Welcome to the December 2021 edition of the Cosmic Weather Forecast by Curtis Lang and Jane Sherry.
Conflicting 2021 long term cosmic currents and persistent problematic stellar aspects continue to plague us this month, but relief is on the way Christmas week and beyond! Read on for the full story!
So let's take a moment in the midst of last minute shopping, Holiday travel and family obligations to reflect upon this season's deeper meaning. Jane has a Christmas message for us all.
"I was thinking recently, with the winter holiday season upon us, about secular celebrations and religious festivals," Jane explains.
"I was reminded how as a young ardent feminist, in the 1970s I blamed Christ for the many sins of the Church founded in his name, too innumerable to list here, such as the hundreds of years of persecution and the systematic massacre of diverse peoples--from witches to the Cathars, from wise women to homosexuals and gypsies, of rebels and free thinkers and let us not forget the mass genocides of Native Peoples here in America and elsewhere and of slavery, all justified in the name of God."
"It wasn't until the mid 1980s, through an experience of deep personal pain combined with esoteric mystical studies, that I was able to develop and heal my relationship with the Christ and accept him into my heart."
"Christ Consciousness springs from the loving, compassionate, open heart and provides us with unfailing guidance if we can but surrender our mental chatter and just listen."
"Some years back, as Curtis and I were driving through our city among the predictable, plasticized Disneyland-esque Christmas decorations, I reflected that the consumerist Christmas celebrations so popular around the world create such a tsunami of advertising messages that it becomes all but impossible to simply be still and tune in to the heart's whispering, to attend to the birth of Spirit within us."
Benh LIEU SONG (Flickr), CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
"The global marketplace celebrates a materialist secular Christmas holiday, and we can be mightily seduced by advertising, marketeers, peer pressure and family conditioning to lay our coins down at the cash register, X marks the spot, sign on the dotted line, and buy more and more."
"Don't get me wrong here, I am a good consumer too. In fact I have a retail business so I am not immune to that impulse at this time of year. However, it creates a painful paradox that global consumer culture is simultaneously Christianized and utterly devoted to money values."
"After all, Christ expelled the money changers from the Temple in Jerusalem. Now the modern day money changers, those who worship money, have created a global Christmas experience that is all about spending and getting."
"So Xmas has become synonymous with the fall shopping season in every corner of the world. Stores start gearing up for Xmas the very day after Halloween, another Seasonal Festival which has lost all resemblance to its original Sacred meaning in our materialistic culture.
"However I think it is still significant to speak of the Christ, whether to a Christian, Jew, Muslim, Hindu, Atheist, Agnostic, to all. Because the message of this time of year is to look inside ourselves, find the love which lights our path, and connect with the one Pure motivating impulse within us to love life unconditionally."
"Now is the time to make peace with our neighbors no matter their political persuasion or religious practices, their race, color or status. Now is the time to open our hearts in love to our often contentious families, to express our love for our very existence here on this pandemic plagued planet."
"Another realization I had was about birthdays. Even in celebrating the birthday of the Christ, we must remember the Mothers. For none of us of course, would have a birthday, without the difficult passage into manifest Creation, which relies on Mother's nurturing in the Womb, culminating in the difficult initiatic Sacrament of Birth. We must celebrate the choice we each make, to incarnate into this life through the Portal of the Mother's Womb."
Roundel with the Nativity, Netherlands, 1510-1520
Metropolitan Museum of Art , CC0, via Wikimedia Commons
"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 materialist mass consciousness of mainstream consumer culture."
"There is a simple way to reconnect with the Christ within us, and the 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."
Mixed Madonna, Digital Painting by Jane Sherry
In a beautiful lecture by the Austrian mystic, educator and philosopher Rudolf Steiner, concerning the Mystery school tradition of Esoteric 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, the New Isis, the Divine Sophia.
Painted Relief of Osiris and Isis at Abydos
". . .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.
"We are able to look at the manger today in the right way only if we experience in a unique way what is weaving with spiritual power through space, and then look at that being who came into the world through the child. We know that we bear this being within us, but we must also understand him."
