Saturn is digging in its heels at the final degree of Capricorn. The last degree of any sign in the Zodiac is never easy terrain; the Anaretic, or Critical 29th degree, holds immense potency, intensification and stress. As Saturn goes through this chrysalis, the Capricorn dialogue of the recent past centring commerce, capitalism, billionaires, “the rich” now shifts toward the Aquarian narrative of life itself; togetherness, solidarity, community, being connected in isolation.
When Saturn ingressed into Capricorn on the Winter Solstice (Northern Hemisphere) 2017, its presence was felt immediately. Saturn descended with its heavy hand of stern realism and immediate lockdown. Remember the travel ban, the wild fires in Southern California, the Catalonian push for Independence and North Korea’s missile program? Shit got real immediately.
As 2020 unfolds with greater intensity and uncertainty, we’re collectively realising our forced dependence on capitalism and our personal impact on each other.
As a sole proprietor without government or family financial assistance, I have created an option for those who are able to pay it forward so we can feed two birds from one hand! By paying it forward you are offering a reading in trying times to someone else, while also supporting me and my business.
You can choose an individual recipient, an anonymous person from a specific group / community / workplace or just pay it forward as an anonymous offering. Specific amounts can also be allotted to help supplement the cost of a reading for someone else.
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Like a stimulus package, continuing the flow of resources between us keeps all boats afloat with the rising tide. I appreciate any support and will in turn be able to offer it back to others.
Click to image to watch the video. Video source: @beachcityco
It’s Pisces Season & Mercury is STILL retrograde! Do you feel like it’s been Rx for a while now…like forever…or at least since that Gemini Full Moon back in December?
Pisces loves the deep dive. The waters of emotion stir & we remember what gives us meaning, what moves us & what connects us. As our life-giving Sun edges closer & closer toward Neptune we’re made increasingly aware of the clash between our ideals, our dreams & visions ~ & the cold hard reality being dished up by the clusterfuck over in Capricorn.
We’re dealing with an invisible virus, injunctions & arrests are blurring the lines between sovereign territory & state legislation, a waaaay too long US Presidential election campaign blows in hope one day & defeat the next & Australia is running out of toilet paper…while we’re all trying to catch up with the grief we’re carting around day to day.
Thankfully, there’s a steady groove that can be found between Pisces & Capricorn along the path of least resistance.
Capricorn sets the goal posts, highlighting where reform needs to occur, which behaviours & habits & power structures we’ve outgrown… while Pisces urges us to ride the pressure of that rising wave to steer us forward. You can’t push shit up a hill, so wherever the momentum is coming from use it to guide you toward your ideal reality & watch for signposts for where change & growth need to occur.
We’re in this for the long haul. Utilise Mercury Retrograde to help you gauge when it’s time for a break & recuperation.
It’s the Leo Full Moon today & it’s no surprise that this image of the mf Sun was beamed to us this past week!
Source: NASA
This is the Sun! The life giving ball of fire we roam around every year. The source of our vitality & nutrients, indiscriminately shining upon us, through us, showing us the Leo way . Our Sun is a teeny-tiny 4.6 billion years old, with an approximate 10 billion year life span. NBD.
I do find @nasa & our current “science is top of the hierarchy of knowledge” era we’re living through laughable when they say this is the first time we’ve seen the Sun this close. Is it really? How did people know of binary stars in other galaxies before we had telescopes?
Also, if you’re wearing gold (the metal associated with Leo ) remember it was formed in a supernova ~ when a Sun is expiring in brilliance ~ & that you’re closer to the Sun than you may think.
Full Moons always bring up relationship dynamics so double check to make sure the one/ones you’re looking at see/s you & appreciate/s you for the shining Sun you are. Don’t be dazzled by fakes & those who want to dim your light! You’re worth being the centre of your own Solar System.
I love it when non-astrologers speak so precisely about astrology.
In her book “Becoming,” Michelle Obama gives us great insight into Barack’s 12th house Saturn. From the beginning of their relationship, it was clear to her that he was someone with a very rich inner world, and that this had very specific requirements. Wherever they lived and traveled, a room or a nook would be carved out for his “Hole”, where he processed, worked through books, newspapers, ideas and had the necessary space to himself to churn through it all, uninterrupted.
Anyone with 12th house planets knows of this notoriously difficult terrain. Anyone with Aquarius Rising is right now getting a pretty clear idea about it. Often called the house of ‘self-undoing,’ there are few interpretations of this area of the sky that would ever make it prime real estate. It’s that house out in the country that’s always for sale. It has an air about it that you can’t quite put your finger on, but when you walk inside you’re very aware that it could swallow you up and no one would think to look for you there. It is mysterious and difficult grasp.
