Welcome to Witch Watch

Our WitchWatch tells us that this holiday will have a Moon in Pisces. This will be good for intuition, a little rain, and expressing feelings.

NEW MOON SOLAR ECLIPSE

Checking on the Lunar cycles , we will have a new Moon Solar Eclipse on Dec 14 at 23Sag. This will be good for starting things as usual. The path of this eclipse starts out in the Pacific, sweeps under Hawaii, and winds up crossing over Central America.

We can look for earth shifts and notable events occuring for a year on this path. The Sags are into their crises period and can expect the unexpected.

FULL MOON LUNAR ECLIPSE

There is a full moon Lunar eclipse on Dec 30 at 9Cancer and it will be visible in the Western Hemisphere, check with your local astronomer. This is a time for completion, just in time for the new calendar year, so plan to have the house swept out and tidied up.

January's new Moon will be on the 13 at 23Capricorn and the full phase will be on the 28th at 9Leo.

MERCURY, our mental planet starts off in Capricorn, enters Aquarius on Jan 3 and on the 17th begins to back up, retrograde, on 14Aquarius. They and the Leos can do their soul searching and see if they can straighten their world out.

VENUS enters Capricorn on Dec 25--what a nice present so that they can be wined and dined for a month. Of course the Cancers will be unloved and poor at the same time.

By Jan 19 Venus enters Aquarius, lighting them up for the next month while the Leos get to wait off stage.

MARS enters Pisces on Dec 8 and stirs them and the Virgos up until Jan 18. Pisces rules things of water, so keep an eye on your water pumps, toilets, plumbing, washing machines, the like. For the pair, it's a time of extra things to do, parties to attend, and business to take care of.

Watch that something in the body doesn't run, keep the body fortified with echinacea and Vit C, and monitor the health of your body closely. Be careful of falls, cuts, headaches, fevers and rashes. It's a high energy time.

JUPITER will be retrograding in Cancer until Mar 1, so those born the 1st half of the sign and the opposite Capricorns get to review and revise all the work done earlier. Bush and the USA are among those taking a second look at what has happened, and make adjustments. Both need to watch their weight.

SATURN is also backing up, back in Gemini and will keep doing so until Feb 8. Both Geminis and Sags get to review their forward motions created earlier. The presence of Saturn usually is an indication of a need for extra Calcium with D, to handle the anxiety that often comes. Saturn has to do with duties and responsibilities that are often worrisome.

The three Outers are all going forward:

URANUS is at 22Aquarius and zooming along to 28.50 by the time it backs up. This disruptive influence will affect nearly all the rest of the Aquarus/Leo axis, so those of you that are still laughing will have your comuppance before long. Uranus brings sudden changes. Our hostess moved house right on schedule when Uranus contacted her Sun.

You can also change jobs, states, countries, relationships, friends. If you like excitement, get ready for some.

NEPTUNE is back at 7 Aquarius and early members of this sign and the Leos feel like hiding out retreating from the world. bin Laden is among them. It also makes you more sensitive to the world around you, and you develop allergies to foods and substances you always had been able to handle.

If you are around 40, then Neptune is squaring your natal position of Neptune and that tends to intensify the situation.

PLUTO is moving ahead from 15Sag to 17.37 before backing up, so it is affecting those born in the middle of the Mutable signs. Pluto has to do with transformations, major changes often take place that you have no control over.

The ancient feast of Yule is the time of the Winter Solstice--
'solstice' means 'standing still of the Sun' and for a few days the progress of the Sun seems not to alter.

Therefore this has always been the time for the birth of the Sun, who is also the Son of the Goddess. Light is reborn.

THE GODDESS REBORN

The Goddess transforms from Underworld Hag, Crone, She Who Watches, to peaceful and bountiful Mother. She too is reborn, as Maid--fresh, free and full of vitality.

At mysterious Yule everything changes.

At Yule we honor the Great Mother as the life-giving Goddess, She who nourishes the vastness of the universe, who gives birth to galaxies and whose milk flows in the shining stars of the Milky Way.

We notice stars especially now, for this is the time of greatest darkness and longest night.

A star led the three Wise Men to Bethlehem. A star is placed on the top of the Christmas tree. To astrologers, stars have much to convey about the secrets of existence. Each star is a testament of the Goddess and a message of hope.

