Inner Gaze: New Moon in Capricorn 2016

Illustration of a Siberian shaman by Dutch explorer Nicolaes Witsen via Wikimedia Commons.

Dec 28, 2016

10:53 PM Pacific

Dec 29, 2016

1:53 AM Eastern

Modern society attempts to create the illusion that everything is under control. While that illusion certainly helps things run smoothly and ensures that everyone plays their role, it comes with a price. The price is immense repression of our primal nature and the subjugation of any reality or viewpoint which threatens the status quo. We’re all conditioned to see the world a certain way and to fear anything that puts into question our standard narratives. This New Moon in tropical Capricorn helps us to see the structures and routines in our lives through different eyes, which will help us to gain clarity about how we fit into the larger whole.
 
December’s Capricorn New Moon is the last lunation of 2016. Occurring just three days before the New Year, this is a moment to step back, reflect, and take your time in considering your present options and decisions. Every New Moon is a collective moment of lower energy conducive for healing, rest, and meditation. At this stage of the lunar cycle, the Moon invites us inward to recharge and consolidate. Mercury’s alignment with this New Moon further reinforces the need to slow down. That’s because Mercury is currently retrograde.
 
This three-week process can sometimes feel frustrating. Life doesn’t readily yield to our plans and expectations. Things sometimes break down. Communication can be difficult. We may be more accident prone, sloppy, or clumsy. Before hastily moving forward with important matters, use this time to carefully review the details. Open your mind to new perspectives, realities, and alternate viewpoints. Occurring in the sign of Capricorn, this New Moon favors conscious solitude. With the busyness of the Holidays, this can be hard to attain. But even a brief moment of alone time will help you focus and clear your head.
 
While Capricorn can incite ambition, hold off on impulsive or drastic actions. You have more time than you think. Capricorn prefers sustained effort and thoughtful strategy. With Mars conjunct Neptune in Pisces sextile Mercury and the New Moon, you will uncover the energy you need only if you pause and take notice of your inner needs first. Consider the importance and value of inner journeying and self-reflection. And consider how much insight you already have within you. Before we enter the New Year, this lunation is a great way to gain perspective about the past year so that you can more effectively plan for your future.

Uranus is also stationing direct conjunct Eris just after its first opposition to Jupiter on Dec. 26. With Uranus stationing at the peak of this opposition, there is a powerful need to break free from current restraints and a longing for the freedom to uncover new heights of potential and experience. This dark of the Moon time also carries a dynamic creative and visionary potential as well as an opportunity to see beyond the old ways of doing things. As the new year approaches, it might also be wise to hold off on implementing resolutions; there’s a lot to reconsider and think about with this New Moon. Sit back, relax, and turn away from outer distractions. Allow this New Moon to gift you with the focus needed to reconsider your goals, strategies, and direction.

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Strategic Renewal: New Moon in Capricorn 2016

Ozys (Capricorn) in the twelve painting cycle Zodiakas (Zodiac); by Mikalojus Konstantinas Clurlionis, 1907.

New Moon @ 19 Capricorn 13'
January 9, 2016
8:30 PM Eastern
5:30 PM Pacific

On Jan. 9 the current lunar cycle renews in the tropical sign of Capricorn. A New Moon can be a time of lower energy, a time to turn inward and recharge, but especially occurring in Capricorn and alongside Mercury recently stationing retrograde, a call inward toward solitude or some focused activity is supported. The New Moon’s wide conjunction to Pluto tends to add some seriousness and density to this lunation, which can prompt you to set priorities and discriminate between various activities you may be juggling. Capricorn is an archetype of focused determination and the mastery of the will over the “primal” impulses of the human psyche.

That doesn’t mean that Capricorn is all work and no play, or that it’s a sign devoid of pleasure; it merely represents the much needed braking mechanism within the psyche that channels primal energies into consciously directed activities of a more complex or sophisticated nature. Capricorn is a symbol of the triumph of willpower over appetite. Of course, when allowed too much expression, Capricorn can manifest as power tripping or an attempt to control to the point of limiting creative spontaneity and chance. The New Moon’s vicinity with Pluto highlights the “shadow” of Capricorn, especially on a collective level.

The dark side of conservatism is a resistance to progressive change and innovation. The dark side of too much structure is an inability to have commerce with trickster—the one who frees and liberates humanity from soul-deadening systems. Mercury just recently moved back into Capricorn, and thus it appears to be highlighting the need to break free of time-serving tendencies, to renovate your routines and to find new, progressive ways to alter your daily life. Jupiter, which recently turned retrograde, also makes a trine (120 degrees aspect) from Virgo while aligned with the North Node of the Moon.

Jupiter points us to an opportunity to seek new experiences or adventures; or conversely, a need to retreat to recharge one’s soul inwardly. Thus, this New Moon correlates with a sense of changing direction in some capacity, whether big or small. Pluto directs consciousness to the bottom line: your soul’s purpose for incarnation, and the unavoidable reality of death, decay, and entropy of everything that you create or achieve in life. And Capricorn’s higher message is that to see anything substantial manifest in the world, you must learn to cultivate self-discipline and determination.

This New Moon may prompt you to get on with something, or to address some serious, pressing matters relating to the need to move beyond stagnation. It’s likely that if you look closely, there’s something that you’re doing robotically, without passion, emotion or excitation. You may need to shift your attention or your direction entirely if you are to change anything. But that requires taking an honest look at yourself and your life to peer through the holes in the system you’ve set up for yourself. I don’t personally think that we’ve come here to become automatons. And I don’t think you have either.

The great part of Capricorn energy is that it’s excellent at devising a game plan. Use this lunar cycle to conjure an effective strategy that will lead you to change. There may be some things you’ll have to sacrifice to get there, and there may be some desires or impulses you’ll have to hold back, but in the end, it might just be worth it. This lunar cycle may feel a little serious, but remember that Mercury, the trickster, is retrograde. It will help you along if you can release your grip and open yourself to the possibility of chance encounters. You never know what you might stumble upon and how it might significantly alter your strategy.