Today is my love’s birthday, which got me thinking about the sign of Capricorn in general, and all the reasons I adore them in particular. With the recent and Very Significant move of Pluto into Capricorn, it is doubly timely to ponder the uniqueness of this, the last of the Earth signs.

First, a disclaimer: it is widely known that no-one is their Sun Sign alone. There are many other factors in the chart that need to be considered before you start applying labels. So I’m really talking here about Capricorn the sign in general, not just Capricorn Suns.

One thing Capricorn blokes are not known for is being the playboys of the zodiac. Endearingly in this modern age, they usually won’t push for sack action – they genuinely do want to Get To Know You first. When courting, they tend to do things touchingly Right. Lovers of rules and structure, they’ll woo you as they ‘should’ – with wine, candlelight and immaculate red roses (or whatever equivalent they’ve decided is the Thing To Do).  And although it can be hard to win the affection of Capricorn, if you are lucky enough to do so there is no more loyal or committed partner.

Tending towards the serious themselves, Capricorn often adores playfulness and fun in their other half. It’s as if you provide the spark and exuberance that they never learnt to manufacture for themselves. They are the rock below and you (depending on your chart) are the cool waters, clean breeze or fiery spark above.

Generally known as ambitious souls, I have also found them to be ardent supporters of anything that will advance the careers of their loved ones. This is perhaps because Capricorn’s ambition is intricately tied to their sense of self. A career is more than just something you do to pay the bills – it is a place to find fulfillment, to practice your dearly held ethics. So it is best, they figure, that you do something you truly believe in and are happy with.

Capricorn is ruled by the planet Saturn, generally known as the Ol’ Bastard of the solar system. Although I sometimes think of Saturn as the devil incarnate (it can certainly feel like it when he’s activating something in your natal chart), in many ways he is more analogous to the god of the Old Testament – the one with the thunderbolts in his pockets and a willingness to hurl them at anyone who deviates from his impossibly high standards. You know – the god with the capital G. The one from whom we get the phrase ‘God-fearing’. Saturn is exacting, uncompromising and rigidly focused. Saturn is a lesson to be learnt.

Imagine being ruled by such a planet! Poor little Cappy, it makes your heart bleed (although that could be my Pisces Sun speaking). In fact, little Caps often have a rough start in life. If forced to take the weight of the world on their shoulders (and they often are), they Grow Up Too Soon. If as a consequence they veer towards their shadow side, they can end up all-too-closely resembling that nasty Old Testament god. It is because of this resemblance that you do on occasion see Capricorn get a bit of a bad rap.

Even vaguely enlightened Caps, however, are true gems of the zodiac. It is as if their Earthiness has been hardened and tempered so that they resemble an ancient and abiding mountain, or an enduring foundational rock. I admire them immensely in a general sense… and, more specifically, have the pleasure of loving one to distraction and being loved beyond any dream or expectation in return.

Happy, happy birthday Capricorn. May 2009 be all that you need and desire.

To distract myself from pointless seething about how over my job I am right now, I decided to read the weekly ’scope for my sun sign written by the ever-insightful Astrobarry. And felt immediately vindicated:

“…I’m definitely beginning to sense a ‘fed-up-ness’ emanating from you, Pisces,” he says, “As if you’re wondering when you might catch a break from the tangled web into which you’ve found yourself woven.”

Elsewhere Astrobarry discusses the Saturn-Uranus opposition, which is now apparently within a 5-degree orb and hence officially in force.

An opposition is exactly what is sounds like – on the current astrological chart, Saturn and Uranus are opposite each other. The effects of an opposition are, too, as you would expect – the two energies are literally opposing, or pulling against each other.

To me, Saturn is ‘the rules’ planet – work hard to reap rewards, put in necessary effort, look at the big picture, grow and progress according to lessons learnt. Uranus, however, is more of a maverick energy – calling on us to ring in big changes, bring on the new world, shuck off ritualistic behaviours, defy cultural norms.

With these two energies opposed, is it surprising, then, that I am ever-more-aware of the huge discrepancy between the-world-and-my-life-as-I-want-it and the-motions-through-which-I-am-forced-to-go-through? I guess not.

