Joy to the World - May Peace Reign on Earth
Welcome to the December 6, 2014 Full Moon in Gemini, Sagittarius Solar Festival, Winter Solstice, Hanukkah and Christmas edition of the Satya Center Cosmic Weather Forecast newsletter.
Warm greetings from your co-Editors, Curtis Lang and Jane Sherry.
Winter rains have come to California! Here in the East San Francisco Bay city of Antioch, Jane and I have been enjoying several days of off and on pouring rainstorms, gorgeous full-spectrum sunsets, mornings of thick fog on the hilltops, nights when we awaken to the sweet sounds of rainwater rushing throughour downspouts, and air that no longer smells like rush hour LA during a temperature inversion smog warning day.
We are grateful! There are no mudslides in our town, or nearby, and although we had water covering ¼ of our backyard patio, it never threatened our back door.
We are hoping for more rain to come. . .without a few months of weekly rainstorms like this, California’s drought will continue.
Weather forecasters were caught by surprise this week. They had not predicted a rain event quite this robust because their computer models provided conflicting datasets prior to the recent rainstorm, and apparently their long-range forecasts are even more unreliable.
So we will have to simply enjoy the moment, continue to conserve water, and prepare for the worst while remaining open to the best possible outcome.
December 2014 Cosmic Weather Forecast
December provides some positive stellar aspects in the midst of what has been a continuous barrage of contentious astrological figures in the sky that have perfected and persisted throughout this year, as our readers no doubt recall.
The Cosmic Weather Forecast for December is somewhat analogous to our rainy California week, a blissful respite from a very challenging long-term forecast that has not run its course by any means.
This month the Full Moon occurs on December 6, at 4:27 AM Pacific Time, or 7:27 AM Eastern Time. The Moon will be at approximately 15º Gemini and the opposing Sun will rest at 15º Sagittarius.
This Lunar Festival has a big upside!
This Mercurial Full Moon in Gemini (which is an Air sign ruled by Mercury) will be in a harmonious trine to Mars, which entered the Air sign of Aquarius on December 4, 2014, and the combination should create a powerful vortex of transpersonal mental activity that will sharpen the intellectual faculties, provide increased access to Higher Mind, and spark a strong increase in spontaneous sharing, amplifying Holiday feelings of community this week and throughout the month to come.
You can expect epic conversations at holiday gatherings, and don’t be surprised if even the most reticent and private individuals start opening up in surprising and enlightening ways.
If you have a lot on your mind this month, whether it’s personal or business related, you would do well to seek the advice of your most trusted advisers, friends and family, and then forge a plan based upon sustained communal brainstorming. The results may provide you with important new insights into previously intractable problems and you may be delighted to find the way forward to be more accessible and more promising than you had previously imagined.
Air signs and Fire signs will predominate this Full Moon. Sun, Mercury and Venus will be in Sagittarius, with Jupiter in Leo, while the Moon is in Gemini and Mars is in Aquarius.
The leaden feeling of delay, sluggishness, fear and depression that has plagued us all off and on throughout this challenging year will be substantially mitigated by the combustible mixture of Fire and Air that should help to get us all moving forward in our lives again.
This is an extremely auspicious Full Moon for any type of spiritual practice that is designed to increase the flow of prana, chi, or kundalinishakti in mind, body and aura. Subtle energies are associated with the element of Fire, and this Full Moon the subtle fires will be fanned by the planets in transpersonal Air signs. Clearly the best results for practitioners will be obtained with group spiritual practices, but that is not to say that solitary individuals will not benefit from these extremely potent planetary positions.
These same aspects do have a potential downside as well, so it’s best to be prepared should the more pear-shaped probabilities manifest in your reality.
The combination of Air and Fire can be extremely volatile, over-heated, over-aggressive, over-mental and potentially a little ungrounded, especially when challenged by difficult planetary conditions, such as we are experiencing throughout this year of 2014 and beyond.
