New Year, New Moon, new beginnings, not too fast

The year 2022 begins with a New Moon in Capricorn (11:33 a.m. Mountain on January 2nd at 12 degrees Capricorn), giving us some extra energy for intentional new beginnings. But it also begins within a period of review of the past, with Venus in the heart of its retrograde period, and Mercury getting ready for its own. Whether you used the December Solstice as the time to call forth new initiatives or you choose to mark the turn of the calendar page, this is a great time for setting or repeating your intentions.

Be prepared to refine what you resolve in the coming weeks, though. The retrograde periods of Venus and Mercury will likely bring a realignment of values and priorities (Venus) and add perspective (Mercury) beyond what is accessible now.

The backwards movement of Venus in Capricorn feels to me like a much needed time of integration of some of the shifts and conflicts of the past months. Venus has just disappeared from the evening sky until mid-January, when the planet rises again as a morning ‘star’. This time when Venus is ‘under the beams’, traveling so close to the Sun she is invisible, highlights the need for contemplation rather than decision. The 40 days and 40 nights retrograde period (from December 19 through January 29), overlaid with themes from Venus’ conjunction with Underworld lord Pluto, invite reflection and re-evaluation of the fundamental ways in which we understand power.

Capricorn is the last Zodiac sign in the element of earth, meaning it relates specifically to the material realm. Capricorn’s symbol is the sea-goat, a mythical creature that bridges the manifest and unmanifest, bringing the imaginal into form. One archetypal expression of Capricorn is the shaman, who perceives the whole of the material world as the expression of the ineffable, the invisible, the One, and learns to create via cooperation with it. The greater expression of Capricorn energy is as the master of cooperation with Nature to achieve material success. At its heart, the sea-goat is the sign of authentic power in and with the material world.

However.

In this day and age, power may be at the top of the list of misunderstood words. A few millennia of an imbalance between the polarities of yin/feminine and yang/masculine energy has resulted in the confusion of power with control. When power, wealth, and material success come up in conversation, they can carry with them the suggestion of winners and losers; having control ‘over’ someone or something; and often the sense of bending Nature to our will. These are generally our current role models for power.

Yet, true power comes from authentic desire, which stems from the deepest self. True power is based in what we love. The ‘near enemy’, or toxic mimic of power is control, and derives from what we fear.

This dichotomy is so very obvious in our cultural relationship with our bodies, money, and even food – all of which mirror how we relate to the Earth itself. We don’t have to look far to find advertising geared to controlling our bodies, especially their appearance, couched in language telling us there is something ‘wrong’ with them as they are.

Our relationship with money falls along similar lines. Rather than sacred, it is often viewed as profane. Money is blamed for being the ‘root of all evils’, and we are not supposed to love money. In many circles, we aren’t even supposed to want it at all, and are taught it is a necessary evil. Yet those of us that have tried – consciously, unconsciously, willingly or unwillingly – to live without money know it is an essential part of life as it is today.

As I have mentioned in previous posts, these past few years have required (forced?) me to delve deeply into my relationship to money. A few of the questions I have been working with around money in my quest for healing are these:

What is money, where did it originate, and where does it come from?

How do I really feel about money and having money, and how do I want to feel?

What stories have I been taught about money that limit my ability to give and receive it?

This Venus retrograde in Capricorn offers the first opportunity of 2022 to understand our relationship with the material world, including money. This is a primary theme of the whole year and into 2023. I will share my answers to these questions and more as they come together in words.

One of my New Year intentions is to support you in healing your relationship with material wealth – body, money, food, Earth. I’d love to hear from you on your own questions and answers.

Join me on Saturday, January 8th at 10 a.m. Mountain/Noon Eastern for the next Cosmic Wisdom conversation with Emily Trinkaus. We will be taking a look at some of the astrology of 2022 and how to work with it. 

Then, on January 13th at 5:30 p.m. Mountain/7:30 p.m. Eastern, my friend and gifted healer Belinda Noakes  joins me for a conversation about how to turn  fear into fuel through unlocking energetic patterns. In this episode of the podcast, we’ll get to know Belinda and address  some of the current fear patterns surrounding us.