Tran­script of Radio Show: The Sol­stice and The New Age

(If you wish to lis­ten to the show instead, here is the link on BlogTalk or Apple Pod­casts)

In my show on Novem­ber 15 (you can read the tran­script for it here), I exam­ined the sig­nif­i­cance of what Astrologers call The Great Muta­tion of Jupiter and Sat­urn. About every 200 years or so, the Jupiter and Sat­urn Cycle of Rela­tion­ship, that is from Con­junc­tion to Con­junc­tion every 20 years, shifts from one Ele­ment into the next. Since 1840 they have been align­ing in Earth Signs but start­ing tomor­row, they begin a new series of con­junc­tions in the Air Signs, start­ing with Aquar­ius (tomor­row), then Libra in 2040, and Gem­i­ni in 2060 and so on.

As many of you know, I pre­fer to under­stand the sig­nif­i­cance of plan­e­tary influ­ences as being bet­ter under­stood as peri­ods of times rather than dis­crete events, to be viewed more as waves of ener­gy-forms that build in or wax and then recede or wane; and that wax­ing and wan­ing occur over a longer or short­er peri­od of time depend­ing upon the plan­ets involved. Yet, it is equal­ly true that at any one moment in our jour­ney we can feel these waves of ener­gy formed by the Dance of the Plan­ets as reach­ing some defin­i­tive shift, cli­max or turn­ing point. These more dis­crete or crit­i­cal moments are found at cer­tain points in their cycle of rela­tion­ships, espe­cial­ly the Con­junc­tion, Wax­ing Square, Oppo­si­tion, Wan­ing Square and back to Conjunction.

Astro­log­i­cal Timing
Today I want to talk more about the tim­ing of this sig­nif­i­cant shift of plan­e­tary ener­gy-forms of the rela­tion­ship of Jupiter and Sat­urn, and its impact for us. I want to note or point out that it is a rather strik­ing coin­ci­dence, or acci­dent of tim­ing, or per­haps part of some divine plan, that this begin­ning of a new 200-year cycle is hap­pen­ing on one of the Four Sacred Turn­ing points in our Astro­log­i­cal Cal­en­dar, the Win­ter Sol­stice of Capricorn.

The Web of Consciousness
The mag­is­te­r­i­al nature of the Cos­mos, and the beau­ty and har­mo­ny of our Dance of the Plan­ets, and the rev­o­lu­tions and vor­tices of the Stars and Galax­ies form what I like to see as a com­plex spir­i­tu­al-neur­al net­work; it is an Infi­nite Web of Spir­it-Life-Con­scious­ness, and of course we are very much part of that Mind of Spir­it too. Just as we humans are made of and by one anoth­er, even though we often live with the illu­sion that we are sep­a­rate indi­vid­u­als because we seem­ing­ly appear to be so dis­tinct from each oth­er giv­en our bod­i­ly forms; we real­ly are not sep­a­rate from one anoth­er at all, not in the least. We, like every par­ti­cle of Cre­ation, are formed by a hier­ar­chy of ener­gy-forms with­in our bod­ies and equal­ly by a hier­ar­chy of ener­gy-forms between one anoth­er. I like to say, we are made of one anoth­er in so many, many ways, and not the least of which is by all our expe­ri­ences we cre­ate with and through one anoth­er. Tru­ly, our Dance of Human Life mir­rors the Dance of the Plan­ets, and that is anoth­er affir­ma­tion of the great teach­ing, “as above so below”.

Indi­vid­u­al­i­ty
This is most cer­tain­ly true on the plan­e­tary lev­el, as the plan­ets form rela­tion­ships with one anoth­er that mutu­al­ly affect them, as well as cre­ate ener­gy-forms of mean­ing and influ­ence for us here on Earth. More­over, in our Earth’s dance around the Sun, we do not fol­low a reg­u­lar cir­cuit or cir­cle. Like any indi­vid­ual, and know this, all Ener­gy-Forms are sparks of the Divine, the entire­ty of the Uni­verse is com­posed by an infini­tude of unique instances of Spir­it, where­in every par­ti­cle and ener­gy-form is in some man­ner an Indi­vid­ual. That means that there is noth­ing that is exact­ly like any oth­er nor could it ever be. The One becom­ing man­i­fest is the body, soul, and spir­it of the Cos­mos, and that Cos­mos is made so by indi­vid­u­a­tion, dif­fer­en­ti­a­tion, and diversity.

