The quieter you become, the more you can hear— Rumi.
The sun rests low on the horizon, spilling light through living room windows, igniting Christmas baubles that dazzle behind bay windows. There may still be gifts to buy and to wrap, potatoes to peel, and that last dash to the grocery store to buy the cream we’ve forgotten, Yet, tonight in the womb of darkness, the astrology of midwinter offers a moment to pause, even for a moment, to give thanks for this year now almost gone.
Inscribed across the heavens, the astrology of midwinter speaks of endings and renewal. The old sun symbolically dies at Yule. A new sun is born. Just two days before the midwinter solstice, a new moon nestles in the dark womb of the sky as we tenderly acknowledge the anniversaries of the heart—the death of a loved one, the day we started our new job, the moment we bravely stopped a self-destructive habit, or defied our fear, and said yes to love.
The final new moon of the year is in Sagittarius, a sign usually associated with optimism, vision and faith. Yet this new moon makes an uncomfortable square to the doleful union of Saturn and Neptune, both planets still swimming through the last degrees of Pisces, since October, the final sign of the zodiac.
As Mars squared Neptune earlier this week, news of the senseless shootings in Bondi and Brown University weighed heavily on hearts already saturated with sorrow, nervous systems already strung too tight to hold yet one more shock.
Neptune moves into Aries on January 27th while Saturn lingers in Pisces till the day before Valentine’s Day, so we have a few more weeks of this oppressive, enervating collective energy to wade through. Saturn/Neptune conjunctions in Pisces so often accompany emotional and physical exhaustion, cloak deception, or engender pitiful disillusion. This week, Venus also squares Neptune and Saturn, accenting themes of disillusion, blurring truth and lies.
On December 22nd the sun moves into Capricorn, marking the mid-winter solstice here in the north. As ambassador of the mid-winter darkness, Capricorn embodies stoic acceptance, the pared down necessity of wintering through difficult times. The essence of Capricorn is structure, so amidst our midwinter rituals, this is a perfect time for putting things in order, preparing for a spiritual or physical metamorphosis.
The Chinese Zodiac has increasingly become part of the prevailing culture in the west, powered by indiscriminate scrolling and sharing on social media without much curiosity or deeper enquiry. Animals and elements, paired with a year, apparently can be traced by to the Han Dynasty of 201BCE. As the year of the wood snake ends with its powerful serpent energy, many anticipate the year of the fire or red horse as bringing a respite: strength, courage and “good luck”. Yet the last year of the fire horse, in 1966 delivered disruption and war, chaos and mass violence. In China, The Cultural Revolution of 1966 lasted 10 blood-stained years. The astrological weather forecast for 2026 (read my forthcoming new year post) carries the potential for loud, radical, innovation (for better or for worse), the need for resilience to adapt to change beyond human scale.
Venus and Mars are invisible in the heavens now. Mars moved into Capricorn, the sign of his exultation, on December 15th joined by Venus on December 25th prompting us to focus on practicalities, to stay grounded in those things that calm our nervous system, bring peace and comfort to our hearts. From Christmas day to January 6th, Venus and Mars are at the lowest point in their cycle. A symbolic descent into the Underworld of the two planets that symbolise our values: what we love and what we desire. On January 6th all three are exactly conjunct at 16º Capricorn. Venus and Mars are then combust—symbolically consumed by the brilliant rays of the Sun—forged, purified, and weakened according to traditional astrology.
Mercury moved out of his shadow on December 17th, arriving back at the exact degree at which he turned Retrograde, which may bring things to full view, those small details of our daily lives that we might not have noticed in the fog of the Neptune/Saturn conjunction. Now any Retrograde anomalies can’t be blamed for misunderstandings or transport glitches. If we connect with this energy and the introspective mood of the astrology that is inscribed in the night skies now, we may feel the need to rest, to stay quiet for a while.
This is not only an ending of a year but a turning, a moment of re-orientation, a powerful astrological threshold as the heat of the fire-horse yang energy mounts and builds, as planets change signs and make new alignments, all throughout next year.
Take some time to be grateful for the brave, beautiful, uncomfortable moments we have experienced in the months now past. Feel what is beginning to stir and grow in the darkness. Grow quiet. Listen.
Margaret Atwood reminds us, “this is the solstice, the still point of the sun, its cusp and midnight, the year’s threshold and unlocking, where the past lets go of and becomes the future; the place of caught breath, the door of a vanished house left ajar…”
