Winter Solstice "2016"

Day of 4 Yellow Self-Existing Star

Tone 4 (Self-Existing): creative power to Define Form, action of Measuring

Yellow Star (LAMAT): Beautifies and emphasizes Elegance

I curated and penned my first write-up concerning an "astrological day" (such as Solstice, New Moon, Full Moon, etc.). You can find that writing below!

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*Sources will be below this write-up in case you wanna do further reading.

This is a write-up for the entire Winter (Solstice); 

Feel free to take your time reading it!*

0. The first thing that occurred to me was the number 4. 4th Season of the year, 4th dimensional Earth and 4 corners to the boxes we place ourselves in when actually we live in concentric circles. No surprise, then, that when I pulled each of the 3 cards I will be presenting below, the first card I pulled was #13, so 4. 

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1. From the Gaia Matrix Oracle we gain the wisdom of Card 13: Judge/Oracle 

We run through 4 stages in the learning process of this card...

a) Cosmic Law: The inevitable. The future of your actions. The response to your call or action, no matter how many years out. The last ripple. The entirety of creation coming together to meet you from moment to moment. The things you cannot make up yourself. The things you created but in their own rite. The things you've done when they're carrying on by themselves. 

b) Self-Conflict: The final battle of recognition. The process of taking bitter medicine. The looking in the mirror when you'd rather just run and yell. The incoherence of your circumstances in those moments when you cannot deal. The world rushing up to meet you when you are convinced you are all by yourself. Dealing with your self. Tending to your own problems. Knowing you need help. 

c) Trials: The tests life presents you with so you can prove to yourself and existence whether you've actually learned something you claim to have gone through already, know already and gotten over. The things that fall apart regardless of how many times you've convinced yourself that you did the thing that needed doing to fix them. The going through hell. The knowing what you've made of yourself and, thus, of what you are actually capable. The making of your current self. 

d) Conscience: The acceptance of your trials. The quiet moments of self reflection that you don't battle. The wondering what else you didn't know about yourself and being willing to find out. The hearing other things than the voice you've always known to be "yourself." The wondering without knowing or needing the answer. The thing that shows up all by itself without your constant "tending" and forced "help." The letting; letting happen, letting go, letting something else. The reward for doing battle against what you've known to be your self. 

Some good quotes from the write-up on this card that may prove useful to you...

"The JUDGE/ORACLE archetype is that power of awareness and justice within you that enables the finest tuning to your own karma, or accumulation of past thoughts, feelings and actions. Some thoughts and deeds may be positive and others negative."

"Now is a time when you can see exactly the source of error in yourself, and by this precise insight, any blind spots will be revealed and will vanish through your confrontation of them."

"There are seven minds in the heart and seven hearts in the mind." (How many do you allow yourself to go through before making a decision you consider important? How many reflections do you allow yourself before you decide?)

"Examine your life, asking always, 'What is at the source of why I thought or did that?' Ask deeply of all the things you have hidden and don't want to see."

"Ask to see what you resist. Such self-confrontation leads to self-forgiveness when you realize that all of life is a gift, an opportunity to err and to rectify error. This is tantamount to reducing all your questions to one question. Pruning redundancies in your life is justice and a passage to receiving direct insight."

"Now is a time to notice crucial points of conflict in your life and seek to know what in yourself brought out any painful resistance. See how you have engineered your actions so as to avoid or to attack certain people or situations."

"Bring everything to light, and then forgive yourself and others. Accept your mistakes as passages of learning, and awaken your conscience so that it guides you before actions more than afterwards." 

"Examine not what you want, but what is essential." 

Questions the Gaia Matrix Oracle suggests you ask when this card is pulled...

* How can I find a criterion for my thoughts and actions?

* How can I see my blind spots?

* How can I truthfully evaluate where and how I have erred in the past and make rectifications? 

Affirmations the Gaia Matrix Oracle provides when this card is pulled...

- My honesty awakens my conscience which is a clear criterion of my thoughts and actions

- I can now see what I previously denied

- I forgive myself and others for all past wounding, and I dissolve any self-indulgence in my life

Food for thought at the end of the 13 JUDGE/ORACLE card chapter...

"The exchange that you have with the underworld is a pact of mutuality between the invisible and the visible worlds. As you discover your conscience by descending to the underworld you will naturally sacrifice what is irrelevant to your highest destiny."

"The conscience discerns virtue from vice."

"The cause of grief can be desire. Even the smallest aberrant desire in the soul can pollute the whole (and greater) system (of your personality)."

"Karmic balance is known by wise discrimination and gradual adjustments."

Be kind to yourself during this process.

