More Notes from Down Under G'day Eric,   Thank you for your interesting reading on the gaseous nature of this time of the celestial year.   Down under in the Land of Oz, our entry into Sagittarius feels like the cork blowing out of a bottle of fermenting homemade ginger (or hops) beer. We've been holding on like crazy through Scorpio: it's the time of year when students are doing exams, businesses and institutions are preparing for the Festive Holiday season, (whether that means you will be busy or closing down - there's lots to be organised), and the climate/earth itself is triggering kundalini rushes everywhere/when.   Then the Solar king enters Sagittarius and the cork is flying across the room and heading for any authority figure, control freak, or perceived blocking agent that has held us back. The fizz is fun, then that's it. The whole of month of December feels like that: Thoughts, ideas, inspirations come and go so fast I sometimes wonder if it was really me that was here last night thinking up those plans, making copious notes on bits of paper.   The BIG picture is so clear that whatever we have to do in the 3D carbon based material world is reduced to trivial and is therefore a) rushed b) expedient c) boring as soon as it is actualised.     Meanwhile, the external world is heating up. Bushfires start raging, the plant kingdom retreats into itself, the blue tongue lizards and echidnas seem like sensible creatures after all. The climatic/earth changes are magnifying what our environment has always delivered at this time of year: dry hot winds, searing sun, late nights and a natural longing to head for the beach/river/lake/shower or nearest pub.   Oh yes, the festive season. Carols at night may be whipped by sudden storms, or provide the family with a delightful evening languishing with the community out there in the local footy ovals/parks, thirsty gardens and beaches. Choosing the day/night for local activities challenges the most eminent probability mathameticians.   Philsophically and conceptually,  we are in a very strange place. Australia is currently THE most multi-Faith island nation on this planet. So a public festive activity embraces the candles and symbolism of Light, songs about sleighs riding through the snow, pine trees that smell good in the lounge room until about mid January, tinsel and fairy lights celebrating the fact that we don't sleep until midnight, gratitude that we've made it through another year, goodwill to all with whom we have shared the year's journey, and just a spicy touch of hope and faith for the year ahead. It all gets rolled into one long holiday time. In fact, sanity does not return with an organised, business-like, or even societal focus until March when the Sun in Pisces soothes our suntanned hides and we can sleep at night and enjoy the gentleness of nature once again.   We live in the Dreamtime all year round here - it is in the land itself as our indigenous caretakers will tell you. It is an ancient, ancient land with much to tell. And because of that, our short lifetimes, our petty concerns and bursts of enthusiasm for "something new", fade into the infinte sky and the endless sea that "girts us". The archetypal world holds our interest only briefly. It is the human spirit and the spirit of nature, of life itself, on which we must depend.   Oh yes, and the Light , the blazing, glaring, burning Light! Give up with the vanity and the Mr/Miss Prissy trip folks - this is a hard yakka survival land. Rinse the salt, sand and dust out of your hair and give it a scrunch or two quickly before it dries in 2 minutes.   Intellectually, we have been seeded here by Father Europe, nurtured and diligently guided by Mother England, and now, exploited and conned, by a jealous Big Brother America. [Sucker Johnnie Howard - didn't you learn from your own brother/s ?]  But oh yes, we do so love the Families from which we have ascended.  We love the histories, the stories, the legends, myths and fables, the books, films, sciences and archives. So we listen to our Northern Hemisphere extended family chatting about the symbolism of the Galactical Constellations. We are forced, naturally enough, to figure out the essence of astrology and reapply it in a different setting. As for the Galactic Core - and 2012, and about entering the Age of Light, the Golden 1000 years, the New World, the New Age - the next act in the Grand Circus of this mansion world, whatever...those of us learning discernment, listen to the spirits and sometimes, we even discuss,debate and argue with them. After all, we ARE in the physical, on the Front Line doing it for real, aren't we?   Do you have any idea what this is like? Can you imagine being so personally and figuratively transparent? The Galactic Spotlight initiates this each and every year. We discover what it feels like to NOT KNOW. Or to not even care that we may NOT KNOW ... ?!   As an astrologer I have pondered upon the nature of this Land of Oz for some 30 years. Methinks the land itself is Sagittarian with a human Capricorn overlay. Aligning with the Galactic Core means we test ourselves - no, not pitting ourselves against each other or the greater world, but rather, finding out how we are going/coming or just being - in accordance with the Grand Plan for an estimated so far, 21 million year evolutionary project.   The Capricorn January is our 'out-of-time'  zone when we quite seriously consider our own growth, maturity and personal well being.  It is a reclusive and chill out phase of the Galactic Clock. Even those working in tourism, hospitality and holiday localities, reflect this detachment right through until March.   Perhaps all this just feeds our natural cycnism born of an everchanging climatic and social world. But if you're ever in real strife, from these old and testy elements weaving around and in us, 'she'll be right mate'. We're here for each other - but only if it's for real. So there's no crying wolf, or false gift giving, tinsel smiles through gritted teeth or sociel niceties in the name of a very much confused status quo.   Sagittarius shoots its Centaur arrows through the spiral target of the Galactic Core. In this land we need to be sure enough of our aim, 'cos it is very likely to boomerang back on us.  We give out and share, generously, but oh so often, the arrows fall on infertile ground. Yet we are incessantly, a nation of people who love spilling forth those creative ideas.   We are Children of the Universe after all, growing in a Nursery Galaxy.   How's that, Cuz up there in Lapland? Give you something to laugh about?   Good. Blessings of the FULL pregnant Moon.   A cheerful Happy festive season to ye Eric - love reading your work and enjoying the tango.     Hilary       www.dawnings.blogspot.com <http://www.dawnings.blogspot.com>