Setting Solstice Intentions

Text and photos by Jonathan Zap©

The Solstice is an auspicious time to consult the Zap Oracle as it is the most crucial turning point in the yearly calendar, the moment when the light principle expands and grows stronger. In the following I will provide step-by-step instructions on how to do a free reading that could transform your life in the new year. 

In the I Ching, this moment is reflected in Hexagram 24—Return/ The Turning Point.    

The hexagram consists of five broken lines (the Yin or dark principle), but in the first place (representing the new energy) is a single solid line (the Yang or light principle). The structure of the hexagram represents a turning point, where after darkness has maxed out, the light principle is just entering and will continue to expand.

In the cycle of day and night, this is inevitable, but in the life of the individual, it takes consciousness and work to make use of this cycle to nurture new light in your life. 

Relating this classic pattern of energy and change, The Return or Turning Point, to classic human situations:

Economic: (Collective) The first signs of economic growth after a depression or recession. (Individual) The first steps to get out of a financial hole.

Health: The turning point in an illness where health begins to return.

Career: The first steps toward doing intrinsically meaningful work after being weighed down by the choice or situational need to focus on extrinsic work that lacks meaningfulness.  

Interpersonal: The first signs of a return to peace, understanding, and goodwill in a relationship of conflict and estrangement. 

Intrapsychic: The first steps toward returning to your essence after a time of conditioning and estrangement from your soul. 

When it comes to our individual lives, this cycle means a time when the new light energy is still in a delicate state, requiring us to take actions to nurture it and give it a chance to grow. The image that occurs to me is of walking alone during a still night, bearing a lit candle, and being careful not to extinguish the flame. If we work with the cycle, there is an opportunity for the light of the turning point to grow. 

Here’s my suggestion to further this:

Do a Solstice reading on the always-free Zap Oracle.

 Note: The reading doesn’t have to be on the day of the Solstice; it could be before or after. If you don’t already have a free account, consider signing up for one, it will save all your readings for future reference. 

 Ignore the predefined card positions and use the following instead:

Card One: The Significator– this represents you in the reading, your hopes and fears, your potentials or problems you need to work on. 

If any of the cards are problematic, don’t be disheartened– remember the concept of the “golden shadow.” Sometimes, the darkest parts of ourselves and our lives hold hidden blessings and may reveal hidden talents and possibilities. 

Card 2: What needs to come more into the light in the New Year. This card invites new awareness of a possibility or problem and indicates an auspicious time to work with it. 

Card 3: What needs to expand in the new year? This indicates an opportunity for growth in the new year. It could be a positive possibility or a problematic area that will catalyze growth as it’s worked on.    

Once you’ve drawn all three cards, hit the button that says, “View themes for this reading.” 

This triggers Theme Tracker, a unique function of the Zap Oracle that will analyze your whole reading to look for archetypal themes, which it will display as a bar graph.

 

Click on any of the themes to learn more.

The message of this sundial at my house in Boulder is to do what you will remember well on your deathbed and expand it in the new year. Also, bring into the light of awareness any darkness in your life you won’t remember well (and we all have some) and work on reducing that in favor of the light you want to shine into the world. 

After doing a general life solstice reading, you can, if you wish, do Solstice readings on key life areas such as relationships and career. Then, write at least a one-paragraph summary of what you’ve learned and intend. 

I’ll use myself as an example. I did a general solstice reading and then a few more on key areas of my life, and they expanded my awareness of key area of darkness in I want to transcend–addiction to recognition.

“Look, I bear a wound that is not yet healed, my ambition to make an impression.”

                                              — C.G. Jung, Black Book 2

 In 2023, I completed a forty-five-year intention to write a sci-fi epic based on the Singularity Archetype which I discovered in the Spring of 1978. Sometimes, however, you can cross a hugely significant finish line and find there are no cheering crowds witnessing your accomplishment, but maybe a guy across the street walking his dog. I always knew that my work was not for the masses, but perhaps only a few key mutants. But a less mature part of me craves more. 

That craving is a key part of my shadow, but in Jungian psychology, there is also the concept of the “golden shadow,” a hidden blessing or talent with the shadow. I wish to transcend recognition addiction, but a valid transcendence always includes and integrates that which is transcended. 

My craving for recognition can be usefully channeled into making reasonable and socially useful efforts to draw attention to my work (like composing this newsletter). It’s not psychologically realistic for me to break free of recognition craving anytime soon, so I work on channeling it toward making those efforts and gently guide it away from its tendency to create doubt. 

To integrate my solstice readings, I wrote the following paragraph for me to use as a guiding star in the new year:

The craving for recognition (except to the extent it motivates reasonable efforts to spread my work) does nothing for others and demoralizes me. My job is to continue with my creative work and share it with those who can make use of it. There is no large or small against the backdrop of the infinite, and if it reaches and helps a few souls, which it certainly does, that’s eternally significant. Lack of wider recognition does not diminish my relationship with the creative muse and my seven-day-a-week writing sessions. I need to expand my creativity in the new year without anxiously checking for progress in recognition.

Finally, the last step in your solstice reading is to act on the intentions. For example, though I completed my highest intention of publishing Parallel Journeys, I continue my life mission with daily creative sessions. Recently, the muse insisted I address the potent connection between the Singularity Archetype and the AI revolution that is hurtling the species into the singularity zone right now. Parallel Journeys has already proven prophetic of part of this. 

 

Read or watch on YouTube: AI, the Singularity Archetype, and the High Possibility of an Impending Viral Apocalypse.

I was on Coast-to-Coast AM with George Noory talking about this recently, but hearing the archive of that show requires a paid subscription. Here’s a link to an interview I also did a show on the topic on the X Zone: https://www.spreaker.com/user/xzoneradiotv/2023-11-15-jonathan-zap

Currently, I’m revising and expanding the Zap Oracle. If you want to see the latest addition to the Zap Oracle see card # 665, In on the Joke? which is about the shadow side of joking about sex and the new norm—sexual promiscuity.      

Whether I actually write it or not is presently undecided, but I also have a 10,000-word synopsis for a continuation of Parallel Journeys. 

This Parallel Journeys jigsaw puzzle was completed last night.      

Note: You can read Parallel Journeys and my book on the Singularity Archetype, Crossing the Event Horizon, free on zaporacle.com. If you prefer physical books or the Audible version of Parallel Journeys, you can find those on Amazon. 

“A riveting and inventive novel within the science fiction genre but also stands on par with the best of American literature.” 

Art historian, Leah Montalvo from her review of Parallel Journeys.

Summon your energy, and use an active Warrior stance to persevere with your Solstice intentions.  

And don’t let winter get you down– I proved years ago that winter is a hoax. 

If you want to offer others a free solstice reading, use this link: Setting Solstice Intentions.

I’d love to hear from you. You can comment here or email [email protected]