Full Moon in Capricorn

Visions of Maturity in a Time of Childhood

Jun 20, 2024

The Full Moon and Sign Polarity

What is it about a Full Moon? Why does it seem so magical? Why might it make some people “crazy”? The astrological answer is in the illumination of the two “lights”, the Sun and the Moon, through opposite signs of the Zodiac.

The Zodiac can be viewed as 6 pairs of opposite signs, or polarities. The signs of each pair are poles of an axis whose function they both share and serve in contradictory, yet complementary, ways. For example, Taurus (birth) is at one end of the axis it shares with Scorpio (death), the sign at the other end. There’s a time for everything, including “a time to be born and a time to die”. It’s the natural economy, the way all values in Time are kept in balance with one another. A different value is toggled in each of the 6 polarities.

Sunlight is the light of conscious life, shining steadily on our thoughts and activities through a single sign for a whole month at a time. Moonlight is the light of unconscious life, reflecting our feelings, moods and dreams through signs that change every 2 - 2.5 days. While we are always functioning in the present in the objective clock time of the Sun, we may feel and dream of a remembered or imaginary past or future in the subjective dreamtime of the Moon.

During the days and nights when the Moon is Full, the Sun and Moon are in opposite signs, ‘speaking’ to us simultaneously from opposite poles of an axis. The Sun affirms conditions of the current moment. The Moon reminds us that there was or will be another moment in time with conditions exactly the opposite of whatever they are now.

The effect of the contrast between the opposing lights is a feeling of bittersweet poignancy as we experience simultaneous contradictory emotions. They are equally compelling. We seem to be stuck with one of them, while the other haunts us from somewhere out of reach. For relief from any discomfort from the effect, we can seek connection with the paradoxical center point between the two extremes, where they meet in timeless union and perfect peace.

In this series, we explore the Full Moon’s effects each month as the two lights confront each other across successive sign polarities.

Full Moon in Capricorn: Nurture Within Structure

When the Moon is Full in Capricorn, the Sun is opposing it from Cancer. The two lights are illuminating the Cancer-Capricorn axis, bringing us in touch with its complementary energies. The purpose of Cancer-Capricorn is “nesting”, i.e. to establish and maintain protective boundaries around a safe home space within which to nourish and train the young (or “newbies”). The dynamic is that of Child & Parent, Follower & Leader, or Subordinate & Authority. Though it can operate anywhere, it’s most appropriate to the family.

Cancer is the homelike sign at the nurturing end of this axis. It’s all about security, comfort, food, fundamental training, and soothing, predictable routine. It evokes feelings of childhood, innocence, vulnerability, dependency, and the attentions of a personal caretaker. In spite of frequently shifting moods, Cancer maintains the peaceful routine at home with consistent respect for the needed protection and support provided by Capricorn.

Capricorn is the sign at the structuring end of this axis, which is neither whimsical nor warm and fuzzy, but serious and firm. Capricorn bears responsibility for the family’s safety and security, and is necessarily concerned more with the framework containing and supporting the family than the details of its internal functions. In a Capricornian role one carries a heavy burden for the sake of the dependents, earning their respect for keeping their environment prudently controlled and safe.

Our memories of childhood might be happy or less than happy. Families, and other arrangements modeled on the family, are rarely perfect. After all, parents in either role (or both, for that matter) are people, with human flaws of some kind or other, and the same goes for children. Most parents do the best they know to do, which is usually what they learned from their own parents. If that’s not ideal, at least it’s kept their family line alive so far. Whatever our feelings about childhood, the Full Moon in Capricorn tends to bring them out.

The influence of the Cancer Sun puts us mentally in the place of the child. Either we’re unusually aware of actually being a child, or we’re unusually in touch with our “inner child” and its feelings and needs. How different are we now from our childhood selves? Maybe not as different as we’ve thought.

The Full Capricorn Moon may bring to mind the parent responsible for the welfare of the family we grew/are growing up in. That could be our father or mother, or partly both. Our childhood unfolds on that person’s watch, and now memories of that arrangement might surface, bringing up feelings about that parent or their influence. Likely in a vulnerable mood now, anyone feeling insecure might dream of the kind of protection such a parent gives. A parent might reflect on interactions with, and influence on, their children. An actual child might be preoccupied with admiration of a strong parent, or dreams of adulthood and what being a grown-up might be like.

There are many facets of childhood experience of parents on which to reflect. What kind of structure molded our life’s foundation? What impression do we have of authority and boundaries? Do we think of them as protective and reassuring, or as overly restrictive and smothering? Does/did the parent in charge seem to be cold and distant, or approachable and caring? A child can’t support himself, needing and depending on whomever is in the Capricorn role for survival. How well are we fulfilling our own needs now? Are we still needy in some ways? Is the Moonlight bringing nostalgia for a protector of the past? Dreams of protection or authority in the future? Both? Something else? To each of us come our own emotional variations on the Capricorn theme.