New moon in Capricorn January 11th 2024

I’ll be honest; I struggle with the dark and cold of January, and I find the energy of Capricorn adds to the difficulties. Whilst Capricorn itself is positive in its raw sense, the challenge of it stems from re-framing the energy within a modern context, within a world preoccupied with money and work. Its more important than ever then, that we look to the land and the creatures who live in the land for guidance in January, as then the messages become clearer.

Capricorn is known as a cardinal Earth sign focused on practical advancement, service and career, alongside maintaining a stable home and family. It is linked with the home-loving water sign of Cancer. Both are cardinal, meaning they are focused on outward advancement of their particular energy. Capricorn can be stubborn, rigid and intensely boundaried, yet effective. It gets the job done.

Capricorn comes straight after Sagittarius, around the Winter Solstice, at the darkest time of the year and it lasts until just before Imbolc. This new moon, appearing on January 11th, will take the energy of Capricorn into early February and past Imbolc, giving us about 6 weeks of Capricorn energy.

So what is it all about?

Have you noticed, particularly on social media, that in January there is a proliferation of people advertising their work and putting out new content as soon as the New Year starts? When many of us are in bed and recovering from the intensity of Christmas and hopefully slowly unfurling from some degree of holiday. What is that about?

Partly it’s around the idea of a “new year”, but those resolutions, cleanses and sobriety are definitely Capricorn in energy, despite the new year itself being simply a change in calendar date. There is a sense of needing to get back to work and doing things better, making a fresh start, launching something, being better… But honestly, while there is an underlying energy here that makes sense, doing these things really does miss the point.

It’s the heart of winter and still dreamtime. The time to fully do and launch new projects isn’t until the spring.

This confusion is clearly driven by a misunderstanding of the energy of Capricorn, something we find hard to access because of the pressure our society puts on people to perform. We are so work driven that we feel the energy as pressure to get out and do at this time.

And there are some difficult edges to Capricorn to be fair. It’s the clean-up time at the end of the party, it’s the farmer getting up in the bitter cold at 4am to feed the animals. It is, essentially, the responsible one keeping it all moving.

Capricorn is necessary.

It’s necessary to remember how to keep food on the table, to look after everyone and ensure that crops are planted. The energy of Capricorn comes to ensure there is enough food/ fuel to keep us going for the rest of winter. For January and February tend to be much colder than November and December. In many ways this really is the start of winter and, at this stage, much of the food may have run out.

Capricorn, therefore, is a stark reminder that even in the cold, we must keep working in order to survive.

Of course, we can feel huge resistance to this but its really about survival. Being aware of these energies at this time will help us to connect with the natural world around us as, immersed in our centrally heated houses, we can be more disconnected from nature now than at any time of year.

So, where you can, get out into the bitter cold wind and feel the elements, watch the birds sheltering in the bushes, sometimes grouping together for warmth. Not every creature gets to hibernate this time of year.

Capricorn is the one who essentially works hard to keep the wheels turning and everything flowing smoothly. There is an underlying energy of service here, though being of service is really the task of that other Earth sign, Virgo. Capricorn is a little more self-serving – it’s cold and really the emphasis is on personal survival here. But that survival can often serve the village and is worth looking out for.

The energy of survival is why everyone is feeling the pinch a little at this time of year. Chances are that you’ve over-spent financially over December. With the family over and the parties and Christmas festivities, you’ve perhaps had the heating on too much and drunk a bit too much wine. Now the bills are coming… and for the self-employed, there’s the dreaded tax bill to dramatically sober up the month. So many people respond by feeling they need to do everything to bring in money – now.

Yet this energy will subside and really, things can wait until the energy is more supportive for launching projects in the spring – even early spring is better than January.

The way to work with the energy of Capricorn in January is to tend to the practical tasks. Its here that the energy comes into its own. When the energy of Capricorn meets the energy of capitalism it just feels harsh and that’s the resistance I feel to January, as many also feel. But it really does Capricorn an injustice as we need this energy – its there to keep us healthy and looked after.

