This New Moon sits in the center of an unusually large and tightly configured crowd of planets.
The Sun and Moon, exactly conjunct at 28º Capricorn, also conjunct Mars and Mercury tightly conjunct at 26º Capricorn.
By degree, this New Moon is also conjunct Venus at 01º Aquarius and Pluto at 03º Aquarius.
This is an important threshold.
At the end of Capricorn, we’ve built our castle, fortress, skyscraper, whatever. It’s complete and we are in power at the top. We seek to rule over what we’ve built, looking forward to stability and security that needs only our direction to last, well, forever.
At the beginning of Aquarius, we’re suddenly outside the walls. Aquarius is a place of exile, of eccentricity, of new ideas that range from quirky to iconoclastic. Aquarius is the shock of the new. How did we get here? What do we do now?
This shift from late Capricorn’s sense of secure power to Aquarius’ view from the outside isn’t a promise for this waxing cycle, but something that happens within the New Moon phase itself.
By the time we reach the Crescent Moon on January 22, only Mars is left in the final degree of Capricorn. The Sun, Venus, and Mercury are already in Aquarius conjunct Pluto. The quick-sailing Moon will be in Pisces.
This journey of only a few days is a big shift for these planets.
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Mars, exalted in Capricorn, focused and powerful in the sign’s last decan, loses power in Aquarius. We’ll see Mars the outsider, a rebel who might not ever find the right cause, getting lost in hostility and suspicion.
The Sun has a complete change of focus. At the end of Capricorn, the golden king sits on his high throne, reaching down to drop blessings on the crowds below. In early Aquarius, we’re looking at the world through the eyes of an exile. We’re nowhere near the throne room and we don’t want to be. We’re charting new courses to unknown destinations.
Mercury has strengths in both places, aimed in different directions. In late Cap, Mercury is authoritative, confidently speaking for power, standing up for what has been established. In early Aquarius, we see an inventive, curious, adaptive mind, ready to explore new ways of thinking and creating.
Venus makes the most graceful transition, moving with apparent ease from her regal position of power in late Cap into an eclectic, innovative style of creativity and relationship in early Aquarius.
Pluto seated at this threshold raises the stakes. These transitions become more than a simple change of sign. With the Lord of the Underworld standing in the doorway, these are initiations. Something we won’t be able to ignore.
Pluto understands the need for solid foundations. Questions about foundations are likely to come up.
How does sitting in a high place of power differ from being an exile? How do our preferences, values, and relationships shift when our status changes? How does our thinking shift? How do we plan and act differently?
Notice that the shift is not from great power to being powerless. Instead, we’re instead shifting from an established, settled, secure place into one that is unknown, not yet explored. A place we are unknown, where things are different.
Can we maintain our sense of self? Our ability to act? Our equilibrium? How much of our identity and agency rely on being in familiar places? What happens when the familiar goes away?
These shifts take place within the dark of the New Moon. It’s almost as if we’re planted in the ground as Capricorn seeds of our established and familiar selves, yet when we start to sprout, we’re suddenly some new Aquarian kind of plant we’ve never seen before.
So what’s this New Moon asking of us? And what does Pluto want?
With all of the personal planets involved––Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus, and Mars––it’s as if we’re being remade in this New Moon seedbed.
It’s a pretty good time for this to happen, at the first New Moon of the new calendar year. We’re two weeks away from the ancient Celtic festival of Imbolc, which marks a shift from dark into light.
Imbolc, which is an Irish word of uncertain origin, is sometimes translated as “in the belly” which is exactly where we are as this New Moon gets underway. At Imbolc, we begin the light half of the dark half of the the year which began at Samhain. We’re shifting from yin into yang.
We can think of this in terms of layers. Layers of world history intersecting with our own histories.
Our solar system is arranged in layered spheres, from the brilliance of our star in the center, to the eccentric cold and dark of Pluto at the periphery.
Seeds are layered. As one sits in the darkness of soil, a tiny shoot forms, drawing nourishment from surrounding layers before pushing through to head up to the light.
Each of us is also layered. Our experiences through our lives build foundations that can be weak or strong, conventional or weird, representing aspects of ourselves we’re comfortable with or wish we could change.
So many models of development are pictured as layers, from basic to more esoteric needs, from simple to more complex levels of understanding, from straightforward to more complicated relationships.
As we move through this New Moon time, each personal planet will shift from Capricorn to Aquarius, meeting Pluto at that threshold. Mars will lag behind a bit, but not too much.
As the planets move through, Pluto will check each level, especially the foundational ones. Are they solid? Authentic? Are our core structures strong enough to carry us into the world unfolding before us?
Notice how the rather large New Moon group sextiles Saturn and Neptune at the end of Pisces, and trines Uranus at the end of Taurus. This shallow triangle had been part of the sky for some time now, signaling the great time of change we’re in.
We already know this, yet with Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune transitioning into new signs in 2026 the cosmos isn’t kidding around. The world we know is in the early stages of being remade.
How intense this New Moon feels for each of us depends on how it interacts with our birth charts.
Certainly, those with late Capricorn placements will feel this New Moon. Anyone with late placements in the other cardinal signs––Aries, Cancer, and Libra––will notice. Late placements in the Earth signs Taurus and Virgo will also be involved.
But since we’re in transition to early Aquarius, also check placements at the beginning of Aquarius, of the other fixed signs Taurus, Leo, and Scorpio, and the other Air signs, Libra and Gemini.
If this New Moon shift feels like a lot, understand this is preparation we need, not just shaking things up for the heck of it. Build in self care. Rest. Hydrate. Move. Journal. Take note of dreams.
The cosmos is in motion. Adjustments are underway. We need to be prepared.
Title image adapted from a photo by H&CO on Unsplash
