SOLAR SHININGS•••
Solstice/Sun in Capricorn


Winter Solstice, in the Northern Hemisphere, represents the season we now call winter, what the pagans referred to as yule, and the longest and darkest night of the year. A time of year when the sun surrenders for only a day or two, metaphorically, and then begins to grow in strength, day by day, until Summer Solstice.

Solstice begins the very moment the sun moves from Sagittarius to Capricorn, symbolically grounding the visions and ideals we idealistically envisioned through the days of Sagittarian sun to something manifested, birthed to a physical realm, as something we can see and touch.

Capricornian energy, cardinal in nature, seeks to find purpose of place within and in the physical foundations of this world; seeks to accomplish the uphill battle we call life and come out on top, seeks to hold stance over others in powerful ways, through envious means; Capricornian energies seek the delicious high few of us know, the high of feeling important, needed, necessary, and valued in the utmost.

Earthy, in its most advanced state, Capricorn takes an esquire position, having accumulated the many pleasures Taurus enjoys, needs, cultivates, while exhibiting all skills in all trades, through Virgo, however, surprising to many presumptions, as a master of none, though somehow luring anyone paying attention to think otherwise, with an ease and a charm that is unmatched in both intensity and in conviction.

❝We are each our own devil, and we make this world our hell.❞
——Oscar Wilde

And so it is, Capricorn, in its brightest image.

Capricorn represents the Devil card of the tarot deck and if that last paragraph isn’t the most appropriate segway from there to here, I’m not sure what would be… the Devil card is symbolic magic, inspiring thoughts of fancy and fantasy despite reality so often whistling a very rigidly different tune. Both Capricorn and the Devil card suggest capitalism, consumerism, and the industrial revolution, as well as marketing, the corrupting ladder of corporations, and the ultimate fall from grace.

The Devil possesses no evil connotations in its own right, as it is humans who have assigned particular vocabulary to the idea and image of the devil, and not the other way around…

The true symbolism of the Devil is raw, primal, carnal desires, in both versions: of keeping yourself astray from these desires or finding great joy in surrendering yourself to these desires in addictive ways, through greedy means. Whereas, anything enjoyed in balance is, through this perspective, healthy, natural, or good. Holy even.

❝The Devil pulls the strings which make us dance;
We find delight in the most loathsome things;
Some furtherance of Hell each new day brings,
And yet we feel no horror in that rank advance.❞
——Charles Baudelaire

Still, the Devil card also represents those basic humanistic needs, the desire to make something of ourselves, to show off, invest, and to experience what it is to feel necessary. And whether you believe that the fruits of labor should be enjoyed in this life or after, either dogma cannot dispute the demands this world and its physicality put upon us, as an individual, a family, a community, or a nation. As a people of the human race, we all know all too well what it is to be determined of something to be called and possess the urge to answer, to have pride in what you offer to others through your integrity of character.

❝We have never heard the devil’s side of the story, God wrote all the book.❞
——Anatole France

The Devil card asks you to ask yourself, on this darkest of nights, if you’ve found yourself traveling in the wrong direction, harboring hate, and/or feeling low to the ground: who is it you’re surrounding yourself with, and what types of energy do you expose yourself to? Are you keeping yourself confined to limiting experiences and depressing outcomes by simply walking the path of a life you do not wish to live, but society does? Or your family? Or some other authority force?

Are you authoring your life as a story you would want to read?

The Devil card dares you to go against the grain, to be your own authority… to trust your authenticity.

The Devil card proclaims, “hey, if you always do something that interests you, at least someone is always pleased…”

Make nice with your inner demons—and be you, bravely.

❝If the only prayer you said in your whole life was, “thank you,” that would suffice.❞
——Meister Eckhart