Happy Winter Solstice and Full Moon, December 21-22, 2018

LET US DREAM A TRANSFORMED FUTURE during this year’s rare combination of Winter Solstice and Full Moon, December 21-22, 2018
Posted on December 19, 2018 by Ann Kreilkamp

Approximately every 19 years, the Winter Solstice coincides with that year’s final Full Moon (called “Cold Moon”). And since the Winter Solstice is set for the moment the Sun reaches 0°00 Capricorn, therefore, Full Moon on Winter Solstice will always occur at 0°00 Cancer, opposite the 0°00 Capricorn Sun. While these two events are not exactly aligned — some 18 hours separates their exact positions — the coincidence is close enough to deem this Winter Solstice/Full Moon every bit as special as any of the 19-year returns of this doubly significant event.
The connection between the two is also interesting because, although Winter Solstice signifies the longest dark night of the year, the Full Moon on that date brightens the dark. Darkness and Light, together! A wonderful symbol for how we are, each of us, a combination of darkness and light: the dark part of ourselves we don’t know very well (also called the unconscious “shadow”) and so therefore tend to either deny, ignore, or project onto others, and the light part of ourselves that we do know and identify with (the conscious persona).
Likewise on a collective level, Darkness and Light. Nations tend to see themselves and their allies as “good” and others, their “enemies,” as “evil. Hard to believe: our penchant for war, how we’ve been “goin’ at it” for thousands of years, despite that, as Sun Tzu put it, “no nation has ever benefitted from prolonged war.”
From the vantage point of where I sit, visiting family in Boston, this unusual Winter Solstice itself occurs at 5:23 PM EST on December 21, 2018.

 
Likewise, from this same vantage point of Boston, The Solstice Full Moon (and the final full moon of the year), occurs at 11:28 AM EST on December 22, 2018.

 
I invite us to view the time period between these two events — from the evening of the 21st through early afternoon of the 22nd, as an opening space. A space that allows for dreaming, visions, a hushed observance of dark/light magnificence, as we internally sense the New Beginning of this next solar year which, every 19 years, brings with it the possibility — and, I would say, the stark necessity — of dynamic balance: between Outer Capricorn and Inner Cancer, between objective structures of society and subjective security of family, between overall planning and intimate communion. Both are of intrinsic value; for if we focus only on the Outer, then the Inner suffers. And vice versa.
The 0° of any cardinal sign, and Capricorn and Cancer are both cardinal signs, signify the resonance of this hushed observance to the Aries point, 0° Aries, cardinal sign of brand new beginnings, at every level.
Check again the two charts above. Notice Mercury and Jupiter, exactly conjunct at 9-10° Sagittarius, sign of philosophy, wisdom, ethics, large perspectives. Curious Mercury notices, names, communicates and shares; and generous Jupiter, ruler of Sagittarius, expands and magnifies whatever it touches. May this sacred Solstice Moment shift humanity into a brand new beginning. May we utilize this spacious present between the evening of the 21st and early afternoon of the 22nd to re-boot the human hard drive. Yes, let us choose peace, prosperity and abundance, in cooperation with each other, Mother Nature, and her cosmic home.
Let’s shoot for that.
Shoot for the stars.
BTW: Several very recent political events in the U.S. feel, to me, prescient, and very much in line with the Mercury/Jupiter Sagittarius conjunction at the upcoming Winter Solstice Full Moon: 1) the successful bi-partisan bill for prison reform, and 2) Trump’s announcement that he is going to bring all the troops home from Syria.

Thanks to: https://www.exopermaculture.com

Full Cold Moon In Cancer, December 22nd: Accept Your Reality And Live In The Now

By
consciousreminder


by Conscious Reminder

The Full Cold Moon is on her way, and with it, people will definitely feel different. The moon will be the most excellent way of closing this year. It is going to happen on December 22nd, and it will fall to zero degrees in Cancer.

It is going to be a beneficial and productive period. People are going to face positive energies and also realize with everything they did in this year which will come to its end soon.
At the time of the Full Moon period, the moon is going to be sextile Uranus, and that means that people are going to feel more open.
They are not going to worry or obsess about where they head or beat themselves down as of their past, but they are going to be present to the moment. Their routine can also change, and they can be following their instincts differently, and it is not going to be something bad or wrong at all.
Their mood can also change and become odd. But, they have to feel comfortable when expressing their original side of their personality. What is going to facilitate the excitement and change is lowering of their inhibitions.
In addition, this will make it easier for them to share feelings with their beloved, particularly after anger, as well as hostility from recent times. Also, this will be a reasonable period of breaking some old and unwanted habits and then replacing them with new and different things.
People are also going to find themselves being leaders and getting everything done. Also, curiosity is going to succeed in getting the best of them.

At this time, people have to accept emotions which come and also embrace connections which grow in their lives. They should come to the surface and show others around them who they really are.
Being more open is going to be better for them. Also, if they would like to move in the new year full with optimism, they will really have to do some things which they were putting off when they could.
Also, they should step back, as well as settle down for a while, and if they have to stop to even smell some roses, they should go for that. This Full Moon’s powers will put these people right where they have to be. Also, fighting will be entirely unnecessary, so they should just let that work the magic in their life.
People can check the video below in order to learn a lot more about the Full Moon period. They don’t have to feel afraid as the Full Moon is definitely going to be one which will hold events of this year, and it will also be the longest one.
At the start, it can feel quite odd a little bit, because the energies that come, everything is going to get itself out. People can finally discover the balance they were looking for.

They just have to believe in themselves and also the Universe, and they will move into 2019, so everything that happens now will define the beginning of the new year for them.

