Leaning into the Light
It’s Sagittarius season, also known as the holiday season; the season of giving, of generosity. Astrologically, Sagittarius is ruled by the planet Jupiter. A planet and a season that is expansive is followed by winter; we move into Capricorn and Saturn’s consolidating energy. Jupiter expands, Saturn contains.
Tomorrow, December 18, we have our final New Moon of the year in Sagittarius, followed by the solstice 48 hours later. Both of these moments are opportunities for new beginnings and new intentions. The Winter Solstice is a profound turning point in the year, marking when the light begins to grow and we move into a new season. In the ancient world, the symbolic rebirth of the Sun was seen as the New Year.
Spiritually, Jupiter and Saturn are deeply connected to giving and receiving.
There is power in words, both their spelling and etymological roots. In modern language, how a word is spelled describes the letters in a word, its sound, and construction. However, the word spell's origins speak to both storytelling and magic.
Originally, stories like spells were always spoken out loud; they predate written language. Through sound, they carry vibration, which, according to modern physics, vibration isn't just back-and-forth motion but a fundamental concept describing how reality's building blocks (like fields and particles) behave, manifesting as energy, waves, and quantized states. Aligning with what many indigenous peoples have believed for millennia: The world is held together by sound.
Just consider the stories you tell both yourself and others again and again; they construct your world.
Both of the words, give and receive, have much deeper meanings than we usually consider, and ironically have the same Proto-European root “ghabh-also *ghebh-, Proto-Indo-European root meaning "to give or receive." The basic sense of the root probably is "to hold," which can be either in offering or in taking.
From there, there are subtle nuances (From etymology.com): Give is associated with "bestow, deliver to another; allot, grant; commit, devote, entrust.” Receive is to "take into one's possession, accept possession of.”
I often hear people say they are good and giving, but find receiving a challenge. Frankly, I believe all of us are challenged by both. And if you consider their roots, they are two different sides of the same coin. They are interconnected.
There is a vulnerability we often don’t consider in giving, even more so in being devoted to our gifts. Do we truly give of ourselves, or do we hold back out of a fear of being hurt?
What we often don’t realize is that we are the ones who aren’t receptive to our gifts, let alone our desires or dreams. We are unwilling to take them into our possession.
To be receptive is ”having the quality of receiving, acting as a receptacle.” In other words, we have to be able to contain our dreams (Saturn), we have to hold them. We have to own that they are ours rather than waiting for someone to give us permission to decorate the walls of our life with them. We have to take possession of them and treat them well.
Furthermore, if we aren’t receptive to ourselves, how can we possibly be receptive to others?
Why am I saying all this? We are at the time of year when we wish. What else are all those resolutions about?
My hope for you is that 2026 holds all that you dream of and more. I believe that creating our desires, manifesting them is a dance between us and the loving universe. And the universe always shows up; it mirrors what is actually emanating from us. which means that if our dreams aren’t manifesting, we are the ones not showing up.
So how do we begin to fully show up?
It begins with understanding what that means, recognizing, and honoring our gifts. And then compassionately, empathetically, practicing showing up for ourselves.
For years, while both working with and facilitating The Artist’s Way, I was great at doing morning pages, but the artist dates were my Waterlou, which I openly share with students. Through my practice, I profoundly understood that morning pages, in the end, teach us to compassionately witness ourselves. In other words, they are a practice in holding self-compassion while also truly seeing ourselves. If you are struggling with pages, meaning you don’t think they work for you even when you show up and do them, in essence, you are struggling with being willing to look into your heart and listen without judgment.
Even though I understood that artist dates were about play, I just didn’t seem to be able to crack the surface of them in the same way. Years ago, I began to be consistent with artist dates when I actively put them in my calendar and honored them in the same way I showed up for my clients. Canceling, unless I was very ill or had a true emergency, wasn’t an option.
In 2025, I finally had a true breakthrough, and it came through the intention I was holding throughout the year as part of a spiritual practice. ( This is part of the Crossroads in Consciousness Workshop). My intention this year was to honor myself. To embody honoring myself, I had to practice showing up for myself in a new way.
The funny thing about practicing an intention for an entire year the beginning is a seed which blooms over the course of the year. At the start, you might believe the seed is one thing, and through practice, it slowly reveals itself to you. That’s when everything begins to shift.
As Werner Erhard said, “Your life works to the degree you keep your agreements.” Throughout 2025, as a result of practicing my intention, I began showing up for things more fully, even if I found them intimidating. This is how I finally understood that the essence, the true core from a spiritual perspective, of artist dates is the practice of showing up for yourself.
Obviously, morning pages and artist dates aren’t the only way you can learn how to do these things. They are tools.
If we are to truly become skilled at both giving and receiving, we have to be open to doing so, and to do that, we have to fully understand what it means to do so.
We all have gifts; giving is the art of being devoted to them so that we can bestow them on others. To do that, we have to receive, be receptive (become a receptacle) to them.
For us to create the life we dream of, we long and hope that our belief in that vision has to be stronger than our belief in its impossibility. Achieving that is a moment-to-moment spiritual practice.
Visions are connected to “seeing the light.” This New Moon in Sagittarius, followed by the Winter Solstice, offers a profound opportunity to focus our vision and lean into the light of a new beginning.
