The Capricorn Moon is in the sign of her detriment, but sometimes, we don’t actually learn best from a planet at its most supported, at its most unchallenged. When we are facing an obstacle, debilitated placements often show us the path towards resourcefulness and resilience. The Moon loves to feel, to express, to gaze inward. All of these tasks deserve time and reflection, but left unchecked, the Moon becomes solipsism. The Moon becomes a mental trap. The Moon becomes a feeling with a solution that you simply can’t recall the word for.
Capricorn as a sign is often unfairly maligned as inherently capitalistic, when it is often a sign of altruism, of creating a foundation stable and sustainable enough to be shared with others, one that can carry the weight of more than one person. Ensuring you have enough for more than yourself because you never want to be in a position where you can’t share. Chasing growth not for personal abundance, but because you want to create home, create safety, ensure time earned is spent on what would honor you and your loved ones. This is why the Moon feels challenged here — selfless, generous pragmatism highlights the pitfalls of self-reflection as a means with no end; self-reflection to the point of self-absorption, self-reflection as the moon gazing at her own reflection in the water (itself a reflection of the Sun’s light) and seeing nothing else.
Sometimes we work too hard and burn ourselves out with almost the subconscious intent to deny ourselves, to beat down our own egos. “I’m too tired from toiling, so I just can’t take care of myself; it’s not that I want to be self-destructive. I have no time left over to restore myself, because I am working too hard.” (But self-neglect is a harm too often unrecognized.) “I can’t relax until after this deadline, after this presentation, after this project wraps up.” “I need to push through really hard right now to achieve my goals, so I can’t stop to think or reflect.” This is an emotional response cleverly disguised as something we’re trained to think of as noble, normal — a focus on work. This is most often how Saturn, and thus Capricorn, overcorrects.
At other times, the opposite occurs: we use an overemphasis to the personal, disconnected from the world around us, to shirk our sense of responsibility to others. “I’m focused on my own growth right now, my own emotional wellness, my own spiritual journey, so I can’t invest in my community.” “Engaging with this brand is really important for my mental health journey, so I can’t show support for criticism of it.” “I can’t respond to your text about the acute crisis you’re facing, I don’t have space for it and need to approach my own triggers and tribulations with the reverence they deserve. I owe yours no such reverence.” Pick your poison; we all do this with something, some of the time. We tend to associate the Moon with empathy, with connectedness, but when she withdraws into herself and lets the discomfort overwhelm her other feelings, she is not able to connect outward. She is internal. She is not the Sun. She cannot facilitate warmth where feelings have run cold. Boundaries are necessary, but when they are too rigid, we risk isolating ourselves or leaving someone important out in the cold.
This new moon squares the nodal axis, currently in Aries/Libra, showing us another angle of independence vs. codependence. Their synthesis is found in relationships where we can express ourselves openly without worries of hindering or hurting the other person, because we have done enough listening and read the room enough to know what’s appropriate to say when; relationships where we can give and receive without the burden of expectation that it will be a symmetrical transaction every time. We can be comfortable in the knowledge that that’s perfectly fine because we feel secure in our capacity to handle the rest of what’s left over for us to carry, because we have enough sustainable connections of interdependence to know that the weight of the burden is something that can be shared collectively. And if that weight is not distributed well, we know we can speak up.
It is perfectly natural for us to bounce between these two modes — the Moon/Cancer self-reflecting a la Narcissus and Saturn/Capricorn keeping her eyes so fixed on the prize that she doesn’t have to look at her own reflection — though some of us may find we’re more strongly polarized to one or the other. This lunation is offering us a chance to reflect on whether we’re leaning too hard into one extreme. If our tears are frying our ability to be present and connected with others, if they’re drowning our perspective, it’s okay to dry them; it doesn’t make us cold or unfeeling to set boundaries on the experience of examining our own pain. Likewise, if our impetus to function, to always keep moving, to collect security so that it may be distributed outwards, is blocking us from feeling or being meaningfully present with the people we want to share the spoils of our hard work with, then we can give ourselves permission to put our tools down and rest. Taking care of others is not a valid excuse for us to ignore our own vulnerability. We do have responsibilities to each other, but we do not carry those responsibilities alone. Since this lunation trines Uranus in Taurus, reflect on how working to achieve this balance of perspectives can be a revolutionary influence on our lives, and take your time. There is no rush to perfect this synthesis, but every day is a small opportunity to incrementally improve how you relate to your people, your communities, and your self.
Is this moon for me?
Every lunation is for everybody, but here a few things to look out for to see if you should take particular interest in working with or thinking about things during this New Moon:
- Natal Capricorn moons (it’s your New Moon!)
- Natal Cancer & Capricorn placements (particularly rising, sun, moon; less so other personal planets)
- Natal Aries & Libra placements (particularly rising, sun, moon)
- Those currently in their Saturn Return
- Those who have a prominent placement in a cardinal sign in their solar return chart, or who are Saturn dominant in either their natal or solar return charts
- Those in a cardinal profection year
- People who are looking to set long-term intentions for the year around work-life balance, community building, emotional wellness, or sustainability
- People who are seeking an opportunity to renegotiate their boundaries, particularly with emotionally overwhelming situations, with resource sharing, with work, or with their own reputations
- People who are embarking on or planning a new project, and want to do so with a sustainable balance between internal and external motivations
Cover art is a little art exercise I made within a few hours of Mars entering my 5th house
SITARA DIDI 