Full Moon in Capricorn: Archetypal Caregivers
This morning, July 21st 3:16 am PST, we had a Full Moon in Capricorn, opposing the Sun in the sign of Cancer.
In the terrain of a Full Moon, we’re engaging in polarity – Particularly the nature of polarity as expressed in the zodiac signs that the Sun and Moon have set as their Full Moon stage. Oppositions hold dynamic tension, heightened energy, and activation. Signs in opposition to one another share an unblinking gaze, and when the Sun and Moon enter this arrangement it often results in a frenetic, taught, and overflowing relationship between the two luminaries. It is a point of fullness on the brink of spilling, and represents a similar psychic state - the humming and buzzing that comes before catharsis, after which we process towards the stillness and introspection of New Moons.
All that being said, no two Full Moon’s are the same. They each occur in a unique pair of signs and each is couched within the ever changing context of other planetary activity and influences.
An entry point into some of the themes for this moon would be to consider:
What do you embrace so as to protect?
What does your labor distance you from, and what does it bring you closer to?
What and where and who do you call home?
Where do your metrics of success and security arise from?
How can you bridge labors of love with labor itself?
How can we prioritize positive intergenerational impact while still tending the needs of our momentary and daily existence?
The zodiacal axis of this Full Moon (Cancer-Capricorn) touches on themes of nurturance on the Cancerian side, and pragmatic investments on the side of Capricorn. It is an axis that deals with our inner-child and inner-elder. It weaves imagery of that which is needed by the very young and that which has been established by the very old. It is underwater treasure chests, living wills, comfort, devotion, sacrifice, and security. It speaks of walls well built and homes well filled. Try to boil this set of opposing signs down to their shared essence, and you’ll become a student of the fractal inter-relatedness of pragmatic labor and acts of tender care for heart and hearth.
Cancer’s language is one that knows the body, that regularly recognizes and responds to its summons for food, water and love. It may be expressed in both the face of a child turning towards its caregiver, and in the responding acts of nurturance. This Lunar-ruled sign is interested in meeting our conditions for care. There is an attunement to need that reveals a vulnerability (which is not to be confused with weakness!) in the sign of Cancer; it draws our awareness to what is required in order to feel emotionally and physically safe. In Cancer, we meet our soft bellies and become intimate with what is needed to keep them soft and sound.
To get a feel for Cancer’s way, we turn towards the worlds that occur within our “shells.” What takes place inside a home, a body, womb, heart, or other sanctuary that makes them feel like a place of refuge? As a representative of the archetypal matriarch, this energy is protective, intuitive, and tends towards a cyclical nature, its mood or energetics fluctuating like the tide – like the phases of the moon.
If Cancer is the TLC that takes place within our protective structures, Capricorn is the funder and fabricator of the structures themselves. If Cancer is the food nourishing the bones, Capricorn is the bones itself, the skeletal structure that is either upright and strong or bent with the effects of time. Capricorn is the labor that builds the walls that shelter the family. It is not an energy known for the same soft interiority of Cancer - it is more remote, more inclined towards sacrificing seemingly temporary emotional needs in favor of prioritizing the stolid, gritty practicalities of life and livelihood - but despite their differences in demeanor, these archetypes have a clear need of one another and perhaps unbeknownst to each, share symbiotic intents. One builds, one nourishes - two sides of the same coin.
Consider that Capricorn externalizes and lengthens the internal processes and need-assessments inherent in Cancer. Whereas there is a particular immediacy to the needs that Cancer addresses, Capricorn assesses needs in relation to our eventual elderhood, mortality, and legacy (intergenerational impact). The internal inquiries of Cancer – questions such as what does my / your body need now? What care can be offered here to nourish the physical or emotional body? becomes “what must be done as a matter of survival?” “What will stand the test of time?” “Where can I invest my energy now, and for what eventual outcome?” Capricorn is attuned to the gravity of time, the pressure of time, and is inherently driven to build something that can face up to the reality of our lifespan. It is connected to the realism, and sometimes fearfulness, of preparing for the future.
Another way that Capricorn and Cancer differentiate - while playing in the same thematic landscape – is that Cancer uses the body and emotional states as its barometer to measure its relative success and wellbeing. Capricorn, on the other hand, tends to use the standards of its given community, culture, society, and traditions as a means of measuring value and accomplishment. There is an awareness of hierarchy and authority in Capricorn - either wielding it or feeling subjected to it, or both. While the subjective quality of a person’s traditions, values systems and morals are more complex than a single sign in a person's chart – Capricorn as an archetypal energetic is related to areas of ethics, standards, and the role that we take on within society. It is deeply sensitive to the way that its given culture measures success, and can be profoundly mobilized or, on the contrary, paralyzed by this attunement to societal expectations. In the arc of Capricornian evolution, it becomes important to identify when we are building in alignment not only with external values, but those that are connected to one's deepest ethical frameworks - this is a high aim of Capricorn. With the Moon gaining fullness here, we encounter choice points, truths and inspirations related to our devotional acts and long term goals.
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Cancer and Capricorn both have a strong relationship to the passage of time via their planetary rulers: Cancer relates to time in accordance with the swiftly changing cycles of the Moon (which changes its appearance rapidly over the course of the month) and Capricorn keeps time in accordance with the long and slow karmic waveforms of Saturn (which takes approximately 28-30 years to complete one full circuit through the 12 zodiac signs). Here we have deep time (Saturn/Capricorn) and felt time (Moon/Cancer). As mutual time-keepers, these signs emphasize cycles of evolution, and how effort in the present contributes to realities of the future. Some changes are quick, tidal, ebbing and flowing over the course of a day, while others only become realized, felt or resolved in decades or centuries. The Cancer/Capricorn axis gets us in touch with these distinct rhythms, and surfaces a question: are you devoting your care to efforts and future visions that align with your underlying principles and fundamental needs?
