The True Meaning of “the Holidays”

by Samuel F. Reynolds

Among the “conscious” set, those “who are (supposedly) in the know about the cultural, social and political realities of the world,” there's a sharp cynicism about the holidays: it's too commercial; Christmas is a pagan holiday anyway; and it doesn't make sense to give at the end of the year when you can give all year long. These are all valid comments, and I'm not setting out to debate them. However, as an astrologer, it's fascinating to think about the “magical” correlation between the timing of the holidays and their astrological meanings.

For instance, take Thanksgiving. It's certainly true, at least in the United States, that the mythical first feast between Natives and early American settlers can't make up for the following 200 years of murder, destruction and mayhem against Natives. However, there's another way to look at why Thanksgiving might exist. Thanksgiving usually happens just as the Sun rolls into Sagittarius. As I discussed in the last issue of “The Seeker,” Jupiter is the ruler of Sagittarius and is known as “The Giving Planet.” It's absolutely fitting that as we emerge into the sign of The Giver that we celebrate by first giving thanks.

What's more, I've come to a recent “illumination” about giving thanks or gratitude that I'd like to share with you. Jupiter is one of the first planets an astrologer looks at to examine someone's “wealth” potential. It is THE planet of prosperity. However, Jupiter teaches us that wealth doesn't just come to us from getting or even giving. It comes to us from being grateful for what we have, even if some of the things we have appear to be negative. Why is this? I believe it's because the spirit of gratitude shows the Cosmos and the Divine that we are truly open, that we are ready to receive. You can't receive more if you're already pushing away at things with a bad attitude. It leaves no room for grace. When you push away with a negative attitude, it means that you've decided to be in control of everything given to you. This is not only impossible, but prevents other things from coming your way. In fact, in my observation, some of the poorest people I've met are also some of the least grateful.

In this sense, the Thanksgiving holiday, despite the negative history associated with it, is a perfect prelude to the spirit of giving that surfaces with Hanukkah, Christmas, Kwanzaa and Los Tres Reyes Magos. As the Sun journeys through Sagittarius with the tutelage of Jupiter, we should cultivate gratitude for the people in our lives and prepare to express in it action, through gift-giving. It's certainly true that we don't have to wait until the end of the year to do this. But holidays don't exist to demonstrate what we can't do any other time, but to jar our memories of what we can do and what does exist beneath the surface of our collective psyches.

No other other holiday captures that sense like Christmas. As some of you may or may not know, Christmas has been dubbed the modern transformation or transmogrification of the ancient holiday, Saturnalia. After being under the tutelage of Jupiter for 30 days in Sagittarius, the Sun moves into Capricorn at the winter Solstice to receive guidance from Saturn. This is a big deal. As the days have been getting shorter since the autumn equinox, it is at the solstice point when the length of night overtakes the length of day. Darkness appears to triumph over the Light. In some sense, you can say that the Sun dies. Then three days later, on December 25, it rises again and the light will start its slow march to balance against the darkness until it's victorious after the spring equinox!

This is the foundation of so many of our key savior myths, including the Christ story itself. However, like Thanksgiving, there's a much deeper lesson than its cultural, political and social origins. Saturnalia parallels Christmas very much as you can read from linked site above. However, there's one important feature that captures some sense of the beauty of Saturn. Saturn is a planetary signature that's almost the very opposite to Jupiter. It restricts, where Jupiter expands. It disciplines, where Jupiter gives license. It withholds, while Jupiter gives. Yet it is my favorite planet.

During Saturnalia, societal roles were often reversed: the slave would become the master and the masters, servants. Saturn, the proscriber of roles, would become the Great Equalizer. In true giving and in Divine grace, there is no status. You can give just as freely as you can receive. Likewise, the goodwill of Jupiter is transformed by Saturn, at this time, into the physical and concrete manifestation of gifts. Thanksgiving becomes the expression of truly giving thanks. In this sense, Saturn teaches us through the Sun's journey into Capricorn that giving is more than just a feeling. It requires some measure of sacrifice. (And remember that sacrifice, from its Latin roots, means “to make holy.”) It means sacrificing our sense of entitlement. It means sacrificing our boundless appreciation and gratitude into a tangible form, whether we make it ourselves or get it from a Hallmark store. It means the death of our collective egos, like the Sun, to accept more love and light into our lives. It means giving shape to what the heart might whisper a thousand times a day.

We could say then the holidays were created by the heavens themselves and those who listen to the story of the starry skies render them as holy days for us to remember the lessons these luminous bodies bode all year long. In ancient times, the ones who listened were the elite—priests, royalty and aristocrats. Now, any of us can listen and render our holidays as true holy days of remembering Gratitude, Grace and Giving.

Happy Holy Days!