#343-"Every One of Us is the Flame"--Week of December 15, 2025

Vision, Discernment, and the Turning of the Seasonal Year

This week carries us toward the Solstice through a series of profound conversations between Sagittarius vision and Pisces depth. Beliefs are tested, dreams are refined, and intentions are asked to mature. Rather than pushing forward, these cycles invite listening, discernment, and a quieter kind of courage as the light begins its return.

Tuesday, December 16: Sun in Sagittarius square Saturn in Pisces
The Seeker meets the Elder of Consequence

The Sun’s drive for meaning and expansion meets Saturn’s gravity in Pisces. Inspiration may feel slowed or questioned, yet this tension offers an initiation into wiser belief—vision that can endure uncertainty, limits, and time.

Key invitation: Let your truth mature rather than harden or collapse.

Reflection: Which belief or direction in my life is asking to be refined rather than abandoned?

Friday, December 19: New Moon at 28° Sagittarius
(conjunct Venus, square Saturn & Neptune in Pisces)

This New Moon is tender and demanding. Venus infuses the lunation with longing, values, and love, while Saturn and Neptune challenge fantasy, idealization, and spiritual bypassing. What begins now asks for honesty, humility, and resonance rather than certainty.

This is a moon for quiet intention—listening beneath desire to what is genuinely alive.

Key invitation: Begin by releasing illusion, not by forcing clarity.

Reflection: What am I being invited to begin by releasing illusion rather than chasing certainty?

Sunday, December 21: Jupiter in Cancer square Chiron in Aries
The Great Nurturer meets the Wounded Pioneer

Here we meet the tension between caring for what is tender and trusting ourselves to act. Old wounds around confidence, protection, and belonging may surface—not to weaken us, but to restore courage through compassion.

Key invitation: Let self-care strengthen bravery rather than replace it.

Reflection: Where does tending my own vulnerability restore my confidence to act?

Sunday, December 21 — Sun enters Capricorn (Winter Solstice  in the Northern Hemisphere)

At the Solstice, the light turns quietly. Capricorn does not rush this moment—it commits. This is a threshold of orientation rather than action, inviting patience, responsibility, and a grounded sense of purpose that will unfold over time.

Key invitation: Choose what you are willing to tend through the dark.

Reflection: What inner responsibility am I ready to carry forward into the coming cycle?

Podcast Poem: In the Bleak Midwinter by Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer

