Listen for Capricorn and Capricorn Rising

2013 Annual Horoscope by Eric Francis

Capricorn Part One 
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Capricorn Part Two 
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Music for Capricorn – Lines of Change by Blue O’Connell
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Listen for Capricorn and Capricorn Rising | 2013 Annual Reading by Eric Francis
Full minor planet list for 2012, for the day that the Sun arrives in your sign.
Full minor planet list for 2013, for the day that the Sun arrives in your sign.

This is a time for you to get used to the continuing process of change and what may feel like standing on shifting ground. Indeed, you may be trying to build on shifting ground, which presents certain challenges, one of which includes building with the idea of strength, flexibility and adaptability in mind.

It may feel like you’re living in an earthquake zone, with Pluto moving through your sign, in aspect to Uranus crossing one of the most sensitive areas of your chart. The Uranus-Pluto square is far from over, and it’s the single most influential aspect in your chart. You’re under some intense pressure to change, to grow, and to evolve into your true self, and that pressure is coming from nearly every angle.

What is really happening is that you’re doing something that used to be called self-actualizing. That is, your sense of SELF is becoming ACTUAL. That’s a lovely 14th-century word that means, “pertaining to action” or “active.” It also means, “real” and “existing.” Self-actualization is 1970s psychology talk for GETTING REAL.

The primary chart that I’m using for your forecast this year is the winter solstice of 2012, a phrase that had lingered long and large in the future, and which is now behind us.

We’ve been told that the turnover of the Mayan calendar would be everything from the enlightenment of humanity to the end of the world. An industry of books, webpages, conferences, podcasts, TV programs and a feature film all sprung up around the 2012 phenomenon. What exactly did we learn? What did all that forward-looking and speculation do for us? Is there some parallel in your own life, in terms of how you structured the future on hope and possibility, but without the actual/actualization/get-real function included?

I read the 12/21/12 chart many times before I started to understand what was going on — which was the description of how the world needs to change through relationships changing. Deeper than relationships are an underlying raft of values that influence them. This may seem like an odd theme, and I don’t recall ever hearing a 2012 prophet mention anything like it. Yet when you think about how critical relationships are to our wellbeing and happiness; when you think about how much misery they have the power to contribute; and when you look honestly at how relating to others pervades our thoughts and activities, well, it suddenly makes a lot more sense.

Given the divorce rate, the cheating rate, domestic violence statistics and a pandemic of aggravation or dissatisfaction with partners (sometimes one after the next), that would seem to be obvious. Yet we have a knack for missing the obvious, and for clinging to our illusions.

The myth of the one person we will be with forever prevails. It is used to sell everything from breakfast cereal to fancy cars.

Monogamy of its own accord is a potentially positive force; it’s a useful tool, when the timing is right. It’s a beautiful thing, if it’s honest — that is, if the actions and the words of the participants are in integrity. Turning monogamy into a product, a religion or a cult is not so useful. This emphasis has social consequences, in particular, alienation. When making emotional contact becomes a zero sum game, seemingly with one winner and many losers, that is not good for a civilization of what are supposed to be tribal critters. This is a harsh game that many people feel left out of.

It doesn’t help that we’ve been subjected to the propaganda of privatize, privatize, privatize for decades now; the notion of sharing has become increasingly alien.

Here’s the really interesting part — if you search the 12/21/12 chart for the theme of ‘the end of the world’, we find that theme in the same aspect pattern as we find the theme of reforming our ideas about relationships. There is a ‘do or die’ kind of message, perhaps being tapped into unconsciously; there is the sense that our quest for relationships has a do-or-die kind of flavor, and that the issue itself points to a collective sense of the end being near. I know that this connection between relational themes and global themes is not intuitive; it’s not really visible, though I see a stroke of genius in the stars for pointing out this deeper layer and making it possible for us to address.

What makes this personally relevant to you is that this astrology is focused in Capricorn. The message of reform of our relationships, relevant to everyone, is coming through the energy field of your sign, and presumably you have some special role in this process. I reckon that it’s more than symbolic.

I can break this down to some practical questions. What is the role of jealousy in your life? How much resentment do you have to deal with, from yourself or from others? What is your notion of ‘permanence’ in relationships?

