by Cayelin K Castell
January 22, 1998, January 20, 2006 and January 17, 2014 marked the most recent 584 day cycles of Venus exploring and integrating the Capricorn mysteries into the collective psyche of humanity. These cycles feature a time when Venus is focused exploring an emerging awareness of what Capricorn looks like now. The next time this cycle begins January 15, 2022. The Capricorn mysteries include images of the Circle of Grandmothers, the tribal elder, the one who knows the law, the leader responsibly managing their domain. Capricorn has been mainly seen as a serious, responsible role, supporting the idea that hard work pays off.
Each time Venus begins her cycle in Capricorn she has just completed an integration cycle in Gemini. Meaning each new Capricorn cycle is building on the just completed Gemini cycle. The Gemini mysteries explore creative self-expression as it relates to serving spiritual awareness. Gemini is a magical, youthful, playful energy, brilliant, and connected to her own unique expression of the creative muse. She is the shape shifter, the trickster, the heyokah, the coyote, the entertainer. She is a story teller, telling the stories that magically weave reality into different possibilities. She is a weaver of magic, a magician.
Gemini goes beyond the rules, beyond the law. That is why the Fool in the Tarot Cards relates to Gemini. The Fool leaps empty handed into the void knowing the laws of gravity do not affect her. She has transcended the rules of third dimensional reality, and gone beyond duality. This means Gemini is not from any one place, she is free to go wherever she is needed to serve spirit, to serve the creative principle, and she will show up in unexpected, surprising ways to shake up our attachment to certain more limited perspectives and boundaries.
Capricorn, then, seems radically different than Gemini. Yet, if we ponder the synchronicity of responsible Capricorn following playful Gemini, there is a sense of how play and responsibility merge. The feminine principle in Gemini is on a quest to discover her creativity, how to have fun and go beyond the rules. Venus in Capricorn is questing to discover how to include fun and creativity in structures that support the expanding expression of life.
Having gone beyond the rules, beyond what seems logical it is time to bring in a new creative relationship with law and order. This is the reward for having gone beyond the old rules and boundaries, beyond the logical and the rational, beyond duality. It is time to reinvent our concepts of work vs. play, or work as it also relates to play.
Now at this turning of the “great year” (meaning 26,000 years) Capricorn is participating in rewriting the operating manual, including an earthy, organic connection to having fun, while responsibly administrating life. It is time to envision, as the basis of the new operating manual, how to completely enjoy our creation, how to create our reality in such a way our basic human needs are met easily, abundantly, joyously, and how to have fun while artfully and efficiently administrating our domain.
Old patriarchal images of hard work outpictured by laborers (men and women) working until they drop from exhaustion to simply survive and feed their family, or success oriented, driven work-a-holics, with no time for fun, or family, are of the old cycle. Working with Venus in Capricorn, we can energize new images of playful work, like the nature fairies in the movie Fantasia, effortlessly and joyously creating and turning the seasons as they dance and play. This includes knowing and experiencing our work and play as alive, satisfying and pleasurable, while also connecting with creative joy in every moment.
Capricorn is a builder, building structures of all kinds. When healthy, there is a joyously pure satisfaction in the process of attending to the details of building a new structured. Concentrated focus when applied to a project, or to administrating a process, is a Capricorn skill that insures the success of the project. Capricorn sees how the parts relate to the whole, how each piece fits and fulfills its individual purpose, thus enhancing the whole expression be it a literal building, a novel (or any written piece), a research project, a workshop, a symphony, sacred geometry, mandalas, etc.
In its highest expression Capricorn attunes to the existing structures knowing when to tear down these structures, because they are no longer serving their intended purpose. It is about knowing when to redesign and build a new more effective system.
Using the imagery of building a literal structure (maybe a home or office building) Capricorn is about attending to all the details, including choosing the best materials, colors, tones, and textures. These details and materials apply to any type of project. So, for example, a written piece might include attending to the written structure, the words that express how the ideas flow from one to another, how each idea, each word, contributes to the over all message.
Focusing on and attending to these details is one way Capricorn expresses artistically, creating master pieces. For Capricorn, joy and satisfaction are experienced when they know they are doing a good job, and they are receiving recognition and respect. This is when every cell in the Capricorn being is joyful, enlivened and harmoniously expressing its purpose in cooperation and resonance with the whole, similar to how a conductor, conducts a symphony orchestra, with each part contributing to the overall symphony. This is the magic of Capricorn.
The wisdom of this archetype includes knowing when to rest, when to act (work), when to play, when to focus, when to dream, when to go forward, pause, or go within. Capricorn is revisioning how we do community and how we steward and care for our planet. We can participate with these mysteries by tuning into the Venus cycle as she moves through the various phases of her journey. Using visualization, meditation, ceremony and other similar tools, we can co-creatively assist in bringing these mysteries into our reality.
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