What is Capricorn about?

Capricorn is the third Earth sign in the Zodiac, if we start counting at Aries. The first one is Taurus, our introduction to earth itself, discovering our oneness with the earth element through being in a body, with its needs and gifts. Later there is Virgo, where we focus into practical matters again, but this time with a view to discovering exactly how things are made, and how we might improve their functioning or, rather, assist their natural unfoldment.

Through practising living with these two signs, we learn to become aware of natural processes, and realise that change can only come about by accepting how things are. Then, in Capricorn, we are ready to acknowledge what we’ve become through our experience, and share with others what becomes appropriate as we go along.

The ultimate responsibility of Capricorn is not for external circumstances, nor for other people; it is for our own state of being - for our relationship with ourselves. Remorse and guilt, about the apparent results of our past actions, are the kind of emotional results we feel when our egos want to be in control of effects in the outside world, or others’ reactions, rather than accepting life changing as it flows.

Capricorn, as a characteristic style, is ruled by Saturn energy. In your birth chart, the position of Saturn shows the way in which you relate to practical issues, and also your way of maintaining a sense of security. Difficulties that your Saturn position may have in your chart, show possible anxiety around security issues, which tend to result in attempts to control the outside. What is needed is to turn the Saturn energy back inward, not to control the emotions or behaviour, but to discipline the breathing and relax the muscles, and allow your emotions time to stabilise. When you can rest with whatever problem had arisen, you allow solutions to rise from deep within you.

A good way to achieve this is to shift your mental energy out of worrying. The mind will continue to produce thoughts but, when awake, we do have the power to direct its energy into constructive thoughts, and prayer is a very constructive activity. It requires you to trust that life’s process, unstoppable and ever-changing as it is, is also naturally growthful in the Light, and hand your problem over to that Light. The prayer needs to be non-specific as to results, but rather a tuning in to the natural miracles of life in its free flow, with a determination to accept what happens next as ‘right’ even if it was not what you expected.

Life’s flow is creative, which means we can’t predict what will happen - the most we can do is project a ‘probability’ from what has gone before, and what is now. When we hold back from mentally calculating in this way, miraculous solutions can be delivered to us. Capricorn and Saturn are about the relaxed steadiness, and constant trust and patience, that enable the miracles to unfold.

Manifesting your dreams?

From 1 - 18 December we experienced Mercury in Capricorn possibly thinking and communicating about what we really want in our lives (see the paragraph in the last New Moon letter called ‘Take judgement out of it’). If you noticed anything like that, you are also likely to find, from 13 January and culminating on 18th, that matters become clearer and you are able to follow through some of what you hoped for (Mercury again over North Node and Pluto). If this is the case, the changes you make could be very important for you, as well as appropriate for this time.

Open the door . . .

upiter moves out of Pisces into Aries again on 22 January. We had a brief taste of that exciting flavour of expansion last June/July/August, and a return to the uncertainty of Pisces during the following months. The days surrounding this next change (22/23/24 January) are blessed with a sense of real possibilities, ideas being practicable if tackled with others, a sense of fun with ‘I can!’ (Venus in Sagittarius sextile Saturn in Libra). From late January until early June, this atmosphere of personal achievement flourishes, followed by a more pragmatic, down-to-earth grounding of that forward movement. So, be ready to resurrect any ideas that rose from your heart last June-August: their time may be coming. There is no knowing what will happen, but when the cage door opens, we may as well try out our wings.

Before 23 January, don’t worry if there still seems to be fog around your planning. Deal with what you have now, getting yourself up-to-date in your emotional field and in your relationships. Connect with ideas when they arise, and with opportunities when they occur, rather than thinking you ought to be creating the future. The skills we need are already in place within us - it only needs us to remain awake to the moment-by-moment expression of life. We don’t have to open the cage door by force, but we do have to refrain from holding it shut!