Closer to the point, how good are you at stating your desires and your needs? You may be one of many, many people who says a whole lot less than you think you say. If you are feeling misunderstood, it may be time to learn how to explain yourself. The affect of ‘being reserved’ or ‘not saying so much’ or ‘not talking about yourself’ or being ‘shy’ or ‘quiet’ — it’s time to see these things for what they are, particularly if you are experiencing any communication issues in your life attributable at all to them.

One thing I suggest is that you view your relationships as a dance. Even if you’re not the lead partner in that dance, you must keep tension and presence in your body. You cannot just go limp — and this is definitely not the time to do so. Who you are and what you’re becoming influence everyone around you, particularly your closest partners and people in your household.

Pluto in Capricorn and the Uranus-Pluto Square

Pluto transits, no matter what they are, are always so powerful they influence everyone. That’s an understatement with Pluto in Capricorn: the Great Recession set in just as this transit began in 2008, precipitated by one of the biggest banking fraud episodes in all of history. There was a collapse and reorganization of the banking system, recapitalization of the banks and a huge mess for many homeowners. As happened in the 1930s, the American Dream went through some severe changes.

For individual Capricorns, Pluto has been conjunct your Sun or ascendant — or it’s gradually working its way there, with that slowly increasing intensity for which Pluto is so famous. I’ve worked with many, many clients through Pluto transits and I’ve been through a good few of my own. They are not easy but they get the job done.

That job is changing what needs to be changed, on the subject of whatever Pluto comes into contact with. In the case of the Sun or the rising sign, it’s change on the deepest levels of your being; your experience of who you are (not just your self-concept) is under focus.

One astrologer I respect described the process of a Pluto transit as a caterpillar spinning its chrysalis just before it transforms into a butterfly. Presumably it has no idea what’s going to happen; is it going to die? Will it become something else? How is it going to feel?

I think that’s a kind description; the process is scripted in its DNA, although so, too, is the timing of this Pluto transit. To me, Pluto transits feel like the point where you know change is inevitable. It’s the place of an imminent decision, informed by a sense of do or die. You know you can go no further by the old path, the old methods, the patterns that have gotten you so far. For all the times it was impossible to consider how you would do things differently in the future, you now know it’s inevitable that you will in fact do them differently. Patric Walker used to call this “enforced changes.” But there is that subtle transposition from seeing no possible way to change to seeing no possible way not to change. Deep in the crevices of that idea is the metamorphosis of Pluto.

You are experiencing it as an individual, and we are experiencing it as a society. There’s a difference, though — society is composed of many different minds. Some of them have a vested interest in preserving the ways of the past, to the point of behaving like a carcinoma, which will destroy its host organism to have its way.

As an individual, you have the ability to facilitate change within your own life. You have the power to make decisions. You’re not constrained by a fictitious battle between the Democrats and the Republicans, or between Main Street and Wall Street. However, there are elements within your psyche that are resistant to change as any political force is resistant to change in society.

Some of these forces are very old — older than you can imagine, though they have roots into the past that you can easily trace, to a point. They are key to making friends with change, to having this Pluto transit, and the associated Uranus transit (which I will get to in a moment).

So, if you’re feeling unstable, uncertain, like you’re under some unusual pressure, this is what’s going on. Only this is not the kind of transit that comes and goes; rather, it’s a transit that describes a true threshold in your life, a before-and-after moment.

For its part, Uranus through Aries — your 4th house if you’re Capricorn rising and solar 4th house if you’re Capricorn Sun — is shaking up your foundations in a different way. The 4th is your house of security; Aries is the sign associated with identity. There’s something here suggesting that you tend to seek a sense of security in a stable concept of who you are. Like a tree, you grow from the bottom up, though with your strong foundation, the roots and branches can flourish. You typically live with the feeling that you know who you are and have known for a long time.

I can’t tell you if this is true or if it’s a kind of metaphor, but whichever it is, it’s being shaken by Uranus in Aries. Think of this as a wave machine at the bottom of your psyche. Uranus is the revolutionary, the inventor, the thing that shakes up the known order and is indeed the invoker of the unknown. Uranus is above all else the awakener.

So while you’re having a Pluto transit that’s reorganizing you on a cellular level, signifying the actual changes, Uranus is shaking up your foundations, including your identity. Both transits have the effect of toppling the concepts and structures of the past, since Capricorn contains plenty that’s already happened, as does the 4th house.

If nothing else, you’re being offered freedom from what you knew in the past. This is influencing everyone in your household, and some people beyond it; your sense of security is interrelated with that of the people you live with. As you shake yourself from the past, they have to be affected. Some will support you in your process of growth and evolution; make sure you know who those people are.

