Capricorn Solstice 2014: What Lies Ahead?

Please note Kathy Rose’s New Moon in Capricorn posted in the Sidebar.

With the Capricorn Ingress the gates open, once again, so that we may renew our dedication to the paths we choose to travel, the actions we choose to take.  Look into your own magic ball and see what is wanting to birth for you.

Each time these portals open, astrologically speaking, I am increasingly aware that we are on a round sphere in space and that the Northern half of this sphere is reaching the longest night and shortest day, while the Southern half is reaching the longest day and the shortest night. For both sides of the globe we need to focus on the Capricorn/Cancer polarity which may be about both family/tribal and collective/state themes.

Here in the Northern latitudes we honor the return of the light through many traditions from Pagan to Christian, even Jewish. Below the equator I’m wondering what indigenous traditions were honored? We know that the Spaniards invaded South and Central America bringing Christianity to their lands, and all sorts of Europeans migrated to Australia and New Zealand to implant the same. In light of all this, what about the rest of the world?

Quite frankly I’m interested now in thinking globally even if I live a localized version of this great rite of passage each year. Any reader out there who wishes to share would be most welcome to give a comment.

Here’s the chart for the Solstice as it occurs in the capital of the USA at 6:03 PM on December 21st. Times and wheel orientations are going to be different for wherever you are. The first thing that strikes me visually is that amassing of five planets together starting with the Moon in Sagittarius and ending with Venus in Capricorn. The Sun in Capricorn sits between the Moon and Mercury indicating a need to respond rapidly and with some flexibility to the changes, and current trends unfolding. Our right use of this earth-oriented/pragmatic energy will depend heavily on our emotional states and our ability to stay resilient.

This is a waning moon characterized as the ‘Immanent’ phase which is about as dark as you’re going to get, yet it is also a highly prophetic type of lunar phase. This coupled with Jupiter rising ahead of the pack yet retrograde, and Saturn at the final, final degree of expiation in Scorpio indicates a major time of endings and new beginnings occurring all at once. Saturn square Neptune in Pisces indicates sorrow and grieving yet to come as these endings leave us with possible confusion about where to next place our energies. Letting go, grieving what is lost and what we can not redeem while looking ahead and deciding on right actions to take are themes we may be dealing with both personally and collectively in the coming months.

We get further clues about how to move forward through uncertain times by that strong stellium in Capricorn. You may notice that the Sun leads ahead of Mercury followed by Pluto indicating a need to be alert and highly aware while tackling potentially big and intense problems with equal intensity. The danger is to become too obsessive here.

The next three-some places Pluto between Mercury rising ahead with Venus in Capricorn close behind Pluto. Values are at stake here. It will be a time to think clearly about which of our values have true worth and which are simply short-term and superficial.

Climate March in Lima

In this light I’ve been struck by the recent events taking place at the Climate Summit in Lima, Peru where many of the indigenous peoples of the planet are gathering and marching. One interviewer from Democracy Now asked a wide assortment of individuals to express why they were there and marching. I was struck by the unity of their diverse ways of stating that they valued Mother Earth and they were against the corporate interests (now global including China) raping and pillaging the earth for short-term gains and profits as well as continuing to exacerbate the fossil fuel threat to a sustainable future ahead. This clash of values is intensifying as Climate Change moves us ever closer to end-game scenarios. The Pluto/Venus theme is a life or death matter.

I feel hidden in the message of this Solstice Chart are both dark possibilities and possibilities of hope. Those of us seeking a way of life that does the least harm to all living things must not give in to fear or discouragement. I was moved deeply by all these very sincere and eloquent speaking people from South and Central America, the Philippines, parts of Asia, Australia, and pretty much the Southern Latitudes of the globe who were there with their bodies bearing witness and speaking their truth.

In the chart of Solstice USA the stellium falls in the 6th house of work and service. For me this signifies a call to do what I can where I am. The sextile of Sun/Mercury to Neptune in Pisces in the 9th brings a sense that each person’s contribution counts towards the larger whole. The smallest gesture does matter!

