Astrology in December 2012 - The Yod, or Finger of God, Preparing Us For the Winter Solstice Shifts!

by Robert Wilkinson

We have a very powerful “Finger of God, or Yod, at work right now. The Yod involves multiple “expansion through sacrifice” energies, and while productive, forces hard adjustments. Productive sacrifices are in the air.

I mentioned a bit about how the Yod has been playing out in the recent Sagittarius New Moon article. Because it was active at that New Moon, it’ll be a part of the landscape for all that happens between December 13 and the next New Moon at 22 Capricorn on January 11-12.

The only difference between the Yod at the Sagittarius New Moon and what’s happening right now in mid and late December is Jupiter’s degree. At the New Moon, it was 10 Gemini. When exact on December 20-22 (Solstice alert!!) it will be at 9 Gemini, in perfect double quincunxes with Saturn at 9 Scorpio and Pluto at 9 Capricorn.

The sextile between Saturn and Pluto show the productivity at the base of the energy configuration. This shows productivity between the signs of elimination and regeneration (Scorpio) and organization and personal authority (Capricorn,) and planets associated with Dharma, responsibility, and “doing the right thing” (Saturn) and transpersonal transformation, annihilation and rebirth (Pluto).

As I noted in the New Moon article, Jupiter’s degree indicated “... major ‘expansion through sacrifice’ energies, squeezing us all wherever this configuration falls in our charts. Expect some fairly dramatic adjustments that will help you master certain life trajectories. We can redirect momentum in multiple life areas, and can “pull out of nosedives” and “right ourselves gracefully.”

In these weeks we’re being taught through reviewing recent truths and visions to see new ways of communicating with others, as well as how to redirect energies and momentum using “mind over matter.” This will put our interactions and ways of understanding things at a turning point, and we’ll learn how to plunge into experience fully independent of prior limitations.

Exercise control over your trajectory, your momentum or “gravity” in the areas influenced by Jupiter in your chart (especially wherever you have 10 Gemini!), and release whatever you need to since you’ll probably be re-grasping it in another context. So as I told you in the New Moon article, “If you find yourself in some sort of crisis, reorient to your advantage!”

Jupiter is now retrograding back toward 9 Gemini, where I’ve noted it will make exact quincunxes with Saturn and Pluto during the three day period of December 20-21-22 when the Sun shifts directions for the following 6 months. To note, Saturn sextile Pluto will be exact on Dec 26-27, but will be in force for many, many months to come, and so each time the Moon is in Gemini and makes quincunxes to Saturn and Pluto, we’ll see echoes of this Jupiter Yod. That makes Dec 25-26 very powerful, as well as Jan 22 and Feb 18-19.

The degrees of the exact Yod coming on the Solstice show they’re all at some form of technique (4th degree of their respective 5 degree segments), with productivity between the technique of Communion (Scorpio) and the technique of Crystallization (Capricorn.) The sextile between 9 Scorpio and 9 Capricorn shows the need to figure out what needs to be repaired, eliminated, and “rebuilt” in some way relative to a deeper and higher “attunement” with the Angelic realm.

Any Yod, or Finger of God, takes the productivity of the sextile and focuses it through the nozzle of the planet at the inverse midpoint, creating a need to make multiple adjustments to “squeeze” the energies through the nozzle. The inverse midpoint planet is the focus, the aim, the need, or the teaching of the Yod.

That means the “productive squeeze play” will show through our Jupiterian, Saturnine, or Plutonic adjustments so we can better express a “spiritually productive” form of (in this case) 9 Gemini. Gemini would mean we can expect adjustments in speech, view, interpretation of new discoveries, and how we view our various “environments,” from the physical all the way to the spiritual.

Perhaps many things we’ve discovered and interpreted since June is now going to get squeezed in ways that force an adjustment in our view or attitude about that knowledge. The specific lessons will definitely have a relationship with whatever opened in late July when Jupiter first occupied that degree.

As with the Saturn and Pluto degrees, 9 Gemini is a technique of some sort. In this case it deals with social, emotional, or cultural discoveries that come after the catabolic activity of 8 Gemini and before the “gravity defying” mind over matter challenge of 10 Gemini.

