As we enter this New Year, we’re coasting on a full Moon and the deep quiet of the Solstice. I feel the true beginning of the year will be after the powerful fresh start energy of the Capricorn solar eclipse on January 5th. It's as if we're in a tunnel: a door is closing and we can feel the next one about to open. Like life. Where are we now? What will the next chapter bring?
I love these periods of reflection and pause. We get a chance to catch up with ourselves, review what we’ve been up to. We can feel the life choices brewing within.
Traditionally as a culture we set New Years "resolutions", which usually don't work out so well. Like tight lipped schoolmarms we thrash ourselves with visions of perfection, the same intentions year after year for self improvement--often ego based, culturally approved. This is the curse of believing ourselves to be not enough.
When we're trapped in ego improvements we lose our sense of connection to who we really are.
“Each of you is perfect the way you are…
and you can use a little improvement”
—Shunryu Suzuki
Today, I invite you to remember and relish your absolute perfection first--before thoughts of improvement. Breathe it in. Consider (or make a list) of all the things you accomplished in the last year with gratitude. Include memories of connection, resting, the best hug, the most delicious meal. Self care will be a big theme in 2019 so let's start now. Sure, we can congratulate ourselves for how busy we were (aren’t we all these days?) and all the "success" we accomplished, but it will soothe our weary selves to remember how often we put the “to do” list aside and let ourselves just be--authentic, alive, infused with truth itself, finding the quiet inside. Energy follows thought.
These moments of calm and self-healing were some of our greatest achievements in 2018. Rather than harsh resolutions, think of soul centered intentions to create a life that feeds all of our parts and is filled with a sense of Spirit: personal, devotional, spiritual, worldly, transformational, saving the planet, loving, healing, equality... Where are you called?
Uranus (the rebel planet of authenticity and awakening) is finishing its annual retrograde period to turn direct on January 6th. So in this tunnel between the years we are steeped in our longing for freedom, gaining perhaps shocking clarity about how we must break away from repressive cultural imprinting. After January 6th you might have some new revelations.
In 2019 the Pisces planets of oneness, faith and illusion dance together--a slippery slope of peak experiences and delusion or numbing out. Our spiritual practice (including walks in nature) will help us balance this vibration. The Capricorn theme still forges on to help us ground our intentions into the material plane while we painfully face the corruption and hard choices personally and globally.
Consider what just "a little improvement" might look like; lovingly, compassionately, do-able. I'll talk (Podcast!) and write much more on this year's powerful astrology as our conversations unfold.