2022 Winter Solstice

2022 WINTER SOLSTICE

Southward Solstice
Capricorn Ingress

Kyiv, Ukraine Wed, Dec 21, 2022 at 11:48 pm EET
UTC, Time Zone Wed, Dec 21, 2022 at 9:48 pm
London, United Kingdom Wed, Dec 21, 2022 at 9:48 pm GMT
New York, USA Wed, Dec 21, 2022 at 4:48 pm EST
Minneapolis, USA Wed, Dec 21, 2022 at 3:48 pm CST
Santa Fe, USA Wed, Dec 21, 2022 at 2:48 pm MST
Los Angeles, USA Wed, Dec 21, 2022 at 1:48 pm PST
Wailuku, USA Wed, Dec 21, 2022 at 11:48 am HST
Moscow, Russia Thu, Dec 22, 2022 at 12:48 am MSK
Tokyo, Japan Thu, Dec 22, 2022 at 6:48 am JST

“The days have decreased in length as much as they ever will [or increased that much south of the equator]. Life surges once more with the Sun from its southern decline. The Sun moves northward, its daily arc of light becomes slowly tauter and more radiant. The promise of spring spreads like a mystic fire over the earth to tell ‘men of good will’ that the New Life has begun to win over arrested death.”

-- Dane Rudhyar, The Pulse of Life, 1963

At Winter Solstice, the realm of the night has reached its maximum. The day begins increasing in length. Sol comes his furthest south and has his shortest period in the day sky, while the night is the longest of the year. From the point of the Solstice onward to the Summer Solstice, there is an increase in light.

The Winter Solstice marks the Sun’s entry into the sign Capricorn, ruled by the planet Saturn. It is also known as the Capricorn ingress. While the precise solstice time is given here for the Sun’s standstill moment, it seems to rise and set from the same point for three days or so. Winter celebrations include Saturnalia, a week-long Roman festival of the god Saturn. There is a more extended festival of Germanic people called by the Norse word for wheel, “Yule,” and of course, Christmas Eve and Day, and New Year’s Eve and Day. Karolina Markovic offers the feast day of St. Nicholas (Nikoljdan, December 19).

When does the year begin?

Of the solstices and equinoxes (two each, four total) and the midpoints of the four (another four) when charted for mundane astrology analysis, there’s been a see-saw of whether the winter solstice or spring equinox chart gives the pithiest and most reliable message. Do they only echo the larger change landscape, or are they reliable outlines of the 12 months that follow? Would there be geopolitical clues in comparing the layouts by setting the chart in key locations?

“...in very ancient times, the most important yearly turning points were considered to be the summer and winter solstices. Later, in the 4th century AD, Emperor Julian opted for the Winter Solstice in particular, “when King Helios returns to us again, and leaving the region furthest south and rounding Capricorn as though it were a goal-post, advances from the south to the north to give us our share of blessings of the year.”

--- Quoted by Charles Harvey in Michael Baigent, Nicholas Campion, and Charles Harvey, Mundane Astrology, 2nd ed. London, Aquarian Press, 1992.


“In the 20th century, Charles Carter in England, and Alfred Witte in Germany, both echoed Emperor Julian’s sentiments and made a persuasive case for the Capricorn ingress to be regarded as the beginning, or the start of the year. The consensus among most “Western” astrologers is that the Vernal Equinox (Spring) begins the astrological year. Witte saw the Capricorn ingress as the beginning of the solar cycle. In the Northern Hemisphere, it’s the time when the old Sun dies, and a new one is born, and, as Chinese astrologers saw it, increasing yin switches over to increasing yang. Like the New Moon, which most astrologers acknowledge as the beginning of the lunar cycle, the Winter Solstice marks the end of the waning half of the cycle and the beginning of a new waxing half.

“In Northern latitudes, Capricorn is probably the most emotionally laden of the four Cardinal ingresses – the one that brings up primal fears of darkness, cold, hunger, and the cessation of all life. Will the light return? Will the round of life continue? For peoples who routinely experienced cold, famine, and nights lit only by firelight, seeing the waning of the Sun’s strength finally reverse itself must have genuinely seemed like a rebirth and must have been an occasion for heartfelt rejoicing.


“Today, around the time of the Winter Solstice we still compensate for the withdrawal of the Sun’s light and heat by cozily nesting indoors, stoking the fire, festooning trees with lights, and warming ourselves with food, strong spirits and the company of others. To counter nature’s threat of scarcity, we invoke a great-bellied saint clad in the color of fire, whose pack brims with human-made abundance. Our thoughts turn from fresh-picked food toward what is preserved and stored, from the vanished lushness of the natural world toward the human-created social order with its own ingenious methods for sustaining life and hope.”

