CAPRICORN NEW MOON / PARTIAL SOLAR ECLIPSE - 5 / 6 January 2019

Sunday 6 January, at 1.28am GMT, Saturday 5 January, at 8.28pm EST.

The first New Moon if the year is a veritable Capricorn party, with so many planetary bodies in this serious, self-reflective, committed and disciplined sign! Not only that but Saturn, the ruler of Capricorn is also in his own sign, making it even more concentrated! New Moons are a wonderful time for setting intentions, and for leaving behind whatever we don’t need in the dark of the Moon.  This New Moon is especially potent and far reaching because it is also a Solar Eclipse. We are at the beginning of a new chapter, and as such something will be literally or metaphorically passing away during this time so that new energy can come in. There can be no beginning without some kind of ending.  This Eclipse will open the gateway to Eclipse season, which is a powerfully energetic time between the two eclipses. We are building up to a Total Lunar Eclipse on 21 January, so this New Moon/Solar Eclipse offers us an opportunity to gently open ourselves up to change and new possibilities for our path ahead. These Eclipses are linked to the Eclipses in 2000, so there could be an energetic similarity between what we are facing now and whatever happened then. Are we coming full circle, or is this the next phase of whatever was occurring then?

It is interesting when the Capricorn New Moon falls so very close to the New Year, as this is a time when we experience bit of a reality check and set some serious intentions for the year ahead, and we may also start paying for any over-indulgence during the holiday season. Capricorn follows Sagittarius, which has an over-extending, abundant, expanding quality, while Capricorn tends to pull in the reins and make us a bit more controlled and austere. Capricorn can correlate to feelings of guilt and futility, so it would be better to simply be a bit self-reflective and to set some realistic goals during this time rather than judging ourselves too harshly. Capricorn represents our inner parent, which can sometimes be quite severe, depending on the messages we received in childhood. There is a big difference between guilt for something that we have actually done wrong and the pervading sense of guilt that comes from our upbringing, religion or society.

The good news for this New Moon is that Neptune is forming a harmonious aspect to the Sun and Moon, helping us to find forgiveness, acceptance and unconditional love towards ourselves and others. This softens everything a little bit, helping us not to be quite so hard on ourselves! We’re all in this together and are doing the best we can, so it’s important to remember that we are only human! Neptune is also forming a challenging square aspect to Jupiter, which will be exact on 13 January. These two planets do like each other, as Jupiter represents growth, faith and expansion, while Neptune represents oneness, connection to spirit and helps dissolve the ego. Together they can really help us to connect spiritually and develop faith and trust.  However, with the square aspect there could be too much of a good thing! Spiritual or religious delusions are possible with this combination, as is being overly idealistic and putting our faith and trust in someone or something that is not actually what we think or hope it is. We might be particularly susceptible, open and vulnerable to other people’s beliefs during this time, as we could be more open, porous and gullible than usual. This transit will repeat in June and September.

This Eclipse season brings the Nodes of the Moon into focus, which is otherwise known as the Destiny Line. As such, this is a very fateful and karmic time we are approaching right now. The South Node of the Moon is currently in Capricorn, so we are currently being asked to recognise and let go of any of the more unhealthy Capricorn traits such as guilt, fear, too much control, fear of failure, feelings of futility, depression, repression, suppression of emotions, inner and outer judgement, over-emphasis on worldly concerns and career or worrying too much about our status, reputation or what other people think of us. Capricorn is a very karmic sign, and the South Node represents the past, so it is quite possible that we could find ourselves dealing with and hopefully clearing some old karma during this time. Capricorn teaches us that we reap what we sow, so we should not be surprised if we are forced to deal with some heavily weighted karmic situations or relationships during this time.

Capricorn represents the patriarchy, so we are currently going through a process of shedding the more unhelpful, unhealthy and destructive aspects of this system and trying to find more balance between the patriarchal (Capricorn) and matriarchal (Cancer) ways of doing things. It is certainly true that all that is flawed and distorted about the old structures and systems is becoming increasingly obvious and overt with Pluto, Saturn and the South Node all in Capricorn at the moment. Both Saturn and Pluto will join forces with the South Node during March and July this year, which could be a powerfully karmic time and cause us to recognise how the past is repeating itself and what needs to change in no uncertain terms. Sometimes we have to look back to learn how to move forward. History keeps repeating itself, over and over and over again. Hopefully this is an opportunity to recognise what needs to change, although the process may not be easy. We are being forced to take responsibility for our karma, both personally and collectively, so it is hard to avoid it at the moment! Every one of our thoughts and actions has a consequence. This is a very pertinent concept to explore at the moment, both personally and collectively.

The North Node is in Cancer, representing the energy we need to develop in order to evolve and grow, both personally and collectively. Cancer is feminine, yin energy that helps us to really get in touch with our emotions and encourages us to allow ourselves to be vulnerable rather than trying to hold it all in and pretend we’re ok. We could benefit from really allowing ourselves to feel the feelings rather than suppressing them, and by exploring why we might be protecting our inner child in the first place. This is a good time for looking back and seeing how our past conditioning has prevented us from feeling emotionally secure and to allow the inner child to feel safe enough to share his/her feelings in a healthy way. Are we able to allow ourselves to be taken care of? Cancer represents the home, the family, the homeland, our roots and our ancestry, so we are being asked to create a more caring, nurturing and sharing reality for ourselves. The Cancer North Node asks us Where do we belong? Who is part of our soul tribe/soul family? Where do we want to put our roots down? Where and what is home? Ultimately we are being asked to find that sense of coming home within ourselves.

The Nodes of the Moon will be in Cancer/Capricorn for 18 months, from November 2015 until May 2020. This New Moon and Eclipse will potentially bring these questions into focus.  The Cancer/Capricorn axis relates to our parental/societal conditioning, our childhood and family, our mother and father, and the matriarchy/patriarchy of course. Obviously, the experiences we have in childhood shape the rest of our lives and relationships in the form of behavioural patterns and beliefs. The holiday season in an emotional time that can certainly bring a lot of these patterns out into the open, for better or worse, and is a testing time for all of our close relationships so this is a great time to look at ourselves realistically and explore some of our family karma. It is also a time that can make us feel very alone and cut off, making it hard for us to reach out.

During this New Moon we might want to consider what we still need to let go of in order to move forward and grow. All of this energy in Capricorn can certainly cause us to judge ourselves and our real or perceived wrongdoings quite severely, not to mention, on a more mundane level, beating ourselves up for any recent over-indulgences! However, instead of allowing guilt to rule the show, we might want to reflect upon our lives and contemplate what might we want our reality to look like if we had the choice? What would we need to change in order to achieve that? What might we need to do to bring us a greater feeling of integrity and wholeness? What old karma do we need to clear? Who do we need to forgive? Does that include ourselves? With Neptune involved, this is a great Moon for using our imagination and faith to envision our most heart-felt fantasy and to set an energetic ball in motion that could change the course of our lives for the better. We are beginning a new chapter, so let’s start as we mean to go on!

Much Love

Amy

xoxo

Picture: Karma (artist unknown)

My website: www.amybirdartandastrology.com