Winter Solstice 2008

This is a wonderful post by one of my favorite astrologers, Caroline Casey. The Winter Solstice is such a magical time of year; an excellent time to set some goals for our lives.

Check out Caroline's many excellent offerings at:

http://tinyurl.com/8szhyo and

http://www.coyotenetworknews.com/

SOLSTICE INVOCATION FOR TRICKSTER ALLIES
by Caroline Casey

This is the midnight hour of the year, and of 8,000 years of Empire in which humans ceded authority (Saturn) to socio-pathic dingbats. Until now!

This Solstice poses the question: "What must we die to, within and without, lest we die from."

The I Ching chimes in: 24. The Turning Point -- Winter Solstice

"After a time of decay comes the turning point. The powerful light that has been banished returns. There is movement but it is not brought about by force. Societies of people with a unifying vision are formed. But since these groups come together in full public knowledge and are in harmony with the time, all selfish tendencies are excluded, and no mistake is made. Everything comes of itself at the appointed time."

"From deep stillness comes replenishment and the gathering of strategy and wits. Not striving, but calm and merriment.

"The Winter Solstice has always been celebrated as the resting time of the year. In winter the life energy is still underground. Movement is just at its beginning; therefore it must be strengthened by rest, so that it will not be dissipated by being used prematurely.

"The return of health after illness, the return of understanding after an estrangement; everything must be treated tenderly and with care at the beginning, so that the return may lead to flowering."

Now more than ever.

All of Creation is holding its breath at this deep time, anticipating the birth, within each human heart, of wonder and a willingness to cooperate with everything. May we kindle the warm glow of Trickster kindness, within us all, transform our emotional default setting to one of "Woof
Woof, wanna play!?!" Each moment awaits our imaginative dedication.

So let's toss all that is neither beautiful nor useful into the roiling cauldron of re-birth, that Time is so kindly providing us. Let's compost all past- patterns of self-sabotage, personal and collective, for starters.

And let's bow at the threshold of this New Year, to release and redeem all that we do not wish to take with us through the door. Remorse is said to be the highest of the negative states, the closest to clarity --because we see and feel all those times when we didn't respond to life's "woof woof wanna play?!" When we fell for the compelling illusion of separateness, and forgot that we are all in one large, pulsing, shape-shifting-according-to-collaborative-intent dream.

The Sufi, and we with her, gently pats her heart and whispers "estafirahlah" "forgiveness of self and others." And may "forgive" mean "to give energy for change."

The protoplasm of reality is particularly susceptible to imprint now, by the power of word, language, story and metaphor. Allowing ourselves one true hyperbole: Never before has the power of human story-telling been so essential in determining what dies and what lives.

Let us dedicate ourselves to animating the desirable story. (To do otherwise would be complicitous with the evolutionary dead-end of empire.) We suck the chi of our complicity from that which is dying, and exhale into the blooming of dynamic collaborative kinship. We are here to re-dedicate ourselves to the responsibility of dreaming the desirable world into being.

Saturnalia: Deeper Dedication is the anti-dote to fear, as feeling useful is the anti-dote to depression. There -- that's handled.

So, let's visualize and dedicate, wherever we are around the Solstice time, and journeying on into this powerful Winter, that we are offering our unique and necessary Medicine, into the collective cauldron brew, and ladling ourselves a cup of All-Heal.

Trickster Medicine is really the sine qua non that brings all the other medicines into bubbling accord to produce the elixir of Dynamic Reverent Ingenuity.


- CAROLINE CASEY

New Moon in Sagittarius - setting goals

Thanksgiving 2008......a day to remember gratitude and spend time with friends and family, but today is very significant astrologically too!

• Uranus, the planet of Revolution is turning Direct ~ watch for eruptions, sudden events, breakthroughs in science and tumultuous change and revolution, particularly in the world of computers and the internet. Sadly, I think the attacks in Mumbai might be related to Uranus's station.
• Pluto has moved into Capricorn for the first time in 200 years ~ the economic collapse announced the beginning of this shift. Capricorn is a sign of roots, reality and money, and brings an end to speculation idealism. It's time for hard work and earned income. Also, the last time Pluto was in Capricorn was the birth of our nation; how fabulous that we've elected such an articulate, intelligent and focused new President! Our first African American President!!
  
• It's a New Moon in Sagittarius! Yay! Sagittarius is the sign of the Archer. The archer aims and shoots his arrow. This is the time of year to set some goals. I ran across this great article today by Peter Spellman and thought I'd share it with you:

Turning Your Goals Into Successes

Success is often defined as the progressive realization of a worthwhile goal. I like that. If you are doing the things that are moving you toward the attainment of your goal today, then you are successful even if you are not there yet. It’s the goal that starts the whole journey (another way of saying this is, “the journey is the goal”).

An illuminating study on goal setting sponsored by the Ford Foundation found that:

• 23% of the population has no idea what they want from life and as a result they don’t have much.
• 67% of the population has a general idea of what they want but they don’t have any plans for how to get it;
• Only 10% of the population has specific, well-defined goals, but even then, 7 out of the 10 of those people reach their goals only half the time;
• The top 3%, however, achieved their goals 89% of the time – an .890 batting average!

What accounts for the dramatic difference between that top 3% and the others? Are you ready?: The top 3% wrote down their goals. Are you laughing yet? It can’t be that simple! Or can it?

Dreams and wishes are not goals until they are written as specific end results on paper. In some very real sense, writing them down materializes them. Goals have been described as “dreams with a deadline”. Written, specific goals provide direction and focus to our activities. They become a road map to follow, and the mind tends to follow what’s in front of it.

New band businesses tend to ignore the future consequences of their actions or inaction. Perhaps the most important task during the early days is to tune your attitude. Expect a positive outcome. Thicken your skin. Avoid reading evil motives into every adverse occurrence.

Notes for the Optimist

• Everything takes longer than you expect
• Everything costs more than you expect
• Plan on working hard for your dreams
• Always have a Plan B in your back pocket just in case.

Peter Spellman is Director of Career Development at Berklee College of Music, Boston. This article is from his new book, Plan Your Band!
(2007, Music Business Solutions).

Quote for the Day

You can make excuses, or you can make changes.....but you cannot make both!
-- Author unknown

Happy Halloween

Orange to Black
Orange to Black
and Black to Orange with Smiling Jack

All Hallows Eve has arrived. Our celebration is even more magickal this year as Halloween stands on the eve of one of the most important US elections in history. Trickster is one of the rulers of Halloween and is presiding over November 4th as well (cross all your fingers and toes). Hecate, the great dark goddess of sorcery and magic also walks among us, but her interest lies in helping us release anything we've outgrown that no longer serves us.

What will you offer to Hecate's altar this Halloween? What will you sacrifice to be burned in her altar flame?

Hecate also rules childbirth. She can also in manifesting the new life you want to bring forth. She is hugely powerful, and can hear your quietest whispers.....see your deepest thoughts and desires. Don't hesitate to call on her, the Mother of us All.

Hecate is often envisioned as a trinity in and of herself as well, and has three heads, symbolizing the access she had to heaven, earth and the underworld. She often carries a torch and a knife, the torch symbolizing her connection to the moon and night and the knife as her role of one the midwives that hid Zeus before his father, Cronus, could consume him.