Transcript

0:07

Hello, welcome to Astrology Alchemy. I'm Sheila Bellagio, your host for this podcast. Alchemy is defined as a seemingly magical process of transformation. Spiritual alchemy is the process of pursuing the gold of your true nature. By transmuting the unrefined limiting parts of yourself. In this podcast, I'll offer you inspiring insights from current astrology cycles that support your path of turning your personal lead into gold. More resources are available at the website on the edges of change.com. Hello and welcome to episode number 343 of the Astrology Alchemy Podcast. This is for the week of December 15th, 2025. I'm your host and guide, Sheila Boje. We'll hear this week we are at the edge of the turning of the seasonal year, not the calendar year. The cycles this week gather momentum towards the solstice at the end of the week with a strong Sagittarius Pisces. Tension, vision meets consequence, longing meets limits, faith meets discernment. Multiple astrology cycles to ask not what you believe, but what you are willing to stand inside as truth. On Tuesday, December 16th, the sun in Sagittarius squares Saturn. In Pisces, the seeker meets the elder of consequence. The Sagittarians sun seeks meaning, freedom, and a wider horizon. Saturn in Pisces responds not with rules but with gravity. Asking whether inspiration has roots, whether vision can survive, contact with reality. Some challenges of this cycle, disillusionment self-doubt, or the sense that the way forward feels heavy or unclear. The alchemical opportunities maturing belief. Learning which visions are strong enough to be carried through uncertainty, discipline, and time. A reflection question for this cycle, which belief or direction in my life is asking to be refined rather than abandoned? And just a reminder that these reflection questions are in the show notes for the podcast. On Friday, December 19th, we have a New Moon at 28 degrees of Sagittarius at 5:43 PM Pacific Standard Time. A potent new moon in that it is conjunct the planet Venus and squares the planet, Saturn and Neptune. In Pisces we have the visionary, the lover, and the mystic all stepping into the fog together. This new moon is a coming together of the sun and moon, the solar and lunar energies, entwining. The balance of yin and yang, and it's a tender, potent, and demanding new moon. Venus softens the loo nation with values, love, and longing. Neptune dissolves edges while Saturn insists on form. Quite a combination. Dreams are vivid, but no, are not all are meant to be followed. Some of the challenges of this cycle, idealization, spiritual, bypassing, or clinging to an image of how things should feel. Your chemical opportunities here are choosing resonance over fantasy, letting desire be informed by humility, compassion, and truth. This is a potent new moon also'cause it's right at the edge of solstice at the very end of the seasonal year. This is a moon for quiet intention, not declaration. Listening beneath your longing to what is actually alive. A reflection question for this cycle. What am I being invited to begin by releasing illusion rather than chasing certainty. On Sunday, December 21st, Jupiter in cancer Squares, Chiron. In Aries, we have the expanded one as a great nurturer meeting. The wounded healer. As a pioneer, Jupiter in cancer expands care, belonging and emotional truth. Chiron in Aries exposes tender places around agency courage and self-trust. Together they surface the ache of wanting to protect and the fear of standing alone. A challenge in this cycle, overprotecting, overgiving, or hesitating to act from an old wound. You're all chemical opportunities. Growth through self-compassion, letting care, strengthen courage rather than replace it. A reflection question for this cycle, where does tending my own vulnerability, restore my confidence to act? Also on Sunday, December 21st. The sun enters the Zodiac sign of Capricorn. This marks winter solstice in the Northern hemisphere. This is at 7:03 AM Pacific Standard Time. The sun entering Capricorn is like the sovereign builder entering a long night at the solstice. The light turns quietly. Any of us who track the winter solstice understand there's a gradual diminishment of the light into darkness, and then we're in the darkness for a while, and then gradually we perceive the returning light little by little. And Capricorn does not rush this moment. It commits. This is not about ambition yet, although the Capricorn sign can be very productive and strong in its aspirations at Solstice, it's not time for ambition. It's about orientation. Tracking what you are willing to steward through the dark, so it may grow in time. You have an invitation here to honor endurance, patience, and the wisdom of slow construction. There's a gift in this solstice cycle of a grounded sense of purpose that does not require immediate proof. Notice as you travel with the solstice where that might be so. A reflection question for this time. What inner responsibility am I ready to carry forward into the coming cycle? And the podcast poem I offer you for this week of winter Solstice is such a beautiful one to invite you to recognize your circles of connection. Internal, external with nature and the great cycles. The poem is called In the Bleak Midwinter by Rosemary Ola. Trauma in the Bleak Midwinter in the midst of cold past the fringes of Darkness. In this place of fire where we huddle at the edge of warmth to relieve our chill and regard each other's faces in the glow where we learn stories of the shadows and meet our own darkness, loneliness is perhaps believing there is no room for us in the circle. Belonging is knowing that every one of us is the flame. So dear audience, in this ancient ceremonial time of the turning of the seasons. My hope is that you have fires to gather around, whether they be literal fires with human beings and others to warm you inner fires, and that you listen to the stories of the shadows and you are with in a holy way your own darkness. And may you also attend to the ones. That perhaps in their loneliness, believe there's no room for them in the circle. May you love them and hold them by the one of you who knows you belong totally and that you are a flame. Thank you so much for the gift of your presence and your listening hearts and ears. I am offering a special private podcast called The Inner Alchemist Path. It's now available for you to get, it's a private podcast journey through seven thresholds of becoming and really invite you to recognize what if your life transitions were sacred initiations, not signs of failure or loss. It's an audio series of about an hour with 10 short episodes. It's a fireside invitation to reclaim your wisdom, shift your patterns, and remember who you truly are. If you're interested, go to the homepage of my website on the edges of change.com, and you'll see a link for the Inner Alchemist path. Blessings to you at this holy time of the darkness in the winter. Exhaust. You have been listening to the Astrology Alchemy Podcast with your host, Sheila Lange. Resources are available at the website on the edges of change.com. Thank you for listening. Bless your alchemical journey to embrace the gold of your true nature.