The infamous series of squares between Uranus in Aries and Pluto in Capricorn, which began a few years ago, and which comprise a subset of the permutations of the Grand Cardinal Cross series of outer planet aspects that began with the collapse of Lehman Brothers and the global financial crisis, and which continue through next spring, has been dominating the Cosmic Weather Patterns for Planet Earth for quite some time now.
Over the last month Uranus and Pluto have been in a waxing square, which perfects on December 15, and remains within extremely close proximity to exact through next March, when the final exact square in the series manifests.
The Cardinal Cross Climax, a series of planetary aspects encompassing about seven years, from 2008 through spring 2015, is a very rare astrological configuration, which indicates a time of total transformation, on a vast scale. The institutions of an entire civilization have outworn their present forms, and new conditions require entirely new social cofigurations.
We are the very first planetary civilization in Earth’s recorded history to respond to the challenge and the opportunity signaled by the Grand Cardinal Cross. The awareness of the failure of current political, social, financial and cultural institutions to provide for humanity’s future pervaded the daily news reports I saw over the last month, while the Uranus-Puto square was so very activated.
In America, we were stunned by the weeks of intense protests in Ferguson, Missouri, in the wake of the police shooting of Michael Brown, which triggered what appears to be a growing nation-wide 21st century civil rights movement. The policeman who shot Brown was freed by a grand jury and this triggered a second round of intense protest.
Now, as I write this, the TV is filled with reports of intense protests in Grand Central Station and thousands are marching throughout New York city, where a policeman used a strangle hold on a black man accused of selling black market cigarettes on the street, killing the street vendor in the process. The policeman was just released by the grand jury, which declined to bring the policeman to trial.
For the first time in decades, we are hearing a public discussion about the pervasive racism that still defines American society, and debate about the systemic failure of the legal and justice system to protect the civil rights of African-Americans and other minorities and to hold America’s increasingly militarized police forces accountable for the use of deadly force in minority neighborhoods, often in response to minor offenses.
During the last month, America began to have a public discussion about the failure of American democracy, itself. There is a growing sense among American voters that one-man one-vote democracy is an illusion, and that the reality of American political life is that one dollar equals one vote.
The .01% of American billionaires are becoming the dominant voices in the American political system, in both parties, as they are now allowed to provide unlimited funds to American politicians, thanks to the Citizens United decision of the Supreme Court in 2010. It is hardly surprising that those who pay the politicians will be setting the political agenda, and exercising secret veto power to prevent any changes they oppose from taking place.
The power of the new American Oligarchy was the subject of an excellent interview in November, when TV news personality Bill Moyers interviewed Internet Guru and campaign finance reform activist Lawrence Lessig during a show entitled How Public Power Can Defeat Plutocrats.
Lessig discussed a Princeton University study of American public policy conducted by Professors Martin Gilens and Ben Page, billed as the largest empirical study of actual policy decisions by our government in American history.
The results of the study were disheartening for all those who favor a robust American democracy.
The Princeton study found a direct correlation between the desires of the economic elite and the enactment of specific items of proposed public policy into law.
“As the percentage of economic elite who support an idea goes up, the probability of it passing goes up,” Lessig told Moyers.
On the other hand, when a majority of individual voters support a public policy idea, there is zero correlation with the enactment of proposed policy ideas into law.
In other words, if a majority of Americans want clean air and clean water, a transparent financial system free of fraud, and an end to elections held hostage to the unlimited campaign contributions of a handful of eccentric billionaires of varied ideological persuasions, each one pursuing an extremely individualistic policy agenda, there is roughly zero chance they will get what they want – unless a majority of the American Oligarchy want the same thing.
“. . .We can go from zero percent of the average voters caring about something to 100 percent and it doesn't change the probability of it actually being enacted,” Lessig told Moyers. “And when you look at those numbers, that graph . . . that flat line is a metaphor for [the heartbeat of] our democracy.”
