on anti-capitalist worldbuilding and the new moon in capricorn
with insights for your rising sign
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TONIGHT! I am giving an astro-historical teaching on the astrology of 2025, through the lens of 10+ eras that experienced similar astrology. To my mind, astrology is the most useful when we are like, hey, what do we think will happen next year? and can literally point to different moments in history where the planets were in the exact same place — and look at the themes that emerge. Sign up for We’ve Been Here Before: A Historical Retrospective on the Astrology of 2025, which will be available as a recording after. 6pm Eastern, tonight on Zoom!
AND ALSO ALSO ALSO. Tomorrow is the last day to sign up with Early Bird pricing for The Grove: 6 Months of Collective Creative Devotion, a spiritual-and-creative experience I am offering with my wife-to-be, tarot reader Meg Jones Wall. Starts January 29th and will run through late July. Commit to transforming your creative practice in 2025.
The New Moon is exact at 9* of Capricorn at 5:26pm Eastern tonight.
The question here, at the end of one year and the beginning of a new one, is: what are we building? And are we building something that is derived from our most authentic self?
When it comes to Capricorn energy, we’ve collectively been on a journey — Pluto was in Capricorn for the last fifteen years, and was joined by Saturn and Jupiter during the world-shattering events of 2020.
But now, for the first time since 2008, we get to worldbuild with a Capricorn lunation that isn’t operating under the duress of Pluto’s heavy hand. Because we all have every sign in our birth chart, and so the transformation that Pluto in Capricorn wrought happened somewhere for you (see below for insights based on your rising sign). Having had the Capricorn areas of life excoriated by the Lord of the Dead, having experienced the catastrophe of the cocoon, we finally — finally — get to witness the emergence of the butterfly.
Here, as you get ready to Dream and Worldbuild something new in 2025, you might consider: what is the volcanic ash you are planting in? What capitalist assumptions, white supremacist ticks, remnants of internalized misogyny are you unpacking and releasing? And what (beliefs, ideas, creative projects) are you moving into?
When I think about worldbuilding, I’m not just thinking about “doing.” Or being “productive.” Of the capitalist-inflected astrology that treats Capricorn like “the boss” or “the CEO.” God, do I hate that. I recently wrote about reframing my creative accomplishments of 2024 outside of a capitalist framework, and it seemed to resonate with quite a few of you. At the end of that essay, I wrote:
The older I get, the more I write, the more I understand that most of my creative growth is in the journey. In the process. In the messy middle. There, in the tangled web of the second act, or the next sample chapter of the book proposal, is where I screw my courage to the sticking place. Out of that difficulty comes a deepened trust in my creative process. A reminder that this is where artistry develops, like a carrot underground.
When I think about what I’m worldbuilding, I’m thinking about the kind of life I want to live: creatively, spiritually. I’m thinking about Creativity as a spirit that is in collaboration with each and every one of us. I’m thinking about deepening my connections with my beloveds, about discovering new connections with like-spirited folks (maybe in The Grove!). And yes, there are books I want to write. Yes, there are things I want to do, and money I need to make in order to live.
But I’m also thinking about how I want the coming year to feel. Perhaps this is not what you expected from a note about a Capricorn New Moon, but remember: Capricorn is, above all else, earth. The somatic. The five senses. It is the dirt beneath your feet as you hike the mountain. The cold air that hits you as you walk into your backyard to find fresh fallen snow. It’s the decomposition of the fallen leaves — the molting, the wet, the death that ushers in new life. It’s the process of fermentation, of wine-making. Capricorn isn’t some feeling-less “boss”; it is the structure — the schedule, the quiet room — that allows us to process and compost some of the most complicated feelings of the human experience and, out of them, to create something satisfying.
On the January forecast of Call Your Coven, I talk about Capricorn as that first nigredo stage of alchemy. And the thing is that alchemy, or transformation, are things many talk about but few actually pursue. Again: the cocoon is a catastrophe. To embrace change, and not know what’s on the other side, is profoundly brave — even if it doesn’t feel that way in the moment.
This is the kind of worldbuilding I’m interested in, and the kind I hope you’re interested in, too.
A word of loving caution: the coming astrology of Q1 is slow. Slow slow slow. I told virtually all of my Year Ahead clients that we were not hitting the ground running in January; rather, we are embracing the fable of the Tortoise and the Hare. Slow and steady wins the race. (We also discussed this at length on the January forecast of Call Your Coven.)
If you aren’t sure what the Capricorn house of the birth chart is, or areas of life are impacted, here you go! Please note that this indicates both where Pluto in Capricorn spent the last 15+ years making big changes AS WELL AS specific areas you may want to set intentions with this New Moon around!
Aries Risings: legacy work; “what you’re known for”; showing up as an authority in public, or reacting to authorities in public (e.g. bosses, parents)
Taurus Risings: higher education - pursuing, teaching in; systems of organized belief, e.g. organized religion; astrology; traditional publishing & legacy media
Gemini Risings: shared material resources, such as inheritance, taxes, alimony, child support, royalty checks; shared emotional/psychic resources, such as grief, mediumship, and liminal work with the dead; client work; professional collaborations that are more project-based
Cancer Risings: long-term relationships, typically that involve contracts and paperwork (marriage, literary agents, business partners); your beliefs, values, and practices around such committed relationships
Leo Risings: your day job and/or the labor you exchange for money/benefits; daily scheduling; chores and errands; physical health - the maintenance of; chronic pain and illness; pets; activism for labor rights and/or healthcare
Virgo Risings: your erotic energy; creative work; sex; more casual dating/flirtation/erotic relationships; relationships with significant children in your life; your children themselves, if you have them; sports and games; pleasure and play
Libra Risings: home - the literal space, also what it emotionally is; family, and who counts as family; parents, grandparents, and primary caretakers; direct, recent ancestors; cultural heritage; roots
Scorpio Risings: your local neighborhood; your regular/daily writing practice; everyday communication; K-12 education; relationships with relatives, siblings, and friends who feel like family
Sagittarius Risings: your relationship to money; material/liquid resources; less tangible resources like Time; income streams - developing or consolidating
Capricorn Risings: your self-expression, through anything from hairstyle to gender identity; energy levels and a general feeling of vitality (having it/not having it); new regimens for the physical body/health
Aquarius Risings: subconscious dreams, beliefs, and desires made more clear; mental health; old, forgotten ancestral patterns and traumas; visiting, working in, volunteering at, doing involuntary time in hospitals and prisons; finding spaces of spiritual retreats, such as at ashrams or monasteries
Pisces Risings: friendships & relationship to community; professional organizations; the internet and digital organizing; volunteer work
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Can I ask! Will your lecture tonight be available for purchase after the fact? I cannot afford it right this moment but would LOVE to listen in a couple weeks when I can.
Beautiful
"But I’m also thinking about how I want the coming year to feel. Perhaps this is not what you expected from a note about a Capricorn New Moon, but remember: Capricorn is, above all else, earth. The somatic. The five senses. It is the dirt beneath your feet as you hike the mountain. The cold air that hits you as you walk into your backyard to find fresh fallen snow. It’s the decomposition of the fallen leaves — the molting, the wet, the death that ushers in new life. It’s the process of fermentation, of wine-making. Capricorn isn’t some feeling-less “boss”; it is the structure — the schedule, the quiet room — that allows us to process and compost some of the most complicated feelings of the human experience and, out of them, to create something satisfying."