Conjunction Junction
Tonight, on this most sacred date of the year — the Winter Solstice — a most extraordinary event will occur. For the first time since March 5, 1226, the alignment of Jupiter and Saturn will be visible here on Earth (erm, if your day's forecast is 100% chance of rain like ours, YMMV). This so-called Great Conjunction, also known as the Christmas Star, is an exceedingly rare astronomical event and that's just straight-up groovy. But it's the astrological potential I'm hanging my hat on.
I've written many a post here about the significance of the Winter Solstice to my creative and spiritual life. It is a moment to acknowledge the grace and beauty of the dark and the silence, to draw in and be still. Solstice is a listening time. It is a promise, for that which lies fallow and rests will be ready to burst forth as the earth tilts toward spring.
The celestial summit meeting tonight between Jupiter and Saturn heralds radical change, radical positive change, a literal Age of Aquarius, according to those who look to the heavens to interpret the world. I'm too much of an INTJ to throw my lot whole-in with the stargazers, but I'm also a creature of intuition, a spiritual being who is willing to listen, learn, and occasionally trust a Higher Power without being all that concerned about the HP's derivation.
Jupiter is said to be the planet of optimism, expansion, healing, growth, and miracles; Saturn, conversely, is associated with restriction, responsibility, and long-term lessons. When these energies combine, we can expect a major ideological reset
Prepare Yourself: A ‘Great Conjunction’ Is Coming
By Amanda Arnold New York Magazine, December 18, 2020
Here we are, at the end of this worst hard time, this absolute bowfing, blighted, bolloxed collection of 12 months, and yes, I am so very ready to embrace a major ideological reset.
On a personal level, it's already underway. After days weeks months of agonized decision-making, working through fear, self-doubt, anger and sadness, I have resigned from my day job. The deep fear of losing a steady paycheck and health insurance was finally subsumed by the even deeper fear of losing myself. I have accepted a part-time, contract position that will keep some income coming in. I will be able to accept more freelance editing work. The presidential election gave me hope that not only will Washington state's robust health insurance program not be abolished, it may grow stronger (hashtag healthcareforall hashtag singlepayerhealthcare).
I can hang on with part-time work, my savings, and what freelance work I can cobble together for about six months- the time I've allowed to finish revisions of The Deep Coil and get a solid draft to my agent. I reclaim my time, creative energy, my belief in my ability to reinvent myself as I leap with a barely-strung together net below. I'm so scared. Here I go.
The past week, since I hit "Send" on that resignation letter, has been awful. Blow after blow of circumstances converging in a six-day hellspan that has left me weeping with overwhelm, doubting my decisions, exhausted by insomnia and bracing for the next catastrophe. It's as though Saturn steamrolled right over me, with its restrictions, responsibilities, and painful long-term lessons.
But today begins a return to the light. A casting off of this year and a turning toward what is to come, in hope and vision. I have to believe that my personal tipping point is part of a larger convergence of determined, hopeful minds, with two planets of majesty and wonder pulling us in their powerful current.
I'm so scared. Here I go.
Each that we lose takes part of us;
A crescent still abides,
Which like the moon, some turbid night,
Is summoned by the tides.
Emily Dickinson