Capricorn Solar Eclipse, January 14-15, 2010
New beginnings in the midst of snowy winter. New seeds to be planted in the frozen soil. Are we up to the task?
As we do each New Year, we look backward and forward, like the Roman god, Janus, who has two faces. We look back on a year of breakdown, but we can look forward based on where we are now as well as where we want to be. It is time for each of us to envision and set the intention for the people’s new world order, with the help of the Aquarian visions of Neptune, Jupiter and Chiron. We have to keep the faith that we can move mountains.
On January 14 (11:12pm PST) and January 15, 2010 (2:12am EST/ 7:12am GMT) there will be a solar eclipse at this new Moon in Capricorn, the 10th sign of the Zodiac – the sign most concerned with the structures of our collective life. But it is also the sign of the re-birth of the Christos – the Christ consciousness that is our spiritual heritage which is meant to bond with our earthly nature.
The image associated with Capricorn is that of a sea-goat, a mountain goat with a fish’s tail. Capricorn, through the discipline and focused intention of its ruler Saturn, offers us the initiation of mastering both the heights and the depths. With its standpoint in the waters of the collective unconscious, this goat can scale the highest mountain. That’s the initiation this Capricorn New Moon Solar Eclipse wants to offer us.
A solar eclipse occurs when the Sun, Moon and Earth are in alignment with the North Node of the Moon, our collective destiny. As the Moon ‘swallows’ the Sun, our normal perceptions of life are overshadowed by the collective unconscious needs. What has been ignored and rejected is now in full view.
Capricorn is the sign concerned with government, society and our economic institutions, the social structures that bind us together. And as we all know, with Pluto just beginning its reformation of these Capricornian concerns, we have our work cut out for us. Every day brings us another example of the Capricorn shadow – the will to dominate, out-of-control materialism, sexual shame, inappropriate ambition, slick opportunism and calculating manipulation.
But we can’t change our society if we do not first change ourselves. Capricorn is also the sign of our dharma, our willingness to conduct ourselves in alignment with our spiritual, archetypal nature. Capricorn is therefore the sign where we find a social role that fits our inner being, the place where we step forward, take up our inner spiritual authority and contribute our energy, knowledge and wisdom to form a ‘more perfect union’ with others.
Capricorn demands integrity, discipline and responsibility to accomplish this. Yeah, it’s time to grow up! So if you’re planning to do a vision board for this important new Moon, please skip the big new house, the Bentley and the million-dollar prosperity bonus. It’s time to reorder your priorities! (That vision board might wait until the Taurus new Moon.)
This solar eclipse calls us to envision a new society, and since conspicuous consumption is part of the old world order, it’s inappropriate now. It is time, however, to come up with new ideas about why we’re here on Earth at this momentous time in our history.
What new ideas would you like to share with the group? How would you run the show if you were in charge? Just because you don’t have an ‘official’ title doesn’t mean you can’t step up and be the adult in your workplace, your community or your country.
Like a character in one of my favorite movies “Sneakers” you might want to demand from our government world peace. Easier said than done! So you need to dig deeper (yes, I know the ground is frozen so it takes more effort) and come up with your own idea about how to achieve world peace. That’s the intention you need to plant and then nurture in this coming year.
Since Pluto in Capricorn energizes the transformation of what is dead and outgrown in our society, perhaps we need to look at the foundational beliefs of our social structures and see if they still hold true for the future we are facing.
Of the many philosophical ideas that underpin our western capitalist democracy, these are two of many that I feel need transformation. Please feel free to document any others.
The first is the Protestant work ethic, the Calvinist belief that hard work is an essential proponent of a person's calling and worldly success is a sign of personal salvation. Basically God loves you if you work hard and get rich, while you are considered a sinner if you’re poor or don’t work. Hopefully we’ve seen the hypocrisy of that belief!
This mostly unconscious belief contributes to both the greed and hypocrisy of our corporations and the powerful, as well as the shame and despair that fill people when they lose their jobs. And it’s just not true!
What if instead we believed that people naturally want to do the work we are each best suited for. Instead of believing money is salvation and the epitome of the ‘pursuit of happiness’, what if our creative contribution to society is the real object of the ‘pursuit of happiness’.
What does that say about how our corporations chould work? Instead of looking for the cheapest labor and highest profits, corporations might be the structure that allows us to band together to creatively make life better for all of us.