Of course the impact of this may be heightened or lessened depending on where these energies are ‘hitting’ areas in my own natal chart. Investigating this could well be my next project…

_____________
Photo courtesy of Vox Efx

After spending the weekend in my own little bubble, sans news from outside, I woke up this morning to find that Paul Newman is no longer in this world.

Now that I’ve started to write this post, I realise I have no words… thankfully I can refer you to Genevieve Salerno & Eric Francis’s post instead. After an examination of several key factors in his chart (including his Aquarian Sun, Pisces Moon and Capricorn ascendant), they conclude thusly:

“Of course, none of this explains a life as authentic and as meaningful as Newman’s. Many factors contributed to who he was, just as much as he contributed to the world. If you want to thank astrology, you have to first remember that he is someone who chose to live out his chart, and to take his quest for his own identity — and his reality — as if it were something worth bothering with. We can learn from that as much as we can learn from his philanthropy.”

______________
Photo courtesy of 365bunnies

Commenting on my last post, an insightful reader by the name of Rebecca Leigh discussed the incredible pressures we feel to conform to the expectations of our ‘nearest and dearest’.

I’m glad she did.  Although I have referred several times to the pressure our culture places on us to conform, I confess that I have been avoiding the issue when it comes to friends and family. 

Steven Forrest talks of ‘agents within the city walls, spies whose task it is to open up the gates from the inside’. They are our friends and family members. Often they are our parents. They love us, sure. They want the best for us. But that is a far cry from saying they understand us.

Forrest’s language – ’spies’, ‘agents’ – is extreme, but I think necessarily so. It’s a wake-up call.

You know what I’m talking about. 

For want of a better example, let’s take my decision to start a blog.  In the first place, I was hesitant to share my plans with most of my friends and family – fearing that, if they were less than 100% supportive, it would put a damper on my enthusiasm.  When I did speak up, the response varied.  Some people were hugely supportive.  Others didn’t say anything much.  And at the other end of the spectrum, one person simply said: ‘You know no-one will ever read it’.  Ouch. 

Imagine if we never did anything at all, simply because other people ‘knew’ it wouldn’t be worthwhile! 

Ok, maybe my blog isn’t the best example.  Not a lot of people do read it.  But many more do than I ever imagined.  More importantly, it has helped my writing and learning practice enormously.  And most importantly by far – I did it.

We each live in our own inner world, seeing ourselves and others through the filter of our own perceptions.

It helps to remember that when other people criticise us, they are simply verbalising their own fears. Desperately trying to shore up their own self-esteem.

Of course by the time we realise this, we’ve already soaked up an incredible amount of negativity.  Especially as children, when we were so dependent and so defenceless against the onslaught.  Rebecca, for example, was told repeatedly throughout her childhood and early adulthood that her natural inclination towards introversion was selfish. ‘How much personal growth was stunted by this demonisation of the simple act of looking inwards?’ she asks. 

It’s heartbreaking.  And it’s not even unusual.  When I was about eight years old, I rememember my mother asking me why I couldn’t be normal ‘like all the other children’.  An off the cuff remark that I have replayed in my mind, and used to beat myself up with, on countless occasions.

Now that we are all grown up, we have a choice. 

We can let outside opinion beat us down before we’ve even started.  Or we can be mindful of the ‘inner filters’ of ourselves and others, and do it – whatever it is! – anyway.

Living together with other people means that we can’t all go around doing whatever the heck we feel like.  But it’s important to not become habitually agreeable to the extent that we hobble ourselves with ‘I should’ and ‘I can’t’ and ‘What will people think’. 

That’s easier said than done – but then the most important things always are.

I believe that the path to freedom is self-knowledge. 

We can never really understand other people.  The filter of our perception is always there.  So at least allow some time and space to know yourself.  To recognise yourself, as great and as yuck as you can be. 

It’s frightening.  It’s boring.  It’s exhilarating.  Ultimately, it’s all we’ve got.

____________

Of course the flipside is: we are the spies within the city walls of others!  Scary thought…

During my astrological browsings this morning, I discovered that this week Jupiter sesquisquared Saturn (Thursday evening EST). A sesquisquare, or sesquiquadrate, is three times the semisquare, resulting in an angle of 135°.

