ChatterLogs

Holiday and Season’s Greetings!

To All of My Clients & Colleagues, Family & Friends
Season’s Greetings Everyone and Happy Holidays to You All!
Wishing Everything Wonderful for 2018

Think about it, when we say, “Season’s Greetings” we are naturally referring to not just to the Holiday Season which includes Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, and so on, but we are also referring to the Season in Nature. And on December 21, we moved from the Season of Fall through the Winter Solstice, and entered into our Season of Winter.
The word Solstice means “The Sun Stands Still” marking the shortest day and longest night of the year. And, after the Sun’s momentary pause between Seasons, it will now gain one minute of light each day as it begins its way back up the “ascent” towards the Summer Solstice on June 21, when we will have the opposite, our longest day and shortest night of the year.

Astrologically, when we move into the Season of Winter we also move into the Sign of Capricorn. Here’s an interesting little tidbit – so consider this…

Winter = Winter Solstice = Aurora Australis = Capricorn

My sister is a Capricorn and has always, as in always, since she was a young child, had this fascination and affinity with Australia. Little did she know, or any of you for that matter, that Capricorn’s connection with Australia is based on the Aurora Australis. Some of you may be familiar with the Aurora Borealis also known as The Northern Lights, which we see in the sky when we are far, far North towards the Arctic Pole.

Northern Lights by Swedish Photographer Jerry MagnuM Porsbjer

So, no big surprise to hear that the Aurora Australis also known as The Southern Lights are visible when you go way, way South of the Equator, way down where… go on guess where? Where the continent of Australia is located, of course, down towards the Antarctic.

Aurora Australis in Antarctica by French Photographer Samuel Blanc

These lights are described by Wikipedia as, “A Natural Light Display in the Earth’s Sky” but that description falls somewhat short of the true magic of this natural phenomenon which is best viewed the closer you are to the two magnetic poles, the Arctic & Antarctic. The Northern & Southern Lights are in fact, the result of a collision between gaseous particles in the Earth’s Atmosphere and charged particles released from the Sun’s Atmosphere. And that collision produces some of the most incredible and natural light shows you could ever witness. The variation in colors depends upon the type of gas particle that is colliding. Oxygen = Green & Yellowish Green, Nitrogen = Blue & Purple, and High-Altitude Oxygen = Red.

World Atlas Map showing the Arctic Poles, the Equator and the Tropics of Cancer & Capricorn

One last morsel for you – if you look at an Atlas, Globe or Map of the World, below the Equator, running directly through the continent of Australia is Latitude 23°25’ S – also known as… drum roll please – The Tropic of Capricorn!

And finally, from Seasons Greetings we move to Happy New Year! Except that during Winter, there’s nothing new actually going on, everything is resting or asleep, which is why I have always thought it crazy that we are expected to put out the same amount of energy and work the same long hours without the same amount of light, Vitamin D and warmth as we have during the Summertime! So, when someone wishes you a Happy New Year, they are only referring to the New Calendar Year. Nature’s New Year is the First Day of Spring and the Vernal Spring Equinox, but you’ll have to wait until March 2018 for that!

Louisa
December 2017