More Questions than Answers—New Moon in Capricorn— January 13th 2021

There are years that ask questions and years that answer—Zora Neale Hurston.

 

The dark residue of 2020 is highlighted today by the New Moon in Capricorn. News of the turnaround on the stay of execution of Lisa Montgomery this morning is a grim reminder of a system rooted in retributive “justice”; the old code of human law—an eye for an eye law of retaliation. Today, Chiron in Aries makes a painful square to Venus. A reminder that misogyny and patriarchy are embedded in our collective value system.

 

At the start of this new year, there may still be something unresolved in our heart. Something that lingers and clings. Poet Rainer Maria Rilke writes, "be patient toward all that is unresolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves."

 

2021 carries the vibration of 5 in numerology. Five is associated with the quicksilver quality of Mercury the Trickster, the communicator, agent of recollection, guide between consciousness and unconsciousness. Already, this new year has begun with a sense of speed, unexpected U-turns and news that has sidetracked or scattered our plans.

 

Mercury is slowing down in Aquarius and will turn Retrograde on January 30th, offering us all an opportunity to re-write a new beginning, re-view an ending and re-do and choose again. Today, he squares Mars and Uranus, a tense aspect which often accompanies upsetting news, unexpected information, a restless agitation that feels jagged and sits uncomfortably.

The first New Moon (23 ° Capricorn) of this new year carries a sombre inevitability as she conjoins Pluto (24 ° Capricorn). Although this is a fleeting moment in the skies, this is the energy of obsession, intense emotion, high arousal which is swirling through the collective. Author Carolyn Kenmore writes, “if you can learn from the hard knocks, you can also learn from the soft touches.” Today, as soul-directed events nudge us from our places of comfort, may we remember the soft touches, as the inevitable changes in our own lives and in the world around us, clamour to become visible.

 

In the dark of this new Moon, take a deep breath. Know that it is really the small steps, the moment-by-moment choices, that shape our destiny, that bring about lasting trans-formation. Today, we may recall the "Serenity Prayer" written by theologian Reinhold Neibuhr as we accept those things that cannot be changed; find the courage to change those things that should be changed. As we live the questions, and discover the answers, may we find the Grace and the wisdom to distinguish one from the other.