Since 9 Gemini will be the focus of the Yod coming at the Solstice, try to see everything that happens at this time within the context of Jupiter retrograding from 10 (New Moon lesson) to 9 (Solstice lesson). There will be blessings or opportunities come from these “sacrificial expansions” when Jupiter again crosses these degrees during the first three weeks of March.

So 9 Gemini will be the focus, the aim, the cause, the need, the lesson, or the technique to express the energies of this “Finger of God.” The Sabian Symbol for 9 Gemini is a “quiver filled with arrows.” Rudhyar in the Astrology of Personality states this degree is one of “superiority and ease based upon training,” Sure marksmanship,” certain self-direction,” “preparedness,” and “invisible help in trouble.”

In the Astrological Mandala, he goes on to say that the symbol of an arrow implies “the piercing of a target.” Since “the mind of man is essentially a trans-piercing power,” seeing “the object toward which it is aimed,” it implies we can penetrate any object we aim at, including our ego. He states this is a symbol of “Man, the Conqueror” seeking to conquer the outer nature, or instinctual drives and the limitations of ego. It is said to fall in the social-cultural level of Discovery in the Act of Differentiation in the Scene of Zeal.

Dr. Jones, creator of the Sabian Symbols, states this degree is about “extreme alertness to the interests and needs of selfhood, and of high competency in pursuing any and all practical ends in view.” He says this is about our right to make demands on others, or “to bring to our service whatever helps us hold our place in the scheme of things.”

He further asserts that here we find the “fruits of the self-discipline and training” which equip us with skills we will continually use. He offers us the keyword of PREPARATION, and states when operating in a positive way, this degree is “unlimited personal capacity for rising to the issue of the moment on any level of experience.”

So we productively eliminate and regenerate through a form of repair work deepening our experience and ability to attune to the invisible world and our helpers there. And we’ll need to express these through adjustments in understanding of either a) we have prepared and can let our arrows loose, or b) it’s time to submit to preparations so we can do that.

So be alert to your interests and needs, make appropriate demands to fulfill these, and use self-discipline and training to take aim and demonstrate the skills you’ll need in the future. Rise to whatever presents itself, and be a good Zen archer. In any case, be skillful in demonstrating Jupiter in Gemini skills, whatever that means in your specific circumstances, which can be seen in the house where Jupiter is transiting while this is happening.

The following are brief descriptions of what different birthdays will be focusing on within the larger challenge of “expansion through sacrifice.” Those born the first two or last two days of a month may have a slightly different focus or not, depending on where their Sun is. Of course these are done for the Solar chart positions.

April birthdays will see the focus in values, resources, and money.
May birthdays will see the focus on self-image and their physical bodies.
June birthdays will see the focus on motives and achieving closure in several life areas.
July birthdays will see the focus on friends, goals, and ambitions.
August birthdays will see the focus on profession and public standing.
September birthdays will see the focus on higher learning, travel, philosophy, and spirituality.
October birthdays will see the focus on loss, death, regeneration, and legacies.
November birthdays will see the focus on partnerships and new ways of relating to others as equals.
December birthdays will see the focus on work, health, and preparing for future opportunities.
January birthdays will see the focus on play, creativity, and children
February birthdays will see the focus on home, family, and their personal past.
March birthdays will see the focus on siblings, learning, and short journeys.

On a final note for today, besides the Solstice Yod indicating energies in play between the Solstice and the next Equinox on March 20, this Yod is also a dress rehearsal for the next series to come beginning late March 2013 when Saturn will be sextile Pluto and Jupiter will again be making a Finger of God in Gemini. The difference between that one and this one is that then we’ll have interlocking Yods!

We’ll have Saturn in Scorpio sextile Pluto in Capricorn with both quincunx to Jupiter in Gemini. AND we’ll ALSO have Mars, Venus, and the Sun in Aries sextile Jupiter in Gemini double quincunx to Saturn in Scorpio, making both Jupiter and Saturn nozzles for those powerful energies.

