First, a thank-you. A user over on Tumblr, @buddyblanc, gave me $21 on Ko-Fi.com — and as a consequence I’ve made the Capricorn II and Capricorn III horoscopes available to all readers. Thank you very much, Buddy!

Second, an invitation: If you would like my 2022 Year at a Glance, a 15-page report on the astrology of 2022, then — as you’re reading this article — sign up for my mailing list. Your first email will include a link for downloading that report. And you won’t get more than 3 emails in any given month — but you will get ongoing insight into my work as an astrologer by the reports I generate for my clients and followers. Hope you’ll join that crew!

The Sun enters Capricorn II on 31 December 2021, at 6:33 am EST … a good chunk of time before the Sun rises, making this a night chart. Austin Coppock called this decan The Pyramid — it’s not uncommon to feel the vast weight of the labors of the coming year barreling down upon us, and likewise the gravity of the previous year.

The Moon and Mars, the only planets above the horizon, thus have considerable sway in the next ten days, giving strength to both our gut feelings and our ambitions. Yet neither planet is considerably well-placed in Sagittarius, inviting us all to consider our New Year’s Eve resolutions carefully — give yourself eight to twelve weeks to settle into a new habit: don’t make all-or-nothing promises, but instead set a trajectory of improvement: a day or two a week on a new exercise regimen until your strength and endurance improve; more healthy eating with a balance of vegetables, meats and starches, rather than a crash diet; steady writing of 20 minutes of journaling most mornings, rather than committing to 5500 words on each of 365 days.

Recognize that even the Egyptians, master builders of Pyramids that they were, established villages and communities for their laborers, and did their best to provide them with high-quality food and drink, and opportunities for celebration. Even in the heat of the summer, they provided for the workers in ways that celebrated and honored their contributions to Pharaoh’s glory. You also should establish the infrastructure for your New Year’s resolutions rather than try to build Rome in a day — aqueducts and roads, a bridge or two toward your goals, and scaffolding around your intentions. The emperor Augustus said, “I found Rome built in brick, and left it clad in marble” — this should be your intention, too. Bricks are laid a few at a time, while the luxuries of marble are saved until the work is already complete. Begin, then, with eight glasses of water a day, and a walk around the block, and a scheduled check-in call or two with friends? The gymnasium is crowded during the first ten days of January — you can start your membership in late February for better long-term results.

Capricorn’s second decan is administered by Mars — and indeed a Saturnine Mars it must be. Saturn’s rulership over Aquarius is an early riser, stern and cold and arid; while Mars is fierce, hot and scorched. When a manager like Mars tries to follow Saturn’s directives, the result is a stone-faced, cold-hearted commitment to the project, above all else — there’s no love or kindness in the work, only a determined ugliness. “No pain, no gain,” the alleged war-cry of gym bros everywhere, is seen in the thousand yard stare of the dude on the bench press who’s trying to do the personal-fitness work of years in a week. Don’t be that dude, especially not this week, even though the energies of the next ten days will lead you in that direction.

On the other hand… the ancient Greeks of Alexandria gave these ten days to Hygiea, the daughter of the physician-god Asklepios (whose season we marked in the last cycle). I’ve been to the site of a temple of Hygeia in Sicily, near Palermo — and eaten lunch in the 19th century spa-hotel named after her on the hill where the temple once stood, the Villa Igiea. It’s from her that we get the name hygiene, the practice of self-sanitation that takes the form of daily bathing; as well as washing our hands after relieving our bladder or bowels, or before preparing or eating food. Hygiea the nurse-goddess is credited with the discovery that cleanliness is next to healthiness, and that sanitized selves, tools, and implements all prevent the spread of disease.

Special Routine: Bathing

If it weren’t the start of the new year, it might not make sense to make this suggestion. But why not begin the New Year with a ceremonial and functional bathing tradition? Start with a ritual bath on New Year’s Eve, tomorrow, to wash the gunk of 2021 away. Then proceed with a good shower or bath to start the day until January 10. Include a second touch-up bath routine whenever you return to your house from elsewhere: hot water releases a lot of tension, and can help reduce the stresses of starting a new year. Pay extra attention to brushing and flossing your teeth, too, and take additional care of your hair and beard. Keep the sink empty of dishes, and take the time to clean the bathroom thoroughly at least once in the next en days. The idea is to treat the physical self — and the place where it resides and bathes — as a complete extension of the spiritual self. You’re bathing in honor of Hygiea… but you’re cleaning off for your self.

