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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