Shifting Gears

A new season begins this Sunday night when the Sun moves into Capricorn, marking the winter solstice in the northern hemisphere. The Moon is following right on the Sun’s heels, and the two meet up at 0 degrees Capricorn, forming a New Moon at 8:36 p.m. EST.

Much is placed on the broad, capable shoulders of Capricorn. Characteristics of this sign include determination and ambition, and people born with Capricorn strong in their charts tend to work hard for their reputation or outer success. This isn’t the same type of attention-seeking that brave and lovable Leo exhibits — Capricorn is drawn to being an authority, being seen as dignified and respectable. Being held in high esteem, particularly in their professional world, is of great importance to this cardinal earth sign.

So we have this shift moving from the more excitable and whimsical Sagittarius energy to the  reality-oriented mood of Capricorn. Both signs are concerned with future planning, but where Sagittarius is the philosophical daydreamer, Capricorn puts its nose to the grindstone for as long as it takes to get results.

Sunday is also the day that Uranus (still in a tense square to Pluto) turns direct after being retrograde since July, infusing the next week or so with an erratic and unpredictable energy that may push us to act rashly without premeditation. This does not jive well with methodic Capricorn, who would never act without thinking things through first. Conflicts with those in authority can manifest, especially if we’re being rebellious without a cause.

But the bigger climate shift involves Saturn, which will move into Sagittarius on Tuesday, Dec. 23, and except for a brief retrograde back into Scorpio this coming summer, will travel through this sign through Dec. 2017. The next two years of our lives will be colored by this transit of Saturn, testing the limits and boundaries of all that Sagittarius represents– which, in a nutshell, is faith. I don’t mean religion, although that is included under the umbrella. Sagittarius symbolizes the human quest for meaning and hope, the search for understanding of our place in the cosmos. While Saturn, the teacher of the zodiac, transits this spiritual sign, we will be faced with challenges to what we have held sacred, and what we believed to be true.

While depression and despair are possible expressions of this, the ultimate purpose of Saturn’s transits are to strenghten that which is weak. Many of our beliefs completely hold us back from happiness and peace. Dogmatic religious views, overzealous philosophies and viewpoints, and blind trust in government all lead us away from our own spiritual core and into role of “follower.” Whenever we accept systems of beliefs that are pushed on us from without, we give away our power. When we are spoon-fed a motto or creed to live by, we don’t get anything of value for it.  Saturn is going to force us to be sincere with ourselves, all in an effort to let us stand in our own strength with unshakable faith.