An Angel Carrying A Harp is the symbol for Capricorn 9°, pointing to the revelation of the spiritual meaning and purpose at the core of any life situation.There is a sense of this degree of the Zodiac in knowing there is no separation between mundane and transcendent experience, that the former and the latter are one and the same. Heaven, and hell for that matter, are within us or right by our side. But on the bright side (heaven) all we need do is be open and listen, a theme we see already emerging in these (randomly divined) Capricorn oracles. This symbol is ruled by Gemini in a twelve-fold sequence; and that sign is ruled by winged Mercury and is lousy with flight imagery. The presumably winged angel with its harp is an agent of harmony, the perfect music of the spheres, to which we are all able to harken if we indeed do listen. The symbol of Mercury, a nod to the winged capped, as well as footed god, recalls an insect with its antennae finely tuned, poised to pick up all subtle vibrations, the great talent of Gemini people if (pointing to their specific paradox) they quiet their noisy natures and actually listen.

The duality of the Gemini is, as brothers Castor and Pollux portray, the human and the divine nature within all of us. In order to heed our own divine nature, which is the god within us, we must surrender that chatter box of an ego of ours. Before we live in natural rhythm with the divine god/universe we must first attune to it. When we encounter Capricorn 9° we fince the potential ability to do just that. Angels are personifications of cosmic order and therefore express that perfect balance and harmony.

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At Capricorn 8° we arrive at a scene: In A Sun-Lit Home Domesticated Birds Sing Joyously, the keynote of which is: The wholesome happiness which subservience to the ideals and patterns of a well-established culture brings to those who accept them unreservedly. So many of us want more than what is given us in life; the paradox here being that if we want what we already have, and really use that which is afforded us, we can possibly ascend through that experience to more achievements. But the trappings really must never be an end in inself. We mustn’t reject our so-called lot in life but accept it and embrace it and move through it toward other desired experience. So long as we understand that we don’t necessarily need that which we want; and that that which we deisre might be desiring us. This oracle is ruled by Taurus in a twelve-fold sequence; that sign, whose motto is “I have” is here paired with Capricorn’s “I use” or, in other words, “I don’t waste.”

Saturn rules Capricorn, named for the god who was ruler of the Golden Age before he, and his namesake planet by extention, became more synonymous with restriction and limitation. And still, in accepting limitations and restrictions, we might feel more serene and happy, embodying the notion of when enough is enough. There is something most unsettling about the need for more, more, more. Even those who materially “have it all” might need to limit their own parameters in a bid for increased happiness. Saturn is old-father time and the past here refers to that well-established culture which might keep us from the glut associated with a nouvelle-riche mindset, metaphorically speaking, of course. Not to say that we must all be complacent with the conditions into which we were born; au contraire, we must accept the role we were born to play. This entails recognizing our own true nature and our place in the fabric beyond our conditions or conditioners. And it works all ways. A materially rich girl from an aristocratic European family might find that the role she is meant to play puts the nun in renunciation, living a live of poverty and charity. On the contrary, someone born into poverty might feel they must fulfill their destiny of becoming a physicist which would entail supposedly working against all odds to do that very thing. But our destiny is linked with our truest desire which tells us who we truly are. All the rest is stuff…and nonsense. So if we accept our conditions, our lot, meaning what might be our true talent(s) and calling then we will likely care very little about any trappings beyond the resources we need to become who we are.

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A Veiled Prophet Speaks, Seized By The Power Of A God is the Capricorn 7° symbol, one that would be ruled by Aries in a twelve-fold sequence. First I love that it says “a god” and not G-d. This oracle deals with our/ones ability to be a mouthpiece for the revelation of a transcendent truth. We touched, rather presciently I suppose, on Moses, in the previous image; and now here we have someone being the receivor, like M was, for a god’s will. Yesterday we saw ten logs at the ready, and today we have a full on burning bush. Yesterday we stood at the threshold of tomorrow; today we get glimpses of what is to come. I like to think that most of us have the potential to be visionaries, in the literal sense of being open channels for information that comes from a transpersonal source. I for one have experienced that first hand and have sought to develop this faculty which requires widening ones channel, emptying oneself of self, not to mention, ego. The great paradox of being a conduit of any kind of prophetic or psychic power is that you really cannot take any credit for it. It isn’t a talent, after all. It is a gift and it can be squandered or it can be imposed upon and altered and made impure.

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Ten Logs Lie Under An Archway Leading To Darker Woods is the Sabian Symbol du jour at 6° Capricorn, ruled by Pisces in a twelve-fold sequence. And just as that sign is the final one in the zodiac, so too does this image point to a sort of completion. Here we find ourselves at a threshold, the Archway, where we have the fuel, I imagine, of faith: Logs will keep the fire burning during the dark winter ahead, just as faith will keep our spirit alive during our metaphorical dark nights of the soul. And yet there is a deeper darkness still that we may explore, or resist doing so. In those woods, though, are the making of more fuel for further exploration of our soul.

The combination of Capricorn faith with Pisces belief points to a directive introspection. It isn’t accidental. Capricorn does nothing accidentally. The sign’s motto “I use” here points to the utilization of even ones dark moments, whether they be melancholy or loneliness or deprivation. This always provides a threshold onto deeper understanding. It is during or after a dark night of the soul that we are purified in the fire of our being, which is kindled by trial and tribulation. Capricorn uses negative experience and conditions to deepen awareness, on one hand, and to spiritually ascend on the other. Pisces places emphasis on the later, dissolving fear which is the opposite of said faith.

