We have a powerful solstice and Lunar pattern coming soon, and then some potent UnderWorld astrological alignments on the last night of December 1999. As you also know, there are further astronomical and astrological patterns in the year 2000 that are of deep long term significance. Sirius rises over the Great Pyramid in Egypt, first time in 4000 years, at midnight of December 30th.

    Whatever interpretation we put on all this, however many stellar events we add to the list, these are signs of deep change. Some of you will have already felt a growing unrest, discomfort, and sense of portent. Not out of worrying ideas or day to day fears like Y2K, but at a deep and often wordless level. This is due to the tides of change that are moving around us, into which our planet and solar system are moving, ever more deeply.

    I would like to offer some thoughts and suggestions for this Change. Firstly, be aware that Solstices are often times when the Inner Contacts fade. So do not be surprised if your inner work feels disrupted, cut off, or inactive. What happens is that during the Winter Solstice certain rhythmic tides of energy/consciousness that flow between our planet and the Sun reach (for us, relativistically) a low point, prior to building again in the Spring.

    While all of this makes sense in terms of Seasons, growth, planetary life forces and so on, please remember that it has its inner equivalent. This is why the Winter Solstice rituals involve lighting a flame and waiting. Not to "bring the Sun back" as ignorant reductionists have told us, but to hold the still small inner flame in readiness for the turning of the spiritual tides. Temples, religions, empires, traditions, all fade away. But the small inner flame is forever reborn, and so is changeless by being at the innermost heart of change.

    If your inner contacts, in any world, seem to fade away at this powerful solstice, with its Lunar alignments, fear not. The ones that you need for the next era will come back, though they may have changed, just as we will change.

    You may also find that there will be some wild and strange contacts around this time: they rise up from deep within the planetary consciousness, in response to stellar forces. Often they do not awaken for long, but my prediction is that a number of beings or modes of consciousness will surface that will remain open for the new era. It will take us some time to adjust to them, but they are part of our world, even though we have not met with them before.

    This winter is a time when cherished beliefs, inner resources, magical knowledge, and faith, will all be challenged. Because, for a while, things will stop working in the way we know, then begin again in a new way, or a mixture of old and new. (All the Y2K panic is a surface manifestation of this deeper truth).

    At a superficial level we will be letting go of some of our "certainties" and floating out into the Unknown. Do not be surprised if very specific spiritual or inner contacts that you are familiar with simply vanish, never to return. Other mentors, spiritual guides, and power-contacts will come: they always do. Letting go of inner contacts is part of our growing up, beginning to move into a spiritually adult world in which we acknowledge that All Things Change.

    Collectively humanity is beginning to emerge from the equivalent of the "teens" into a potential young adulthood. This may not be the first time we have reached this stage in the cycle, for it is a wheel, the Wheel of Life that turns as much for entire species as it does for one cell or one human.

So my basic recommendations are as follows:

1. Practice a Stillness meditation daily. Reaching into the Void, stilling Time, Space, and Movement.
   
   

2. At the Solstice, light a small votive light, and let it burn to Nothing. Then wait for some time, probably some hours, before you light a new one. Let the waiting time be defined inwardly, you will Know when it is time to light the New Flame. During the waiting time, practice your Stillness meditation. You may feel inspired to repeat this simple ceremony around midnight of New Year's eve, honoring the end of the old millennium and the beginning of the new. "They also serve who only stand and wait" is more than a poetic quote: it is a deep spiritual teaching.
   
   

3. If at all possible, avoid grand ceremonies or group workings around the Solstice and the end of the Millennium. There will be lots of those happening, and what is needed is for others, such as ourselves, to be quiet keepers of the eternal flame that is reborn through all changes. Unconditional working, opening the way for Perfect Peace.

    Be prepared to hold to this Stillness through into the Spring, for huge tides will be billowing around and within our world for the next 3-4 months. In fact, we will be within these new streams of consciousness/energy for a long long time, but for us the most acute adjustment phase will be in the early months of year 2000. After this the adjustments will sink to a deeper level within us, and we will be less obviously aware of them.

with love and good wishes to you all
R J Stewart

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