Planetary Positions

The chart is a Night Chart, with the Moon and Mars above the horizon in the first house. All the other planets are below the horizon, with four of them in the second house, suggesting that economic and financial concerns rule the next ten days — very likely as the bill for Christmas and other winter-time holidays comes due. Personal and interior issues wind up taking precedence over public affairs — although the MidHeaven in the eleventh house in Libra puts special attention on keeping networks of friends and associates connected and active. Don’t neglect your loose ties with others: you’ll need all the help you can get in the first part of January! With the Ascendant in the last decan of Sagittarius, we should be conscious that we may be tempted to perseverate, and to shoulder unpleasant burdens alone — or to flog difficult conversations far beyond their conclusive ends. Let things end, and put them behind you, and move on. The Moon is in the 27th Mansion, a place associated with malice and endangerment and ruin — and in the first decan of Sagittarius, it’s a reminder that the thing we most want is often the source of our greatest trouble. Mars activates the second decan, promising an equal mix of ambition and recalcitrance when it comes to following New Year’s resolutions.

Additionally, all the planets are in a challenging configuration — The Belly of the Beast — with all of the planets on one side of the chart defined by the line between the North and South Nodes. This axis continues to run between Gemini and Sagittarius, bringing our hunger for connection to others to a growling gut-level instinct for human connection, even to the point of risking self and personal safety in the pursuit of attachment to others. However, the Belly of the Beast configuration puts us all at the mercy of internal and personal experiences, rather than exterior events. Thus the hope for pleasure sets many of our expectations around house and home, dissolving rules in favor of buoyant celebration. The upheaval of our daily lives ends our restrictions around house and home. Our hunger for others overrides the actions we take for the safety and security of our possessions. Our sense of duty and responsibility is to ourselves, not to our other more societal obligations.

In the second house, The Sun, Venus, Pluto and Mercury cluster in the second and third decans — The Pyramid, and The Throne. With so many planets in a single sign, it’s difficult to unpack single meanings. However, with Saturn and Mars both inconjunct to Capricorn, the management of the sign falls to Venus as one of the triplicity rulers, and she’s present — the convener of this conference and (as the retrograde planet) the one inviting us to review our finances with creativity and aesthetic goals in mind. Bring your higher mind, your intellect, and your desire to keep nice stuff all to bear on your personal situation, but remember that beauty and quality are worthy objectives in how you decide what to keep and what to sell in your next yard sale. However, it looks like many of us will be wrestling with what to own and what to keep or give away in the early part of January — and that there’s good fortune to be had in preparing our tax paperwork early this year.

By December 31, Saturn will finally be alone in Aquarius, in the the decan called Heaven and Earth. Unable to influence Capricorn as the ruler of that sign, it’s likely that we’ll have fewer restrictions around money and property… but we’ll likely have great difficulty leaving our neighborhoods or connecting with people outside our pods. I hate to be a downer around COVID, even after two years of it… but I think this looks like health restrictions getting worse, not better, for these ten days.

Jupiter in the fourth house brings new favor to household and family matters, and gives newly joyous experiences to be had. His presence in the first decan, The Labyrinth, creates a an answer common question, “should I be deeper in this family, or should I be looking for the exit.” Jupiter invites you to go deeper in rather than flee… but to do so with the intention of holding a position of importance and recognized value. Do you experience a sense of being denigrated, devalued and imprisoned in your household and family? You may find yourself looking to make an escape in the next ten days, but it might simply be that you need a break. Neptune‘s co-presence in Pisces washes away some precautions and boundaries in household matters, indicating that you may not be able to exit at this time, but you can dream through your possible strategies and consider the benefits and risks of each one with deep clarity.

The Imum Coeli is in Aries in the fifth house, in the Burning Rose, focusing our dreams and hopes around our hobbies and children, the things that really ignite our passions. The administrator for this third decan, Venus, is square to this position, while the ruler of Aries is Mars who is trine. There are likely to be tensions and difficulties between your personal desires to protect and guard, and your desire to connect and rejoin what’s been separated for so many months.

Uranus occupies the second decan of Taurus, The Yoni-Lingam, in the sixth house. This is a position that puts sexual and sensual relationships, particularly transactional ones, in something of a topsy-turvy state, and brings a high level of uncertainty even to relationships of long term stability. It also makes finding professional service providers, like plumbers and electricians and others who deal with polarities like hot-cold, grounded-ungrounded, or wet-dry, difficult to find and difficult to keep on the job.

Horoscopes by Rising Sign

Horoscopes of Decan I of any sign are free to the public; Decans II and III are available to the $3/month tier and above on Patreon. Thanks to Tumblr user @buddyblanc, the horoscopes of Capricorn are free to the public.

