The Astrological Symbolism in A Christmas Carol w/ Astrologer Christopher Renstrom

Listen here:

Astrologer Christopher Renstrom reveals the secret astrological symbolism in Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol

On this episode, you’ll learn…

🌑What inspired Christopher to speak about the Astrological Symbolism in “A Christmas Carol.”
🌒How Charles Dickinson single-handedly resurrected Christmas with his short story, “A Christmas Carol.”
🌓The rich Astrological symbolism hidden in the characters’ names and scenes of “A Christmas Carol.”

🎇 Are you ready to embark on a magical journey that transforms your year ahead? Join us in the ’12 Days of Solstice Challenge’ presented by Astrology Hub. This free, 12-day challenge offers daily videos, insightful astrological themes for each lunar cycle, personalized intention-setting practices, and a supportive community. Plus, there’s a chance to win exciting prizes! Start co-creating your incredible year now. Sign up at https://astrologyhub.com/solstice

Transcript:

[00:00:00]

Introduction and Invitation to the Astrology Hub

Hi there, astrology lover. My name is Amanda Walsh, and I’m the founder of Astrology Hub. And today I invite you to cozy up with your favorite beverage and gather around our virtual campfire for an astrologically inspired holiday story time with astrologer, author, and historian Christopher Brenstrom. In this episode, which aired last December and quickly became a holiday treasure, we delved into Charles Dickens classic, A Christmas Carol, unraveling the hidden astrological elements woven into its narrative.

We examine the profound connections between the characters, their actions, and the celestial influences that Dickens brilliantly encapsulated in his timeless tale.

So this episode is perfect for you if you enjoy taking an archetypal approach to astrological themes, finding astrological significance in movies, literature, and life. It’s also perfect for you if you yearn to connect [00:01:00] with magic in depth.

Unveiling the 12 Days of Solstice Challenge

And finally, if you just love Christopher’s storytelling and perspective, and in the spirit of merging our love of astrology and this holiday season, I’m thrilled to extend an invitation to you for our first annual 12 Days of Solstice Challenge.

It’s free and open to anyone who would love to begin the new year with intention and purpose helping you close out the chapter of 2023 and open the new doors of 2024. Feeling inspired and confident about the year ahead. I’m so thrilled to be facilitating this 12 day journey for you where we’ll explore the 12 lu nations of 2024 each representing a Zodiac sign.

Each day you’ll receive a short video from me introducing the universal energy of the zodiac sign and guiding you through an intention setting process. Inspired by the zodiac sign. It is my hope that your participation in this challenge will enable you to glide into the new year with more purpose [00:02:00] and passion than ever before.

Go to astrologyhub. com slash solstice to learn more and join us today. We’ll also put the link in the description of this episode. All right, so as we the astrological symbolism in Charles Dickens A Christmas Carol, let’s open our hearts to the enduring messages it carries and the astrological guidance it offers for the times ahead.

Enjoy, and I’ll look forward to connecting with you on the solstice.

Welcome to the astrology hub podcast. I’m Amanda Poole Walsh, founder of astrology hub and your host for our flagship show. We explore the many ways astrology can support you and your relationships, career, health, and personal growth. Thanks for tuning in.

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All right. [00:03:00] Happy holidays, everybody.

Introduction to the Astrology Hub Podcast

And welcome to the astrology hub podcast. Today we have a special Christmas special episode. We’ve been talking about that behind backstage with our beloved astrologer and horoscope columnist here at astrology hub, Christopher Renstrom. I think Christopher reached out to me in the summer.

Yeah.

Discussion on Astrological Symbolism in A Christmas Carol

And said, Amanda, what do you think about doing an episode on the astrological symbolism in a Christmas carol around the holidays? And I went, Oh my gosh, yes, we have to do that. We have to do that. That sounds so fun. So that’s what we’re doing here today. Christopher is going to be unpacking this astrological symbolism that is in Charles Dickens, Dickens.

Christmas carol. But if it’s possessive, Dickens

Thank you. Yes, so we’re gonna be doing that here very shortly. So Christopher, [00:04:00] what inspired you to want to do this? Let’s start there. What inspired me to want to do this is that a Christmas Carol is my favorite. It’s like my favorite Christmas time, um, um, story and also, well, I’m born.

Two days before Christmas. So, so I have a, I have a love of the holiday, but I was always impressed as a kid by the moral tales around Christmas, whether it’s the Grinch who stole Christmas, a Charlie Brown Christmas. Um, it’s a wonderful life, which I think is an extraordinary, uh, that would be a fun one to unpack one day.

And also, you know, a Christmas carol, which was such a special one to me. And when I was a child, my mom used to read. And we had a good night story. And so I remember like every Christmas, she would bring out a Christmas carol and she would read it. And she would do all the voices, God bless her. It was just, it was just so [00:05:00] marvelous.

Actually, she did it over a succession of evenings because, you know, even though it’s a short story, it could be, but she would do them in segments and leave us hanging, you know, as to the, and, and it was just such a wonderful thing. And so, um, You know, earlier this year, I was really struck by the astrological symbolism that’s at work in A Christmas Carol, and I was thinking, wouldn’t it be kind of wonderful to sort of unpack the story in terms of like, not really a horoscope reading, but in terms of what was going on, what the astrological motifs are, and even what was going on in the sky at that time, and we’ll get to that shortly, but One of the things that was really special to me as an astrologer, um, is The stories that the charts tell, but also you can discover astrology in places that aren’t astrological.

You know, you can discover astrological symbolism or motifs or something along those lines in, in, in [00:06:00] paintings, you can discover them in songs, you can discover them in poems, and you can discover them in stories. And we’re now going to discover a Utah sunset, which is taking place in Utah. But, um, so in case you’re noticing this dramatic effect for the storyteller, well, this is because the clouds have parted, but it’s been clouding all day.

And so now we’re going to have the sunset. So I don’t know how much of one we’ll have or whatever, but get lots of sun in Utah. Okay. So, so, so that’s what I really wanted to share with everyone is like, you can sort of set up an astrological lens, which isn’t astrological chart. Specific, you know, and so you can enjoy a film or a television series or something and be like, oh, this is very mercurial or there’s a jupiterian motif for, you know, there’s a bit of Mars here or something like that.

And it really kind of. Unpacks and unfolds it and gets you to sort of appreciate astrology, I think, in a very new and, and, and deep and, and, and even enriched way. Definitely. Christopher, do you think [00:07:00] Charles Dickens, do we have any, any indicator that he was aware of the astrological symbolism? I doubt it.

I doubt it. Although, it’s tempting when you look at how the symbolism shows up, but I think like on an archetypal level, on a motif level, certainly with Dickens love of, History. And of, uh, religion, his education, his love of stories and storytelling. Uh, he was, I don’t know if everyone knows this, but he was an enormous fan of, uh, Washington Irving, the American, uh, writer who gave us Rip Van Winkle, you know, I mean, so, so I think his love of those motifs and storytelling sort of brings in.

This idea, but no, I don’t think, uh, I don’t think he really had much of, of an understanding or, or, or I don’t know, maybe interest in astrology. I mean, there were certainly astrological almanacs being published in Britain at the time that, that he was, that he was writing. So, you know, there might’ve been a passing fancy type of thing, but I wouldn’t be ready [00:08:00] to call him an astrologer or anything like that.

Okay. Well, let’s dive in. Where do you want to start with this? Okay.

The Historical Context of A Christmas Carol

Well, what I like to start with, what I want to start with. is that Charles Dickinson’s A Christmas Carol single handedly resurrected Christmas, okay, um, in England. And then it goes from there, you know, the Christmas that we sort of like know, you know, we have these sort of Victorian Christmas motifs and images in mind with children, muffs and sleigh and things like that.

