New Moon in Capricorn

The New Moon in Capricorn on 11 January 2024 will usher in the new year with a lunar cycle full of propulsive astrological force and momentum. The Moon in Capricorn is in the opposite sign to her watery domicile of Cancer, zodiacal terrain of dark forests, mountainous impasses, and cold stone that necessitate a lunar focus upon the hard facts and harsh realities of survival. Yet Capricorn’s living image of the Sea Goat also signifies how the earthy pragmatism and inward receptivity of the Goatfish can draw sustenance from the oceanic, immaterial expanse underlying reality, churning visions of what to manifest from subconscious senses. The first century CE poet and astrologer Manilius described Vesta as tending the fires of Capricorn from her shrine, another fitting image for the deeper side of Capricorn that draws from sources of inner fire to reshape and reforge matter. If you can identify priorities and align your use of time and space to focus upon purposeful intention, the lunar cycle ahead possesses supportive astrological influences for disciplined effort bound to long range vision.

However, although the astrology of the month ahead has some of the best configurations of the year for making forward progress on goals, you also may feel a need to make space for regenerative recharging. As if the daily grind of daily work isn’t exhausting enough for many of us, the upsetting trajectory of numerous global storylines have the potential to leaden activity with a heavy weight if we aren’t instead able to use it to fuel our inner fire for change. The lunation is in the domicile of Saturn in Pisces, a cold and watery placement for Saturn that can accentuate melancholia and passivity. With the Capricorn New Moon also forming a square aspect to the lunar nodes that places it at the midpoint between the volatility of eclipses, it may be necessary to schedule down-time during the darkness of the lunation in order to rest and foster a renewal of spirit. However, the combination of the New Moon being at the southern bending of the nodes while in the home of Saturn in Pisces also accentuates capacity for deep dreaming that will allow for the emergence of bright visions of growth from the dissolution of the ways things have been.

Indeed, although Capricorn is typically described as a zodiac sign attuned to tradition and the past, the Sea Goat’s feel for what has been also allows for pattern recognition and listening to how the flow of nature is leading to future trends and developments. The capacity of Capricorn to initiate long range plans of growth will be accentuated by the New Moon in Capricorn separating from a flowing trine with Uranus in Taurus and applying toward a sextile with Neptune in Pisces and a conjunction with Pluto in Capricorn. These aspects between the Capricorn Moon and the outer planets will support breaking free from old routines in order to forge a more vibrant path ahead that is more deeply aligned with desires. Rather than trying to fit in with old societal structures and expectations, however, the combined influence of Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto will value the development of innovative pathways that will support your authentic passions. The cardinal nature of Capricorn excels at initiating plans full of careful thought, but rather than playing things safe there will be more astrological support for taking risks on behalf of what matters most to you.

Moreover, the Sun and Moon will also be joined in Capricorn by the fiery force of Mars. Mars is not only in his exaltation of Capricorn but also freshly renewed with vitality and visibility as a Morning Star protecting and heralding the revitalizing light of the Sun each dawn. Mars is applying to a close, flowing trine aspect with Jupiter in Taurus that can provide uplifting vision to combine with the workhorse mentality of Mars already strengthened by both solar phase and essential dignity. Furthermore, Mars is also closely separating from a harmonious sextile with its domicile ruler Saturn, placing the red planet in position to not only attune with the larger societal shifts emanating from Saturn and Jupiter being in a waxing sextile phase, but also aid us in gaining traction on our goals and putting in the work needed to make our visions a reality. Capricorn is zodiacal terrain that accentuates a more measured approach to the courageous firepower of Mars, and so the transit of Mars in Capricorn from 4 January to 13 February will support conserving energy to focus on our most prioritized values and goals.

During the waxing half of lunar cycle, the ability of Mars in Capricorn to take on multiple tasks effectively will be boosted by the entrance of Mercury into Capricorn on 13 January. After entering Capricorn, Mercury will form a harmonious sextile with Saturn in Pisces on 18 January and a flowing trine with Jupiter in Taurus on 20 January that will further assist activity and work that support long range plans. Mercury will then quickly move toward a conjunction with Mars in Capricorn that will become exact on 27 January, two days after the Leo Full Moon on 25 January. It will be wise to avoid needless conflicts and instead utilize the potency of Mercury and Mars traveling together in Capricorn for the work that is most important to you.

