New Story
You’re sitting around a bonfire with a small group of fellow travelers and campers. Everyone is far from home; in some cases, you don’t share a common language. You take turns introducing yourselves, and when it’s your turn, you begin to recite the usual details – your name, your job, the place you call home.
Instead, you find yourself telling a different story, about sitting around a similar fire with your family, back when you were too young to have much of a biography. How you and your sister got up and entertained the adults with a silly song, and your older brother made shadow puppets against the background of the tent. How mom and dad leaned into one another and laughed; how you all toasted marshmallows. Around your present-day campfire, this odd collection of strangers relaxes and smiles, perhaps remembering childhood camping trips of their own.
It’s often harder to tell the story of who we are now, than it is to remember where it all began. Maybe it’s because we’ve told the old stories for so long that we know them by heart, have learned how to pause at the right moments for effect. Or maybe it’s because who we are is always shifting, and the ongoing story needs time to find its structure. As Mercury finishes the last of three squares to imaginative Neptune this week (Jan. 8, 2024, 5:24 pm PST), let yourself tell a new story.
Singing with the Choir
The Sun trines Uranus (Jan. 9, 2024, 4:07 pm PST) just a couple of days ahead of the Capricorn New Moon. The Sun in its Capricorn season shines most brightly on individual ambitions. This is the time of year when we contemplate what we intend to build, achieve, and create in the coming calendar year – by and for ourselves.
But being a happy human means balancing the supremacy of the individual with the human need to feel part of a group. Twice each year, when the Sun trines Uranus, harmony seems to reign: we like who we are, and others like us, too.
It’s a brief transit, but instructive. Seeing only through the solar lens of individual ambition is isolating. The Sun’s Sabian symbol at this trine is 20 Capricorn, Hidden choir singing, an image of uniting with other voices to create a beautiful sound. It’s a reminder that while the world needs its leaders, we all need one another, too.
Listen to your Intuition
Mars and Saturn in aspect prompt an exploration of the ways we direct our physical energy, determination, competitive influences in constructive directions. Still visible in our rear-view mirrors is the square between the two on Nov. 25, which demanded we use our Mars resources more efficiency and effectively. If we didn’t heed that directive, we may have hit a bit of a wall and headed into the holidays burned out or ill.
But Mars’ sextile to Saturn this week (Jan. 9, 2024, 6:40 pm PST) brings an invitation to step up our game and take on more responsibility. If we’ve conserved our resources, Mars in ambitious Capricorn will be champing at the bit to move up to the next level and to put practical gifts to best use. But the sextile to Saturn in Pisces is a reminder that not every opportunity has to be taken, especially if the timing isn’t right. It’s important to listen closely to our intuition before agreeing to more obligations, no matter how much Mars wants to say yes.
Bending
This week, the Sun in Capricorn squares the Moon’s nodes in Aries and Libra (Jan. 10, 2024, 5:43 pm PST). A planet square the nodal axis is said to be “at the bendings,” applying its focus toward either the North or South Node. The Sun is now at the South bending, meaning it’s pointing toward the South Node in Libra and focused on releasing patterns of dependence and people-pleasing. We feel the quiet, inward call to release unhelpful emotions, even if it may feel difficult to make outward changes.
This aspect marks the midpoint between two eclipse seasons. Eclipses are changing points, page turners in the narrative that shifts us from one end of the nodal axis to the other. Now is the time to let go of what you don’t need, maybe even things that are actively hurting you; it’s a spiritual yard sale to prepare you for the upcoming eclipses on March 25 (5º07’ Libra) and Apr. 8 (19º24′ Aries).
The Relay Race
Regardless of what the calendar says, the Capricorn New Moon (Jan. 11, 2024, 3:57 am PST) is the best time for making resolutions. And not just for 2024; each New Moon begins a new Lunar Phase Gestation cycle that unfolds over several years – which is plenty of time to do important things.
The New Moon point in a trine to Uranus, the planet of awakening, is custom made for reworking old patterns and giving ourselves over to new inspiration and change. We don’t often think of Capricorn as change-oriented, but the New Moon and Uranus connecting in earth signs indicates that on a real, quantifiable level, we can make actual changes in the new year. And with the New Moon trine Uranus, we can rely on others to help us.
The New Moon is on the Sabian symbol 21 Capricorn, A relay race. Capricorn usually prefers to work alone, but this symbol is a reminder that our accomplishments have a farther reach when we do our bit, then pass them on to the next generation to take them even farther.
Wild Blue Yonder
When Mars trines Jupiter (Jan. 12, 2024, 2:42 am PST), all the detours you’ve taken along your path, all the different interests and classes and projects that seemed like distractions, have led you all at once to something remarkable. All the paths converge and lead toward a joyful, wide-open future.
Mars in Capricorn wants success that it can hold in its hands; fortunately, Jupiter in Taurus offers just those kinds of rewards – the ones you can take to the bank. If you’ve been struggling to build your financial safety net despite reversals and disappointments, help is near at hand. You’ve passed through the slough of despond, and now it’s time to embrace the wild blue yonder.
Cursive
I spent some formative years in Catholic school, where the nuns were pretty serious about penmanship. That was a long time ago; but take a look at the Christmas cards you’ve received from anyone who learned handwriting in a Catholic school and you’ll see vestiges of carefully cultivated Palmer cursive.
In its recognizability we find both the virtue and the shadow of Mercury in Capricorn (Jan. 13, 2024, 6:49 pm PST, through Feb. 4), which favors clear, well-ordered, and tidy communication—but can also mire our thinking in rigid conformity. Use Mercury’s time in structured Capricorn productively, by taming the unruly stacks of paper in your office, crossing long-neglected tasks off your to-do list, and catching up on thank-you notes.
The big ideas you nurtured in recent weeks, while Mercury was in Sagittarius, are now ready to be entered into your planner in ink. And to make them real, start by stripping down the work to its bare bones, then rebuild it to greater clarity and integrity.
Writing and images © 2017-24 by April Elliott Kent
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