by Robert Wilkinson
Winter Solstice 2012 occurs at 3:12 am PST, 6:12 am EST, 11:12 am Greenwich, on Dec 21, 2012. This is the shortest day of the year in the Northern Hemisphere, and from here the Solar force will get longer and stronger, a welcome relief for those of us who need lots of sunshine to keep our dispositions equally sunny. The Winter Solstice is a special time for me, where I do a specific ritual every year that yields great results. I’ll explain after we discuss the Solstice chart.
In this article, I’ll cover the rising signs around the world and the most important major aspect energies in play. I also discuss briefly how this Solstice relates to the very important past Winter Solstices that were conjunct Pluto at the Galactic Center, since those profoundly impacted how we will experience the major shifts happening at this Solstice.
Today is the beginning of Winter in the Northern Hemisphere, the beginning of Summer in the Southern. There is an old tradition that offers us two times when "the year begins," one at the Vernal Equinox, the other at the Autumnal. Perhaps that tradition came from explorers who saw the seasons flip between the Northern and Southern, going from the beginning of warm to the beginning of cold as they moved up and down the latitudes.
This is an excellent time for looking at what has ended, what is emerging, and making decisions about how we want to live in 2013. We up North have now reaped the harvest of what we've done and not done, and can figure out how we want to claim our power in 2013. In the Southern latitudes, you've finished your "Spring planting," and will now see how these labors will come to fulfillment over the next 90 days.
Whether North or South, keep following through on the emergent archetypes you've already begun to live, since this is the time to embrace personal power in some public way. Regardless of where we live, what follows explores elements we all can expect to experience over the next 13 weeks.
This Solstice has 12 Scorpio rising in Santa Monica (PST), 3 Scorpio rising in Vancouver, 12 Sagittarius rising in Montreal, and 14 Sagittarius rising in Washington DC. Rio has 11 Aquarius, Lisbon has 27 Aquarius, and London (GMT) has 3 Pisces on the Ascendant. Berlin has 5 Aries, Sofia has 21 Aries, Cairo has 28 Aries, Johannesburg has 15 Aries, and Moscow has 2 Gemini rising.
Moving into Asia and Oceana, we find Ascendants at 20 Gemini in Abbottabad, 20 Gemini in New Delhi, 11 Gemini in Trivandrum, 21 Cancer in Hong Kong, 18 Leo in Tokyo, 29 Gemini in Perth, 24 Cancer in Melbourne, 10 Leo in Brisbane, 2 Virgo in Wellington, and Maui has 12 Libra on the Ascendant.
That means North America has between early Scorpio and mid-Sagittarius on the Ascendant. Obviously, where the Sun is “shines a light” on a certain house area in that part of the world. When the Sun is on or close to an angle it makes it very powerful. Among those cities listed here, the Sun is on the MC between Lisbon and Sofia (all of Europe), on the Descendant in Pakistan and India, on the Nadir (IC) in New Zealand and Hawaii, and on the Ascendant in Montreal and Washington DC.
As mentioned, the charts for the Summer and Winter Solstices provide guideposts for what will follow in the 90 days after those points in time, just as charts for the Vernal and Autumnal Equinox each show what will follow in the period after those points in time. In this chart, one of the most important aspect configuration in play is the very heavy Yod, or “Finger of God,” that I posted on yesterday. Please reference that article to find out more how this configuration indicating multiple “expansion through sacrifice” energies are squeezing all of us through hard adjustments focusing us wherever Jupiter is transiting in our charts. I’ll provide the link at the bottom of this article.
Obviously, since the Sun is the key to the Solstice, the aspects it makes are extremely important. In Solstice 2012, the sun makes several extremely important aspects! It is exactly septile Saturn and sextile Neptune, and makes a wider square to Uranus and conjunction to Pluto.
In a brief nod to what “brought us to this dance,” the conjunction of the Sun with Pluto was exact or very close back when Pluto was exactly conjunct the Galactic Center between 2006-2009. This set some extremely long wave energies into play on our Earth, and marked a huge renewal for the next 250 years, mas or menos. I wrote extensively about that back then, and have included a link at the end of this post to an article that will take you to other links in the archives for those Solstice and Galactic Center articles.
The Sun square Uranus was close or exact on Winter Solstice 2010, 2011 (exact!) and this one. So the seed forms created by the Sun and Pluto when they powered up the Galactic Center energies for the next season of the Millennium were moved into revolutionary newness by Uranus in the first sign of the zodiac. Obviously you can find more about those powerful squares and what they meant in the process that led us to today by going to the Solstice articles for those years.
Due to the square energy, we have been constantly shown the greater collective need to bring forth positive Cancer and Libra energy, which is what we were all working on between Winter Solstice 2006 and now. Consider these 6 years as our metaphoric “6 Days of Creation,” and now as we enter 2013 perhaps many will get their “day of rest,” or “day of contemplating the goodness of the work,” as it has also been stated.
The current Sun exactly septile Saturn and sextile Neptune is very powerful in showing we’ve all hit a huge “fork in the road of destiny,” where past and present decisions are throwing us into a future based in those past Galactic Center energies and how we decided to use them. The sextile to Neptune shows it’s a very productive time (and has been since 2011 till now) in aligning ourselves with a greater human ideal, an easier flow within our collective setup, and becoming more sensitive, compassionate, and forgiving as we and everyone we know stand collectively on the edge of this great evolutionary leap.
Choices, changes, and decisions will have to be made in areas where we have Cancer, Leo, Scorpio, Capricorn, and Aquarius. We’ve gotten here through the decisions we’ve made over the past 6 years, and now we get to restructure and redirect our Saturn energies accordingly. Some will eliminate, some will regenerate. Some will have major clearances, some will have major attractions. Some will have all of the above and more.
