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  • Weekly Astrological Forecast for December 18 through December 24, 2023

    December 18 through December 24, 2023

    The Sun will move into Capricorn and a new season begins on Thursday, casting a more grounded and security-conscious aura around us through the end of the year and into January. Capricorn is the sign of the protector, the responsible, and the hard-working, and though we may put work on the back burner for the last week or so of the year, this sign also allows us to stabilize and reconnect with those who are most important in our lives. The Moon travels through Pisces on Monday and Tuesday, casting a more spiritual tone to the start of our week. We’ll be more heart-centered and theological, taking whatever comes with a grain of salt and trying to focus on the hidden gifts of any challenges that arise. Then on Wednesday and Thursday we’ll have to get busy, as the Aries Moon reminds us that there are things to be done before the weekend starts. Our energy will double and we’ll breeze through any tasks in our way with ease! Friday and Saturday will be more grounded under the Taurus Moon, allowing us to regroup and get ready for Christmas Eve on Sunday. Sunday’s Gemini Moon will have us in a talkative mood, ready to socialize and reconnect with those closest to us over the holidays.

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  • The Spirit and History of the Season

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    by Kala Ambrose

    Do you know the history and origin of Christmas? The traditions that you hold near and dear may not be as old as you think they are. Early Christians didn’t celebrate birthdays and the actual birth date of Jesus is still unknown. Some astrologers and historians have surmised that the location of the star over Bethlehem and the presence of lambs in the story represent a spring birth, but the actual date was never recorded. (For more information on this topic, check out my interview with Courtney Roberts, about her book and research on The Star of the Magi on the Explore Your Spirit with Kala Show.)

    The origin of this holiday comes from over 2000 years ago, originating in northern Europe. The holiday began as a pagan tradition known as Yule, which was celebrated for 12 days.  During this time, Scandinavian people celebrated the Norse God Odin, a bearded god who flew through the air on a horse and handed out gifts. The Pagan Romans held a seven-day festival of Saturnalia beginning on December 17th, which included the celebration of the God Mithras, who was born on December 25th. They exchanged gifts, enjoyed feasts and once this festival culminated, the New Year festivities began. Are any of these customs beginning to sound familiar?

    Yule is a festival of light, with twelve days of feasting and public celebrations. A large Yule log was kept burning throughout the twelve days to symbolize the returning of the light and the Sun after the darkest day of the year on Winter Solstice.  Later, candles were added to keep the light burning, along with oil-burning in lamps to symbolize the eternal light. Modern day examples of how we celebrate these pagan traditions today include candles in the windows of our homes and what we now call Christmas lights, which we hang on a Christmas tree (our modern adaptation of the yule log and evergreen branches that the ancient Europeans brought into their homes).

    In the 4th century, Rome changed from a pagan society to a Christian society and the church began to replace and absorb pagan traditions. Since there was already a holiday in place to celebrate the birth of the God Mithras, the decision was made to switch this birthday and dedicate the day as a symbolic birth date for Jesus. The Roman Catholic Church holds a ritualistic midnight mass for this event, which became Christ’s Mass, i.e. Christmas.
    Like many pagan traditions under siege in the attempt to be absorbed and overwritten by the church, the campaign was met with mixed success. The European people continued their own traditional pagan celebrations and simply added the new religious connotations into the mix.  Over the centuries, the festivals, feasts, gift giving and celebrations continued including the adoption of medieval carolers who went door to door singing while enjoying a cup of alcoholic punch at each stop.

    The festivals continued in this manner until around the 17th century when Protestant reformers decided that Christmas should be banned. Their reasoning was based on the premise that the holiday was built upon pagan traditions, which were then further embellished by the Catholic church with the adopted birthday celebration on December 25th. Both the pagan revelry and the Catholic traditions, were customs that they wanted no part of and they were able to ban Christmas in England. This only lasted for a few years, but many people who held this protestant belief moved during the 17th century to America, the New World, and brought their religious beliefs with them. They were the Puritan settlers who formed the colony of Massachusetts. In 1659, they banned Christmas as a holiday in Massachusetts.  As new settlers including Catholics, Pagans, the Irish, Scottish, Dutch and others with moderate religious beliefs migrated to America establishing colonies in New York, Virginia and other Atlantic states, they brought their Christmas traditions and festivities with them and the celebration of Christmas was restored in the U.S.

