Capricorn I — The Headless Body, according to Austin Coppock‘s system — begins on December 21 2024 at 4:20 am EST, and continues until 30 December 2024 at 11:51 pm EST, making nine days, nineteen hours and 31 minutes. In the Descending Chaldean order, this decan is ruled by sextile Saturn as the overall Capricorn ruler… but administered by Jupiter who is inconjunct in Gemini — resulting in a holiday season more mundane and less mystic, more austere and ambiguous and less rooted in unabashed joy.
Capricorn I always begins at the moment of the winter solstice, which has been celebrated with partying and celebration almost since the invention of partying itself. Babylonians, Greeks, and Egyptians seemed to have marked the darkest days of the year with festivals of light. Gift-giving is a relatively recent innovation, as far as we know — but feasts and rich food and displays of artificial light have been common at this time of year for a long, long time. Jupiter is considered to be in exile in Capricorn, but in this one decan he’s got tremendous favor as the principal host of the feast of the Winter Solstice — rather like a king whose knights and barons have plotted to have him arrested and imprisoned the moment he lies down to sleep out of view of the commoners he invited into the great hall. Tonight, at least, Jupiter is far away in the castle library, assiduously studying the books and trying to be a better ruler instead of drinking himself into a dangerous stupor.
On the other hand, that leaves Saturn in charge — only small logs for the fire, no hired minstrels, no dancing, and a mix of leftovers for the feast. He’s not interested in making a celebration, only keeping his own feet warm and his own belly full, while everyone else goes cold and hungry. It’s not selfishness, he promises, just good old fashioned sensibility and responsible economy.
The Mythic
The ancient Greeks appear to have looked to one of two deities at this time of year, since surviving information is somewhat inconsistent. Akephalos, “the Headless One” was associated with the indwelling of spirit or soul in matter — and was honored with riotous revels and the upending of the social order in which slaves temporarily became masters and masters temporarily became slaves. The Romans celebrated Saturnalia in a similar way, with slaves being reprieved temporarily from their obligations and duties, and (lightly) punishing their masters and mistresses for minor deviations in behavior. The streets would have filled with revelers carrying lights and torches as the returning Sun was celebrated. In the Late Empire, December 25 became the feast of Sol Invictus, “the unconquered Sun”, the patron of the Emperor and the imperial family — and the temporary freedoms of the enslaved were largely suppressed.
Even so, these sorts of customs kept rising, and re-arising, into the Middle Ages, where in Salisbury England and elsewhere, “boy bishops” plucked from the cathedral choir preached scolding sermons at adult male clergy who temporarily became misbehaving acolytes. It’s possible that this is an import into Greek pagan tradition of Osoronnophris or Osiris — the sovereign deity chopped up into pieces and distributed through the world. Akephalos is associated with the idea of losing track of one’s undying divinity in the pleasures of the material world… much as the divine Christ was born in a stable in order to understand both the challenges and pleasures of being a mortal human being, subject to the pain and suffering and death of mortal creatures.
Increasingly, as this time of year rolls around, I myself look to Asclepius (sometimes spelled Asklepios), the healing god of classical Greece. Worshipped in temples filled with non-poisonous snakes, where devotees and visiting pilgrims alike slept in rooms scented with braziers of herbs that incubated dreams which revealed both diagnosis and course of treatment, Asclepius served as the divine intermediary with his even-more-divine spouse (some traditions say “daughter”) Hygeia, the goddess of true health. He’s depicted as a bearded man with a staff, which a snake curls around and hisses the secrets of healing. Often described mythically either as a son of Apollo or as the reincarnation of the Homeric-era healer Paion, Asclepius cured all who came to him — but was struck down by Zeus’ lightning bolt when he dared to bring the dead back to life. In latter eras, the communities of the Mediterranean littoral honored him along with Hippocrates the founder of the humoral tradition of medicine, which persisted well into the 1700s throughout Europe, and still survives to this day as part of the Unani Tibb medical tradition found in rural Muslim communities as widely dispersed as Pakistan, Afghanistan, Algeria and Bangladesh. Asclepius as the worshipped god may not have survived the fall of the Roman Empire, but the healing tradition for which he was the original divine patron remains a going concern even now. It is this medical tradition that serves as a kind of foundation to the practice of astrological medicine — a teaching system that I have no particular skill with, but which I honor nonetheless, since it helps provide some of the descriptive and prescriptive tools that astrologers use today to understand both personality and the challenges our clients could face at any time.