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.
"Just as the Egyptians looked from Osiris to Isis, so we must learn to look again to the new Isis, the holy Sophia," Steiner explains. "Christ will appear again in his spiritual form during the course of the twentieth century, not through the arrival of external events alone, but because human beings find the power represented by the holy Sophia."
"The modern age has had the tendency to lose this power of Isis, this power of Mary. It has been killed by all that arose with the modern consciousness of humankind. . . "
The Star, Thoth Tarot Deck
"This is the mystery of modern humanity: Fundamentally speaking, Mary-Isis has been killed, and she must be sought, just as Osiris was sought by Isis in Asia. But she must be sought in the infinite spaces of the universe with the power that Christ can awaken in us, if we devote ourselves to him in the right way," Steiner concludes.
"Meditate on ways we can encourage our industry leaders around the World, our politicians and scientists, teachers and families to replenish rather than to take, to reaffirm our faith in our abilities as humans to evolve in Spirit and in Love."
Judgefloro, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons
Wishing you all good health, Joy and the strength to continue to hold the vision for Peace.
This year, as we perform compassionate acts in the spirit of Christmas, as we perform spiritual practices designed to open our monkey minds to Christ consciousness, let us extend our loving awareness to the living landscape in which we live, to the Nature Spirits and Angels who ensoul and inform our world, and above all to the celestial spheres where Intelligent Stars pour forth living, loving light.
Let us reflect upon messages we receive from the Exalted Beings of Light inhabiting the starry sky this month and throughout the year. For in this communion we align ourselves with Christ consciousness and reanimate the wisdom teachings of Divine Sophia, Lady Isis of the Milky Way.
NPS/Patrick Myers, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Visualize the complex patterns of movement created as our Solar System moves through space, and realize that these interconnected circuits of spiraling light bodies manifest the energy of the Star Goddess Isis.
Allow yourself to relax into a vision of the starry night, the Milky Way, on a New Moon night in the countryside, and realize that you are seeing the Divine Face of Isis. Speak to her, and ask to be connected to the loving wisdom of the planets and stars, in deep space, where the Great Silence reigns.
Commune with her in Silence and you will receive grace, guidance, love and wisdom as your heart opens to the love of Christ and the Great Mother, and your mind is infused with loving wisdom. Give thanks!
Gemini Full Moon, Sagittarius Solar Festival, Winter Solstice
Cosmic Weather Forecast
This month Jupiter changes signs, Venus goes retrograde, and we experience the last of the Saturn-Uranus squares that have defined the difficult, depressing, demanding cosmic weather patterns of 2021. Energetic fireworks are lighting up the December skies as we approach the New Year.
The Gemini Full Moon is trine Jupiter in Aquarius, sparking momentary collective feelings of expansive good will, as we enter the heart of the holiday season. Jupiter in Aquarius symbolizes the mental clarity we experience when attuned to the loving wisdom of Higher Mind, so this Full Moon is an excellent time for all spiritual practices.
The following day, December 19, Venus goes retrograde in Capricorn, until January 29, 2022, and remains in Capricorn until March 6, 2022. During Venus' extended stay in Capricorn, sign of the mountain goat, we are being encouraged to consider our relationships and our values in relation to our loftiest goals.
If our love relationships strengthen us emotionally, mentally and spiritually, then together we can accomplish so much more than we ever dreamed possible! Now is the time for a reality check.
If we are unsure of the strength of our partnerships, now is the time to undertake an honest appraisal of the situation. If we feel empowered in our relationships, now is the time for power couples to strut their stuff. Partners in sync with one another can make great progress towards their highest spiritual and material goals.
Healing the Wounded Heart of the World, drawing by Jane Sherry
With Venus in Capricorn, this holiday season is the perfect time for loving partners to utilize meditation, prayer, vision quests and ritual to envision their best and highest future pathway in life, and to work together to manifest their goals.
