30 Dec Make Living Itself an Art~ December 31st, 2018 – January 6th, 2019
“Whoever uses the spirit that is [within] creatively is an artist. To make living itself an art, that is the goal.”
― Henry Miller
The first week of any new year feels so pregnant with potential. It is a beautiful opportunity to dream of a brighter future.
The dawn of 2019 is a time for dreaming, but you will not be liberated from the weight of the past. Instead, this first week of January, in the middle of Capricorn season, will be an intense reflection upon the past which will inspire you to becomes more resourceful and learn to make peace with whatever disappointments you have recently suffered.
In Capricorn season, the struggle of the Sun’s ascent is at its most climactic. Thus at this time of year, the heaviness of gravity and time bear down the hardest. The ponderous weight will be particularly heavy this year because the Sun’s passage through Capricorn is concurrent with Saturn, Pluto and the South Node all converged in this sign.
On January 1st, 2019 the Sun will conjoin Saturn in Capricorn. Thus, this last year of the decade will be born old and wise.
Over the weekend there will be a Solar eclipse in Capricorn, occurring right in between Saturn and Pluto. The seedling intentions of this year will be planted in an unforgiving astrological environment, forcing the evolutionary pulse to increase strength and adaptability. In other words, whatever you begin now will be enhanced by tenacious survival instincts.
This New Year arrives in the middle of a period that has been developing greater discipline and maturity. The wizened and experienced mood that 2019 begins with is something that was set into motion when Saturn first entered into Capricorn in December 2017.
Since then your character and integrity have been tested for weaknesses. And in response, you’ve been forced to find a much deeper substance of spirit and soul within.
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Saturn’s tests are hard. They make you ache all the way down to your bones, wanting to give up, until something deep within your marrow rises up and gives you the strength to go on. It is this story of triumph, the Sun’s ascent out of deepest darkness, that lies at the heart of Capricorn.
This New Year begins as a ponderous time of reflection upon your progress. Imagine ascending a mountain. The vision of where you’ve been below is just as important as the heights that remain above.
Depending on how much you’ve lost on your recent journey, your reflections can be quite melancholy. But don’t begin the New Year bound up in the rigor mortis of grief. There is great love in Saturn’s lessons that can only be grasped by those who remain patient enough to become wise.
If you resolve to wear your newfound maturity with as much grace as possible, then this January will become a gateway of renewed strength and encouraged spirits.
The year may be born feeling old, but that offers you a chance to cultivate wisdom, a deeper connection to learning, love, and gratitude.
The timeless wisdom of Capricorn is usually best expressed by those who have their Sun in Capricorn. These children of Saturn spend their whole lives feeling the struggle of the Sun’s ascent. And it is this weight bearing down upon them that drives them to become great.
The wisdom of Capricorn is well known through the work of the great American author, Henry Miller. (born December 26th, 1891)
“The real leader has no need to lead – he is content to point the way.”
Henry Miller’s career as a novelist was developed through his philosophical semi-autobiographical voice that described beauty and harsh truth in equal measure.
Hear how Saturn speaks through him in…
“I am against revolutions because they always involve a return to the status quo.”
“…I need my freedom. I need to be alone. I need to ponder my shame and my despair in seclusion. I need sunshine and paving tones of the streets without companions, without conversation, face to face with myself with only the music of my heart for company…When I have something to give, I give it. Your prying curiosity turns my stomach! Your compliments humiliate me…”
Henry Miller’s published writing throughout the 20th Century was always deeply honest and insightful, but the height of his Saturnian wisdom was reached in an essay that he published in 1972 called, On Turning Eighty.
In 2019, if you are younger than eighty years old, you would be wise to listen to what Miller has to say.
He begins by remarking upon the phenomenon of old age arising in youth.
“If you are young in years but already weary in spirit…it may do you good to say to your boss — under your breath, of course — “Fuck you, Jack! You don’t own me!… If you can fall in love again and again, if you can forgive your parents for the crime of bringing you into the world, if you are content to get nowhere, just take each day as it comes, if you can forgive as well as forget, if you can keep from growing sour, surly, bitter and cynical, man you’ve got it half-licked.”
At the dawn of 2019, allow the Sun/Saturn conjunction to quietly contain your energies. Do not try to to force the creation of new goals and new resolutions. Instead take the time to contemplate how weary in spirit you have become.
“There is no salvation in becoming adapted to a world which is crazy”
How much do you resonate with being able to fall in love again and again? Do you forgive and forget? How content are you to go nowhere?
If these qualities seem lost upon you, then know that you still have a long way to go on the path towards maturity and wisdom. And that’s okay because that’s what life experience is for!
The Saturnian wisdom of Henry Miller reminds you that the true purpose of life is the struggle to remain happy and free.
Again from Tropic of Cancer Henry Miller writes:
“I have no money, no resources, no hopes. I am the happiest man alive. A year ago, six months ago, I thought that I was an artist. I no longer think about it, I am.”
The wisdom of Saturn is always a reality check, one that offers critique without flattery, truth without pretense.
In On Turning Eighty Miller reflects upon another Capricornian issue, the burden of worldly success. As someone who had attained worldly success in great measure, his thoughts are quite illuminating. Miller concludes that worldly success is mostly a hindrance to freedom and happiness.