The 12th house, or 12th sign from the Ascendant, is the last to have risen and therefore is the one with the greatest journey ahead of it. Any planets in this area of the chart were rising when the individual (or event) were being born, having ascended from the deepest, most personal and primal part of the sky into full view, adding extra-extra to its influence in the life. The 12th house is where planets get to test the waters of expression with the naivety and inexperience of anything young and fresh. It’s new, and deeply uncertain. The depth of vulnerability here can often result in retracting these energies inward, calling forth privacy and self imposed isolation, though sometimes these energies are nurtured in family environments and these planets become a great source of power in the individuals life.
The 12th house is also often aligned with secrets and hidden enemies. In the case where these energies are not supported in the early life, part of the self is retracted and hidden from view, becoming something hidden and secretive. Pushed down deep enough it becomes repressed and bent out of shape, potentially resulting in either illness or other people representing the very characteristics consciously, or subconsciously, buried. As Rob Hand says, planets in the 12th house “confine one by working against one’s expression. They undermine one’s ego because they are denied by it.” As with most things in life, astrology is not black and white; the grey areas can encompass a bit of both in alternating measure at different times.
(AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
As Barack Obama worked his way through Law school he remained tightly connected to various community initiatives; he allowed his Saturn to work for him. With a strong Leo Sun, his ego was never going to be denied fully, but his 12th house Saturn required an outlet that allowed him to be part of the greater whole, of service to those he saw himself reflected in and placing him in situations where he could learn to understand and develop his relationship with authority in an egoless manner. By creating space where he could study, process and be uninterrupted allowed him what he needed to create structure on the inside so he could be effectual externally. As Michelle Obama so eloquently says, “For him, the Hole is a kind of sacred high place, where insights are birthed and clarity comes to visit.”
With all that hetero norm core tells us about what we should and shouldn’t expect in relationships, people often feel inhibited to ask for space or to live separately. 12th house planets, however, demand attention at the inner level. Without this space and time alone, projection can become a serious issue. Choosing a partner who is a pilot or a sailor, someone who is gone for long stretches of time can loosen these stressors, or like Michelle and Barack, sometimes it takes time to establish the parameters of what does and doesn’t work. Relationship or not, 12th house placements take yeeeeaaars to understand and unravel.
“Barack, I’ve come to understand, is the sort of person who needs a hole, a closed-off little warren where he can read and write undisturbed. It’s like a hatch that opens directly onto the spacious skies of his brain. Time spent there seems to fuel him.”
Pay your respects. Grieve your loss. Let people grieve without intrusion.
Grief is raw and vulnerable wether it’s a bushfire, a basketball player, or a political atrocity.
Writing, “Wait til the end,” to watch someone deeply grieving cry or lose their shit is not cool. It shows how disconnected we are from our own grief and normalises personal intrusion.
The limits of this surveillance culture are on us.
Traditionally, eclipses have been ominous signs. They remind us of how little control we have. No amount of prayer, ritual or intention can stop the Earth passing between the Sun and the Moon, casting a shadow on our closest neighbour.
As the earth moves betwixt two opposing forces, we edge deeper into the dance that has been unfolding since November 2018 when the Nodes moved into Cancer / Capricorn. #cancercapricornclusterfuck
Since November 2018, we’ve seen a rise in Cancer / Capricorn themes: women in power have destabilised the existing model of authority. Mass migration and the strict policing of borders has highlighted the lands we all stand on; whose land is it and who gets to draw lines all over it, carving out territories that some people can cross in to but not others? More people now have a deeper understanding of ancestral trauma, or at least the term is rolling around looking for its place to land. As corruption rolls over and exposes its underbelly we are left with no choice but to speak truth to power. As borders shift and economies follow, we’re asked what is it we’ve really invested our security into? Failing to acknowledged the Earth as a living, breathing organism has divorced us from having a co-creative relationship it, resulting in unimaginable devastation.
This Full Moon in Cancer is calling us home. It’s highlighting what needs to be let go of while simultaneously drawing us toward our potential. Cancer wants us to come home to planet earth, home to our bodies and personal sovereignty, home to understanding our own ancestry and the lineage of the lands we occupy. We’re being pulled – tugged at from the inside and out – to find this balance.
Capricorn represents that which we’re releasing. As an earth sign it highlights our use and relationship with resources: oil, water, crop, division & ownership, bodies, money. Its governance over large functioning systems highlights just how long we’ve been living under the oppressive rule of patriarchy, capitalism, white supremacy, heteronormativity, and how we’re simultaneously losing the voice of our elders. Capricorn is a cold, dry earth sign, and the cracks are showing. Without Cancer to balance it, Capricorn is in perpetual drought.