And it’s kind of like this, like, like Fairytale, Victorian esque, you know, type of thing. Um, but it’s Charles Dickens who single handedly resurrects that with his short story. Um, Christmas was huge in England earlier in its history. Like, King Henry VIII was an enormous fan of Christmas. And there were 12 days of Christmas in which you had 12 different activities or things that you did to, to celebrate.

The holiday. Um, [00:09:00] it was known that the Christmas tree was very pagan and, you know, all these sorts of things, but it was very much connected to the country, you know, to to people outside of urban environments. And indeed, that’s where the spirit of Christmas. was preserved until about Dickinson’s time. Um, it wasn’t really celebrated in the cities, but out in the country it was very well known.

But the Puritans came along in the 1600s and basically quashed Christmas in England. Uh, Puritans were big on spoiling everybody’s party. Okay, so, and they sort of like come along and, and in the 1600s they quashed Christmas. Most people think it’s because they had, you know, sent the pagan, you know, undertones of that.

Yuletide and the holly and the Christmas tree and things like that. But in reality, it was Christmas is association to the pope and to the Catholic Church. Okay. And so they really, they were on a campaign to really sort of wipe out Saints and Saint references and they were on a campaign to really sort of wipe out Christmas.

They saw Christmas as as radical. You know, [00:10:00] um, and so really by about the late 1600s, 1700s, Christmas isn’t really a thing in, in, in England anymore. And then you have the rise of the Industrial Revolution and factories are kept open right through Christmas, you know, like no one thinks twice about it, you know, there’s no, you know, um, and, and, and this is something that Dickens actually returns to if you’re familiar with A Christmas Carol, you know, this kind of like insensitivity to the spirit.

of, of the season, which is, you know, a spirit of people and a spirit of country and a spirit of, of, of nature, you know, which is ultimately, uh, uh, what’s been lost here. And so, um, what was Fascinating about this is that, um, and, and, and we know Charles Dickens, I mean, Charles Dickens is kind of like one of the great prolific writers.

I mean, he’s Shakespeare, basically, you know, and, and, and you may know Adventures of Oliver Twist, Great Expectations, Nicholas Nickleby, um, Tale [00:11:00] of Two Cities, Old Curiosity Shop, but if you took away all those books, if you had never read a single book by Charles Dickens, You know, Christmas Carol, because that’s his, that’s, that’s, that’s the book.

And what’s interesting about it is that, um, you know, people think, Oh, it’s his most famous novel, but it’s not a novel. It’s a short story is, is, is what it is. And he had to write it very quickly. Um, he was a very prolific writer. He writes a Christmas Carol during his first Saturn return. Okay. So he’s between the ages of 28 and 30.

He’s, he’s, he’s enjoying this fame. Oliver Twist had come out, a number of books had come out. Um, At that time, um, a lot of people sort of learn in grade school like he was paid by the word, but that’s not the case. He was paid by installment, and what it was is that he would write an installment, a chapter of a book.

It would appear in newspapers and magazines, and that’s how he got paid. So he didn’t have to wait on royalties, which could take months or even a year or so before that started coming on in. So he [00:12:00] had written this, this, this. collection of stories, which was going to be a novel, Martin Charles Owett, and it was a bomb.

Okay. It, it bombed. It was, everyone’s like, this is awful. I don’t want to read this. No one was buying it. So his income shriveled up really, really quickly. And Dickens, having been born into a just about middle class family, But by the time he was 13, his father had fallen upon hard times and was taken to debtor’s prison.

So, um, and debtor’s prison is basically, okay, you have a credit card right now, right? Okay, back then you didn’t have credit cards. Okay, and so let’s say you over max your credit card or something like that. Maybe you switch to another credit card, another credit card, you know, to sort of balance out your credit.

Back in Dickens time, you go over your credit limit and you can’t pay, and your possessions gets hauled off to debtor’s prison, and you’re put into prison until someone you know can come up with the money to bail you out. Wow. Yeah. So it was that, like, [00:13:00] absolute. And let’s say you didn’t have family. Let’s say you didn’t know anyone.

Let’s say you were a person of meager means. You were in debtor’s prison. ad infinitum, or you were transferred to a workhouse, which is where people who weren’t making a sufficient living were housed to go to work and pay back their debt. Okay, so this is a very, um, relentless and unforgiving when it comes to finances time and so Dickens is 13 when his father is hauled off to debtor’s prison and that marked him that marked him for life, you know, um, and and and he never he never got over that now Dickens the writer.

He’s an Aquarius. Okay. So he’s very flamboyant. He dresses in the style, which is the style of the dandy. It’s like, you know, right before Oscar Wilde, you know, type of thing. And it’s very flamboyant type of look and longish hair and all these sorts of things. Um, but underneath, he was still like that 13 year old kid.

And so Martin Chesawitt tanks. Okay. It, it, it, [00:14:00] Does not sell. And so he’s like, he, he, he, he can’t keep up with the revenue and he’s flipping out. And his agent says to him, why don’t you write a story about Christmas? And he’s like, what? And he’s like, you know, why don’t you write a story about Christmas? And he’s like, no, one’s going to buy a story about Christmas.

And he’s like, I don’t know, give it a go, you know? And so he’s like, well, I love Christmas and, and yes, yes. I’ll write about a story. I’ll write a story about Christmas. So into a Christmas Carol comes, you can see right off the bat. The financial anxieties, his look at society, the unforgiving, the unforgiving nature of this very urban city environment, which is London, you know, and this really kind of sets the stage for, for the book that, um, for, for the story that’s going to emerge.

So what you need to know is that Dickens is an Aquarius, which we know is a sign that socially conscious. Okay, which is in all of his writings, uh, whether it’s Oliver Twist, Bleak House, um, you know, that, that social [00:15:00] conscience that appeal to the better part of people and, and their, um, relationship to society is very, very strong.

The Astrological Significance of A Christmas Carol’s Publication

He’s an Aquarius. He’s born in February, 1812. Um, and the other thing to keep in mind as we, you know, sort of unpack and talk about this today is that Aquarius is a Saturn ruled sign, just like Capricorn. That’s something a lot of people don’t always remember because of the modern rulerships and Uranus being seen as the co parent of Aquarius.

And in some texts, people will get rid of Saturn altogether and just make Aquarius. Uranus, you know, sort of thing, but here we are at the time that, uh, Dickens is writing and Aquarius is still very much a Saturn ruled sign. And it is to this day. Okay. So, as I said, he writes a Christmas Carol during his Saturn return.

And as you know, a Saturn return. It’s really like a rite of passage, you know, it’s the big question and you know, what am I going to be when I grow up in your life and it’s when you [00:16:00] leave childhood things behind and you become an adult and oftentimes with the Saturn return, you’re tested with something that really sort of sends a chill down the spine of your horoscope, you know, that makes you wonder, am I up to this or can I rise to this and and that’s part of Thank you.

The growing pains of the Saturn return. So here we have the revisiting of the fear of poverty. You know, is he going to be, you know, I mean, I’m sure he was not going to be dragged off to debtor’s prison, but he was very much seized by that panic. Okay. When he’s, when he’s writing this story. Um, so we’re going to want.

To keep in mind, Saturnian themes as we get into a Christmas carol, okay, because they are all over the place. But what’s also really fascinating, you know, when I was really starting to do some research into this is that a Christmas Carol is published on December 19th. December 19th, 1843. So Christmas Carol is published on, [00:17:00] uh, December 19th, 1843.

So you could almost regard that as the horoscope or the birth date of a Christmas Carol. What’s fascinating is that it is published under similar skies that we are living under now. Okay. It is published under similar, similar skies that we’re living under now. So in other words, In 1843, Saturn had conjoined Jupiter a year before.