Some will be more resistant. To the extent that you resist that resistance, make sure you don’t waste your energy trying to convince anyone of anything. And be on the lookout for those who would sabotage your progress; they are not your friends.

My colleague Martha Lang-Wescott once noted that Pluto transits are difficult but we miss them when they are over. Once they pass, we suddenly no longer have access to the power tool that they provided. So while you may be feeling the stress of this aspect, I suggest you make the most of it while it lasts.

Because I don’t know your individual chart, I don’t know when the peak of this aspect will be for you — though I can tell you that it is currently most influential in the lives of those with 6 to 12 Capricorn or Cancer rising; 6 to 12 degrees Capricorn or Cancer Moon; and for those who were born between Dec. 28 and Jan. 4.

Yet more people are involved; many with the Capricorn Sun have other planets in the vicinity and those will be under similar focus, perhaps extending the transit through a series of other peaks. The date ranges are basic astrological information; to find out what they are, I suggest you consult with an astrologer or astrology student.

What’s Your Design Scheme?

Now that we know you’re liberating yourself from the past and past identity constructs, the question becomes what you’re creating now. It’s a real question; for as long as you live, you will not have transits of this intensity or potency. They may be difficult; but they will get the job done, and give you a rare power as they do so.

It is therefore essential that you weave a vision for what you want, and begin acting on that vision while this energy is hot, and while the aspects are pushing you.

Part of where this vision is going to come from is where you have Pisces in your chart. Think of Pisces as a well of vision. On some days it might be a well of rum, a fish tank, the ocean or a spa, but actually it’s a wellspring from which creative vision can be drawn, and you have the resources there to do it.

I feel compelled to say this, however. As a Pisces and as one whose work and play are all driven by vision; as one who runs a business driven by a vision; and who therefore relates to nearly everyone in my life on the level of vision, including my neighbors and friends, I have discovered that ‘the vision thing’ is elusive to the point of being potentially nonexistent for people. I would humbly submit that you must not overestimate how well you understand this. When it comes to having a vision, most people need a seeing-eye dog. You need to open your eyes and see — and what you need to see is your potential.

Your potential looks like what your life does not look like now. The key thing is noticing the differential. Potential speaks to what may not seem possible now, but which could manifest under the right conditions.

You have Pisces in your chart in the 3rd house (3rd solar house if you’re Capricorn Sun; 3rd house by whole-sign houses if you’re Capricorn rising). This makes you something of a dreamer and an intuitive thinker, though now you have the focusing power of Chiron in this house, coupled with the added visioning influence of Neptune.

The Neptune transit increases the dreamy factor in your thinking, and at times may have you in an increased fog or engaging in a kind of wistful or wishful quality. Chiron, however, acts like a condenser, giving you the ability to concentrate and focus in what is a new way. New, that is, unless you were born in the 1960s and have Chiron in Pisces in your natal chart — then you may know what I’m talking about.

With Chiron, however, there can be a catch: while it can connect you with a genius level of creativity, it can also come in the form of doubt: the sensation that you’re not smart enough, that your mind is debilitated in some way, that you’re too overwhelmed to think clearly or simply not trusting your own thoughts or ideas.

You are, however, at the point where you have no choice but to trust yourself and many solid reasons to do so. It would help if you identify any lazy qualities to your thinking. It’s not enough to feel creative or even to be creative. Critical thinking is necessary. The use of logic is necessary. The ability to see flaws is necessary. These things are all necessary to give tangible form to your vision; they are all building tools.

I suggest that the place to start with your vision is your vision for yourself: who you are becoming. This is about more than your ‘role’ in the world. It’s about who you actually are in the world, and how you integrate that into some tangible form of participation.

Second is your vision for your household. I would propose that the usual, conventional modes of family are not going to serve your growth at this time in your life; you need something original, designed for you — something, in particular, that accommodates a greater need for freedom that’s developing in your life. This need for freedom is related to your process of individuation.

These are long-term transits. They are relatively young. But they are currently in their moment of clearest focus, which gives you the most direct access to them.

Contrary to Capricorn belief, there is not all the time in the world to do what you came here to do, in this lifetime. Yes, you are a long-lived Capricorn, someone who grows younger as you grow older. But youth, nor its energy, nor its flexibility, are not eternal. The Grateful Dead reminded us that there is no time to hate. When the Indigo Girls covered that song, they added: sister, there ain’t no time to wait.

