2010 Capricorn New Moon/ Annular (Partial) Solar Eclipse
25 Capricorn 01
2:12 AM EST / 7:12 AM GMT/ 11:12pm 1/14 PST

Halfway into the first month of this new year and this new decade, we are at one of the two most important New Moons of the year. January’s New Moon is a solar eclipse in Capricorn, the most goal-oriented sign of the zodiac. If you haven’t compiled your new year’s resolutions, now’s the time to make them. If you already have, bring your list out for reconsideration, commitment and a huge injection of cosmic Miracle-Gro.

As a solar eclipse, this New Moon is super-charged, setting events in motion that will play out over the entire year. It’s well worth examining what you’re contemplating at this time, because whatever is on your personal agenda is getting amped up by this event. This New Moon is a pivot point in the current Cancer/Capricorn eclipse cycle, which has been spotlighting issues of home, family, career and public standing since last July. Eclipses happen every year, and generally their impact depends on how closely they touch points in your chart. Eclipses on this particular axis, however, stir powerful responses and emotions in everyone, because it is connected with fundamental issues of emotional and financial safety — love, nurturing, food, Mommy, Daddy, shelter, belonging, prelingual matters that can cause otherwise mature and responsible individuals to tear up, crumble and reach for their security blanket.

These sorts of fundamental needs and longings have been popping up unmistakably in your life since the week after Christmas, no matter where the Cancer/Capricorn axis falls in your chart. The trigger was the Full Moon lunar eclipse in Cancer on New Year’s Eve, which escalated the natural tension between the Mommy (nurturing) and Daddy (providing) ends of the spectrum. It was a powerfully emotional year-ending, which spotlit people and situations from which you are receiving genuine nurturing and support — and the ones from which you are not. if you did not look at events in that way, reconsider them now. Did you any have conversations or encounters that stirred negative emotions? Made you want to get away? Left you physically uncomfortable? Those reactions were your evidence, whether you recognized it as such then or not. If you entered into an encounter feeling fine and lost your sense of well-being, it was not, if you think about it, a surprise. Odds are high that you’ve had a negative response in the past to that person, situation or dynamic and continued allowing him or it in your life for whatever reason (I need the money; it’s family; s/he is going through a bad time; it’s just the way s/he is; I have to fix this; I can’t afford to leave, etc., etc., etc.). Don’t brush these recent encounters away. Remember how you felt emotionally. Remember how you felt physically and energetically. The ones that made you feel good, safe, loved, secure, valued have a place in your life and on your list of 2010 resolutions, goals, intentions, whatever label you prefer. The ones that made you feel anything but that, don’t have a place, or at least not in the current form that has such power over you.

It all boils down to the state of your support system, or rather, the support system to which you belong (because your giving of nurturing is a factor, too). We’ve been living in the past two weeks in the middle ground between saying goodbye (lunar eclipse behavior) and looking forward (the call of the solar eclipse). The arrival of the solar eclipse means it’s time to turn our attention ahead. Drop thoughts of what you’re leaving or dismantling. Think in terms of what you’re building, you do want, what you do value and where and with whom you do experience a reciprocity of support and nurturing. What we’re beginning to set up place now will be with us for the rest of the year and, depending on how we fine-tune it this summer, for quite the long haul afterward as well.

We are very definitely, unmistakably in a new phase of existence now, individually and collectively, and the planetary line-up for this New Moon reflects the new paradigm we are developing this year. The Sun and the Moon are sandwiched between the North Node of destiny, the last point they crossed over before meeting, and Venus, ruler of our relationships, money, self-worth and values, the first planet they will each cross after parting. All things ruled by Venus have been sharpened, focused, stripped down to the most essential and most prized, since her meeting with Pluto just after Christmas. This new focus and intensity permeates the New Moon as well as the collective, represented by the North Node. This event is launching a new role of the feminine in our personal and collective structures, as well as a new appreciation of and respect for core values. We are building structures for our hearts.

Since the Aquarian traveling party is in a growth aspect to the New Moon (transcendent Neptune exactly so), these structures reflect the evolution we have made in living — and now planning — expansively, with a compassionate, healing outlook and our connection to spirit beaming right into mundane life. With Uranus the awakener in easy opportunity aspect to the New Moon, the offer is here for these structures to both liberate us from processing other people’s issues and also bring us into service of all life. (The more intact and true to ourselves each of us is, the more simply living our lives benefits everyone.) And with the New Moon’s ruler, Saturn, squaring Mercury and Pluto, the New Moon also carries forward the energy of the deep and penetrating overhaul that’s occurring in how we relate to and communicate with each other, including what we think about relationships. When the eclipse happens, Saturn is three days into his retrograde and Mercury is 12 hours away from stationing direct. Saturn’s retrograde will last until late May and take us back into one last refresher course in personal intactness and boundaries. Saturn’s retrograde status during the eclipse that he rules will make the eclipse’s unfolding impact long, slow and methodical, and will fill it with a deep reevaluation and restructuring of relationship issues, even ones we thought we’d fixed. Mercury’s influence is likewise prolonged. Because Mercury is still retrograde as the New Moon becomes exact, the researching, revisiting and readdressing practicalities inherent in his retrograde will color not merely this event, but the year unfolding from it.

