New Moon | Winter Solstice | December 23, 3022 | 1 Capricorn 33’
The darkest day comes just before the solstice. Ironically, the beginning of winter is the time when shorter days come to stand still. Day by day, as the Sun sets later and later the days get longer.
We are in a relatively quietened period from the perspective of Capricorn rising. Silent night and all that. Eight of the planets are in the first three houses of the Capricorn rising chart. This is the quadrant where we are called to know ourselves, what we value and our own mind. We are being urged to transcend our limitations of the world, and to do it through taking a transformed view of the earth, the so-called finished product with its apparent obstacles, limitations and hardships. We are admonished to take personal responsibility for our world, as we create it, even if only by default. When it comes to a mountain you can’t climb, a barrier you cannot penetrate, or a hurt you cannot get over, the reason is because you say you can’t, rather than because the outside world has power over you.
“And be not conformed to this world. Be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind.” (Romans 12:2) This is especially true when it comes to money matters and we just can’t get no lasting satisfaction. Financial security or freedom might elude us, whether we possess a little, or a lot.
The New Moon in Capricorn squares Jupiter which has just entered Aries and squares Ceres, the asteroid representing mother or the caretaker. Ceres says, “We are the world. We are the ones who make a brighter day.” (Michael Jackson and Lionel Richie). We must take responsibility and be the change we seek. We are individually responsible, and that some of what we need must be championed in our own gut with interior beliefs that withstand the personal trials and tribulations we find ourselves enduring.
The new Moon chart encourages us to get mentally creative—to dream and plan on transcending, as well as giving a helping hand. We might be conditioned or transformed by Saturn to the point that we create our own slavery. Saturn is all the stuff we know already that we agree we can’t transcend. One day we will grow limbs, but not now while no one believes we can. One day we will be free, but not right now when we are believing someone or something outside of ourselves keeps us from being free. Operating healthily, Saturn might support us in understanding that we can operate more consciously in the spiritual realm, making our dreams feel more functional and possible. For example, Julia Cameron has a new book coming out called Write for life, where the mercurial function may meet the mystical-spiritual function in a practical, functional way.
Neptune is the higher octave or spiritual energy beyond Saturn. Neptune is the water that dissolves the rock. Neptune is an energy that most of us don’t see yet because we cannot see beyond Saturn, beyond the problems and limitations. We are afraid to ask and trust. The limit of our earth-bound vision stops us. Behind our eyes is the watery world thought of as existing only in our fantasy—not real. We may sing peace on earth, but while our eyes are violent, we shall not know peace. We will not be able to play our “get out of jail free” card.
But maybe, just maybe, while our minds are in a brief mood to entertain fantasy and mysticism, we can imagine for ourselves, a world where our problems are solved, our rocks are dissolved—a little rubbing away each day.
Practicum
Plan tomorrow tonight. Each night, before you lay down to sleep, retire the days errors and disappointments, and even accomplishments. Each night make some kind of note to lay your burdens down so that the next day will always be a new day with a “washed” or refreshed perspective. Plan to awake each day more conscious, alert and able than the day before. Then, plan to follow the trail of positives throughout the day as if you are following the golden road, cutting through the fodder and cutting to the point of liberation and higher ground.