The Storied Winter Solstice of 2012

We have all of us in one form or another been awaiting this 2012 Day, December 21st, 2012 – the day foretold in the ancient Mayan calendar as the end of all cycles – and now it is upon us. But what does it really mean?

First of all, cycles end and cycles begin again. That we as a culture are going through a holy time period of massive transformation, of this there can be no doubt. But the timing is broader than just this exciting end-of-year period of the powerful year of 2012. The cultural shift that is taking place has been going on for most of this century, and decade, ramping up through the economic collapse of 2008, when Pluto entered Capricorn, and the shift of Uranus into Aries in the spring of 2011, and the first opening beats of the drum song of change represented by the Uranus-Pluto square, with its first exact hit in June of 2012, as one peak of a longer cycle that lasts from 2008 to 2020. Uranus and Pluto are now joined by Saturn for this winter time frame when some of these cycles have reached their most intense phase.

This day of December 21st, this day of the Winter Solstice, is significant to Western Astrologers as well as Mayan. It is an important day in the pagan calendar, as it is every year, the shortest day of the year and, by definition, therefore the date of the entrance of the Sun into the sign of Capricorn, which takes place at 3:12 AM on the West Coast and at 6:12 AM on the East. The chart for this day is a seed chart for the year to follow.

You can see, as an attachment to this blog entry, the chart of this solstice moment, marking the time when the Sun no longer sinks lower in the sky at the zenith each day but "stands still." The chart is also exciting because of a very precise yod formation to Jupiter, from Pluto and Saturn in exact sextile. The large picture overview of this combination of planets is that social change is inevitable and that structures both societal and within our individual lives must dramatically alter if we are to thrive. I wrote about this in recent days and I will reprint the information here for convenience.

This follow-up phase to the potent New Moon of mid-December features a very close Saturn-Pluto sextile that will be nearly perfect by the end of the week, Friday, December 21st, just as Jupiter also comes in to close quincunx alignment with both, a yod formation focused on this Lord of the Future. The Moon on Wednesday is also conjunct Uranus just as the Sun begins its contact with Pluto, a forming conjunction that will extend into greater strength with the Solstice on Friday, December 21st and grow in intensity over the remainder of this end-of-year period, perfecting on the 30th. We are caught up in the vice of powerful change and we ignore the signals to our detriment, both those of astrological import and those that come to us in the form of tragic current events.

This date of the yod to Jupiter, the 21st, is also of course the date of the storied 2012 Winter Solstice, the Mayan Calendar end date which has received so much attention over the past few years. Certainly according to Western Astrology as well in the Mayan system, we are in the midst of a powerful time of bringing new consciousness into being, in the context of a decade of change. Since media and public attention is more focused, we as a society can benefit now by whatever serves to bring greater awareness to bear on our current situation, which is in fact in desperate need of radical transformation, individually as well as culturally. The very structure of our individual lives, as well as of the society that gives us sustenance, must change in order to survive. This is an extreme statement but one that is called for by the extremity of the times that we are now living through, over these past few years and into the end of this decade of the Turbulent Teens.

With the yod forming from Saturn and Pluto to Jupiter in Gemini, perfecting on the 21st, this end-of-year time, and the year it initiates, is indeed one major focal point of the energy for cultural shift. There is optimism in the Jupiter emphasis, especially to the extent that we can wake up a little and recognize where indeed we are, and who we are. We have a massive opportunity now. We can each one of us become a holographic star point, seeding the cultural transformation that must inevitably follow. When we ignite one candle the darkness recedes by that crucial quantum leap, and we more fully inhabit our true nature as the facilitators of the light.