Motions and Meaning
Earth is a being too; Earth is an Indi­vid­ual too. Earth’s orbit is Ellip­ti­cal, mov­ing clos­er and fur­ther away from the Sun as we orbit around our star. Our Earth also bob­bles and weaves, it goes back and forth, it moves up and down in var­i­ous planes of motion. One of these vari­a­tions forms our pre­ces­sion of the equinox­es which spans about 25,000 years, form­ing the Astro­log­i­cal Ages. Anoth­er vari­a­tion of motion defines our year­ly cycle around the Sun, as each polar region of the Earth will point more towards and then away from the Sun dur­ing one cir­cuit. This tilt­ing back and forth forms our sea­son­al cycling here on Earth.

The Sol­stice
And this is what the Capri­corn Sol­stice rep­re­sents tomor­row; it is one of those dis­crete moments when some­thing “ends” and some­thing “begins”; when we mark the chang­ing of the sea­sons, formed by the dance of light shift­ing between the Day and the Night. I like to say that the Sol­stices of Winter/Summer and the Equinox­es of Spring/Fall, they are like the “Four Cor­ners” of our year. They mark the South, the East, the North, and the West of our jour­ney dur­ing the year; it is this very motion that defines what we call a year.

From the Win­ter Sol­stice, the short­est of days and the longest of nights, the Earth begins to tilt back towards the Sun in the North­ern Hemi­sphere, reach­ing an equi­lib­ri­um of Day and Night at the Spring Equinox. Earth con­tin­ues to bend toward the Sun until we reach the longest of days and the short­est of nights at the Sum­mer Sol­stice. From then until the next Win­ter Sol­stice, the days grow short­er and the shad­ows length­en reach­ing a bal­ance of Day and Night at the Autum­nal Equinox, and a return to the longest night at the Win­ter Sol­stice again.

Sacred Turn­ings
In many cul­tures, one of these moments or “Four Cor­ners” that is said to her­ald the “begin­ning of the year”, spir­i­tu­al­ly, cul­tur­al­ly, or legal­is­ti­cal­ly. With regards to the Ancient Wis­dom, each of these turn­ings have been held as Sacred moments in Spir­i­tu­al Teach­ings through­out the ages. Though the spir­i­tu­al jour­ney of awak­en­ing and self-mas­tery is con­tin­u­ous and ongo­ing, these four moments are when the most impor­tant cer­e­monies are held for aspi­rants, and the great­est Ini­ti­a­tions for those on the path are held at these sacred times of the year.

Many tra­di­tions hold cel­e­bra­tions and cer­e­monies dur­ing this peri­od in hon­or of this moment. Imag­ine your­self back in time, and the days are get­ting short­er and short­er, and the nights are longer and longer, and the Sun, upon which your entire exis­tence depends, is dis­ap­pear­ing. Using our civ­il cal­en­dar, it is on or about Decem­ber 21^st, that the Sun will rise or set at the low­est point on the hori­zon since June 21^st. Then, for the next sev­er­al days, it will rise and set at the same point on the hori­zon. That is what the term Sol­stice means, “The Sun Stands Still”, and you and the whole world waits. Will the Sun return, or will the light go out; will life con­tin­ue or not? On the 3^rd or 4^th day after the Sol­stice, on Decem­ber 24^th or 25^th, the Sun begins to move back north­wards once more. The Light is return­ing; the Dark­ness is in retreat, and the promise of life, of your future and your world is there for all to see.

Ini­ti­a­tion of the Sun
The Win­ter Sol­stice rep­re­sents for one and for all the Re-Birth of the Sun; in ancient sacred rit­u­als and cer­e­monies, an aspi­rant would have tak­en many steps to pre­pare them­selves for this moment. In the Ancient Wis­dom, the Ini­ti­a­tion under­tak­en at Capri­corn rep­re­sents the “Mys­tic Birth of Indi­vid­u­al­i­ty”. It is often known as the “Ini­ti­a­tion into the Sun”.

