A significant shift - Saturn and the Sun and Venus all just moved from Sagittarius (fire) into Capricorn (earth). Saturn "rules" Capricorn, which is a way of saying they are different expressions of the same energy. So our experience of Saturnian energy is amplified by it moving into its home sign.
Saturn's presence in our birth charts and in transit makes things feel slowed down, and makes us feel subject to laws much bigger than us. Laws of nature. Laws of energy. Laws of physics. Saturn asks us to pay attention to what is manifest on the earth level, to be with what is. Saturn and Capricorn are expressions of Earth energy (one of the four elements in astrology) - invested in the real, the tangible, the practical. So there will be an influence toward manifesting, and simultaneously (potential overwhelm at) the recognition of the work involved in manifesting!
The physical expressions of these energies serve as powerful metaphors for our internal experience. Earth can become compacted, too dense, too weighed down by "practical" concerns if not infused with air, water, and fire (warmth, light), so the appropriate response to this heavy dose of Saturn is plenty of air, water, and warm light. In our own physical bodies, in the bodies of those we care for, and also in whatever we are attempting to manifest.
The beauty of Saturn is, as hard as its working on us can feel, it does work on us. It teaches us very thoroughly - its light reaches into places that are typically dark - so its changes are real, deep, lasting. Our job is to trust its work, to trust the laws of nature, the laws of growth, how learning works! To be as patient as possible in nurturing our own and others' growth. Patience itself is actually practical! Letting the dark winter days actually influence us, slow us down, remind us to be patient. When we stop fighting the speed of nature we also stop fighting the speed of our own evolution. Cultivating patience is a way of cultivating happiness.
ARIES (March 21-April 19)
Question - How often do you notice the lower half of your body?
Meditation - Earth energy up through your feet.
Assignment - Experiment with noticing your feet, on the ground. Notice how you sit, how often your feet are directly on the ground. Open your arches to the energy available from the earth.
TAURUS (April 20-May 20)
Question - How often do you pay attention to sound as a physical quality?
Meditation - Sound and singing. The throat chakra.
Assignment - Listen to sounds you love. Listen deeper. What is the relationship between hearing and making sounds? What does listening deeply entail? From where in your body do you listen?
GEMINI (May 21-June 20)
Question - How do you treat your body and how does that reflect your philosophy of the body?
Meditation - Body as spiritual home.
Assignment - If you spend time with the meditation above, what assignment arises? What appears that needs to be done? If you hypothesize that your body is a spiritual home, what behaviors enact this principle?
CANCER (June 21-July 22)
Question - When is mothering smothering and when is it life-giving?
Meditation - Mothering as sustaining life.
Assignment - Cancer tends toward mothering and nurturing as a default. When is your nurturing conscious or unconscious? How can this mothering be directed to self in a proactive way, as opposed to reactively, in retreat from something or someone? When we mother / nurture ourselves adequately we are less likely to unconsciously mother others in an unsolicited way.
LEO (July 23-August 22)
Question - Kittisaro says we all have mantras, so we might as well choose them. What are your mantras?
Meditation - The power of repetition.
Assignment - Practice choosing mantras to include with repetitive tasks already in your life, and/or with meditation. How does your understanding of a mantra change when using it for 5 minutes, 50 minutes, 5 days, 5 years, 50 years?
VIRGO (August 23-September 22)
Question - How much time do you spend trying to figure out others?
Meditation - The space available when not trying to figure others out.
Assignment - Take note of when you are trying to figure others out. What happens in your body when you are trying to figure others out? What is a way of caring for and relating to others that doesn't include figuring them out? How could the new space available be occupied if you weren’t trying to do this? How would it feel to put down figuring others out for a while? (And how would it feel to put down figuring out yourself, for that matter?)
LIBRA (September 23-October 22)
Question - What is your relationship with the world of nonhuman beings?
Meditation - Nonhuman beings as beloved.
Assignment - Take note of the nonhuman beings you are surrounded by this week. How often do you notice them? What happens when you spend more time noticing them? What do they want to tell you? What do you want to hear from them? Listen to the nonhuman world.
SCORPIO (October 23-November 21)
Question - What would it feel like to fully befriend your own intensity?
Meditation - Embracing intensity.
Assignment - Become a friend to yours and others intensity this week. How does a friend treat a guest? Treat intensity as a guest, don’t turn it away.
SAGITTARIUS (November 22-December 21)
Question - Do you notice anything about your energy shifting as many planets shift from Sagittarius to Capricorn, including the Sun? What do you notice?
Meditation - The place where a particle becomes a wave and a wave becomes a particle.
Assignment - When does a wave become a particle? When does light become heat? Complimentarity is a principle of physics that says (something like) everything has both particle and wave properties. How does this relate to your own identity and your own beliefs? When are you solid and when are you flowing like waves? How does it feel when you are solid, how does it feel when you are flowing like waves? Notice your own solidity and fluidity this week.
CAPRICORN (December 22-January 19)
Question - When have you shared vulnerability with another recently?
Meditation - Vulnerability as regal.
Assignment - Experiment with sharing vulnerability. Look into the relationship between vulnerability and your ability to do your work. What do you find? Is it a direct relationship? Is it an inverse relationship? Is it somewhere in between?
AQUARIUS (January 20 to February 18)
Question - What weird connection you can revel in this week?
Meditation - Celebrating weirdness.
Assignment - Take comfort in your weirdness, the weirdness of those you love. Is there something in you that wants to be weird that you aren't letting be weird? Let yourself be weird, let all the weirdness everywhere resonate with your weirdness, let it blossom and overflow. Weirdness is an essential part of love.
PISCES (February 19 to March 20)
Question - When does your mind feel clear, when does it feel cloudy?
Meditation - Soft pink light.
Assignment - Pay attention to your memory this week. What do you tend to remember? What do you tend to forget? When do you notice your forgetting? Are there patterns involved? What needs to be remembered? What is remembered without effort?