The Sun's transit through fiery, jovial Sagittarius occurs as we are preparing to celebrate the Winter Solstice. Ruled by Jupiter, the Great Benefic, Sagittarius embodies the Jovian qualities of generosity and festivity that are so present during the holidays. We spend too much, eat too much, go out and party too much. It is a time of festivity and merry-making, and all of us are encouraged to join in, sometimes even pressured or ridiculed for not getting into the spirit.

At the Winter Solstice, the Sun moves into Capricorn. Ruled by Saturn, Capricorn is the contraction that happens after the rapid expansion of Sagittarius Once the merry-making of the holiday season winds down, after the elation of the Solstice and New Years, Capricorn can feel like a return to grim reality. During Sagittarius we charge things up on the credit card, we overindulge in food and drinks. During Capricorn, the bills come due, we might have to tighten our belts to accommodate the holiday's excess, we start diets to get rid of the weight we gained.

Winter stretches on ahead of you, and while the buoyancy of the New Year energy—that spark that motivates us to make resolutions, set intentions, and make changes for the better in our lives—is a wonderful ally, the lessons of Capricorn are often framed in terms of prohibitions and limitations. Saturn represents discipline, rigor, logic, practicality, and limitations. It is not surprise so many New Years resolutions, which are all calls for personal transformation, are restrictions and negations: “I will stop smoking. I will lose 20 pounds.” We call upon our will to force these changes for our “own good”, and we apply intense discipline to try and make them happen. Very often, these intentions have to be revisited or scrapped completely. It is easy, during Capricorn, to make choices based on our will and knowledge of our desires. It is difficult to sustain those changes over the course of the year.

This year, the first New Moon, the New Moon in Capricorn, comes close to the beginning of the year. It is logical time to put forth those intentions and goals by which to steer our year's work and magick. But this New Moon, among whose names are the Earth Renewal Moon, also falls during Mercury retrograde, a time when communication and information may be impeded, a time when action is not called, but observation is. In addition to the Sun, Moon and Pluto holding court in the zodiac's darkest, most silent mansion, Saturn and Venus and conjunct in Sagittarius This unlikely pair remind us to temper reason with compassion, and adds the frisson of pleasure to duty and virtue. For all of Capricorn's austerity, one of its attributes is the treasure in the Earth: wealth and beauty in the form stones, crystals, gems, petrochemicals, and fossils, lending grandeur and opulence to stillness and gravity. The riches of the World are immanent, and they can be won through patient and discipline and conscious engagement in one's Dharma. These are the gifts of Capricorn's New Moon.