Capricorn 07

Saturn and Capricorn speak of age, or more accurately, of maturity. In Capricorn, the principle of limits is focused into the limits of a cycle, and specifically the limits of a phase or cycle of human development that we call a maturity level. Capricorn represents the outer limits, of the current definition of the word “human.” During the 90s, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune crossed Capricorn. Saturn’s crossing timed the change in definition, to include the capacity for inspiration/Uranus and Intuition/Neptune.
Much of that process was about breaking up long-standing traditional notions of how life should be lived. With each Saturn cycle, the rules must be revised and more authority claimed. When Saturn’s limits get too rigid–when Jupiter cannot expand them–Uranus comes in to break down the walls. Then sneaky Neptune notices areas of limitation that we forget during our Uranian crises, and dissolves or erases them. Literally, when focused in one area, we forget another and may walk across some limits without even noticing it until later.
With ever-increasing speed, changes in consciousness are occurring. New solutions are being proposed for old problems. Humankind has come of age and begun a new journey toward a new kind of maturity, a new boundary. Today we are one third of the way into the all-human maturation cycle which began in the nineties.

It is particularly appropriate that our years end and begin in Capricorn, signifying something finished and something else begun. This points to the fact that, if we are maturing in healthy ways, we gain more authority over our own lives with each year. With that come the rights of age–symbolically the right to retire and do something we love to do. If we regard retirement as the right to do nothing, we may not remain on Earth for much longer.

In individual terms, being born in Capricorn means that we began life at the high end of the current definition of humanity–as evolved as anyone on the planet. We are intended to grow from there, with the eventual goal of assisting in the expansion of that definition. At this time in history, this is highly emphasized because humanity is and must be lifted to a higher evolutionary state for entrance into the Age of Aquarius.

Capricorn and its ruler, Saturn, have traditionally been regarded as restriction. In some ways, they are that. Whenever one phase is ending, the energy that had formerly been directed to it will be rerouted into the next phase. The channel or flow of energy into that which no longer serves a purpose will be restricted. If we are attempting to stop change or arrest development, we experience pain. This is the source of Capricorns’ tendency toward depression. This condition is a symptom of feeling that we are pinned against an uncrossable boundary. The remedy is to realize that there are no uncrossable boundaries, only walls of obsolete beliefs.

In more a more mundane sense, Capricorn is a natural manager. The key to a successful life is to allow your Capricorn planets to lead your life. For example, if you have Mars in Capricorn, life works best when you follow your desires. It can also tell you that, for you, fatigue is an omen ( intuition?) that you need to stop what you are doing. Any and all planets in Capricorn are fully matured and can be trusted. Consider them authorized to make their own rules and choose their own methods.
Well-lived, Capricorn will bring honor and respect. Divinely lived, it will recognize the basic duality of life. Within our Earthly form, we are Divine Spirit. Within our human society, we carry the seeds of spirituality.
In the final analysis, Capricorn–whose natural location is at the top of the all-human chart, is the gateway to heaven. Moving beyond Capricorn, we become more than man. Our creative-intuitive abilities expand and we begin to recognize that we inherit both from our Earthly parents and from our Divine Parent. In humanity, heaven and earth come together in the same way that they did in Bethlehem, two thousand years ago–in the same way they did in Gautama the Buddha and all the great beings who brought us the living examples of our true heritage. We are Spiritual Beings, living in human form, expressing divinity in practical ways. In Capricorn we catch the first glimpse of the glory we call God/dess.

Christmas 2000 Years Later

By Rev. Alice Miller

Down through the ages, astrologers have marked the winter solstice–about December 21–as a time when life begins to stir in the dark. It is not so much about the darkness as it is about the promise of joy, the promise that life will emerge into the light once more. December celebrations, whether we call them Solstice or Christmas or by some other name, celebrate under the light of a star/the stars. They are about a light, shining in the dark. They are about the promise of enlightenment, and the promise that something will emerge from the soil of Earth, or the womb of a woman, to join its light with the lights shining from above.
All too often, humanity has named the darkness evil, forgetting that all life begins in the dark of the soil, or the dark of a womb. Life emerges into the light, joins with the light, becomes enlightened, and finally, carries the light. We are the light of the world. We are the place where enlightenment is born, grows to maturity, and is reborn in new forms to grow into new levels of maturity. Call that evolution, or call is personal and spiritual growth, but call it.

Many of you will celebrate the birth of one Jesus ben Joseph, the son of Mary, during the coming days. Some celebrate him as Son of God. He called himself Son of Man. We offer the suggestion that he was both, and so are you.
He also referred to himself as an Elder Brother, and it is our belief that he was this, more than anything else. For we believe that he was a prototype for the evolutionary advances of humanity during the age which he symbolized.
He was called Christ in Greek and Messiah in Hebrew. Both are titles, not names. They mean “one set apart, an anointed one.” Anointment was a ritual for marking a person as “set apart for greater service.” Kings and Priests were anointed. We believe that Jesus was anointed as The New Age Man of his day--a day when the new age was Pisces. He was a designated role model for human progress during the period of the Piscean Age.
Pisces is the sign of mastery, and Jesus was a master. More accurately, he was a Master of Consciousness. He held the equivalent of a PhD in consciousness, for his time. His star is widely believed to have been a conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn, rising just ahead of the Sun in Pisces. In the astrology of the times, any prominent light in the sky which lead the Sun up over the horizon was a herald of things to come. This herald represented an expansion of the limits of human mastery–thus a new level in human consciousness development.
Close examination of the sayings of Jesus strongly suggests a message that humanity was now authorized to begin making its own moral and political choices. He seems to have prophesied the eventual end of the priesthood and monarchy. Perhaps it was only political pragmatism that turned a philosophy into a religion, and then made it a state religion. We still use the cliche, “If you can’t beat them, join them!”
Much of Jesus’ biblical history is concerned with the performance of miracles. Where he went, the sick were healed, the blind saw, the deaf heard, the crippled walked, and occasionally the dead returned to life. Consider today. Many, once terminal, illnesses are cured. People are given back sight and hearing through new medical techniques daily. Many of the lame are healed to walk again. And yet, how often do we see the miracle in that? Today we think of it as modern medicine, but if time travel could take the same treatments back two thousand years, would they not be considered magical and miraculous?
What has really changed? Human consciousness has changed. We have expanded our basic intelligence through education. We have seen new possibilities through inspiration. We have hoped for, wished for, and desired better lives with a passion that lead to new discoveries.
Meanwhile, many promote democracy and religion is giving way to spirituality. We are rediscovering the true duality of being, as spirit invested in form. Have we not followed the same star that was seen in the East by the Magi of old, as we move forward toward yet another New Age?
And if we kneel by a symbolic manger, let us kneel to the divine spirit in every man. Let us be thankful for the intelligence and creativity which represent divinity invested in human form. Let us truly understand that Jesus ben Joseph was the first of many to recognize that we truly are the offspring of Deity, destined to grow up to be like our Heavenly Parent.