Tuesday, December 21, we celebrate the Winter Solstice, a spiritual festival sacred in many wisdom traditions in both East and West. We enter the season of winter in the Northern hemisphere, presided over by the Archangel Gabriel, messenger of the Divine.
In 2020 during Winter Solstice week we celebrated the Triple Jupiter-Saturn Conjunction in Aquarius, ushering in a 20 year cycle of Aquarian outer planet energy and a 200 year supercycle of Jupiter-Saturn conjunctions in Air signs. We can expect accelerated transformations in consciousness and in our global civilization that will make the last breath taking 200 year supercycle in Earth signs, which spawned the Hydrocarbon Civilization and the Second Industrial Revolution, seem slow and limited in scope by comparison.
Constellation chart print by Johannes Hevelius (1611-87), taken from his catalogue “Prodromus astronomiae”.
This Winter Solstice, Jupiter and Saturn will both appear in the sign of Aquarius, though too far apart for a true conjunction.
The Grand Conjunction of 2020 and this month's Winter Solstice, with its Aquarian energy signature, herald a New Age of Aquarius, which will dawn in decades to come and reach its fulfillment in the next 200 years, as we reach the flowering of the Aquarian 2000 year mega-cycle.
This New Age of Aquarius will be characterized by the evolution of humanity's Group Consciousness.
By developing group consciousness, while honoring the integrity and unique perspective of each individual, humanity has the opportunity to resolve the adolescent manifestations of global conflict that characterize our present environment through the development of more mature, harmonious relations governed by inspired goodwill and informed by hard won loving wisdom.
Archangel Gabriel Weathervane, Newburyport, Massachusetts, 1840
The presiding Spirit of the winter season, the Archangel Gabriel is known as the Messenger of the Lord. As Messenger of the Lord, Gabriel is the Archangel of Vision, because he brings illumination and revelation and inspires intuitive creativity.
In his role as Divine Herald Gabriel is portrayed with a horn, which he plays to announce a New Age for humanity. Christian tradition tells us that Gabriel will sound his horn at the time of the Last Judgement, prior to the Second Coming of Christ. Gabriel is the Archangel of mathematical, musical, metaphysical harmony and also of mathematical paradox.
Gabriel's horn, also called Torricelli's trumpet, is a geometrical figure that paradoxically displays infinite surface area and finite volume. At the time of the Last Judgement the infinite joins the finite, the Universal Consciousness enters historical time and humanity is released from its constraints conditioned by the space-time continuum.
Human consciousness is normally constrained by a false identification with the egoistic personality, which is conditioned by collective thought forms, childhood traumas, inherited family characteristics and karmic patterns of thought and behavior. When Gabriel blows his horn, humanity drops its false identification with the ego and enters the realm of Unity Consciousness, the realm of the Great Silence. Our finite rational intelligence merges with Universal Mind.
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Gabriel's Horn was first studied by 17th Century Italian mathematician
Evangelista Torricelli
Archangel Gabriel imparts the Harmonies of Loving Wisdom paradoxically embodied in the realm of Unity Consciousness, which exists beyond time, space and sound.
Gabriel and his heavenly hosts are masters of the mystic mantras that create the universal harmonics that underlie and structure the Macrocosmos. Gabriel and his legions emanate the fundamental wave patterns manifest in the Universe generating mantra AUM.
Gabriel and his messenger angels are Maestros of the Music of the Celestial Spheres, and thus also communicate to humanity knowledge of the mathematical ratios and constants that govern the movements of the planets and the magic of the musical intervals that create harmony and melody.
Gabriel is the Archangel inspiring musicians and astrologers alike. Gabriel's horn sounds at the cusp of the Zodiacal Ages, announcing the ending of an era and the advent of a New Age.
On the Qabalistic Tree of Life, Gabriel and his legions reside in the Sephira Yesod, located midway between earthly Malkuth and the Solar Sephiroth called Tiphareth, the site of Christ Consciousness. Yesod is the domain of the Moon, the astral realms. Gabriel and his messenger angels reside in the upper astral realms of Yesod, where Divine creativity flourishes, and these angels favor music, art and beauty as pathways to experience the Divine on planet Earth.
