Happy Solstice my friend. I hope the season is treating you well.

Here in the Pacific Northwest the nights are so long. They spread out into grayish mornings and grayer afternoons. The daytime light is cold, and the Sun stays low in the sky if it’s visible at all behind the clouds. Deciduous trees are bare. Evergreens cast long shadows, keeping the ground cool and wet. I want to stay in bed mostly. Even when I’m up and awake I still feel like I’m dreaming. My entire being craves quiet.

We’ve reached one of the quarterly crossing points of the year. This is a time when the light balance of day and night is at its most extreme between the two hemispheres of our planet. Tomorrow, the Earth, in its yearly rotation around the Sun, will reach a point where the rays of the Sun’s light will cross the Tropic of Capricorn. We’ll experience the longest night in the Northern Hemisphere and the longest day in the Southern Hemisphere. The day after tomorrow, the pull of Earth’s gravity on its axis will then begin to shift towards a steady sixth-month incline that brings the Northern Hemisphere closer to the Sun, to our Summer, and the Southern Hemisphere toward its Winter season.

Solstices are the twice-yearly crossing points of longest day and night, or greatest light and dark, which mark two halves of the Tropical year. Halfway between the Solstices are the Equinoxes, also known as equal nights, the times of year when light and dark are balanced. These times in a year are one of our oldest methods of timekeeping. Noticing and honoring their passing is a way to notice and honor the cycles of the Earth as it moves from hot to cold, wet to dry, dark to light. These times are also fundamental in understanding what Astrology is, and how it works.

Astrology is the oldest observational practice. It observes the effects of light: on our planet and its seasons, in our bodies and their cycles. What season surrounds you? How do you feel in this light? Notice which plants are growing and dying. Hear the seasonal song of insects and animals. Where are you right now? Locate yourself in time and place.

What distinguishes Astrology from other observational methods (science), are stories and sacredness. Astrologers associate light’s qualities and hues with human perspective, mood, behavior. We honor these effects as natural instincts and embodiments of celestial energy. The light of this season is called Capricorn. Its affect is stabilizing and grounding. It helps us remember our boundaries and limits. It teaches us about the nature of time as it passes. We honor the light through commitments and resolutions. We gather with families and friends, offering gifts that mark the passing of time. May the next cycle be one of peace and abundance for us all.

Tonight, the Moon, in its monthly rotation around the Earth, will reach the place where it appears in exact opposition to the Sun. If you’ve been paying attention, you’ve noticed the moonlight getting brighter every night, and its illuminated face growing towards a perfect circle. During a full moon, the Sun’s light reflects back to us at night, enlightening our perspectives, reminding us of duality.

At a full moon when the Sun shines the light of Capricorn, the moon reflects light from the other side. The Moon in Cancer is light that stimulates our needs for safety and assurance. Time passes swiftly indeed. Who are the ones we can count on to take the journey with us? Where is the home that calls us back and keeps us warm when the world outside is too big, too vast, too cold? During the full moon in Cancer we draw in around our own sensitivity. Perhaps our hearts reach out to others and seek to draw them in too. This is a time of year to remember the benefits of giving and gifting. In extending toward each other, we grow more secure in our bonds. May the next cycle bring us all a little closer, a little warmer. Remember, we’re safer together than alone.

I talk more about the astrology of seasons and solstices, the full moon, the eclipses (eclipse season is coming up, now in the Capricorn/Cancer axis), and more. Listen to the podcast here.

In our bodies, Cancer rules the stomach, breasts/chests, breastmilk and tear ducts. Energetically, the light of Cancer teaches us about giving and receiving nourishment and nurturance. In the guided meditation for this full moon I explore themes of satiation and satisfaction, and qualities of attendance to meet our own emotional needs while staying steady with the needs of others. Practice with me here.

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Your audio horoscopes are below. These horoscopes are for the full moon phase, December 22, 2018 - January 5, 2019. Listen for your sun to understand something about your inherent nature and ego, listen for your rising sign to understand more about what's going on in your life right now, listen to your moon sign to understand more about your relationships and emotional landscape. Horoscopes are poetic pieces of mystical suggestion. Take what works and leave the rest. Use the affirmations as questions, metaphors, and reminders. 

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ARIES
Growth is steady, constant, emerging. I receive my influences and conditioning. I make peace with my positioning. I feel the ways that I, uniquely, was made, and will become.
I determine my own path by letting go of the shoulds and ought-to’s. I release ambition that has worn itself out.
I grow in alignment. With integrity and choice. Moment by moment. Day by day.

TAURUS
The wisdom of the universe is accessed in a microsecond. I release the need to know. I am made from all knowledge that has ever been and ever will be.
My mind functions at its best when I am well rested, deeply nourished, and held close by those I love. I make space for these priorities, and trust that I’ll know what I need to know in the moments that I need it.

GEMINI
Self-worth is nothing if it is not solidly rooted in a sense of basic goodness. Any other value systems are conditional, temporary, false.
My basic goodness permeates the space around me. It reflects in my attitudes and belief systems, in my actions and inactions, in what I collect and accumulate, in what I give and strive for.

CANCER
I attend to my self-care first. I listen to my needs first.
It is my responsibility to meet my needs for rest, for space, for alone-time, for joy.
It is a misuse of my time and energy to try and “make” anyone else feel better or act different.
I invite relationships that build responsiveness and agency. We can be free to be, together.

LEO
I release control and management of the details.
I release the need for it all to turn out good in the end.
I release the idea that I might know what to do about any of it.
I surrender to a mystery bigger than I can conceive.
I offer my mind, heart, body, soul to whatever it is that created the sun, moon and stars.
I open myself and let faith fill me.

VIRGO
My friends, family and partners love me for who I am, not who I am trying to be. I embrace my imperfections, they are my perfection.
The future is a place that includes me as I am and will be then. I trust my evolution.

LIBRA
True power comes from my origin. My origin is in the cosmos.
I detach from false powers. I am freed from internalized oppression. I disbelieve and am therefore unaffected by tyrants.
My life’s success will be a sensation in my body. It will feel like safety, like knowing I’m home.
I reach towards tenderness. I am supported to know and give nurturance that sustains and expands around me.

SCORPIO
The words I speak are gentle and graceful. I listen to them internally before I utter them out loud.
I choose language, tone and content that nourishes goodness. My words are healing.
There is no need for force in my communications.
Authority is expressed through empathy.

SAGITTARIUS
I create and maintain safe spaces when I remember and respect everyone’s inherent worthiness and goodness.
I release values I hold that have harmed myself and others through competition and comparison.
I release value systems that are based in material satisfaction or heavenly salvation.
I attend to the here and now. I invest my energy, time, resources and attention in sustainability and healing.

CAPRICORN
The softest space to land is right here. Inside. In my center.
I give myself the love, acceptance, recognition, and belonging that others did not, and do not. I know that in order for me to actually receive what I want from someone else, I have to give them to myself first.
I collect the cast-offs and injuries in my psyche. I call my inner children home. I am at peace with myself, and other are peace with me.

AQUARIUS
I offer myself to sacred service. I am an attendant to the life force. Nothing more, nothing less.
I humbly sense my limits and capacities. The boundaries of my physical body reflect the knowing of nature. The sensitivity of my inner body guides me to make choices that are in tune, in touch, with what is really needed.

PISCES
Joy and pleasure support me. When I offer my time and attention to the activities, hobbies, loves and people who fill my heart and make it bigger… I am supported to the depths of my being.
I remember that I am part of everything around me as it self-creates and unfolds. I offer my best, purest, most heartfelt inspiration to the mix.