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Solstice blogs

We wish the happiest solstice season to all of TMA’s wonderful readers and friends. Here is a collection of blogs considering (mostly) astrological perspectives on the times.

Alan Oken’s Christmas Message 2013 is a short (four minute) greeting from his home in Bali telling of the esoteric significance of 0° Capricorn.

Venus stationed on the solstice; Jim Sher describes her current cycle in Venus Retrograde 2013-14.

Julija Simas at C*I*A has a thorough description of the Capricorn ingress, including an explanation of precession, links to other blogs, and the AstroCartoGraphy map. “A year ago at this Solstice 2012, the world was excited about the supposed ending of the Mayan Calendar; it was a time to contemplate the dawning of a New World, a new awareness, the coming of a big shift. A year later, and after another couple of Pluto-Uranus squares, we can sense a shift, a change, and a deep change within, yet we also sense so much more ahead. We knew this was all symbolic, we gave it meaning, and we continue to live in hope as we desperately still want our world to change for the better.”

Classical Astrologer Weblog’s entry Winter Solstice 2013 sets the chart for Victoria, British Columbia. “The darkening of the Year and corresponding lightening of the Year are equally valued. Night and Day are equal, as is the spiraling in and spiraling out of human consciousness. It’s the eternal relationship of feminine and masculine, complementary and inseparable.”

Here’s an  eight-minute video that describes the early Pagan festivals, traditions, and rituals around the Winter Solstice. The Romans celebrated Saturnalia to honor the god of agriculture. “They gave coins for prosperity, pastries for happiness and lamps to light one’s journey through life…..In Sumerian history, the god Nimrod was said to bring gifts and put them under the evergreen tree….Kissing under the mistletoe also has Pagan origins….The Druids believed mistletoe fell from heaven and grew onto a tree that sprang from earth. Mistletoe thus represented the joining of heaven and earth and later man to woman.”

Astrology Notes from Nancy has a piece on the meaning of the solstice. “We can overcome the Cold Winter Sun by evoking our highest and most loving instincts and being that person who brings loving kindness and warmth to all of our fellow-men. Be that light, be your best self, be love incarnate — dwell and flourish in the burgeoning light! Blessings to all.”

Peter Stockinger’s Traditional Astrology Weblog sets the ingress chart for Brussels (capital of the European Union). Citing Bonatti, “Saturn is the planet with the most essential and accidental dignity and has therefore to be Lord of the Revolution….Jupiter will turn direct, ending Saturn’s reign on 16 March 2014, just five days before the 2014 Aries ingress. Up until then we will have to stay under the rule of Saturn in his role of Lord of the Revolution.”

Nick Dagan Best has a five-minute talk with graphics on his work with the Venus retrograde cycle: Nelson Mandela: Venus Cycles and the Freedom Struggle.

Abella Arthur has an article, Venus Rx Retrograde in Capricorn, wherein she gives the essence of the planet and sign, keywords, hints on how to use the time, and a collection of Venus music videos, including this 1959 clip of Frankie Avalon singing Venus. (The author includes his horoscope. “Frankie Avalon has a full Venus house — Venus aspects all the planets in his chart. Venus is at the apex of a grand trine including Saturn & Mars! He has Venus conjunct Neptune!”)

From a different musical corridor of the Internet, Frederick Woodruff created a
Winter Solstice Compendium
, a collection of sacred music and chants and hymns. (He also links to a solstice interview with astrologer Jessica Murray.)

And, we close with this lovely poem from Wallace Stevens (1879-1955). (The gentleman, born October 2, has a deep feeling for stillness; he had natal Saturn in Aries opposite the Sun in Libra.)

The Snow Man
One must have a mind of winter
To regard the frost and the boughs
Of the pine-trees crusted with snow;

And have been cold a long time
To behold the junipers shagged with ice,
The spruces rough in the distant glitter

Of the January sun; and not to think
Of any misery in the sound of the wind,
In the sound of a few leaves,

Which is the sound of the land
Full of the same wind
That is blowing in the same bare place

For the listener, who listens in the snow,
And, nothing himself, beholds
Nothing that is not there and the nothing that is.

May we all appreciate the dark and the quiet of the season.

Have safe, happy, healthy holidays, one and all.

2 Comments

  1. excellent blog, tma weekly blog post sign me up please include me 🙂
    thank you
    andrea

  2. All the best to all at TMA from the C*I*A xxx


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