Mercury in Capricorn

'Young Hermes at Rest'

(bronze, Naples National Archaeological Museum, photo credit: Marie-Lan Nguyen, 2011)

Since the last post ended with contemplations of rainstorms and possible floor flooding, an update: the water didn't come in under the front wall, it came in under the door and somehow staged wetting down two of my windowsills (yes, on the indoors side), but it wasn't horrible. Furthermore I gather my wakefulness had plenty of company - a good number of Los Angelenos stayed up or were woken up by the downpour (replete with whistling winds) when it hit at about 1:30 in the morning.

The reason water came in under the door, I understand. That's because it rained so hard (LA got something close to two inches of rain in a couple of hours) that the roof gutter  overflowed. And wouldn't you know, it overflowed in just the right place to set up a cascade of splatter which hit my front door, dripping down - and from there under the door.

The windowsills I haven't quite fathomed yet, but I'm working on it. And though it is always something (as they say) this is the first invasion by water for me this year, which even as a Pisces person I think is a bit much.
 
Getting to the subject of this post (thanks for listening)... Mercury is reaching Capricorn ahead of the Sun this year, which isn’t an unpleasant thought. After all, while Mercury in Sagittarius can have things moving ahead at leaps and bounds Mercury in Sagittarius can also be a time that so much in motion that nothing gets done. Or a time when things already in progress seem like they’ll never, ever end.

Where Sagittarius runs hot, speedy and far, Capricorn coolly pays attention, considers repercussions and is never, ever in a hurry - which isn’t to say Capricorn symbols should be taken to be reticent. They aren’t - so when this comes to the mental, motion, communication realm which is All Things Mercury, we shouldn’t be surprised that Mercury in Capricorn is known for speaking its peace even if that disrupts the peace.

Capricorn stands for that which will last. It’s all about that which will endure, the effort to endure and the enduring of our own learning curve as that pertains to who we are intrinsically (identity), who we are in this world (career, social/legal standing) and how well we deal with who we are in that world, inclusive of whether we hold our Self to standards (reputation) - and what it takes to do that (responsibility).

Known for a ‘cool and collected’ quality, Mercury in Capricorn imbues most of us with a rational sort of awareness of why comprehension of themes and details is important to our aims. And thus we ‘go’ for what we want - we ask, we do, we try, we throw our hat in the ring, and for those who aren’t wearing a hat, we toss in whatever seems handy and apropos.

Who cares if someone objects? So long as our intention is well and truly understood, while someone else may object, it’s our self-esteeming that we’re mostly embodied and motivated by.

Given Mercury as a sign of communication, that Capricorn seldom hesitates and is a pragmatic and an ‘it is what it is’ sort of earth sign makes this an obvious boon for business and important of any kind - and while the Sun remains in Sagittarius (read: until the December 21st Solstice) while there may be disagreements on some points, so long as everyone remembers to nix the idea and not the person, given a bit of back and forth, agreements can be reached.

Once the Sun does enter Capricorn however, we can expect any of a number of tacks and tactics to liven up our day, our thoughts and considerations - and since some will be lobbed at us (as opposed to being something wholly ours to decide) we are likely to feel... and indeed to be challenged. 

Challenges - particularly those which test our endurance are part and parcel of Capricorn and going to be part of Mercury in Capricorn, testing not merely our endurance but the validity and viability (read: practicality, never mind any hype) of our reason(s) for holding our goal or opinion or belief or whatever else so very dearly.

And it’s likely that during this time a few things will change. Some changes will be initiated because of things we come to (Mercury) think and some will result from things which occur and which we react or respond to, whether or not that means we adapt to changing internal or external conditions or merely cope with them. Because of this - and in spite of this things can, and will get done: Mercury in Capricorn is another quite decent pairing for those with accomplishments needing to be accomplished. And since we know two other things (Uranus going direct on December 21st and Saturn moving from Scorpio into Sagittarius on the 23rd) are on the astrological calendar during Mercury’s trio of weeks in Capricorn, we have the markers which for some will manifest as accomplishment.

Or input. Or a shock - or perhaps a surprise. Capricorn does have a sincere strain of ‘earning’ to its makeup which suggests that those who have earned something are likely to get results there where those who haven’t earned won’t receive (or to the degree that we may not earned we may not receive).

This ‘earning’ or ‘having earned’ theory would even seem supported by the grand trine Mercury’s moving into Capricorn acts to trigger and make ‘real’ in that singular manner planets entering earth signs seem to have.

With Mercury exactly conjunct Eurydike there’s a question of ‘the cost’ in the mix, with that motivated and inexorably tied to some Regulus-Black Moon fact or earthly/earthy factor which is both about (Regulus) how little there is to be gained by doing things (Virgo) improperly... and about how there is nothing which can be (Regulus) properly done which doesn’t have a high (and probably unpredictable) quality of moral, ethical or emotional backlash (which by any other name would be known as ‘cost.).

