It is the one-year anniversary of the catastrophic Saturn/Pluto Conjunction in Capricorn that occurred on January 12, 2020. The great karmic reckoning and transformation in the sign of authority, structure, foundation, and will.
Today is the New Capricorn Moon, and it occurs at the same zodiac degree as the conjunction last year. Do you feel like you’re being hammered, beaten down relentlessly? Me too.
Welcome to the hard aspect of Capricorn
My moon is in this sign. The first time I had a reading which focused on this aspect of my chart, I cried; it so affirmed what had felt like a psychological defect or fated character flaw. Well, both those may, in fact, still be true, but at least it was in the stars, and not just me.
Capricorn is the Sea-Goat and is ruled by Saturn. It’s the 10th House and sits at our mid-heaven or apex of the astrological wheel. This is where we step-up, stand-out, and reach our highest potential. But we don’t get there by flying. We climb, one heavy foot after another, up-hill. Saturn was the Greek God of Time/Cronos and the Roman God of Karma and planting seed (you reap what you sow). He is a restrictive, constrictive, authoritarian force that gives us will and discipline but also a heavy hand and cosmic gavel:
“You should be______!”
Capricorn is work, but not just work. It’s loving work, in the light. In the shadow, it’s all work. Waking, rising, breathing – all of it is hard.
Lest we think we’ve reached a place even more treacherous than Scorpio’s Hades, this sign too is not without its gifts. Here we have the drive and determination to forge ahead and to establish authority and reputation. This is our highest potential, but it does not come without a cost.
Last month/moon, in Sagittarius, we encountered truth. First, the easy personal truths by which most of us govern our lives (I feel like this, and thus it is so). Then relative truths (It is 5:30 a.m. in Pennsylvania right now), and finally universal and mystical law/truth – All is One, Balance, and Gravity, to name a few. All of these exist simultaneously. But universal law overrules and is non-negotiable. It equally affects us all, whether we believe in it or not. It is intimate yet wholly impersonal.
And now we enter Capricorn’s 10th House.
From mystical truth, we take a stand, and shout to the heavens, or the earth below, who we are and to whom we answer.
The great gift of all the hard work in Capricorn is determining what authority you are giving yourself to? The voice in your head, the voice on the television, the voice of the divided angst-ridden populace, or the final eternal voice of something higher which rests both above yet within.
Capricorn New Moon asks: whom are you listening to, and how is that dictating your life?
As in all things spiritual, which is all things, this decision is not an ultimate destination at which you arrive. This House’s energy is not a once and done accomplishment. It is a day-by-day, moment-by-moment grace that impels us to choose the highest potential in each encounter. It is not just the commandment that comes down in stone upon our heads but the guidance that gently directs us when all seems too hard to bear.
Most often, the voice of God is heard in silence. It is the answer and antidote. To calm and soothe and collect ourselves under something divine. It doesn’t mean the storm is gone; it means we are in the eye of it, and we are safe. And the one right choice we can always make is to quiet our minds and rest in peace. And from the peace, we move forward. For, as Richard Rohr of The Center for Action and Contemplation says,
“How we get there is where we arrive.”
And so, on this hard Capricorn Moon, I offer you these words from the poet Rilke. It may at first seem like a strange remedy to the sea goat’s climb, but read deeper. Perhaps you will see that no matter where we stand on the mountain, there is a still point where we gather beyond time.
Silent friend of many distances, feel
how your breath enlarges all of space.
Let your presence ring out like a bell
into the night. What feeds upon your face
grows mighty from the nourishment thus offered. Move through transformation, out and in.
What is the deepest loss that you have suffered?If drinking is bitter, change yourself to
Rainer Maria Rilke
wine.
In this immeasurable darkness, be the power
that rounds your senses in their magic ring,
the sense of their mysterious encounter.
And if the earthly no longer knows your name,
whisper to the silent earth: I’m flowing.
To the flashing water say: I am.
The Sonnets to Orpheus