In the end, however, the Capricorn New Moon is all about Pluto. Due to Pluto being at the final degree of Capricorn, the lunation will be the final New Moon to form a conjunction with Pluto in Capricorn. The year ahead will bring an end to Pluto’s transit through Capricorn, as Pluto will enter Aquarius on 20 January and then eventually return to Capricorn for one final installment from 1 September to 19 November 2024. Pluto has been in Capricorn for sixteen years, first entering Capricorn on 25 January 2008 before returning to Sagittarius from 14 June until 26 November 2008 when Pluto entered the sign of the Sea Goat for good. Of course all of us have gone through incredible changes in the past sixteen years, but it will be worth contemplating the impact Pluto has made upon your natal chart while in Capricorn and reflecting upon how you’ve been transformed. The “trans” prefix means “across,” “beyond,” and “on the other side of,” and its remarkable how many “trans” words such as transmuted, transfixed, and transported resonate with the meaning of Pluto. As part of its chthonic, cathartic, and volcanic process, Pluto by transit dredges up deep rooted issues in need of release or purification in order to access the intensifying empowerment that Pluto delivers on the other side of its transit. While Pluto can bring death and loss, its process of rebirth enables the retrieval of value and newfound strength. While Pluto will force us out of comfortable patterns, the way it dislodges us from where we have become stagnated can also move us beyond our previous conceptions into a deeper sense of personal power.

Perhaps most of all, Pluto is connected to desire for power, dynamics of power and control, and power struggles. And while some of us will be more directly impacted in our natal charts by the entrance of Pluto into Aquarius than others, all of us will collectively feel an underlying tidal shift in societal power dynamics across all facets of global culture as Pluto exits Capricorn. Pluto in Capricorn has exposed innumerable examples of toxicity and oppression in hierarchical power structures during its time in Capricorn, but while its transit has knocked some out of positions of power as a result, in other cases the transit has only further inflated the disproportionate amount of power held by few. The transit began with a global economic crisis, but rather than bring about a more equitable rebalancing the transit of Pluto through Capricorn has only expanded the gap between the wealthy and everyone else. Combined with the conjunction between Jupiter and Saturn in 2020 in Aquarius, however, the new era of air will be further intensified by Pluto entering Aquarius in 2024 followed by Uranus entering Gemini in 2025. Thus what’s worked for those in power during Pluto’s time in Capricorn will no longer work as we are no longer in the era of earth, no matter how much they try to insist on the same outcome with the same methods. Moreover, Pluto in Aquarius has a track record of decentering concentrations of power and fragmenting societal dynamics into shifting power dynamics that overturn existing order.

Long before the global pandemic in 2020, astrologers had predicted that the 2020s would be incredibly volatile in ways that would ultimately define a new historical era. This was in part due to the conjunction of Saturn and Pluto at the beginning of 2020, an alignment that was unusually powerful due to Pluto and Saturn simultaneously conjoining their own south nodes; as it indeed marked the start of the pandemic, it did not disappoint. It is therefore notable that the New Moon on 11 January 2024 at 20°44′ Capricorn is close to the degree of the conjunction between Saturn and Pluto at 22°46′ Capricorn on 12 January 2020. Since Saturn will enter the critical phase of forming the first of three semi-square aspects with Pluto on 6 May 2024, the Capricorn New Moon will initiate us into a year long process of coming to terms with all the ways we have personally and societally experienced accelerated change since 2020. The changes have been disorienting, but in 2024 we will reach a stage in which we can gain greater clarity for how to more productively work with the larger societal disruptions and find our place within the new movements taking shape.

During the waxing half of the forthcoming lunar cycle, Pluto will form a conjunction with the Sun at 29°59′ Capricorn on 20 January, just before entering Aquarius later that same day. We previously experienced Pluto at the final degree and minute of Capricorn in 2023, but the impact of Pluto being at the liminal threshold between Capricorn and Aquarius will be more intensely felt this time due to the illumination brought by the Sun. Last year, Pluto was at twenty-nine degrees of Capricorn from 11 February until 23 March 2023 and then again from 11 June to 27 July 2023, before once again crossing over twenty-nine degrees of Capricorn from 19 December 2023 until now. The borderland between Capricorn and Aquarius is home to Saturn on both sides, yet the terrain and archetypal meaning are drastically different on either side of their division. The airy, intellectual, idealistic, and innovative atmosphere of Aquarius is more abstract and collectively focused than the earthbound realities of Capricorn, and we may feel a rush of excitement over all of the possibility that Pluto in Aquarius could bring. We can feel the cold winds of Aquarius circulating and intensifying as we approach the border, but before rushing ahead make sure to take stock of all the wisdom and maturation you have gained during the past sixteen years of Pluto in Capricorn. Despite whatever heartbreak and pain you may have endured, Pluto in Capricorn taught you something essential about yourself. May it serve you well during the next twenty years of Pluto transiting through Aquarius.