The dodeks of Capricorn I are Capricorn, Aquarius, Pisces, and Aries, mimicking the experience of the sick person who decides to go see a skilled physician in the humoral medical tradition. First they become sick, and even full daylight offers no relief: they are often cold and shivering and immiserated. Then in a decisive way they rise from their beds early in the morning, and even though they are still sick, they seek a doctor’s advice. The physician then studies them deliberately and carefully, and critiques their habits of life and their diet and their exercise, but nonetheless provides a suitable diagnosis and treatment. For a period of time, the patient slides back and forth like a slippery fish between feeling better and feeling worse. Finally, a new spark of life takes hold in them and they rise from their beds refreshed and much improved by the medications and treatment proposed.
Planetary Placements
The chart of December 21, 2024 at 4:20 am EST resembles nothing so much as the various characters in the archetypal small town in a Hallmark holiday rom-com movie — albeit one with something of an edge, as might be expected. A Lifetime holiday movie ends happily ever after where the good man from the small town wins the girl, the girl wins the holiday baking contest, the lonely old contractor gets the widowed owner of the town bookstore, and only the evil corporate mastermind of the plot to destroy the Christmas tree farm is humiliated and unseated from his role as CEO. In this chart, it’s not anywhere near so clear who wins, though.
Mars/Pluto in opposition is of course the villain of the piece. Venus has left him, and had walked away from their glamorous penthouse in the sky above midtown Manhattan where they ruled as a power couple — him playing devoted mega-rich husband Pluto at home while his martial counterpart plays the double-crossing and reactionary executive who makes all his employees work long hours, cancels their end-of-year bonuses, and nit-picks everyone at their final review of the year. Ruling both the first house of self and the sixth house of employees and daily routines, he lights a fire under himself and under everyone who works for him — do what you must to get it done or you’ll get burned. He drives himself no less hard than anyone under him — but at home it comes across as emotionless, ultra-rationalist critique: “did you really need a new Christmas dress, honey? Couldn’t you have used last year’s? Maybe you didn’t fit in it… you certainly didn’t use last year’s Peloton bike as much as you should have…” Meanwhile, he’s hungry to have his drivers delay every shipment in exchange for premium shipping costs on every package sent and received, and squeeze every last dollar out of his customers. The South Node in the 12th house promises, at least subjectively, that he’ll be on the short end of Justice’s sword sooner or later… Oh, but probably not today. And not tomorrow, or next month, or maybe not even next year.
But, as I say, Venus has left him. The beautiful protagonist of this film has gone on ahead, and is currently imagining an idyllic Christmas in the small town she grew up in, and a recent news story about handsome older gentleman Jupiter’s plans to revitalize the town’s historic Christmas bazaar have woken up her own need to have a holiday worth celebrating. Maybe a week in her old hometown will do her good.
Of course, things are not as rosy as they might appear: Mercury in Sagittarius in the second house is trying to keep the budget for the bazaar on track, and Jupiter in Gemini keeps overspending the allotted resources even while promising to keep the detailed plans manageable. Mayor Uranus in Taurus is working his rosary beads in a fit, while Mrs. Moon in Virgo is trying to keep the bookshelves stocked for Julbokaflod, the town’s imitation of the Icelandic tradition of giving new books at Christmas.
