New Moon in Capricorn. 1.11.24.
A beautiful, fantastic image shows a large tree amidst a rocky yet lush landscape. A beam of light shines down from the sky through the branches onto a mountain goat seated on a rock.
Happy New Year!
And happy New Moon in Capricorn—the first of 2024.
Early this morning, at 6:57am ET, we marked a New Moon at 20 degrees of Capricorn. With today being 1/11 (111), there’s extra magic in the air—on top of the New Moon portal inviting us to set our intentions for the 6-month chapter that lies ahead. Meanwhile, 2024 is a year that includes not one but TWO Full Moons in Capricorn—one in June, and one in July—suggesting this is an extra-potent New Moon to work with for manifestation.
So, let’s get into how to work with the energy of this New Moon and what it’s all about. 🌚
First, a note on Capricorn energy. Capricorn is the sign of the mountain goat (which is what its funky-looking glyph is fashioned after ♑️). It’s ruled by disciplined, time-oriented Saturn. Other archetypes associated with Capricorn are The Entrepreneur and The Governor (personally, I think of it as the HBIC of the zodiac :). This earth sign is linked with achievement, ambition, and the mountains we set out to climb, and—given its connection to the 10th house in astrology—it’s also connected with career, calling, and what we’re known for publicly.
At its highest vibration, Capricorn is all about reaching our highest potential. As I said around the New Moon in Sagittarius, if Sag rules the arrow we point towards our lofty goal, Capricorn governs what we make manifest in the world—what we ultimately actually achieve. More esoterically, Capricorn is also linked with spiritual initiation—and the ambition to progress, evolve, and advance our spiritual growth.
In its lower vibration/shadow expression, Capricorn can show up as naked, selfish ambition. Workaholism. Achievement for achievement’s sake. Climbing mountain after mountain, or winning all the accolades but never feeling satisfied—because what we’re accomplishing isn’t rooted in a deeper sense of purpose or meaning, and/or was driven by conditioning (aka for other people instead of the achievement of our own hearts’ desires). 🐐
Learning from Mercury retrograde in Capricorn. The timing of this New Moon in Capricorn isn’t an accident—it comes right after Mercury’s retrograde tour through the same sign (which spanned Dec. 13, 2023—Jan. 1, 2024). As I wrote back in December, this Mercury retro portal invited us to do an in-depth self-review of how we’ve been working with Capricorn themes. So, if we did our energy homework last month—-i.e. reviewing, revising, and revisiting how we’re using our time, money, and other resources; the boundaries and structures we have in place that enable us to manifest our goals and plans; and what our career and other worldly ambitions really are to make sure they’re in alignment with our inner truth—-this New Moon portal ends up being an invitation to set intentions with the benefit of what we learned from that self-review.
And maybe some shadow work, too. Also infusing the energy of this New Moon is Pluto, overseer of shadow and the underworld (which the new moon happened right nearby). Which is to say, for some of us, the energy of this New Moon may also be bringing shadow material to the surface (Pluto’s favorite move). And with the New Moon being in Capricorn, this might be fears we might have thought we’d confronted, wounds we thought we’d healed, or whatever shadow material may be keeping us from reaching our highest potential and achieving our loftiest ambitions. ♑️
Fears of failure? Fears of inadequacy? Fears of success? Blocks to abundance? Selfish desire for power? Addiction to achievement for achievement’s sake? A compass that’s off-target because of conditioning around what our career goals “should” be? Something else? (You’ll know what shadow material Pluto is dredging up for you if this resonates.) If this is some of what’s showing up for you with this New Moon: the invitation is to witness what’s coming up so you can work with it, transmute it, and/or break free from it in some way. When we work with it as an ally, Pluto encourages us to confront shadow not so we get lost in the underworld, but so we can claim our power.
And if this isn’t how you’re feeling around this New Moon, take heart instead that Pluto’s adding extra power and oomph to whatever intentions you’re setting re: what you want to achieve in the world in the chapter ahead.
So, to summarize: This New Moon gives an extra boost to whatever bold, ambitious intentions we set and blueprints we hammer out re: what we want to achieve in the world (especially when it comes to our work in the world) come June/July—while pushing us to confront and transcend whatever fears or other shadow material may be keeping us from claiming our power. The goal: manifesting our highest potential—and doing whatever work on ourselves/our systems/structures is needed to get out of our own way. 🐐
I’m sending you all good wishes and many blessings in this New Moon week—and without further ado, scroll on down for the 10-card tarot spread/journal prompts I crafted to work with the New Moon energy at its highest vibrations. As always, take what resonates, and leave the rest. <3
XOXO,
Rebecca
A cartoonish image of a human-looking figure wearing overalls and a white collared work shirt is shown with the head and feet of a goat.
New Moon in Capricorn prompts. ♑️🐐📝
Here are the prompts for the 10-card tarot spread I crafted to work with this week’s New Moon in Capricorn energy at its highest vibration. (Why 10 cards? Capricorn is associated with the 10th house in astrology). As always, feel free to use any/all of these as journal prompts and to skip the cards—and to answer only whichever prompts resonate with you.
What do I want to achieve in the world between now and June/July? What blueprints or strategic plans am I ready to craft?
What new clarity do I have now about my career goals? (What insights did I gain while Mercury was retrograde Dec 13-Jan 1 about how to better align them with my inner truth?)
In what way(s) am I ready to break free from conditioning around what my career goals “should” be?
What new or revised boundaries, structures, and organizational systems do I want to put in place now to set myself up for success? (What insights did I gain about this while Mercury was retrograde Dec 13-Jan 1?)
What intentions do I want to set now around how I work with time, money, and other resources to achieve my goals and make them manifest? (What insights did I gain about these topics while Mercury was retrograde Dec 13-Jan 1?)
What is coming up now for me around the deeper motivations behind my ambitions and goals?
What intentions do I want to set now to transmute self-interested ambition into desire to serve the larger whole?
What fears (or other shadow material) are coming up now about what might keep me from living up to my highest potential?
What intentions do I want to set now around transmuting, transcending, or breaking free from those fears (or other shadow material) so I don’t stand in my own way?
What intentions do I want to set for my next 6 months of spiritual growth?
Six repeating images of the Pluto glyph are shown next to each other in two rows of three and in a range of color combinations—yellow and black, yellow and pink, green and purple, pink and blue, purple and green, blue and black.
Pluto re-enters Aquarius.
This has been a long enough edition of Practical Woo as it is, but I’d be remiss not to flag an upcoming date. . .
Pluto re-enters Aquarius on January 20th—which also marks the start of Aquarius season (with the Sun’s entry into that sign). Meanwhile, that same day, Pluto also stations direct. With Pluto the slowest moving of the planets, its sign changes are something astrologers consider a particularly big deal. Its changing signs AND stationing direct the same day suggests one way or another, we’ll be feeling a serious shift in energy, individually and as a collective.
A quick reminder of a few of the Aquarian themes that will be getting powered up again by Pluto: Science and technology. Groups and collective action. Group consciousness (i.e. “we” vs “I”). And of course, astrology and all things woo (hellooo, Age of Aquarius).
Note that we got a glimpse of Pluto in Aquarius when it spent a few months there last year (March 23 - June 11, 2023). This time around, it’ll be in Aquarius from January 20 - September 1, after which it will come back for its last hurrah in Capricorn until November 19th, when it moves back into Aquarius for the long haul (through March 2043).
I’ll be back with more as part of your energy update for Jan. 25th’s Full Moon, but in the meantime, this is definitely a date to watch.
Much love to you all in this New Moon in Capricorn week, and feel free to holler with any questions this sparked for you. <3