Uranus square Pluto is pretty much still exact in this chart. Uranus in Aries is positioned at the very top of the USA chart close to the South Node in Aries. This has been the 6th time these two have squared off since June of 2012. We have one more exact square to take place in Mid-March of 2015. These crises of action (1st quarter squares) as part of a very large Uranus/Pluto cycle which began in the mid-60s in Virgo. It was a revolutionary time involving Virgo themes, which are many including labor, health, agriculture and back-to-nature, sexuality, women’s issues, and the ‘small is beautiful’ movement. Let’s simply start with one issue: slavery and the African-American dilemma today. Let’s first back step further by going into the Piscean Age themes of Savior/Victim and sado/masochism which we are trying to end. Perhaps these themes also include top dog/under dog. Certainly the results of the slave trade are still part of America’s shadow side. Virgo has so much to do with serving, does it not? Service, however, is NOT slavery, and never should be. People who serve should be honored, respected, and paid decent wages for the services they render. These issues move us back into all those upstairs/downstairs themes which helped bring a wave of migration from a European feudal/royal caste system to another form in the ‘new world’. In 1776 when a Cancer nation was formed under the banner of democracy, the lives of the red and brown peoples already inhabiting this land of opportunity were decidedly not considered as equal, nor were the black slaves imported from Africa ever totally considered equal after their so-called emancipation in the 1860s.

Today we have this first quarter action square exploding in many incidences such as the Michael Brown case of Ferguson, Missouri, and the Eric Garner case of New York where police violence against people in the African American communities who are poor and disenfranchised seems to point to a racist system still supported by those who create the policies that the police simply carry out. In California, where I live, the Latino communities are targeted as well, as in the case of a 13-year-old Santa Rosa boy, Andy Lopez, who was shot seven times for carrying a toy gun in a park known for being a place were the neighborhood kids hung out. The officer, Lt. Paul Henry, emptied 8 full rounds in 26 seconds towards the child. These current mega protests and “Die-Ins’ through-out the nation in recent weeks are heard crying en mass “I can’t breathe”. The people (Uranus in Aries) are protesting (1st quarter square phase) the ever tightening controls and sanctions of the State (Pluto in Capricorn). It certainly feels like there is a police state already in place here in the land of the so-called free, and this freedom certainly seems relative to ones economic and racial class.

Another theme from the original impulse of Uranus/Pluto in Virgo emerging with this action square is the Senate Intelligence Committee report of CIA Torture. Melvin A. Goodman says it all for the USA in his book National Insecurity, The Cost of American Militarism. Here is the crux of Uranus/Pluto hitting the Sun in Cancer and Saturn in Libra of this nation’s chart. America’s shadow is insecurity if there ever was one. Meddling and snooping endlessly is our government’s obsession, which is one of the darkest sides of Cancer. Our Justice Department (Saturn in Libra) meanwhile rejects any calls for torture prosecutions. Our President (Sun in Cancer) won’t go there either. Not even a slap on the wrist for the perpetrators of tortures so vile they make some of the inquisitions tortures of the dark ages mild by comparison. (I say this because modern tortures can last for years and years, and they can relentlessly violate every corner of one’s mind and heart.)  Just read Samir Naji’s special to CNN on his long incarceration at Guantanamo and extreme forms of torture if you think otherwise. Here is a man who is innocent of all wrong doing and has been cleared for release for the past FIVE years, yet still remains in that hell hole after thirteen very long years. As he states, “One hundred and thirty-six prisoners are still being held at Guantanamo whilst the politicians squabble over how to black out the Senate report. America cannot keep hiding from its past, and its present.”

