Capricorn Full Moon Meditation:
Turn to Your Inner Parents
By Jean Hinson Lall

At each full moon the two luminaries stand on opposite sides of the Earth, in complementary zodiacal signs, giving us a chance to taste the natural polarities of existence and find balance in our own personal cosmos. The issues raised by this month's Full Moon polarity are essentially the same ones outlined in the recent New Moon Meditation (June 29, 2003) where we looked at the placement of Saturn in Cancer, so you might find it useful to review that column before reading this one.

The Sun is in maternal Cancer, the Moon's natural home, bringing its warmth and focus to concerns of home, family, nurturance, and the awakening and expression of personal emotional truth. The Moon meanwhile has journeyed to the land most foreign to her, Capricorn, ruled by the father-principle of Saturn, which concerns itself with impersonal and objective truth and with the social and institutional framework of society in which the individual has to function. Both are Cardinal signs; they want to initiate action and feel a sense of accomplishment. Cancer is ambitious about establishing a family and getting its emotional needs met; Capricorn strives for professional accomplishment and public reputation. Cancer has abundant energy to invest in personal connections, while Capricorn's gift is to create and nourish cultural, professional and political structures. Cancer generates the flow of desire, while Capricorn produces firm structures and procedures to hold and channel human energy.

The Sun's desire for personal expression is strengthened this month by the placements of Venus in Cancer and Mercury and Jupiter in Leo. In fact, this combination could be summed up in the Sabian symbol for 21 degrees Cancer, the Sun's placement on the day of the Full Moon:

"A famous singer is proving her virtuosity during an operatic performance."

Mercury and Jupiter, the planets of expression and communication, are both in the artistic and heroic sign of Leo, while Venus and the Sun are in sensitive Cancer with its love of emotionally gripping stories and myths. Opera is on the one hand a great star vehicle for singers and at the same time a great carrier of collective passions and cultural truths. An operatic performance requires the energy, skill and talent of a large group of people, but only a few will receive the wild acclaim of the audience when the curtain falls.

The symbol for the Moon's degree, 21 Capricorn, provides an interesting balance:

"A relay race."

Here again we have a group effort toward a great achievement, but the runner in the relay race takes a much more modest role. Each runner's effort may be just as heroic as the operatic diva's performance, but the applause at the finish line will go to the team, not to the individual.

The quality of the Moon's current Capricorn sojourn is amplified by Saturn's placement in Cancer. The two are in each other's home signs; they rule each other, or (in astrological parlance) are in "mutual reception." So a strong dialogue is going on between the competing but complementary values they represent.

Check in with yourself on some of these issues. Seek the balance between the operatic stage and the relay race in your own life. Look for imaginative ways to blend the personal with the impersonal, the heroic with the modest, individual with group recognition, creative passions with institutional requirements. Reassess your limitations (in money, emotional resources and family support) and look to Mars and Uranus in Pisces (trine Saturn and Venus) for creative solutions. Talk with your family about how to foster each member's creative efforts with the resources available, and thank them for all the ways they help you. Remember that you have "inner parents" as well, a mother and a father within, symbolized by the Sun and Moon. As you drift off to sleep at night, thank them for taking care of you, tell them about your plans and needs, and ask for their support and insight via your dreams.

Look for the Leo New Moon July 28, 2003