Okay, Saturn had conjoined Jupiter in January of 1842. And so as we’re doing this broadcast right now, pretty much I think we’re one year away. I think I was to the date of the Saturn, uh, Jupiter conjunction. Okay. It was the 20th, wasn’t it? Last year? Yeah. Yeah. So, so A Christmas Carol is published one year to the date.

Of a Saturn Jupiter conjunction. Okay. Um, in Capricorn, um, at the time of the publication, Jupiter was an Aquarius just like it is [00:18:00] right now. Okay. Jupiter is an Aquarius right now. Jupiter was an Aquarius when A Christmas Carol is published and A Christmas Carol appears just 2 days, just 2 days before a solar eclipse in Sagittarius on December 21st, 1843.

And as you know, if you’ve been following Astrology Hub, we’re winding up an eclipse cycle that’s been going on between the zodiac signs of Gemini and Sagittarius. Wow. I have chills. This is fascinating. Okay. That’s why I wanted to present it, you know, Christmas this year, because I was like, what are the chances of that?

You know, I didn’t realize that this year it’s even more special and significant. Like right now, this is another time we could have done this podcast. Wow. Yeah. Yeah. So it’s under similar skies. What are the chances of that astronomical as we know? Very rare as we know. And [00:19:00] so, and so that’s again why I wanted to sort of present it because, you know, I’m kind of thinking maybe it has things to say, you know, it always has things to say, but there’s something about the timeliness.

And with astrology, we’re always talking about the timeliness of, of the information or what is occurring in your life. So the novel starts really bluntly.

The Character Analysis of Ebenezer Scrooge

Okay. The novel starts with Marley was dead. Okay. That, that, that’s, uh, that’s how it begins to begin with. There is no doubt, whatever about it. The Register of Marley’s burial was signed by the clergyman, the clerk, the undertaker, and the Chief.

Mourner Scrooge, his business partner signed it and Scrooge’s name was good upon the exchange. That’s a reference to the London stock Arc, uh, a stock exchange. It was good upon the change, the exchange for anything he chose. to put his hand to. So that’s how the novel begins. It begins with the absolute irrefutable fact that Marley is dead.

Okay. And, [00:20:00] um, in fact, it even ends the paragraph with old Marley. He’s old like Scrooge was as dead as a doornail. Okay. So that’s how dead Marley is at the beginning of this, of this story. Uh, the novel then goes or the short story then goes on to inform us that the only person who attended Marley’s funeral was his business partner, Scrooge.

Okay, nobody else came because nobody else liked Marley, but Scrooge, but Scrooge is so cheap that he never takes Marley off the door of their business. It still says Scrooge and Marley and, um, and, and, and to that day, anyone coming in will, you know, be like, am I talking to Scrooge or Marley? So the 2 of them are almost kind of interchangeable.

This, this Scrooge and Marley, um, but what’s fascinating, uh, cause he makes this comment to one of the church ward wardens who’s meeting with him at the beginning of this novel, Marley is dead seven years to the day of the start of, of this short story, a Christmas Carol. And of course, when you [00:21:00] hear seven, you know, Saturn.

Okay. Because Saturn is, is the planet of, of seven year cycles and Saturn is the seventh day. Okay. Of, of, of the week is, is, is Saturn. Okay. Um, so people are always confusing Scrooge with Marley. Scrooge actually answers to both names. Um, and here, I just want to sort of note very quickly, Charles Dickens has an extraordinary gift with names and a lot of decoding Dickens’s literature can be done.

With the names. Now, he prided himself on the invention of names that would stay in the reader’s mind, you know, as they read a character. Names like Ms. Havisham, you know, if you remember her from Great Expectations, it’s Havisham, it’s Scandal that has left her, you know, with this uneaten wedding cake, and you know, so her name is Ms.

Havisham. There’s Uriah Heap. The Artful Dodger, Little Nell, [00:22:00] Madame Defarge, knitting as she’s waiting for the next head to get lopped off the guillotine in Tale of Two Cities. So, so Dickens really prides himself on these names leaving character images, you know, sound images in, in the reader’s mind. Um, so if you couldn’t remember the character, you always remembered the name with Dickens.

What’s fascinating though is the name Ebenezer Scrooge, okay? Because Ebenezer… And you have to remember at this time in London for someone like Dickens, there’s a great, uh, you know, the Bible is is a teaching tool, you know, there’s there’s great familiarity with with the Bible. Um, Ebenezer comes from a camp, the name of a camp, uh, that Israel set up actually Israel, the nation of Israel sets up a camp beside Ebenezer, which is a location, okay, in preparation for a battle against the Philistines.

Now, during this time During this time of this battle, Israel had once again [00:23:00] backslid into idol worship. I mean, if you read the Old Testament, Israel is always going in and out of idol worship. You know, it’s like we have a God, but now we have to have false gods. And now they’re always in trouble with God.

And God’s always coming and calling them back and all these sorts of things. But Israel had slid back into its worship of false idols yet again. And in that spirit, they had sent for the Ark of the Covenant. Um, with the expectation that it would make their camp invulnerable to the Philistines who were like.

Saber rattling. Um, and at first, the Philistines were intimidated, you know, that the Ark of the Covenant had arrived, but, um, they rallied. They were like, okay, we can, we can beat this. We’re better than this. And they defeated Israel in battle and in the defeat, even wrote off with the Ark of the Covenant.

So Ebenezer was remembered as a place of bitter regret and disappointment by Israel. Um, and the fault is of Israel was having put its faith in Israel. In false idols, rather than in [00:24:00] God. Okay, they had inflated the Ark of Covenant to God itself and there was a false idol. So here we get the introduction, even with the name Ebenezer of a false idol, which comes, which is a motif that runs through a Christmas carol.

Um, Scrooge. Is from the colloquial word, is from a colloquial word, which means to crowd or squeeze. Okay, it also comes from screw, which means a sharp bargainer or a skinflint. Screw can also refer to being cheated out of something. And Scrooge is famous on. The exchange, which is London’s version of the New York Stock Exchange, Scrooge is famous for, you know, driving hard bargains and squeezing every single penny out of something.

You know, the phrase, he screwed me out of this comes out of Scrooge. So, Scrooge is a miser who drives a hard bargain. And in fact, one of Scrooge’s Marley’s funeral roll. Transcribed [00:25:00] Is the deal that he struck with the coffin maker, right? So it’s like, you know, so, so this is in his bones. This is being, um, and so he’s an infamous character.

This Ebenezer Scrooge, um, Dickens describes Scrooge as in the text. Oh. But he was a tight fisted hand at the grindstone. A squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous old sinner. Hard and sharp as flint, from which no steel had ever struck out a generous flame. Secret and self contained and solitary.

The cold within him froze his old features, nipped his pointed nose, shriveled his cheek, stiffened his gait, made his eyes red and his thin lips blue. And he spoke out shrewdly in his grating voice. He carried his own [00:26:00] low temperature around him always. He iced his office in the dog’s days of summer, and it didn’t thaw one degree at Christmas.

And that’s Dickinson’s remarkable description of Ebenezer Scrooge. But what I wanted to compare it to is, um, Abu Ma’ashar’s description of the children of Saturn. That is, people born under the zodiac signs of Capricorn Aquarius. And this comes from 800 CE. And Abu Ma’ashar says, with regard to Saturn, this is a quote, with regard to Saturn, his nature is cold.

Dry, bitter, black, dark, and harsh. He presides over measuring things, over avarice, over guile, craftiness, fraud, disloyalty, harmfulness, over being withdrawn into himself, over loneliness and unsociability. He is [00:27:00] scarcely ever angry, but when he becomes angry, he is not master of himself. He wishes… No one. Well, he further presides over old men and misers.

