I see Capricorn's motivating desire in terms of striving to achieve a goal. To the goat, fulfilment is always over the next peak. Her heroism is not the glorious charge of Aries or the grass-roots humanitarianism of Aquarius. Capricorn heroism is the dogged determination to use her skills for a practical cause; a need to give of oneself to posterity. Good examples are Republican President Richard Nixon stubbornly advocating unpopularly-liberal-sounding National health and education plans or Catholic Mother Superior Frances Xavier Cabrini who, despite numerous difficulties, used her practical spirituality and administrative acumen to open over fifty schools, orphanages and hospitals from New York to Nicaragua.

Capricorn's time of year is winter. This is when we celebrate our family and religious traditions by gathering with our family and friends. We collectively look back on the past year and forward to the New Year. Discovering more about our traditions and celebrating our own family heritage is very much a Capricorn activity. Go ahead and watch some Christmas shows together but take some time to tell your own family stories too.

The monthly installment of The Great Astrological Light Bulb Joke:

Question: How many Capricorns does it take to change a light bulb?

Capricorn: I don't waste my time with these childish jokes.

Note: I have no Idea who originally wrote this. Erika sent it to me years ago and I still think it’s as funny as it is insightful!

Dec 21 Winter Solstice: The Sun enters Capricorn on the Winter Solstice. This is the shortest day of the year as well as the traditional Yule Festival. This is the time when the people of the Northern Hemisphere celebrate birth and renewal. Egyptians celebrated the birth of Horus, the Greeks celebrated the birth of Apollo, the Persians celebrated the birth of Mithras, and the Romans celebrated the birth of Sol Invictus. The festival of Sol Invictus lasted until December 25^th. Christianity eventually supplanted the Solar Cult and in the fourth century, the Christian Emperor, Constantine, issued a royal decree making December 25^th the commemoration of the birth of Jesus the Christ.

Some websites devoted to Yule can be found at: Winter Solstice.

Dec 25 Christmas: “The Mesopotamians celebrated the end of the year by supporting the god Marduk in his annual battle with the powers of chaos. At the Zagmuk festival celebrating Marduk's success, gifts were exchanged. The Xmas Story says: “Christmas began there in Mesopotamia over 4000 years ago as the festival which renewed the world for another year. The "Twelve Days" of Christmas; the bright fires and probably the Yule log; the giving of presents; carnivals with their floats; merrymakings and clownings; the mummers singing and playing from house to house; the feastings; church processions with their lights and song-- all these and more began there centuries before Christ was born.”

Tune-in to The History Channel on Monday, December 23 at 9pm ET/PT for In Search of Christmas and explore the historical truth behind the birth of Christ.

Dec 25 Kwanzaa: “Kwanzaa is a spiritual, festive and joyous celebration of the oneness and goodness of life, which claims no ties with any religion. The focus of Kwanzaa is centered around the seven principles (Nguzo Saba) with particular emphasis on the unity of our Black families. It is a time for gathering of our families, and for a rededication to manifesting the principles of Kwanzaa as a way of life for Black Americans.” http://www.melanet.com/kwanzaa/about_toc.html

Dec 28 Iowa Admission Day

Dec 29 Texas Admission Day

Dec 31 New Year's Eve

Jan 1 Arbor Day AZ    

Jan 1 New Year's Day

Jan 2 is a New Moon in Capricorn: The Moon and Sun are conjunct in the sky. The moon is dark and gradually increases to a crescent. This is the time to begin a ritual involving a new project, to ask for new vision. 

Jan 3 Alaska Admission Day 

Jan 4 Utah Admission Day 

Jan 4 Trivia Day 

Jan 5 Twelfth Night is the Evening before Epiphany. Marks end of the 12-day season of Christmas festivities. Children would leave their shoes in front of the door to be filled with sweets. It commemorates the three wise men visiting the infant Jesus. Custom was that people had a King of Bean and sometimes a Queen, on Twelfth Night to preside over the revelries for the end of the season. The King and Queen were the pair who found a special bean found inside a cake called a gateau des rois. Europeans celebrate Twelfth Night by going out to sing and wassail or drink to the health of their neighbors, animals and orchards. Wassail is an old Anglo-Saxon word meaning be whole.

• Do you know what would have happened if it had been Three Wise Women instead of Three Wise Men?