Have we grown numb to violence? Are we asleep? Uranus in Aries is trying to wake us up to the stultifying control of Pluto in Capricorn which is now Orwellian beyond imagination. Haven’t we read and watched the “Hunger Games’ and seen a reflection of our own reality? Or do we continue to sleep and seek our commodified comforts? Are we a drugged and stupefied nation lulled into complacency? At least that’s what seems to have been accomplished via drugs, pharmaceuticals, media nonsense, and commercialization of every aspect of life.

Yet I won’t give in to despair or fear, and I’m thankful people of color aren’t either.

Perhaps it’s not too late. Perhaps there is an awakening going on!! Certainly the light shines in most people I come in contact with in my small corner of the world. Almost everyone I know has great empathy for the other races and nations of the earth who have less. I know lots of people who are always trying to be of service and help those less fortunate. I know so many healers trying to shift the energies back into balance. I know lots of environmentally astute people doing everything they can to be sustainable and create a more sustainable world. I even know plenty of people in local government and even law enforcement who are sincere and trying hard to help maintain a strong and healthy community. So if I never listened to the news nor read commentaries on world events I’d probably think life is sweet. I do, however, like to stay informed and continue to know about both the shadow and the light. At my age I prefer to be aware on as many levels as possible. It takes a bit of doing, but it is possible to sift through the reams of false propaganda out there and determine what is really going on.

So now we come to the imminent shift of Saturn in Scorpio into Saturn in Sagittarius. This takes place on December 23rd. My next article will explore this in depth, but for now be aware that Saturn is leaving Pluto’s domain and entering Jupiter’s. The last time Saturn was here was from late 1985 to late 1988. You may want to review that period of your own life to get clues as to how to handle this next three-year run. Keep in mind that Saturn will dip back into Scorpio from mid-June of 2015 to mid-September. It always does that little dance it seems.

Saturn in Sagittarius may force us to look again at all aspects of excess. It may help to curb what can not be sustained. Sagittarius has rulership over certain aspects of the law, higher education, religious beliefs and doctrines, philosophy, and historical themes. It also takes us into the realms of sports and all sorts of adventurous pursuits where the exotic and unchartered territories are open for exploration. Saturn may focus the aims of these pursuits with greater discipline and perseverance. Let us hope that it will not increase dogmatism and fanaticism, but that remains almost a certainty given what we are already seeing in belief systems which are already rigid and fanatical. For now, I’m just encouraging you to look at your own life in terms of where your next area of work and focus is going to be for nearly three years ahead. If you are a Sagittarius, it will be time to refocus your aim and purpose in life.

Jupiter in Leo Retrograde will now move back from 22 degrees to 12 degrees before it turns Direct on April 8th in 2015. In relation to this Ingress chart it does lead the pack with a nice trine to both Moon/Sun indicating creativity and hope are still alive and well. The square to Saturn will actually abate as Saturn moves into another fire sign (Sag) and they begin to work more cooperatively together again. Jupiter will also move back into a trine with Uranus in Fire and continue to rev us up for change. That energy, by the way, has brought to my attention a lot of new relationships forming. This  is a happier note. Because Uranus in Aries has helped to release old patterns, as soon as Jupiter entered the sign of love/Leo, I observed a great blossoming of romance between many. These romances have been moving quickly along too!

Mars in Aquarius in sextile to Uranus and beginning to oppose Jupiter in Leo also signals fresh new experiences to buoy us up as we enter the New Year. Let’s leave this Ingress chart with that positive image of the possibility that life can be exciting and refreshing and full of people who are alive, energetic, and willing to create a world where everyone matters and is appreciated. Remember, this is a chart of endings and new beginnings all rolled into one!

Capricorn Solstice in Brisbane

For all you wonderful people ‘down under’ here’s a different view of the Solstice taking place on December 22nd at approximately  9:03 AM.  Notice how there’s a major emphasis on the 11th house of community, future aspirations, and group work.  Jupiter still actually leads from its placement in the 6th house where work and service may prove rewarding.  So celebrate your longest day of the year!  I found this photo that states it is something you do down there.  Wow!  Sure looks like fun.

Celebrating Australian Style