Sagittarius: Jupiter is angular and in a sign he rules but square. The day before New Year’s day is a good time to start a low-impact program of exercise and flexibility, such as yoga or qi gong. You will find that it is easier to assert authority over what is yours in the days ahead, as you come to terms with your various ownerships and duties, and you shall find that it is easier to lead your household in the current times. Success and good fortune await you in the first days of 2022, provided that you keep on good terms with all and keep connected to your allies. Be alert to limitations and restraints on your neighborhood as mask restrictions go up and your family wrestles with existing health co-morbidities.

Capricorn: Saturn is in a sign he rules but cadent and inconjunct. Pluto is present. Financial matters require your complete and focused attention; you should schedule and fiercely defend some time specifically for handling any challenges that arise in the next ten days. You have some ideal goals, but some daily-spending restrictions probably need to be put in place for the foreseeable future. A family matter begins to resolve, finally — but be aware that it may all come undone by May, due to ongoing changes in the storm-scape. Personal happiness and entertainments require some delayed gratification. Thinking about going back to school? You might want to let that decision-process spin on a little longer.

Aquarius: Saturn is present but cadent. Family matters or neighborhood struggles may take center stage in the next ten days; you may also find yourself responding to unpleasant new communications. Try to treat this difficult news as a practical, real-world effort to bring idealistic goals into reality — and comply if it’s common-sense. But remember that Utopian visionaries are also not above smashing eggs to make their omelets, and be prepared to hold back consent from ridiculous schemes without rationale. You’re likely to spend some time in isolation, even so: partly so you can pay off the expenses of the last ten days, and partly because your friends and community may be looking inward rather than to the typical new year’s eve parties. Any funding of household projects is likely to be beneficial, as long as you have clearly defined objectives (“paint the bathroom”) and not too expansive (“should we remove this wall, and renovate these two rooms into one new space?”).

Pisces: Jupiter is angular and in a sign he rules. Neptune is present. Your role as leader and overall director is finally going to be acknowledged, probably first in household and family matters. The result will be initial enthusiasm, followed by some spillover as the unsolved problems of your professional community are brought to you all at once (along with the reimbursable invoices and receipts). If you’re taking a new leadership role, be aware that the new job and its benefits comes with some commensurate expenses and responsibilities that may spill into family life in difficult ways. Be humane, but also bring the axe down on the things that are no longer serving your following’s overall mission.

Aries: Mars is angular and trine but peregrine. You may find that your passions and desires are on more obvious display in the coming days, although some financial ups-and-downs may keep you from sticking to holiday hobby plans. It’s a favorable time for romantic connections with people local to you, but long-distance relationships are in for a shock. You may want to travel and find that it takes more dedicated effort than usual to go any distance at all. Career matters require getting the creative lead, marketing expert and money man all in the same room with the chief visionary — if you’re a one-person solopreneur situation, this really means you have to get yourself on the same page all around. Are you? No, really — Are you?

Taurus: Venus is succedent, dignified by triplicity, and trine. Uranus is present. Daily habits and health maintenance efforts are disrupted by the usual gothic exchange of time for wealth and glamour. You desire some solitude for your own projects, but some kinds of responsibility keep creeping into your life: familial duty, household management, and learning to attend to fiscal responsibility. This last one will weigh on you with particular heaviness in the next ten days, and a partner or ally may be dealing with their own own financial challenges that impact on yours. Be aware that the flow of wealth in your relationship is currently benefitting you, but that may shift in the next few weeks to a more nuanced position that will require more daily effort from you for the same funding.

Gemini: Mercury is succedent but inconjunct and peregrine. Your focus on the all-important others in your life may take a beating in the next ten days, as you find yourself in the role of chief executive… or perhaps executor… over key issues in their lives. This might mean covering for a business partner, or looking after a spouse’s family member while they’re away, or dealing with a period of isolation in the house you share with another. Even single people may find themselves wrapped up in an upset of their usual loneliness. For those dreaming about reunification with friends for the holidays, this might be ne of the ways it manifests. However, if you’re not planning on expanding your ‘work from home’ model for your job, you might want to go hide under a rock for the next bit, and be prepared to fight for your safety and the safety of your loved ones. A clear conference about joint resources is probably necessary.

Cancer: Moon is angular and in a night chart, but in a day house, near a node, inconjunct, and peregrine. She is in the 20th Mansion. Death, duty, and responsibility may haunt your next ten days, but more in the realm of thought than in flesh. Solo time is likely to feel extremely dismaying and upsetting, but you can take appropriate steps to cut off contact with others and maintain separation. Just be aware that this will not be completely protective — and you will need to draw on more than just your personal resources. If you’re invited to travel long-distance, see if you can make sure that you’re only going overland rather than by air or sea. Business expectations may require you to take on new leadership roles but these may be rocked by expectations beyond your scope or knowledge or authority: hold your boundaries, because no one will hold them for you.

