Turning Towards Yourself: Making Each Moment Holy
In the past 24 hours Venus has entered Capricorn and we are speeding towards the Solstice, the point in the year where the light begins to slowly grow again, moving us fully into Capricorn season. It is a beautiful bookend to the year that began with Venus retrograde in Capricorn asking us to reexamine our values, what was truly important to us before we embarked on the adventure that has been 2022. How fully have we lived our values this year?
In the frenetic pace of day to day life ( I mean, come on how is it nearly the middle of December already?) we often forget that we are indeed the steward of our own lives, our own experience.
Everything has a season. Capricorn takes the inspirational energy of Sagittarius and asks us to build something of value that is lasting. That is real. It is about walking the walk vs waxing on about endless possibility without taking action. With the Saturn archetype as its ruler Capricorn yearns for the manifestation that lies beyond inspiration.
Saturnalia, the ancient Roman holiday that many of our Christmas celebrations evolved from, was the highest holiday in the Roman world. Honoring Saturn, the agricultural God of seed-sowing who presided over the Golden Age and celebrating the promise of a spring harvest, Saturnalia took place across seven days from the 17th to the 23rd of December.
Did you know the origin of the word holiday is actually holy day? I find this concept of holy day profound, particularly as we are currently in the” holiday season.”
This week on my walks through Sedona’s forest I found myself contemplating on a very practical level what does it mean to make something holy within our lives? To me at the very least it would be to gaze at it from a perspective of reverence. And that requires intentionality.
It’s funny that all things Saturn (the Saturn Return, Saturn’s transits and even Saturn within our natal chart)are often viewed with dread. And admittedly usually Saturn transits aren’t really “fun.” But you see on the whole, Saturn is about mastery. He wants us to be accomplished, he wants us to be wise, he wants us to be an authority on something. (We can never spend too much time on Saturn in this lifetime–the more we know about the way Saturn works in our charts, the more liberated we become.) We could say Saturn wants us to both plant seeds and then through our actions nourish them to fruition. He wants us to steward, aka consciously care for, our lives.
So today as I contemplate Saturn, and Capricorn season, I think about the life enriching holiness of taking our inner imaginational inspirations and making them real through ongoing small actions in the outer manifest world. Of each of us building something of which we can be proud simply because its ours. Which requires that we take agency within our own lives. This calls for us turning towards ourselves vs away from ourselves. What do I mean by this?
Let me share a personal story as an example. It should be clear to you by now that I love the study and practice of astrology. It truly is one of the great loves of my life. I have been practicing professionally since 1987 though it was a side gig for years. Yet, from 2008 - 2012 when I was the author and originator of an internationally read series of monthly horoscope articles I used my full name Melinda without my last name as my byline. If I am telling the truth, at its core this was because at the time I was afraid of being perceived as a flake and potentially losing clients in my other business. I had turned away from myself, which could, of course, be seen in many other ways throughout my life. I had judged my true self as not being worthy and as a consequence walked around feely like a fraud much of the time. It was as I learned and practiced turning towards myself that my life and my experience of it opened and changed.
Saturn, Capricorn’s ruler, also is in charge of time. As Walt Whitman said “Every hour of everyday is an unspeakable miracle.” As we move towards the close of 2022 and threshold of 2023 it is worth examining what we have made holy both consciously and unconsciously within our lives. Asking ourselves whether what we have elevated as sacred simply by the act of giving it our attention worthy of our time? In other worlds are we treating the precious commodity of our time as an unspeakable miracle?
To live lives full of wonder and joy we must be the steward of our lives that our soul deserves. We must apprentice ourselves to live a life that aligns with our values. It demands that we treating ourselves and the world around us with reverence. In particular we must treat our inner world from which all is born with reverence.
Saturn, Capricorn’s ruler, is also in charge of time. As Walt Whitman said “Every hour of everyday is an unspeakable miracle.” As we move towards the close of 2022 and threshold of 2023 it is worth examining what we have made holy both consciously and unconsciously within our lives. Asking ourselves is what we have elevated as sacred simply by the act of giving it our attention worthy of our time? In other worlds are we treating the precious commodity of our time as an unspeakable miracle?
Ask yourself as you approach the landscape of 2023 what would my life look like if I practiced approaching my life as a holiday, as though it was sacred and holy? How would my day to day experience be different? Actually contemplating (journaling is a great exploratory tool)this will help to lay a empowering foundation for the year ahead.
I will reiterate it again the upcoming weeks but I honestly advise spending all of Capricorn season this year in planning prior to setting any New Year’s resolutions. Mars, the planet of action, is retrograde through January 12 and Mercury Retrogrades in Capricorn from December 29 through January 18. Retrogrades are an inner, yin, energy. They invite us to reconsider and revise. I once again quote Walt Whitman “Reexamine all that you have been told… dismiss that that insults your soul.”