They are also a sign of inner mysteries, of the Light at the heart of Darkness that we may glimpse but never explain. This is the Mystery of the Goddess Herself. The role of the God is to enact the Mystery.

YULE TREE
The evergreen is sacred to the Goddess, for She never dies, although Her aspect may alter. So a tree that never sheds its leave echoes Her eternal presence.

Deciduous trees, on the other hand, are associated with the God, for their life comes and goes.

The tree is a powerful symbol that unites the Underworld with humans. Travelling in a trance state on a tree branch--a broomstick will do--is that of a shamanistic journey.

TREE OF LIFE

We also have the image of the Tree of Life which forms a blueprint for creation, idea, person, thing, or the cosmos itself. We are learning to our cost how vital part trees play in the maintenance of our atmosphere.

They also have souls--radically different from human consciousness, the they have much to teach us if we can open ourselves intuitively to their essence. It might be kinder to use an artificial tree or a fallen bough for decoration.

RED, GREEN, AND GOLD

Red and green are traditionally the colors of life--red for the bright blood surging in our veins, and green for the vegetable kingdom with it's rich and vibrant leaves. On our altars we use a green candle to represent the Goddess and a Red one for the God

MAGICKAL COLOR

These two colors are prevelant in this season of Magick. And were you aware that everytime you are at a stoplight, or in a plane or ship, you move by magick in your life of stopping and going.

This is also a good time of the year to stock up on candles and cloths for the altar when the Magick season is on.

DEATH AND REBIRTH

The solar sequence of death and rebirth is also linkked to the lunar sequence. The Moon's rhythm is less directly associated with death/rebirth--rather it is one of constant change that repeats and revews the continuity of the cycle.

The Moon's themes are echoed by silver decorations and deep purple-blue that reminds us of the midnight sky.

FAIRY GODDESS SYMBOLS

On the top of the tree, we place another Goddess sym bol, the Christmas fairy.

FIVE POINTED STARS

Also, the five-pointed star has long been a symbol of Woman and the Goddess. Decorating the tree with objects that resemble fruits and flowers is a magical act designed to bring about the return of the flowers of Spring and the season of renewal and rebirth

PINE CONES

Pine cones are symbols of the Faeries of the wild pine forest of the Germanic countries, and the first glass ornament was in that shape. The icicles are animitation of 'rain', one of the ancient forms of fertility magic.

GIFTING OUR LOVED ONES

Our gifts are for each other, to show love and caring. They originated a long time before the Three Wise Men. Gifts were exchanged as tokens of love among friends during the Roman Saturnalia.

In Germany, the unmaarried men were decorated with bells and cymbals and lead about the village by a young girl who embodied the Maiden aspect of the Goddess.

HORNED GOD

Father Christmas with his reindeer seems to have links with the Horned God. The horns display a flagrant joy in life, animal exuberance and they honor also the curving fallopian tubes of the women. Later the Horned God was subverted as the devil, but sneakily he returns as Old Nick or Santa Claus.

TRIPLE GODDESS, DUAL GOD

While the Goddess is triple, the God is dual, light and dark.

These two are represented by the Oak King and the Holly King. Holly is King of the Waning Year, from Midsummer to Yule. Oak is King of the Waxing Year from Yule to Midsummer. Both are necessary, for the one represents decay and destuction--without which no new growth can begin, and rules the hidden and mysterious realms where all true wisdom dwells.

The other stands for strength in the external world, fresh growth, effectuallity and expansion. In the struggle between the two kings, the Oak King wins at Yule.

HOLLY AND MISTLETOE

It is meaningful to deck our homes with holly and mistletoe at Yule for these plants represent the promise of new growth and continuing life. If you can't find holly, you could try a spot of wallpaper. Mistletoe grows best on the sacred Oak and is tied in with a fertility ceremony. The custom lingers in the kissing under it--lovers will stay in love. It can also be worn as a protection against misfortune and is supposed to protect the house from thunder and lightning.

