Doors: Prompt

Everything Changes December 21

Thank god and the cosmos

December 21, 2020 is the winter solstice in the Northern Hemisphere, which means it’s the longest night of the year, and shortest day. It’s also the turning point. Think of it as the apex of darkness. Because each day thereafter will become a little bit longer, and each night a bit shorter, until we reach the summer solstice on June 20, 2021.

The winter solstice has been celebrated for as long as we’ve been aware of the stars in the sky. In Europe, Scandinavia, and Ancient Greece, it was a big pagan holiday before the time slot was taken over by Hanukkah and Christmas.

The solstice is considered significant by many people and traditions. This year, though, it’s even more significant, since it will coincide with a celestial event we haven’t seen for 800 years: the near merging of Saturn and Jupiter in the night sky.

Astronomers are excited about the event. Astrologers, too. Alexander J. Wilson calls it The Great Conjunction.

“The Great Conjunction symbolizes a huge change for humanity. It represents the beginning of a significant shift in our collective worldview. The conjunction does happen every couple of decades; however this particular alignment we are anticipating on December 21st ushers in an even bigger, more dramatic shift for our planet.

That’s because for the last two centuries, Jupiter and Saturn have only been meeting in earth signs, but this year, they will meet in the air sign of Aquarius.

These planets will also be aligning at zero degrees of Aquarius, which is important because zero symbolizes infinite potential endless possibilities. This represents a big energy shift for all of us, individually, and as a collective.

The fact that Jupiter and Saturn are aligning in Aquarius represents the beginning of a new era of higher consciousness and limitless possibilities -The Age of Aquarius.”

When I was a young woman back in the ’70s, I went to see the musical Hair and was thrilled by a song with the lyric “This is the Dawning of the Age of Aquarius.” (That, and the moment when the performers got naked and danced in the audience.) I’m an Aquarius myself, and I left the theater envisioning a new world in which people would love and take care of each other, starting that night.

But it turns out an “age” is a lot longer (and vaguer) than I understood from listening to a pop song. According to Wikipedia, an astrological age lasts something like 2,160 years and the starting and stopping point of the Age of Aquarius varies depending on the method of calculation.

But maybe that Age that so entranced me in my youth is finally dawning? Signs that we’re in a transformational period on the planet include the #MeToo Movement, Black Lives Matter protests, weather disasters and climate change activism, and the weakening of the patriarchy symbolized by the downfall of big daddy Donald Trump.

My writer friend Evelyn Jean Pine and I conduct a self-designed ritual every new year, inviting in what we want and ushering out what we don’t for the upcoming year. Past years have found us all over the Bay Area, including on the ferry to Vallejo, atop Bernal Hill, among the stacks at the main library and in the surf at the base of the Golden Gate Bridge. This year’s ritual will be smaller and quieter. Because of the pandemic, we’ll be holding it on Zoom.

Creating a wholly unique ritual and conducting it together is like making a new year’s resolution, only better. The harsh, almost punitive tone of resolutions is replaced with a generative and joyful spirit when performing an individualized ceremony in company with a friend.

In our case, the ceremony has already started. We’ve written down 10 things we want more of in 2021 and mailed it to each other. Evy’s envelope to me is posted on the wall above my desk. We’ll open them during the ritual, when she’ll will read my invitations out loud, and I will read hers.

We’ve also written down 10 things that we want to be rid of in the coming year and kept those to ourselves. We’ll read them during the ritual, one at a time, and then burn them in a candle flame.

Wishes can be personal or universal. Small or infinite. Serious or light. I’d list my own intentions for 2021 as an example, except I don’t want to diminish the power of our ritual, which Evy and I will begin at 4:55pm on December 21, when the sun is scheduled to set on the West Coast of the U.S.

As we wait for the presidential inauguration, as we wait for the vaccine, as we wait for the reopening of small businesses and the resumption of something akin to the lives we used to lead, now is a great time to reach out to the cosmos and make your purposes clear.

So don’t be shy. Create a ritual. Conduct it alone or in company. And help the next Age begin.

Patsy Fergusson is the editor of Fourth Wave. Find non-fiction work about feminism, politics, entertainment, and random musings by her and others there. For fiction, try: