by Crystal Pomeroy

Why do we feel like setting goals at the beginning of the year? The first New Moon of January is usually in Capricorn, giving a surge of emotion to the goat’s taste for climbing, accentuated since the Winter Solstice. This lunation is closely tied to the meaning of the New Year, and it is actually a great time to bless and focus our purpose for the coming twelve-month cycle, for which we share some mystical tools a bit further on.

The options we have prepared are adapted to the special opportunities that the New Moon chart offers, helping us ground the promise of Winter Solstice. Sun conjunct Moon in the tenth unleashes a wave of accomplishment, a potential intensified by Mars in Capricorn and Pluto in Sagittarius, both on the Midheaven. We find ourselves before a powerful portal for effective focus. The nature of our goals has a mysterious twist this year. Consider the Sabian symbol for the Sun and Moon’s degree:

"A WOMAN READING TEA LEAVES….. the power of occult forces or entities to convey the information that will clarify confusing situations."

This placement reiterates the Solstice theme of inner work, even further accentuated by North node in the twelfth house: optimizing our efforts to heal that which has been hidden until now and opening a window to access messages from beyond.

The suggestions below are synchronized to bless the planet and your own goals during this mystical portal.

Esoteric keys for blessing the New Year and Solstice Chart

One of the simplest and most effective ways to invoke the power of blessing is to acknowledge the good and the sacred which is already inherent in any given situation or entity, while simultaneously recognizing your own creative authority to call it good. A bit further on, we will share some affirmations to direct this awareness towards the New Year and your own goals. First, let’s consider some keys inherited from ancient masters.

Altar-ations for the New Year and New Moon in Capricorn

Prepare your space and mind with some or all of the following tools:

To bless the New Year’s chart, print or make a copy of the chart, and then paint or draw golden rays around the solstice chart wheel as though it were a sun. This is a mystical technique taught by past masters. The golden rays directed outward and coupled with the creative power of attention, literally sets up an electrical charge field which repels negative intent or expectation in relation to the cycle in question. To protect the earth, any particular country or place during the New Year, paste a small, colored picture of it in the center of the chart wheel. You can place this protected chart on your altar or in what I call a blessing corner.

We all know that images of light go with solstice, and they can be present in your space as a candle or candles. For at least some of our ancestors, however, this portal was actually a time to venerate the Divine Mother, whose miraculous magnetism we can invoke now.

A well documented example comes from the fairly recent Mexica nation that paid tribute to Her under the name of Tonantzin-Cihuacoatl. Pilgrims would gather from distant corners at her sacred mountain, Tepeyacac, offering flowers and copal in thanks for her bringing forth her son, Huitzilopochtli, to light up the sky. The Mother’s ancestral pull, exemplified in the magnetism of sacred places, is so great that to this day you will run into Mexican pilgrims traveling by any means, including on foot or bicycle. Hundreds of thousands gather, laden with flowers and often with framed pictures of Tonantzin/Guadalupe tied to their backs, swarming with devotion to the Temple of Tepeyac near Mexico City. The colonial church was so overwhelmed by this unstoppable flow that it had to erect this church where it had razed the indigenous site, devoting it to Tonantzin’s replacement, La Virgen de Guadalupe. Her official day is December 12, the most important national festivity next to Mother’s Day and El Día de los Muertos.

You can connect with the earlier tradition and bring its energies into your own space. Take a moment to feel the pull of Her magnetism, then honor Her by putting out a wild- looking bouquet and copal, as well as sea shells and special stones or crystals.

Extraordinary blessings to empower your goals

Charge the energy of your solstice offerings and access the mystical guidance flowing at this lunation. As you go about putting out flowers and other gifts for the Mother, hold thoughts and words like these in your attention:

I give thanks to the Creative Feminine and all the angels that surround Her, which together are bringing forth only good in the year ahead as they guide me and all sentient beings to respond to our magnetic attraction to the Highest Good in our goals and aspirations.

Repeat during several minutes, slowly and with attention. Also, call on the angels, especially Hanael (whom author Lucy Aspra connects with Capricorn), and the Angels of Divine Success. Request that they bless the entire planet with right goals and discipline at this time, that we may connect with the highest vibration of the New Year and particularly of Pluto as it transits the galactic center.

Clarify and bless your goals

This will truly be an act of power during the current lunar portal, particularly if you prepare yourself for it by applying some of the blessings suggested above. Focus on the areas emphasized in the Solstice and New Moon charts: goals to heal hidden wounds, as well as creative, vocational and spiritual intentions in general.

Some tips I have learned over years of practice and teaching:

• Close your eyes and listen to those preferences and aspirations that flow from your heart, without stopping to consult the left hemisphere if you are planning what you should be or leaving something out. The heart is the abode of the artist within, who also happens to play the leading role in both the Solstice and New Moon charts

• As you center quietly on the chest area, let the longing for healing, for spiritual, creative and vocational fulfillment to emerge as images that describe exactly what you would prefer to live, express and share with the world.

• Describe in writing the goals revealed by the artist within.

• Bless your goals with Solstice-Mother energy by repeating words like those below for several minutes.

I give thanks to my own Divine Magnetism that It naturally attracts the Highest Good in every area of my life, optimizing my new annual cycle.

Then share your charged awareness with the following adaptation:

I give thanks that Divine Magnetism in others is naturally attracting their Highest Good to them.

Repeat this for a few more minutes. Finally, bless the planet for a minute or more like this:

I give thanks that Divine Magnetism is attracting the Highest Good towards our planet and its inhabitants, and that we are being guided to receive it now.

These prayers and visualizations are particularly miraculous if you begin them during the New Moon portal. If for some reason you can’t, start them before the coming Full Moon in Cancer (when we’ll present new keys for that portal).

The most complete way to follow up now is by taking a few minutes daily to: envision the goals that emerged from your heart as you did the above exercise, followed by the affirmations in the order suggested.

Happy New Cycle of Good!

Special thanks to Lucy Aspra and Xolotl for their valuable contributions from ancient traditions.