Time is best applied to processes of development. Growth takes time. The development of something from a vision to its manifestation takes time. It’s best, therefore, that you not use time to wait or to delay, in anticipation of some future developments, but rather that you apply it now, to what is important to you now and what you anticipate will be meaningful in the near future.

Artifacts and Photographs

I’ve suggested that Pluto in Capricorn is about dismantling certain aspects of the past. Yet as this happens, I suggest you cultivate a healthy respect for the past.

As I may have described in your audio reading, I suggest you go through the elements of your history as they surface more like an archeologist and less like a demolition team. The demolishing will happen of its own accord; pay attention while it does, because there are bits of history that you want to know about, located under all that structure.

Keep a scrapbook, take photos — and speaking of photos, I suggest you treat those with the utmost respect. What you want to save are artifacts that document the past; things will bubble to the surface that you forgot about, never knew about and never dreamed existed.

There is, by the way, a special message in your chart about photos and photography. I suggest you get into the habit, or the hobby, of taking photos, and of keeping them organized, and also of taking exceptional care of old ones. Don’t let anyone throw out family photos, from any era.

Photos — both new and old — will provide insight into what’s ordinarily very difficult to see. Study them carefully. Look at facial expressions, look at body language, look at clothing, look at every detail. The value of this will become more obvious as the year develops, though if you respond to this early in the year, you will be prepared for when it really, really matters.

Relationships and Respect

The ground of your relationships is shifting to a theme that should warm the old-fashioned cockles of your Capricorn heart: respect.

Let’s go back one step, however – to the fact that you’re changing so fast, and that the emotional ground you stand on seems to be shifting. You need to know that this will affect your relationships.

If others are looking to you as their rock (as they usually do), this is probably not a good time for that. That’s really the first order of business. You can be in situations where you and someone else are dependable to one another, but not you providing the source of strength in a one-sided situation.

That is not respect, by the way. I can sum up this astrology very simply: I suggest you engage in sex and relationships only with people you admire. We tend not to notice that we become like the people we have sex with. This is not merely a ‘by example’ thing — there is a direct energetic exchange. What you exchange in sex and love will grow; that’s precisely what does grow.

The Hidden Realm

There is one last topic that is necessary to cover, and it’s one deserving of its own essay for you; I will do my best to focus the issue succinctly.

Every chart has what is called a 12th house. It’s the house before the ascendant; if you’re Capricorn or Capricorn rising, this is Sagittarius in its entirety (note, this really does work no matter what your degree rising is). Sagittarius places the whole matter into the realm of the spiritual; that is, the nonphysical, which is also a property of the 12th.

I describe the 12th house in detail in the Aquarius reading, as it’s also very active in their charts as well:

The Brits call the 12th house “the dustbin of the zodiac,” dustbin meaning garbage pail; it’s the place where nearly everything that is unresolved gets swept into.

Generally we access this house through things we associate with the ‘unconscious’ or ‘subconscious’ — through dreams, visions, meditation, ‘shamanic’ experiences, psychedelic trips and certain forms of art and cinema. This is why the 12th is considered the house of dreams. Yet those are merely the access points, not the content. The content is what we actually contact or go through in these experiences.

From another perspective, the 12th is the house of the waking dream — that is, the trance state that many psychologists say is at the root of ‘normal waking consciousness’. This is an interesting inversion of the ‘house of dreams’ approach, saying that normal consciousness is a kind of dream. And if it is a trance-like dream, you can be sure that there is a corresponding awake state on the other side.

The planets you have populating this house are many. Among them are many outer planets and centaurs, with the approximate power of Pluto and Chiron. It’s just that we don’t recognize them for what they are yet. There are too many to describe them one at a time (I mean it — Sagittarius is the most crowded sign right now).

The sum total is that you may be feeling profound inner pressure as you experience so many other factors that are driving you to grow and change. When you tune in to these inner factors, you will see that they are all related to spiritual issues — that is, matters on the deepest level of existence. Some relate to profound moral questions, others relate to the influence of the past on you and your beliefs today. As you go beneath the surface of anything you’re experiencing, check in with this. Don’t take appearances for granted; know that you’re being influenced by ideas and what you might call archetypes coming from deep in your unconscious.

The necessity — as ever — is to make these things fully conscious.

 

Eric also offers birthday readings and other audio reports here.

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