Astrology embraces opposites as part of the whole. Nothing is rejected. Capricorn, without its polar opposite Cancer, knows only how to use and control functional parts. Emotions are hailed as weak, uncontrollable and inferior. Most people can recall a time they felt like they had to bury their emotions to go to work. Capricorn steering the capitalistic ship fails to acknowledge that people are not robots, that Indigenous people have ongoing relationships to land, and that women and trans people have bodies that exist outside the law. Cancer reminds us that emotions hold up signposts for things that aren’t working. They lead us toward a more balanced, harmonious existence.
Cancer Full Moon Eclipse, January 10, 2020
Water is not as direct as Earth. It’s pervasive, moving through the cracks and slowly shifting things from the inside out. There’s nothing useless about small steps. There’s no weakness is stopping, acknowledging the ways in which we’ve contributed to this narrative and choosing a different path forward. We’re all welcome home, but what we’re coming home to depends on the choices we make.
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Anyone wanting to understand where the energies are occurring in your own chart, I’m offering a Year Ahead reading, drawing up a month by month personalised map.
If it’s feeling intense right now, it means you’re listening. But you’re also not alone.
If there was only one major transit this year ~ the Saturn Pluto conjunction occurring in January ~ we could say that the start of the year is intense but after it passes you can breathe out and get back to your life. Without wanting to play on already existing fears, it’s important we shift our view from a minor obstacle we can work through – to understanding that January is a precursor for what this year, and the future, holds. Collectively we’ve created an apocalyptic narrative that begins and ends, not one that we have to endure, slowly.
The current systems of power we’re governed by have been reigning supreme for longer than any of us have been alive. They’re not going down without a fight, which is why we’re seeing extreme responses of control, fear mongering and defence, both globally as well as personally.
If Capricorn is good at anything it’s the long-haul. Take stock of where you’re feeling vulnerable, what is potentially threatening your pocket of security in the world, and who and what holds deepest value to you. Solidarity and community connections will be our life blood when these power structures buckle under pressure.
Merry Crisis from Scotty in Marketing – artist unknown.
As Australians are forced to understand the connections between their flawed political system and environmental devastation, the UK & EU are standing on an unsteady brink of change, while the POTUS “unintentionally” just sparked a war with Iran that will affect the entire globe beyond measures we’ve yet seen. Welcome to 2020!
Astrologers have been sending up flares for a while about the intensity of 2020’s planetary climate. The current alignment between Saturn and Pluto has, in history, been a precursor to world war and global devastation. As above, so below, this year will mark significant changes in history with regard to politics, power and the use of resources, for better or worse.
Saturn and generational inheritance
The main theme of the year is delivered by Saturn ruled Capricorn: A stern teacher who values discipline over play; A mythology that passes down inferiority to its younger generations, fearful that the new will overthrow the old; A lack of accountability with how power is wielded that results in tighter, stricter measures; The failure to acknowledge vulnerabilities that could provide a far more beneficial model of how to use power than has been inherited.
While these are some of the more challenging Saturnian characteristics that come out under pressure, the unfolding themes are affecting everyone, not just those with Capricorn or Aquarian placements. It’s highlighting what we’ve all inherited and what we’re all being called to work with and through, 2020 and beyond.
Capricorn prides itself on being a leader. With its uncompromising eye on the prize, this earth sign can steamroll across any emotion that threatens to destabilise the firm structures of security it’s built. It knows how to bury inferiority, often presenting with a bold superiority to avoid contact with fear that could potentially undermine it. The problem with this familiar narrative is that it’s the old model, and we’re just beginning to scratch the surface with what we’ve inherited and how we all, in one way or another, uphold these cold, outdated modes of behaviour.
In the past few years, polarising narratives have thrown around insults to shut down those who are here to bring in change. “Snowflake” was once used to describe those who opposed the abolition of slavery in the 1800’s. It’s now used to condemn anyone acknowledging that the systems we’ve inherited hurt us. While there is the issue of entitlement to work through, if the current state of power (capitalism, top down politics, white supremacy, heteronormativity etc) is anything to go by, there are a select few creating the narrative we are fed as fact, and we continue to play along in a complex playground of forced membership.
2020 is a game changer.
If there was only one major transit this year ~ the Saturn Pluto conjunction occurring in January ~ it could be said that the start of the year is intense but after that you can breathe out and get back to your life. Without wanting to play on already existing fears, it’s important to shift our view from a minor obstacle we can work through – to understanding that January is a precursor for what this year, and the future, holds. Collectively we’ve created an apocalyptic narrative that begins and ends, not one that we have to endure, slowly.