YULE LOG
The log can either Oak, Ash or sometimes Birch. It is the equivilant of the festival bonfires of Beltane and Samhain brought indoors. To insure the continuation of life and luck, burn your log and keep a piece to kindle the Yule log the following year.
If you are not near the flaming log, you can still chant:

May the Yule log burn.
May all good enter here.
May there be wheat for bread,
And vats full of wine.

SPELLS
This is the time of year when spell are regularly performed by almost everyone without them having a clue as to what they are doing!

Kissing under the mistletoe is a spell, the Yule tree is a spell, Holly and Ivy all form parts of spells. If you know what you are doing perhaps you can put more energy into it.

Wassailing is a very old ceremony observed in apple-growing parts of Britain. In this, the apple trees are 'woken up' by noise, singing and dancing. The trunks may be hit by sticks and offerings of cider are poured on the roots. Apples were the sacred food of the Celtic Gods.

Winter Solstice falls at the end of the sign Sagitterius, the Archer. It rules the Ninth House of the Zodiac which governs philosophy, religion, higher knowledge and travel.

RULED BY JUPITER

It is ruled by Jupiter, the Bringer of Jollity and planet of expansion.

TEMPERANCE #14

In the Major Arcana of the Tarot, the card is number 14, Temperance, a card of moderation, balance, self-realization and new horizons. The years moves the child-like sign who never grows up, to the Capricorns who are born old and don't know how to play or have fun.

Perhaps this is why the old Roman festival of Saturnalia was observed, to get the old fogies out to have some fun. Saturn was a dour god ruling fertility and agriculture. Old Father Time is also linked tp Herne and Cernunnos and his antlers proclaim vitality, strength and earthy endurance.

THE BIRCH TREE
This tree rules Capricorn this time of year. It produces small leaves that are carried by the wind to colonize, and also provide a musch for the oak and beech to establish themselves. So it sacrifices itself for the benefit of others.

Tea can be made from the leaves and the bark is very tough, surviving after the wood has rotted away. Didn't Indians travel in canoes made of the bark?

WANDS, WINE

Birch wine can be made from the sap .It is a good wood to use for making a magickal wand, as it is a symbon of new beginnings and the will of the magician.

On a spiritual level, it is a symbol for the ideal toward which you should be working. It's where you are prepared to give up that which isyour own to help the common good.

At the start of the Tree Ogham, it serves to set everything else in motion and in it's correct order. Throughout the cycle of life, death and rebirth, it is a tree of physical sacrifice, which brings forth new life that will regenerate itself and place it back at the beginning of things.

EARTH ENTITIES

Many stone cirlces are designed so the warm rays of the sun can penetrate the depths of a woomb-like passage at the centre of a mound.

Deep within would be the spirals and cup-marks, all signs of the Goddess. Seen only at Yule.

YULE WORKINGS

See if you can find ley lines or energy lines in your area. You could do this by using dowsing rods which can be made from a wire coat hanger. Bend them at a right angle and hold the shorter pieces in your fists and point the long ones straight ahead.

Several years back I saw how this worked in the Crop Circles in Wiltshire in England and how they flipped as one came to the edge of the design.

PENDULUM

Make a pendulum with a weight on the end of a string or chain. Fnd out which is Yes and No, and then you can test your food, energy lines, just about anything.

BRIDIGING THE PAST INTO THE FUTURE

Yule is the time to build the bridge from the past to the future. It is time to review the Wheel of the Year with the emphasis on the successes and goals achieved. It is a time to look back through all the paths not taken, and to do so without regret. You may also look back, even into previous lives.

Now is also the time to look ahead into the future, to make plans and set goals and plant seeds for the new year.

Write your petition on a 4X4 peice of parchment paper. It can be a single word in red ink that represents what quality or trait you would like to be born within yourself along with the newborn Yule Sun. Sprinkle holly powder into the center of the paper and twist it closed. Then light it from the Red Candle and as it burns, see your wish fufilled.

POPCORN AND CRANBERRIES FOR THE TREE

Don't forget to string popcorn and cranberries to hang on the trees for the birds. Decorate pine cones with glue and glitter, and hang little bells on the tree to call the spirits and faeries.

Yule incense has a heartiness and earthiness: frankincense, sandalwood, orange peel, juniper, clove, and rosemary. Oils are patchouli, cypress and orange. Either mix or use separately.