Here in Quito, the days are warmer now, the skies blue and cloudless. We are experiencing “el veranillo de Niño” – the little summer of baby Jesus – a break from the rains that are usual at this time of year. We definitely can’t complain about the weather here.

By my side, at my desk, lies the newspaper, telling me that Europe is experiencing greater variations in climate than they’ve had in centuries. The photo shows icy landscapes and broken towers. So I feel that I’m living in a small, sacred bubble of beautiful weather.

Also in today’s paper, there’s also a story about the 15-year-old boy who has been meditating under a tree in Nepal for six months, without food or water and without moving. People are saying he’s a reincarnation of the Buddha.

It would make sense for a few avatars to show up these days, with the fixed cross still very strong during both of the new moons of December. The fixed cross covers the four basic archetypes - the human, the bull, the lion and the eagle – and represents the earth and all of physical manifestation. In the tarot deck, these four fixed signs - Taurus, Scorpio, Leo and Aquarius - surround The Wheel of Change.

We are all experiencing a certain slow-down these days, with these four fixed signs so heavily tenanted. Mars and Mercury have both been retrograde, and Venus is slowing down to go retrograde on December 24. So all the fast-moving planets are moving more slowly than usual, as December begins. By the end of the month, Mercury will have regained its usual quick clip.

The fixed cross itself slows things down, because all these signs struggle to maintain a certain static position. At the same time, there is great power for transformation, on a very basic level, in a fixed cross. These signs are all connected to radical change, because excess fixity causes upheavals. And all through December, these four will be in tight formation: Mars in Taurus, Jupiter in Scorpio, Saturn in Leo, Neptune in Aquarius. The Wheel of Change is grinding slowly but surely. The mighty fall, the earth moves, and it all happens in slo-mo.

There are two new moons in December, one on the 1st and one on the 30th. The first one is in Sagittarius, the most expansive and jovial sign in the zodiac. Every year, this new moon in Sagittarius ushers in the holiday season. Everybody gets festive, extravagant and a bit frenzied. Even George W. will probably feel pretty good, even though the fixed cross is not easy on him (as we’ve seen).

Then the full moon comes along on the 15th, and it occurs right only a degree away from Pluto’s position in Sagittarius. Things will get very intense at this point. This full moon occurs close to GW Bush’s nodes, and so he may find himself in trouble for a position that he’s taken or a belief that he’s fostered.

The nodes are karmic indicators, and they show that Bush has spent many past lives focused on competing and winning, rather than thinking and communicating. This is the imbalance that he is here to address, which is why he is always tripping over himself when he talks. And so the full moon may bring a situation which tests him, requiring him to see alternatives rather than just pushing ahead for an impossible victory.

The full moon could also be a time when hubris is punished. Pluto aspects bring up issues around power – true power and false power. Bush and the U.S. have a lot of power, but not total power. And so this is a time when we may all see what the limits really are. In Washington DC, the full moon occurs when the sun and Pluto are right at the top of the chart, and this makes me feel that a few heads may roll. I wonder whose they will be?

Every year in December, the sun moves from Sagittarius to Capricorn, from the most cheerful sign to the most weighty and burdened one. That boy who has been meditating for six months - if he’s 15, he was born when Saturn, Uranus and Neptune were all in Capricorn. I don’t know if Jesus was a Capricorn, as the song says, but it is a sign that is weighted down by a strong sense of responsibility.

Capricorn, the goat, is also the sign of the scapegoat, the one who takes on all the sins of the rest of us. Do we really want someone to do this for us? If Jesus did it a couple of thousand years ago, how well did that really work out? Have we all behaved flawlessly ever since? Perhaps we need to experiment with some other method.

In the paper, I read that all around this meditating boy, there are acres of litter. Thousands of people have come to see him and left their trash strewn everywhere. This seems to me like a clear indication that it doesn’t work to center divinity in another being. If a holy person takes away all sins, all responsibilities, so that you can’t even pick up your own trash, then where are you? Isn’t it time we stopped worshipping others so avidly and stood up on this earth we own?

Clearly, the Age of Saviors is over. We all must enter the Capricorn new moon with a sense of responsibility for each other and for the world. We are all hanging on the cross - the cross of fixed signs that stays steady all through December. We are all moving slowly on the Wheel of Change, recognizing that what is above will soon be below. We must all become enlightened.

Let this be our holiday gift to Mother Earth, to each other, to ourselves. Let there be no more sacrifices, no more dazzling millennial stars. We don’t need a god to come down in human form and rescue us. We need to look clearly and honestly within ourselves, and see the multitudes who inhabit our own souls.

Maybe this beautiful sunny day is a gift from Baby Jesus, who knows? But I would rather that baby, and all babies, grew up to walk among us, ordinary people among other ordinary people. Being ordinary, human and alive, is miracle enough for me.

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