Hello, my friends! Welcome to another edition of The Orrery. First of all, I wanted to make a correction: in my latest two posts I talked about the Triple Moon in Aquarius and, although it's true that both the previous and the coming Full Moons are in that Sign, the New Moon was in Leo, so I should've said the three would take place in the Leo-Aquarius Axis. Fortunately, this mistake doesn't affect the readings I made because both of these Signs are the same energy from opposite points of view.

Now that's out of the way and I can jump right into the topic of this entry, the mythology and significance of Capricorn, the Tenth House and their regent, Saturn.

Hierarchies and Rules

^{The fish-tailed goat is a common representation of this Sign since ancient times}

Capricorn's origins are unknown, but in mythology, the constellation is related to three legends. This Sign is represented by a Goat or Sea-Goat, the latter of which was a unique creature of Greek myths. In one interpretation, this is an expression of Amaltheia, either an earlier goddess of nurturing and motherhood who owned a goat, or the very goat that suckled Zeus as a baby when he was saved from his father Chronos my his mother Rhea. In another interpretation, the image is connected to Pan the Satyr, a god of nature who turned into a goat with a fish tail and swam into a river in order to escape the titan Typhon. Finally, in a more obscure story, the Sign stands for Pricus, a sea deity who was the father of all sea-goats and, like Chronos, had mastery of time, which he used to prevent his children from leaving the sea and evolving into normal goats. He was eventually forced to accept that he couldn't do anything to avoid this transformation and let them go.

Capricorn and the Tenth House are located at the top of the Natal Chart in the area known as Medium Coeli or Midheaven, which deals with Authority, Status, Profession, Mastery and Dominion. This is a male energy by default and it pertains everything that has to do with Control, Rules and Responsibility. Saturn, named thus for the Roman equivalent of Chronos, is the Planet of restrictions and limits that embodies every form of austerity and stability. Capricorn, the Tenth House and Saturn are very old energies, often disregarding new things in favor of maintaining status quo; their essence is verticality and pyramidal structures, they represent institutionality, nations, borders, levels and laws. They don't do well with change and transform only when forced.

Moreover, Saturn is an entity of instruction, symbol of the grandfather and the tutor that imparts knowledge and sets up tests for us to clear. As one of the slowest Planets in the Solar System, Saturn's transits take a long time to complete. Every 29 years or so, it transits over the same position it had when we were born and can bring enormous challenges as we're prompted to review our decisions and face the consequences of our actions. This period is called Saturn's Return and it may be quite disruptive in our lives.

People who have strong Capricorn, Tenth House or Saturn placements in their Charts tend to be firm, efficient, stubborn, traditional and unyielding in their convictions. They have a hard time asking for help and prefer to do everything themselves. In shadow, this energy can be expressed in repression, difficulty to show emotions, over-criticism and excessive demand. Once integrated, it strongly supports accountability, fidelity, precision and self-sufficiency.

The Collapse and its Trials

There's another Full Moon in Aquarius coming next week, on August 22nd, and it'll reveal the fruits of whatever we planted in the New Moon on February, but its influence goes much farther to signify the Revelation of a new paradigm. Since I discussed Capricorn and Saturn above, it's important to mention the process of deconstruction that we've been experiencing since Pluto entered this Sign in 2008. Last year, we had a hugely relevant conjunction between Pluto, Saturn and Jupiter in that Sign and while Pluto stays behind to keep squeezing the depths off their darkness, Saturn and Jupiter are currently retrograde in Aquarius, so this Moon will touch them both.

This week, we entered a much more complex and challenging phase of our global transformation and we may witness terrible happenings around us, far worse than we've seen already. This Moon will shine on them and won't let us avert our eyes, which will certainly be uncomfortable if not frankly dreadful for most, but at the same time it'll function as a guiding Light, a fire of community that we can always turn to if the strains become too great. The call for human togetherness continues and will certainly rise in relevance more and more in coming months. This Moon brings a simple message: you don't have to do this on your own.

Don't stress over the details, see the big picture and find your rest and your amplitude where you can find it. Don't refuse offers of company or alliance, accept your ignorance and the observations of others no matter how they come. Even an ill-intentioned critique is still informative and can be used for improvement. You don't have to see this collapse as a horror, you can attain a much brighter perspective, one based on unity and evolution.

Even destruction can be thanked for. Embrace honest self-work and reinvent yourself!