Unquote. Okay, remarkable. Yeah. Yeah. Just sort of like, I mean, think for a moment about that juxtaposition of the description of Scrooge and then, you know, a description of Saturn, which is written centuries. Before this, before this short story comes out. So what’s being set up here with Scrooge is this, the, uh, Saturnian temperament.

Okay. Um, now at the beginning of the story, we know the story for the three ghosts, right? The ghost of Christmas past, the ghost of Christmas present, and the ghost of Christmas future, but threes. are a very, um, popular motif in, in, in storytelling. Um, and, and so at the beginning of the story, Scrooge has three encounters that foreshadow what’s to come later on in, in the story.[00:28:00]

The first one is a meeting with his nephew, Fred, who comes bounding into his office and who invites his uncle Scrooge to Christmas dinner, knowing full well that Scrooge will not accept. Okay. So, so when they describe the difference, okay, between the two of them, Fred is like, solar. Okay. He’s like a Leo.

Fred has a golden presence, golden hair, you know, he’s full of cheer and joy, you know, and he keeps returning, even though he knows his uncle’s going to turn him down every Christmas to invite him to Christmas. And he gets the same bah humbug, you know, speech, the same old crutchy, you know, I’m not going to your house for Christmas.

And I’m not going to socialize with your wife who hasn’t a penny to her name. And you married her for love. And that’s their old argument that he married for love and not money. And so Scrooge. You know, who has kind of been the foster uncle or whatever, the nephew, just never forgave his nephew for marrying love and just, you know, whatever.

But his nephew is bright and sunny, you know, in direct proportion [00:29:00] to Scrooge’s cold and, and, and sternness. So, so that’s the first thing, you know, the nephew comes in and invites him to Christmas. The second. Meeting or encounter in this 1st part of the story is with 2 church wardens who come in petitioning for the poor.

They’re asking for money for donation, charitable donation to the poor. Um, and and the, um, and the 3rd is with his clerk, which interesting in this part of the short story, uh. Remains nameless. Okay. We, we will later learn that the name of his clerk is Bob Cratchit, but, you know, at first is nameless. So, as I said, you know, the, the 1st thing is, is the nephew inviting him to Christmas and he’s like, I’m not going to go.

The 2nd, 1 is the church wardens asking for money for the thousands of people and want of common comforts this holiday season and Scrooge’s response to them is. Are there no prisons are there no work houses? You know, [00:30:00] and they’re like, yes, yes, there are prisons and workhouses, but they don’t want to go there.

And he’s like, well, why not? You know, it’s a, it’s a, it’s a, it’s a shelter. It’s a place to go. They haven’t given anything. Why not? Okay. So, so it’s like, they’re horrified. They’re just like, it’s Christmas. And he’s like, and, you know, and so they turn on their heels and leave. And what’s interesting is that workhouses.

And prisons and debt are all under the auspices of Saturn. Again, that’s, that’s, that’s as old as the medieval period. Um, and finally, the last encounter for that day before Christmas, before Bob Marley shows up, was with Bob Cratchit, uh, where he has the famous exchange. He turns to Bob Cratchit and he says, you know, because this is Christmas Eve, uh, he says, You’ll want all day tomorrow.

I suppose, asks Scrooge. And Cratchit says, if, if quite convenient, sir. And Scrooge is like, it’s not. convenient, and it’s not [00:31:00] fair, and if I was to stop half a crown for it, you’d think yourself ill used, I’ll be bound, and the clerk smiles faintly, and he says, and yet, you don’t think me ill used when I pay a day’s wages for no work, and the clerk observed that it was only once a year, it was Christmas, and Scrooge says, a poor excuse for picking a man’s pocket every 25th of December, But I suppose you must have the whole day.

Be here all the earlier on the day that follows. I mean, it’s really like, you know, Merry Christmas, Creepo. So, so, so Bob Cratchit, you know, leaves, you know, and Scrooge like, you know, pulls his coat around him, goes and has his regular dinner, which is. Gruel. By the way, he has gruel every night. And if you remember Oliver Twist from high school, that’s exactly what Oliver Twist eats.

When he’s like, pizza, can I have some more? And Bumble’s like, more? So it’s like gruel. And [00:32:00] here’s like Scrooge, who’s like, you know, got all this money in the world or whatever and prides himself on squeezing every penny or whatever. And he treats himself to gruel, you know, every single night. So after his Christmas Eve dinner of gruel, Scrooge heads home, um, now Dickens describes Christmas Eve as dark and foggy and you can’t see anything.

It’s shadows of people who, who are walking by. And Scrooge makes his way home after his gruel, his gruelish dinner. And um, he arrives at the home and he notices the knocker, you know, there’s a knocker at the door and um, it’s rather unremarkable, but all of a sudden he glances at it and it’s Has the features of Bob Marley, and he looks at it again, and it’s back to the knocker again, and he’s thinking, well, that’s odd.

And he’s remember he is like, oh, yeah, Bob Marley died 7 years of the day today.

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what’s interesting here is the presence of Marley astrologically the, the entrance and the point of Marley Marley. We can sort of interpret as the planet Mercury. In the story of a Christmas Carol, um, because as [00:34:00] you remember, Mercury is named after the Roman God of messages.

Alright, and uh, mercury. Mercury is the only God who can travel from heaven to Earth to hell and back again. Uh, mercury is the God of buying and selling. And indeed the Latin root of Mercury is Merck, where we get the words merchant and merchandises and what have Bob Marley and Scrooge done. But you know, there are about.

They’re all about buying and selling and, you know, working with, with merchandise and, and, and working out these deals and sort of things. But finally, and something to keep in mind here, Mercury is the God of thresholds. Okay. So, so he is literally crossing over threshold from this world into what he thinks is the home, but we know is going to be the other.

Other world. Okay. And, um, and indeed, as he walks up the stairs, he’s he’s feels like there’s the shutter of ghosts or supernatural presences and things like this. And he’s like, [00:35:00] you know, he continues his walk up these these very dark stairs. And what I also, um, you know, so so Mercury thresholds when we pass from here to there, um, or inside.

To outside, that’s a threshold. So Mercury rules over that rules over all transitions where we go from one place to the next. This is why Mercury is the guide. Um, but also what I found fascinating is that the face of a horoscope chart is the ascendant, you know, and here he’s faced with the face of Marley and he and Marley are often mixed up for 1 another.

So there’s this mercurial. If you think of Gemini, the twins element that’s coming in and Charles Dickens is indeed, um. A Virgo rising, uh, with a very prominent Gemini at the top of this chart, you know, so this kind of twinning thing, uh, sort of shows up.

The Arrival of Marley’s Ghost

So, uh, so here we go, um, into the last part of sort of like the background of Marley before he makes his appearance.

It’s Marley as Mercury and [00:36:00] Mercury as Psychopompous, the guide of the spirits of the dead. Mercury comes to you at the hour of your death. And, um, takes your soul out of its body and into the underworld. That’s, that’s one of Mercury’s duties. And so it’s the Sacred Pompous. It’s not, not only Mercury, the guide of the living, but Mercury is the guide of souls.

Um, so Marley’s ghost appears to Scrooge, uh, you know, Scrooge. You know, sitting there with his candle and maybe going over his accounting books or something like that. And he hears this bang and this, you know, this, this climbing, someone’s in his house and someone’s climbing up the stairs of his house and he’s completely terrified.

And he’s, he’s, he’s, he’s, uh, he’s, he’s frozen still to the spot, you know, and the door opens and there is revealed Bob Marley. Okay, just as he had died. Okay, he’s phantasmal. Um, Scrooge refuses to believe his eyes, but he has to believe the fact that he can see through the apparition [00:37:00] of Bob Marley. Um, and but what’s so fascinating is Bob Marley has this bandage that’s wound around his head.

