EPISODE 158 | Capricorn New Moon and Solstice: Rising Toward the Light!
Listen to the episode and read shownotes hereApril: Hello invisible friend, April here, and the date today is December 19th, 2022. Welcome to Episode 158 of The Big Sky Astrology Podcast.
I begin this week by wishing you a Happy Solstice, Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Happy Kwanzaa, anything you are celebrating during this joyous season.
In the skies, Jupiter re-enters Aries, the Sun enters Capricorn for its Solstice and makes a square to Jupiter. Venus makes trine to Uranus, we welcome a New Moon in Capricorn square Jupiter, Mercury sextile Neptune, and I answer a listener question about the out-of-bounds Moon.
Jupiter enters Aries (Dec. 20, 2022, 6:32 am PST)
The week begins with Jupiter entering the sign of Aries on December 20 at 6:32 AM Pacific Time. Jupiter was last in Aries between May 10 and October 27 before slipping back into Pisces by retrograde. It will be in Aries until May 16, at which time it will go into Taurus.
The question always with Jupiter is “What is it that we are making bigger?” And, in the case of Aries, it is passion and excitement, adventure, a pioneer spirit of restlessness to get from here to there in the shortest possible amount of time. The house where Aries is in your chart tells us where your life has been feeling too small and where you want to expand it and make it larger. The thing with Jupiter is we associate it with that largeness, that expansiveness; but when it begins in a sign or when it begins in a house of the chart, what it usually does first just call attention to the smallness around it, where we haven’t been thinking big enough for ourselves or taking the right kinds of risks. And what are the right kinds of risk? Well, as far as Jupiter and Aries is concerned, it’s any kind of risk. So, it will be an interesting period of time between now and May 16. This Jupiter is finishing up this work that it began earlier in the year in the sign of Aries.
How can we be pioneers? How can we move ourselves forward in a bold and courageous way along a path that we might never have imagined for ourselves? Jupiter won’t be back this way again for another, say, 11 years, but it will be a while before we see Jupiter in this area of the sky again and this area of our charts. So, your job by the time Jupiter has finished in Aries and especially in the house of your chart that contains Aries, is to feel that you have expanded the walls a bit. It’s like getting a shoe that is a little too tight, and over time you break it in and it feels bigger and more comfortable and more accommodating.
Sun enters Capricorn/Solstice, Dec. 21, 2022, 1:48 pm PST
On December 21 at01:48 PM Pacific Time, the Sun enters Capricorn, and that marks the Solstice. In the Northern Hemisphere, it’s the Winter Solstice and in the Southern Hemisphere, it is the Summer Solstice. This also marks the shortest day of the year in the Northern Hemisphere, and in the Southern Hemisphere the longest. Here in the North, the Sun is at its lowest maximum elevation in the sky. In other words, the point that it will reach in the midday sky is the lowest that it will be during the year. And all that the Sun represents, all of the warmth and energy and vitality, are at a bit of a low ebb at this solstice. But from this point forward, the Sun then starts to rise gradually in the sky. Day by day there’s a little more light, and this is a bit like Capricorn symbolized by the goat that climbs the mountain step by step until it finally reaches the summit.
This particular Capricorn Solstice is energized and brightened quite a bit by the Sun’s square to Jupiter, which occurs on December 21 at 4:51 PM, so not that long after the solstice at all. The Sun in Capricorn, we can visualize as cold and aged and moving slowly, but Jupiter is very fast moving in Aries and warming and wants us to get a move on. So, there’s a little bit of welcome tension at the Solstice between what feels like it’s getting old and slow and cold and what is bright and energizing.
Capricorn is the sign that represents the greatest age in maturity, and Jupiter is in Aries, the sign of the newborn baby. So, it’s kind of a fun Capricorn Solstice when we’re reminded that yes, we’re not getting any younger, but at the same time, it’s always the right time to start over again to start a new.
Venus trine Uranus (Dec. 2, 2022, 1:48 pm PST)
On December 2 at 1:48 PM Pacific Time, Venus makes a trine aspect to Uranus at 15°21’ Capricorn and Taurus, respectively. Now, Venus in Capricorn reveres tradition. Venus is what we love, what attracts us, what we appreciate, and Venus in Capricorn appreciates the old ways. But anytime Venus comes together with Uranus, Uranus wants to shake us up and say, yes, you’re really comfortable with those things. You’re happy and relaxed in the presence of whatever sign Venus is in, the old ways, the traditions, knowing what the rules are so that you can follow them and get what you want. But Uranus is always going to bring an air of change.
