Embracing Capricorn
As I write, we are less than 24 hours away from a New Moon in Capricorn, at the brink of 2025.
My colleague Mystic Medusa wrote a fabulous piece about this, where she says:
"Some New Years begin with strange, sub-par astrological influences that give astrologers the merdes because they have to spin it into an ‘oh well catharsis is such a lovely place to visit at this time of year…” perspective. This New Year? It’s a brilliantly beneficial New Moon, especially for Sea-Goats."
I’m going one step further.
I’m saying this is a brilliantly beneficial New Moon for ALL of us, as long as we bring some smarts to how we navigate that.
We all have Capricorn somewhere in our charts, and we all have its ruler Saturn present somewhere.
And I’m going to challenge the biggest Cappy myth, the one which circulates from time to time both out in public, and inside our own heads.
That magical Sea-Goat was not built to slog through life, head down, tail up. It’s a creature of the gravity-defying summits, born to blaze its own way to the top. But the myth has it topsy-turvy.
The myth showed up in a client who told me, with absolute conviction, "I'm a Capricorn, so I'm just wired to work long hours and live with stress"
😳😳😳
NOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!
Capricorn is ambitious AF, for sure.
Excellence and mastery are highly prized core values.
But that whole perfectionist workaholic thing?
Nope. That ain't it.
Working long hours of drudgery and living with stress is standard for our system, which only prizes human endeavour for its profitability; not for its inherent impact in the world.
It's inhuman and inhumane.
And the long hours and the stress are not how a free, unfettered Capricorn or Saturnian energy functions.
In fact, they can profoundly sabotage the Capricorn genius.
They both shut down our access to all those things we need, in order to reach our loftiest goals of excellence: creativity, lateral thinking, processing speeds, memory, inventiveness, and effective problem-solving.
Capricorn cares deeply about the public legacy, about making one's mark in the world, about building something truly important.
So of course when the system says 'you have to work hard to achieve your goals' and then defines ‘hard work’ as ‘working six ten-hour days a week, every week, for years’ … it is easy to conflate hard work with ambition and excellence - but they are not the same thing.
Chaining yourself to the desk or the examination table or the factory floor or the computer screen is not the same as being ambitious, no matter how often you see it depicted that way and hero-worshipped in popular culture (hello, Dr Cristina Yang and every other TV doctor…)
Is it true that when 'in flow', you can work for hours without even noticing you need a pee and your stomach is growling? Absolutely.
But that's very different from the kind of long hours and stress my client thought came from her innate Capricornian nature.
One is filled with joy, the other is drudgery.
What if you decided to make 2025 your year for breaking out of any old productivity-perfectionism chains that linger (especially if you work for yourself!)?
What if you decided to start setting your true Capricorn genius free, by making space for better rest and play, clearer boundaries, a more aligned trail for you to blaze?
You can surf the wave of this New Moon with a very simple brain hack. Every night, ask yourself:
how is it true that today, my excellence was enhanced when I created a little more space for rest and play?
how will I ensure I build a little rest and play into my calendar tomorrow? (and then BOOK IT IN)
It might feel counterintuitive - but that's just the old wiring in your head, installed by a system which much prefers you to stay chained to the old ways.
Look closely at our goat friend in the image above - look at those toes, poised for jumping and dancing and climbing the next summit. There is nothing here which says ‘I was wired to work long hours and live a stressful life’!
Shoutout to all my Capricorn Sun, Moon, or Rising readers, and those who know you have a strong Saturn placement, and those who’ll be facing a Saturn Return in 2025 (happens at ages 29/30 and 58/60!
I’d love to know how this lands for you, and answer any questions you might have!
