The Doors of Incarnation

Dear Friend and Reader:

As of this writing, the Moon has crab-crawled into the first degrees of Cancer and is making progress towards the biggest Full Moon of the year. This is an astronomical fact: the Moon is close to the Earth right now (perigee), hence it appears bigger and brighter to the human eye. Probably to dogs and cats as well.

Full Moons are emotional, but this one has a mental spin: on Sunday, Mercury will station retrograde in Aquarius. It seems like there is a time-space warp just beyond the surface of our vision. This is the last Full Moon before an eclipse of the Sun, so the next time we hear from the Moon it will be casting a shadow over the Earth.

Let’s takeВ  look at the Cancer-Capricorn axis and look at some of the esoteric references to what it’s doing If you haven’t already had a chance to check out the chart, click here.

Photo by Sean Hayes.
Photo by Sean Hayes.

Since the Sun is in Capricorn right now, it is opposite the Moon in Cancer. Just like a mirror tilted a certain way will reflect the beams of a flashlight more fully or less so according to the angle it is tilted at, so will the Moon more readily reflect the Sun’s rays when it faces the Sun a certain way. This Full Moon means that both Capricorn and Cancer are activated.

I checked out what Alice Bailey had to say on the subject: she describes the Cancer-Capricorn axis as the gateways of incarnation. This is one of the times when Bailey’s version of things coincides closely with the ancient view. Cancer is a birthplace; Capricorn is a kind of exit, Saturn being one of the symbols of old age, the Grim Reaper and one’s bones. If today is your birthday, I will add: Capricorn is one of the funniest signs of the zodiac; it’s been said that good comedians tend to have a strong Saturn. Few people will get you laughing at their dry, biting wit like a Cap Moon.

As Bailey puts it, “All souls come into incarnation in the sign Cancer. By this, I mean that the very first human carnation was always taken in this sign, which has been recognized down the ages as ‘the doorway into life of those who must know death’,” just as Capricorn “is ever regarded as another door and is called esoterically ‘the doorway into life of those who know not death’.”

Talking in riddles? Welcome to esoteric literature. It’s not so complicated, though: Capricorn, esoterically, is the gateway through death.

Let’s use some worldly symbols.

Cancer has a flowing, oceanic energy — a feeling of the primordial womb. It is easy to imagine the beginning of life here, where nothing has a definite form, but it just a feeling. Cancer is considered one of the more sentimental, empathetic signs of the zodiac. Its ruling planet is also the Moon, so there is a lot of motherly energy there.

Capricorn energy is about form. It has domain over the skeleton — the most dense system of the living body, the portion which holds it up and enables it to move. There is a crystallizing, condensing quality to Capricorn. Think about Pluto in Capricorn and everyone’s assets shrinking. Energetically, this is a process of concentration. So while Cancer has the material and the need, Capricorn incarnates and creates form from the material provided by Cancer.

In another respect, the respect Bailey writes of, the Cancer-Capricorn axis is the doorway through which the soul enters the world and exits. There is quite a feeling out there in the sky lately, as though we are all perched on the edge of an exciting new process. Perhaps what we are feeling are the first pangs of our own rebirth, if we choose to look at it that way. It is indeed a sensitive time, and hectic because of this sensitivity. For now, it might feel like it’s all about walking on eggshells, but walk we must in the name of personal progress.

Genevieve Salerno

3 thoughts on “The Doors of Incarnation”

  1. victoria,

    You have Saturn in the 1st house don’t you? So do I. Seems like the crone SHOULD be acknowledged, when trying on forms. A diamond is a concentrated form of something, isn’t it? Coal maybe? I forget. Anyway, with Capricorn and Saturn it’s always gonna take time. . .and concentration, compression, work and rigidity.

    If it’s true that Capricorn is “old when young” and then “young when old”, maybe the crone (if she’s the one) telling you the child never dies, is a message to you that transformation (form, growing up/old, rebirth) does not eliminate the child within. Taking on a Saturn-like form on the outside should never impede the child within from dancing wherever she likes. And that’s the truth!!

    Thanks Genevieve for bringing focus to today’s full moon signs. I’d like to know more about the concept of “the gateway through death” if you have any suggested reading.

  2. gen, about “concentration.” That is a healthy word for me. I always felt pressured to “take on” a form. But none of them fit. They became hard to walk in. But concentration is an awesome take on this for me. No wonder I have been so sleepy. I’ve been wearing myself out trying to find something that was there all the time.

    I’m letting myself sleep as much as possible right now and am not always sure if I am awake or sleeping. I am sometimes speaking in a voice I do not recognize. At first, I thought oh my I am channelling, because the voice was coming from someplace I was not familiar with. It didn’t sound like me. But it is me. I believe I have acknowleged the crone. I know that carries a scaryness for some. But the secret seems to be that the child never dies.

    So if you meet me in the laundramat and fleetwood mac comes across the stereo system and I start dancing, will you smile? If you get a glimpse of me dancing naked in the light of the moon, will you understand? If you come upon me floating naked in the waters, can you understand?

    We are indeed “Born To Be Wild.”

    Amazing what a simple word, or concept, an understanding can do. And concentration makes real sense to me. Thanks for your work as always.

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