Who knew Saturn could be fun? - New Moon December 26th

On December 26th, 2019, we have the third new moon in a series of six, all at 4 degrees of a sign, this time Capricorn.   And we really do have a huge Capricorn line up here – Sun, Moon, Jupiter, South Node, Ceres, Saturn and Pluto.    The new Saturn/Pluto cycle is almost exact and this is also a solar eclipse.   This is not just any old bog standard New Moon – not that any New Moon could be regarded as insignificant.   It’s a hefty line up – it’s an eclipse and the degree of the New Moon sets it apart as having implications for the world as a whole.

The eclipse highlights the area of the world encompassing Iran, India, China, Russia, Australia, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, so it is somewhere in these areas where we might expect to see some rumblings.   Australia is already highlighted with the fires and the extreme heat (eclipses are active from about three weeks before the actual date).    Also, anyone with planets or angles around four degrees of Capricorn, Cancer, Libra or Aries may feel the effect more than most.

This New Moon falls on Boxing Day in the UK so, although there is much to say, I intend to be briefer than usual with this lunar article as I’m sure everyone just wants to enjoy the festivities for a few days and put other ‘stuff’ on the back burner.   However, that’s just the issue with this New Moon.   It comes at a time when we actually should be paying attention to how exactly we are going to build for our future.  So, if you can find the time, it really is important to acknowledge this important Capricorn eclipse message.

The New Moon is the beginning of a new lunar cycle in just the same way that Saturn and Pluto will dance to a new cycle in January, Jupiter and Pluto in early April and Jupiter and Saturn in December 2020.  When we start a new cycle we are both looking back and looking forward – back to the end of an old area where we can also see if in the past we planted well enough to get a good harvest and forward considering whether we should change our tactics as to how we should plant our seeds at the start of the new cycle. Saturn is the common denominator in this New Moon and the other major new cycles of 2020 – Saturn is ‘the boss man ‘of Capricorn (the sign of the new Saturn/Pluto and Jupiter/Pluto cycles) and Aquarius (the sign of the new Jupiter/Saturn cycle).   So we need to do Saturn type behavior – take responsibility, be resilient, put in the work and the effort, do what is necessary, pare back and keep it real.   At this eclipse there are five planets in Capricorn – the energy really means business – it’s ruthless.   We need to take the responsible ‘hard line’ if we want to make the most of our resources.

Jupiter’s involvement with the Sun and Moon could suggest a tendency to overdo things, but, in Capricorn, more a sense of realistic confidence that is different to the expansive ‘gung ho’ nature he has in his own sign of Sagittarius.   If we can just harness his wisdom we can avoid the pitfalls.  Jupiter is a bountiful planet but he ramps up the volume wherever he goes – his downfall can be overconfidence and arrogance.   Saturn and Pluto are tightly together, but in between Pluto and the Node we have Ceres to upset the apple cart.   Ceres represents Mother Goddess Demeter, who had to negotiate with Hades (Pluto) in order that her daughter might come back to her for at least a part of the year.  So Ceres here in the mix brings in an accent on the environment as well as the role of women, but with a nod to negotiating a solution as opposed to bullyboy tactics.   Just like Ceres we must acknowledge our difficulties and find new ways to find solutions and answers – we must think outside the box, find our own USP and keep an eye out for new technologies that could help us to streamline our ways.

This eclipse is looking for change to be made in structures that are no longer fit for purpose – both globally and personally.  In the face of upcoming changes we have to learn to adapt and make changes as and when they are needed.  If we don’t we won’t survive – we can’t keep doing the same old and expect a different result.

In the UK Boris is back, this time with a good working majority and the people (the Moon) are looking for structure, stability, leadership (Capricorn).  Can he deliver?  One of the main reasons I think he won was because his chart ‘plugs’ into the UK chart so well – in a way which Corbyn’s does not.

Boxing Day, the day of this eclipse, is a secular holiday and is so called because it was the day that the servants to the rich had a rare holiday, with time to go to visit their own families.   On this day, once the Christmas festivities were over, the rich would ‘box’ up gifts to the poor and the servants would take ‘boxes’ home to their families.