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2. The Tarot of Gemstones and Crystals offers the wisdom of Aventurine: The High Priestess

The green aventurine imparts composure. Calmness flows through you, and cheerfulness and patience can develop. It can stimulate intuition and the powers of your imagination. 

Upright Meaning (when you're on top of your shit): Patience, love, kindness, compassion, intuition, wisdom, concealed feelings (sometimes it is all about when, not what), femininity, secrets (both sacred and what you may hold onto for others in safe keeping). Ideas and messages that we recognize intuitively. 

Reversed Meaning (when your shit is on top of you): Conceit, false judgments, passivity (the "everything is being done to me and is everybody elses fault + I have no part in this thing that happened to me*" fallacy), moodiness. 

* You might have been there for other reasons, but you were there for reasons. Consider what lessons are embedded in your unpleasant experiences before jumping to blame anybody. Others may very well deserve to carry the burden, but whatever involves you involves you for reasons. Even if those reasons are beyond you. 

Ain't no quicker way to lightness and freedom than accountability when it is called for. When it is called for. AKA, don't make yourself a martyr. Just account for what you've done and then move beyond it in every way you are capable. 

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3. The Herbal Tarot offers the wisdom of The Star: Skullcap

Skullcap; genus: Scutellaria

Skullcap calms the mind and heart and prepares the way for meditation. A nervine and an alterative, it relaxes the nerves and counteracts addictions. 

Symbolically used for: The need to look inward more, to focus on that which is subtle within oneself, in order to find inner peace. 

Upright Meaning (when you're on top of your shit): Meditation. Distant vision. Goals. Dreams. 

Reversed Meaning (when your shit is on top of you): Dreaminess. Not being in the moment. Separateness. Nothing to do or focus on.

Look at yourself. Look at yourself. 

Look out for yourself by looking at yourself. 

What can you do? (Forget everybody else). 

WHAT. CAN. YOU. DO? 

To improve your circumstances? 

To get help? 

To maintain? 

To let loose of that which binds you? 

To let loose of how you have bound yourself? 

We are ground zero of every human "problem" in this world. Every single person is an influencer of the greater circumstances around them. Every person can help. But first we must better ourselves. 

We must give ourselves the time we demand of everyone else!! We must be the partner we "deserve" and are hoping for and demanding. 

We must do better for ourselves and be better to ourselves and learn more adequately for ourselves. 

What you cannot bother to try and do for yourself, you are not entitled to from someone else. 

Some things to keep in mind about Tarot Cards and their meanings...

* Major Arcana cards relate to the life path. The vocation. The spiritual purpose of an individual. What we are "doing here." 

* Major Arcana cards are the cards that do not have numbers. Both the High Priestess and the Star are Major Arcana cards. 

* Sometimes a card's upright meaning is when your shit is on top of you. And, when that card is reversed, it can mean you are on top of your shit. With tarot cards, everything is relative to the circumstances. 

* No one tarot card is going to tell you everything about yourself or circumstances. BUT it can still inform you greatly and accurately. 

* It's never just one thing that helps (this universe is just too complex and multilayered), but it can definitely be one thing at a time that elevates you. Step by step. One thing and then another one. 

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4. From Spiritual Growth we are offered the wisdom of its 4th Page...

"The books we publish are our contribution to an emerging world based on cooperation rather than on competition, on affirmation of the human spirit rather than on self-doubt, and on the certainty that all humanity is connected. Our goal is to touch as many lives as possible with a message of hope for a better world."

"To your birth into light." 

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5nal Words...

* Be blessed as in bless yourself. Be a blessed person. 

* Give of yourself this "holiday season." 

* Charity isn't a dirty word. 

* What can you give of your time, your efforts, your personhood?

* Forget dollar amounts and money all together if you can help it. 

* What can you give of your words/thoughts/intentions to assist in bettering somebody elses circumstances or condition? 

* What can you give to yourself that is more valuable than accruing items or money? (TREAT YO SELF has so many meanings!)

* A reckoning is only as painful as your resistance insists on it being.

* You cannot get rid of a problem you are unwilling to solve. Solution begets dissolution. 

Thanks for reading and for all of your assistance along my own journey to this point. I never knew what I would pen in a write-up I did myself! Yet here I am, finally prepared, willing and learning. THANKS FOR YOUR HELP IN THE MAKING OF MY SELF! 

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RESOURCES...

a) Me. I'm the filter and have edited all quoted materials below as I saw fit. Many of the unquoted words were also of me.

b) The Gaia Matrix Oracle Deck (Second, Revised Edition) by Rowena Pattee Kryder

c) The Tarot of Gemstones and Crystals by Helmut G. Hofmann

d) The Herbal Tarot by Michael Tierra and Candis Cantin 

e) Spiritual Growth: Being Your Higher Self by Sanaya Roman