“Our democracy is flatlined,” Lessig concluded. “. . .We don't have a democracy anymore."
So we are beginning to hear political rhetoric that would be right at home in the infamous Nineteen Sixties, when a historic Uranus-Pluto conjunction occurred synchronistically with the 20th Century’s American Cultural Revolution.
The stirrings of a new, 21st Century American Cultural Revolution are abroad in the airwaves and Wi-Fi signals saturating our land from sea to polluted sea. But the stirrings have produced nothing but angst, anger, outrage, and endless analysis to date.
It is clear that understanding of the gravity of the situation we inhabit has begun to permeate the American mass consciousness however.
The Weather Channel website reported this week that over ¾ of the American public now believe that global climate change is in fact an unfolding reality that will shape our entire future as a culture, and as individuals – within our own lifetimes! Americans may not agree on the causes of this environmental imbalance, or of the types of solutions that are necessary to maintain an environment that is suitable for human habitation, but at least they are beginning to agree that there is a problem.
Of course, nothing can be done, at present, unless the public policies addressing the climate change issue are in the best interests of the American Oligarchy. So there is a sense of frustration growing as people wake up to the gravity of the situation.
On the personal level, there’s a certain tension in the air, and a feeling that there’s perhaps more to be done this month, this year, and in years to come, than can comfortably be achieved, either as individuals or in the groups to which we belong. Nerves can fray, family and friends can become surprising sources of irritation, and everyone in the group can be a little too pushy for anyone’s comfort.
So this Holiday Season it’s best to turn on the inner emotional radar and stay tuned in to the collective consciousness! Make a conscious effort to be aware of the group vibration, and of the ways different individuals are reacting to events, while working at the same time to radiate joy, light, merriment and love. The returns for your efforts will be reflected back to you in an outpouring of positive feedback from all those around you!
The Sabian Symbol for the Sun at 15º Sagittarius is “The ground hog looking for its shadow on groundhog day.”
Here we have a symbol of the world’s most famous long-range weather forecaster in the midst of a process designed to predict the progress of winter’s seasonal cycle.
Will winter, the season least amicable to human and plant life alike, be over soon? That’s what we all want to know as 2014 draws to a close. When will we get some relief from these difficult conditions?
Just like the weather forecasters in California who can’t predict whether or not the drought will end, we are confronted with unprecedented, complicated, mutable and hard to quantify conditions in our social, physical and cultural environment.
Never has the ground hog been so confused by the look of his own shadow!
Sometimes, when we are at a crossroads in a time of momentous change, such as we inhabit now on Planet Earth, we must be willing to keep two or more conflicting sets of probabilistic outcomes in our minds simultaneously. This is sometimes the best that even the most advanced scientific and spiritual practices can provide for us.
In such turbulent times there is an opportunity for each of us, individually and collectively, in the groups with which we are entwined, to engage in some creative visualization, some scenario planning.
It is time to pool our mental resources, do our diligent research, and combine our insights to construct some future scenarios that indicate our best crystallization of the current probabilities going forward.
Then we can begin to prepare for a future that seems both full of bright hope and simultaneously inhabited by dark fears for our entire electronically interconnected global civilization.
In support of this analysis, the Sabian Symbol for the Moon at 15º Gemini is “Two Dutch children talking to each other, sharing their knowledge.” So let the brainstorming begin!
Jane and I wish each of you a clear mind, a warm heart, a sensitive social antenna, and a loving group of friends with which to share this Holiday Season.
The Winter Solstice, Archangel Gabriel and the Gabriel Meditation
The Winter Solstice Festival occurs on Wednesday, December 21, 2014.
In our article, The Winter Solstice Gabriel Meditation, we are pleased to offer you instructions for obtaining The Gabriel Initiation, a simplified version of an Ancient meditation technique that was originally offered only to advanced students of the Western Mystery School traditions.
