Early Sunday July 21st, at 6:17am EST, the Full Moon comes exact at 29° Capricorn/Cancer. This Full Moon is CONJUNCT PLUTO at 0° Aquarius, trine/sextile Neptune at 29° Pisces, and trine/sextile Uranus, at 26° Taurus. I mean come on!! All 3 transpersonal planets interacting with the Full Moon, which sits at the final degree of Capricorn??? This is a collective realization. A big gulp wow moment of 'I SEE YOU!!!! I see the cracks in your armor, the lies... and I see the TRUTH shining through. I am willing to let go of all the complicated ways I've tried to be in control... and failed. All the ways I built reality on false pretenses, rules, hierarchies and expectations. Time to get to the TRUE work of integrity, and wholeness. Time to take responsibility.'
I am driving home with my children and dog... somewhere deep in rural Quebec. This newsletter is going to ramble because I don't have hours to edit it. And... I want to share something. So please... excuse the length. I'll do my best. And I have SO much coming to mind, at this illuminating lunation.
“There is a crack in everything, that's how the light gets in”: Leonard Cohen's “Anthem”. Leonard had Moon in Capricorn!!!!
Alan Oken said to me once that 'anything in Capricorn has culminated'. It took me a few years, yet after much contemplation (aided by my Capricorn Moon) I have come to understand that, through Capricorn, the incarnate soul experiences a structure that has ripened and is ready to crumble and be replaced by a greater pattern or higher form.
In other words: Any planet in Capricorn is mature in its structure. The build of it, the life span, the scaffolding. It is wizened, matured.
RIPE... and falling OFF the tree.
Literally ready to be over.
That's why Capricorn is known for wisdom... yet also for deprivation and suffering. They kind of go hand in hand.
I would animate this concept in this way:
Imagine an old man who's been working hard all his life, building and toiling. As he reaches a certain age, his body begins to wither... yet he doesn't want to give up control. This is Kronus, holding on to his rein. Because time keeps ticking, he finally degrades to the point where he can't even hold the weight of himself up anymore.... and his knees give way. He falls to the ground... finally humbled. This once great, powerful authoritative man is forced, through the great suffering of resistance, to give up control.
And yet... when there is no longer anything that his SELF can hold onto... the very structure and pattern of his egoic self begins to crumble... and something else begins to edge into the pattern. He is imbued with an energy, a power far beyond his own. Something coming IN from withOUT. And as he begins to pray for redemption from his weakness and pain, as he begins to give his 'will' up... and... lets... go... he is RE-animated by a force of divine love that fills his cells, rejuvenates him from within... bringing new purpose. His body, the structure of his energetic form, is 're-built' into new 'order'. He is filled with POWER beyond his own. His body, his mind, his SOUL: made anew.
"Old when they're young, young when they're old.", my teacher Debra Silverman always says of Capricorn. She's great with the one liners.
Kneeling Bearded Old Man (recto); Section of a Draped Limb and Sketches (verso), attributed to Nosadella (Giovanni Francesco Bezzi) Italian, 1500–1571
Capricorn is the Disciple for this reason: here is where we let go and let God. Here is where we are given the final test: Trust the greater hierarchy is more accurate than our own.
This is the realm of PLATONIC FORM. Knowing that something greater, something higher, will allow us to come to a certain level of perfection that is beyond anything our mortal selves can create. And it is to THIS that we are in service. To THIS HIGHER FORM that we must succumb. All else? Shadows on the wall of the cave.
Everything we build on this earthly plane will die, every dollar we make will go back to the pot it came from, every luxury car will break, every body will age, every beauty will fade. When all the tangibles die, what is left?? When all the man-made structures fall, what remains?
Capricorn wisdom, perhaps, comes from the choice to succumb to a greater power, or authority, that animates us. And then to LIVE UP to that higher form by BEING the responsible leader who lives with integrity.
The Apostle John, Peter Olsen
Full Moon at 29° Capricorn, conjunct Pluto. Talk about an ending.
Since 2008 when Pluto entered Capricorn, think of all that has changed in the world. Financial restructuring, societal collapse, a realization we can't trust the rules or authorities of the world... at least we can't take them at face value... we must DEMAND greater integrity! We must embody it.
And now? There is either a feeling we are royally f-cked, or a feeling we can do anything. And perhaps we're sitting on the fine edge in between these two.