And holds his jaw closed. And he’s carrying this, this, um, Dickens says it’s a long chain clasped around his middle that wound about him like a long tail. And it is a chain made up of cash boxes, keys, padlocks, ledgers, deeds, heavy purses wrought with steel. These are accessories of money dealings.

Introduction to the Story of Ebenezer Scrooge

Uh, and they could easily be the props of Mercury himself.

And because Mercury, as you know, is the god of counting and accounting. So, so Marley shows up. You know, with these chains of all these things, okay, these, these cash boxes, padlocks, ledgers, and deeds, and this enormous bandage around his, his, his, uh, mouth, and what he does, the first thing he does is he takes off the bandage, and his mouth [00:38:00] And it never moves.

It’s just this open mouth with a voice that speaks from it, which, as you can imagine, if you’re Ebenezer Scrooge, you’re completely terrified. Okay. Um, and again, what this refers to is that. At death, um, uh, there was a coin that was placed under the tongue to pay the ferryman, okay, and, and so it, the mouth was then bandaged closed to keep the coin safe until the ferryman took the bandage and you crossed over the river Styx and into the underworld.

So here’s this motif, which would have been very well known. Uh, to hermeticists or, or, or people of the cult or whatever that is showing up in, in a Christmas carol. Okay, um, doesn’t have anything to do with the way Marley died the bandage. It’s just, it’s to keep the mouth closed, [00:39:00] right? Okay. Um, that’s all we know.

Okay.

The Ghost of Christmas Past: A Journey into Scrooge’s Childhood

But, but there’s a motif or, or background to that. Okay. Um, and so. He says to Scrooge, I wear the chain I forged in life, I made it link by link and yard by yard. So basically, you know, Dickens doesn’t call it this, but it’s karma. It’s Marley’s karma, which has haunted him and is just trailing behind him in this visitation.

So Marley ultimately has come back from the grave to warn Scrooge to change his ways. And that he will be visited by three ghosts over the, over a succession of three days. So again, Mercury the Herald, he’s showing up to tell Scrooge, you know, this could happen to you. Okay, we were close. We are of the same.

This could happen to you. And if you don’t want it to happen to [00:40:00] you, you better listen to these three ghosts who are going to be visiting you over the next three days. And then he departs.

The Ghost of Christmas Present: Scrooge’s Current Life

So Marley really is the one who introduces the supernatural. into Scrooge’s life and set Scrooge’s mindset to this idea that it’s not a haunting that’s going to be horrific, but a haunting that’s actually going to be of salvation.

Okay. And so this is introduced in this first visitation. So, um, Scrooge doesn’t know what to think. He’s hoping it was just a piece of undigested beef or something that he had with his gruel and he goes to bed, you know, and he closes the curtains and he’s like, There with the, with the, with the covers up, like wondering what, what am I to make of this?

And so then he notices there’s a light outside of his curtains, but but bed curtains go around the bed. Okay. And he notices that there’s a light that seemed to [00:41:00] be approaching from from beyond these curtains and then a hand reaches in. Okay. And opens up the curtain. Remember, this is this guy’s bedroom.

Okay. And it’s like, this hand reaches in and it opens up the curtains. Curtain and what he notices about this hand that has a grasp on the bed curtains is that it’s a hand that looks like a child’s hand, but at the same time, it seems to resemble an old man’s hand. Okay, so he’s struck by this kind of wavering child yet old quality to to the skin of this hand.

Um. And, and it opens the curtain and there is an expression there, there is a man or he thinks it’s a man. It’s kind of actually androgynous who’s peering at him. And this phantom has hair that’s white with age, but the face didn’t have a wrinkle on it and actually had the tenderest bloom on its cheek.

It [00:42:00] wore a tunic of the purest white, and held a branch of fresh green holly in its hand, and in singular contradiction of that wintery emblem, which is the holly, had its dress trimmed with summer flowers. But as Scrooge looks closely, the face keeps morphing. It almost, you know, morphs from young to old, from old to young again.

There’s something that kind of… flickers about this face and on top of the, you know, and it’s shape shifting this and on top of the head is, um, this, this, this bright clear jet of light. And from this comes the visibility in the room. And finally, it carries, um, as a great extinguisher for a cap held under its arm is like this kind of like metal cap.

Now, obviously what Dickens is describing here is a candle. And it’s flickering flame, you know, the entire phantom is, is this, um, and it [00:43:00] counts for the wavering appearance of the face from, from old to, to young, to young again. And clearly it’s a description of the moon. Okay. And it’s lunar phases. Um, the moon in astrology is the past, right?

Rules over our childhood. And it is the storehouse of our memories, our dreams, and our imagination. Now, There’s a little bit of history here to the moon. Neoplatonists, for instance, believed that our souls departed our bodies every night. When we went to sleep and they would fly up to the moon and on the moon, the souls would then emerge themselves in the silvery waters of the moon, kind of imagine these fountains and these pools, uh, where, um, the anxiety of the day, the harshness or the trials of the tribulations of the day, um, would be wiped clean.

And so the soul here in its, [00:44:00] in its bath on the moon was restored and replenished at night. And, and, and at night the soul lingered here, it bathed here before hastening back to the sleeping selves of the bodies in the morning. And indeed the Neoplatonists believed that the dew that you would see on the grass and the dew that you would see on the leaves were actually the soul, residues of the soul, you know, the footprints of the soul as it was racing back to return to its body, you know, just before the body woke for, for the day.

Um, in the medieval epic poem, Orlando Furioso, the battled frenzied knight, Roland, is restored to his former self by a journey to the moon. So, so the moon has this, um, association with, with restoring the soul. You know that that and and and we know it from our sleep. We, we may have a rough day or whatever, but we go to sleep at night.

If we’re successful in our sleep at night, you know, but we wake up in the morning feeling restored and [00:45:00] replenished. And so this is this is the association with with the moon. Um, and likewise, uh, with the meeting with this, this, this ghost of Christmas past, Scrooge is restored by revisiting his childhood memories.

But the visits in his childhood memories, as you might imagine, are tinged with melancholy. Um, in one we meet Scrooge’s younger sister on a Christmas past who had come to retrieve him at school and to take him home. And Scrooge didn’t have any friends at school. He, he, nobody really liked him. And, but what he loved were his beloved Arabian Nights tales.

And so he was very bookish and, and read about Arabian Nights and things like that. And his sister, his beloved sister, was a girl full. of light and joy. Um, and, and she comes to bring him back, uh, home from, from, from his school days. And he’s overjoyed to see her. And Scrooge with the spirit next to him is overjoyed to see his beloved sister again.[00:46:00]

He’s so happy. To see her in his memory and he asks the spirit. What am I looking at here? And the spirit says you were looking at things from the past. These things are set. These things, you know, have come before, um, and he’s full of joy and sorrow because his sister was so close to him and his sister is indeed the mother of his nephew who has inherited her sunny disposition and comes Every Christmas to invite Scrooge, like his sister retrieving him to bring him home, comes every Christmas to invite Scrooge to his family for Christmas and Scrooge always says no.

Scrooge’s Nephew and His Christmas Invitation

Did we get? Is that where we? Okay, but this becomes kind of like the pivot or the turning point here because, um, Uh, the falling out that Scrooge’s had with his nephew is that his nephew married for love and not married married for love and not money that the nephew’s wife has no [00:47:00] financial means. And so, actually, his nephew has fallen, uh, in, in economic class.

Okay. As a result of this marriage, it was not a wise or beneficial marriage. We then go to another scene. Let’s call it the breakup scene. Okay.