Now, it is in Taurus and it’s in a nice aspect with Venus, it’s trine, and maybe the changes that we’ll see around this date are gentle ones. Let’s say that a good friend invites you out to breakfast and sees that you order your usual breakfast, your hearty oatmeal, and says, “I think I’ll get that too, but I think I’m going to order something interesting to put in it. I think I’ll ask them for some dried fruit and some kind of really interesting flavored syrup to put in it.” And Venus in Capricorn is thinking “Syrup in my oats? Are you mad?” But you go ahead and you follow your friend’s lead and you try this new concoction out and the world doesn’t come to an end, and in fact you find you even kind of like it. And it sets you out onto your day a little fresher, a little brighter, energized, and even a little more youthful, which is how we feel very often when we try new things or mix things up a little bit.
This is a fairly gentle aspect between Venus and Uranus. This isn’t necessarily huge shocking changes, but just those little things, bearing just a little bit away from what we know we like and bringing something a little extra to it. I always say at these times that we can see some unexpected influx of money when Venus comes together in trine with Uranus, or we might also see some unexpected expenditures that we have to make. It can also be that an interesting and appealing someone comes into our path very suddenly and wakes us up to new opportunities in the realm of relationship.
New Moon in Capricorn (Dec. 23, 2022, 2:17 am PST)
And now, for the Moon Report for the week of December 19th. It begins with the New Moon in Capricorn on December 23 at 2:17 AM Pacific Time. This New Moon is at 1°32’ Capricorn on the Sabian symbol, 2 Capricorn, Three stained glass windows, one broken. Now, this New Moon finds the Sun and Moon in a square aspect to Jupiter. That’s what we’ve been talking about quite a lot in this episode already. And that means that the energy of this New Moon comes from taking a risk, taking a chance, letting that Sun and Moon in Capricorn be inspired by and follow the lead of Jupiter in Aries. When I look at that Sabian symbol and the three stained glass windows, I think “Ah, two of them are the Sun and Moon in Capricorn. And the broken one is Jupiter in Aries. Because it wants to break things open, move us in a new direction.” So, it’s an exciting New Moon, really.
This New Moon, like all New Moons, initiates a new Lunar Phase Family. And the story of this New Moon is of the Sun and the Moon connecting with Jupiter and an exciting new story beginning. And, I always picture with Aries, the pioneers crossing the prairies against incredible hardship just to blaze a new trail. And that’s very much what Jupiter in Aries feels like. So, we have the tension here of the Sun and the Moon in Capricorn wanting to launch out from our old ways, the ways that we know work, and move in this bold new direction. Now, this is a journey that will take a little time and always with New Moons, the first part of the story is told between this New Moon and the next one. That’s only 28 and a half days.
Then the second part of the story is told over the next six months until we get to about late June, sometime in early to mid-July when we have a Full Moon in this sign of Capricorn and we begin to see, oh, what is happening with what we started at that Capricorn New Moon? But then, there is this Lunar Phase family that spreads the story out over two and a half years. It begins with a New Moon, and then nine months later we have a First Quarter Moon near the same degree. In this case, it’ll be on September 22, 2023, which sounds so far from now, at 29°32’ Sagittarius, which is only a couple of degrees from this New Moon. And then, nine months after that, the Full Moon in this cycle on June 21, 2024, which is right around the Summer Solstice at 1° and 7 minutes of Capricorn. And finally, nine months after that, the Last Quarter Moon in this series, on March 22, 2025 at 2°5’ Capricorn.
So, at each of these critical moments in the cycle, we see growth, we see development. At the First Quarter, it’s going to be, taking an action toward the thing that we’re formulating now, the big adventure. That’s going take some time to plan out because it’s still the Sun and Moon in Capricorn, we’re not just going to launch out willy-nilly, we’re going to plan things a bit, and Jupiter’s just going to have to restrain himself. But then, by the time of the Full Moon in this cycle, in June 2024, we’re able to really see evidence of what we started now. So, if you’re starting a big project now, you’ll see some development around July, you’ll see some development in September of the coming year, and then, you’ll see a really full picture of where you’re at by June 2024.
And, then finally at the Last Quarter in this Lunar Cycle in March of 2025, we’re able to look back and say, “Well, I started out with this in mind, I did what I could and here’s where I’m at. I’m not completely finished with this yet, I’m not completely at the finish line. What can I do in the next nine months to get the outcome that I was hoping for?”
Anyway, I love these Lunar Phase Families, and I always have to thank my friend Celeste Brooks of Astrology By Celeste for hipping me to these cycles.
