new year

The Time is Now: Moving from 2011 to 2012
By Margaret Gray

In embracing the month with the least daylight on our island, remember that you are not alone. Like fireflies, we each have a bright shining light going constantly on and off. Eventually, there will be so much light everywhere that, even in the moments when our own light is not shining brightly, there will be no darkness to get lost or confused in. Until that time comes, we can all help each other through reaching out and holding hands. Whoever’s light happens to be shining at that moment will help maintain the light around us, until we are all shining brightly. Watch how easily children do this. Playing and laughing with them can help lighten your energy. Illuminating your surroundings with beautiful candles can also assist you in brightening your environment as you celebrate the ending of 2011 and the start of 2012.

What opportunities are offered in this final month of 2011 by the planetary energies?

December starts with Venus (the goddess Aphrodite) joining Pluto (the god Hades) in an exact conjunction in the heavens. Symbolically, this represents a day in which one of the most powerful gods of change and transformation unites with the goddess of beauty and love, offering us an excellent time to assess our values – particularly our self-value and self-love. This is a good time to ask ourselves what requires transforming in this arena. As a collective, the theme of ‘what we value’ is particularly pertinent at this time, in terms of our structures and resources, including the natural beauty and resources of planet earth, as well as our financial resources.

With the Sun joining Mercury, the god of communication, as it goes back and forth in the sky over the North Node in Sagittarius, a bright light is shone on our collective desire to engage our thinking on a deeper level. This is the ideal time to align our thoughts with our soul self through meditative and contemplative practices. In approaching the end of December, the Sun lands on Pluto, shining a bright light on outworn personal and collective structures that are ready to be released back into source energy. This is a wonderful opportunity to release and let go of whatever we no longer require in all areas of our life, including home, relationships, work and friendships. It can be comforting to remember that as everything is made of energy, nothing is ever destroyed, as it merely returns to source.

Cleansing rituals can be very helpful at this time, to release the old, making space for the new. For a simple, free, energetic clearing exercise, visit: www.sriandkira.com/2011/the-container-practice

Also, Karen Kingston’s tiny book Clear your Clutter with Feng Shui offers wonderful practical tools on how to go about clearing clutter of all sorts.

Welcoming 2012: the main astrological features at a glance
1. Neptune moves into Pisces on Feb 4th 2012 where it will stay for the next 14 years, indicating a powerful, prolonged period of spiritual awakening.

2. Venus makes a conjunction with the Sun in Gemini on June 6th 2012, offering opportunities to re-evaluate and re-align our thoughts with our values.

3. Uranus and Pluto will form an exact square to each other on June 26th 2012. The potential to innovate our core structures is very powerful at this time.

4. On November 13th 2012 there will be a total solar eclipse. This is likely to be an intense time of emotional transformation.

5. Dec 21st 2012 at 11:11am GMT is the apparent ending of the Mayan long count calendar, which coincides with the rising of the Sun in the galactic centre. This is potentially a time of major awakening and change on our planet.

In the months to come, I will describe in greater detail how we might engage with the above events. However, future manifestations and healing of the past is created, as always, by what we choose in the present moment.

Meeting the main planetary energies of January 2012

As Mercury, the god of communication, encounters Pluto and forms a square in the sky with the Promethean energies of Uranus, opportunities to express underlying frustrations and desires for change are likely to be highlighted during this month. With so much energy focused in the mental realm, relaxation and grounding in the body is helpful, particularly for anyone with natal Sun, Moon or Ascendant in the early degrees of Capricorn, Aries, Libra or Cancer.

With Venus moving back next to Neptune and Chiron, idealism is likely to run high, offering powerful visions of a more equal and just society. The healing power of love is especially highlighted. The new Moon on January 23rd offers inspiration to Ireland, inviting us to reassess our ideals as a nation. In fact, with Uranus continuing back and forth over the chart of the Republic of Ireland’s Arabic Part of Fortune, the start of the year offers us a rich time of innovative change through our ideas, concepts, inspirations and communication with the rest of the world.

On February 4th, we welcome the long awaited entry of watery Neptune into its natural home sign of Pisces, where it joins Chiron. This invites us to make a major shift in consciousness on an individual and collective level. At its most expansive, in thinning and ultimately dissolving the veil between dimensions, Neptune in Pisces offers the possibility of remembering and reconnecting with our soul self and our interconnection with all via dream work, the imagination and the arts, as well as meditation and spirituality. Together with Chiron, our natural healing abilities can truly blossom at this time. At its least expansive, we can be tempted to embrace the Dionysian world of chaos and confusion through addictions, psychic intrusion and ego inflation, potentially resulting in wounding of self and others. These themes are particularly powerful for anyone with Sun, Moon or Ascendant in the early degrees of Pisces, Virgo, Sagittarius or Gemini. They are also very important if you are between the ages of 50 and 52, as you are currently going through your Chiron Return, which is a time of potential resolution of past wounds and reawakening of your healing skills.

As the veil continues to lift in 2012, notice the increasing reconnections with members of your spiritual family. In reaching out and resolving, forgiving and releasing unfinished issues, we can assist each other, at this transformative time in history, in integrating all aspects of ourselves with loving kindness on our journey home.

Margaret Gray offers psychological astrology consultations, seminars and workshops in Ireland, Hawaii and California. For further information, visit: www.astrologypsychological.com or email margaret@astrologypsychological.com