Another philosophical pillar of western belief comes out of the Enlightenment. It is the belief that reason is the primary source of legitimacy for authority. That freedom comes when we apply rationality to every problem, while irrationality must be distrusted. But look around and see what that philosophy has brought us to. We are on the brink of either catastrophe or transformation. It is crazy to use the same methods that got us here in the first place, so what will we do?
We are an unbalanced society in that we repress and devalue the feminine values of feeling and intuition, while elevating reason and facts beyond their true function. Using intellect without the deep feeling function can lead to dishonesty, hypocrisy and cruelty. Believing facts at the expense of intuition opens us to manipulation of those facts to suit our own agenda. A one-sided belief in the superiority of rationality gives rise to irrational religious beliefs because the intuitive function has been repressed and twisted.
So I’d like to vote for this change of core values. To be an enlightened civilization, we must give value to emotional intelligence and acknowledge our connection with everything and then let our intellect decide how to get what’s best for all of us. Let us learn to listen to our intuition and use facts to support and flesh out the visions we see.
Now is the time to ask: what makes for a good economy? Is it the bottom line of how much money it brings in or is it how creative and secure people are? What does ‘life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness’ mean now, in the depleted, poisoned world we’ve created? What are the really important things that make for a full life? Can we make those things the central vision of our culture, rather than the corporate vision that dominates us now?
It’s time we start thinking about these things if we are to be an enlightened citizenry, if we are to reclaim our democracy.
The major players for this solar eclipse new Moon are:
On Monday January 11th, the Sun, Venus and the North Node unite at 22* Capricorn. Venus softens this meeting with destiny. The Sabian symbol for 22* Capricorn is: By accepting defeat gracefully, a general reveals nobility of character. Whatever destiny (NN) waits us, it is important for the general/ego/leader (Sun) to accept what is and deal with it gracefully (Venus). What counts is our inner strength.
Saturn, the ruler of Capricorn, is slowing down to turn retrograde on January 13th, right before this solar eclipse. Saturn is at 5* Libra, and will go back to 28*Virgo before it turns to direct motion again on May 30th. Saturn is still in a challenging aspect to Pluto in Capricorn, marking a major crossroads where we will have to deal with the many laws and institutions that are no longer viable in our society. Later on this year these two planets will be joined by Jupiter and Uranus in Aries, and that’s when things will really heat up!
The Sabian symbol for 5* Libra also speaks to the need to create new world vision: A man revealing to his students the foundation of an inner knowledge upon which a ‘new world’ could be built. It is our honest self-express that reaches out to others and opens them to understand the ‘new world’ that wants to be born. When we act with integrity and responsibility, even people who disagree with us will be open to seeing our vision, because it is an inclusive vision.
Just a few hours after the solar eclipse, Mercury turns direct at 6* Capricorn on January 15, conjunct Pluto and squaring Saturn. It’s time to deal with the real issues (not the manipulated false issues so often fed us by the media or our shadow complexes) and move forward with new ideas, new reforms and new plans. The Sabian symbol for 6* Capricorn is: Ten logs lie under an archway leading to darker woods. The number 10 is a symbol of a new, higher level of activity. You have to finish up old business before you head off into the mysterious unknown. The future awaits us!
Jupiter dives from the airy heights of Aquarius into the watery depths of Pisces on January 17. For the first time in 12 years, we get to expand our awareness of the mystical side of life, so dive into spirituality, intuition, imagination, fantasy and compassion. You’ll be glad you did.
Venus (Jan.18) and the Sun (Jan. 19) enter Aquarius.
The Sabian symbol for this new Moon at 26* Capricorn is: A nature spirit dancing in the iridescent mist of a waterfall. This beautiful image speaks of the power of nature to refresh and restore us. It speaks of invisible powers that unit all of us.
I find it fascinating that we have this solar eclipse on this degree, with this symbol, just as hundreds of millions of people are flocking to see the movie AVATAR. We are invited to base our new world vision on the reality of and unity with the natural world, our Mother Earth, like the Na’vi’s mystical link with Eywa (as in most earth-based religions). Just as Jake Sully awakens to the joy of a new body and the beauty of Pandora, so we too would be wise to understand that we are at a crossroads when it comes to the health of our planet’s environment. We ARE part of nature, and that’s another belief we have to reckon with – the old belief at the base of capitalism that the earth is only ‘dead’ matter to be used for economic reasons above all else. We cannot rape and pillage Nature without repercussions to ourselves and our culture.