But what we do at the New Moon is, find the house in your chart where the New Moon point lies that contains 1°32’ Capricorn. I will post a link in the show notes to my blog post and video that explains how to do this. But what we do is look at that house as saying, “This is where I’m planting the seeds”. If it’s in the 5th House of your chart, this could be a time when you have a big creative dream that you’ve been wanting to fulfill and that is the story that is being initiated at this time. Maybe it’s in the 9th House and there’s a big trip that you want to take or a course of study or you’re going back to school. The house that the New Moon point is in really tells this story that’s going to be unfolding for you over the next two, two and a half years.
Void-of-Course Moon periods
Let’s look at the Void-of-Course Moon periods for this week. On December 20, the Moon in Scorpio makes a sextile aspect to Pluto at 6:45 PM Pacific Time. It’s void-of-course for about four and a half hours before it enters Sagittarius on December 20th at 11:13 PM. The Void-of-Course Moon periods that begin with a Lunar aspect to Pluto are always the ones I find provide the strongest possibility for changing our unconscious emotional patterns. The Moon in Scorpio is given to looking deep, trying to find out what’s really going on beneath the surface for ourselves and for others. So, when it comes together in an aspect with Pluto, it’s like meeting an old friend. This is a four-and-a-half-hour period when we have an opportunity – the sextile is an opportunity aspect – to make a very important change. So, this is a very good one for changing habits or patterns that are working against you.
One of the best ones for a Moon in Scorpio with Pluto is about letting go of grudges. If you’re carrying a lot of emotional baggage, bad feelings against somebody who did you a bad turn at some point, here is an invitation to let that go. What is the saying? It’s like taking poison and expecting the other person to die. So, it’s a really toxic thing that we do, and, letting go of that and forgiving – not forgetting, Scorpio’s never going to forget – but forgiving, is a really healthy thing that we can do for ourselves.
On December 22, the Moon in Sagittarius makes a square to Neptune at 12:16 PM Pacific Time. It’s a pretty long Void-of-Course period, just about 11 and a half hours before the Moon enters Capricorn at 11:49 PM. The Moon is Sagittarius is a resilient and jubilant Moon. And, at this time of year in particular, when we’re celebrating, Moon in Sagittarius is in its element. But, as it squares Neptune, a funny kind of thing happens, there’s a little bit of melancholy that comes along with Neptune sometimes. And I think Sagittarius making the square to Neptune reminds us as we’re often reminded during the holiday seasons of those who are no longer with us, of those who are far away, of the people that were missing and the times gone by. There’s a bit of that nostalgia. The Christmas songs that are a little poignant, the Christmas movies that make us cry a little bit, the gatherings with your loved ones where you’re all very aware of the empty chair.
It’s a pretty long Void-of-Course Moon, and it can pass us by without being noticed terribly much. It happens on a weekday and we might be going about our work and the practicalities of everyday life, but don’t be surprised if there are a few little stirrings that come up about this holiday season.
On December 24, the Moon in Capricorn makes a conjunction with Pluto at 7:11 PM Pacific Time, it’s void-of-course for about four hours before it goes into Aquarius at 11:14 PM. This is a deeply dark void-of-course time with the Moon adrift in the winter cold. And, I remember Mel LaFara with the Moon in Capricorn, when I interviewed her, putting this beautifully, she said, “The Moon in Capricorn is the furthest away from its home because its home sign is Cancer.” So again, we’re coming off of that slight melancholia of the Moon in Sagittarius square Neptune, and now we’re in this dark Moon in Capricorn time, and the Moon comes into contact with Pluto, the darkest, the most remote of the planets.
And, this is a moment in the year when things are feeling dark and we might be feeling the furthest away from where we would really like to be. It doesn’t mean that you have to give in to grim depression or that things will be horribly sad, but it does say “There is a time to really feel our feelings, and this is one of those times”. It’s not a terribly long void-of-course period four hours. And I would say maybe this is an evening for spending time in the company of at least one special someone or a beloved pet and cuddling a little bit in the coziness of, here in the Northern Hemisphere, what might be a very chilly winter evening.
Mercury sextile Neptune (Dec. 24, 2022, 5:17 pm PST)
On December 24, Mercury makes a sextile to Neptune at 5:17 PM Pacific Time, at 22°46’ minutes of Capricorn and Pisces. Mercury in Capricorn is extremely organized and very strategic. Neptune in Pisces doesn’t tend to work that way, it doesn’t work in chronological time, it is the part of us that wants to drift and take our time and be a little bit exploratory. Here is an opportunity, because this a sextile, we don’t have to take advantage of it, but here’s an opportunity to blend this pragmatism of Mercury and Capricorn with our imaginative selves. This is the kind of moment where a writer sits down to create an essay about the feelings and meanings of the holiday season. This is a time when an artist decides to actually sit down and finish the painting that they’ve been working on. See what it is that is in your heart and your imagination that has been wanting to be made real and take a step, however tentative, in that direction.