At the same time that all that’s true, there’s also a nexus of conviction about the innate quality of goodness and the need to (Mirach/Hestia) protect same which has a tenacious, emotional hold on things... or on us... and that’s also a cost.

How to reconcile it all while attending to what time requires and the times demand while dealing with the business of how to make gains on whatever our goals and aims are...that requires some sort of compromise - from us, I mean.

We can like it or not like any of this. We can also be the person initiating whatever this grand trine refers to or a person on the receiving end.

Or we can just be experiencing something which embodies this experience for us, wholesale. Good or bad isn’t necessarily part of the equation... in fact Mercury in Capricorn has just that touch of a proverbial sort of ‘eat your vegetables, they’re good for you!’ maxim that issues are more likely to be about ‘like/no like’ or ‘want/not want’ than anything else.

Whatever will get us to think about what works in the long run or fullest of full terms - that’s where we can operatively go. But whether we’ll go there...? Or get there...?

That’s a whole other question. After Saturn changes signs (on the 23rd) there will be a ‘freeing up’ of some things, but getting any real feeling for same is going to take a bit of time, which given when this change of sign happens rather points to the end of the year and/or holiday season, whichever way you see it.

But prior to that there is Uranus’ station. Occurring on December 21st and at 12 Aries, this station occurs with Uranus' turn to direct in semi-square to Pluto (suggesting situational transformations as issues, facts and energies come to greater clarity) and Mercury in sextile to Neptune - which becomes the general rub.

What kind of rub? It's that Mercury/Neptune thing - an indication that something isn't entirely factual. This doesn’t have to be any big problem as 'non-factual' in metaphysical terms can simply mean "fiction."

As usual, such indicators end up being all in how we take them - or are overtaken by them. Beyond all that however, because this is (by date) associated with Uranus' station, any or all of what happens could also have everything to do with communications, changes in plans and/or high tech subjects seeing as Uranus is always a symbol of things systemic, electric, electrifying, digital and electronic. With Mercury in Capricorn there is some sort of reference or connection to the outside world (or what we are, want to be or need to be in that outside world) even if we spend the whole of this passage  experiencing whatever that means to us solely inside our own life - or even just inside our own head.

Two more items of particular note here. The first is how Mercury will conjunct Pluto (the finding, rediscovering or utilizing something which was lost, transformed or denied... or which will now be lost, transformed or denied) on December 24th. The degree being activated here being 12 Capricorn, there is a good deal of wit, cleverness and deftness of skill that if used wisely can lead to (or can now produce) something totally unanticipated - or at least unpredicted - of a powerful and potentially quite positive nature IF we are willing to admit to ourselves and ‘fill in the gap’ (or gaps) when it comes to that ‘thing’ which is missing in whatever equation we are working with which we would like to equal success and successful results.

The other thing to know about is that as we close in on New Years, Mercury will oppose fixed star Castor (first of the Gemini twins) on December 29th and then oppose Pollux (the second Gemini twin) on New Years Eve, AS Mars in Aquarius opposes Jupiter, now retrograde in Leo.

That brings up the subject of choice - and since Mercury rules Gemini - that which we choose or have chosen.

Plus there is that little fact that people do tend to do some very particular things on New Years Eve.

Whatever you face (or whatever is facing you), let’s just say this is not the time to do something hasty (or in haste) which might create some need to deal with a ‘cost’ regarding same which confronts you from some impersonally (or not personally) controlled perspective.

Other than that, what with this week ahead when the Sun in Sagittarius’ most worldly and newsworthy degrees will be signifying life stirring up that which will shift as we move through Uranus’ station on December 21st, we shouldn’t expect the days ahead to feel normal - or to have normal feelings about life in general.

The feelings we’re talking about are those which can feel personally destabilizing. Feelings of insecurity we didn’t even know we had may appear as if out of rather dim air.

Taken by NASA's Messenger spacecraft, this photo of Mercury is known as 'The Sunlit Side of Mercury'

(photo credit: NASA-JPL)

And on that level, that Mercury is moving into Capricorn on Wednesday, a day or two in advance of Uranus’ ‘official’ station and also probably as things (or we) start seeming or feeling disjointed about this or that... maybe that’s just life being kind to us by giving us an inner sense that we can prevail, that despite all the loose ends, seeming impossibilities and disgruntled times we can keep on being who we need to be.

Which is a gift indeed.
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New Years, New Moon

New Years fireworks at the London Eye

(photo credit: John Turner, January 1, 2008)

To turn the calendar page to 2014 and find a New Moon in Capricorn seems almost obvious. After all, Capricorn is all about what we do and achieve and aim for in the world and January – for most of us – means a variety of things.
 
You know, like facing beginning another round of record tallying for last year as we begin this one.

You know – that stuff. The stuff which is about being in and part of this world. The stuff we have to do (like our job in life, whatever that may be). Capricorn exudes responsibility. Events under Capricorn tend to elicit our sense of responsibility (to self or others) and all that prompts us to learn right from wrong what either underperforming or excess can be and/or add or detract from life…

…it’s all so very Capricorn-ish.