    How do we celebrate Christmas today? According to the History Channel’s documentary, The Real Story of Christmas, the preservation and evolution is credited to two influential Americans. The first is Clement Moore, who in 1822 wrote Twas the Night Before Christmas, which gave inspiration to new customs for the holiday, based on old world traditions. Moore combined the white bearded Norse God Odin who flew through the air handing out gifts with St. Nicholas, a 4th century Catholic bishop who was known for gift giving in stockings and the two were then melded with Sinter Klaas, the Dutch version of St. Nicholas. Odin was known as the God of Thunder and was said to have flown on a horse with eight legs. Moore substituted Odin’s eight-legged horse into eight reindeer, which he gave individual names including Donner, which means thunder, and Blitzen, which means lightning.  He also combined old European stories of elves, making Santa Claus a wizard like magical elf.

    The second influential figure was Thomas Nast, a famous illustrator who created the images of the donkey and the elephant for the Republican and Democratic parties and created the image of Uncle Sam.  In 1862, Nast took Moore’s poetic descriptions of Santa and drew the illustration of Santa Claus. He changed the image of Santa Claus from a smaller elf into a full size elf man with a white beard. He also created the concept of St. Nick’s naughty or nice list. (A lesser-known fact about St. Nicholas was that the original story of St. Nicholas said that when he visited houses, he was followed by a demon named Krampus who punished bad children). Nast glossed over this story by creating a gentler naughty or nice list. Nast also captivated his audience by capturing the growing sentiment of this time where children were becoming the focus of the family and thus Santa Claus was very attentive to children, bringing them gifts.

    From the light filled traditions and festivals of the ancient Europeans, to the migration of Odin into Santa Claus and the bringing in of the evergreens from northern Europe morphing into the Christmas tree, Christmas as a holiday has continued to evolve. The Industrial Revolution provided the opportunity for a variety of goods and products to become mass produced and accessible to consumers. Soon after, gift giving for the holiday began in earnest and became the American staple of the holiday that is widely celebrated today.
    The holiday season continues to mix old and new, with a rise of neo-paganism bringing a resurgence of old traditions. This along with a growing distaste of Black Friday shopping complete with people fighting and trampling others over bargain gifts and thousands of Americans going into debt each year with over-the top gift giving, may stimulate an entire new series of traditions and festivities in the 21st century.


    Kala Ambrose is an award-winning author, intuitive and talk show host of the Explore Your Spirit with Kala Show. Kala’s book, 9 Life Altering Lessons: Secrets of the Mystery Schools Unveiled delves into the mysteries of ancient Egyptian mystery schools and explains their wisdom teachings. Kala Ambrose is a highly interactive teacher on a mission to educate, entertain and inspire. She lectures on the Ancient Wisdom Teachings of Egypt and the Mystery Schools, Working with Auras, Chakras and Energy Fields, and Wise Woman Wisdom. Learn more about Kala at Explore Your Spirit.

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  • Double Vision: Where are we when we’re totally unconscious?

    This has puzzled me for years, and I figure that other people must wonder about the same thing - I can't be the only one! When I go to sleep, I am just totally GONE. I go to sleep and then I wake with no memories of dreams or anything else. This also happens a lot when I meditate. Where do I go? What is happening? I have no fear of death, as this is what I think it would be like. Is this what death is like? I was born 03/23/1941 at 11 a.m. as the church bells were chiming. - Beverly

    Dreamchaser:

    As I have stated many times here, when we sleep, our souls leave our bodies and go to where they most need to go to prepare for tomorrow and heal from today. I imagine that death is very much like that, except we would be more conscious during death, and realize exactly what was happening.

    When we sleep, our conscious minds shut down, and our souls take over. I think in death, we revert back to our true selves, which is the soul without the limitations of the human body. In tarot readings, the Death card does not usually mean physical death; it merely means transformation. Through death we are transformed. You know that and you do not fear it. Good for you!

    Some people vividly remember their "dreams" while others do not. I am one of those who do not for the most part. I think since I work so hard for Spirit all day, my mind is given a complete rest at night and allowed to just shut down. If I need to remember a "dream," however, I do.

    Do not be concerned that you do not remember your dreams. You will remember the ones that you are supposed to. Your soul is the true you. Your mind is just the human you. Your mind does not need to remember the work you do while sleeping or meditating. Your soul is very good at integrating what it learns into your human mind.

    Meditation is very much like sleeping if done right. We are attempting to shut down our conscious/ logical mind in meditation, and to turn up our soul's volume and listen for whatever we are meant to hear that day. When we leave our bodies, we are "astral traveling." Whether voluntary (via meditation) or involuntary (via sleep), our souls are separating from mental awareness of the physical plane. When we are unconscious, we are in another world. We can look down on events happening here or go to different places on Earth, but we are experiencing everything on a soul level.