It’s not about marketing and business. It’s much more basic than that. Its about personal and family security on a practical basis and, working with the natural world, that means food/ fuel/ housing/ emotional and practical comforts. Making sure the roof isn’t leaking, creating the plan for the garden and gathering seeds. Working out how long the food will last for. There’s an energy of organisation here.

Taking this energy into the modern world but from an Earth- centred basis then, we could see this time of year as the time to get everything planned and sorted before the intense movement of Spring.

December and the energy of Sagittarius was the time for wintry creative dreaming. As we remain firmly in winter, we are still largely inside our winter caves (indoors) to keep warm and, therefore, we are still dreaming.

The long nights remain and whilst we have electric light these days, for most of our history as a species in this hemisphere, we had only the light of flickering candles (if we were lucky) to light up much of the day. Without light, we can only get lost in thoughts and shared stories, although the gatherings of people will have dissipated by this stage as many people will be out sharing the practical tasks of keeping warm, dry and fed. Its in the in between moments that the dreamtime continues.

In our modern world then, these energies remain at the heart of January and, fighting against it, as our modern capitalist world wants us to do in terms of schools & businesses starting back in early January, means many of us get grumpy or depressed. Added to the general lack of vitamin D from the lack of sunshine this makes for a difficult time of year for many people.

So how can we work with this energy in the best possible positive way? How can January and Capricorn really help us and what sort of intentions is it best to set on this Capricorn new moon?

As Capricorn is an Earth sign, the focus is on grounding all those big energies that were created during the cycle of Sagittarius. It’s about taking the high optimism of Sagittarius and testing it to see if it could work. It’s a solitary time in many ways, focused on all that you are doing and wanting to do and working out how to do it.

We are still in dream-time and it could be that what you are dreaming in needs a lot of work to refine and make workable. So now is the opportunity to test your theories, refine your ideas and offerings, keep dreaming the best way to go about things and don’t make firm decisions just yet.

Capricorn is quite a solitary energy. Its not an outwardly sociable sign. More that the sociability comes from a self-serving perspective… of a need to look after ourselves and our loved ones. Largely Capricorn just wants to get on with the job at hand and not get caught up in distractions.

There’s a lot of mess to clean up after the extravagant Christmas parties after all and Capricorn just wants to get on with it. There was enough socialising before and there will be again with Aquarius. This is the time then of cleaning up and planning and organising.

Capricorn is, then, good with boundaries. Good at saying no. This energy doesn’t want to get distracted by irrelevant things.

 It’s time to rein in the excesses of December and Christmas. It’s time to regain our strength and vitality to focus our energy on what we are dreaming about, to see if it has legs, to see if it could work. What seeds are we going to plant this spring? Can we start planting now? How can we organise our time most effectively so that our dreams can work?

January is about preparing carefully what you will birth with the spring. To be conscious of the seeds you wish to plant and tend this year. To bring awareness of the lessons learned from last year and to make positive changes where needed to bring yourself in deeper alignment to your life purpose and to share your gifts with the world.

 There is something here about working with the energies of this time for our best collective interests. How can we be of service to the world and, crucially, how can we best create and maintain our own personal stability to fully be of service. We cannot give to others if we don’t first give to ourselves. We cannot give from an empty cup.

Here are some questions to ponder this month:

 How can we best create and maintain our own personal stability?

 Where are we leaking energy?

 Do we need to rein in our boundaries anywhere?

 Is there something here that needs attending to (re boundaries and leaking energy)?

 What is our life moving naturally towards/ where are we being pulled/ what is flowing easily?

 How does this differ from our own intentions?

 When we consider planting seeds in spring, are we conscious of what they may be?

 Are we aware of synchronicity in our life?

 Are we working in alignment with ourselves and our true life path?

 How can we be of service to our communities/ the world?

 Spending time working with these questions this month will help you to refine what you are doing in life, working in alignment with the energy of Capricorn in its most positive state. It really is there to help you manifest your full potential in the world.

The moment is now to really feel and begin the planning to realise your dreams. Seize the moment!

Love Samara