Scrooge’s Failed Engagement and Lost Love

And this is where Scrooge is meeting with his fiance. He had actually been engaged to marry. And in this scene, as he talks to her, she sounds very sad. She’s very sad, but she’s wearing all black and a black.

Cap, which is actually covering her her face and though Dickens never tells us this in the story. Clearly. There’s been a change in her fortune. Maybe her father died. Her mother died some sort of benefactor in the family, but she is without a dowry and she has recognized that she is of no. Financial benefit to Scrooge.

And so she has come to, uh, break off their engagement. Um, and he’s very [00:48:00] reluctant. He, he doesn’t protest it. He actually makes her break off the engagement, um, you know, because he keeps asking why, why, why do you want to break off the engagement? And she says to him finally, um, another idol has replaced me.

In your heart, another idol has replaced me in your heart, a golden one. And so she breaks off the engagement because she’s powerless, um, or she’s, she’s, she’s dowerless. She breaks off the engagement because she’s dowerless and doesn’t want to be a disappointment for his future prospects, but she also recognizes.

That, um, he has another lover and that his lover, his new lover is greed and that she has no place in his life. And so upset and distraught with these memories that the Ghost of Christmas Past has presented to Scrooge, Scrooge grabs the metal cap, which is under the Ghost of Christmas Past’s arm, takes it and snuffs out [00:49:00] the light.

Okay, so basically snuffs out Christmas Past.

The Ghost of Christmas Future: A Glimpse into Scrooge’s Potential Fate

And it’s a very… psychological moment because it’s shutting the door on a very painful memory. So again, the moon in the guise of Christmas Past has restored the memory, but he, he, this is not who he is right now. This is, this is too heartbreaking. So he snuffs it out.

And that is the end of his visit with the ghost of Christmas Past. Scrooge goes back to sleep or was rather left on his bed, um, and he gathers the covers around him and he’s trying to make sense of what he had just seen, what he had just experienced. But then he smells something cooking, you know, it’s kind of like when you’re upstairs and you can smell dinner, right?

Um, he smells and he can’t really place it. Is it the aroma of, of, of meat? Is it, is it? Is it chestnuts? [00:50:00] What, what exactly is it? You know, and so, um, he’s basically lured out of his bed, you know, he’s closed himself up in his bed or whatever, but he’s lured out of his bed by the smell of food. Okay. And so he, um, you know, remember his diet is gruel, like Oliver Twist.

Okay. So he, so he, he leaves his bedroom and goes into the living room. Okay. And there it is full of light. Okay. Um, and, and, and, and there appears with a flaming torch, it’s like a cornucopia with fire, you know, burning out of it, um, is this enormous man, you know, dressed in green with white ermine cuffs, uh, and, and, and mistletoe around his head.

And, and, and it’s this robe, this enormous robe. He’s very King Henry VIII, I am, I am, you know, in his rotund appearance, you know, and he’s not wearing a shirt like the robe opens and [00:51:00] he’s wearing, you know, his, his hairy breasts, whatever showing. And so, and so this is, um, you know, the living room was full of light.

It’s resplendent. There’s mistletoe and holly and ivy, which, which lines The walls, um, and on the floor are heaped meats and turkeys and geese and, and mince pies more than the eye can see and plum puddings and, and red hot chestnuts in baskets, you know, and, and this giant man just sort of laughs heartily, you know, and, um, and this is clearly Jupiter, you know, the ghost of, of Christmas present is clearly Jupiter in all of his munificence.

And all of his benevolence and his largess and he introduces himself to Scrooge. And he’s here to introduce or to show Scrooge Christmas present. And so what he does is that he takes Scrooge, you know, [00:52:00] he says, touch, um, The touch, the, uh, sleeve of my robe and Scrooge does, and immediately they’re flying through the air and he takes him to other households who are celebrating Christmas On that day, the first household they visit is the household of the ne nephew whose wife is bitching about Scrooge and what a tight ass he is, you know, and she’s saying really all of these unflattering things.

But Scrooge’s nephew, Fred, is still coming to his defense and vowing, I will return every year until he joins us for Christmas. And she’s like, yeah, right. Fat chance. Tell it to the head. That’s not going to happen. You know, and then, um, the, the scene changes and Scrooge appears in the, in the Cratchit household.

This is the household of Bob Cratchit, his, his clerk. And this is actually the first time in the story that he’s named as Bob. Bob Cratchit. And so the Cratchit family is waiting for Bob, Scrooge’s, Scrooge’s clerk, to return from church with their youngest child, Tiny Tim. [00:53:00] Dickens based the Cratchit family, the personalities of the Cratchit family, on his own family.

Um, and what’s interesting again is that we return to the idea of the names. Uh, Cratchit, the name Cratchit is It’s derived from the word, from the French word croquet, which means feeble horse. It’s a feeble horse or a feeble person. And it comes from the dialectical crutch, crutch. It comes from the dialectical crutch, which means crutch, and is also the archaic English word for crush.

As in, The manger, the creche, the manger that the baby Jesus is laid, laid in. So what Charles Dickens is doing with the introduction of the Cratchits is that he’s introducing a nativity scene. He’s introducing the holy family. Um, and it’s more than likely, you know, the Cratchits are based on Dickens’s own family.

It’s more than likely that Tiny Tim himself as a character was a composite of two people in Dickens’s life. Uh, his nephew who died tragically [00:54:00] of tuberculosis. When he was young and the son of a friend who was disabled. So Tiny Tim is the one that Scrooge really fixates on most. Um, you know, when, when, you know, he sees him for the first time when Bob Cratchit enters the home and he’s carrying Tiny, Tiny Tim on his, on his shoulder.

That’s when he sees him for the first time. And again, were reintroduced to the Saturn motif because Saturn was again, the planet of cripples, um, cripples were ruled by Saturn as were the elderly beggars and, and paupers. Um, so, so tiny Tim is really the one that Scrooge connects to. And you can even see the motif of like, you know, when we celebrate new years, there’s, there’s the old year that’s leaving.

And the new year is a baby that’s coming. So you almost get a kind of old year, new year motif that shows up here as, as well. And Scrooge is very inquisitive about Tiny Tim. He asks about Tiny Tim, um, you know, Will this boy survive? Will he, [00:55:00] will he be alright? And the Ghost of Christmas Present says, Well, you’re looking at things in the present.

We don’t know how things will turn out. But when I glimpse through the veil, Um, I see an empty chair by the fireplace, And an unattended crutch. That’s the first time that Scrooge is really hit. With, with, with, with feeling, and he’s like, well, is there anything that I can do to change this? Is there anything that, that, um, I can do to alter this?

Are these things fixed? And the spirit answers cryptically, no, they’re only of the present. We don’t know. And so, um, He then takes him to different places around England, uh, they visit miners in miner shacks with a barely lit light singing Christmas carol. They go and visit lighthouse attendees with stormy waves, hitting the rocks, singing Christmas carols.

They go to, um, To a sailor at sea, [00:56:00] you know, with waves crashing against his ship, singing Christmas carols. And so they are all in their way, keeping the spirit of Christmas. And this is what the Ghost of Christmas Present wants Scrooge to see. And so as he does this, he sprinkles. You know, uh, embers or little sparks from his torch on, on each and every one of them because they are participating in the spirit of, of the season.

Um, so this is Jupiter, the planet of pay it forward in astrology. Um, Jupiter is the whole idea of you do good for someone in the way that someone once did good. for you. You don’t do things for money and profit and gain. You, you, whatever good you do in the world, you do to benefit society itself because you want to transform society into a place where everyone has a seat at the table.

This is, this is Jupiter’s great magnum opus [00:57:00] or Jupiter’s great motto. Um, but Jupiter himself is vulnerable to time. Um, and his presence in the present. Can’t last forever. And indeed, as the evening grows old, so does the appearance of the ghost of Christmas present. This is when Scrooge notices for the first time in their conversation, um, that that, um, the, the ghost has grown old and one looking and in appearance.

