Close on the heels of the Winter Solstice, we have a bright, potent New Moon upon us that calls us to great mindfulness and consciousness, inviting our wisest and most joyful Inner Magician to help alchemize the most wondrous, beneficent creations for the coming weeks, months, and year.
Here are some of the powerful and unique attributes, symbols, themes and energetic signatures of the powerful, super-creative December 27 New Moon in Capricorn (which is exact at 7:22 Eastern Standard Time, U.S.) -- use these to shape your intentions, visions, and invocations during the next two weeks, and perhaps beyond:
* Power Line-Up: The Lunar Astrologer Claudia Thompson reminds us that this New Moon features 9 out of 10 planets lined up in 1/6 segment of the sky. This means intense, super-focused, magnified energetic signatures or themes -- a strong, creative amplification of wherever we're focusing our thoughts, expectations, energies, emotions. Mindfulness means consciously 'becoming a vibrational match' for that which we want more of in our lives (and in the lives of all beings). More than ever, these energies say, 'You'll create and attract what you're focusing and feeling on', so discard and release the 'mindless mantras' of lack, fear, scarcity, and constriction to allow for a more expansive vision of possibility, abundance, creativity, loving-kindness, etc. for you - and for all.
* Capricorn - Ruled by the archetype of Saturn: The discipline to 'do the work' (smarter, guided by intuition and heart-wisdom, rather than the old-paradigm task-master who yells 'more work is good work'). Saturn is the Masculine impulse to manifest, to bring the ideals and visions into the manifest with structures that support them. Making it 'real' through renewed commitment and taking those small steps that build momentum. Saturn is also about authority, but not the type that causes (or forces) us to give away our power. Rather, Saturn is ultimately about self-authority, or about authoring your own story, your own rules, your own creation, and your own life.
This is also an excellent time to renew commitment to releasing those 'old rules' which no longer serve us, but rather keep us working in limitation. Deepak Chopra has called these 'perceptual prisons' for which we have the keys -- the keys to more consciously choose the rules we live, work, give, receive, create, relate, and serve by.
* Transcendent-Collective Theme: This New Moon aligns with several planets in Capricorn and Aquarius, and one in Pisces (which means all planets are in 'transcendent' -- or collective good is personal good, and vice versa -- planetary symbols), so if what we do personally is also 'in the highest good of all beings' -- the collective -- we'll have Pronoia, the support of the Force or Universe, behind us.
* Pluto, both as the still-a-planet and the archetype, figures big, since Pluto has just returned from retrograde into the sign of Capricorn, after 13 years (1995-2008) in Sagittarius. The last time Pluto was in Capricorn was 1762-1778, the timeframe around the American Revolution. The name Pluto comes from mythology, where Pluto was the God of the Underworld, and so 'death and destruction' and power are the qualities that Pluto is most known for in traditional astrology. As usual, there's more to the story, and knowing it empowers us.
It was Pluto who kidnapped Persephone, Maiden-Goddess of Earth, causing havoc on the surface as Persephone's Mother, the Great Goddess Demeter, let the abundant growth on Earth go barren from her grief at her daughter's abduction. A deal was struck, and Persephone would be Maiden-Goddess of Earth for part of the year, and Queen of the Underworld for the other part -- a cycle of life, death, and rebirth.
Pluto comes from the Greek word 'ploutos', which suggested wealth and riches from below the surface, so Pluto was also the God of Wealth. The Old English meaning of 'welthe' was 'wellbeing', not just one's collection of money. Ploutos is thought to derive from 'pleu', or 'overflowing', which suggests an abundance of wealth, not a scarcity of it. The story, then, of Pluto, is that some things must give way and die, going beneath the surface, so that more mature, strong, rich 'wealth' and wellbeing might be born anew. Pluto is associated with the Phoenix and the Shaman. These themes also figure nicely into Pluto as it might affect the territory and pursuits of Capricorn (see above).
* Deep-Yin Power: The Winter Solstice is a deep-yin time of the year; the dark moon and new moon are deep yin times of the month. Deep-yin is powerful for visioning, receptivity, intending, seeding that which will become manifest, nourishing, dreaming, restoring, psychic insight and connection, connection to Unified Field or the Great Sea of the Great Mother, intuition, etc.
This is a great time to meditate, cultivate intuition and Divine guidance; invite, and open to a Divinely inspired vision for our lives, our work, our personal and collective contribution, among other things. A 'default setting' might be "If you don't know where you're going, any road will do." If you think you know too specifically, there may be no road good enough (and you won't be seeing other pathways). Yet as the astrologer Dana Gerhardt wrote, "Once you really know where you're going, every road can take you there." It's a great time to get into the possibility space, tap into heart-desire, create that seed-magnet intention and vibe for 'where you're going', and allow Nature and synchronicity to meet you in creating the perfect roads and means.
We can also powerfully intend to connect with intuition, insight, vision that will guide us and magnetize to us all that we need to step into our most highest, joyful expression in the coming days, weeks, months -- starting today, renewing that commitment each day (Capricorn, Saturn theme).
* Returning Light: With the Winter Solstice, we embark upon the 'return of the Light', with the next celebration of Light occurring over Candlemas-Imbolc (January 31-February 3). Great for working with Light and Fire, symbols of inspiration, momentum, transformation, creativity, Heart, Love, Spiritual insight and wisdom, and healing (the fire Goddesses in Antiquity were often patrons of craft, creativity, Hearth, Love, transformation, and healing).
* The Choice Between Downward or Upward Spiraling: The shadow of Capricorn, Saturn, Pluto and other archetypes magnified during this cycle include: abuse of power (power over, and power trips), detachment from empathy, tyranny, gloominess, scarcity thinking, negativity, oppressive rules and 'order', hyper-constriction (that strangles creativity and intuition), and so on. Going with the collective narration that focuses on survival, fear, and scarcity, you'll be aligning with what some call 'the downward spiral'.
The higher potentials and expressions include magnanimous leadership of self, manifested abundance, transcendent possibility, higher vision, power with, and true dharma -- purposeful 'right livelihood' -- and the devotion, resoluteness, commitment, practice, discipline, order, structure, and focus that serve vision, intuition, creativity, the highest good for and potential of all beings, and the wisdom of the heart. This would be flying into the upward spiral.
Grounding ourselves in the higher themes of this New Moon cycle by setting the intention to do so, and then allowing spontaneous or intuitively guided ritual each day can help anchor us in the ever-unfolding expression of these themes in and through our lives.
While the new moon is a super-point for these intentions, that energy continues through the waxing phase to the full moon, and can carry us into the beginning of a new calendar year.
[By Jamie Walters, founder, Ivy Sea, www.ivysea.com. Feel free to share this, with the byline, with anyone who might benefit from it. If you'd like to schedule an individual session to align with and articulate your highest, most powerful intention-seeds, I welcome your email inquiry!]
engaged spirituality
January 2009 
Jamie
Access: Public
