Living with the Stars

  A New Moon at 1 degree of Capricorn graces our skies on the 23rd December, very close to the Winter Solstice, when the Sun reaches maximum declination south at mid-day. For three days, the Sun will 'reside' in this space, 23.15 degrees declination south, and then begin its return to the north. Of course, the Sun does not move, it is Planet Earth which is dancing around the Sun and 'wobbling' as it does so, and that 'nodding' to the Sun gives us the seasons.  A few interesting observations about this New Moon is the movement of Jupiter into the warrior sign of Aries, urging us to use the wisdom gained by its sojourn in Pisces (where it had retrograded into for a few months) and put our plans into action. Jupiter, in ancient astrology, represented the Crown Prince. Bernadette Brady writes extensively about Assyrian astrology and has a wonderful article over here (just copy and paste this link into a search engine -  https://zyntara.com/the-prince-takes-the-crown...

  Thanks to a little book I got from a book fair, I came across a list of historical events which happened on Christmas Day. It has long been accepted that the day itself is probably not the date of Jesus Christ’s birth. The New Testament states that shepherds watched their flocks by night, something which would not have occurred on long winter nights, but rather on late spring nights, according to astrologer Christine Arens, who examined the possibility that the bright star in the East, mentioned in the New Testament and, according to Arens and others, was a Jupiter-Saturn conjunction (occupying the same ‘portion’ of sky). Point of note: Christmas was first celebrated on the 25 th December in the year 336AD. Celebrating the birth of a messianic king did leave its impact, however. Both Charlemagne and William the Conqueror were crowned kings on Christmas Day. The story of Charlemagne is one of a devout Christian and successful conqueror who was crowned by Pope Leo III in Rome,...