Pluto comes to 29° Capricorn one more time in our lifetime - from Sept 2nd to Nov 19th 2024 - and then we're done with it. So this Full Moon heralds the closing of the chapter of whatever Capricorn lessons each of us has been learning.
Remember: CAPRICORN IS CULMINATING. Something now is CULMINATING.
RIPE FRUIT FALLING OFF THE TREE.
I will offer a personal share of what is ripe fruit is culminating for me, if that helps you find this in yourself. I've naught to offer but what I am.
Capricorn rules my 8th house of shared resources and external 'power'. So naturally I find 'power and authority' attractive. Dating seems like a culling of everyone who is NOT that, reducing the pool to a small sampling of intensely success-focused individuals comfortable with 'achievement and responsibility'. The stories of remarkable souls I've interacted with in the past few years of being single? Vast. I am drawn to natural authority, power and responsibility and it is drawn to me. Capricorn. I trust it. I love it.
And yet.. Part of what is 'culminating' for me is how I tend to 'farm out' that authority to an external source rather than own it in ME.
This excruciating lesson has led me through instances of giving my authority away, pushing me toward the wisdom that my soul's integrity matters and divine authority is my pair mate. Not someone's achievement, promises, money, authority, knowledge, or power.
The pattern of the dependent female NEVER SEEMS TO WORK FOR ME. Though at some level, it's what I desire most of all!! It's my kryptonite, my temptation. My guides scream at me when I start to fall into it... they literally YELL. It has degraded. It is done. Dead. OVER. Culminated.
If I end up partnering with someone who is Capricorn in nature, it won't be because I need something from them. It will be because they are like me. End stop.
So... this Full Moon bears light on this pattern for me, which has been in its death throes since 2008, and truly breathing its last since Pluto hit the anaretic 29° Cap degree early last year.
Please don't underestimate how painful the death of this pattern has been for me, by the way. Nor how much I have been tested. Capricorn is the sign of the TESTS OF DISCIPLESHIP which require 100% integrity. Integrity is hard won for a reason.
Think about where Capricorn sits in YOUR chart. Where are the lessons of sovereignty, responsibility, integrity and authority that YOU have been learning over the past 15 years?? That are heightening right now? Your soul is different than mine. We all carry unique karma and have a different 'story' we are unfolding in the collective. So... take a moment and consider what is BLINKING IN YOUR FACE right now, in this particularly intense lunation. What is CULMINATING in your life?
Perhaps do a bit of meditation on that one.
Painting of Two Satyrs by Peter Paul Rubens in 1618-19
On the high side, Cancer/Capricorn is the axis of maturity and responsibility. There is nothing selfish in these archetypes, even if they sometimes PRESENT as selfish, they aren't. 'Selfish' is an aberration/shadow presentation of them. These archetypes literally GROW LIFE, GROW REALITY, BUILD SOCIETY, and DO THE WORK OF THE WORLD. They are vital and important.
I absolutely love Cancer and Capricorn people because I just know that deep down? They understand what's up. And while they may seem serious, they are fun in the way that old souls are fun - from lives of heavy lifting comes levity hard won. The difficult times, the struggle, the suffering... it shows us where the light is.
Hard work, deprivation, building, giving, caring, tending, sacrificing, consistency, devotion, responsibility, tenacity, relentless effort.
These are the qualities that STAND UP at this Full Moon.
Suffering, deprivation, sorrow, powerlessness, subjugation, weakness, domination, powerlessness, threat, ridicule, cruelty, poverty.
These are the qualities that DIE at this Full Moon.
DaVinci, John the Baptist, Musee du Louvre, Paris
In Sum....
We are CLOSING a chapter... and this Full Moon may allow us to SEE what is dying. To CELEBRATE both what we are letting go of, and how far we have come.
A chapter began in 2008 (pluto). A chapter which included the financial sub-prime mortgage collapse, the end of the Mayan calendar, the rise of smart phones, the globalization of disease (Covid), the rise of climate change, the rise of the new political 'RIGHT', the proliferation of 'spirituality' into the collective zeitgeist... and I could go on and on. We've had quite a decade and a half, and now we're ready to jump off into something new.
Let it die. Take accountability. Find your integrity. This shit is real.
We are about to start the ride of a lifetime.
The Ride Of A Lifetime Collage, Deborah Stevenson