 --- https:/ /alabe. com/ AUG2.htm (TR edited)

 

 

2022 Samhain timing

2022 Samhain

Here’s the timing for the midpoint between Autumn Equinox and Winter Solstice. Around this astronomically based, Earth-based, zodiacally-based time, humanity has offered recognition in celebrations, holy days, and holidays such as the Celtic Samhain, the roots of Halloween, All Hallow’s Eve, and Dia Muertos, the Day of the Dead.

London (United Kingdom – England)
Monday, November 7, 2022, at 11:45:19 am GMT equals UTC now
Boston (USA – Massachusetts)
Monday, November 7, 2022, at 6:45:19 am EST UTC-5 hours
Chicago (USA – Illinois)
Monday, November 7, 2022, at 5:45:19 am CST UTC-6 hours
Albuquerque (USA – New Mexico)
Monday, November 7, 2022, at 4:45:19 am MST UTC-7 hours
Sacramento (USA – California)
Monday, November 7, 2022, at 3:45:19 am PST UTC-8 hours
Honolulu (USA – Hawaii)
Monday, November 7, 2022, at 1:45:19 am HST UTC-10 hours
Tokyo (Japan)
Monday, November 7, 2022, at 8:45:19 pm JST UTC+9 hours

Samhain (pronounced “sah-wen,” Halloween, All Hallows Eve) is the tipping point. The precise moment of Samhain (useful for ritual purposes) is the exact middle of the time between the Autumn Equinox and the Winter Solstice.

Darkness, the hours of the night, are increasing. Different peoples, tribes, and clans have many names for male and female principals. At Samhain, the older crone or Wise Woman takes charge, while the Youthful Queen returns to the Underworld to join the Dark God. He rules over that time between the Autumn and Spring Equinoxes. The moment of transition is when the Sun ticks from 14° 59’ Scorpio to 15° 00’ Scorpio, the Zodiac Sign of death and rebirth. Samhain marks the ending, the beginning, and the Wheel of the Year turns. When the Young Queen returns in the spring, she’s pregnant with that newly conceived in the Underworld.

In some Celtic and European traditions, participants fortify themselves with cakes and drinks before setting out for the ritual gathering at sunset. They take lanterns, candles, or torches to light their way as it grows dark to the highest hill, which the druid and assistants have set up for the celebration. Key is the lighted bonfire at the time measured and announced by the druid or priest. Some years the bonfire may already be burning, depending on that year’s timing.

The ritual may involve remembering loved ones passed on to the other side of the veil. A period of meditation begins and continues until the priest lights the fire. As the fire leaps up, so do the participants who bring song, joy, and dance to the ceremony that continues until dawn light and a return to home and hearth. Tradition has it that the veil that divides the worlds is thin this night. The passages from life and death are both wide open. The Mystery recognizes that every ending is but a beginning.

The energy of the old year is most potent right up to the mid-season peak and turning toward the New Year. There are many variants among the tribes and peoples that recognize Samhain (Irish name) as the “turning of the year.” Compared to Día de Muertos, celebrated primarily in Mexico and the US Southwest.

1st - Imbolc, 2nd - Beltane, 3rd - Lugnasad, 4th - Samhain (image via EarthSky)

Earth’s track around the Sun and the Earth’s off-kilter axial orientation (23.5°) to the plane of that orbit is how we mark the Equinoxes and Solstices. That is also how we define the Zodiac on the plane of that orbit. When the angle of Earth’s rotational pole points toward or away from the Sun, we mark the solstices. We reference those points to the lines of latitude North, Cancer, and South, Capricorn. To map The Equator, the pole of Earth’s axis does not point toward or away but is perpendicular to the Sun. Those points in Earth’s orbit mark Earth’s Equator and the Spring and Autumn Equinoxes. Look at the illustration, and this will make perfect sense. The Earth-to-Sun relationship provides the names. Spring Equinox equals Aries, the first Sign of the Zodiac. Then the Summer Solstice brings the Cancer Ingress and marks the northern tropic of Cancer. Back to the Equator comes the Libra, Autumn, and Equinox, and at the tropic of Capricorn is the Winter Solstice. The orientation of the Earth to the Sun marks the Seasons. Those points give us the lines of latitude on the planet. Extend that plane into space and where the Sun is on those solstice or equinox days marks the Zodiac. Eclipses occur on occasions of Sun and Moon alignment with the ecliptic plane. And that’s how it got its name!