January 11: Capricorn New Moon
The New Moon at 20°44 Capricorn at 6:57 AM ET on January 11, wants to connect you with an inspiring sense of purpose for 2024. Capricorn is a cardinal earth sign that gets off on goals and achievement. Mars entered Capricorn on January 4 (my bday!), the sign of its exaltation, so there’s really nothing you can’t make happen from now till February 13.
The Capricorn New Moon is the perfect moment to revisit intentions set at the Winter Solstice on December 21, and decide what you’re committed to accomplishing over the next 3 months. The new year has distinct sections, and although Winter is an incubation period in the Northern Hemisphere, it's one of the most stable parts of 2024. Use this time wisely before Spring brings tumult with the eclipses and Mercury retrograde in Aries.
Capricorn season encourages us to meditate on mastery. We become masterful at whatever we do for a long amount of time, whether that's practicing medicine, playing video games, studying astrology, or worrying. Whatever we engage with will change us energetically as we seek to understand it. Use this lunation to consider what's most worthy of your efforts from now until the Equinox on March 19. The sea goat sets its ambitious sights on the summit of the mountain, but its pragmatic groundedness knows that even the greatest journey begins with a single cloven hoofed step.
Mars trines Jupiter at 05°21 Taurus at 5:41AM on January 12, amplifying confident and moving us to commit to a deliberate practice. We’ve had the opportunity to go deep with our life motivations thanks to the multiple Mercury retrograde cycles in Capricorn over the last year.
Mercury re-enters Capricorn at 9:49 PM ET on January 13, helping us establish well defined specific goals. We’re able to work more efficiently when we give tasks our full attention. Mercury in Cap is focused to the exclusion of everything else, and you’ll be able to tie up any outstanding loose ends from the December Mercury retrograde in the coming weeks. Mercury departs its retrograde shadow on January 20, at the start of Aquarius season, and joins the Sun there on February 5.
Responsibility can feel like a burden but Capricorn considers it a spiritual purpose. Taking good care of what’s in our charge builds self-esteem and gives life meaning. It allows us to remain humble while inhabiting our power. The Capricorn New Moon wants you to take ownership of what's in your wheelhouse. Each of us are entrusted with innate talents. The gifts divinity gave us are ours to cultivate and share with the world. What do you feel called to do this year? The work that urges you in a particular direction, that thrills your heart to consider, is a clue to your destiny.
Mastery is also about how you practice. The art of the craft. Mars in Capricorn is ensuring we’ll get things done and so we’re free to focus on quality. There is a great momentum carrying you forward for the next several months. Let yourself relax into confidence that things will happen, your more important job is to figure out the best way it should go. Prioritize taking pride in your work by doing it well, whatever that means to you.
Saturn at 04° Pisces is ruling this lunation in conjunction with the fixed star Fomalhaut; one of the Persian royal stars that amplifies the mysticism and magic of the mutable water sign. Fomalhaut inspires us to commit to noble causes, regardless of whether our visions will be accepted by society or render us as outcasts. Our challenge is to maintain the integrity of the dream while trying to enact it on earth.
Dream and dread are spelled similarly and we can subconsciously fear the things we long to embody the most. The trine with Uranus in Taurus can help you overcome those fears and spontaneously take worthwhile risks.
The Royal Fixed Stars of Persia are said to trigger trials that must be worked through before true success can be achieved. They bring pitfalls and temptations that cause people to fall from grace and are allegorically linked to the New Testament story of Satan tempting Jesus in the desert.
The Devil is the Major Arcana tarot card connected to Capricorn and reminds us that wherever we hide, we are not truly free. As a Capricorn Sun, I always find the correlation with this card just the teeniest bit insulting, but materialism and ruthlessness are the shadow side of the sign. Saturn with Fomalhaut can serve as a reminder not to place riches and status above integrity and artistry.
Pisces is the most compassionate sign. The softening influence of the sextile from Neptune can help us acknowledge where our human foibles may have tripped us up in the past, but rather than judge ourselves for our perceived failings, see if this New Moon can help you view them with a bit more love and appreciation. We wouldn’t be who we are or where we are without them. The little goat knows it's not really about reaching the destination, it's the climb that brings the satisfaction.