Are things as bad as they seem? Winter Solstice 2025
Read the press or scroll the news on your phone and you can be forgiven for thinking that we’re in apocalyptic times. No wonder there is so much anxiety, anger and depression around.
And yet, as Stephen Pinker, Johnston Professor of Psychology at Harvard, has posited on various occasions - things are no worse than they have been in previous eras, and in many ways are getting progressively better. Yes, wars are still raging, most politicians are ruthless and corrupt, climate change is wreaking havoc, and the rapid pace of technological change is unsettling.
My astrologer friends tell me that this year has seen some fairly extraordinary planetary and celestial activities. To take just December, there was a magnificent Supermoon early on, then we’ve had the interstellar comet 3iAtlas, that may be somewhere between 7 and 14 billion years old, make its closest connection to the earth yesterday, followed by a new moon prior to the Winter Solstice. Various other powerful planetary alignments that have taken place, or will be taking place in 2026, astrologers agree are not without significance for we humans here on planet Earth.
Throughout history and across different cultures importance is attached to the movement of the stars and the appearance of comets which have been regarded as omens of both good and evil.
I choose to think that they might be an omen for the quantum leap of consciousness that many believe is bringing higher states of awareness. I’ve long believed and written about this shift in consciousness.
In the recent Reith lectures by the Dutch historian, Rutger Bregman, he had much to say about the current state of our world, but ultimately reminded us that there is cause for optimism in that it doesn’t have to be the majority of the world’s population but small groups of people who can spark major change.
The worldwide movement of like-minded individuals who know that the old order is giving way to the new also are well aware that each of us can play a part in contributing to change. We have power, and we can use it in our daily lives to promote a message of peace, hope and love. An appropriate message for this season of festivity!
Have a wonderful festive season!
(The illustration above is ‘The Great Comet of 1882’, painted by the Mexican artist Jose Maria Velasco. Completed in 1910 - from sketches he made when he witnessed it - this haunting late work seems endowed with a mystical and prophetic quality.)