By Genevieve Hathaway
As the first New Moon of 2013 arrives today at 2:43 pm EST we come into contact with an opportunity to leave behind what hasn’t worked and begin anew for the coming year. Desires are strong at the beginning of a year to let go of what isn’t working; new and old resolutions get made. And when the Sun and Moon align today in Capricorn, the sign of the past, they also form a conjunction to an asteroid called Requiem — a minor planet associated with acceptance of the past.
New Moons are excellent times to begin projects, make desired changes, and set intentions for what we would like to create. Letting go of the old is just as important as embracing the new. Moving forward involves both accepting that the past happened and holding the intention that we can live differently in the coming months and years. With this conjunction occurring in Capricorn, there is a message to remain grounded in what is real and genuine throughout this process.
Turning over the calendar from one year to the next can be thought of as a definitive, if arbitrary line — a point beyond which we can’t retrace our steps into the past year. Like this structured date change, the Capricorn New Moon is also providing us with a solid doorway between the past and future.
Think of this New Moon as a threshold out of past habits, a door that we can close and lock, and then leave the contents within that room separate from the rest of our space. Letting go of the past clears us up mentally and emotionally to re-invent ourselves and build new patterns. This movement through the New Moon’s doorway requires what Requiem reminds us of: acceptance — acceptance that the past happened, but does not dictate the future.
Moving beyond the past can raise new questions — what is it we wish to leave behind? How many of our new intentions stem from our authentic selves and how many stem from what others want for us? As Stephen Colbert often says on his show The Colbert Report, look for the answers in your gut.