It is a new moon in Capricorn. A new lunar cycle begins a couple of days before the new year spins into motion. This moon will move us from an ending into a beginning, weaving one solar spin into another, stitching the next phase with threads that will inevitably be carried from the previous one.
How beautiful to remember that this canvas is clear and ready to be painted on. How beautiful to remember that the paint is the same paint we’ve always used. How beautiful to remember that there are infinite ways for us to mix the paint, to make new shades, to create new colors. How beautiful to remember that the old and the new are forever intertwined.
Capricorn brings wisdom from the bottom of the sea. Ancient memories from the depth of the underworld. Wild unknowns carved in stone for future generations to rediscover. Before the current mountain goat form, this zodiac sign was seen a sea goat.
It may all started with ancient Babylonian god Ea; a man with a fish skin cloak, who was also an antelope, who brought wisdom from the depth of the waters, and taught the secrets of the subterranean world to the people of Sumer. (the book Mythic Astrology by Arielle Guttman and Kenneth Johnson is a great resource).
Capricorn is known to rise to the summit, traversing the terrain of ragged, rough mountain landscape, carefully, strategically, carving pathways to the top. Patience is one of this archetype’s gifts. Waiting for the right moment, not rushing, moving in a Wintery rhythm, trusting the process. And yet there’s an urgency, an intense sense of alertness, an understanding of the dangers of life, and how interwoven with death it always is.
Ruled by Saturn, Capricorn has a strong relationship with time. And what is time, for us humans, if not death? Saturn is known for being stern and serious and somber, an old man in his study, lurking over volumes of books that hold the secrets of the past. There is a deep understanding that emerges from hardships and the difficulties of a life long lived. But beneath that austerity, there is a wildness that cannot be taken away. A wildness that sparks the secrets of the future, carrying the seeds of what was into the soil that nourishes what will be.
In the darkness of Winter, within the grim grounds of this archetypal presence, through the seasons’s severe conditions (funny to write these words from sunny Southern California… I guess for us it’s the severe dryness), a spark of untamed, unruly sensuality never ceases to burn and churn the inner flaming liquids of our world. Capricorn’s dark and delicious secret is that they are the horned one. A forest green creature of desire. They are Pan; Greek (pre-Greek actually) god of nature, whose appetite for sex can never be satisfied. They are the Devil; the sexy badass, fallen angel who burns with lust and lures you off the beaten path, into underground journeys that are not what you expected from your life. They are a liberating force, a rowdy power of passion and perseverance.
As a sign that ushers the world into Winter, (in the northern hemisphere), we can imagine the sea goat diving into the dark unseen world beneath the waves, deep into the ocean of the unconscious, and excavating the spark of the sun, pulling it on its back, midwifing it from the waters of the womb, and charting a map, carving a path, making a way to the mountaintop. On its way, the fish tail falls off and hooves emerge instead. An adaptation into new conditions. A transformation. An alchemy. A rebirth.
Rising as a sexy goat mermaid from the foam, shaping the landscape with their new hooves, Capricorn reminds us that the path isn’t yet carved, that we must figure it out as we go, but that a good plan, rooted in experience and in knowledge, is important. It warns us that we need to be careful along the way, that we need to not rush through it. It also reminds us to find beauty on the path, to make the path beautiful as we carve it.
As this year reaches its final breaths, what pieces of wisdom have you gathered from it?
What sparks and sparkles do you want to excavate from the depth of this ending year’s darkness, and bring them with you to ignite the year that is about to start?
What were the unexpected twists and turns you’ve undergone?
What were the most important lessons you’ve learned?
What threads are you carrying with you into this next cycle around the sun?
Use these questions as conversation starters on your NYE gathering, or journal about it to help end the year in a meaningful way.
And join us for the first Somatic Story event to welcome the new year with the mythic archetype of New Beginnings in an evening of storytelling, intentionality, and deep inner exploration – Sunday January 5th, 7pm-9pm at Crescent Yoga in Altadena. It’s gonna be a super special evening, and I cannot wait to share with you!
Come and tap into an inspired, insightful place within you, so that you can move into the new year with muse and wisdom. Together we’ll create a sacred space for all parts of you to move with the myth and breathe with the body of teachings waiting to unfold from within it.
We’ll turn the story into a somatic experience with a sequence of breathwork, slow movement, restorative poses, mantra (sacred sounds), and mudra (yogic hand gestures), and weave together the physical, the emotional, the intellect, and the imagination.
I am just so excited to do this! Let me know if you have questions. I hope the timing works well for you. Let’s start the year with this opportunity to bring meaning and artistry into the ways that we weave the thread of the next chapter in our story. With the new administration entering the White House, we know we will be up against some serious shit storms. Rooting ourselves in wisdom and mythology, in good community and grounding practices, is important right now.
And it’s not too late to register for the online Winter Solstice Somatic Ceremony if you’d like to weave the old and the new, and ritualize this seasons’s rebirth journey. Get in there!
May this new moon be a meaningful, magical portal for you to enter the new year through.
With so much love,
Hagar