The Winter Solstice and the Next 3 Months

The Cardinal signs – Aries, Cancer, Libra and Capricorn – initiate processes that establish under the succeeding Fixed sign, and reach fruition and die under the following Mutable sign. Rather like a tree going from spring to winter. So the Cardinal signs are the beginnings, and as such the moment the Sun enters them gives a flavour of the next 3 months.

Today we have had the Capricorn Ingress, the Winter Solstice, which has a mixed symbolism. In one sense, it is the beginning of a new year, as the days begin to lengthen again. In another sense, it is the last gasp of the old year, before the new begins again with the leaves of spring. Astrologically, it is the latter.

Actually it’s not the last gasp. It’s rather that the Cardinal Ingresses also progress through the elements as they progress through the year, from Fire to Water to Air to Earth, and it is only when they reach earth, or Capricorn, that they fully manifest: the visions of fire in the spring translating into feeling in the summer, then thought in the autumn and finally

they solidify and become fully real when they reach Capricorn. As the old native American saying goes, “Don’t tell me about your visions (Aries) unless they grow corn (Capricorn.)”

The usual astrological progression is Fire, Earth, Air, Water – as in Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer – and that has its own logic. And as I mentioned earlier, you also have the Cardinal, Fixed, Mutable progression.

Cycles within cycles, with the spokes sometimes changing places. I wouldn’t take any of them too literally. But the symbolism is ancient, so there is depth and power to them. They are real, but not literal.

So the world is at the start of a new 3 month cycle, one that culminates, that pulls together and gives full form to, resolves if you like, the currents of the previous tempestuous (in this case) 9 months.

And the Ingress looks different depending on where you are in the world. In Washington it looks like this:

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Pluto opposite the MC square to Uranus opposite the Libra Asc. I think this has a political reading, particularly as the primaries begin in February to determine who will be the candidates in next year’s Presidential election. It suggests some kind of sea-change, a real challenge to the political status quo (Pluto opp MC) that could go in a number of directions (Uranus). Even if Obama is a shoo-in as the Democratic candidate, he looks set to face real Republican opposition, which didn’t look so likely a few months ago until Newt Gingrich bounced back.
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In the EU it looks like this:

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Moon Rising conjunct Asc at the very end of Scorpio, square to Neptune. The end of a dark tunnel of suffering, or the darkest of dark tunnels, dissolution. Uranus conjunct IC: instability at the foundations, rooted in economic challenge - Uranus square to 2nd House Sun-Pluto.

And in China, the other big economic bloc, it looks like this:

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Jupiter in Taurus stationing conjunct Aries Asc, opp exalted Saturn on the Desc, forming a T-square with Venus. Continued dynamic economic expansion (Jupiter-Venus-Saturn T-square) while protecting itself from other countries (Saturn on the Desc).

The near Middle East – Egypt, Israel, Palestine, Syria – all have an Ingress chart looking something like this:

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Again it is powerful because of the planets on Angles, in this case Pluto on the Asc, and Saturn-Jupiter running along the MC-IC axis. Saturn-Jupiter is to do with the rulership of these countries, suggesting a transformative tension between the past (Saturn) and the future (Jupiter). And Pluto rising, conjunct the Sun, all in Capricorn, suggests a change in the traditional structures of leadership that will be demanded by the collectives for their survival.

On a lighter note, today brought the headline US Navy lesbian couple share first gay dockside kiss. It continued:

Two female US sailors have become the first same-sex couple to share the traditional dockside "first kiss" since the US ended a ban on gays in the army. Petty Officer 2nd Class Marissa Gaeta, who had been at sea for 80 days, won the right to be the first person to kiss her partner on shore in a raffle.

The couple said the moment had been "a long time coming". The US Army's Don't Ask Don't Tell policy was lifted in September, after years of debate.

Yesterday Venus had, inevitably, just entered Aquarius, the sign that breaks the rules in the interests of progress. And it was in a dynamic t-square with exalted Saturn and stationing Jupiter, as it moved societies standards from the past (Saturn) to the future (Jupiter), from restriction (Saturn) to freedom (Jupiter).