Wherever your emotional energy is stuck, that’s the point of the exercise and shows the need for mature patient restructuring. Get the right plan for “making your pilgrimage” and it’ll all turn out fine. Mars and Saturn are self-reinforcing due to being in Mutual Reception, and so are in signs harmonious to each other. As neither Mars nor Saturn has any significant afflictions, overall this shows a very productive building energy for the next 90 days.
Areas most affected by the Sun septile Saturn are 7-11 Scorpio, 29 Sagittarius-3 Capricorn, 20-24 Aquarius, 12-16 Aries, 3-7 Gemini, 24-28 Cancer, and 15-19 Virgo. Students of the craft will note these were the hot zones of the Grand Irrationality between 2006-2009, so this Solstice will show Saturn crystallizing some of the choices we made then, through our dominion or bondage. In any case, we’ll ALL be doing “repair work,” as per Saturn’s symbol.
That also implies in the next 90 days, we’ll see even more significant developments each time any of these zones is transited. That means Saturn will keep the configuration “hot” through the entire season. That makes New Years’ Eve and Day important (Mercury), Jan 7-12 (Venus), Jan 18-27 (Mars), Jan 29-Feb 3 (Mercury), Feb 17-22 (Venus), as well as every time the Moon transits any of these 7 zones. Expect significant worldly developments in each of these time spans just noted, so mark your calendars accordingly. What happens may not be personal, but things will be in motion in the world at large.
Other forming aspects of note (those showing future patterns; separating aspects show things past) are Moon trine Mercury, binovile Mars, septile Jupiter, and semisquare Neptune; Mercury novile Mars, tredecile Uranus and quintile Neptune, Venus opposed Jupiter, Mars binovile Saturn, the Jupiter Yod spoken of earlier and Jupiter sextile Uranus, Saturn biquiintile Uranus and sextile Pluto in the Yod, and again we confront a forming Uranus square Pluto, indicative of the massive upheaval and revolutionary transformation of our times.
Of definite importance are that the Moon, Mercury, and Mars create a novile series of active points. These 9 “spiritual sensitive” zones involve “realization points” at 4-8 of the Water signs, 14-18 degrees of the Fire signs, and 24-28 of the Earth signs. Given the planets involved, it will bring an element of new forms of greater fulfillment being glimpsed, acted upon, and dramatically expressed, along with social-emotional inspiration, interaction, and practical group work. Here what was awakened and set into motion in Spring 2011 will acquire much clearer shape.
The novile series aspects between Moon, Mercury, and Mars show things going into or coming out of gestation, due to spiritual factors, to everything related to or ruled by these planets, and bring a spiritualizing energy to the extreme irrationality coming down the next 90 days indicated by the Sun septile Saturn and Moon septile Jupiter. So the Moon, Mercury, and Mars are locked into a zone of spiritual realization after a long wait, with the Moon critical in precipitating major decisions and shifts in the houses where we have Aries, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Sagittarius, and Pisces.
The Moon septile Jupiter activates 14-18 Aries, 6-10 Gemini, 27 Cancer-1 Leo, 19-23 Virgo, 10-14 Scorpio, 1-5 Capricorn, and 23-27 Aquarius. And yes, it overlaps with the zones of the Sun septile Saturn, doubling the influence! Pay very close attention to whenever the Moon crosses any of these 7 spans, as well as 2 degrees earlier!! And if you have planets in any of the element spans just listed, welcome to where Eternity Boulevard intersects with Realization Row!
Here’s the link to the article on the very power Finger of God at work in December. This is important because it impacts the next several months and sets major patterns for the next series of Yods to come in late March around the time of the coming Vernal (Spring) Equinox at 4:02 am PDT, 7:02 am EDT, 11:02 am (Greenwich Standard time) March 20, 2013. Yes, this Yod is a prelude to the 2 interlocking Yods at play then!!
Astrology in December 2012 - The Yod, or Finger of God, Preparing Us For the Winter Solstice Shifts!
Those who want a broader view of the larger forces at work may want to check out the long wave cycle set into motion when Jupiter conjuncted Pluto at the Galactic Center a few years ago at Jupiter Conjunct Pluto at the Galactic Center - What Does It Mean? In that you’ll find links to previous articles to the exact Pluto conjunct the GC, as well as when other planets conjuncted the GC.
Pluto conjuncts the GC every 250 years, and marks the “eighth note” in the larger cycle of a Great Age. The “Octile Pulse” releases powerful energies across the centuries, where major shifts in global thinking and acting occur.
In a final nod, Solstice 2010 had the Sun conjunct Pluto with the North Node in Capricorn. This was a major factor in the Lunar Eclipse that occurred then, which became a strong developmental force pulling all of us into future growth that we demonstrated through the South Node in Cancer in 2011.
Given the degrees that were set into play in that Sun conjunct NN and Pluto, we experienced an intense activation of the urge for new experiences, new ways of "authoring" our roles in our world, with maximum growth arising from the purity of our motive demonstrating our free will so that we could transcend limitations through radical detachment. We all had to mobilize to bring order out of chaos as we moved through "trials of endurance" showing our commitment to the new roles we’ve been playing since then. For more, please revisit the article on Winter Solstice 2010.
Enjoy digesting the information in this article, and I’ll post part two soon!
As "they" say, Mahalo, Aloha, Namaskarams, Aum Namah Shivaya, Happy and Merry Solstice, Happy Hanukkah, Merry Christmastide, Joyous Christ Mass, and Happy New Year!
© Copyright 2012 Robert Wilkinson
Thank you Robert for another insightful article. We do indeed seem poised for a great evolutionary leap. Watching the video of strangers in NYC singing "All you need is Love" to drown out a bigot gives me hope. There is still good in the world.
Posted by: dcu | December 19, 2012 at 11:32 PM