It seems rather fit­ting that on the very day of the Sol­stice we are also wit­ness­ing the birth of a New Age, her­ald­ed by the Jupiter/Saturn Great Muta­tion into Air. These shifts in Ener­gy-Forms are very real, whether the begin­ning of Win­ter for the next 90 days, or an Age of Air for the next 200 years. But these, of them­selves alone, will not “cre­ate” or “make” change hap­pen here on Earth. Enlight­en­ment is not doled out; it is earned. A New Age is not giv­en; it is made by what we do.

Respon­si­bil­i­ty
This is our respon­si­bil­i­ty; and you will know this is your duty when you lis­ten to your heart. Here is the plan­e­tary mes­sage and mean­ing of this moment; and this mes­sage is the core expe­ri­ence of spir­it at this time of year. Capri­corn is the Sign of Respon­si­bil­i­ty. All the Signs from Aries through Sagit­tar­ius have pre­pared you for this moment. The Uni­verse is ask­ing every one of us a ques­tion: What is your Respon­si­bil­i­ty; what is your Duty?

The plan­ets are Avatars of Mean­ings and Tim­ings; they hold the mes­sages and mean­ings of our jour­ney here on Earth; they pro­vide inspi­ra­tion, guid­ance, and the tim­ing for the unfold­ing of celes­tial ener­gies. But it is on us, on you and me, it is on all of us to be the change we wish to see. We are the ones who will be the awak­en­ing; and we must under­stand and so act in accor­dance with the Spir­i­tu­al prin­ci­ples that gov­ern our Creation.

Each of us must strug­gle and strive for a greater under­stand­ing about the Laws of Spir­it. We do this out­ward­ly by observ­ing and learn­ing about the world around us, to see the world as it real­ly is; and we do this inward­ly, by lis­ten­ing to our high­er intu­ition­al self, and by know­ing in our hearts what is true and good and lov­ing. And, over time we learn to align our aims and actions, our desires, and our will to that which is more than just us; slow­ly but steadi­ly we learn to choose that which is true and good and lov­ing. We learn to live by Love; and we learn to align our will with the Will of the One.

Let Thy Will Be Done
That is what is meant by that mys­ti­cal but beau­ti­ful say­ing, “Let thy will be done”. It is not the sur­ren­der of our lim­it­ed desires and will to some out­side deity or pow­er. No, this beau­ti­ful say­ing is the affir­ma­tion of the Heart Doc­trine of the Wis­dom Teach­ing. The Light of the Uni­verse is not some­where out there; it is the stead­fast gen­tle light with­in you.

The Will of the One is with­in us all. It is the Voice of the Silence; it is the Uncon­di­tion­al Love of the One for one and for all. It is your Spark of the Divine; it is your beloved who reminds you that you are awak­ened when you are self-for­get­ful, when you act to serve and help and care for one anoth­er. That is the sign, that is the proof that you are on the Path of Awak­en­ing. Quite sim­ply, but tru­ly, it is the way of the Wise Ones; it is the true path of Uncon­di­tion­al Love.

And that is the way we will build this New Age. That with this Great Muta­tion Con­junc­tion of Jupiter and Sat­urn, we are being asked once more to “Let thy Will be done”.

Our Respon­si­bil­i­ty
We must think not of our­selves, but for those who will come after, those who have not yet had the gift of liv­ing and lov­ing, of striv­ing and lift­ing them­selves up on this beau­ti­ful gar­den we call Earth. We must under­stand that our respon­si­bil­i­ty is to all of life on this plan­et, for it is pre­cious. Now that we know what we have done to the bal­ance of life on this plan­et, we must put aside our igno­rance and self­ish­ness and act for the future of life on this planet.

The plan­ets are say­ing it is time, and we should heed the call.

We are here to forge a New Path; we are here to pre­serve, pro­tect and love all crea­tures great and small. For Love is Life; and Life is Love.

We humans are here to love and be loved.

We are here to be ones of the One.

Let us make it so, and

Let Thy Will be Done.