23.11 at night.  One day to another, how things can change.  One day the Sun is in Gemini, the next in Cancer.  One day the Moon is in Taurus, the next in Gemini.  It is the solstice, the times of highs and lows, when the hordes descend upon the stones and for a day semi-madness seems to rule the west and south of my country.  The timing is of 06.45 UK time, followed within two days by the new Moon.  New Moon and solstice happening this close to each other happens about one in fifteen - not uncommon.  But add to this Pluto opposite the solstice point and the new Moon, and a whole new level comes into play.  Pluto brings in the unconscious and subconscious element, the behind the scenes and underground, and the subterranean explosive.  This is a time symbolic of the compressed change that we are all under, where the pull between the Plutonian dark and the Solar light is at its most polarised.  Death and rebirth, endings and new beginnings, the transformation of the caterpillar to butterfly, and in times yet to be realised, the phoenix rising from the ashes.  It is solstice: the Sun is still.  Now we begin to come back into balance.