We are less than one week away from the Winter Solstice/Yule celebration time, as well as the beginning of the next astrological sign of Capricorn, my birth sign! The longest dark day of the solar year, and the beginning of a cardinal earth sign, both get me thinking a lot about constructive, nourishing ways to make a new turn into rest as a form of action.
I have spent the Fall months putting my recently transplanted garden to bed, and holding sad feelings about leaving behind some beloved established plants, as well as the garden bed, at my old place. One thing that is keeping my hopeful heart glowing is cultivating a vision of my new, smaller garden bursting forth into bright green, abundant life in the Spring.
I think it is natural in consideration of the life, death, rebirth cycles to let some of our creative energies rest below the surface at this time of year, composting and gathering nourishment in the dark, rich, nutritive soil. Plus, we know that these energies are not really just resting…they're regenerating and reimagining themselves...just like the plants and all forms of life on earth.
Time spent in rest can hold space for some very fertile moments of growth in our own interior and creative lives. Rest and patience are not concepts that I am always able to gracefully embrace as a list-making, mountain climbing Capricorn, but I do aspire to embody more of the flexible relationship to time and control that Pricus, the Sea Goat god, eventually had to learn. Pricus is the sea goat aspect of the Capricorn sign in astrology, and I have an early 2019 tarot and astrological reading with Spirit Oracle, Thorne Davis, to thank for encouraging me to investigate my sea goat side more over the past 12 months. Allowing myself to hold and examine the mystic intelligence of the sea goat within has gifted me the opportunity to be a stronger receptor of the guidance of my own intuition. I’ve taken “risks” to listen, respond, and act on my intuition in ways that I would not have trusted previous to what I think I’d now like to refer to as my Sea Goat Year. My life feels more rich, forward moving, and actualized because I am learning how to settle and rest into the power of my own deeper knowing.
If you are like me and need some gentle guidance on how to settle into deep knowing pauses, then I encourage you to picture yourself making some time to swim into your own fishy tail. Really let your sea goat tail flip and whip around under the vast, salty sea waters. Give yourself the time to patiently receive valuable information and insight from your own intuitive, watery depths.
Conversely, when some zoomed out perspective is needed in rest, it could be useful to picture Pricus in his Capriornus form - a zodiac constellation floating overhead in the night sky, able to survey his goat children climbing mountains back down on earth. This can be useful when thoughtful play and curiosity are needed to wrest ourselves from attachment to actions and emotions that seek to control. As a part of the night sky, perhaps it can be easier to be amused and delighted by our own follies and glories, and not attach too much meaning or reward to any of it. We can just hold it in our gaze, and let it all unfold before us. I’m only just learning how to hold this kind of perspective. It’s a good thing I have others to live this approach by example...
But maybe fire appeals to you? Did you know that Capricorn is associated with Saturn, Satan as goat god Baphomet, as well as the Devil card in the major arcana of the Tarot? I mentioned the Devil card briefly in last week’s blog post. The Devil card reminds us that no one may escape the shadow of the own collective darkness. So does settling into the fire-y, heated pressure of rich obsidian and molten iron appeal? Is this a ripe time for you to rest in the power of your own dark shadow? Perhaps connecting fire with shadow is a stretch, but if we think about it as a relationship between Sag and Cap perhaps it can be viewed more as a dance, an energetic exchange between two astrological bodies. Sagittarians are a fire sign and they are all about play, chance and exploration, and I personally love this fire and shadow investigation as a practice for the remainder of the final week in Sagittarius season. I have been feeling into a lovely, bright blue flame that has been ignited this last week at my heart center. I’m feeding it lots of self love, and with that self love has come a lot of tender self acceptance for my shadow self. I have been feeding my shadow all the dark songs that it loves to dance and sing along to for a spell each day. I give my shadow space to spread her wings, and in turn, she gives my blue heart flame some more carbon to burn off, cleansing and renewing the juicy, red ventricles. For years I fought incorporation of my shadow, but have more recently learned that if I can make space to rest into my fire-y darkness, then I am more resourced to feel whole, integrated, and accepting of my own imperfectness.
There are a lot of fertile manners of rest for you to opt into here. Which ways will you find to rest during this season of darkness? In what ways is rest a pause button for you? And in what ways have you learned to incorporate rest as action?