Commentary: Year Begins with Venus Blazing Away

The new year opens with four on the five bright planets every day sky. By the end of January, all five are going to be strung over the predawn firmament.

The month depends on Venus blazing away from the southeast 1 hour before dawn. Dimmer Saturn is always to the lower left, and Antares, the brilliant red heart of Scorpius, smolders to the reduced right in the ringed planet. Both quickly climb past Venus. Look within the 6th and 7th to get a lovely lineup of Venus, Saturn, and also a waning moon, and also for the 9th, when Saturn appears only a moon’s width in the brilliant planet.

High from the southwest, Jupiter also shines brightly. About midway between Jupiter and Venus is usually a pair of objects: reddish Mars for the left and Spica, the brightest star in Virgo, around the right. These two move apart as being the days pass by. Also, because of the 25th you may well be able to spot Mercury just across the horizon, below and left of Venus. That gives us a planetary string inside the order (southeast to southwest) of Mercury, Venus, Saturn, Mars and Jupiter. The lineup continues into the conception of February.

In the evening sky, the lovely winter stars are usually in full glory. Sirius, the brightest of most, shines from Canis Major, on the base in the dazzling array. Grab a star chart and find the other beacons: Procyon in Canis Minor, Pollux and Castor in Gemini, Capella in Auriga, Aldebaran in Taurus, and Rigel and Betelgeuse in Orion.

At 4:49 p.m. for the 2nd, Earth reaches perihelion, its closest approach towards the sun rolling around in its orbit. We’ll be 91.4 million miles from parent star --unfortunately, not nearly close enough for people to feel any extra warmth.

It’s perhaps lucky that perihelion falls in the northern winter. As it orbits sunshine, Earth’s speed averages about 30 kilometers per second. But that figure varies by plus or minus 1 %, together with the highest speed at perihelion in January and also the lowest at aphelion, our farthest point in the sun, in July.

Thanks to the greater speed throughout the northern the first day of winter, we not spend as much time in that portion of our orbit and even more time inside the part the place that the Northern Hemisphere is tipped toward sunshine. You can verify this by counting the days in the March equinox towards the September March Equinox - Equal Day and Night, Nearly, and then again in the September equinox to your March equinox. You’ll find we have several more times spring and summer than of fall and winter.

January’s moon reaches fullness at 7:46 p.m. for the 23rd. That’s lower than three hours after moonrise, which means you one is going to be another almost perfectly round beauty. Algonquin Indians called January’s full moon the wolf moon, for your hungry howling outside their villages. This year it makes sense the knot of bright winter constellations over the night sky.

Wisdom on the Heart

We have likely all experienced that almost all New Year's resolutions fail rapidly. But why? As I notice, there is certainly one crucial reason: wrong timing. The date Jan. 1 is undoubtedly an artificial construct without any correlation to your movement of stars, planets, or changes from the seasons. Thus, setting our goals with the beginning in the year is really as good or bad as generating a to-do list on every other day. Living in the earth ruled by Western civilization, we're so used to your Gregorian calendar that individuals no longer question these times measurement system, named for Pope Gregory XIII (1502-1585), who introduced it in 1582.

The shift from December to January comes about when our Souls explore the arena of Feelings on their own annual pilgrimage inside the Northern hemisphere. In the Southern hemisphere, the Souls commune with nature along with the Spirit worlds while bathed within the strong Summer sun. In the Autumn, the Soul contemplates the an entire world of Thinking, plus Spring it travels from the regions of Will.

To give any resolution an appropriate chance to materialize, we will need to begin with a fresh Will with the Fall equinox 2016: around March 20 inside the North, and around September 20 inside South.

But then exactly what do we do in January? Rudolf Steiner ponders:

"The Summer and Winter Solstice will arouse in me
(From Week 30, The Calendar in the Soul by Rudolf Steiner)

The Sun's energy was stored inside Soul throughout the radiant Summer. And now the seeds of Light are bursting offered to sustain us in the Winter's cold.

When is winter solstice 2016 and Spring Equinox we're invited to tune into your Sun within us. If you're inspired to generate any New Year resolutions, allow them to be about tending your own personal fires and cultivating meaningful human connections. In the long, chilly nights, create space for cozy get-togethers of relatives and buddies, with an intimate cuddle along with your lover or spouse, for immersing yourself within a good book. Open your inner chambers and share your experiences personally with another Soul, or with yourself inside a pretty notebook.

You may cringe for the idea in case your relationship having a loved one is estranged. Oh, count on me, I hear you. I know how painful it really is when you are full and able to share, yet, you're flanked by hostile mansions of hearth-deprived souls. Try not to despair. And please, don't shut the doors and windows on your own heart.

No, you can't change the other individual, it doesn't matter how much of your brightness and warmth you flow within their direction. You may melt some with the ice away, just to encounter a fortress of stones and barbed wire. If the body else isn't ready to deconstruct their self-created structures, you may kill one's body and Soul with no success. It's sad, and intensely painful, particularly person is your dear friend, close friend, or even a beloved lover or spouse. But any girl do is be compassionate, and get rid of any expectation for your outcome. Beware: Don't allow the raggedy vortex of one other suck you from your true self and destroy your fire.

Our key responsibility as humankind on the Earth at this time is to continuously act on keeping our flame alive while diligently deconstructing personal myths and fears, notions we're familiar with, opinions without which we feel we'll be lost. A challenging process. Proceed gently and stay patient. The rewards are far-reaching.

When our boundaries become breathing, permeable veils, replacing any impenetrable walls, you have to can truly connect to fellow humankind. When your inner hearth is fueled purely from the Highest Self, sustained with the forces of Light, Love, Life, you may radiate genuine compassion to heal yourself, others, the Earth, and beyond. For more information visit: http://firstdayof.org/