There’s two kids in the story, girl Saturn old and wise beyond her years (and way too old to believe in Santa), and boy Neptune who’s still hoping for Santa’s presence even while knowing he’s not real. He’s far too excited for the day to arrive but who nonetheless would like something other than a book for Christmas. How about a bike? How about that snowboarder girl, make, in a hot tub, with him? How about a couple of bottles of vodka and an ounce of weed stolen from dad’s liquor cabinet to prove to his friends that he’s not some lame weirdo?
The Sun in Capricorn promises that Christmas comes, whether we’re prepared for it or not. For some, it will be a Headless celebration — the deathless soul incarnated in matter to enjoy the dubious and inane pleasures of inconsiderate flesh: sex without love, too much food, too much drink, too many euphorics or psychotropics at once, too much stimulation of nostalgia, too many memories both real and imagined of holidays long, long ago — when they were better, more golden, more Kodachrome, more light-hearted, more decked with holly, more holy.
For others, though, the Sun promises an encounter with the true Physician, who helps us dream ourselves to true health and healing — the reminder that we are eternal souls temporarily wearing flesh and blood like a shirt, or new pajamas. The returning Light promises hope and peace and joy in the new year — but only for those who have eyes to see it.
It’s the middle of the movie, though. I mean, we think the villain will be humiliated and stripped of his authority by the Board of Directors, and maybe the tame reindeer at the holiday display will poop in the sunroof of his new Porsche? But there’s no telling just yet how this tale will play out.
Meanings of Houses
The First House of self and self-presentation is Scorpio, ruled by squaring Mars retrograde in Leo. We draw both secrets and desired objects of beauty toward us in this season, but at a heart-aching cost.
The Second House of wealth and possessions is Sagittarius, ruled by opposing Jupiter retrograde in Gemini but hosting Mercury in mutual reception with him. Financial matters require commensurate meeting of responsibilities.
The Third House of extended families and neighborhoods hosts the Sun, though it’s ruled by sextile Saturn. It will be easy to spend time in the company of friends and extended family, and you should hoard and treasure these experiences even though each may be full of strong and dangerous emotional tides.
The Fourth House of family and home is ruled by the inconjunct Saturn and hosting both Pluto and Venus — the lady of the house is determined to have her way and she will make it easy to bow to her wishes; the lord of the house demands his due, though.
The Fifth House of children and pleasures is ruled by squaring Jupiter retrograde in Gemini, but hosting Saturn and Neptune. There are limitations and boundaries set around engagement between adult parents and their adult children. Your vision of what you wish to accomplish with homemade gifts far exceeds your ability to meet the expected deadline.
The Sixth House of daily labors and illness is Aries ruled by trining Mars retrograde in Leo, and hosting the North Node (for just 21 more days). You want to be able to use the coming days usefully and productively, but it’s likely that you’ll burn through the hours in no time.
The Seventh House of relationships is ruled by squaring Venus in Aquarius. Acting in the best ideal interests of the family and the household is the right thing to do, but Uranus promises disruptions galore and a fair bit of fidgeting and finagling to figure out what that is. Some of that unsteadiness is going to carry over into public spheres almost immediately.
The Eighth House of duty and responsibility is Gemini ruled by opposing Mercury in mutual reception with Jupiter retrograde. Obligations require a lot of thoughtfulness, imagination, planning, and management of expectations.
The Ninth House is Cancer ruled by the sextile Moon in Virgo. Adjustments to assignments in college classes, efforts to register for next semester’s classes, management of travel plans, and routine get-togethers with friends, are all subject to last-minute changes and adjustments. Sexual tensions are heightened but go unrelieved.
The Tenth House of career and reputation is Leo ruled by the inconjunct Sun and hosting Mars retrograde; sextile Jupiter in detriment tries to manage end-of-year expectations from bosses and supervisors as the C-suite tries to meet end-of-year projections. Nothing is going to go according to plan, and someone has to be holding the bag when the music stops on December 30. Do your best to ensure it’s not you.
