Capricorn: Seeing in the Dark of the Moon

Dear Friend and Reader:

I trust this note finds you keeping your sanity, more or less, during the holiday. The astrology is calm and upbeat enough for the next 24 hours (Moon in Sagittarius, picking up the vibes of a lot of Aquarius planets), then it gets interesting and turns a bit intense going into the weekend. I’ll fill you in on that in a few moments.

First, one paragraph of housekeeping, with a few perks included.

Planet Waves will be pausing activity on the Daily Astrology & Adventure feature (a/k/a, our blog) for one week, so that we can free up some bandwidth to finish Next World Stories, the 2009 annual edition of Planet Waves. The annual is our traditional end of the year, well, ordeal would be putting it politely, the result of which is an exciting new website that includes my extended length writeups for each sign. If you would like to read the Planet Waves Monthly for January 2009, which gives an overview of the year’s astrology, you can find it here. Of note to readers, Planet Waves monthly returns to being a free horoscope for 2009 with this edition. There are three other monthly horoscopes in Next World Stories, all of which are also published in Planet Waves Astrology News (along with the weekly horoscope). Please note that the subscriber area for Astrology News is open to the public for the holiday week. This gives you access to hundreds of our best articles and horoscopes going back six years.

Now, as for the astrology that is developing. We are approaching a Capricorn New Moon that I would classify as a “big chart.” I say this for many reasons, with much experience; the first reason being that we are in our first [Northern Hemisphere winter] solstice season with Pluto at 1 degree of Capricorn. This puts Pluto into contact with something called the Aries Point, where it will remain for the foreseeable future. Click that link for the background.

The effect on a personal level might be a higher than usual level of conflict, emotions moving unpredictably, and lapses of consciousness due to overload. You might be feeling incredible, energetic and in the mood to get everything done. I could see Mars-Pluto in Cap being a bit Bacchanalian. We do need that, but please, please, please drive with the attentiveness of an airline pilot when you get behind the wheel. Test how slippery the road is with your shoe. Check the weather. Be professional.

On the collective level, the news is likely to have have a sense of being amplified and personal. This is true for the immediate moment (and for quite a while to come, arriveing in peaks as planets move through Capricorn or indeed any of the other cardinal signs, Aries, Cancer and Libra included). The changes of season will arrive with distinct, more noticeable than usual turning points during this era.

Currently (as in starting when the Moon reaches Capricorn on Friday, Dec. 26 at 6:55 pm EST), we are heading for a lot of action in Capricorn. Capricorn is a difficult energy right now because it has been so strangely denatured by puritanical culture. On the public or collective level (not the personal level!) Capricorn has been reduced to discussions of governments, business, obligations, parents, religion and guilt. It is all structure and no release of energy — but the energy is working its way to the surface.

So, with Pluto sitting there in early Capricorn, picking up the Aries Point by a tight square, we are about to have Mars arrive there shortly after the Moon overnight Friday, making a conjunction to Pluto all weekend. This will amplify small things and magnify the impact of larger ones. Then on Saturday, the Moon and Sun form a conjunction (the Cap New Moon) during the Mars-Pluto conjunction. Mercury and Jupiter are already in Cap and will be conjunct for this event, which closes a kind of energy loop (Mercury and Jupiter are ‘opposite planets’, as they rule two opposite pairs of signs: Gemini/Sagg and Virgo/Pisces). And in a fourth noteworthy conjunction, Venus is meeting up with Neptune.

This is a very interesting chart. Basically, it’s a wild card. It could literally mean anything to anyone, though we are the wiser for focusing our intentions around such potent energy. Pay attention to who you meet. There is no such thing as an ‘insignificant meeting’ under so many conjunctions. This chart has enormous potential for opportunity and equal potential for destruction. The presence of Saturn in an earthy sign (Virgo) and Vesta about to enter one (it ingresses Taurus late Friday) will keep things relatively stable, but the presence of both Vesta and a strong Virgo planet say: keep busy, keep your focus on service and consider your plans and intentions carefully.

I am understating things here a bit, for the sake of those inclined to read the worst into a chart. This is not an alignment for the faint of heart, though we all get to live through whatever it has to offer. In the event that unusual global news breaks Friday or over the weekend, we will of course resume publishing this series to offer our bit of information and reassurance. If not, we will see you either New Year’s Eve or New Year’s Day. Meanwhile, we will be busy with Next World Stories.

Here is a beautiful letter from Fe Bongolan, one of our regular contributors to this space, in the genre of the “true meaning of Christmas.”

For Planet Waves, this is