So – what does that mean? A thought-provoking post on Inspiredastrology says that, because the two planets govern the workings of society (Jupiter = hope and Saturn = rules), this sesquisquare highlights our attempts to balance personal goals with our responsibilities and obligations. ‘The rules, as you’ve always followed them, may seem especially limiting and off-course. There may be something else you need to be doing for your future success, yet you already have an obligation.’

I mention this because last night I experienced a stronger-than-usual crisis of conscience. I was reading Steven Forrest’s The Inner Sky, trying to work out what my Aquarius moon in the 9th house might mean. Rereading the chapter on Aquarius, I was struck by its significance as never before. Sentences leaped out: ‘The Water-Bearer’s mortal enemy is the tribal instinct’; ‘The battering ram takes many forms, but in essence it is the pressure brought upon us by our culture to conform to an established pattern of behaviour’; ‘Somewhere, deep in the core of her psyche there has to be a conviction that her perceptions are valid’ (emphases his). The 9th house: ‘All our views of reality are conditioned by an unspoken model of the world – and that model is always arbitrary and limiting’; ‘We must intentionally move to break up our routines of behaviour and thought’. Finally, a question posed by the moon: ‘What kinds of experiences are most essential to my happiness?’.

Last night, I reviewed my life and saw how, brick by brick, I had steadily constructed my own prison. Believing the stories I was told, I devotedly acquired everything I ‘needed’. A job. A mortgage. A car. Various insurance policies. Nice clothes. And in doing so I frittered my energies away, at the expense of that which will make my life truly worthwhile.

It’s not a pleasant feeling. We know that the path that leads us away from the norm is not an easy one. But how much harder – each and every grinding, dreary day – is the alternative?

Of the Jupiter Saturn sesquisquare Inspiredastrology says ‘Your obligations may be from the past, but they also represent your own need for safety and security. If this has become a burden, you may be realizing how you have restricted your own growth through your beliefs.’
Tick.

But this time also offers hope: ‘Why shouldn’t things work out? Try to think of what blocks you have put in your path to greater success and abundance. As Jupiter is also in a supportive aspect to Uranus, this is a time you can break through old beliefs that have prevented you from accessing your intuition and experiencing life spontaneously. This is a time you can recognize and release old judgments and criticisms that keep you locked just where you are. If you want to move beyond whatever feels blocked, you can do it with your own willingness to grow, experience, and develop.’

The discovery of Uranus in 1781 rocked both the astronomical and astrological community. ‘For thousands of years,’ Steven Forrest says, ‘Astrology had been a closed system. There were seven planets, counting the sun and the moon. Seven had been taken as a magic number. Rainbows had seven hues. Octaves had seven notes. Weeks had seven days. Seven kept appearing in mystical traditions: the seven chakras or energy centres of the physical body, the seven churches of the Book of Revelations. There was something right and comforting about having seven planets in the sky. For millennia that simple observation had served as quick “proof” of astrology’s validity.’

The instant the eighth planet, Uranus, was discovered, the ‘neat, tight system crumbled.’ Astrologers were at a loss. The system of seven planets had so eloquently represented the circle of life, from the Sun (vitality) through to Saturn (death and finality). How did this new planet fit in? And what did it mean?

It took a while to figure it out. In the meantime two more flies in the ointment emerged: Neptune and Pluto.

Today we understand Uranus to speak of individuality and freedom. ‘Nothing is more delightful to it than the prospect of mutiny, ‘ says Forrest. ‘It is independent, rebellious, headstrong, colorful… No planet is more unpredictable.’

Where Uranus lies in our chart, we see the ‘high drama of rebellion’ crackling in our mental circuitry. ‘It symbolises an area in which our essence makes war on the constraints imposed on us by our culture’, Forrest explains. ‘To be true to ourselves, we must break the rules. And in breaking them, we get into trouble. We are forced to develop and defend our individuality.’

Some quick facts: Ruler of Aquarius, Uranus orbits 2′870′990′000 km from the Sun. Its orbit lasts 84 years.

For more on Uranus: see Forrest’s book The Inner Sky, and the articles at http://www.astro.com/.