New Moon in Capricorn

Dear Friends

We have a new moon today, Sunday 18th January (7.53pm UK time), with the Sun and Moon making their conjunction this month at 28˚ of earthy, steadfast, purposeful Capricorn. This new moon puts us in touch most acutely with our calling, our vocation, our mission here on earth. It is here that we confront the question: “if I have come here to do something with my life, then what am I doing about it?” It is a moment in the year to call in the highest intention for our life, and to take a definite step toward its realisation.

There is a fascinating line-up of planets to accompany this new moon, and a remarkable series of aspects being made over the coming week or so, leading up to the highly significant ingress of Neptune into Aries on 26th January. The new moon has a 4-planet conjunction in Capricorn, including an exact Mercury-Mars conjunction at 26˚ just two degrees shy of the Sun-Moon conjunction at 28˚. And this 4-planet stellium makes a tight trine aspect to Uranus in Taurus, and sextile aspects to Saturn and Neptune in Pisces, an extraordinary 8-planet configuration, with Venus & Pluto, themselves conjunct in the early degrees of Aquarius, are within the orb range of the aspects, and so also involved in it (even though their aspects are cross-sign, or dissociate).

This is a very unusual situation, and with all the aspects being conjunct, trine and sextile. There are no squares or oppositions, and so there is distinct lack of resistance, which might seem to indicate a direct, unimpeded transmission of energy, an inspired flow of insight or inspired action, an accelerated period of change and transition.

The Aspects in the New Moon Chart

There is such a lot going on in this new moon chart, and such a lot occuring during this next lunar cycle, I will unpack it as best I can here.

As mentioned above, we have a four-planet stellium in Capricorn, which really emphasises the importance of staying grounded, disciplined, pragmatic, and aligned to one’s purpose this month. It looks like a test of resolve, of commitment to the path, of doing whatever is necessary to stay focussed on what we are here to manifest. The Mercury-Mars conjunction is about bringing our words and actions together, manifesting our ideas in some concrete way, in a way that can affirm our direction in life and take a definite step in that direction.

There would seem to be powerful currents of energy streaming into the planet and moving through us right now, and this is certainly reflected in the Saturn-Uranus sextile aspect, which can facilitate all kinds of progressive movements, and speed up processes of information transfer that would normally take much longer, at mundane and spiritual levels. And even more so, with Mars and the other Capcricorn planets making a trine to Uranus, which creates a super-highway of energy exchange, that is not resisted. The sextile aspects to Saturn (and Neptune) also assist in bringing this energy into manifestation. It can be hard to know exactly where we are headed at a time like this, hard to keep pace with the rate of change. But checking in with your core values and sticking to your principles can be of great service in helping us stay on track.

Those of us who have natal chart placements of Sun, Moon, personal planets or angles (AC, MC, DC or IC) in these keys degrees of 26-28˚ of Capcricorn, Taurus or Pisces are likely going to feel this most strongly.

One Pluto Conjunction After Another This Week!

As this week progresses, all the planets that are in Capricorn at the new moon all move into Aquarius and make a conjunction with Pluto. We have a moon-Pluto conjunction on Monday 19th Jan, a Venus-Pluto conjunction on Tuesday 20th Jan, a Mercury-Pluto conjunction on Thursday 22nd Jan, a Sun-Pluto conjunction on Friday 23rd Jan and a Mars-Pluto conjunction on Tuesday 27th January. That’s a pretty intense week, where we will all have to stay mindful of our shadow material, especially when it comes to high-minded ideals, tuning into ‘higher’ frequencies, utopian thinking, and anything to with technology!

Neptune Entering Aquarius

In the middle of all that, on Monday 26th Jan, Neptune moves decisively into Aries where it will remain for the next 14 years. When an outer planet changes sign, it’s a big deal! We feel the shift within the collective consciousness. We saw it with Pluto moving into Aquarius in 2024 - that had a lot to do with the way that power is distributed and administered within society. We will probably be able to look back in a few years and see more clearly the significance of this; the shift from a traditionally corporate / hierarchical Capricorn system to a more abstract, ‘egalitarian’, A.I./technologically-driven network of Aquarian power distribution.

When an outer planet changes sign and moves from Pisces into Aries, as Neptune is doing now, it really sends a shudder through the field - for that planet is returning to the first, and most powerful degree of the zodiac, 0˚Aries - the creation degree. With Neptune, this occurs every 168 years. This is where it moves from its own home sign, Pisces: a dissolving, dis-orienting, sublimely mystical yet confusing 14-year period, into Aries, where a new era of Neptunian experience begins. It is at this juncture that we might reconnect with the mystery of birth, where the mystic remembers and re-invokes the ‘first time’, the time of eternal return, of mythic beginnings. Neptune in Aries stirs of the will of the spiritual warrior, where dreams, intuitions and longings are activated and acted upon.

Saturn also makes that same transition from Pisces into Aries on 14th February, during this next lunar cycle, a statement moment in its own 29 year cycle, where responsibility and authority is placed squarely on the shoulders of the individual. And then these two planets make their monumental, paradigm shifting conjunction at 0˚ Aries on 20th February. I will write more about this in a future post.

Some Questions for Capricorn Self-Enquiry

What is your stand in life, and how does it support and strenghten your life’s purpose? What are you willing to stand behind, to commit to? What are you willing to put your head above the parapet for, even if that risks your popularity rating, your public image, your standing in the world? This Capricorn new moon drives a hard bargain and it confronts us with some uncomfortable but necessary questions about what really matters, what we hold sacred, and what it means to act with integrity. And that begs the further question: how do we take that strong stance without using our position to build walls around us, without making ourselves impenetrable to true human connection; that which requires a much more sensitive, empathic type of engagement.

Beware of the shadow side of Capricorn, encapsulated in that old goaty maxim: ‘the ends justify the means’. When we give away our rights and freedoms to forms of authority who use this to justify their actions, we rarely get them back without a fight, and much of what is really meaningful in life, the soul-stuff, gets disregarded.

It is good to remember that new moons are about the sowing of new seeds, and what we initiate in the Capricorn season sets out our stall for the year ahead.

My Capricorn mantra runs: “I carry the wisdom of the elders, and the strength to complete the task I am set.”

New moon blessings to all!

John

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