Capricorn 3 Decan

The New Moon in Capricorn is in the third decan of Capricorn associated with the Four of Pentacles arcanum illustrated above by Pamela Colman Smith. An image of empire building and wielding influence from a seat of power, the Four of Pentacles signifies a cultivation of inner talents to make an impact in the material world that aligns with the third decan of Capricorn being ruled by the Sun and Mercury.  The crowned and enthroned figure is surrounded by the weight of matter with pentacles below and above, as a fourth pentacle cradled at heart level evokes a spinning wheel of fortune. The figure towers in the foreground, suggesting someone sovereign and able to manage structures to bring material prosperity and security within the wildly fluctuating changes in fortune that come and go within surrounding society. Yet their tight hold of the pentacle also evokes a tyrant obsessed with maintaining control and power. The third decan of Capricorn possesses these two sides to the same coin.

These contrasting images of the third decan of Capricorn are clearly demonstrated by Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa in Three Books of Occult Philosophy. Agrippa wrote that within the third decan of Capricorn “rises a woman chaste in body and wise in her work, and a banker gathering money on a table; this [image] is the significator for prudent government and for ambitious and greedy substances.” The description of a banker’s greedy ambition is a popular stereotype of Capricorn that at the same time can be true, and indeed has been a common perspective people have had about major issues brought up by the transit of Pluto through the third decan of Capricorn since 2018. Yet a wise woman who is prudent in her work is an accurate portrayal of Capricorn that may align more with the lessons you have learned during Pluto’s transit through Capricorn. The etymology of prudence has connections with foresight and sagacity, with prudence having a long tradition of being associated with the ability to discern the virtuous choice and action to make. How have your virtues changed since Pluto entered Capricorn? Now that we have reached the final year of Pluto’s time in Capricorn, what enduring virtues have been forged by your experience?

Austin Coppock in his book on the decans 36 Faces ascribed the image of “The Throne” to the third face of Capricorn, a fitting image given that it is the face of the Sun.  Coppock wrote that the third decan of Capricorn involves administering from a throne to control the elements of the world needed to attain material gain and positions of greater power and responsibility.  Notably, Coppock cautioned that hubris can tempt those grasping for power in this decan to overlook the weight of responsibility and the loneliness of isolation that accompany achieving ambitions.  Coppock warned that accumulations of material wealth, power, and responsibility “may end up crushing them,” the idealized palace turning into a restrictive prison as “only high places bring with them the danger of terrible falls.” Coppock concluded that although the third decan of Capricorn draws us “close to high seats of power,” we need to remember that influential “positions always come with responsibility, and to sit in them is to be tempted by hubris.”

As the image of “The Throne” suggests, the Capricorn New Moon is a potent lunation for coming to terms with the full range of responsibilities we will need to claim and be accountable for in pursuit of our long range goals. The third decan of Capricorn further speaks to the virtues, ethics and ideals underlying our priorities and the moral compass we utilize in navigating the choices we must make with regard to vocation and livelihood. While Capricorn is the ultimate builder and initiator of ambitious plans amongst the zodiac signs, Capricorn also must confront the danger of choosing the wrong mountain of goals to climb that do not align with one’s values and will ultimately leave one unhappy or overwhelmed by too many burdens. As Pluto prepares to leave the third decan of Capricorn en route to its ingress into Aquarius, we can feel the shifting winds and how the old and familiar forms of vocational opportunity will be mutating in accordance. The darkness of the New Moon in Capricorn will provide space for centering within the core purpose felt within the recesses of inner soul, removed from external symbols of success and status. May the Capricorn New Moon connect you with the inviolable essence of your reason for being, and the steadfast virtues that will guide you through the immense collective changes to come.

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References

Agrippa, Heinrich Cornelius. (2021). Three Occult Books of Philosophy. Translated by Eric Purdue. Inner Traditions.

Coppock, Austin. (2014). 36 Faces: The History, Astrology and Magic of the Decans. Three Hands Press.