So pay attention to the many adjustments and sacrifices coming over the next couple of weeks, since it’s a preparation for the Fingers of God to come in March at 11 and 12 degrees of Aries, Gemini, Scorpio, and Capricorn. Same dynamic, different and similar signs!!

To learn more about the Yod, or finger of God, please check out Astrology Class - The Yod, or Finger of God - What is it, and how does it work?

© Copyright 2012 Robert Wilkinson

Comments

[Elizabeth]

This article as well as the one to which you provide a link on the (for me, at least, elusive) meaning of the Yod aspect pattern are brilliant, and so helpful, Robert. Thank you so much! I'm always learning from your writings.

[Diana]

Ok I'm nervous now. I have natal Mars at 9 Gemini in H12.

[Micheline]

Robert, i discovered something really fascinating. My relocation chart for Tokyo has The same angles as the 11:11 am (GMT) December 21, 2012 chart
But in different degrees!!! How weird is that!!!!

[jo garceau]

Thanks, Robert, that's a special report.

[caliban]

I have been experiencing information jamming. It seems so much is coming in there is no sorting, no separating, no analyzation possible. Garumpf says virgo. But then these answers all of a sudden spit out of the mess. Words of wisdom. That must be the jupiter myth, the wisdom is what I am taking from the past to move into the future.

The funniest thing happened today at the library clutch. It was a lively crowd. I started generalizing about something and had to stop myself. It was an old rote opinion that came out of my face but I could no longer relate to it.

[jo garceau]

Robert, I just reviewed this all again. People may groan over the elimination and reorganization necessary, including me....but this yod and the one to come in April also appear to me to represent a fantastic opportunity to step into new and better individual roles,a new and more enlightened world. We are just beginning our long trajectory upwards, perhaps a 13,000 cycle, and it's exciting! Thanks again.

[imogen]

Another wonderful and very interesting post; thank you Robert. My Ceres is 9 Gem in 6th house. I also have Venus at 9 Virgo in house 8, Vesta at 9 Aries house 4, and Chiron at 8 Cap in house 1. Oh and Moon a bit out(compared to the rest)at 11 Cancer house 7. So I am curious as to what this Yod holds for me. Do you have any suggestions? Having just gone through breast cancer treatment (think that was Pluto on my Chiron)I feel I've had enough sacrifice and squeezing. Something a bit more positive would help.

[Debbie]

ah yes, the only way to have ones shadow self fall behind one is to follow the sun. Which direction is that..north south east west? nope....it is UP!

[Pamela]

Robert: The day of the Winter Solstice transiting Sun conjuncts my natal Venus, transiting Pluto conjuncts my natal Moon and Mars.. It's getting pretty intense over here..
Pamela

[chickie]

On the subject of 20 - 21 -22........where do the 8 minutes come in? Can't remember where I viewed something about the center time Of the solstice is 8 minutes long ...... so itwould land on the 21st and many of us will reach a much higher mode of consciousness and manifest many ideas....it was said to REMEMBER THEM! For they will disappear after the 8 minutes if we let them.....

[Sue]

This is a very interesting article that explains the Yod energy brilliantly. One thing I'm curious about. What do you mean when you write 'the three day period of December 20-21-22 when the Sun shifts directions for the following 6 months'. Thankyou

[Susan]

Information regarding the Yod aspect can be hard to find, and then generally nebulous. These excellent articles give articulate instruction on not only this current Yod, but also on how to construct meaningful interpretation of any Yod aspects. Thank you so much.

[caliban]

Hi jo garceau, I get the stepping into. I sensed a space opening up, like I could see it in my mind's eye. Hunh? Do I step into it? Do I observe it? I let it go and I do believe I got sucked into it. It's creative space to me. Opening that up is forcing order in a feng shui-y kind of way. Had read a bit about feng shui but am now first experiencing it.

[Alice]

Thanks, Robert. I am watchful of this yod, as transiting Jupiter sits exactly on my natal Sun, which is in strong opposition to my natal Saturn. Meanwhile, Uranus is transiting my Ascendant (at 3 Aries). Come March, the Sun will also be on my Ascendant. I feel God's finger on me, and am excited about where God is directing me for the future.