• They would have asked directions, arrived on time, helped deliver the baby, cleaned the stable, made a casserole, and brought practical gifts. (Thank you Laurie Green!)

Read a review of the latest movie from Shakespeare’s play “Twelfth Night”. 

Jan 8 Jackson Day 

Jan 8 Elvis' Birthday

Jan 9 Connecticut Ratification day 

Jan 9 Balloon Ascension Day 

Jan 11 International Thank You Day 

Jan 12 National Pharmacist Day 

Jan 12 John Hancock's Birthday (National Handwriting Day)

Jan 12 Stephen Foster Memorial Day: http://www.library.pitt.edu/libraries/cam/cam.html 

Jan 14 Maryland Ratification Day 

Jan 14 National Clean off your Desk Day: http://www.csmonitor.com/durable/2000/01/10/p14s3.htm 

Jan 16 Prohibition Remembrance Day 

Jan 17 Benjamin Franklin's Birthday

Jan 18 is a Full Moon in Cancer: The Moon and Sun are opposite each other in the sky. The Moon reflects all of the Sun's light. This is the time to perform rituals for protection, clarity of vision and consecration. 

Jan 19 Arbor Day FL  

Jan 19 Confederate Heroes Day TX  

Jan 19 Robert E. Lee Day

Read about General Lee at http://encarta.msn.com/encnet/refpages/refarticle.aspx?refid=761557489

About Arlington National Cemetery (Lee’s former home): “On a Virginia hillside rising above the Potomac River and overlooking Washington, D.C., stands Arlington House. The 19th-century mansion seems out of place amid the more than 250,000 military grave sites that stretch out around it. Yet, when construction began in 1802, the estate was not intended to be a national cemetery…”  

Jan 20 Inauguration Day 

Jan 21 Martin Luther King Jr. (1929-1968)

Onyx and black stones correspond to Capricorn and Saturn. Capricorn rules career, ambition, and the respect we earn through our work. It also relates to positive goals and placing the needs of others before our own. Saturn is about time; it concerns itself with legacies and posterity. Onyx corresponds to our personal heroism. It is protective and grounding. Wear an onyx amulet to your next annual review or job interview. It will support the achievement of your goals.

Click here to learn more about purchasing Inga's Earth Magic Jewelry.

Here is a question from my environmental science class: I would love to read and publish your views. So, if anyone else finds the question intriguing and would like to answer, send your essays to me!

Question: Do you agree or disagree with the assertion that as we become a more urbanized and technological society, the more we lose our visceral connection with the natural world, and the more disconnected we get, the less we value the natural world?  Use your personal experience and observations to support your view.

I agree that this is what has happened in our history. However, I do not believe that this disconnection is inevitable or irreversible. I assert that technology did not cause this change but is a byproduct of this change. The hunter-gatherers and early agricultural peoples celebrated the times of planting and harvest. Some of man’s earliest use of technology and science was the creation of solar calendars like Stonehenge in Salisbury, England and the Sun Dagger in Chaco Canyon, New Mexico. Their worldview was built around seeing themselves as a part of nature and bound to her cycles and seasons. They saw technology as an aid to understanding nature. Here are two examples:

• The agricultural year, and the four seasons are based on the equinoxes and solstices. The word Solstice is Latin in origin and means, "The Sun stood still.” During each Solstice, the Sun appears to both rise and set at the exact same spot on the horizon. On or around June 21, the North Pole is tilted most directly Sunward. Those of us in the Northern Hemisphere experience this as the longest day and shortest night of the year. On or around December 21, the Winter Solstice, the North Pole is pointed away from the Sun giving us in the Northern Hemisphere, our shortest day, and longest night. This tilting of the Earth's rotational axis gives us what we know as seasons.

• The equinoxes are the two times during the year when the dark of night and the light of day are in balance or equal. The beliefs surrounding the equinoxes all focus on the Light and Dark forces of the Universe switching ascendancy. The spring equinox in the northern hemisphere, on or around March 20th, is the beginning of the new agricultural year. The autumnal equinox signals the harvest period of the agricultural year and falls on or around October 21^st. Another name for the vernal equinox is Ostara, from the name of a Germanic Goddess of fertility, Oestarae. She is the deific equivalent of Aurora, the personification of the sunrise. Her name is where East and Easter both come from signifying that the sun rises in the East.

