Solstice of Time Telling and Tending
on our Saturnian senses and signals
On moving into Capricorn season
How do we tell time? Like aside from the clock we're used to...
It is something we once truly were good at telling - communicating or inferring with our sense. To 'tell' time also implies that it is not fixed, but something we are in contextual relationship with.
Logically we know time isn't fixed, but how do we feel about it?
The pressures of capitalism and the reality of our unknown lifespans can bring up many adverse and uncomfortable feelings.
The myth of Saturn aka Kronos is also unsettling. Yet I wrote about a different perspective on the planet's archetypal energy in the Embodied Ecosystems Tarot & Oracle Deck Guidebook, for the Saturn-ruled World card:
Saturn resembles the limits of sight and sense, as the furthest planet in our solar system that can be seen with the naked eye.
Saturn is not the literal threshold or end, but one that we must work with to go beyond what is seen, known and sensed. Saturn also represents time; Kronos birthed the chronological - what could be related to as a supportive system in which we can rest and regulate our fluid and expansive nature, but has become in our current cultural contexts a literal chronic obsession with logic, attempting to replace any liminality.
We are so focused on human-made timelines - but what of different paces of time like that through a snail or tree’s eyes? What of time’s true origins - if we were to live by sunrise and set again, and let our weeks be told by the moon phase instead of calendar?
In the context of patriarchy and the stories related, he is a limiting ruler of control and constriction. But when we remember the root word of matter as mater (the maternal) we notice the compassion that can co-exist as life-giving contractions; the necessary forms and benevolent boundaries that can help us to better relate and co-create.
I share the full excerpt, prompts affirmation & time-lapse of my drawing process for the card here in my Patreon community.
On Solstice
If there is any natural transition in this time, it's the seasonal shift from autumn to winter (or spring to summer if you live in the Southern hem).
Solstice is a sensory shift, a sensitive time with holidays and the Euro-Christian-originated calendar that dominates most of our lives shifts into a new year.
In the seasonal context, Earth-based lineages, and other cultural and religious calendars, this is not the new year.
Regardless, this time like all is a continuation or another phase to pay attention to.
I've got this very obvious devotion to cycles that has been intuitive for me since I was young (and later found out is the title of my incarnation cross in Human Design).
This is what wants to be focused on this winter Solstice - the start of the season of deep, dark time…
I am devoted to telling time and observing cycles through the following practices:
emphasis on practices, because it's a continuous practice unlearning and remembering
noticing the moon's phases in the sky.
noticing what time the sets (and rises... but lets be real I'm never up that early - night owl here).
letting my rituals & workload shift with the changing seasons and daylight lengths.
letting them shift with my inner seasons too
practicing not being too obsessed with time blocks on my google calendar.
daily devotional rituals & routines with the phases of the day (I hosted a workshop on this you can get the replay for here).
practicing not shaming myself for also needing to work within the framework of days, weeks, and months our society functions within.
tracking my body, mind & spirit's cycles as regularly as I can in my Cycles Journal.
letting my menstrual cycle dictate when I slow down, do less and say no more.
observing my dream cycles and what symbols and patterns revisit in which contexts yeah, of COURSE I made a tracker for that too lol.
being more consistently aware of astrological transits beyond the moon & sun...
So... some prompts for you to ponder:
What helps you tell time beyond the clock?
How do the natural cycles of time tend to you?
How do you want to shift your relationship with time?
Sending you lots of love, grace & care this Solstice and holiday season.
Remember your Saturnian boundaries when you need to - the beauty of it all is we can benefit from structure while flowing with the phases and cycles.
Grounded in Gratitude,
Rachael Amber
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p.s. all this and I still make an annual cycle tracker - yes! Because I honor the both/and/all.
If you want support in honoring and following through with your goals and desires - whether it’s for the new year or not - my Rituals of Devotion not Discipline workshop is just $19.