But when it comes to lunations, the theory is this: Moon and Earth are in this centrifugal-centripetal orbit dance driven by magnetism and other nifty universal forces… and as planet (Earth) and satellite (Moon) go through their dances, so do we.

(Okay, so I’m still in dance-lingo mode. Give me a few days, will you?)

The point here (no, I’m not going all ballet on you) is that by identifying the nature of the cycle we can bear that in mind. Once we ‘get a (Moon) feel’ for how this month’s cycle works, we can make the most of it.

10 Capricorn New Moon - January 1, 2014

(Aries Wheel - Location not Specific)

DISCLAIMER: We are under Venus retrograde – also in Capricorn. Hard work is required – first of all on our attitude towards our abilities or aims (or dislike of, or issues with same).

Don’t plan any capering through the rose petal parties, in other words.

(Yes, I know...I'll stop now.)

In that things don’t ‘feel right’ however, that’s probably part of what we could think of as ‘temporal motivation’ – the universe’s way of bringing about that which will get us into a “January mode” for ‘taking care of business.’

As for 10 Capricorn, the foundation of this lunation, that is a degree which is defined (by being one of Capricorn’s second ten degrees) as a quality which functions through (by eliciting responses) us – either by eliciting our response or which we embody in our choices and actions…OR which manifests as some sense or feeling which gets us to dealing with our aims and place in the world – whatever that may mean in the moment.

And that last bit…? The ‘in the moment’ part? That’s maybe the hardest part of dealing with the Moon – and often life (she says in a thoroughly philosophically if ever-so-slightly cynical manner)…things which feel like forever, for most of us aren’t – and things which we don’t care about in the moment can come back to haunt us.

Being founded in 10 Capricorn, the lunation which begins at 11:15 a.m. (UT/+0 time) on January 1st is going to usher in a month of sensitivity to a bigger picture and some need to reevaluate some personal priority (big or small). The pluses tend towards an increased understanding of acute awareness while minuses come from “being depressed” (or maybe repressed or even oppressed) in some way.

There’s a reckoning of sorts to be had this month, and with Pluto at 11 Capricorn (did I hear you say ‘oh goodie’…?) there are transformational forces at work which we each will come across in our own way, place and zone. The issue is ‘challenges’ and our problem is scope. Secrets we keep and what we know is probably merely a ‘mask’…or the ‘masking’ of matters becomes something we encounter, learn from and in reflecting on, are transformed by – though as usual, since we’re talking Pluto this is likely to be a facet of a greater cyclic shaping of your life.

That cycle began about a year and a half ago (call it the mid-latter part of 2012). What happens now plays into that in an ‘another thought for that bin’ sort of way while being something which is its own ‘thing’ and of separate interest right now.

With Mercury at 12 Capricorn, thoughts and thoughtfulness count now. To be clever is one thing – to be boorish or overly proud, another. It’s not what we can do now which counts…it’s why we do it, and why those others are who they are to us.

That seems the bottom line. However…

(Yes, I hear you holding your breath.)

…of course there’s a catch.

(Oh, don’t fuss at me! When was the last time you heard of a cycle of any type without a catch?)

This particular ‘catch’ is known as a Grand Square.

This particular grand square is in cardinal (action oriented) signs. So there’s a lot of tension about things we want to do, need to do, would like to do or want to see done (or see others do – or feel them wanting us to do). That’s another part of this giant cosmic lump of energy in Capricorn. (I’m thinking outer space oatmeal lumps here.) Life, the big world, our reputation – all that seems big giant stuff this month. (So says the girl about to release an autobiography which requires content warning labels.) With Venus retrograde things could be better than we think (hear me, oh doubters!). Or, for the particularly blithe and optimistic, the floor may be about to drop out from under us, particularly as that pertains to some notion about how to ‘effect’ or ‘be effective’ in some way which now seems – or comes to seem desirable, needed, necessary…or just ours to do because we can.

Sometimes the best form of responsibility is just living up to the responsibilities of being the best human being we know how to be, y‘know?

This kind of grand square in a lunation suggests this month will be active and maybe hectic. With Saturn (at 20 Scorpio) deposing/ruling the herd of (Moon-Sun-Pluto-Mercury-Venus) Capricorn positions we are told that the emotional-spiritual side of things (the “why” we do them) is important enough to need considering, but it should be considered along with everything else.

Hey, it’s Venus retrograde – like anything needs deciding about yet? Not likely. None of us yet have all the information, no matter what we think we’re doing.

This is a restless time. With this much cardinal energy abounding there are likely to be arguments – or at least uncomfortable confrontations or conversations. But this isn’t about any lack of constructive potential. Far from it! (So no copping out, okay?) About everything we could think of is emitting a subtle but thorough message which says if we allow the light to slowly come to us, it will come.

And if we don’t? If we deny that which is there to be learned from, it teaches us a lesson.

Our choice.

Right now the face of our internal ‘Moon’ is dark. But in a day or two, we will see how we feel.

And then that too shall pass.
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