The Great Conjunction / Der Greescht Mitlaaf
Due to the vagaries of life, I have missed a few nights of public posts of Voryuul this year. However, Nights 11 and 12 contain what has developed into a nebulous personal cosmic mystery question for this year, and it all relates to the Great Conjunction of 2020, which presents some aspects of interest to Urglaawer from our own lore as well as from the lore of neighboring and influential cultures.
I know a bit about astrology, but I have to defer to people with more experience when it comes to events such as this.
Astrologically (and astronomically) speaking, this IS a big deal. Conjunctions of Jupiter and Saturn happen frequently (just a bit less than every 20 years); however, this is the closest they will appear to one another in the sky in 800 years. At 13:20 EST on December 21 (Day 1 of Yuul/Yule), they will be separated by just about 0.102 degree or 6.1 arc minutes.
This is not a Christmas Star. If anything, its a Yule Star. (After all, the Season IS the Reason.)
Now here's the part I am fuzzy on due to conflicting information. I am seeing statements that this conjunction will take place at 0 degrees 29 minutes Aquarius, thus "officially" ushering the Age of Aquarius. However, I see other sources stating that the event will take place in Capricornus.
The Age of Aquarius has no well defined beginning, it seems. However, there is a very (I mean very) small pool of Deitsch astrologers whom I had interviewed in 2013 (a bit too late to celebrate) who believed that 2012 year was the "true" entry into the Age of Aquarius as determined by "es Keenichli" ("the Little King") or "der naddlich Wachtmann" ("the Watchman toward the North"). These bynames refer to the star Regulus, which holds a position of esteem among the people I interviewed.
Es Keenichli is a star credited with constants; in other words, its the metronome that emits the rhythm by which the cosmos is supposed to move. However, it is not an enforcer; it is merely a signal that bears messages and traditions from the ancient past. While the cosmos and the physical location of objects changes, Es Keenichli is said to be the bearer of the old ways.
One of the old ways included in his bailiwick is the equivalence of the solar signs from the Greek zodiac. In truth, the sun does not spend 30 days in each constellation, but the old ways say that it does. Thus, in 2012, es Keenichli moved from from Leo into Virgo. The belief was that every cog on the wheel shifted under the hand of es Keenichli, and that the shift also brought us out of the Age of Pisces and into Aquarius. They were also clear that the effects of the shift would increase as we moved through portals and deeper into Aquarius. Look for signs, they said.
Some of this stuff was well above my pay grade, so I had jotted down the notes and then promptly forgot about them until the topic of comets as plague horss came up earlier this year. Along the side of a note I had written "Der Wachtmann = em Ziu sei Suh?" It was a prompt for me to look into some sort of relationship between the North Star's association with Ziu and der Wachtmann/es Keenichli/Regulus, as in, perhaps, the latter is the son of the former.
I'd been all caught up in trying to get caught up after covid caught me last Spring. Now as I am emerging from the covid fog, I realized that this Great Conjunction (the Deitsch term for a conjunction of stars is "Mitlaaf" or "walk with," so this is "der greescht Mitlaaf" or "the greatest conjunction") was right upon us, and I had not really explored from a cultural standpoint, other than one or two posts, until just now.
This conjunction is of the two largest planets in our solar system. Jupiter has a long and known association with chief deities, including our Ziu. The planet's association with justice, law, prosperity, education, intelligence are some of the same characteristics seen in the personality of the god and in the North Star, which is even more strongly associated with Him in Deitsch and related cultures.
Less known, though, is the association between Saturn and the god Holler and the goddess Berchta, though one can clearly see how Holler, the personification of Death can be drawn as a cognate to Saturn as Father Time or Grim Reaper, etc. However, at the end of the year, it is not Holler who represents the passage of time. It is the goddess Berchta.
Berchta is the kickass goddess who roams our little corner (Mannheem or Mannheim) of the World Tree from the beginning of Voryuul (December
8 until Wonnenacht (April 30). During this time, She is said to walk around in disguise as a beggar. Her feast night is December 31. She also has the only *required* meal that I know of in all of Heathenry, and it is She (some sources cite her sister Holle) who announces the death of the old year and the birth of a new one through the banging of pans, the crack of a whip, etc. She is a goddess concerned with death as opportunity, rebirth, evolution, order of the mind, and giving people swift kicks in the ass when they need them.
The conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn to such a close degree on the first day of Yuul could indeed be interpreted as a threshold into new era of some sort.
The Urglaawe interpretation of the lore about the night of December 20 is similar to that of other Germanic groups, but it is quite specifically about the moment of the solstice. We call that night "Muddernacht" ("mother night").
While it is good to honor mothers at all times, we have a specific time of year for the observance of females, feminine energies, matriarchs, etc., and that is in February. If the night of December 20 were about honoring mothers in general, it would have to be called Middernacht ("mothers night"). The presence of the singular form, Mudder, points us elsewhere.
In fact, it points us to the night itself. This is when Nacht (the goddess associated with the night portions of cycles of light and darkness) metaphorically gives birth to the new sun. Thus, the pairing of Yuul and the Great Conjunction could be interpreted as the beginning point of a new era.
>>One Interpretation<<
The current order is already crumbling around us. Many of us are holding onto hope during a time of a pandemic and all the chaos it has brought about. The deities are forcing us to wake up and pressing us forward, granted, with painful labor, toward the next step of the evolution of consciousness. It won't happen immediately; the structure of the collapsing structure (the Tower that we discussed so much back in April and in Byron Ballard's works) is still standing, but it is in flames. Allow it to fall on its own; just stay out of its way. It is time to turn our eyes forward; focus on what can be salvaged from ruins of this cosmic night and how it can be applied to the coming cosmic day.
That is, though, merely one interpretation. The meditations for Nights 11 and 12 of Voryuul are about how individuals interpret these events.
Some suggestions for meditation:
Are these simply astronomical events that we are witnessing due to the accident of our births on a planet that just happens to have this view of the multiverse?
Is there more to it? Could it be the actions of the deities or of the Maker, Wurt, at play here? How much effect can we have on these events as individuals?
What does change mean to you? Is Iwwermariyeland ("day-after-tomorrowland," roughly like Utopia) even possible?
Is the old "normal" worth returning to?
One thing for me is essential: The grip that covid has had on my identity is going into the Yuul fires. I am a longhauler, yes, but, even more so, I am alive. I am here on this planet at this time in this unique soul construct to pursue happiness and to help others to find their way toward happiness.
"Make like Fraa Holle and pitch that bitch," my kin, India, once said to me. In this case, the bitch that needs pitching is my identification with covid. It stole my identity, but now I am reclaiming it. I am going to help others to reclaim it. Of course, I have to deal with the damages done by the disease, and we need to be practical about safety. However, I refuse to live in fear anymore.
Let's all focus on not dragging the fear into 2021. Let's instead aim for reasonable actions in a time of a pandemic. Find ways toward happiness, kinship, and joy, and help others find their moments of laughter and merriment.
As Gedreier Eckhart said to the Parade of Spirits:
"'Hail to Life!' say the Dead."
Hail to Life, indeed!
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Some articles to consider:
The Great Conjunction Is Coming, and It's Major
Star Bright: The Jupiter-Saturn Light Show
Get ready for the 'Great Conjunction' of Jupiter and Saturn
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