You are so present you are hardly here

On the Capricorn Solstice

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The Capricorn Solstice is here. Depending on your hemisphere, it is longest night or longest day. Regardless, we are consumed with elongation, with stretching to our limits, with the cross of crucifixion rather than the more balanced pagan cross. What if this were the day we decided to give up crucifixion once and for all? How many people have gone innocently in this way, and nevermind who gave us the right to judge and condemn? 

The Solstice arrives with the Sun at 0 degrees, square the Moon’s nodal axis. This cardinal t-square opens the gates for new directions, particularly in the ways we approach and relate to not only external authority and authorities, but also to what we have internalized, the rules that bind us emotionally and subconsciously. What if we allowed and made room for the authority of our own experience? This theme is echoed by a Virgo Moon opposite Saturn in Pisces. What needs to be swept up and cleared out as it crumbles around us? And as we clean up, what fragments might we absorb so they can be reconstituted from within?

As the old ways are coming undone, new forms are whispering to us in dichotomies and multiplicities. Jupiter retrograde in Gemini is applying to the second of three squares with Saturn (the third square will be under new signs—Cancer/Aries instead of Gemini/Pisces). This retrograde indicates that we still have something to learn, some pieces to pick up and mull over, before we can forge ahead. This is the time to look back before we look forward. Where are we coming from, not just through the last year, but since March of 2023 (when Saturn entered Pisces), since 2018 (when Uranus entered Taurus), since 2011 (when Neptune entered Pisces), since 2006 (when the nodes last shifted to Pisces/Virgo)? 

Another powerful through line in the Solstice chart is Mars retrograde in Leo applying to the second of three oppositions with Pluto. The first Mars-Pluto opposition, with both planets in the final degree of Cancer-Capricorn took place on November 3rd. The old ways indeed crumbled. We are left in the void, where we have some agency as to whether we sink into despair or rise with fortitude. With Mars retrograde in Leo, our light is turned inward, we are recovering our inspiration or we are brooding. Pluto in Aquarius wants us to hurry up already and move on, but Mars says not so fast — let me gather myself and gather my people. Let me claim the role I am here to play. The opposition perfects on January 3, 2025. On January 6, Mars drops back to Cancer, asking us to sink deeper into our emotional bodies, to continue this process of preparing ourselves for the performance on the horizon. By the time of the third opposition on April 27, Mars is moving forward in Leo, about to clear its post retrograde shadow. By then, we will have defined ourselves and assembled with our ensemble. 

Take heart, all, for what is coming beckons in a loud whisper, a unique call for each of us to step into our authentic selves, to link arms through our humanity, and to further embody our roles as Earth conscious beings.

#Capricorn #Solstice #Astrology # Poetry