The Fulcrum of Time: Winter Solstice, and Capricorn

The Longest Night awaits us…Solstice is here. Merry Solstice!

The solstice is not the beginning of a season but smack in the middle of one. It is called midwinter. It is the nadir of the year, the apex of darkness, the turning point when the days will begin to get longer again. We are midseason to the cold and dark. When the spring Equinox comes, we will be at the turning point between them, when day and night are equally balanced but favour longer days. In between is the quickening; the beginning of February (Imbolc/Candlemas) when the first movement of spring kicks in the belly of the year.

The solstice is something to reckon with, to sit with the darkness in all its intensity and await the return of the Sun, like a weak and feeble babe eclipsed by old father time.

I will be out under the stars around a fire with friends, the cold nipping our backs even as the fire furnaces our faces.

Astrology: Saturn and Capricorn

The Sun always enters Capricorn at the winter solstice. Capricorn is ruled by Saturn, and the Sun is in detriment here in the realm of long nights and cold days. Saturn is like winter; cold, distant, dark, contractive, slow, without much growth or creativity. To Capricorn Saturn lends these qualities:

Slow and deliberate. Focused, methodical efficiency, as someone gathering and cutting wood, well before the heart of winter comes. Clear and straightforward; like the view through the trees now that the leaves are gone. Cool and restrained; animals conserve their energy. The parsed back hedgerow and economical palette of colours heighten our awareness of form; the architectural structure of trees, contours of the land, visibility of birds, the delicacy of spider webs and next years folded buds. All the Capricorns I know are like graceful winters, rising above the skyline like church spires and tall trees. Dark colours and simple lines, meaningful actions, few words, and misty mornings.

This next month of astrology is very much focused in Capricorn, with my previous posts on Venus, Pluto and Mercury all taking place in this sign.

^{Title image: Android Jones Art}