New Moon in Capricorn Conjunct Pluto

Tonight’s New Moon promises to pack a wallop. My January Forecast briefly mentioned some of these energies:

The January 13 New Moon in Capricorn falls within minutes of last year’s Saturn-Pluto Conjunction. In the Eastern time zone, this New Moon occurs at the stroke of midnight, a year and a day after the Conjunction that colored all of 2020. “A year and a day” represents a magical time of completion or full initiation. Happening at the hinge point of midnight on the 13th, so close to the degree of the powerful Saturn-Pluto Conjunction, this dark passage forms a birth canal. Honor how you’ve changed and grown since January 12, 2020. Some major process of destruction and renovation will complete and reset with this New Moon.

The next day, January 14 holds potential for wild changes and eruptions. That’s the day that rebel Uranus stations direct in stable Taurus. Stationing direct supercharges influence of an outer planet, and Uranus is the most volatile. Fiery Mars in Taurus fast approaches lightning bolt liberator Uranus, adding intensity and volatility. All this, while expansive Jupiter squares Uranus, karmic Saturn squares Mars, and the Sun shines a spotlight on Pluto’s Underworld. Where and how this intensity affects you depends on your full natal chart, but collectively, we can expect something big to shift mid-month.

I noted the uncanny timing of the New Moon in the Eastern US time zone, which includes Washington, DC. For some parts of the world, this New Moon will occur on the 12th and for other parts, later on the 13th. The stroke of midnight and “year and a day” energy required a mention. No matter where you live, this New Moon occurs within 1.5 degrees of Pluto in Capricorn. This combo emphasizes a total reset and rebirth of major structures and institutions. These can be personal and/or collective.

This year and a day completion term of the Saturn-Pluto Conjunction reminds me of a dream I had in October 2019. It involved “special mandala floors” that would “ensure everyone gets where they need to go in the event of an earthquake.” You can think of Pluto as the earthquake, with Saturn going ahead and forging these special mandala floors. As so many old structures crumble, many upgrades and renovation have already been put in place — both personally and collectively. There is much to be grateful for amidst the chaos and confusion — for those with eyes to see.

Pluto destroys whatever stands in the way of transformation or transmutation. Think of the phoenix rising from its own ashes, a death and rebirth cycle. Pluto also wants you to find a new balance of power, freeing you from oppression and victimization. Persephone gets whisked into Hades, raped and her innocence destroyed, but she emerges a Queen. She embraces the cycles of life and death. When she returns from the depths, she brings the Sun and warmth and tender buds.

Pluto rules the Underworld, Chthonic Realm, the Shadow, the heavy hand of destiny, primal Nature, and the deepest subconscious and soul needs. I love Pluto, but only because I embrace that realm enough to find and excavate its hidden gems. The Lord of the Underworld offers strength, grit and a powerful chance to “Know Thyself.”

AstroButterfly goes into much more New Moon Conjunct Pluto detail here.

With the amount of chaos, fear-mongering, revelations and suppression right now, it’s anyone’s guess what will come lumbering out of the Underworld. In addition to the Shadow, Pluto’s realm contains real gems. Crystals, deep subconscious impulses, regeneration, power, and sexuality. While we can’t fully avoid the archetypes, we can choose to experience them on different levels. Dane Rudhyar’s Sabian Symbol for this New Moon degree offers encouragement and a suggested focus:

PHASE 294 (CAPRICORN 24°): A WOMAN ENTERING A CONVENT.

KEYNOTE: Total commitment to a transcendent goal.

A convent is a place made available by a community which believes in the possibility of reaching a world-transcending state of consciousness. It is made available to individuals who may be variously motivated. To some it is an escape from the intolerable pressures of family and society; to others it represents the possibility of pursuing in peace a spiritual ideal to which the whole being aspires and is totally dedicated. The important point, in this phase of the cyclic process, is that the existence of a convent expresses another aspect of the relationship between the society (its religion and culture) and the individual. In the preceding symbol society rewarded the individual for a noble performance in its service; here society accepts the fact that beyond its daily normal patterns of behavior and commitments, another way of life exists which, in a higher sense, also has social value. In the old Hindu society dominated by a rigid caste system, the ideal embodied in the sannyasi — the wandering holy man or yogi meditating in a forest or a cave, who had entirely given up all that caste implied — was seen to be the very culmination of the social process.

In this fourth stage symbol we see the paradoxical nature of the social process operating more strongly than ever. This derives from the fact that man’s nature contains in seed the possibility of overcoming and transcending itself in acts of complete denials and of surrender to a “higher” Law or quality of being. All spiritual techniques are indeed paradoxical. Rigid discipline conditions pure inner freedom. The final goal is the attainment of TRANSCENDENT SECURITY.

Again, the “Transcendent Security” reminds me of my mandala floors dream where the circles in the floor tipped in just the right way to slide everyone where they need to be “in the event of an earthquake.” I mention that dream because I had it twice, back to back, just as Pluto stationed Direct in October 2019. I’ve watched this message play out over the past year plus. Challenging external times offer a chance to connect with true support, which is ultimately a spiritual process. Take some time to go deep.