New Moon in Capricorn
new moon in capricorn 02.01.22 - 6.33pm
New moon in Capricorn, Sunday 2nd January 2022 at 6.33 pm
The new moon is the start of the lunar cycle and the beginning of a new chapter. This new moon in Capricorn, occurring just the day after the Gregorian calendar shifts into 2022, is an uber-new moon. It invites us to start the freshest of new chapters and offers us a truly powerful reset.
On the one hand, Capricorn represents positive, classic New Year traits, such as persistence, discipline, motivation and will power, which is illustrative of a beautiful process of osmosis between mainstream culture and astrology. However, rather than bringing those other New Year “classics” - pressure, punishment, self-flagellation - that January has come to symbolise for many (feelings that often push us into perceived failure), Capricorn is also about long-term intention setting, integrated practically in our daily lives. This is not at odds with dreaming big, by the way, it is a steady way to mold our lives into what we want them to be. And this is where we can tap into the stability of Capricorn; tap into the nurturing inner parent and our own personal cheerleader.
Mainstream culture often teaches us that to succeed, things have to be difficult. We have to pull ourselves up with our bootstraps; kick ourselves up the arse; motivate ourselves in the style of the ruthless drill instructor, Gunnery Sergeant Hartman, from Kubrick’s Full Metal Jacket. No! What Capricorn energy teaches us is that, to succeed, that inner voice is most beneficial and nurturing when it is kind. What does that voice sound like for you?
With this new moon, we are extremely close to the nodal shift, which is happening on January 19th. We have an eighteen-month cycle closing out into a new one, which amplifies this feeling of beginnings. We are moving from the North node in Gemini and South node in Sagittarius, to the North node in Taurus and South node in Scorpio. This is a big energetic shift. Back at the new moon in Sagittarius, we talked about themes of the global pandemic: restrictions around international travel and human interaction, in particular. Now we are at a release point for these energies and themes. Collectively, we are entering into an axis of death and rebirth. Scorpio offers us the opportunity to look at why we do and think things that may not be wholly beneficial to us, aspects that lay in our shadow selves, and Taurus invites us to see how life could be; invites us to see the beauty that we could create. This next eighteen months has the potential to be extremely healing.
This moon is trining Uranus in Taurus, which supports this beautiful creative energy that is coming in through the nodal shift and also the idea of intention setting and change. As Uranus embodies the energy of revolution, in Taurus it is asking how we shake things up day to day. It is the awakener. Collectively, it is asking us to redefine our relationship to the Earth; restructure how we do things.
Jupiter is now in Pisces, which is a fortuitous placement and very supportive of all that is happening here. This energy is all about empathy, union, abundance and creativity. Mercury is also in Aquarius, a progressive and perspective-shifting transit.
How to work with this energy? Micro-practice it. Intention set – writing your dreams and goals for the next year – but do it in little slices without the pressure of ‘doing it right’. There is no right way to do this. You don’t need to do everything at once. And the same goes for positive self-parenting. Many of us talk to ourselves negatively because it is a habit. If we practice, even for a very short space of time, that rewiring and perspective shift begins to happen, gradually at first, but then it becomes embedded and automatic. A useful way to take the pressure off ourselves at this time of year is turn these questions around, as Eckhart Tolle says: “Instead of asking ‘what do I want from life?’, a more powerful question is, ‘what does life want from me?’”