But, in addition to Christmas as a festival to honour the birth of Jesus Christ, this period was actually once held in honour of Saturn.  Saturn on the whole has some pretty bad press – the Grim Reaper, the restrictor, and the one who takes away if you haven’t put in enough effort.  But he wasn’t necessarily always thought of like that – our current festivities originally started in his honour as ‘Saturnalia’.  In Roman mythology Saturn was an agricultural deity who was said to have ruled a world in a Golden Age.  In this Age the Earth gave forth a great bounty and the celebrations of Saturnalia were supposed to reflect the conditions of this lost mythical age.

Saturnalia, as a Roman celebration, was originally held on 17th December, the first day of the astrological sign of Capricorn, and later grew, with festivities lasting until December 23rd to encompass the winter solstice.    It was a holiday from all types of work and school.   No declaration of war could be made, and there was no exercising or courts of law.   Gambling, normally frowned upon, was permitted, even for slaves.   There was a tradition for giving gifts of wax figurines called sigillaria – intended as low value gifts so as not to mark any kind of social status as this would have been contrary to the spirit of the season.  Children received toys as gifts.   Wax taper candles called ‘cerei’ were also common gifts during Saturnalia, to signify light returning after the solstice. 

So, whilst in Rome Saturnalia was the most popular festival of the year, ancient Pagans were celebrating the birthday of the Sun on the 25th December.    This was possibly as a marker of the solstice as well as the fact that the Sun, rather than being conquered, had been reborn.   In Rome the sacred fire tended by the vestal virgins was rekindled then.   Early Christian traditions had no knowledge of the actual birth of Jesus – many in fact lean towards the Spring.  But gradually the Church leaders blended Christian festivals alongside the Pagan festival and Saturnalia (in part to attract more followers to the Christian religion) and resolved that the true nativity of Jesus Christ should be celebrated on the 25th December.   The Medieval system incorporated twelve days of celebration following the winter solstice, with peaks at 25th December, 1st January and 6th January, whilst in the Eastern Christian lands Easter remained the principal annual festival.

It was a general custom in pagan Europe to decorate spaces with greenery and flowers for festivals particularly holly and ivy at Christmas time.  By the 19th century the Yule Log had entered traditions – but it wasn’t a chocolate cake then!  For most families the main illumination on a winter evening as well as the main source of heat and cooking was the fire in the kitchen or in the one main room.  At Christmas an enormous log of wood sufficient to burn through the whole day was added – the Yule log.   Tradition also dictated that the last portion of the log was retained to be used as kindling for the following year’s log.

Pagans and Christians co-existed (not always happily) during this period, and this likely represented an effort to convince the remaining pagan Romans to accept Christianity as Rome’s official religion.

And before the end of the fourth century, many of the traditions of Saturnalia—including giving gifts, singing, lighting candles, feasting and merrymaking—had become absorbed by the traditions of Christmas as many of us know them today.

At first glance it would seem that you would much rather invite bountiful ‘ramp up the volume’ Jupiter to your party rather than dull old hard working Saturn.   But with Saturn ‘what you see is what you get’, whilst Jupiter can bring many promises which never deliver.

So I guess my message at this time of year is for us to remember the astrological/archetypal essence of the festivities.   It was about the Golden Age of our land – and the reason why we are here – to take responsibility for looking after the Earth, our garden.   It was about taking responsibility for the land and living in harmony with it.   What better intention to have at a New Moon and particularly now that we have become conscious of how we are trashing the planet and its inhabitants, both human and animal.    As I’ve said before I’m not sure how much we can influence climate; for me climate has and always will be cyclical and we must perhaps learn to adapt to its changes.   Our climate is changing shown by the fluctuating extremes we have now.  We could be moving towards warming but equally we are overdue a cooling period.  Whichever it is we need to stop arguing about it and put the planet first.   We need to find new ways to provide sustainable forms of energy (Sun/Moon trine Uranus) and heed the Capricorn message of resilience, realism, responsible action and ‘taking the hard line’ to secure our resources and build for our futures. 

So, Merry Christmas everyone and as you set your New Year resolutions, make at least one of them a responsibility to our garden as well as looking after your resources.