If Capricorn is good at anything it’s the long-haul, so take stock of where you’re feeling vulnerable, what is potentially threatening your pocket of security in the world, and who and what holds deepest value to you. Solidarity and community connections will be our life blood when these power structures buckle under pressure.
The unfolding narrative in the 2020 sky highlights power in the wrong hands, exposure of who feeds who in the underbelly of corruption, and a reassessment of our values and how we communicate (let’s see how we function without the internet!). At the end of the year we have a brand new cycle of change emerging. One that will cap off a momentous year with a new direction of power and hope.
The thing with Capricorn and Saturn’s mythology is that it doesn’t hand power over well. For us to step into this new age, that has been emerging for some time, we need to embrace and acknowledge the things that have been buried and kept from view.
We’ve been taught that violence is an overt, obvious event. If we listen to minority groups however, who are often the ones stipulating necessary social changes, we hear how subtleties are often debilitating precursors to the more obvious symptoms. It’s difficult for people to grasp that language itself can be violent. The reaction to gender neutral language, for example, disrupts the heteronormative model, meaning that those who don’t understand have the choice to learn or resist. We’re taught that illness should be visible and something you plough through, as the severity and impact of mental health comes out from isolation.
As we seek to uncover the origins of the world we’ve inherited, we’re confronted with the narrative of Capricorn, “Get on with it. Stop complaining. You need to bury your feelings so that you can work and be productive. You’re too sensitive. You’re a burden on the system.” Acknowledging our vulnerabilities as signposts for change, not as weakness’s that halt production, are personal milestones that impact collective change.
Shifting consciousness from Capricorn to Aquarius
There’s a LOT of talk, especially in white spiritual spaces, of how we’re gearing up toward a consciousness shift. While this is not necessarily untrue (isn’t it a constant?), we can’t go through these monumental changes without our consciousness also shifting.
The exposure of Capricorn’s underbelly comes accompanied by the narrative that those stuck in the ‘old ways’ will be left behind. The issue is that everyone thinks they’re right and Capricorn, as a determined cardinal sign, can get stuck in the “doing” which creates the hierarchy of ahead v’s behind. What Aquarius is ushering in at the end of the year is that we’re all here together; if one of us isn’t free, none of us are.
We’re being forced to acknowledge our own uncomfortable experience of inferiority; none of us know what’s going on and we’ve been fed lies that say having control means you’re in charge. Having control brings its own set of things to worry about; maintaining it, curating the illusion that you’ve got it and often, not sharing it.
What this year asks for is complex.
There’s not one answer and not one solution. What there is though, is a playground full of tests and challenges for releasing that which we’ve outgrown. We’ve been given a set of rules and to survive we have to break them. Conformity will not save us. Not unpacking thoroughly that which we’ve inherited will only slow the process of change.
As the year unfolds and you find yourself, your outlook, your beliefs, your security, your relationship to power all being challenged, the best thing we can all do is look to our neighbour and see how they’re faring. Isolation is one of Capricorn’s defence mechanisms; reach out, stay connected and let the injustices impacting you inform you on how others are being affected, also.
Anyone wanting to understand where the energies are occurring in your own chart, I’m offering a Year Ahead reading, drawing up a month by month personalised map.
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2020 dates to watch out for:
As this year unfolds I will continue unpack each of these transits as they occur.
Jan 10: Lunar eclipse at 20* Cancer / Capricorn. Uranus stations direct.
Jan 12: Saturn Pluto (& Mercury) conjunction at 22* Capricorn
March 19-22/31 : Mars, Jupiter, Pluto, Saturn conjunction in Capricorn
March 29: Jupiter conjunct Pluto at 24* Capricorn
May 13: Venus retrograde 21* Gemini
May 14: Jupiter stations retrograde 27* Capricorn
June 23: Jupiter Rx conjunct Pluto in Capricorn at 24*
June 29: Mars enters 0* Aries
September 9: Mars retrograde at 28* Aries
November 7: Jupiter conjunct Pluto at 22* Capricorn (the same degree as the conjunction in January)
Mercury retrograde is a phenomenon that occurs approximately 3 times per year, every year. Having gained recent popularity due to a surge of interest in spirituality amongst Millennials, it is technically not classified as a “big hitter” in astrology. This most recent retrograde however, was more than just the brilliant eclipse across the Sun. It stirred the generational pot, activating unconscious ties between Boomers, Gen X and Millennials. It triggered both their similarities and disparities, prompting an already existing aggravation into mass protest across the globe, and a surge of memes, articles and analysis online.
