Here we are at the Capricorn New Moon near the start of a new year, and we’re being offered a whole new way of working with Capricorn themes such as laying foundations, creating structures, making commitments, and taking responsibility. Capricorn is often associated with upholding traditions and maintaining the status quo. It tends to perpetuate the “old” rather than foster the “new”. But the times they are a changing!
For the past ten years Pluto the Transformer has been moving through Capricorn…slowly pulling the bricks out of the fear-based foundation of our political, economic, and social systems. We’re witnessing the dismantling of the foundation that underlies patriarchy, which is a thought system based on separation, fear, and lack. It’s time to begin building a completely new foundation. Saturn, the Master Builder, strode into Capricorn on Christmas day and is here to help us lay a strong, new, sustainable foundation for life on our planet. We’re called to build an unshakeable foundation that upholds love.
Love, which is gentle, tender, vulnerable, and flows like water, needs the support, safety and security that structure, commitment, and responsibility can provide. These keywords for Capricorn and Saturn – structure, commitment, and responsibility – can suggest a sense of restriction, limitation, and heaviness. Yet when these words are interpreted from a higher perspective they become important building blocks in our new foundation. The higher octaves of Saturn and Capricorn support and stabilize a fuller blossoming of love.
Let’s take a fresh look at structure, commitment, and responsibility…
Commitment: I’ve been working with a book called “Evolutionary Relationships” by Patricia Albere. She describes commitment in a new way, which reflects the new way of working with Capricorn and Saturn. The old way of making a commitment was to commit to an outcome, such as staying married ’til death do us part. The high rate of divorce has shown us that such a commitment doesn’t hold together very well. We can’t really commit to a specific outcome because we are ever-evolving and changing. But we can commit to staying in a relational process even if the form of the relationship changes over time.
Patricia writes:
“… we commit to the potential of the relationship itself, to mutual awakening, and to listening to larger forces with which we come into contact through an opening we create together. This kind of mutual commitment does not preserve the status quo. Instead, it enables us to pursue what’s possible and let go of what is no longer serving that potential – no matter where this new path may lead us. It’s a commitment that aligns us with the greater design, allowing us to attune to the dynamism of the evolutionary impulse which has the power to move both partners forward.”
This description of commitment is just as relevant to our relationship with the whole of humanity as it is to our relationships with our friends, family, and romantic partners. Our commitment to humanity aligns us with the greater design and allows us to attune to the dynamism of the evolutionary impulse which has the power to move ALL of us forward.
Responsibility: From a higher perspective, responsibility is not about being bound by duty and living up to other people’s expectations. It’s not about taking on burdens, which ultimately builds feelings of resentment. Rather think of responsibility as response-ability…the ability to respond. When we are aware of our own needs and are sensitive to the needs of those around us, we can respond to those needs with compassion. We may not be able to fill everyone’s needs, but still we can respond with understanding, caring, and love . Responding with love may not always look like hearts and flowers. At times love responds fiercely, to set a boundary or put an end to abuse. The ability to respond requires moment-to-moment attunement to your heart and inner wisdom.
Structure: “Structure” relates to the creation of a stable foundation and the formation of a reliable container. Commitment and responsibility can create a strong, secure foundation for our relationships, our work, and the manifestation of our visions. Commitment and responsibility can also build a container that serves as an indestructible crucible capable of withstanding the intense fires of transformation.
The structure of Capricorn holds open a space where vulnerability can safely be felt so that love can blossom, expand, and be in flow.