Listener Question: Moon Out-of-Bounds
In this week’s listener question, listener Robin sent the following message via Speakpipe. “Hi, my name is Robin and I would like to know what an Out-of-Bounds Moon is. I have a Moon in Leo at 19° in the 3rd House. Thank you.”
April: That’s a great question, Robin. I know we have looked at out-of-bounds planets previously on the podcast. It has been a while. So, to know whether your Moon, for instance, is out-of-bounds, you didn’t actually mention if it was, but, the out-of-bounds Moon requires looking at the declination of the Moon at the time you were born. And, it doesn’t really have to do with the longitude, which is the 19° of Leo. An out-of-bounds planet is one that exceeds 23°28’ North or South of the equator. That is the furthest North or South that the Sun travels in the course of a year. It is contained by that band, but the other planets are not contained by those bounds. So, if the Moon or any planet is out-of-bounds, it means it has escaped those boundaries, the bounds established by the Sun. And the Sun is the organizing principle of the chart. We live in a solar system, all of the other planets take their cues from the Sun, they travel around the Sun, so the Sun is the big cheese, the head honcho.
When a planet is out-of-bounds, it means that it has liberated it itself from the boss’s rules, the Sun’s rules. We are outside the conventional boundaries of our world, and so, the Moon, for example, being out-of-bounds, means, it has exceeded 23°28’ North or South by declination, it’s outside the regulations of the Sun.
Now, the Moon is about the way we feel safe and centered in the world, how we have a sense of belonging to something. It can be belonging to a family or country or a tribe of people who share our interests or concerns. But, when the Moon is out-of-bounds, we can either feel a little bit out of place in the world and have a hard time finding our people or the place that feels like home. It can be hard to find the right house, the right city, to feel comfortable in our own skins sometimes.
A Moon that is out-of-bounds is a little more itinerate than we normally expect the Moon to be. We think of the Moon as the part of us that wants to be safe, but an out-of-bounds Moon doesn’t really care about being safe, it’s out there breaking all the rules. We might find ourselves if the Moon is out-of-bounds in the chart, being drawn to circumstances or places that are really extreme, really out of the ordinary.
If, Robin, you have an out-of-bounds Moon, and so, Moon in Leo, we know that what makes a Moon in Leo feel good is being noticed, is standing out in some way and having its heart acknowledged. But if the Moon is out-of-bounds, it’s a much more kind of Uranian, Aquarian kind of a feeling, and that’s quite different from Leo. A Uranus or Aquarian feeling is more about not needing anyone else’s acknowledgement or approval or being part of a crowd, one of the many. So, it might be a little harder for an out-of-bounds Moon in Leo to let itself be acknowledged and noticed and celebrated. This might for you, if again, your Moon is out-of-bounds in the 3rd House, be about the way you are listened to, “Do people hear you? Do they acknowledge your words or your voice?” So, there’s a lot of ways this out-of-bounds Moon can work, but what we do know about it is it doesn’t work like other Moons. And, the entire principle of the Moon, which is about being comfortable and cozy and having a place to call home usually isn’t nearly as important or it has been something that’s been elusive in your life, and so, you put a lot of focus and work over time on achieving it.
I hope that helps? I’ll link in the show notes to a wonderful article by Stephen Forrest specifically about the out-of-bounds Moon, because I thought it was really interesting, I remember reading it when he first published it. And as always, he has beautiful words of wisdom and says everything just right. So, do take a look in the show notes for that.
If you have a question that you’d like me to answer on a future episode, do as Robin did and leave a message of one minute or less at speakpipe.com/bigskyastrologypodcast. Or you can email me at April(at)bigskyastrology(dot)com, and just be sure to put “Podcast Question” in the subject line.
Well, that is everything I have on my show sheet, so I’m going to wrap this one up. Thank you for listening to The Big Sky Astrology Podcast. If you like what you’re hearing, be sure to subscribe or follow the show in your app of choice. Ratings and reviews are welcome, and I’d love it if you would help spread the word about the show by telling a friend. You can read show notes and full transcripts and leave your comments about each episode at bigskyastropod.com.
Donor Thanks
I want to thank everybody who’s shown support for the podcast over the past year, including during the recent Podathon. Each week, I’m thanking some of you by name. This week, let’s give a big Sky Astrology Podcast shout out to Sandy Ochin and Elliott Mayer!
April: Thank you so much for listening to the podcast, Sandy and Elliott, and for supporting the show with your donations.
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That’s it for this episode. Join me again, bright and early next Monday. And until then, keep your feet on the ground and your eyes on the stars!
© 2022 April Elliott Kent. May only be posted at bigskyastrology.com
