june 21 2024
I’m laying on the beach watching miniature sand dunes collapse in on themselves. Stars are everywhere for those with eyes to see or whatever.
The full moon in Capricorn arrives tonight. It’s happening at 1 degree of the sign, a place of beginning that can only occur when there is an ending. It’s a cliché but it’s the truth. Life is always like this - cyclical, spherical, a turbine machine.
This will be the first of two full moons in the sign of Capricorn this year - unusual but prescient. The next one will happen on July 21st at 29 degrees of Capricorn. During this time, Saturn will retrograde in Pisces, Neptune will retrograde in Pisces and Pluto continues its own retrograde motion, dipping into Capricorn for the last time in our lifetimes. There is the sound of gears turning in place, the rumble of an engine, a finger on a trigger. But not yet, not yet. There are things that need to be set in motion first, a path forming through the fog.
I watch the tide come in. I watch the waves, full of algae, lapping up sand. It’s okay to cry at the end of things, no matter how much you wanted it. It is the necessary offering, a libation for The Fates. Every blessing requires sacrifice. Good luck is borne of pain.
I don’t know a single person I respect or admire who grew to be who they are in comfort and convenience. The sign of Capricorn knows this well. It understands that the price of your new life is your old one and you have to give it gleefully, graciously, you have to give it your all. Even when it hurts, even when it scares you, even when you don’t know what you are going to do next. Give it your all and give it good.
A helicopter flies overhead, the sound of its blades like ten thousand bees. I look to the left and there is a guy in a g-string and baby blue blouse taking selfies. I look to the right and two topless women are huddled together, droplets swinging from their hair, drying off from the ocean water. I close my eyes and I can hear a group of older men in short shorts reminiscing about their heart attacks and ex-wives. Everyone suffers and the older I get, the more I understand that that’s the whole point of all of this.
Because this full moon is ruled by a Saturn in Pisces, perseverance and humility are the names of the game. You are not a victim but you are going through something and it is hard.
The remainder of this summer’s astrology is nostalgic. By August, there will be four planets retrograde. There will be a new moon in Cancer on July 5th, calling us home, asking us to remember who we are and where we came from so that we can go to where we haven’t been before. Take this time to give thanks for everything you’ve been through. Don’t turn your suffering into an idol but just know that it’s been the necessary bridge for you to get to where you need to go. You can’t become resilient without falling down, again and again.
There is sand between my French-tip painted toes. I look up at the sun, beaming down on us. I am warm all over and I know it’s the end, the end, the end.