These cultures used technology but honored Earth. “The woods were formerly temples of the deities, and even now simple country folk dedicate a tall tree to a God with the ritual of olden times; and we adore sacred groves and the very silence that reigns in them no less devoutly than images that gleam in gold and ivory” (Pliny). The legacy of the frontier and industrial era has been a period of using Earth and honoring technology.

I think the cause of this change is a shift in Worldview. When man began seeing himself as the most important part of creation, personally created by a god, then inevitably the shift from being a part of nature to being the master of nature began. Darwin’s theory seemed to the religions of his day, and a few now, to contradict this creation myth.  But gradually as Darwinism came to be accepted, it validated the shift to the “Man is the top of the food chain and all of creation exists for his exploitation”. This is a worldview in which nature has only instrumental value and not intrinsic value. Strangely, it is the works of man (technology) that have come to have intrinsic value. 

Man gradually came to see himself as outside of nature’s seasons and cycles. To modern urban man the autumnal equinox signifies a period of inconvenience, expensive travel and gift buying, and having to wear more layers, not a time of harvest and relative leisure since many chores could be dispensed with. We don’t need to see the loss of connection with nature as inevitable. Nature is still right there, outside our houses and offices, waiting for us to figure this out.

I believe that each of us can make a change by valuing these natural cycles again. Start with this Christmas: Jul is the celebration of light and hope even in the longest night of the year. It is a time to be “snowed in” with family or the very closest of friends, a time to celebrate that closeness that keeps out darkness and despair. It is not a celebration of greed, stress and the giving of techno-garbage gifts. This is merely one example but if we all begin to value all parts of nature we can begin to change our cultural worldview.

We must examine our values and choose what has intrinsic value for each of us and then expand those values to the culture we have created.  We can decide as a world what technology we need and what technology we can afford. We can embrace voluntary simplicity. Voluntary Simplicity is defined as: “(1) spending less time working for money, (2) leading lives less driven to accumulate stuff, and (3) spending more time living (Miller, 2002, page 752). I think that in this way we can reestablish our connection to nature. -- Inga Duncan Thornell >^..^<

We think of this newsletter as a community forum. You, our friends and clients, are welcome to participate. We celebrate diversity and we'll print whatever you send in be it Wiccan, Christian, Pagan, New Age, etc., as long as it reflects Love. You may choose a one-time holiday to write about or have a regular column. We'll give you space and a byline! Please send in your own book reviews, ideas for rituals, ideas about stones, your journal excerpts, your experiences and most of all, ask us questions. We love answering questions!

From Kim:

If we are to make our faiths live again, then we had better become mystically literate. - Matthew Fox

From Nicholas:

"Here's to the crazy ones, the misfits, the rebels. The troublemakers, the round pegs in the square holes, and the ones who see things differently. They aren't fond of rules, and they have no respect for the status quo. You can disagree with them, glorify them, vilify them, or quote them. The only thing you can't do is ignore them, because they're the ones who change things. They're the ones who push the human race forward, and while some may see them as the crazy ones, I see them as geniuses. The people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do." - Unknown.

From me:

Write a wise saying and your name will live forever – Anonymous

From Mickey:

'Twas the night before Christmas and Santa's a wreck...
How to live in a world that's politically correct?
His workers no longer would answer to "Elves"
"Vertically Challenged" they were calling themselves
And labor conditions at the north pole
Were alleged by the union to stifle the soul
Four reindeer had vanished, without much propriety
Released to the wilds by the Humane Society
And equal employment had made it quite clear
That Santa had better not use just reindeer
So Dancer and Donner, Comet and Cupid
Were replaced with 4 pigs, and you know that looked stupid!

