December 14th ~ 21st
At the first touch of Winter, Summer fades away by Valentine Cameron Prinsep (1897)
Faith is the bird that feels the light when the dawn is still dark. ~ Rabindranath Tagore
We are soon approaching the shortest day of the year, here in the Northern Hemisphere, our Winter Solstice on December 21st. However, before we get to this last corner of the year, the Sun will make two significant transits this week: a square to Chiron at the very end of Pisces, and a trine to Uranus at the end of Aries. Earlier this year, both Chiron and Uranus had made brief forays respectively, Aries and Taurus respctively. They then both stationed retrograde and returned to where they were before, in Aries and Pisces. On December 9th, Chiron made its direct station, and on January 6th Uranus will make its direct station. They will then make their final transition to these next signs in early 2019. This period when the outer planets (or slow moving Centaurs) transit back and forth between the signs is kind of like packing for a trip: making sure you have tied up all the loose ends before finally making that next big step out on the next journey of your life.
There seems to be an even deeper finality with Chiron at the last degrees of the last sign of the zodiac. When these slow moving bodies go through these last degrees, it feels like a sloughing off. There can also be a feeling of impatience and anticipation for New Beginnings and Start-overs that are imminent. There are a lot of feelings of finality here: being on your last nerve with things that you’ve outgrown; wanting to move on once and for all. We often hope for a fresh new start with the New Year, but 2019 looks like a whole new deal.
Even if you aren’t making any major changes yourself, it will be hard not to be impacted by the changes going on around you, or that other people are experiencing. It will be hard to avoid. This week’s transits are like we are preparing the ground. The square to Chiron is asking us to take care of things we may have been avoiding, and deal with them once and for all. You might want to ask yourself, What needs to be healed? What needs to be released? What baggage am I still holding on to that is no longer relevant or necessary for me going forward? What can I do to heal the wounds I’ve been ignoring and merely tolerating up until now?
The trine to Uranus is a reminder of where you have made your declarations of Independence and statements of Truth over the past 7 years. For some this may have been outright rebellion and cries for freedom. We had that whole Arab Spring, Occupy Movement, Tea Party, Brexit Thing, and all manner of rebellion these past years. In your own life, see how and where you made your own declarations of independence. And if you found that you did go off in a new direction, this is a good week to celebrate a truer more authentic expression of who you are, and what you stand for. So a question for this week might be, What final changes may I still need or want to make in order to have the freedom and gall to live out loud?
Uranus entering Taurus next year is also a reminder that life is a bridge, and all things are subject to change, even those things that we assumed would always, always be there. Therefore look about you, and take note of the people and things that you may have taken for granted, assuming that they would always remain the same, and that they would never, ever change. And send them good wishes and heartfelt gratitude for the very important part that they have played in your life.
For next week’s horoscopes, click below: