The Sun enters the decan of Capricorn II on December 31, 2023 at 6:06 pm EST. Austin Coppock named this decan The Pyramid for its role and feel in oppressive and challenging systems, while T. Susan Chang named it Time and Materials, paralleling the Golden Dawn’s name for the Tarot card associated with this season, the Lord of Work — the three of pentacles. The Sun will be here until January 10, 2024 at 1:31 pm EST.

Systems play a huge role in the ancient conception of this decan, which the Greco-Egyptian world assigned to the goddess Hygeia. The daughter of the physician-god Asklepios and the first nurse, she emphasized cleanliness and ritual purity as the keystones to the recovery of good health: bathing, high quality food, appropriate fasting (“starve a fever, feed a cold” and similar measures), deliberate sleep and rest, warmth, fresh air, and sunlight. 

Yet there’s a difference between promoting rest and recovery on the one hand, and promoting the avoidance of malpractice on the other. Hygeia urges you to bathe, to engage in qualitative and quantitative cleanliness at the shift of the old year to the new, and to wash away what cannot be allowed to remain — for the sake of good health.

The second decan of Capricorn is administered by Mars, and it’s worth noting that Mars will arrive here in Capricorn II soon, on January 17, 2024 at 6:26 pm EST. Mars is exalted in all of Capricorn, though —and he’ll be here from 4 January 2024 (9:58 am EST) until 13 February 2024 (1:13 am EST). This means that between about 5:00 pm and 6:00 pm Eastern time (4-5pm Central, 3-4pm Mountain, 2-3 pm Pacific), the warrior planet will be in the sixth house of his joy, and unusually strengthened when it comes to employees making trouble, or bringing you health issues. It’s a good time for (gentle) strength and flexibility training, but watch out for sudden bursts of anger during your afternoon or evening commutes! For those of you intent on starting a workout routine in the new year, notice that if you can get to January 4, you’ll be able to ride Mars’s tailwind right up to Valentine’s Day… but after that you’ll have a harder time maintaining that ambition unless you work at it. Set a calendar reminder to help you.

The dodeks of Capricorn II are assigned to Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, and Leo, reflecting some of that deliberate strategizing. Taurus isn’t always lazy, but prefers indolence and sedentary lifestyles to hard fieldwork. Gemini, though, enjoys thinking things through, while Cancer feels the emotional benefit of the labor. Finally, Leo looks good after time spent in the gymnasium. All four together represent the mix of self-oppression and drive that helps fitness enthusiasts reach their goals.

Planetary Placements

The chart of 6:05 pm EST on 31 December 2023 is a night chart with almost all the planets in the wrong part of the sky: The Moon shares the sky with the Sun, negating much of her potential — and with her the planets of her sect, Venus and Mars, are similarly weakened. Above the horizon, Saturn and Jupiter are similarly separated from their lord the Sun. Only Mercury, as a dawn-appearing planet, is in the right part of the sky for their sect.

That said, some planets retain substantial potential for surprising results. Venus and Jupiter are each in the other’s signs of Sagittarius and Taurus — resulting in a highly beneficial mutual reception between daily activities and friendly alliances. Use the first ten days of January to make strategic and tactical connections to both acquaintances and colleagues, and build up your employees to grow your own strength in the workplace. Don’t undermine the overall mission — but recognize that having some sense of pulling up the team below you (or behind you) is important here.

The Moon is also in the third house — her position of joy. Favoring private religious and spiritual festivities, actions performed over her own hearth, she strongly suggests setting yourself up for success at the turning of the year through private housekeeping, starting a journal, beginning a yoga practice or starting a gymnasium routine. Two key elements of this process should be remembered: overall direction (going to ‘a few’ gym workouts a week for eight weeks is better than a week of daily practice that stops after a week) and honesty (an actual workout or yoga routine, rather than making fourteen selfies and leaving after 5 minutes) deliver better results than casual or faked effort. Be willing to look ridiculous here, for a while, for greater success.

The Moon opens the year in The Wings of the Maiden, the famed and generous Thirteenth Mansion of the Moon which honors sexuality and sensuality. It might be a great night for staying in with your most intimate friends and having a good time in a hot tub… or a very large bed. But this Moon, on the last night of the old vulgar year and the start of the new, promises a year of declining fortunes for many in the sensual realms, as many relationships based exclusively on sex or sensuality reach natural ending points or transition to new presentations. Don’t count too much on getting it to with your friends, even if New Year’s Eve seems unusually lit.

