This New Moon will occur in Capricorn, the cold, earthen realm of Saturn, on Sunday, January 2nd, at 12:34pm Eastern time, at 12 Degrees of Capricorn.
New moons indicate new beginnings in astrology. As the moon courses through the twelve signs of the zodiac, she becomes full of energies and spirits which pass through her and down to the earth to effect change on the world. Now, filled with their light, the Moon is ready for rebirth in the fires of the Sun.
We all have a very special opportunity here to be reborn alongside the Moon. Magically speaking, the obscured moon can be likened to a fallow field – an empty bed rife with possibility and potential. Old patterns and alignments become cleared and new ones are ready to take their place. For this reason, new moons give you an opporunity make excellent opportunities to set new intentions and plant new seeds in the fertile soil of your life.
This New Moon occurs in the grounded, hardworking, rather dour sign of Capricorn. The energy is subdued. The color palette is muted. In fact, almost all of the fanfare and adulations of a regular new Moon have vanished.
But underneath all this depressive, uninspired melancholy lurks a great deal of grit, realism, and a can-do attitude about tasks set before us. In fact, the heavy, saturnine character of this new moon can help people to move mountains and change their lives forever…so long as they are willing to do the work that is asked of them.
Working for Grounded Change
Traditional astrologers associate Capricorn with contraction, coldness, a lack of feeling, asceticism, self-flaggelation (both physical and psychological), and depression. It is hard on itself, hard on other people, and lives a hard life.
But through all this heaviness, grit, hard work, and the incessant putting of the nose to the grindstone, Capricorn achieve greatness. Capricorn creates wealth. Capricorn builds a kingdom that lasts, because Capricorn knows what it takes to accomplish such a feat, and does it.
It should come as no surprise that the sign of Capricorn is ruled by Saturn, the God of Death. Saturn throws obstacles, roadblocks, challenges and struggles at us in order to temper our souls. Saturn unburdens us of the false, egoic self through hard lessons and great self-reflective struggles. Saturn compels us to get real about the work that we must do on ourselves.
In Indian Astrology, Saturn is associated with the spiritual path of asceticism and austerity. Saturn rules people who give up all the pleasures of life and go live in the woods, bereft of niceties, fasting quite a bit. Saturn also rules tantra, in which practitioners would engage in morbid practices that they would normally not want to do, in order to crush aversions more quickly.
Because the path of tantra is so difficult, it is also the quickest route to enlightenment. And this speaks to the great advantage of Saturn and working with Saturn: Saturn does not cut corners. Saturn does not beat around the bush. If you work with Saturn, you will get what you want, and get it relatively quickly. You just need to
Capricorn is Saturn’s yin, introverted sign, in which the proclivity towards hard work, discipline, and duty really thrive. In Capricorn, the denial of self and one’s own desires take center stage, but it is working towards a material goal. It desires to build something lasting and worthwhile. It prioritizes duty and responsibility over its own needs because it knows that truly changing the world for the better requires grit and effort.
In the cycle of the year, the Sun occupies Capricorn for the winter solstice, at the very beginning of winter. They days are dark. The wind is cool. There’s no light, no flowers, and no food. It’s humdrum and miserable.
HOWEVER. The days are starting to brighten little by little, day by day. We are slowly marching up the mountain to the peak of the summer solstice, even if we have only just started the journey. We are moving forward. Things will get better.
Clearly, this is not the most comfortable placement for the Moon. The moon, as the celestial mother of the heavens, desires to fulfill desires, give us what we want, and meet our needs. But in Capricorn, she cannot do that, because Capricorn prefers the denial of personal needs for the sake of duty and responsibility to a greater whole.
So when the Moon occupies Capricorn, denial of our needs and the tabling of our own emotions is asked of us. We have to go to work when we’re sick. We get hard lessons. We learn that we’re wrong and our opinions don’t matter. No one wants to listen to our emotional process. It’s not time for safe, nurtering, open-hearted share circles. It’s time to work.
Whenever the New Moon occurs in Capricorn, we all get a taste of this vibe for the next lunar season, whether we want to or not. Hard work is asked of us. Denial, self-control, and dedication to one’s work is emphasized instead. It’s not super fun. You don’t get to have nice things.
But the long-term, grounded change that can come into your life if you follow through with the self-restraint and hard work will be immense. You have the opportunity this month to do so much of the work that the rest of the year will require of you. If you start out on the right foot, the rest of the year is so much easier.
You may feel at times like you are in a crucible - as if you are being tested and pushed to your limits. Think of this as a compulsory upgrade to your entire system. If you lean into it, you will end up with more stamina, more drive, and more discipline. You will be a stronger, more stable, more grounded human being.
We have two aspects coming in to color this new moon. Our first aspect proper this new moon comes from Jupiter. Jupiter will help to counteract a lot of the self-deprecation and heaviness of this season. You will still have to push yourself and work hard, but you will find a lot of grace and support for your labors.
Our second comes from Venus retrograde. Venus rules all the fine comforts of life, good food, fine art, lovemaking, etc. Venus will offer you all those nice things that distract the ascetic from the path. Because she is retrograde, you may find yourself being tempted cravings you thought you had kicked. You may find also find that if you do indulge in this desires, they will quickly be taken away from you.
Examine the house placement in which this occurs to get a better sense of what to expect in your own life. If you are a Libra Rising, it will occur in your 4th house of home. Something in your home and living situation will have to die so that you can move forward with this resolve to do what you need to. If you are Aries rising, look to the 10th house - some big shifts will be happening with your career.
hard Work that Pays Off
If you really want to lean into the lessons of this new moon, practice denial and self restraint.
Take this as an opportunity to begin new practices - especially the daily kind - that are hard, that you would rather not do, but that are very good for you. Cut out sugar. Stop drinking. Take cold showers. Begin that meditation practice you’ve been meaning to.
Take some time to get very real with yourself about what you need to do, what you should do (yes, I said the S word.) There are those things in your life that you know you should or should not do. They’re not helping you. They don’t make you feel great, and they’re not in line with your highest purpose, no matter how much you may try and rationalize their current presence.
Whatever you choose, do it every day for a month. I guarantee that you will feel like a completely different person afterwards.
I can think of two gemstones that will be helpful for this: red calcite and red obsidian. Both of these stones will bring you a great deal of grounding and a healthy dose of realism. However, both of them also bring you the strength that you need to make real, stable changes in your life.
For physical practices, I personally love doing lots and lots of sun salutations for peaks in Capricorn season. They ground me, stabilize me, and connect me to the power that I have to push through and make the changes that I need to make in life.
If you really lean into the transformation that this period can bring, you will find that you have made hard decisions and set rewarding habits that dramatically improved the rest of your life ever since. You can make meaningful, lasting change which will pay off forever.
You just have to do the work.
Own your power.
-Merlin