Happy December Solstice

Happy Solstice!

This week I pulled a card from one of my decks and it got me thinking about 'santosha'. That's the inspiration for what follows.

Sagittarius is not here to be content. That's Taurus' realm. And we know they sit in an inconjunct relationship. One defined by confusion. They speak different languages of fulfilment. Taurus rests. Sagittarius doesn't. It is constantly reaching.

Santosha. In Yogic philosophy it is often translated as contentment, but more accurately it is a quiet consent with what is. Sagittarius struggles here. Its nature is to seek meaning, truth, coherence beyond the immediate moment. The question is not whether Sagittarius ever finds meaning, but whether it recognises that meaning is not something to be conquered. When seeking becomes compulsive, meaning itself turns into a wound. This is where Chiron enters. The centaur that carries both wisdom and ache. Suffering by choice. An ancient choice. A subconscious one. And a mission to transmute it.

The search for truth can be a medicine, or it can be a way of avoiding presence. When santosha is missing, the seeker keeps moving. When something else is missing, usually safety or trust, seeking becomes restless rather than devotional.

The Temperance card, Sagittarius’ Tarot mirror, makes this visible. An angel stands with one foot on land and one in water, pouring between vessels, not rushing, not hoarding. Patience, the translation of that card, is an alchemical process. (I got a D in Chemistry in college, so this defo won't turn into a Science lesson...lucky for all of us. )

This is not the wild archer charging forward, but the initiated one who has learned proportion. Temperance is faith with discernment. (A word borrowed from Virgo.) Freedom with responsibility. Sagittarius matures when it understands that integration is more powerful than accumulation. This is why Sagittarius is the sage, the guide, the mentor. It teaches through lived synthesis, not raw information. (That's Gemini's realm.)

Sagittarius is often misunderstood here. After Pisces, it is the most spiritual sign, not because it dissolves into the ineffable, but because it insists that meaning must be lived, tested and made intelligible. Its spirituality is marked by 'inquiry', not surrender. Meaning is something it has to wrestle into coherence.

And it comes right before Capricorn, another authority figure, but of a different order. Sagittarius teaches through meaning and vision. Capricorn teaches through structure and consequence. One inspires, the other stabilises.

This New Moon highlights perception (the Moon) versus perspective (Sag). The Moon governs the internal, the subjective, it's shaped by memory and mood. Sagittarius governs perspective, the wider frame, the story that makes sense of the data. Intelligence work understands this well. And I'm a sucker for all things 'detective'! (South Node in Scorpio). Andrew Bustamante (a self-described former spy) speaks about moving out of perception and into perspective, learning to think like the other. This view, on the surface, has nothing to do with Astrology. However, it really resonates.

When you can hold another viewpoint without collapsing your own, you gain leverage. Sagittarius at its best does this naturally. It does not argue to win. It reframes. Faith and freedom live here, not as beliefs, but as trust in a larger pattern and the willingness to move within it. It tells you to live in your personal truth...and in its shadow, it tells you to do as it says.

The Solstice arrives at the tail end of this lunation and with it a threshold. Sagittarius opens the question. Capricorn commits to the change. A Cardinal sign, governed by Saturn. The ultimate governor. Misunderstood, often feared and Stoic to the core. Again, we see a reframe. Stoicism became popular in the last 15 or so years (in my life that was thanx to Tim Ferris) and yet we, collectively, still shy away from Saturn's wisdom. My progressed Cap Moon was sitting at an opposition to my natal Cancer Moon for a while. I've softened into a deeper reverence for this energy and befriending Saturn has been paying off. Massively.

The reframe. The Capricorn Solstice. The change. This is not a climax. It's a reaching (Sag) of a boundary (Cap). The Sun has reached the Tropic of Capricorn. There's no further travel, exploration. Sagittarius season closes, albeit with a New Moon. The light begins to turn. Direction shifts. What has been sought now needs form. This particular New Moon asks where your search is sincere and where it is avoidance. There's healing offered from Chiron too, as it challenges Jupiter, the New Moon's ruler, in the sign of Cancer. A mutual reception.

Back to Chiron for a moment.

Who and what you identify as has the power to shift your authority.

Whatever your relationship to that word is, we should all have authority over our life and choices. Some of you call it agency.

Sag knows where faith is alive and where it has become performance. It's a fire sign and all 3 have elements of performance. (Don't worry, Leo, you lead the pack!)

The Solstice is not symbolic change, it is an embodied one. Something in the nervous system registers it before the mind does. The Sun pauses, stalls, then reverses direction. This is not momentum, it is recalibration. At the tail end of a Sagittarius New Moon, the question is no longer what do I believe but what am I willing to stand inside of? Capricorn is a sacred container. The first authority figure (most often than not) you meet is a sacred one - the father. Capricorn does not ask for vision, it asks for responsibility. The Solstice marks the moment where seeking either grounds or fractures. Ideals that cannot be lived fall away. Faith that has no structure becomes fragile. What crosses this threshold must be able to survive time, gravity and repetition.

This is where Sagittarius hands the torch to Capricorn and steps out of the role of wanderer into something quieter and more exacting: integrity in action.

