An Aries wheel (non location specific) chart of the
2010 Capricorn solstice cast for (+0) Universal Time.
Welcome to this year's discussion of the Capricorn ingress - which of course centers on the Sun.
And if we look at this chart...what do we see?
We see a Sun conjunct Mercury (retrograde in Sagittarius)...and Pallas, North Node and Pluto/Eros!
Well gosh! And this whole bunch stands in opposition to fixed star Betelgeuse at 28 Gemini….! What oh what could that mean?
Answer: a lot of things, of course!
Let's start with the idea that this is one of those moments when wisdom (Pallas) is inspired....and when wisdom (Pallas) is probably (North Node) needed. Even required! So though our yearnings and desires may be strong (Pluto/Eros), we know that what we do…or don’t do (Sun/North Node) ultimately determines the quality, stability and longevity of our life and lifestyle (Capricorn, Saturn as ruler of Capricorn).
Though we like to think of this time of year as one filled with joy and peace and family time, the truth of it is that astronomically, this is the shortest day of the year in the north hemisphere and the longest in the south. So the Capricorn ingress is a moment of shift – from northern waning to waxing and from southern waxing to waning. And this is reflected in the idea that in entering
Capricorn, the Sun leaves its six months in receptive-responsive mode and takes up six months in pro-active and explorative mode.
Come to think of it…
an astrologer’s daydream….
I wonder if anyone has ever considered the different paths, attitudes and cultures of nations in northern and southern hemispheres based on this fact?
Southern days wax while the Sun moves through signs which whether yin or yang function in a receptive-reactive-responsive mode and northern days grow longer while the Sun is in pro-active, assertive, explorative mode.
From the astrological point of view, surely this would have an effect on people and the countries they build/live in north and south?
Enough of that! Back to the subject…
There are many sorts of transit points throughout the whole of the zodiac. There’s the shift from sign to sign, the shift from quadrant to quadrant (from personal learning to personally operative to worldly interactive to world participant) the shift from lower to upper hemisphere and vice-versa…
…but only the shift from the left to right half of the natural zodiac wheel – from pro-active-assertive-experimental to reactive-receptive-responsive and back again – only those transitions are actually known as difficult. Yea verily, even problematic.
And that’s not hard to understand. Going from private/personal to worldly/public is something most of us do everyday. We go out our doors into the public, we come back home into our private realms. There’s a little ‘oh do I HAVE to?’ when it comes to hauling ourselves out of bed in the morning…
And there are those who even when they get home find it near impossible to just ‘stop.’ Housework, work brought home from the office, personal paperwork, returning phone calls, emails…it’s a whole list – which only proves that you don’t have to be out in the world to be being assertive and pro-active!
For many, the shift from proactive to passive, from directing traffic and living in the fast lane of their own brain to letting go and just sitting back…that shift is notoriously tough for a lot of folks. It’s even specifically mentioned when we look at lore and notes astrologers down through the ages have taken for 29 Gemini.
Yes, that 29 Gemini – the degree of yesterday’s Lunar Eclipse, and part of what was discussed in the blog on same.
But for others, getting out of the more passive, receptive/responsive gear may be just as hard. Some of us like risk. Some of us loathe risk. Some of us like the new, some of us like the known.
Every December Solstice – and thus Capricorn Ingress – is about this moving from a more contained and ‘responding’ (to circumstances, information, data, etc.) mode into a purely ‘let’s do it and see how it works out’ sort of mode. That idea colors the Ingress moment…and the whole of the Capricorn quarter – that being from here into March, this quarter being the signs of Capricorn-Aquarius-Pisces.
The concept of this quarter remains wholly worldly. This is about how well any ‘world’ works – be it that in your family, that in your nation, that of the globe, that in your head, that in your profession…and so on.
The next three months (the 'ingress quarter') is also ‘colored’ by the concept of Mercury retrograde. Mercury is in Sagittarius, telling us that the details are important and that we need not rush, but we need to find out why we aren’t getting where we want to go…or what is holding us back perhaps…or what we need to do in order to move forward in some new and more assertive, proactive way in whatever ‘world’ (or ‘worlds’) are not as functional (Mercury/Sagittarius) or structurally sound (Sun/Capricorn) as we’d like them to be.
Or as we need them to be…let’s be real here!
A lot of people are going to hold themselves back this quarter. You’re going to see it, hear it and maybe even experience it. The purpose for that hesitation is the key to whether it’s useful or not. If it’s just a biding of time, or dawdling because of not liking to risk, change, leave the comfort zone – that’s not all that productive. If there is a directed purpose – the ‘getting it right’ sort of thing – that’s a positive.
So on some level, we can really think of these next three months and a time in which to get right with OUR world(s).