Those who wish to participate in the Esoteric Mysteries, the Wisdom School Teachings of Mystical Masters of the East and West, are encouraged to call upon Archangel Gabriel, the Guardian Archangel who presides over The Winter Solstice and the winter season at this most sacred time of year.
Gabriel is the Archangel known as the Leader of the Heavenly Hosts, the Messenger of the Lord. As Messenger of the Lord, Gabriel is first and foremost the Archangel of Vision, and also the Archangel of revelation, creativity and faithful service.
As Messenger of the Lord, Gabriel appeared to the Shepherds in the Fields near Bethlehem on Christmas Eve, and announced to them the Nativity of Jesus Christ.
Gabriel is often pictured with a trumpet, because he is expected to return at the Second Coming of Christ to announce the Turning of the Aeons, the Resurrection of the Dead, and the Last Judgement.
In the Western Mystery School Tradition, the Winter Solstice is traditionally the time when the initiate strives most intensely to attain this Gabriel initiation, which comprises the inner nativity, the birth of the Higher Mind and the Higher Self, the moment when the Inner Christ manifests to us offering us at least a transitory glimpse of Higher Worlds.
For students of the Ancient Wisdom, Gabriel’s role as bringer of visions makes him the Archangel who reveals the truth of one’s unique role in the world – which is known as the Higher Purpose, the Soul’s true calling, and empowers one to pursue that Higher Purpose successfully.
Thus the time of the Winter Solstice is the time for those walking the arduous path of Spirit to seek a vision of their Higher Purpose, to connect with the Divine Wisdom as revealed by Archangel Gabriel, and to connect with Higher Self and Higher Mind through the intercession of Gabriel, who interprets the super-rational wisdom found in Higher Realms into words and symbols that can be understood by the rational mind.
Through Gabriel’s intercession, we can gain understanding of the mysteries of our own life’s journey, and of the larger mysteries surrounding the evolution of our spiritual brothers and sisters, our nation, and humanity as a whole.
Solstice Festivals Around the World: Hanukkah, Shab-e Yalda, & Saturnalia
Hannukah, the Jewish Festival of the Lights, begins at sunset on Tuesday, December 16, 2014 and is celebrated until sunset on Wednesday December 24, 2014. The Hannukah celebration is tied to both lunar and solar festivals.
Hanukkah begins three days before the new moon closest to the Winter Solstice. Hanukkah commemorates the military victory of Judas Maccabeus over the Syrian ruler Antiochus IV which resulted in the Jewish people regaining Jerusalem from their enemies. Hanukkah also celebrates the subsequent rededication of the temple in Jerusalem.
After many years of war and persecution, the Jewish people, who had been in exile, returned to their temple in Jerusalem, which lay in ruins. The Jews began rebuilding the Temple of Jerusalem in 165 B.C. When they came to rededicate the Temple they found only one small flask of oil with which to light the menorah, or temple candleholder, which illuminated the sacred texts. This flask contained only enough oil for one day, yet the lamp burned for eight days (by which time a fresh supply of oil was obtained).
On the first night of Hanukkah, one light is lit. On each successive night a light is added until the eighth night, when all the lights are lit. The addition of light recalls the greatness and growth of the miracle. Candles are placed in the menorah from right to left, but lit from left to right. The highest candle, known as the Shamash or "servant", is used to light the other candles. Blessings are recited each night before the lights are kindled.
Hannukah recapitulates the basic Solstice themes of resurrection, this time of a temple, and of an entire people, the return of the light, and the waxing and triumph of the light.
The Persian Winter Solstice Feast of Shab-e Yalda
In Iran, the Winter Solstice is the time of the Feast of Shab-e Yalda. “In most ancient cultures, including Persia, the start of the solar year has been marked to celebrate the victory of light over darkness and the renewal of the Sun,” explains Massoume Price in his article on Yalda on Farsinet.