The Eleventh House of friends and allies is Virgo ruled by squaring Mercury detrimented in Sagittarius, and hosting the Moon in the Thirteenth Mansion, The Wings, as she approaches the Midheaven. Your friendships and social circles are places of connection and eroticism, but also analytical wariness. Attend to these relationships but be judicious in how you lean on them.
The Twelfth House of challenge and opportunity is Libra ruled by trining Venus in Aquarius, home to the South Node and the Lunar Apogee. It will not be a season without disappointments and injustices, or injuries and insults both real and perceived. Rules will be broken and long-standing traditions may slip in and out of control.
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.
I recommend reading your Sun sign, Moon sign, and Rising sign for best results. I write them with rising sign in mind, but several people have told me they find that they do better with all three.
Scorpio: You are what you profess to be this week, as the spotlight shines on you. Don’t expect to be happy about what you announce you do for work. Your family may put more weight on your career choices than you expect; and you should expect some creative teasing, too. A detailed financial picture for the end of the year — as well as an accounting of what remains to be done — should be part of the post-Solstice downtime. Relationship matters are likely to be both tumultuous and steady: that is, lots of small contentions, but a reliability in the long haul.
Sagittarius: You’re going to have to sweat the small, gritty details of your financial picture this week, even while you maintain a sunny enthusiasm that all is well behind the scenes. Travel plans will be thrown into disarray. Career issues are lightened as you decide to close out the year with a break from all but your most reliable customers. Family is a source of both wealth and ideals colliding with practical issues not easily resolved. Household feels restricted and tight, even as you seek for ways to make your pleasures manifold. Your spouse leads the conversations, and adding detail to the big picture may help you meet in the middle.
Capricorn: Devote your biggest and sunniest smiles to the feast of siblings, cousins, aunts and uncles in the coming days, even as you journal through a series of quick technical challenges that affect your wallet and your constant critiques of capitalism. Alliterations aside, press pause on plans for passage — passport pre-cleared? Analyze acceptable allowances, and attend to administrivia. Big-hearted volunteerism at work puts unexpected loads on your shoulders, and disrupts social niceties for both you and a spouse; extended family matters bring both fun, and encounters with that old creepy uncle and his internet-fueled nightmares.
Aquarius: Familial wealth and the diplomatic way to say “it’s a great idea but not for right now” are likely to be intertwined in the next ten days in challenging ways. Financial questions are restricted even as you plan for larger solutions to monetary problems. You may find yourself trapped in a palace, or drinking trouble from a cup of delight, even as you study your habits that bring you happiness. Home and familial matters will be disrupted; a spouse may be the source of the difficulty. Your feelings will loom large as you try to complete your obligations, but keep your eye on the long-term solutions even as you tell your friends, “sorry, maybe some other time.”
Pisces: It feels like the next ten days should be a rich banquet of happiness and joy with friends and family, but it may also feel like your resources and skills are being used to make others happy while you are trudging through an ordinary weekly workload. You will find yourself forced to think about the long-term happiness and well-being of your family, and find the resources they need to be successful in the new year; you’ll be the one who has to manage all the planned encounters with family and friends, and you also have the technical work you need to do for your workplace’s larger plans. Your generosity will be tested again and again as the ordinary disruptions of family life create numerous emotional burdens on you. Endure the waves as best you can, and know that it’s going to be lovelier in January and February… but this season is not all it’s cracked up to be.
Aries: The boss shines a pleasant light upon your labors and efforts over the last year, but still finds ways to “ruin Christmas” with actions that cut away your relaxation time and put unwanted attention on your technical expertise and skill. Drawing more to yourself on a day-to-day basis is likely to put strains on a relationship with spouse, significant other, or business partner. Your long-term plans for leisure time face both real-time restrictions and an imagination that’s too large for the resource pool to handle. A friend provides creative time as a source of relief — but envy of the resources of others can prove a powerful poison: keep your heart whole in the next ten days.
