11 Tickets to Delighting in Jupiter and Saturn’s Elegant Dance at the Winter Solstice Ball

Just before Sunrise in New York City today, the Winter Solstice marks the longest night of the year and we celebrate the beginning of the cold, dark season of welcoming the coming of the light. The Winter Solstice is ordinarily cause for introspection and anticipatory holiday celebration, however this year is very unusual as another highly-significant, extremely-rare occurrence takes place on the same day: an extraordinary tight convergence of Jupiter and Saturn in Capricorn. Saturn symbolizes restriction and darkness and creates a disciplined container which allows Jupiter — the symbol of expansion and light — to distill it’s benevolent force into a greater potency. Such a vital conjunction has not occurred in the same constellation for 800 years. Without dwelling on inevitable FOMO we feel as people who have difficulty remaining present, there are a few very notable points that each one of us has the potential to access today.

In astrology, we look for times that Jupiter and Saturn form such a tight bond in similar astronomical context. Jupiter and Saturn inhabit the same constellation every 20 years, and as the cycles of the two planets converge in Capricorn approximately every 60 years, we can look at what transpired between the early-1900s and the early-1960s to determine what will occur in the next 60 year cycle. In the early 20th century, the industrial revolution turned America into the post WWII global superpower that resulted in the military-industrial complex President Harry S. Truman warned us about at the end of his presidential term in January 1961. President Kennedy was assassinated in November 1963, setting off the media catalyzed explosion of creative reactive counter-culture that was pretty much squashed successively by cultural reforms in the President Reagan yuppified 1980s and the Homeland Security-forced limitations of the post-9/11 President George W. Bush era.

What we are experiencing now is another movement into a technology-focused virtual reality that uses media to limit our individual right to perceive and express. However another subtler spiritual empowerment is happening inside each of us. We are being opened to higher levels of sensitivity, aligning us in dynamic dialogue with the forces of nature that simultaneously overwhelm us and arise with great force within our experience. The orbits of Jupiter and Saturn around the sun are the slower moving forces in our world, and allow us to observe and reflect on changes happening in the greater society around us.

Our identities are being called into question by the immense power we are feeling currently. We all have a choice whether we want to submit ourselves to the mercy of what pushes and limits us, or find ourselves empowered by the inner strength we possess as agents of generosity and compassion. Right now, we have the power to decide who we want to be and the agency to plant the seeds for new patterns we want to cultivate and grow in our lives.

While the union of the two heavy-hitting planets continues until the end of December, today is the most potent day as the conjunction is the tightest, and the solstice portal is open. Here are 11 points of focus to read throughout this day. It is DEFINITELY in your power to:

1. ALLOW yourself to be the best YOU you can ever imagine. Let that YOU flow naturally, with ease and joy in your heart.
2. RELEASE the pressure you put on yourself. Say no to undue self-criticism and judgement.
3. ACCESS the natural inner light today. Make whatever changes you want to make today. Your inward direction will pay off.
4. CULTIVATE a deeper faith and trust as you unfold into the unknown. The grand wondrous mystique of nature always supports and loves us.
5. UNITE your thoughts, feelings and actions into the most inclusive version of YOU propelling toward the the greatest realization of your potential.
6. RESIST the urge to repeat your limiting patterns. Abstain from anything that prevents you from being the best version of yourself.
7. WALK patiently down the practical and rational pathways opening for you. Allow your animating forces to help you make choices that shape you into a healthier version of yourself.
8. FIND the harmony with your inner and outer selves as you access your inherent integral strength. Let go of any darkness and negativity you attract or direct toward yourself.
9. BLEND the inner wisdom of acceptance and the outer wisdom of surrender, as you allow inevitable change to release what no longer serves you and cherish what your being appreciates.
10. FREE the deepest parts of your ego. sacrifice your stubbornness to the greater powers which eternally and unconditionally have your best interests in mind.
11. REMAIN humble in your efforts to think and act expansively. Remember that unpredictability is at an all-time high.

REMEMBER, the joy and light that we all long for is inherent within us, and arises easily when catalyzed by external forces. Today is the day when we all are handed the key to the castle of our dreams, the elegant palace that unfolds from the light arising from our heart.