The runners had been removed from his sleigh;
The ruts were termed dangerous by the E P A
And people had started to call for the cops
When they heard sled noises on their roof-tops
Second-hand smoke from his pipe had his workers quite frightened
His fur trimmed red suit was called "Unenlightened"

And to show you the strangeness of life's ebbs and flows
Rudolf was suing over unauthorised use of his nose
And had gone on Geraldo, in front of the nation
Demanding millions in over-due compensation

So, half of the reindeer were gone; and his wife
Who suddenly said she'd enough of this life
Joined a self-help group, packed, and left in a whiz
Demanding from now on her title was Ms

And as for the gifts, why, he'd ne'er had a notion
That making a choice could cause so much commotion
Nothing of leather, nothing of fur
Which meant nothing for him. And nothing for her
Nothing that might be construed to pollute
Nothing to aim. Nothing to shoot
Nothing that clamoured or made lots of noise
Nothing for just girls. Or just for boys
Nothing that claimed to be gender specific
Nothing that's warlike or non-pacific

No candy or sweets ... they were bad for the tooth
Nothing that seemed to embellish the truth
And fairy tales, while not yet forbidden
Were like Ken and Barbie, better off hidden
For they raised the hackles of those psychological
Who claimed the only good gift was ecological

No baseball, no football ... someone could get hurt;
Besides; playing sports exposed kids to dirt
Dolls were said to be sexist, and should be passe;
And Nintendo would rot your entire brain away

So Santa just stood there, dishevelled, perplexed;
He just could not figure out what to do next
He tried to be merry, tried to be gay
But you've got to be careful with that word today
His sack was quite empty, limp to the ground;
Nothing fully acceptable was to be found

Something special was needed, a gift that he might
Give to all without angering the left or the right
A gift that would satisfy, with no indecision
Each group of people, every religion;
Every ethnicity, every hue
Everyone, everywhere ... even you
So here is that gift, it's price beyond worth ...
"May you and your loved ones enjoy peace on earth" 

From Peg:

Hi everyone - regardless of religion - as this song can be soooooooo aggravating in endless repetition in MY head, I thought you might enjoy the history. Merry Christmas, Happy Belated Hannukah, Happy Winter Solstice, etc.....

There is one Christmas Carol that has always baffled me. What in the world do leaping lords, French hens, swimming swans, and especially the partridge who won't come out of the pear tree have to do with Christmas? From 1558 until 1829, Roman Catholics in England were not permitted to practice their faith openly. Someone during that era wrote this carol as a catechism song for young Catholics. It has two levels of meaning: the surface meaning plus a hidden meaning known only to members of their church. Each element in the carol has a code word for a religious reality, which the children could remember:
 
 The partridge in a pear tree was Jesus Christ.
 
 Two turtledoves were the Old and New Testaments.
 
 Three French hens stood for faith, hope and love.
 
 The four calling birds were the four gospels of Matthew, Mark,Luke & John.
 
 The five golden rings recalled the Torah or Law, the first five books of the Old Testament.
 
 The six geese a-laying stood for the six days of creation.
 
 Seven swans a-swimming represented the sevenfold gifts of the Holy Spirit: Prophesy, Serving, Teaching, Exhortation, Contribution, Leadership, and Mercy.
 
 The eight maids a-milking were the eight beatitudes.
 
 Nine ladies dancing were the nine fruits of the Holy Spirit: Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness, and Self Control.
 
 The ten lords a-leaping were the Ten Commandments.
 
 The eleven pipers piping stood for the eleven faithful disciples.
 
 The twelve drummers drumming symbolized the twelve points of belief in The Apostles' Creed.
 
 Merry Christmas!

From Stephanie:

The Tooth Fairy

She visits gap-toothed children in the middle of the night to retrieve baby teeth from under pillows. In the morning, children find teeth gone and a few coins in their place.

Today's tooth fairy needs a lot more silver than she did in 1900 when she left an average of 12 cents. In 1983, the Tooth Fairy left an average of 85 cents. The average could be up to $1 by now. But regardless of the price, silver coins are the tooth fairy's favorite exchange for a child's tooth.

For thousands of years, losing a primary tooth has been a cause for special celebration. Because teeth "live" on, even after death, some say the tooth has symbolized immortality. It also became a symbol of the sun since it was believed to be the giver of life.

In some cultures, the mouse was given special significance because of its strong teeth. In Mexico, children drop their teeth into a mouse hole reciting, "Mouse, mouse give me your iron tooth and I will give you my bone tooth."

The Bohemians bit off the heads of living mice and made them into necklaces to hang around the necks of teething infants to prevent convulsions.

Early Egyptians believed the mouse had special healing powers and could cure a toothache. They split a mouse in half and lay the body, while still warm, along the gums of the sufferer.