Gabriel is known in the Bible as the messenger who brings good news from Divine realms. In the Old Testament, in the Book of Daniel, verses 8 and 9, Gabriel appeared to interpret Daniel’s dream vision of the future of Israel to the prophet.
Esoteric Jewish tradition says that Gabriel inspired Moses to write the Book of Genesis, and that Gabriel taught Joseph 70 languages he needed to rule in Egypt.
Mohammed receiving his first revelation from the angel Gabriel
Unknown author, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Islam teaches that the Archangel Gabriel revealed the 114 chapters of the Koran to Mohammed.
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 Ages, the Resurrection of the Dead, and the Last Judgement.
Gabriel figures prominently in the Sacred Tarot, the repository of the Wisdom Teachings of the West during the time of the Inquisition and thereafter, appearing in Trump 20, known as Judgement, which is also called The Aeon in the Thoth Tarot Deck.
All the people, places and events pictured in the Tarot are not just archetypical figurations of chapters in the world’s history, they are, perhaps more importantly, representations of archetypical stages in the evolution of the Soul on its journey from animalistic instinctual behavior to rationalistic egoistic mentality and eventually to achievement of the ultimate goal, Unity consciousness and Self-realization. For more information on the Tarot and the true Mystery Teachings of the East and West, see my article, Tarot: The Yoga of the West.
The Judgement or Aeon card is about transformation of the egoistic personality, and awakening to a higher consciousness. It represents the birth of the Higher Mind, the dawning of the Higher Self, and represents the final preparations before the disciple can attain Christ Consciousness, aka Cosmic Consciousness, or Self-Realization, pictured in Trump XXI, called The Universe.
In the Waite deck, Judgement pictures the Archangel Gabriel blowing his trumpet, as three figures, a man, a child and a woman, rise from coffins in the lower foreground. The man represents the conscious, rational egoistic mind, the woman represents the unconscious powers of instinctual wisdom, and the child represents the infant born of their union, the intuitive consciousness residing in the Higher Mind.
Gabriel’s golden horn delivers the sacred sound that triggers our awakening from the living death and spiritual imprisonment represented by consciousness dominated by the egoistic personality and the instinctual impulses of the unconscious mind. The energy signature of Gabriel’s horn is a sacred tone, or mantram, which also exists as a vision – a frequency of golden light.
NGC 7293: The Helix Nebula, courtesy of NASA
This golden light of inner awakening, which emanates from Gabriel’s horn at his command, appears in the mind’s eye on a field of deepest indigo blue during the meditative state at the moment of initiation and realization.
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 or the Soul’s true calling. Gabriel empowers one to pursue that Higher Purpose successfully. Gabriel provides the knowledge and wisdom, guidance and intuitive understanding needed to achieve our spiritual goals in life.
Archangel Gabriel Annunciate, painting by Fra Angelico, 1431-1433
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 and Spirit.
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.
We offer instructions for a beautiful Winter Solstice Gabriel Meditation you can perform at home. This is a variation on an Archangel Gabriel Initiation that was offered to initiates of the esoteric Christian mystery school traditions in the early twentieth century, and is intended to bring about the Vision of the Inner Sunrise. We hope you enjoy it!
Whatever spiritual practice you prefer, know that despite widespread fear, anger, frustration and sorrow, the celestial currents support you during the week following the Winter Solstice, and leading up to Christmas.
On December 24, Uranus in Taurus squares Saturn in Aquarius. This is the last of a series of Uranus/Saturn squares that began early this year. Saturn in Aquarius symbolizes social structures and Uranus represents sudden, unexpected disruptions, positive and negative. When Uranus is in Taurus these disruptions affect financial markets, the economy, the way society structures its monetary system, and the values that people hold most dear.
3D-illustration of Corona virus Covid-19
HFCM Communicatie, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
This year we have seen social structures and global supply chains that support the economy disrupted unexpectedly by the Covid pandemic, and these disruptions represent one manifestation of the Uranus/Saturn square. Millions and millions of people's finances were impacted by losing their jobs or by voluntary resignation.