And he also notices. Down at the bottom, the ghost of Christmas presents robes that there’s a tiny foot or or a hand that’s poking out from beneath the robes and and he asks, what are those and the ghost of Christmas present sort of hikes up his skirts a little bit. Right? Um, and he lifts his robes to reveal a boy and a girl and the boy has this.

Almost like predatory, you know, stare, you know, and the girl is reaching [00:58:00] out with a hand and she has these haggard eyes and, and she’s, and, and, and, and palate wrinkled skin. But she’s just a girl and he introduces them, um, as, excuse me. Uh, gonna sneeze, not sneeze. Not sneeze. He introduces them as, excuse me, sorry, he introduces them as ignorance and, and want.

Um, and the worst of the two is the boy, ignorance. Now, this is Dickens talking about the poor on the streets of London, and how the children of impoverished families can’t fend for themselves, and that this, begins, you know, if you’re born into poverty, you continue cycle, the cycle of poverty. And so this begins a cycle of crime, for instance, that lands these boys or children in prison and they get out of prison and they go back to prison.

And it’s the cycle that continues uninterrupted. Um, with, and, and what he wanted to demonstrate here is [00:59:00] how ignorance, which is the worst of the two ignorance and wants ignorance is the worst of the two, how ignorance eats away at the foundations of a good society. And that the. More it is ignored, you know, that these, that these children of the streets, these unwanted children, um, the more that they are ignored, the more ignorance is ignored, the more powerful it becomes.

And that if you do not take care of wanton ignorance, then wanton ignorance will take over society and society will deteriorate because it’s eating away at its foundation. And so then again, I want to remind you, let’s remember. Um, that Jupiter was an Aquarius, a very social activist, a very socially conscious Zodiac sign when A Christmas Carol was published.

And it’s here that the, um, ghost of Christmas present sort of says something a little cruel and unfeeling, but he throws Scrooge’s words back at him because Scrooge recalls in horror and he’s like, is there anything that we can do to change this? And [01:00:00] the ghost of Christmas present says to him, are there no prisons?

Are there no workhouses? He quotes what he said to the two men who’d come for asking for charity earlier. And this was Dickens way again of underlining that as long as there are prisons and workhouses, uh, they will always eat away at the, at the wealth and the robustness of society. So, so we have, um, a civic duty to, to change that.

Uh, remember, Zeus, uh, uh, Dickens is very much an Aquarius. And so, um, Scrooge is on the street corner with the Ghost of Christmas Present, and he sees down the street, a sort of figure begin to approach him, and the figure is dark silhouetted, and it begins to grow taller and taller and larger and larger as it comes towards him.

And he turns to the Ghost of Christmas Present, who’s gone, okay, and he’s confronted with this figure who wears this enormous robe and a hood. Over his face, so you [01:01:00] cannot even see the face of this figure and the figure carries a side, you know, which all of you are familiar with is the, um, artifact of Saturn.

It is. It is an instrument that is associated to the planet Saturn. Um, and so this is the ghost of Christmas future who Scrooge realizes is going to show him. The future and that this is, you know, to for for his education, his enlightenment that’s taking place here, um, the ghost of Christmas future is basically the end of the line that we cannot escape.

Um, in astrology, Saturn is the planet of fear, but it’s not fear like a horror movie fear, you know, like a slasher movie where it’s like, Oh, these horrible things happen. It’s it’s it’s not that kind of fear. It’s the fear that awaits us in the future at the end of our days. It’s the fear of being destitute.

It’s the fear of being unloved. [01:02:00] It’s the fear of being abandoned or incapacitated by illness or infirmity. That is Saturn’s fear, okay, because we know inevitably We will arrive there, and that is what makes Saturn so frightening. And so as the ghost of Christmas future, he comes, you know, to show Scrooge these things.

The first, uh, scene that Scrooge is taken to, um, is, is the, uh, stock exchange. And there Scrooge, Scrooge eavesdrops on about three bankers, or three buyers and sellers, who are joking about An old miserly colleague who had died and they’re, you know, talking about whether or not they’re going to attend this fellow’s funeral.

And the fat one among the three of them answers, I’ll only attend it if there’s food, you know? So it’s like, I’m only going to go if I get, you know, if I have something to eat, otherwise skip it, you know? And then the ghost of [01:03:00] Christmas future takes him to another scene. And this one is with an undertaker talking to a charwoman in Alondra’s.

And one woman has, um, a big bag and in it are curtain drapes with rings and she’s asking how much can I get for this? And the other woman has shirts and jackets and the undertaker is rather impressed with their haul. He’s like, where did you guys get these things? And, and, and, uh, did you take this off the corpse while it was still lying on its bed?

And they were like, yeah. It’s not like he was going to do anything with it, you know, and, and Scrooge is starting to get the, the, the Mistakable feeling that this is his future that he’s looking at, you know, he kind of recognizes the clothes and the bed curtains. Um, And, but he’s refusing to see it. And finally, um, uh, the ghost takes him to, to a graveyard where he points at a gravestone and Scrooge doesn’t want to go there.

And the ghost points at the gravestone and Scrooge [01:04:00] doesn’t want to go. And he points again and he goes, and he can just make out his name and he’s horrified and he rushes back to the ghost and he says. You know, in this lament, you know, is there anyone, is there anyone who will mourn me? Is there anyone, you know, who, who will miss me?

And at that moment, the scene shifts yet again. But this time it’s to the bedroom at the Cratchit household. And Bob Cratchit is weeping over a body which is covered by a blanket. But it’s a tiny body. It’s covered by a blanket. And you can tell with his weeping that he is weeping over the body of Tiny Tim.

Scrooge’s Transformation: A Change of Heart

And this is Scrooge’s This is when Scrooge wakes up, you know, just he it’s it’s so it’s like a night terror, you know, it’s it’s it’s it’s it’s it’s it’s frozen and paralyzed him with fear and he wakes up and there’s sunlight, you know, remember Christmas Eve, he’d gone to bed. It was foggy. It was dark. It was miserably cold and damp, but [01:05:00] here it’s sunlight.

There’s, there’s sun that’s pouring through, um, the, uh, his rooms. And as you know, Christmas is the, you know, December 25th is the, the, uh, day of the Roman God of the sun, the birth of the Roman God of the sun. And so, um, there’s sunlight that’s just pouring through.

Scrooge’s Redemption: A New Beginning

And he’s overjoyed. He’s overjoyed that he gets a second chance, you know, and, and that he’s going to, you know, get rid of his old ways.

And so he runs out onto the, you know, first of all, he calls out to a boy out the window and asks what day it is because he remembered three days and everything. And the boy says, it’s Christmas day. And he’s like, they did it all in one night. Oh, wonderful. He got the economy package. So, um, so, so he throws money down the boy and asks him to.

Purchase the biggest Christmas goose that there is and to take it to an address, which is the Cratchit residence. Okay. Um, he gets dressed and scurries onto the street and he meets the church wardens on the street who are like looking at him, you know, with a distant thing and he promises them an [01:06:00] enormous amount of money and they’re like, Oh my goodness.

Yes, of course. We’ll come and visit and receive this check and what’s up with him, you know, sort of thing. And finally, he turns up at his nephew’s house, his beloved sisters. son’s house, much to the shock of his nephew’s wife, who’s like, Oh my God, he showed up, you know, and he does everything that you do on Christmas, which is that you sing carols and you play blind man’s bluff and you, you know, do all these word games and, and, and all sorts of things that make people laugh with delight and, and, and, and, and you enjoy the wine and, and, and the food and all these sorts of things.