What would it mean to intentionally sync up felt time with deep / karmic time? How can we, without excessive Saturnian pressure on ourselves (!) sync up our daily lives with events so far off on the horizon that we might not even be alive to see them? If nothing else, this is an imagining that we are prompted to take deeper during this lunar event.
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Now to turn towards some of the other celestial influences of this Full Moon and to get a little technical: The highly visionary, psychic, permeable and dreamy quality of this astrological moment is highlighted by the Sun and Moon’s relationship to Neptune. Right at the height of the Full Moon at 3:16 am Pacific Time, the Sun and Moon link up with retrograde Neptune (as a Trine from the Sun and Sextile from the Moon). These three planets are all at the same degree of their respective signs, making it a highly influential aspect. With the Sun at 29˚ Cancer, the Moon at 29˚ Capricorn, and Neptune at 29˚ Pisces, it’s a tight activation that occurs between all three. Another player in the cosmic array is Uranus, who at 26˚ Taurus is three degrees away from its own Trine and Sextile relationship to the Moon and Sun. While not as tightly activated as the Neptunian aspect, it’s close enough to be a noteworthy influence.
Trines and Sextiles are both considered to be supportive aspects, so we see from this that the gifts of Uranus and Neptune inform the astrological moment. Uranian energy moves us to rebellion, to revolt, to inspire, to crack old structures and aim for greater liberty. Neptunian themes tend to be more labyrinthian, ecstatically transportive and beautiful, but often mystifying. It carries a highly connective, pleasurable, psychic, and even illusory or fantastical quality, with a palpable trend towards groundlessness and confusion. The somewhat abstracted, visionary and idealistic quality of this Full Moon is highlighted by another facet of the chart: Since Capricorn is ruled by Saturn, we must turn to that planet in the sky to understand more about what this Full Moon in Capricorn is spelling out for us. With Saturn currently in Pisces, it further emphasizes the work of bridging idealism with pragmatism, vulnerability and temporal needs with gritty devotion and dedication.
Please note that these Major Players I’ve listed out are all in two elements: Water and Earth. The Moon in Capricorn (Earth), the Sun in Cancer (Water), Uranus in Taurus (Earth), and Saturn + Neptune in Pisces (Water). This is a very explicit and potent astrological reminder of the epoch that we are in as Saturn (a planet of solid reality, material tasks, physical labor, etc) transits through Pisces from 2023-2026.
As mentioned earlier, Saturn takes a long time to travel through the Zodiacal wheel, so it spends a significant amount of time in each sign. Through its activity, we can see trends in systems of governance, as well as emergent concerns, limitations and ideals within the collective reality. Saturn in Pisces is inherently contradictory. Saturn is the earth, the ground, the foundation, the flagstone, the backbone, Pisces is the oceanic and unifying force arising from beyond the veil; nebulous, rosy-eyed, inconcrete, and spellbound by mystery. This Full Moon, taking place in a Saturn ruled sign, with its strongest aspects formed between planets in Earth and Water signs, is a great big exclamation point on the task at hand – one that is beautifully encapsulated by the dynamics that play out between Capricorn + Cancer: Now is the time to learn more deeply what it means to root and resource our material pursuits and ambitions in the wisdom of water. To integrate the principles of Water and Earth is not to bypass materiality, nor is it to resent material ambition. Rather, their integration is an opportunity to find the vast interconnected spirit within materiality, and set visions into action that are informed by high ideals of love, forgiveness, and supreme forms of intergenerational nurturance.
As I often like to say, Astrology is the art of complexity and relationship. It is a deep well to dive into, and there is always more that can be seen and said about any given astrological moment. To summarize some of the highlights of today’s Full Moon, I’ll leave you with these musings:
Dare to see your rest as just as necessary as your labor and as valuable as gold.
Divest from outdated, broken or inauthentic ideals, ideas and systems.
Enthusiastically vision into where you could re-invest the energies that you reclaim.
Cast your net backwards – have you forgotten a dream, an inspiration, a vision, a goal, that is once again knocking on your door?
In closing, for those of you who are called to ritually honor today’s full moon, here is a small ritual prompt, designed in response to today’s particular planetary dance.
Bring a glass of water to the earth.
Bring to heart a vision that you hold for the future
And speak it into the water
Clearly and with all the passion and truth you can muster.
See if you can bring to mind a vision that is not controlling of outcomes, but resonant with an authentic ideal that you hold dear
Ask that the water plant your vision in the earth
Ask that the Archetypal Caregivers help to nourish your prayer and vision
Ask that Earthly Capricorn helps to sustain your daily devotion to your work, to help bring about a vision that is in service to you, as well as unseen generations to come.
Ask that the wise waters of Cancer help you to balance your drive with emotional and physical nourishment
That this watery energy help you to feel your hunger and respond to it in kind
To recognize your thirst and slake it
That you be able to show up in equal care for yourself, for others, and your work in the world
Pour the water onto the earth, asking that you may walk in reverence and collaboration with these potent elemental and celestial energies.
In whatever way is most aligned for you, honor the archetypal maternal / paternal expression present in Cancer and Capricorn. In heart, in prayer, in word, in song, in your third eye - find a way of celebrating and thanking these archetypal caregivers in their unique modes of stoic stewardship and soft embraces.
Ask that they be unified within you,
that they be equally activated in your being
and equally prepared to respond with grace to the events in your life
Thank the earth
Thank the water
Thank the stars
And at the conclusion of your prayer…
Feel free to leave other natural beauties:
A stone
A feather
A flower
When you feel complete, depart in wonder and gratitude <3
If you want to know more about how Cancer and Capricorn play out in your own chart and life, book a session with Ophilia here.