The morning of December 21st is the beginning of winter on the shortest day and longest night of the year as the light now turns from waning to waxing reminding us Spring and Summer will come. There will be a Summer Solstice again in June. Each Winter Solstice draws us into the inner world, the inner quiet where the soul knowing reminds us of the eternal flow of life itself, which is us, is in us, in Nature, in our world, and in the Cosmos.

Quiet, ceremony, ritual, meditation, prayer, is the path to the light in the darkness renewing our faith. As Mars squared Neptune last week, violence erupted in heartbreaking death, injury, destruction, and horror in mass shootings in the US and Australia, in bombings in the Caribbean, in weather extremes shocking yet reminding us that violence is continuing in Sudan, Ukraine and so many more ongoing tragedies in our world. How do we light a candle in this darkness, know a better future is possible, heal our brokenness in our so often broken world. Mars activated and revealed the ultimate Neptunian delusion that hurting others will relieve our pain; mars is asking us to use Neptune’s imagination to see through our illusion that the problems are out there, someone else’s responsibility. We are here together to offer help not hurt, care not rejection, attention not neglect, possibility not hopelessness. We are the candles in the darkness.

We can bring our personal and collective grief into the quiet of our meditations, prayers, and rituals.  We can acknowledge the interconnectedness of all of us. We can find ways to comfort and serve. We can refuse to give up, give in. We can be informed while resisting resorting to doomscrolling. We can focus on the light in this dark time. We can act in any and every way that is available to us knowing and trusting that no act of kindness, support, comfort and love is too small.

Jupiter, the sign and offering of this New Moon, is in Cancer this year focusing our world on self-nurturing, nurturing one another, nurturing our families and nurturing our collective family-humanity. Jupiter has been in a long struggle this year with Chiron in Aries forcing us to see our wounds, the wounds of others and our collective wounds. As we look forward to 2026 the courage to see our wounds, our own dark places of fear, pain, loss, grief is the prerequisite for seeing a far more brilliant light in us, a future that is truly joyful and fulfilling. It is also essential to see the healing needed in our world – envision it, hold it true in mind and heart and stand courageously/actively for a healing world. Chiron in Aries is initiating the actions to bring about the better world ready to be born in 2026. Labor is work, painful work forgotten when the work delivers a new life. Let’s take up the work of birthing a better world, a new awakening world of connection, collaboration and caring.