“For instance, Egyptians, four thousand years ago celebrated the rebirth of the sun at this time of the year. They set the length of the festival at 12 days, to reflect the 12 divisions in their sun calendar. They decorated with greenery, using palms with 12 shoots as a symbol of the completed year, since a palm was thought to put forth a shoot each month.”
“The Persians adopted their annual renewal festival from the Babylonians and incorporated it into the rituals of their own Zoroastrian religion. The last day of the Persian month Azar is the longest night of the year, when the forces of the Dark Lord Ahriman are assumed to be at the peak of their strength. While the next day, the first day of the month ‘Day’ known as ‘khoram rooz’ or ‘khore rooz’ (the day of sun) belongs to Ahura Mazda, the Lord of Wisdom. Since the days are getting longer and the nights shorter, this day marks the victory of Sun over the darkness. The occasion was celebrated in the festival of ‘Daygan’ dedicated to Ahura Mazda, on the first day of the month.”
“‘Day’ Fires would be burnt all night to ensure the defeat of the forces of Ahriman. There would be feasts, acts of charity and a number of deities were honored and prayers performed to ensure the total victory of sun that was essential for the protection of winter crops. There would be prayers to Mithra (Mehr) and feasts in his honor, since Mithra is the Eyzad responsible for protecting ‘the light of the early morning’ known as ‘Havangah. It was also assumed that Ahura Mazda would grant people's wishes, specially those with no offspring had the hope to be blessed with children if performed all rites on this occasion.”
“One of the themes of the festival was the temporary subversion of order. Masters and servants reversed roles. The king dressed in white would change place with ordinary people. A mock king was crowned and masquerades spilled into the streets. As the old year died, rules of ordinary living were relaxed. This tradition persisted till Sassanian period, and is mentioned by Biruni and others in their recordings of pre-Islamic rituals and festivals. Its' origin goes back to the Babylonian New Year celebration. These people believed the first creation was order that came out of chaos. To appreciate and celebrate the first creation they had a festival and all roles were reversed. Disorder and chaos ruled for a day and eventually order was restored and succeeded at the end of the festival.”
The Roman Winter Solstice Festival of Saturnalia
“The Egyptian and Persian traditions merged in ancient Rome, in a festival to the ancient god of seedtime, Saturn. The Romans exchanged gifts, partied and decorated their homes with greenery. Following the Persian tradition, the usual order of the year was suspended. Grudges and quarrels forgotten, wars would be interrupted or postponed. Businesses, courts and schools were closed. Rich and poor became equal, masters served slaves, and children headed the family. Cross-dressing and masquerades, merriment of all kinds prevailed. A mock king, the Lord of Misrule, was crowned. Candles and lamps chased away the spirits of darkness.”
Saturnalia runs from December 17 -22, beginning not long after the full moon and ending on the Winter Solstice.
“Another related Roman festival celebrated at the same time was dedicated to Sol Invictus (the invincible sun). Originally a Syrian deity, this cult was imported by Emperor Heliogabalus into Rome and Sol was made god of the state. With the spread of Christianity, Christmas celebration became the most important Christian festival.
“In the third century various dates, from December to April, were celebrated by Christians as Christmas. January 6 was the most favored day because it was thought to be Jesus' Baptismal day (in the Greek Orthodox Church this continues to be the day to celebrate Christmas).
“In year 350, December 25 was adopted in Rome and gradually almost the entire Christian Church agreed to that date, which coincided, with Winter Solstice and the festivals Sol Invicta and Saturnalia.
“Many of the rituals and traditions of the pagan festivals were incorporated into the Christmas tradition and are still observed today.”
The Christmas Story, The New Age and a Christmas Meditation on the Divine Mother
In our article entitled A Christmas Story, we explore the parallels between the time of Christ and today’s world.