With the Nodal Axis placing the North Node in Aries in the tenth and the South Node in Libra in the fourth, the next ten days will likely involve considerable pressure on career and office-attendance-records, although at first the concern will be more with keeping workers happy and keeping wheels spinning at home. But wheels are likely to start coming off or breaking in the next ten days, and familial matters will be subject to greater and greater crap in service to the larger questions of the economy. Contentment is found at home, but reputation is won in the inter-office politics… and who gets to be in charge in the new year is actually on the table: a lot of promotions are up for grabs to those who play the political game. Be unabashed about identifying with a job title rather than what you do: “I’m your graphic designer” rather than “I illustrate the catalog.”

Related to that idea of identifying with your title rather than your activity, note the presence of Venus, Mercury and Mars in the sixth house. Layoffs are coming in the new year, not all of them announced and not all of them of other people. The bow is being drawn back, and at least some arrows will hit hard. Some may hit your team, some may hit you. Diplomatic disentanglement may be advised, but also working to raise the profile of yourself and essential others may also be needed. 

The Sun and Pluto are both in Capricorn at the moment, but angular in the seventh house. The Sun doesn’t particularly enjoy being in the Goat-Fish sign, but the coming conjunction of Pluto and the Sun on 19 January 2024 will take place in the Sun’s decan, The Throne — at the last degree, in the last minute, of Capricorn. Thus we can see that sunlight is about to penetrate the cloak of darkness that surrounds the rich and the powerful, in the eleventh house of friends, allies… and state and national legislatures. Accordingly these next ten days are likely to involve a certain amount of negotiation around duties, responsibilities and privileges in a fractal way: you find the teenagers have been hiding their dirty dishes in their rooms; and routine end-of-year accounting may bring to light some unsavory transactions at work or in the holiday bookkeeping at home. Let the sunlight in: it’s a good disinfectant against future misery.

Saturn and Neptune continue to hold opposite ends of Pisces; here, they’re both in the ninth house and direct but cadent. Saturn promises ongoing difficulties in planes, trains, automobiles and boats — with a likelihood of delays due to weather and staff health. Be alert to quick changes in the relationships between the sky and delays of your preferred transportation modes. Additionally — schools will be going back into session after holiday vacations, and health conditions among students and faculty should be monitored more closely to prevent breakdowns in normalcy. Neptune specifically amplifies misinformation and disinformation about everything — No matter how well informed you think you are, you’re mostly operating on bad data (if not outright lies). As a result, don’t spend nearly so much time worrying about mind-control conspiracies as about financial fraud.

Jupiter and Uranus occupy the eleventh house of friends. Usually, the official holiday-days are for family, while the “Timeless Zone of Cheese” between Christmas and New Year’s Day (as one client called it!) is for friendly occasions with acquaintances and allies. This routine may be interrupted or disrupted by numerous changes in plans. Roll with the punches here, accept that the idealized goals of six months ago (“let’s have an amazing party on New Year’s Eve!”) may undergo significant changes now that the immediate moment is here. The actual occasion is likely to be lovely and enjoyable, even if it’s not what you hoped for. Allow your expectations to be lower, but show up with an amazing potluck item, an unusual bottle of wine, or some other element of an excellent and enjoyable occasion. Intend to make the party special through your generosity, rather than your mere presence.

Horoscopes by rising sign

Decan I of any sign (usually covering the 21st of the month to the first of the following month) is free to all visitors; Decan II is only available to Patreon and Ko-Fi.com subscribers; and Decan III is available to Patreon, Ko-Fi, and MailChimp subscribers.

Cancer:

Leo:

Virgo:

Libra:

Scorpio:

Sagittarius:

Capricorn:

Aquarius:

Pisces:

Aries:

Taurus:

Gemini:

Colophon

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If you want to read some of my astrologically-oriented poetry, the largest collection is called A Full Volume of Splendor and Starlight, available through my Etsy shop, and containing poems and hymns to the planets, constellations, decan deities, and Moon Mansion angels. While not astrological, Festae contains hymns to some of the older Roman gods and spirits from the calendar created by Numa Pompilius, the second ancient King of Rome.

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. I also 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 for much of my planetary delineations. Neither gentleman endorses me.