You don’t have to be at Stonehenge for the Midwinter solstice to feel the power of a new beginning. I will be there this year, at sunrise, but no matter where in the world you are on December 21st and December 22nd, you are invited to mark the entry of the Sun into Capricorn with your own ritual and New Year promise, to yourself. If you like the idea, as so many astrologers do, that Stonehenge is just a great big horoscope (below) then use the moment. The Sun’s entry into Capricorn, the goat, is a very big deal. And here’s how it works…
CHRISTMAS, THE NORTHERN HEMISPHERE MIDWINTER AND MIDSUMMER IN THE SOUTH
Towards the end of December, the Sun no longer corresponds with the constellation of Capricorn, the goat, as we see it through a telescope. It’s down to what they call the precession of the equinox, which astrologers have known about for centuries. (Could someone tell the sceptics that, please?)
In astrology, we use Capricorn as a useful symbol – a kind of visual clue – to the actual meaning of the season. At this time of year, when Neolithic people at Stonehenge were marking the solstice, the season presented serious questions. Who was capable of getting through the winter? (Of course, in the Southern Hemisphere, and particularly Australia, where bushfires are common, the question was – who was capable of getting through the summer?) In your own life, today, these questions might concern bosses and employers, Prime Ministers and Queens, and other kinds of leaders. In the old days they might have asked – who can take the tribe through the most intense cold and heat? The biggest challenges ?
Stonehenge at midsummer gets all the publicity, because the warmer weather draws a bigger crowd of tourists – but we now know that it was the midwinter solstice, usually around December 21st, which was the main focus of the stone circle. People do make their wishes and carry out their rituals towards the end of June, but the period just before what we call Christmas – today – is really the time for you to examine your new year ahead and light your candles – and set your goals.
Today, the end of the year – the Stonehenge winter solstice just before Christmas – brings the retirements, resignations, promotions, new appointments, redundancies and sometimes the end of contracts that we associate with similar questions. Naturally – it’s the end of the year! Of course, just days after the Stonehenge midwinter solstice, The Queen always gives her famous Christmas message, to all the Commonwealth countries. Astrology is not behind the timing, but it corresponds with it. Capricorn season is always about the people at the top of the structure and those coming up, not far behind. This is a really good example of how astrology works. The Sun moving into Capricorn does not ’cause’ the Queen to give her message from Buckingham Palace (the top of the mountain) and it does not ’cause’ big corporations to promote people for the year ahead. It’s just synchronicity!
THE CONSTELLATION OF CAPRICORN THE GOAT AND THE SOLSTICE
Capricorn the goat was ‘pinned’ on the constellations behind the Sun at this time of year, many centuries ago, because mountain goats famously climbed to the top. Our astrologer ancestors realised that the midwinter in the Northern Hemisphere put the spotlight on the leaders – for example, Emperor Augustus in Ancient Rome was a Capricorn Sun, who also put his zodiac sign on his coins. Beyond that, it may be that the midwinter solstice at Stonehenge attracted similar observations. Perhaps it was the season for tribes to address the question of leadership and succession. We just don’t know – Neolithic minds are hard to read – but in today’s astrology, we do know that the entry of the Sun into Capricorn is a potent time for you to look at issues like ambition, success, and achievement. This extraordinary photograph (below) is at The Guardian website, showing The Rolling Stones, appropriately enough at Stonehenge, in winter.
WHY THE 2015 STONEHENGE DECEMBER SOLSTICE MATTERS
This solstice matters because the Sun is in Capricorn, alongside Pluto, for the first time in around 240 years, in its long cycle through the sign of the goat. It also matters because we have a Mercury-Pluto conjunction in Capricorn in December 2015, and of course the Full Moon, with the Sun in Capricorn opposite the Moon in Cancer.
Capricorn issues in your personal chart will rise, along with the Sun at the solstice, for you or for those around you. All those retirements, resignations, redundancies, new appointments, promotions and departures I mentioned will be all around you. Along with major questions about what success means, of course! And naturally – who is leading the tribe, and why, and who might replace them one day.
I mentioned that I will be at Stonehenge at dawn on the solstice this December with some astrologer friends. If you would like to join us, either at the site, or later on in London for a catch-up (and some video and photographs for discussion) please let me know at my December 7th talk at The Astrological Lodge.
In your own part of the world, please make time for the official entry of the Sun into Capricorn on Tuesday 22nd December at 4.47am (Stonehenge time) to look at issues about position, ambition and mission. Think about the year ahead, 2016, and look at anything in Capricorn in your own personal horoscope. If you want to decode what the heavenly bodies or angles in Capricorn mean in your chart, you can either ask me questions here in the Comments section, or look at the free e-books you receive with your membership, at this site.
If you are lucky enough to be at Stonehenge from the solstice do let me know so we can all meet up, perhaps with other astrologers too. In any case, please light a candle at this time, and state your intentions about success and what it means to you in 2016.