“If you have had a successful career, as presumably I have had, the late years may not be the happiest time of your life…Now, when he should be enjoying a little leisure, he finds himself more occupied than ever. Now he is the victim of his fans and well wishers, of all those who desire to exploit his name. Now it is a different kind of struggle that one has to wage. The problem now is how to keep free, how to do only what one wants to do.”
This is a lot to ponder at the beginning of the New Year. But it is worthwhile to question what truly motivates you before you begin to embark on another long year of labor and love. Keep in mind that your great desires for power, money, and success will eventually threaten your freedom if you don’t cultivate enough wisdom.
For those of you who wish to achieve great things in the New Year, remember that:
“…To make living itself an art, that is the goal.”
Monday/Tuesday: Auld Lang Syne
Monday is New Year’s Eve, the very last day of 2018. Though the time of the season is dark and heavy, this year there are some bright beacons of light to inspire and encourage you! One of these is the presence of Jupiter in Sagittarius until next December.
But the other is Mars’s entrance into Aries, right as the wheel of the year turns. With Mars lit up in his place of rulership, there will be a flame of independence and self-assuredness to push you safely through the storms of self-doubt and sadness.
You will feel Mars in Aries in every rush of blood to the head, in every flush of anger and every blush of passion. The rampant urge to fight may erupt, but it will be largely tempered by the joviality of Jupiter in Sagittarius and the maturity of Saturn in Capricorn. In so many ways, Mars in Aries will ignite new passions, new loves, and new visions.
With Mars in Aries to lighten things up, you can let 2018 die, believing that whatever has happened, All is Merry and Bright!
Tuesday is January 1st, New Year’s Day and the Sun will conjoin Saturn. You will feel inspired to rest upon the most stable structures in your life. Trusted family, old friends, and well-loved places will be particularly comforting.
Life will feel rewarding, not specifically due to material success, but through a quiet feeling of internal strength. Knowing that you can withstand harshness without failing goes a long way towards building a genuine sense of self-worth.
Let yourself feel good about all you have survived on this first day of the year. Take comfort in having the strength to live and love and thrive.
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Wednesday/Thursday: Inner Space
The middle of the week will remain rather serious and reflective with the Sun/Saturn conjunction. In addition, the Moon will be waning in Sagittarius, drawing the lunar energy into more deeply internal realms until the New Moon Solar Eclipse that occurs over the weekend.
On Thursday, Mercury in the bright fire sign of Sagittarius will trine Uranus in Aries. This may bring a fresh innovative sense of possibility your mind and imagination.
Thus, the New Year will begin to be idealized and imagined with inspired clarity. You may also experience some unexpected news or a strange surprise to shake some new life into things.
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Friday/Saturday/Sunday: Always Merry and Bright
On Friday, the dark Moon begins in Capricorn, inching up to the eclipse by drawing you deeper and deeper into a quiet place within. The Sun will also sextile Neptune this day, heightening your sensitivity to being called into the dream world. You will feel vulnerable and receptive, which is a perfect state in which to plant the seeds of the New Year at the eclipse.
To have made it to the age of 80 without senility, Henry Miller must have learned to be in a deeply reflective and receptive state like this almost all the time. To guide your own journey of reflection, consider what he offered as advice:
“My motto has always been: “Always merry and bright.”… As I look back on my life, which has been full of tragic moments, I see it more as a comedy than a tragedy. One of those comedies in which while laughing your guts out you feel your inner heart breaking…The man who takes himself seriously is doomed…”
Saturday, January 5th- Solar Eclipse in Capricorn
This is the first eclipse to initiate the series of Solar and Lunar Eclipses on the axis of Cancer and Capricorn which will continue until mid 2020.
A solar eclipse is a super-potent extra magical New Moon. Think of planting seeds in deeper more fertile places than what could normally be reached.
The Sun and Moon will eclipse right in between Saturn and Pluto, which will influence you to build (Saturn) from the raw materials that have been long buried beneath the earth. (Pluto)
In other words, you will unearth raw psychic and emotional energies that will begin to crystallize into new forms. Because of Capricorn’s vision for masterful works, this building project will be something vast and visionary. This is the time to dream big. You are erecting a great cathedral, not a small church.
Look at what house Capricorn occupies in your natal chart for more insight on what area of life this great building project is dedicated towards.
This cathedral will be made all the more mystical and transcendent by the sextile to Neptune in Pisces. With the influence of Neptune, inspiration from on high can be translated into material reality. Thus, your imagination of how things should be will have a greater chance of being made manifest.
This New Year’s week, crowned by the Solar Eclipse in Capricorn, begins 2019 with a looming project that demands a lot of responsibility. But if you care deeply for what you are creating within and without, then this does not have to be a time of sadness or depression. Though this Saturnine season is heavy, there is no reason to take yourself too seriously. As Henry Miller said:
The man who takes himself seriously is doomed
Remember that there is great joy in the work that lies ahead and there is so much love to be discovered in your creative process.
“Whoever uses the spirit that is [within] creatively is an artist. To make living itself an art, that is the goal.”
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