Thanks to: https://consciousreminder.com

Winter solstice: the astronomy of Christmas
December 20, 2018 7.28am EST  
Stonehenge sun.  

Authors

1.  Gareth Dorrian  
   Post Doctoral Research Associate in Space Science, Nottingham Trent University
   
2.  Ian Whittaker  
   Lecturer, Nottingham Trent University
   

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From the Neolithic to present times, the amount of sunlight we see in a day has had a profound impact on human culture. We are fast approaching the winter solstice for the Northern hemisphere, which takes place on December 21. This is the longest night of the year – once celebrated as “Yule” by the pagan people of Northern Europe before it became Christmas.
Stonehenge and the nearby Neolithic site of Durrington Walls (circa 2,500 BC) were each built to be orientated to face the midwinter sunset and sunrise respectively. This focus on the winter solstice was an important time marked by feasting and possibly animal sacrifice.
Millennia later, the Romans celebrated Saturnalia (until the fourth century AD) – a festival over the week of the winter solstice dedicated to the god Saturn, involving games and merriment. The last day of Saturnalia was referred to as the “dies natalis solis invicti” (birthday of the unconquered sun) by the Romans, who celebrated it by giving gifts to each other on December 25. The pagan Anglo-Saxon event known as Yule was in full swing during the winter solstice a few centuries after that, eventually evolving into the festival we now know as Christmas.

Tilting planet

But what causes the winter solstice? Our planet has an axial tilt (of 23.4°) with respect to its orbital plane around the sun, which results in the seasons. The winter and summer solstices, and the vernal and autumnal equinoxes, are the extreme points in each of these seasons (see image). In winter, the Earth’s tilt away from the sun causes sunlight to be spread out over a larger surface area than in summer. It also causes the sun to rise later and set earlier, giving us fewer hours of sunlight and colder temperatures.
  Meniou/Wikipedia, CC BY-SA  
As it happens, the direction of the Earth’s tilt changes over time. These variations have been known about since the time of the ancient Greeks. Hipparchus, one of the founders of modern astronomical techniques, wrote one of the first comprehensive star catalogues in 129 BC. After compiling his catalogue, he noticed that the position of the stars had changed from those in much earlier records, such as the Babylonian.
Interestingly, the stars appeared to have moved position by the same amount, and he realised that the location of north in the sky must have moved in the intervening centuries. Currently, our celestial north is marked by the position of the star Polaris. But this was not always the case.
The rotation of a spinning object, like the Earth, can be affected by external forces. Given that the Earth is already spinning, any force applied to it, such as gravity from the moon or other bodies in the solar system, will modify this rotation (known as torque). The result on Earth is called the precession of the equinoxes – a phenomenon which affects our observations of the stars. A visible example of this on a smaller scale is shown several times during the film Inception, where the precession of a spinning top was used to determine whether the main character was in reality, or still dreaming.
For the Earth, this precession traces out a circle on the sky once every 26,000 years (see image below). In 3,000 BC, the celestial north was the star Alpha Draconis (Thuban), in the constellation Draco. Given that we can predict this motion, we know that 13,000 years from now our north star will be Vega, in the constellation Lyrae.
  Author provided  
This also affects the onset of the seasons over the length of a year as part of this 26,000 year cycle, and therefore has important implications for anyone attempting to attribute any cultural significance to a particular point in a given season. The time it takes for the Earth to orbit the sun is approximately 365.25 days, meaning we have an extra day every four years. By comparison, the precession of the equinoxes results in about 20 minutes of difference between the Earth’s orbital period when measured against the fixed background stars (a sidereal year), and the time it takes for the sun to appear to return to the same position in the sky each year (a solar year).
As a historical aside, it was the discrepancy between the length of the solar year and the length of a year as defined by the Julian calendar that prompted the conversion to the presently used Gregorian calendar. The precession of the equinoxes was known about and had caused a discrepancy of a few days which prompted the council of Nicaea to change our calendar system.
Under the Julian calendar, originally established by the Romans in 46 BC, New Year’s day in England used to be on March 25, and this was also used to define the start of the tax year. The adoption of the Gregorian calendar in 1752 shifted the date of the tax year forward by 11 days, but set New Year’s to January 1. However, to avoid 11 days of lost tax revenue, the government of that time set our tax year to begin on April 6 where it remains to this day.
So, given that there are 1,440 minutes in a day, and a difference of 20 minutes between the sidereal and solar years, then over a period of 72 years the dates of the equinoxes (and the solstices) would shift backwards in the calendar by a full day, if they were not corrected for (which they are). That means a Roman using the winter solstice as a reference point for the timing of Christmas would have been celebrating Christmas near the end of our November. Even further back, the builders of Stonehenge would have experienced the winter solstice in our September.

Christmas on Mars

The winter solstice has clearly been important historically, but what about the future? Perhaps in a few hundred years, humans settlers will be celebrating Christmas on Mars. The planet Mars also has an axial tilt (25.2°), and hence seasons like we do. Mars also experiences a precession of the equinoxes, but the precession period is less stable than Earth’s. One full Martian precession is approximately 167,000 years.
The northern hemisphere winter solstice on Mars has only just passed, occurring on October 16. Because a sidereal year on Mars is 687 Earth days, the next Martian northern hemisphere winter solstice will not occur until September 2, 2020.
This means that any future Mars colonists who wish to recreate the winter solstice “festivities” at Durrington Walls thousands of years ago or, perhaps, just marking Christmas, would have to get used to celebrating in different Martian seasons almost every year.

Thanks to: http://theconversation.com