Historians are uncertain about the origin of the tooth fairy. Whether evolved from a mouse or a myth, the fairy is just as American as apple pie. The United States is the only country where children exchange teeth for silver coins, regardless of inflation.

From "The Dental Register" provided by your dentist with information from the Academy of General Dentistry

We've always wondered what would happen if we got the friends we've made through Inga's Earth Magic (IEM) into a room together. Why? Because every one of us has a unique gift to offer to the world. And if we get enough of us in one place at the same time, something magical is bound to occur.

• When: The 1st Friday of every month. Please join us for dinner. We start eating around 7 PM. Or join us for dessert later on!
• Where: Our place (click on LIBRARY in the navigation bar at the top of the screen and then MAP ROOM for directions)
• What to bring: Just your enthusiasm and love! There's a big pot of pasta on the stove, salad, bread and plenty of microbrews and red wine. If you have specific preferences, please bring whatever you'd like.
• How long: Until the good conversation ends! If you'd like, you can spend the night on one of the couches with the kitties or bring your sleeping bag and mat and camp out on the floor of Inga's office.
• RSVP: Just let us know in advance via e-mail or phone if you are coming and if you are bringing guests so we don't run out of food or beer!

Capricorn 2002 completes our third year of publishing this newsletter. As I look back at all those newsletters, I'm struck by all the personal growth that I've experienced in that time. At the same time, I feel a daily frustration and lack of patience with the rate of progress in my growth and that of the world around me. This clearly demonstrates why Inga advises us all to keep a journal to combat this feeling. That feeling of frustration does serve one good purpose in that it indicates to me that there is more work to be done on my worldview. 

Something that has been giving me lots to think about regarding my worldview is The Lord of the Rings books and movies. Tolkien presents us with many themes and archetypes to ponder and I can't help but look at our present world through his material even though he stated that it was not meant to be allegorical. One example is when Frodo and Gandalf are discussing the One Ring and the danger it presents to Middle Earth:

"I wish it need not have happened in my time," said Frodo.

"So do I," said Gandalf, "and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us."

More and more, I am beginning to deeply believe that the only true power that each of us possesses is that of free will: how we use the time we have on Earth, how we manage our various bodies (physical, emotional and spiritual) and how we use the various energies, Earth and Spirit, available to us to create or destroy. What seems to govern our free will process is our worldview. To paraphrase the definition of worldview in Inga's environmental textbook from her recent class: "Worldview is how people think the world works, what they think their role in the world should be, and what they believe is right and wrong behavior."

What is so intriguing for me about The Lord of the Rings is the issue of the pursuit of power and how it is such a slippery slope for every character in the story. As Galadriel says in the first movie's prologue, the various great rings were imbued with the "strength and will to govern each race". It sounds like a good idea to have that kind of power. After all, most of us would use such power from a desire to do good even if it meant domination over others. Clearly, such a worldview will only provide a short term solution to planetary transformation and it will eventually lead to darkness because it is out of our fears that we feel a need to control others. On the other hand, true healing power comes from Father/Mother/God as Unconditional Love gives all of us the support we need to transform ourselves and the world around us.

And so my worldview is changing. My role in the world is to heal my emotional and physical bodies and to bring them into full alignment with my spiritual body. To heal all my fears in all my lifetimes and replace them with Love. To be at one with Earth and Spirit. The only government I need is that of Love. Without fear in our daily lives and with only Love to shape our worldviews, how will we decide what to do with the time that is given us? I believe that we'll cause the transformation we all seek and crave.

Meanwhile, when I was not reading or watching The Lord of the Rings, Inga and I engaged in some very Capricornian activities. We attended a company Christmas party that called for festive attire so I went in formal Scottish attire which was a real treat. (Pay no mind to the woman lifting up my kilt. She bought me a drink for the privilege.)

We attended a New Year's Eve celebration for the first time in 15 years and we had a wonderful time celebrating, sharing stories and sharing traditions.

Inga's mom, Stephanie, is visiting us for a few weeks and we went up into the Cascade Mountains to enjoy some winter splendor while snowshoeing. It is amazing how healing an outing like this can be. To get out of the artificially hectic reality of our daily lives and just walk in the woods can reset our internal clocks to Earth time and reconnect us to Nature. Happy New Year everyone! -- Scott Bruce Duncan */:-)

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