Winter Solstice takes place on Thursday, December 21 at 10:27 PM EST and 7:27 PM PST. The Solstice is a rather holy time of year – because it is when, in the northern hemisphere, the days are the shortest and coldest. It feels as though everything is asleep and unmoving. People go away for the holidays. Animals begin their annual hibernations. This all suggests that the best ways to ‘be’ with he energy is to go inside and examine your deepest heartfelt needs. What we see, instead, are lots of parties, loud lights, and noise, rushing around to make sure everyone we love is taken care of while completing exhausting our own souls.
I love the holidays and over these last years have tried keeping them more personal and quieter which, I realize, is not something everyone can do, particularly if you have little children. I remember those days vividly. Still, within the context of all the activities, it still behooves each of us to take a moment and create a quiet space we visit regularly to experience the magic of a silent solstice. I mention this each year at this time and this year is no different.
In Rudolf Steiner’s book, The Festivals, and their Meanings, he discusses the Winter Solstice stating it is the conception moment of the year. It is the time when whatever we’ve allowed our frame of mind to become, that frame of mind is directly responsible for the kind of ‘crop’ that emerges in your life at spring equinox. My thoughts these days wander in the world of authoring another book, something I swore I would never do again, but here we are, and I think about it frequently. And I want to do something different, something I thought about years ago but was too young, too busy, too career directed to really sit down and write.
This is why I closed the client books for the year to allow my mind to rest and let the ideas come through. I know many of you want me to work on your charts and I appreciate that so very much. And must think about my own time management now. I have a strong Neptune transit hitting my Moon in the next two years. The Moon rules the past, the family, the emotions, the memory. There is a lot of memory flooding through – both good and challenging – a lot of which I forgot leading me to now and to why I became an astrologer – something I never planned to do but then, here we are.
Life isn’t always planned, especially these days. And how does one ever become an astrologer? Or any alternative path like an acupuncturist, a psychic, a psychologist, an artist, musician, or actor? I don’t think you can find the answer in any books written about life planning.;-) I’ve worked with a lot of young people over the last few years seeing their frustrations as they attempt to ‘find’ that something that makes their heart sing. My heart goes out to them because I ‘get’ it. I’ve been there, done it but forgot how it happened. I want to share that and need some time to tease out those thoughts.
The key thing is that one must stay with their vision. If a vision keeps returning to you and fills you up with inspiration (Neptune), then do something to help manifest it and first and, most importantly, ‘get comfortable with being uncomfortable’ because the process is not what I term comfortable. Therein lies the crux of the matter.
Whatever we want to do we can do, and part of that is knowing that to get to the other side of whatever that is, we must sometimes do things that are not in any comfort zones. And even if we make ourselves uncomfortable, there is no guarantee that we will be successful in the outcome, but we still do it, because that is who we are as human beings.
I know this is rather lengthy. Forgive me for that. I am going to take a few weeks off for the holidays with my family here in California and my family in Florida where I will return in January. For those in the Miami area, I am doing an all-day workshop for the NCGR. On “Bad Ass Delineation”! To register for this fun event go to either the online or live workshop, for $55 either by Zoom or in-person.
AND… we still have the 2024 Starcycles Cheat Sheet that you download directly into your computer or mobile device available here.
AND…if you feel like gifting something of valuable to your astrological students and friends, please consider supporting www.alexandriaibase.org It our 501 C-3 Non-Profit Educational Foundation I founded with Urania Trust and Kepler College to serve the global astrological community. This group of resolute librarians and project managers works hard to upload collections, pdfs, copyright free materials and even old journals you can no longer find. It is a search engine helping you find specific subjects of astrology in hard copy libraries, showing you how to borrow astrological materials for free, or even finding subjects and books in your own library.
Nothing else is like it on the planet. We pay our people who work long hours not getting paid for all their hours but who remain dedicated to the process. And…we need your help to keep building the database (which has been going on since the late 2000s). We appreciate any help you can offer as a year-end gift or an annual gift. You can donate cash at www.alexandriaibase.org/donate or offer a portion of your annual Roth Ira, and even stocks or equities (through Schwab.com) as in-kind donations. Please contact us for that directive if you are interested. It makes a great holiday gift for furthering one’s education.
Happy 2024 and thank you for all of your support throughout the years.
Warmly, Georgia Stathis
