)
Saturn in Libra tests your ability to maintain balance while considering opposing views. Watch opposing political news shows to find your own mechanism of reaction and turn it off (not the show, your reaction!) If you are caught up in the polarity you can’t rise to a higher vision.

Energetically, all that you can accept empowers you and all that you reject disempowers you. Find ways to dissolve all barriers of distinction, blur the edges of definition and work with accepting absorbing, allowing.

Make a commitment, a silent inner marriage with your soul purpose, your mission; and then honor it as a sacred contract.

People are not as ignorant as ill informed. It’s all about information baby! Get your ideas out there…youtube, blogs, facebook and twitter are all awesome opportunities to infiltrate the collective air waves with some higher frequency information. And as Sister Mary Joseph Praise called for in Cutting for Stone: “Let’s see what we can do to help people make something beautiful of their lives.”

The information below tells you how to order the hour long CD of this information in detail with added information on aligning with the higher level energy available during these stressful times. Track 1 is an overview of the season, suitable for the public, and track two gets into the astrological nitty gritty of specific dates, signs and aspects of when best to act and when not.

And may you have a blessed Holiday Season!
David


Hear David’s predictions and what astrology has to say about the upcoming three months and what you can do to stay aligned with yourself and the world around you during this time. David deals with these issues at length in the Winter Solstice edition of the quarterly astrological recording, “Cycles and Seasons”, which will be coming out next week. This 60-minute recording covers the next three months as to the astrological influences impacting all of us, and answers such questions as: When is the best time to act? To pullback? To be cautious, or bold?

The CD sells for $15.

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