However…for those who hear this and think ‘oh, so I don’t really need to do anything for real until March’ that may or may not be so. Why you would think that is pretty Mercury retrograde (is it an excuse or is it really needing the time to get something right or ready?). But this goes back to that daydream about the solstice as a universal factor.
The two yearly equinoxes (spring and fall) are as implied: moments of equal metaphorical, emphasis – aka power, potential or more to the hemispheric point, ease of functionality.
The solstices are inequality incarnate. This moment is where the whole of the southern hemisphere (and thus everybody living or operating) in that hemisphere has as much potential and responsibility on their side as they will have during this ‘solar cycle’ with the northern hemisphere being in just the opposite situation.
So people who live (or who were born) in the northern global hemisphere should be thinking they are facing ‘the uphill battle’ now. In other words, this is a time of building. People in (or born in) the southern hemisphere are capitalizing on what has been done or dealing with results (sometimes also called consequences!).
A glorious photograph of Planet Earth taken by Apollo 17 astronauts
photo credit: NASA
And for you who were born in one hemisphere and who are residing in the other? Since our innate (birth) nature is endemic to us, especially with Mercury retrograde you’re are likely to be learning about or maybe even confronted with matters pertaining to your own personal rhythms. Or maybe how you differ from those around you – which could be yes, a problem…but then, it could be just the kind of uniqueness which allows you to get noticed, shine and make big advances.
Wherever you live, the fact that Uranus commits to its transit of Aries mere days before the end of this calendar/zodiacal quarter tells us the object is to reincarnate our lives. To reinvent ourselves. To do something new. To renew who we are in our own world. To get real about what’s real in real life.
Given that, and that there will be a Solar Eclipse in Capricorn barely two weeks – a fortnight for you poetic folks – into the quarter? That tells us that old ways of doing, old (Capricorn) structures in life and that have been our life are passing away. With Venus in Scorpio at the ingress, a lot of the problems raised in us during and by the Venus retrograde cycle remain active now and moving forward, contributing to these changes.
How well have you learned those lessons? Have you figured out where and how you are either trying to get blood out of a stone? Have you recognized that some of your desires (or those of others you have chosen to deal with) are so personally ‘me-me-me’ oriented that what results is an unworkable situation?
To have Venus in Scorpio, Mercury in Sagittarius, Sun and Mars in Capricorn (an obvious zodiacal sequence) is a pretty sure sign that our values (Venus) and ways of going about getting where we want to go in life (Mercury) are lagging behind what we really want. We need to – in essence – catch up with our potential and what we actually believe in about ourselves.
This ‘truth of self’ is pretty much the whole point of this quarter. Phrased a thousand ways and coming at you from a dozen quadrants, life is seeking to prompt you through events and promptings both happy and sad, positive and negative, productive and restrictive…the point is WHO ARE YOU?
And from that…are you headed in the right direction? Are you being a responsible person to yourself, to others and in this world? That’s the other part of the shift into the zodiacal 4th quadrant well worth discussing – and pretty fitting as a way to round up our chat. In the 4th quadrant, that land of Capricorn, Aquarius, Pisces…ultimately the Capricorn world, the Aquarian society and the Piscean moral-social-humanistic standard always, always, always, ALWAYS wins.
And Uranus working over the very end of this quadrant is a reflection of how so many of us are trying desperately…maybe fervently…to old ways, whatever they may be.
Those ways, dreams, beliefs…whatever they are, they represent comfort zones. Uranus makes this transition once every 84 years. So we haven’t seen this cosmic ‘give it up!’ vibe roll through earthly life since 1926 - just before depressions rolled through a lot of national economies, setting the stage for WWII. The cycle before that was 1842. Not the same set of nations, not the same circumstances, but anyone who knows their history knows the kind of giant changes political (Capricorn), scientific (Aquarius) and humanistic (Pisces) which happened in the 20, 30, 40 years which followed 1842.
This is not a prophesy of war. Or economic collapse. What is it? One person pointing at a cosmic clock saying the ‘change’ alarm is about to go off – loudly. If you are someone who interprets change as a disaster…? Then yes, you may feel a lot is very wrong going forward. But if you’re willing to change in your head and in your life…if you’re willing to be a participant in change – this is truly a good time.
Those who linger will find things getting harder. Those who take it upon themselves to get out of their ‘hoping its all going to be okay the way it is’ mode will like as not prosper.
The bad news is…it’s all about what you do. It’s all about whether you are willing to become pro-active in your own life and in life in general.
The good news however is that it’s all about you! You have every reason and opportunity now to be pro-active in creating the life you want to have in a world which is more expansive and interesting than ever.