Saturnine restrictions on people's behavior in social situations, ranging from vaccine requirements and mask mandates to mandatory quarantines and international travel restrictions have led to Uranian outbursts of rebellious individualism.
The Saturn/Uranus Square indicates the breakdown of existing social relations, economic systems, political parties, and financial markets around the world.
The intensity of these disruptions and the sharpening conflict between social requirements and individual freedoms have promoted the spread of negative emotions throughout the collective consciousness worldwide.
Anger, fear, depression, frustration, and anxiety have become dominant emotions for billions of people this year, and as we approach the final Uranus/Saturn square December 24, these emotions are reaching a crescendo.
Fortunately, there is a powerful countervailing, positive stellar energy signature in play on Christmas to ameliorate the inflammatory energy of the Uranus/Saturn square.
On December 25 the moon will be in Virgo, the Sun will be in Capricorn and Uranus will be in Taurus, creating a benevolent Grand Trine in Earth signs. Christmas day 2021 will be a time to celebrate the abundance of life on Earth, and unexpected surprises could be extremely happy ones!
Then, on December 28, the Guru planet Jupiter, who symbolizes good fortune, high spirits and optimism moves into the sign of Pisces. Esoteric astrologers emphasize that Jupiter in Pisces represents the expansion of consciousness accompanying the experience of unconditional love. Jupiter in Pisces is the Love Guru, the World Savior.
Jupiter's Polar Aurora
NASA Hubble, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Regardless of the ongoing conflict between freedom and control epitomized by the Saturn/Uranus square, we can all find something to celebrate this Christmas week.
The energy of the 2021 series of Saturn/Uranus squares will remain active throughout the first quarter of 2022, although there will be no more exact squares, so we can all be grateful that the entry of Jupiter into Pisces should help to smooth the hard edges and help us navigate the turbulence with ease and grace.
Jane and I affirm that you all receive abundant blessings this Christmas season. May you all enjoy an array of physical, emotional, mental and spiritual gifts from the Universe, and golden opportunities unfolding in your lives now and throughout the year to come!
Meditation Moment: Winter Solstice 12.21.2012 12 noon by Jane Sherry
We receive the same signs
again and again
and still we refuse to see.
There are persistent rainbows
amidst the sun and rain
showers every week this month.
There are lyrical skyscapes
Of wandering clouds,
wafting feathers, angels
creatures of our own design.
The message hides in plain sight.
Again and again
we receive the information
we need for our journey
yet fear turns our feet to clay,
some days it is hard to move a single step.
Those days are for dancing in place.
We find ourselves lost in a new land
It is the birdsong, earthworm and weeds
moving through clay soil to take form
that becomes a garden, that
makes this place familiar.
A single marigold cluster still blooms
orange-gold and red-vermillion.
A familiar plant ally that reminds me
we are part of a larger garden.
To end the year, I was able to
ask for help in releasing
bad habits, self negating thought forms
and especially anger. I was able
to forgive someone from long ago
who I love but who hurt me.
I let it go with a gift-
a sweet treat to replace
sorrow and bitterness.
I gave the gift of music to
one who least expected anything.
I give thanks for countless strangers
who help me do my job every day.
I give thanks for this precious earth
this puzzling, amazing, infuriating,
inspiring gift of life.
I made peace with my family.
I planted peas in the garden
and today they flower green and white
against a grey sky ribboned with silvery clouds
and blue skies with rainbows peeking through.
Rise up from the ash of abandoned dreams,
terrible weather, homelessness, poverty,
injustice, hunger, greed and pain.
Rise up through the ashen landscape
Of what-if’s, could-be’s, if-only’s and
create yourself anew.
A chance to begin again.
A new cycle. If I wait
for inspiration or a knock at the door
I fear I will wait forever.
Instead, I say a silent prayer for peace.
I sing a mantra for protection.
I tell you all how much I love you.