With the first New Moon of the New Year bringing a Solar Eclipse, caution, restraint, and soulful reflection are advised. We may feel inspired to rush forward to put our dreams and New Year's resolutions into action, but the heavens tell us that for the next several weeks, strategic contemplation is key.  Mercury is stationing direct just after the New Moon, but Mars continues its retrograde motion—until it stations direct on March 10. As winged messenger of the gods, Mercury wants us to think of the future, but with cautious feet. Indeed, if we can resist the forward pull of everyday life, we can better realize the esoteric teachings embodied in Capricorn: the wisdom that comes with patiently abiding the ever-moving, ever-changing cycles of time.

To align with the rhythm of the planets this New Moon, you may wish to cultivate the quality of interiority and receptive waiting. One way to do this is to "think like a mountain" and attune to the consciousness of eternity as it is reflected in nature. Seated in quiet contemplation, for instance, bring to mind a stone on the bottom of a river. In your mind's eye, watch as it's jagged edges are polished to smoothness by the tides, whirlpools, rapids, and swift-moving currents of water over the ages.  Then, contemplate the great religious monuments and temples that have been forged from stone into edifices of timeless endurance: the Black Stone of Mecca that is an ancient meteorite; the Western Wall in Jerusalem, said to contain stones from both King Herod's and Solomon's temples; and Delphi, the ancient Greek sanctuary where a white stone covered the tomb of the sacred serpent. 

Next, imagine that you are standing at the base of a pyramid, that mysterious structure whose origins have long since passed out of human awareness. As you stand at the base of this massive stone monument, looking up at its face set against the blue sky, experience what it is like to feel as ephemeral as the grains of sand upon which it has been erected. The solid presence of the pyramid, its patient stance as sentinel over the passage of aeons and the rise and fall of civilizations, triggers in you an awareness of God's permanence and indestructability-as if infinity had been etched into stone. 

Recognize that this quiet, unruffled spirit of endurance is a part of yourself, as well. Like the mountain peaks that radiate a majestic calm, there is a part of your being that remains unmoving and unperturbed. Because stone symbolizes that which remains constant despite the changes and upheavals that characterize life in the world, many wise teachers over time  have taught that stone represents the incorruptible, everlasting aspect of the soul - that which endures with no destruction to its essential nature. 

So this New Moon, as you stand at the gateway of a New Year, recognize the value in the old alchemical adage "in your patience is your soul." For by becoming as steadfast and durable as a rock, a boulder, or a mountain in your spiritual faith, you can learn to withstand the struggles of everyday life. This way you unwrap the true gift at the heart of life: the realization that your soul is immortal as the medieval alchemist's Philosopher's Stone, or  brilliant as the diamond said to be identical with the Buddha's nature. By remaining constant and true to your higher destiny, you become like the prophets and priestesses of old, pillars of the temples of the Gods and Goddesses that stretches across time and space. 

And from all of us at MoonCircles, we wish you a blessed and fruitful 2010!