    There are lots of books, websites, courses, etc., on how to learn to astral travel with conscious awareness. Lots of people learn how to detach their souls consciously and actually remain mentally present while their souls explore other dimensions of experience. This is something you may want to explore, Beverly. I think it would come to you rather easily, for lots of people spend lifetimes trying to reach the level of meditation you have achieved. You may want to look at this as the next step in your spiritual evolution.

    There is no right way or wrong way to meditate, dream or daydream. Our souls are very wise, and will take control if we simply allow it.

    I wish you rewarding travels.

    *****

    Astrea:

    Being alive and asleep isn't the same as being dead. When I am asleep, I am at home in my bed. I always come back to my life when I wake up, and I don't really go anywhere unless I'm dreaming or doing some kind of astral travel.

    Of course, we tend to think of astral travel as a conscious experience. When you're sleeping and unconscious, you're ASLEEP and your body is RESTING along with your mind so that you'll be ready and able to greet the coming day in this dimension of experience.

    Most scientists believe that people who say they don't dream really do - they just don't remember their dreams. It's not uncommon for people with Air Sun signs or with Air signs rising to have trouble bringing dreams into waking consciousness.

    It is unusual that you don't remember, since you're an Aries. Fire signs usually find meaning in their dreams, whether there IS any deeper meaning to them or not! Sometimes our dreams are too unpleasant for us to remember, and sometimes they are meant to quietly prepare us for other parts of life. I don't know the percentage of people who don't remember dreaming at all, but I think it is fairly low.

    Not having been dead myself (at least, not this lifetime), it's difficult for me to tell you what that's like. However, the spirits I asked about your question tell me death is not at all like being asleep. They seem alert and aware much more than we are. They're in a very pleasant place where there is no fear or longing, and they don't seem at all upset about being there.

    Each person has his or her own ideas about the Afterlife. My experience with dead people is that they often CREATE the afterlife for themselves in the way they believe it will be when they're alive. I want a place where I can see my friends who have been there waiting for me; I want to go across that Rainbow Bridge to where all my pets are waiting. I'm hoping that God will help me create that sort of place in Heaven. God seems to want my dead friends to be as happy as possible, just like God wants us living people to be happy too.

    None of my dead friends or relatives is ever very eager to describe where they are and what it's like to me. Most of the time they seem to have some ax to grind, some point to make, something important they want me to tell someone else, something they want to lecture me about, or something they want me to learn. They're not unconscious at all, but very much awake and focused on whatever it is they're trying to let me know at the time. Being dead and being unconscious are VASTLY different states!

    Astrea:

    Many times in life we hear, "You will always have what you NEED, but not necessarily what you WANT." Your spirit must have needed to experience the feeling of leaving your human body, and the suggestion in the next chapter of Sylvia Brown's book was all it took to get you there.

    Even though you hadn't read it yet, your SOUL recognized the title of that chapter as something it had been seeking, and your soul, knowing that you had that reference to read after your experience, got with it and out you went!

    While I don't usually recommend her books, Sylvia Brown has a wide reaching and powerful effect on lots of people. A Gemini like you would be able to relate easily to her writing and put it to good use. Synchronicity - you gotta love it!

    I like your description of "getting caught." That's exactly what it feels like, isn't it? One minute you're free and hovering above the room, and the next minute, ZAP! back down into your corporeal form you go!

    As a little kid, I loved that "feeling of return." With practice, most of the time we can control that event, but sometimes, when our physical ears hear a distracting noise or something else occurs to knock us back into reality, back we go. With practice you will be able to control your return better.

    I find it interesting that you were visiting your mother-in-law and not someone in your own genetic family. Evidently, you and your husband got married for reasons that are even deeper than love. His family's interest in "psychic stuff" will nurture your children in such matters and help them to grow into their own abilities.

    You'll never have to be concerned that when your daughter visits them, she'll be discouraged from exploring her own psychic life and power. My parents encouraged me to develop my psychic senses in a time when it wasn't nice to even discuss such things in public. Heck, it's STILL not considered a great topic at the dinner table in some families!

    Your kids will get to talk about it ALL and ask questions and read and study. This is going to give them such an edge in life! Talk with your husband about how you want to present this to your kiddos, so that you are united in your approach and ready to tell them their experiences are all natural and okay.

    A word or two of warning: Geminis often have difficulty staying grounded in REAL LIFE. Don't get so strung out on your ASTRAL life that you neglect what you're doing here on Earth.

    You are at the beginning of a long journey to learn where your power really lies. Try to be patient with this process and take your time.

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