Every arrangement, in your head and out in the world, is up for renegotiation. Reciprocity is a key issue. If one side of an equation feels there’s an imbalance between what it’s putting in and what it’s getting back, it will demand redress, and not subtly either. (Great real-life example of the type of hard ball that’ll be common: the distributor of The Food Network and HGTV upping the ante in a contract dispute by pulling its programming New Year’s Day from a cable company in the NJ and NYC area.) We’re being called upon to be honest with ourselves, first, and then with the others in our lives. This ties back to all those uncomfortable encounters we had in the first days of the year — well, to be more exact, to all the encounters we had, uncomfortable and not. We will find words to cut people, patterns and situations out of our support systems and personal infrastructures — not long-winded, flowery words, but efficient, quick, unapologetic and to the point. Words will also come to us in the other type of situations — the situations that make our hearts open and swell and sing, that make us feel understood and nourished, safe and protected, cherished and loved for who we are. We will be thinking and speaking words of appreciation, connection and long-term planning with the members of our heart family and web of mutual support.

No coincidence, the Moon meets Venus two hours after the solar eclipse and then goes void until just after noon EST. Even though the eclipse happens while many of us in the Western Hemisphere are sleeping, its energy is with us as we awaken, with particular emphasis on the new construction we are doing to bring our life into alignment with what we value. Let thoughts, images, feelings and sensations swirl through you all morning. They will resolve into the path for you.

Some solar eclipses propel us forward as if we’ve been shot from a cannon. This one will work a bit more methodically. We are setting paving stones out in front of us step by step by step. Our hearts are choosing the nature, shape, size and direction of the stones. Our minds are stirring up quite a bit of talk to determine who’s walking along with us and how we’ll proceed. The next Saturn/Pluto square, at the end of the month, will push that discussion into clarity and action. By the end of June, we will pause in our journey and take in where it’s leading us.

Here is Lynda Hill’s interpretation of the Sabian Symbol for the New Moon at 26 Capricorn, reprinted with her kind permission from her book The Sabian Symbols As An Oracle, the Special Edition:
A NATURE SPIRIT DANCING IN THE MIST OF A WATERFALL.

Commentary: ‘A Nature Spirit’ is seen ‘Dancing in the Mist of a Waterfall’. The ‘Nature Spirit’ is a carefree and beautiful image of effervescence and fun. Nymphs are ‘Nature Spirits’ that live in water; they are divine manifestations of nature: of woods, groves, springs, streams, rivers, etc. The ‘Nature Spirits’ dance in the ‘Mist’ because they know to avoid the areas of heavy pressure in the ‘Waterfall’. Even though strength and power of emotional flow is in the middle of the ‘Waterfall’, it is not possible to survive under such a torrent for very long. It is not always good to assault oneself with the full brunt of pressure from life.

Oracle: This Symbol can represent feelings of emotional lightness and almost mischievous intentions. The deeper parts of feelings are sometimes ignored, or rejected, as the ‘Spirit’ flits over the surface of any troubles. ‘Nature Spirits’ should be carefree and able to express themselves as they want. Go with your feelings and don’t worry too much about social restrictions. Finding a comfortable and safe place in a situation or place may be necessary. ‘Dancing’ and going with your gut feelings can lift your spirits to new heights. Be aware, however, that some people may not take your actions seriously. If you feel like ‘Dancing’, there’s no need to worry that people might see you. Indeed, it may be a really good idea for people to see your light side, the one that can throw caution to the wind. Whilst this is, essentially, a beautiful Symbol of a “lightness of being”, there may be an element of feeling cut off from one’s body, or reality. Whatever, your worries or burdens can lift, leaving you feeling lighter and happier. Dance in ‘The Mist’, in the gentle mysteries that arise even in the midst of life’s struggles. That is the true way of the ‘Nature Spirit’; they’re not concerned with the inane problems of life!

Keywords: Effervescent spirits or escapism. Dancing in a carefree manner. Water and fun. Peter Pan characters. Mountains, mists, fog. Reveling in nature. Picking up subtle energies. Being healed because of the heightened atmosphere (altitude). Celebrations of the natural world. Waterfalls. Water spraying and dripping. Finding one’s habitat. Chinese water-torture. Water nymphs, fairies and nature spirits, devas, and angels.

The Caution: Irresponsibility, avoidance of real situations. Not taking anything seriously. Avoiding social restrictions. Flitting off. Being held down and repressed when one is longing for light relief. Feeling abused by pressure. Being subjugated by cold, icy elements, thoughts or emotions. Tricks or perceptions of the light. Fear of dark places.

SYLPH, n. An immaterial but visible being that inhabited the air when the air was an element and before it was fatally polluted with factory smoke, sewer gas and similar products of civilization. Ambrose Bierce

Dance like no one is watching, Love like you’ll never be hurt, Sing like no one is listening, Live like it’s heaven on earth. William Purkey

The universe is full of magical things patiently waiting for our wits to grow sharper. Eden Phillpotts

*The excerpts from Lynda Hill’s book The Sabian Symbols As An Oracle, the Special Edition, © Lynda Hill 2002, have been reprinted by permission of the author.