Soul for Solstice

Solstice literally translates as “Sun stand still.”

The darkness of Winter Solstice, currently on December 21, marks the entry or birth window to the womb space that receives the Spirit Seed of our being. Our Soul must be prepared to receive, tend and nurture this seed for growth in the new year.

Each year, a droplet of our Highest Potential is planted within us with this Spirit Seed…if we’re willing to receive it. As we open with receptivity to, and pause in stillness for the ignition of the Light of our Inner Sun, we birth ourselves anew. This is the Soul’s journey, a traversing in a spiraling pattern through the seasons of the year, potentized each year as we integrate and digest our experiences, and let go of what’s no longer needed for our destiny path.

The Winter Solstice 2020 (Summer Solstice in the southern hemisphere) is being accompanied by a powerful conjunction in the heavens of Saturn and Jupiter. This is the same conjunction that many astronomers believe was seen by the Magi traveling to bring gifts to the Christ Child over 2000 years ago.

While we turn inward, receiving a drop of our Spirit Light as the Sun stands still in the northern hemisphere, those in the southern hemisphere can open to sharing that Spirit Light as they turn outward toward the world with the ripening light of their being. What a beautiful picture of the holding of both polarities that is possible with such consciousness!

If you’ve followed me for some time, you know that I have a deep passion for looking at the world through the lens of archetypes. This means that within every legend, ancient story, and sacred text, I choose to explore the archetypes within them that our Soul can gain wisdom from.

In the story of the birth of Christ, I see the story of our own individual birth of the Sacred Light within us.

Similarly, every miracle, character, god, goddess, event, etc. in sacred texts can be viewed as an archetype of possibility for our inner development.

The Grand Conjunction of 2020 between Saturn and Jupiter on the December Solstice is said to mark the conception point of a new era. As I’ve researched a number of various stories, astronomical indications, and lore, I found many beautiful interpretations that we can consider archetypally to find resonance in our Soul for development.

In ancient Rome, the Roman Pagans celebrated the Saturnalia Festival in honor of the God Saturn from December 17 to 23, which led up to the Solstice at that time on the Julian calendar, somewhere between December 23rd and 25th according to various sources. Many believe Christmas was dated according to this, and I wholeheartedly believe that Christianity pulled many of its dates from the Pagan/Indigenous traditional festivals that honored dates according to the natural rhythms of the planets and stars. Sadly, there’s only one Christian holiday that still honors this rhythm, Easter, while all others are a fixed date on the calendar, thus not always corresponding precisely to what’s happening in Nature.

Saturn was once considered “Lady Saturn,” a dark womb goddess of initiation and transformation. This resonates deeply with me, especially considering the Saturn return in our biographies that always seems to come with such significant change. This kind of initiation is indeed the work of the “Dark Mother” as I’ve often referred to Her. She is represented by the dark forest or desert in fairy tales and ancient sacred texts.

There is also the story of the Reindeer Mother of the north, who rebirths the world between the festivals of Samhain at the end of October and Imbolc at the beginning of February. The Solstice is seen as a “crowning,” while January 6, Epiphany, is seen as the Mother’s Christmas, or “the birth,” after which there are 40 days until Imbolc to nurture and tend the new life before bringing it forth. In my Solace program, we speak of the “quickening seed” that we experience within us around the time of Imbolc, giving us a hint of what might have been birthed during the dark womb time of Winter.

There’s no question that the depth of Winter is filled with the mystery of rebirth. It’s up to us to consciously choose how we meet this time.

Are we receptive to that birth?
Are we willing to tend the Spirit Seed being offered to us?
How can we make the most of this time to allow it to initiate and transform us on our path to realizing our Highest Potential?

Astronomically (i.e. not according to western/tropical astrology, but according to the actual locations of the planets in the constellations), the Great Conjunction of December 21, 2020 is happening at 5° Capricorn. Capricorn asks us to remember and cultivate Courage.

We might consider what “memories” are stored in the heavens at this location in the zodiac. The Magi (3 Kings) are believed to have brought gifts to the Christ Child on December 26, 6 BCE, when the Sun was at 6° Capricorn, only 1° from location the 2020 Great Conjunction. The miracle of turning Water into Wine was also believed to have happened at 8° Capricorn, only 3° from the Great Conjunction moment of 2020.

What a lovely thought to consider as we enter this Solstice moment.

How are we turning water into wine in our lives?
What gifts are we offering, i.e. how are we honoring, the Light birthing within us?
Are we willing to embark upon and/or acknowledge the journey it’s taken us to bring this offering?

Saturn, as the dark Goddess of initiation, is coming into union (conjunction) with Jupiter, the God of abundance, spirituality, growth/expansion toward our Higher Self. The Dark Goddess in union with the Expansive God offers us the opportunity to meet our shadow, own our past, and offer new life to our future. This union can bring birth to a sense of harmony and balance that has been long needed…between light and dark, masculine and feminine, past and future.

The last time we saw a conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter so close was in 1226 at the time when the Cathars were being persecuted for their honoring of the Sacred Feminine, which went underground at that time. This conjunction might bring up ancient wounds of this Feminine suppression, even while bringing an opportunity for healing. The Cathars prophesied that they would return in 700 years offering the “Way of Love.” That time is now!

Perhaps many of us who have longed for “our time” are finding that time alighting upon us. Perhaps Saturn is shifting from the more masculine Chronos (linear time) archetype associated with it, to the more feminine Kairos (right timing) archetype.

This December 2020 Solstice might be reflected upon as a Holy Grail opening of awakening inner wisdom. On this darkest day of the year (northern hemisphere), we can bring the remembering of our roots, the darkness from which we’ve come, while offering that remembering in the full light of our being (southern hemisphere) on the longest day of the year.

We are experiencing a birth with this beautiful conjunction on the Solstice. Birth can feel like a tearing apart, but also be experienced as a blissful heart opening. Which will you choose?

In a time when there is so much trying to tempt us away from our True Self, it’s ever more important that we engage our will forces, activated by the alignment of our thoughts and feelings, connected to the potency of our Inner Wisdom.

May we align our Soul to receive the potent gifts being offered during this Solstice.

May this Great Conjunction on the December Solstice of 2020, the new Christmas Star, ignite the Sacred Light within all of us, and serve as a powerful portal to the Sacred Nights of Winter in which we tend the Spirit Seed being planted within us.

May we open our Soul to receive the gift of Solstice.

 

Inspiration for this Article: Astronomical references come from the Star Wisdom research of Robert Powell in his book Chronicle of the Living Christ. Other inspiration comes from Seren Bertrand and references to her books Womb Awakening and Magdalene Mysteries.

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