Winter Solstice and the First Quarter Moon

  

The winter solstice marked by the Sun’s entry into Capricorn is a very significant event in astrology. It celebrates the longest hours of darkness or the rebirth of the sun and is believed to hold a powerful energy for regeneration, renewal and self-reflection.

This year’s winter solstice is even more important since it is accompanied by the Great Conjunction of Jupiter-Saturn.  These two major events take place as the Moon reaches its First Quarter (FQ). Charts for the phases of the Moon are among the most reliable indicators of events on earth. This is especially so at places where they bring significant planetary aspects to the horizon or meridian. Moon phases act as  local “step down transformers” for powerful energies generated by far away stars and planets that they aspect.

Shown here is the chart for the FQ moon drawn for Washington DC.  Notice that it brings the Mars-Pluto square to the horizon axis. Pluto in Capricorn brings up incidents linked to the use and abuse of power.  This  is now being challenged by the square from Mars.

Recall that Mars is  the need to prove oneself, while Pluto represents the transformed ego. If the lower levels of the  square are being expressed, the individual is seeking to force the  will upon others for the sheer sake of power OVER others.  When the higher aspects of the square is being expressed, there will be a positive determination to transform social issues that require this transforming touch.

Readers unfamiliar with Sabian symbols will be surprised by how vividly the images describe a situation. Presented below are the  Sabian symbols for the Sun [0cp34] and the Moon [0ar34] in the chart for the FQ Moon.

PHASE 271 (CAPRICORN 1°): AN INDIAN CHIEF CLAIMS POWER FROM THE ASSEMBLED TRIBE.

KEYNOTE: The power and responsibility implied in any claim for leadership.

The words "chief" and "capital" come from the same Latin word, caput, meaning "head." A time comes in many lives when the individual finds himself placed in a situation that allows him to assume power over his comrades, however limited this power may be. Is he ready to do this effectively and responsibly? This is the supreme test of man in society. It refers to the capacity latent in every individual to claim and assume AUTHORITY in a vital group-situation. https://bit.ly/3paGhNZ

PHASE 1 (ARIES 1°): A WOMAN JUST RISEN FROM THE SEA. A SEAL IS EMBRACING HER. 

KEYNOTE: Emergence of new forms and of the potentiality of consciousness.

This is the first of the 360 phases of a universal and multilevel cyclic process which aims at the actualization of a particular set of potentialities. These potentialities, in the Sabian symbols, refer to the development of man's individualized consciousness — the consciousness of being an individual person with a place and function (a "destiny") in the planetary organism of the Earth, and in a particular type of human society and culture.

To be individually conscious means to emerge out of the sea of generic and collective consciousness — which to the emerged mind appears to be unconsciousness. Such an emergence is the primary event. It is the result of some basic action: a leaving behind, an emerging from a womb or matrix, here symbolized by the sea.

Such an action is not to be considered a powerful, positive statement of individual being. In the beginning is the Act; but it is often an imperceptible, insecure act. The small tender germ out of the seed does not loudly proclaim its existence. It has to pierce through the crust of the soil still covered with the remains of the past. It is all potentiality and a minimum of actual presence.

In the symbol, therefore, the emergent entity is a Woman; symbolically speaking, a form of existence still close to the unconscious depths of generic biological nature, filled with the desire to be rather than self-assertion. The woman is seen embraced by a seal because the seal is a mammal which once had experienced a biological, evolutionary but relatively unconscious emergence, yet which retraced its steps and "returned to the womb" of the sea. The seal, therefore, represents a regressive step. It embraces the Woman who has emerged, because every emergent process at first is susceptible to failure. This process is indeed surrounded by the memory, the ghosts of past failures during previous cycles. The impulse upward is held back by regressive fear or insecurity; the issue of the conflict depends on the relative strength of the future-ward and the past-ward forces.

The possibility of success and that of failure is implied throughout the entire process of actualization. Every release of potentiality contains this two-fold possibility. It inevitably opens up two paths: one leads to "perfection" in consciousness, the other to "disintegration" - the return to the undifferentiated state (the state of humus, manure, cosmic dust - i.e. to the symbolic "great Waters of space," to chaos)

This symbol characterizes the first of five stages which are repeated at three levels. This stage represents the initial statement, or theme, of the five-fold series which refers to the first level: IMPULSE TO BE.

Notice how relevant these symbols are in the current context of the US elections and the issues facing President Trump who is now at a stage where he needs to answer the need described by the symbols. How he does it or whether he does it at all depends entirely on him. Remember, the stars only tell us what is required to be done, they do not force us to do anything.

Readers personally affected by the FQ Moon may like to rethink how they may have allowed a situation to deteriorate. The crisis implied in the FQ Moon is essentially about claiming one’s power to transform or regenerate one’s life.