Leo: The Sun is succedent, but peregrine and inconjunct. Take a knowledge assessment at the start of this new year, and identify what skill-sets you want to attain in this coming year. Some of this should be some clear financial education, and you might want to put food prep and food preservation on the list too: definitely a few earthy activities like that should be in your more regular wheelhouse. A bit of entertainment may also come from the kind of *chef’s kiss* knife-work that comes from regular culinary adventures. One limiting factor may be that January and February may involve considerably more restrictions than you’re used to— and March may involve some new household obligations that are only just going to rear their heads in the next ten days or so. Make your chosen family a priority for now, and keep your options open and public as this time spins out.

Virgo: Mercury is succedent and trine, but peregrine. Money coming in and money going out may be roughly balanced in the next ten days: it’s a source of potential anxiety, but it is something that you can work out in a balanced way by talking to financially-literate friends, or even just a sympathetic ear. It will be easy to identify injuries to your house as injuries to yourself, but count your blessings, and beat the dead horse to a pulp about whatever safety protocols you choose to institute. You do not have to be in harness all the time, even so. Schedule some relaxation time, if that’s the only way you know how to relax. You tend to be starkly practical and transactional person when it comes to maintaining your hobbies and happy places — but you’ll rarely have the same mix of aesthetics, insight, verbiage and lucre to get what you want, as you do right now. Within reason and appropriate care, live it up.

Libra: Venus is succedent and dignified by triplicity, but square. Maintaining a home of your own costs money, and the next ten days will highlight the ways in which your household is expensive. Communicate this need to any housemates and tenants with clarity and transparency, and it may make a difference in the long run. It’s not a good idea to defer maintenance, though, whether of physical or emotional infrastructure — this is a chance to find out where the leaks in the system are before they are stress-tested by 2022. It’s good to put this framework in strictly transactional terms: you get this, those, and these in exchange for that, this, and the other thing. Own up to your own part in the mess, and you’ll win some intellectual kudos, but don’t expect sympathy from this: your goal is to keep all the dishes spinning and avoid any broken crockery. Maintaining daily routines in the face of this kind of household upset will be difficult, but keep reminding yourself that you can get deeper into routines the less you let yourself be disrupted by outside forces. By the by, a water-quality test, or a home filter (a pitcher in the fridge or a tap-mounted device) wouldn’t be a bad investment right now.

Scorpio: Mars is angular but peregrine and inconjunct. Some solitude would do you good right now. It would be a time for getting your finances under control, and cutting off some expenses that aren’t working in your favor right now. That would benefit your role as a provider for your family and extended community, who are going to be side-eyeing you in the next few weeks, wondering how you contribute. Proving your worth to the household may turn out to be a theme of the next few weeks — on the one hand, you are not contributing n some ways; and in others you are a leader who makes sprawling and wide-ranging contributions. At the same time that others are analyzing you, it would be a good idea for you to analyze your friendship networks, and figure out which ones are professionally beneficial. You don’t have to cut off any friendships, but you do want to know where your financial support comes from, and show some appropriate new year’s gratitude or at least graciousness.

Colophon

have a Patreon account for those who want to support this column as it approaches the midpoint of its third year (I began with Leo I in 2019 ). We’re currently doing a decan walk through some Tarot, astrology, mythology, and magic. If you don’t want to become a regular patron, you can also buy me a Ko-fi in $3 increments, and any column I write after receiving a Ko-Fi donation will be open to the public.  You can also schedule an appointment with me using Accuity Scheduling, for a natal or solar return consultation.

I use iPhemeris for my charting software, and screenshot it to make charts. I want to thank the team that develops iPhemeris for the addition of Terms and Decans to their charts, appearing here for the first time! I use Hugh Tran‘s Physis typeface to craft logos for this blog, as well.

I use Christopher Warnock‘s The Mansions of the Moon as the basis of my Moon placement delineations, and Austin Coppock‘s 36 Faces as the basis of much of my planetary delineations. Neither gentleman endorses me. My own book, A Full Volume of Splendour and Starlight, is now available as PDF download from my Etsy website, as is my Almanac for 2021. I follow T.Susan Chang and the Reverend Erik Arneson for insight into Tarot. Any errors in these columns are my own.

If you’d like to schedule a consultation with me, you can find additional information on the Services and Classes page.

If you want to read some of my other astrologically-oriented poetry, “A Full Volume of Splendour and Starlight” contains these smaller collections: 

• To the Mansions of the Moon is a collection of hymns to the angels of the Mansions 
• For the Behenian Stars is a collection of hymns to the first/brightest sixteen stars. 
• The Sun’s Paces are hymns to the thirty-six Hellenistic-era deities and ascended souls of the Greco-Egyptian Decans-calendar. 
• Festae, hymns to some of the older Roman gods and spirits.