In the Sagittarius to Capricorn handover, integrity is not moral correctness or self improvement. It is coherence. What you say you value, what you orient towards and what you actually do are no longer allowed to live in separate compartments. Sagittarius can hold expansive truths without consequence. Capricorn demands consequence. Integrity in action is the moment where insight is subjected to time, effort and limitation. Can this belief survive repetition? Can this vision tolerate boredom, responsibility and constraint? If not, it was inspiration, not truth. At the Solstice, integrity becomes measurable. Not through intention, but through structure. What you commit to, what you maintain when enthusiasm fades and what you are willing to be accountable for. This is not about being virtuous. It is about being real.

Solstice is not primarily a mental or symbolic event, it is a biological one. The nervous system is the interface between environment and meaning. Long before the mind interprets “the longest night” or “the return of the light”, the body registers shifts in light exposure, circadian rhythm, temperature and orientation to time. Melatonin, cortisol, sleep depth, alertness, mood and even memory consolidation subtly change around light thresholds. This is why seasonal transitions affect people even when they are not consciously tracking them. I am one of them.

Astrologically, the Sun governs vitality and orientation. When it appears to pause and reverse, that pause is felt somatically as a recalibration rather than a decision. You do not choose to respond to the Solstice, your system adjusts first and your narratives follow. This is also why Solstices and Equinoxes have been ritualised across cultures: ritual gives the psyche language for what the body already knows.

In Yogic terms, this aligns with the movement from cognition to prana. The nervous system carries prana before thought shapes it. That is why the Solstice can feel unsettling, clarifying, heavy, or sobering without obvious cause. It is not drama. It is orientation.

We circle back to Santosha. It does not ask Sagittarius to stop seeking. It asks it to pause long enough to feel what is already true. And truth is one of the most significant Sagittarius words.

As you go within today, ask, what's the truth seeking me?

All houses breakdown:

Written with the Whole Sign system in mind. Look to your Sagittarius and Capricorn houses.

1st House: The search turns toward identity, orientation and how you are inhabiting your own life. This is not about reinventing yourself, but noticing where seeking has become performative rather than embodied. As the Solstice moves the Sun into your 2nd house, insight asks for grounding through values, choices and self trust. What you stand inside of now must be resourced, sustained and lived daily.

2nd House: Questions around meaning intersect with worth, security and what you rely on. This lunation asks whether your pursuit of growth supports your nervous system or quietly destabilises it. The Solstice shifts focus into your 3rd house, requiring clarity in language, boundaries and day to day communication. Truth now needs a voice that is consistent, measured and accountable.

3rd House: Reframing how you gather information, interpret reality and tell your own story. This is an invitation to step out of compulsive thinking and into perspective. As the Solstice moves into your 4th house, mental frameworks must anchor into emotional safety and belonging. What you believe should feel inhabitable, not just clever or convincing.

4th House: Bringing inquiry into home, roots and emotional orientation. Meaning is sought through belonging rather than movement. As the Solstice enters your 5th house, what has been felt internally now asks for creative expression and lived joy. Integrity here means allowing pleasure and inspiration to emerge from a grounded inner base.

5th House: Highlights joy, creativity and the search for meaning through expression. This is not about chasing excitement, but noticing where enthusiasm is life giving versus draining. With the Solstice moving into your 6th house, inspiration must become sustainable through routine, care and responsibility. What you love now asks for consistency, not just passion.

6th House: Invites reflection on work, health and daily rhythms, questioning whether striving has replaced presence. This lunation asks you to recalibrate how meaning is woven into the everyday. As the Solstice enters your 7th house, personal adjustments ripple into relationships and commitments. Truth becomes relational, asking for mutual accountability and lived agreements.

7th House: Perspective widens through relationship, revealing where ideals have overshadowed reality. This is a moment to notice whether belief systems support connection or distance. As the Solstice moves into your 8th house, partnership deepens into shared responsibility, trust and emotional honesty. Integrity now requires depth, not just alignment of views.

8th House: Stirring questions around power, intimacy and the beliefs that shape vulnerability. This is an initiation into truth that cannot be theorised, only experienced. As the Solstice enters your 9th house, what has been transformed internally seeks meaning and articulation. Wisdom now comes from lived descent, not abstract philosophy.

9th House: The call to seek meaning, truth and coherence is strong. This lunation asks whether your search is devotional or avoidant. As the Solstice shifts the Sun into your 10th house, vision must become visible through responsibility, leadership and consequence. Belief is tested by what you are willing to stand behind publicly.

10th House: Reframes your relationship with purpose, authority and direction. This is not about ambition, but about whether your path reflects your lived truth. With the Solstice moving into your 11th house, responsibility extends into community and collective contribution. Integrity becomes measurable through what you build with others over time.

11th House: Highlights belonging, vision and the future you are orienting toward. It asks whether hope is grounded or idealised. As the Solstice enters your 12th house, the focus turns inward, requiring rest, release and honest reflection. What you carry forward must survive solitude and silence.

12th House: Seeking turns into surrender, revealing unconscious motivations behind your search for meaning. This is a quiet, liminal initiation rather than a visible one. As the Solstice moves into your 1st house, insight emerges as embodied presence. What has dissolved now reforms as identity, orientation and lived integrity.

21st Dec 2025

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