Christ was born at the cusp between the Age of Aries, the age of the Roman Empire, and the Age of Pisces. The Piscean age began with the founding of the Church of Rome – and culminates and ends with the creation of the American Empire. The American Empire in its current form exists at the temporal borderline between the Age of Pisces and the Age of Aquarius.
This New Age of the Global American Empire exhibits many parallels to the paradoxical time of Christ’s birth, when Rome's Imperial glory, multi-denominational initiatic renewal and immense human and spiritual suffering co-incided throughout the civilized world.
Unfortunately, in the consumer culture of the modern day reincarnation of the Atlantean and Roman Empires, here in 21st century America, we often feel disconnected from the true Spirit of Christmas, from Christ consciousness. We often suffer from the illusion of being trapped in the concerns of the egoistic mind, the grasping materialistic mass consciousness of mainstream consumer culture.
There is a simple way to reconnect with the Christ within us, and to true Christmas Spirit. That is through connecting to the Divine Mother.
We can connect with Mary through a contemplation of the spiritual powers inherent in nature, and through Mary we will connect with the Holy Spirit, for Mary is the incarnation of that Holy Spirit, and the embodiment of that Spirit’s loving wisdom.
Christmas Meditation Upon the Divine Mother, The New Isis
In a beautiful lecture by the Austrian mystic, educator and philosopher Rudolf Steiner, concerning the Mystery school tradition of mystical Christianity called “Search for the New Isis, the Divine Sophia: The Quest for the Isis-Sophia”, Steiner draws a parallel between Raphael’s painting of the Madonna holding the child Jesus and the Egyptian myth of Isis and Osiris, in which Osiris is the central figure of the mystery, the dying and reborn god, and Isis is the Divine Mother and consort who brings Osiris back from the dead.
Steiner suggests that the Luciferic, materialistic, logical modern world has lost touch with Christ consciousness, that modern, rationalistic man has died to Christ, and that we can only hope to regain a true connection to the mystery of Christ’s birth and death through the mediation of Mary, of the New Isis, the Divine Sophia.
For the Divine Mother has been killed by the rational materialism of the Age of Reason and we must now work to resurrect the Spirit of the Divine Mother in order to give birth to the Christ consciousness within us.
". . . The soul will attain to altogether new feelings if it feels committed to experience the new Isis legend within modern humanity,” Steiner explains. “Lucifer kills Isis and then places her body into the infinity of space, which has become the grave of Isis, a mathematical abstraction. “
“Then comes the search for Isis, and her discovery, made possible through the inner force of spiritual knowledge. In place of the heavens that have become dead, this knowledge places what stars and planets reveal through an inner life, so that they then appear as monuments to the spiritual powers that weave with power through space. “
May you participate in the resurrection of the Divine Mother within your own soul during this sacred season through contemplation of the starry skies and the great sacred luminaries, Sun and Moon.
May you unite your consciousness with the Christ consciousness, may your heart be filled with the Divine love of the Cosmic Christ, and may your will be united with the Divine will. May all you do be united with the Divine plan of love and light, working for the liberation of all sentient beings in time and space.
Jane and I send Love and Light to you and yours. May you all share in the Victory of the Light and may the Victory of the Light be a living loving Presence within your hearts throughout this Holiday Season and throughout the year to come!
“Giving Thanks” by Jane Sherry
After a year of complaining
at fate’s tough luck
and others’ misfortunes,
a friend sent me a poem.
Carrie Newcomer’s
sparked my lethargy.
Such a turbulent time
any crab would want to hide.
it was torch to my dry tinder
and all that, so last night
I began my own
litany of thanks.
Thanks to the rains!
At long last grey skies
pouring water like balm.
Thanks for my warm dry bed.
Such a turbulent time
any crab would want to hide.
Thanks to all those in whose
Net I reside, kindred spirits,
may we help in the ways
we are best suited.
Thanks for the blessings
of the elders for it is
their journeys which
have so moved me.
Such a turbulent time
any cra