Taurus: You demand to have your way in all things, but it’s cover for a seething undertow of stress that is not easily put to rest. Light shines on a dissatisfactory feast at the end of a lot of trouble. Your professional judgement is in question even as you do the essential labor that creates a workplace that feels like home. Friendly relations with others are restricted by flip-flopping conditions and visions that are larger than reality can provide; your obligations are tied up in negotiations where your quick words and verbal repartee wins the day but doesn’t solve any actual problem. Financial matters are secure, but home and family becomes a place where you dig in your heels and fight, even when it’s not in your best interest.
Gemini: Think how to be big-hearted in coming days — you’ll face a range of tedious chores and duties that disrupt your long-range plans for connection with others with immediate short-term expectations. An argument with a sibling sets you back a bit, and puts a lot of undesirable focus on you. My mother planned big holiday get-togethers with friends by writing 3×5 index cards with the menu, the guest list, and her individual recipes. They’d live under magnets on the kitchen fridge until the last guest left, before getting filed in her recipe box. You’ll have to get similarly organized. A holiday hook-up is likely to go awry, and you may have to call it off; have an exit plan. Talk to your partner in detail about your plans, but focus on the practical realities of the feast — and get creative about how you plan for travel. Expect at least one sourpuss in your workplace to make trouble, but offer supervisors a larger, longer-term vision.
Cancer: You’ll have to focus on the practical aspects of travel and learning the skills for the activities you intend to pursue over the next ten days. Financial matters take a hit that may require you to review and re-think the image you project to the world. In the long run, you have a good plan, but there are aspects that need a medium-term re-write; your plan will take longer than you think it will. The shape of a relationship with a close friend undergoes some changes which may be troubling; a connection with a spouse or significant other is re-shaped by encounters with their kin. You’re going to have to find a way to contribute in a way that’s both creative and indicative of your value.
Leo: As holiday season deadlines approach, you may find yourself working more and more with hot, sharp, or stabby things at a feverish pace — but please remember that the chainsaw or the blender doesn’t know about Christmas, and wouldn’t care even if it did. A measured pace is healthier than trying to Do! All! The! Things! Among your possessions there is (or ought to be) a toy or two that will bring relief to certain urges, and relieve some of the stresses of piling up success on success as the year nears its end. Take the time to fall in love with someone else’s words this holiday season; let a friend be generous to you for old times’ sake, and expect that both questions of financial alliance and romantic connection will overshadow the holiday. There’s going to be lots of restrictions on how you have fun in the last ten days of the year — so remember that joy is more than a crumb to be plucked from the workbench of your labors.
Virgo: Networking and connections to others should be a priority this season, although you may want to focus on the feasts and social time with family more than doing outreach to associates and potential future clients. A spouse or significant other (including business associates) face restrictions and limitations; you may be able to help by envisioning a more abundant future full of joyful opportunity. There’s a pile of hybridized projects that have to be completed before December 31, and this may require you to collaborate with someone that you regard as more inventive and creative than yourself — but expect that there will be a range of alarums and excursions to contend with, and you may require a trusted ally to keep you from revolt against a necessary partnership.
Libra: You love a good bargain, and this week pleasure comes from finding practical and inexpensive solutions to providing your family or household with the season’s delicacies. Some of this may require a focus on the feast rather than having pretty things. Breaking free of some extravagances, and focusing on quality communication and swift responses to goals, will aid you this season. Your daily routines will be under some ongoing restrictions, but setting some practical priorities and explaining them to your supervisors, will be beneficial (“it’s reasonable to get this project done before the end of the year; this one will require till the end of January, unless it’s such a priority that it must be done — in which case it needs more eyes on it than just mine.”) A work colleague may try to steal credit for your labors, and prove a false friend in the process. You have an opportunity to kindle a potential romance with a long-time crush, but your imagined future together may not match immediate reality.
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.