Um, and then, um, on the following day, which is which in England do take off, but Not in A Christmas Carol, uh, Cratchit shows up and Scrooge is looking at him and Cratchit’s like, I’m sorry I’m late and you know, Cratchit doesn’t really want to tell him about this mysterious Christmas goose that showed up and they had this enormous dinner and they kind of slept in, you know, because they hadn’t eaten like this in the longest time.

And Scrooge gets him nearer and he’s [01:07:00] like, you know, I’m sorry, whatever Scrooge says, I’m going to raise you, you know? And so Scrooge begins like slapping him on the back and saying, you know, I’m going to increase your wages and I’m going to help your family out with his financial situation. And Gretchen is like, sort of like shocked, you know, like this.

And, um, And, and, and, and, and in the end Scrooge becomes, I don’t know whether I’m frozen or not, Scrooge becomes like a second father. Am I, am I still going? Okay, Scrooge becomes a second father to, to tiny Tim, you know, but this is where I sort of like want to circle back for a quick instant. To finish the story of the name of Ebenezer, remember, Ebenezer is the name of the place where there had, where the Jews had been defeated by the Philistines and had their Ark of the Covenant taken because they had placed their faith in a false idol rather than a true God.

And if you remember, Scrooge’s fiance says, I’ve been replaced by a false idol, a golden idol. You know, I’ve been replaced by greed in your heart. [01:08:00] So Scrooge has replaced her with, with this greed and greed has infected his entire life. In the Bible, it’s the prophet Samuel who after the defeat of the Israelites, at the hands of the Philistines prevails upon them to repent.

To repent. Um, he points out that they had placed their faith in a false idol and that led to their defeat. And now they need to show God that they are truly sorry. Willing to embrace the greater spirit. Samuel offers a lamb as a burnt offering and then cries out to the Lord of Israel. The Lord hears his prayers and when the Philistines try to attack Israel again this time, there is a giant rumbling thunder that frightens off the Philistines and they flee.

And Samuel memorializes the victory by setting up a stone and calling it. Eben, Eben, which means stone, and Ezer, which means, and so the name Ebenezer [01:09:00] is literally transformed into the stone of hope. So there’s this renaming, which goes on with the transformation. And this is something that Charles Dickens absolutely.

knew about when he named his character Ebenezer Scrooge because it is a story of this, of this waking up and this realizing that I placed my faith in something superstitious or false idols or whatever, and I need to, to get good with the good and for Dickens, that was always the good of humanity. In closing, Charles Dickens with this story shows us that our.

Chances of redemption, um, are opportunities of salvation lie in the lives of other people, um, that, that it, that, that our chances of redemption, that our promise of salvation [01:10:00] lies. With other people, in other words, it is other people who, who make us, you know, our best chance of, of our best opportunity of salvation and redemption lies with other people because it’s other people who have the potential of making us.

Better people. So our best opportunity lies with people of becoming a better person and this humanitarianism infuses all of Charles Dickens’s writing and absolutely infuses his story, A Christmas Carol, which of course leaves us with that wonderful line. God bless us. They can hear me, but you can’t. Oh, goodness.

Um, okay. God bless us, everyone!

Okay. Okay, so hold on.

Have a happy holiday! Okay. Okay, [01:11:00] you guys. So, I wish I could talk to him, but he can’t hear me. Okay. So I’m going to talk to you. Amanda’s going to talk for a little while now. Okay. So I just want to tell you one of the most extraordinary things, which I will tell Christopher after is as he was speaking, we don’t often have thunder here, but this thunder rolled in and it was just like this.

Boom. And so it was just underscoring the whole storytelling, which was amazing. And at the end, I don’t, I’m wondering if magical things were happening in your environments too. But then at the end, when he said that with, when he was describing Ebenezer and the thunder came in, I was like, wow, that’s incredible.

I also wanted to say, which I gosh, it’d be so interesting to hear what Chris for us to say about this. I’m going to chat him. Um, but Steffi G said that Dickens. Venus is conjunct Pluto in his natal chart, which is also something happening right now. So let me just tell him that, um, Dickens, [01:12:00] this is funny.

Um, I just want to see what he has to say about that. Oh, did someone say that Dickens Venus is conjunct Pluto in his natal chart? Yes. Oh, wow. Isn’t that a theme? Is that perhaps adding? I don’t know if his Venus is in Capricorn, but yeah, I think that that’s really fascinating that that Venus is conjunct Pluto in, in, in, in his chart.

Yeah. Yes. Yes. Okay. So that came up. Um, I hope that you all enjoyed this. This has been such a delight for me. And I heard so many of you commenting on Christopher’s storytelling. He is extraordinary. I mean, he is literally extraordinary. One of the best storytellers I’ve ever heard and to have Listen. an astrologer and historian who can bring astrology and history to life and like marry them [01:13:00] in this way that he does is just such a gift.

So I am so grateful that Chris Renstrom is in our lives. I am so grateful that I get to share him with all of you. Can you hear me now? I feel like you’re responding to what I’m saying, but he just must be feeling it. Um, yes, I, I just feel like we are so lucky to have Christopher and, and that he will reach out to me and say, Hey, I want to share with your community about this story.

And this happens all the time. If you are not subscribed to our horoscope, our free weekly horoscope with Christopher, I highly recommend that you do. You can go to astrology hub. com slash. Horoscope. Every week on Sunday, you’ll get an overview of the week written by Christopher Kletch. You’ll get a breakdown by sign.

And the best part is that you get to listen to his weekly horoscope video, which if you like his storytelling, you get to listen to him every Sunday and he tells stories every Sunday. I mean, he, [01:14:00] he’s brought in the most incredible movies and, um, he just really brings the astrology to life. So that is free.

That is available. Please. If you don’t, if you don’t get that right now, please sign up for that. And then, uh, he’s going to be one of our inner circle guides next year. He’s going to be teaching on, Oh shoot. What is his mastery class? Oh, aspects, aspect theory. So for those of you who are like, I want to know more about squares and, and oppositions and sex tiles and all these things that you hear in astrology a lot, he is going to be doing a mastery class on it.

Aspects as part of the inner circle. So you get that when you’re an inner circle member. Okay. Then the other thing, and I can’t, there’s nothing for you to do about this yet, but I just want to plant the seed because in March, we are doing a course with Christopher based on his book. The cosmic calendar.

So he’s actually going to teach you how to take your chart and map the entire year and plan your [01:15:00] life with the astrology at its center. So it’s called the cosmic calendar. That is a course that he’s going to be doing. It’s a three week course. It will be in March. It’ll be open for registration in February.

We will open a wait list. We don’t have it open yet, but, um, you’ll be able to join us there. So in the meantime, if you want to jump into the inner circle, now’s the time it’s astrology hub. com slash inner circle 2022. I so wish we could talk to Christopher right now. So how about this? I love you. Yes, you.

Thank you. How do we do thank? I wish I knew sign language right now. Thank you. Thank you for this. And I can’t wait to be with you again soon. Thanks to all of you for being here, for sharing this moment with us. This felt so special. It inspired me to go. Buy a Christmas Carol the book and start the tradition of reading it to my daughters every year around Christmas.

I’ve never done that before. So [01:16:00] hopefully all of you will be doing that too. Um, and just again, thank you so much for being here. Thank you for being a part of our community. And as always, thank you for making astrology a part of your life and God bless. Everyone. Am I doing it right? I wish Christopher was here to do it.

God bless us everyone. I think it’s what it is. All right. Take care everybody. Happy Solstice. Merry Christmas. And we will be back with you again very soon.

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Head to astrologyhub. com slash [01:17:00] solstice. Let’s start 2024 with more confidence, clarity, and intention than ever before.

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