The number ten is also one of completion, our system being based on that round digit. Capricorn is the tenth sign of the zodiac, and is associated with many things including those famed Commandments—Moses’ tabernacle was built out of Goat hair. Goats always brought wisdom and in Greek mythology goat gods were culture gods, though also associated with melancholy and the wailing, for instance of Pan, meaning All. The notion of the scapegoat sees the sins of all being heaped upon him/her to be ushered out of our experience. In this sense, the threshold might open onto the wilderness where said goat and sins will go to lighten our collective load, just as it is an entrance onto inner journeying, which might be one and the same.

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It is important to be reminded, every hundred oracles or so, that these symbols were divined randomly—that is to say that Elsie Wheeler, the clairvoyant, had no idea which degree of the zodiac she was assigning her imagery to. She was shown a blank card, on the back was pencilled the degree number. So when we have an image, like the previous one, that speaks to the group preparing a canoe; only to then happen on today’s image, at 5° Capricorn, Indians On The Warpath, While Some Men Row A Well-Filled Canoe, Others In It Perform a War Dance, we sense there is more afoot than coincidence. Today we are mobilizing our physical and emotional energies in a spirt of conquest, which is an undertaking I can get my brain around. Capricorn energy is that of resolution, just as the New Year’s brand falls into its time-frame. We asre seeking new resolve here. Resolution if not revolution. Fittingly Aquarius rules this oracle in a twelve-fold sequence, the combination of Capricorn and Aquarius energy being at once a seamless marriage and a melding of opposites. Capricorn wishes to resolve conflicts, whilst Aquarius seeks to overthrow the previous order that is one-half said conflict and set up a new order.

In this symbol we have the rowers and we have the ritualizing warriors, both of whom are working in tandem in expression of their intent toward war. Life is war. Survival is war. The fight is the first impetus to life, which is why the first sign of Aries is ruled by Mars, named for the god of War. We must fight to stay alive, individually, survival being reserved for the fittest. And as we combine together into societies, a single society takes on the characteristics of an individual, the group becomes the body seeking survival if not thrivation. And like the individual body, which stays in motion via unconscious mechanism, whilst the conscious mind reinforces its goals, we see here the body of the crew in the canoe divided into one group which must rhythmically keep the body (of the canoe) in motion, like the heart would our actual physical being, whilst the other half of the contents of said canoe are conjuring divine intervention via the dance to aid them in their conscious battle-aims.

We have been dealing a lot with Indian imagery already in these first handful of Capricorn images and there is an archetypal reason why. Capricorn is ruled by Saturn, the god of the golden age. During his rule, before being overthrown by the Olympian Zeus, the golden age was a sort of Eden where in there was no crime or murder or lies or any element of duality or dualism. People lived in bliss, and the gods and demigods and men co-mingled peacefully, and in tune with nature, one with heaven, without dichotomy. In real human terms we can equate that kind of earthly bliss with certain cultures, namely that of the native American who, for the most part, lived in harmony with nature and other living creatures. Only a Capricorn like Kevin Costner would have undertaken a project like Dances With Wolves so successfully. And we see other Capricorn men eschewing civilization to live, if somewhat reclusively, far from the madding crowd, in nature. John Denver, J.D. Salinger (I would look up others online but I’m on a flight with no internet but I’m confident I could further support this claim) come to mind.

For sure this image is about a group of people on the offensive. They seem as much intent on conquer as they do on self-preservation via momentum, changing it up, having a “momentous” event glavanaze, inspire and motivate them. Aggression is something that may need to be ritualized into experience even at times when the collective isn’t threatened; for without regular shows of ritualized aggression the collective might get week and fall into weakness. The planet Mars is exalted in the sign of Capricorn—Mars and Saturn making a mythical connection as the disgruntled son and deposed father of the chief god Zeus. There is something brash and obvious and entitled about the Zeus/Jupiter/Sagittarius experience—remember that fat boy on his hobby horse, for whom all is going his way. Jupiter is synonymous with fortune and the chief god does have luck on his side, though he exhibits a certain nouvelle-riche sense of style and accomplishment. Saturn, via the sign of Capricorn, might not be at the height of power, his having passed into the past, but he does have the fullfillment of knowing that his time of governship was/is considered golden, just as Zeus’ disgruntled sond might imagine more golden times ahead.

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As I embark on my first ever trip to the Caribbean which will be had under the most extraordinary of circumstances (so fitting my life experience of Libran extremes), the oracle of the day is: A Group Of People Outfitting A Large Canoe At The Start Of A Journey By Water. I suppose you could call it a canoe and the group of people will be an eight-person crew. As intimated “resource” is a Capricorn notion—as opposed to its so-called opposite sign of Cancer which is source itself. That cardinal water sign is a well-spring of potential, promise, hope and emotionality. The cardinal-earth sign of Capricorn, the SeaGoat, combines the reservoir (experience) of water (emotion) while it symobolizes the need to climb a mountain which might contain that alpine lake, a source of life and conservation, through Capricorn’s wintery month. Using (a Capricorn word) natural resources is endemic to the sign, whether those resources are environmental or personal. We are dealing here in common enterprise, and the homogeneity of the group might be all the more startling as it ventures out. Those assembling on our boat today are combining under a common schema and purpose, if only to achieve a week’s respite away from the norm of northern hemispheric life.

The sign of Capricorn also rules this oracle in a twelve-fold sequence, so we experience a double-barelleled dose of conservative energy. Implicit in the Capricorn experience is status and authroity, so even though this is an oracle of collective experience, it will have been dictated from an executive point of view. Somebody is definitely in charge here. There is privilige and socio-political expediency—which may account for our being fast-tracked by a ship’s captain through customs and passport control. The keynote here is a need for change which the group activity is bend on affecting, whether the individuals involved are conscious of this fact or not.

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A Human Soul, In Its Eagerness For New Experiences, Seeks Embodiment is what awaits us at 3° Capricorn, suggesting a strong yearning for that which will increase the scope of one’s contacts with other living beings. Growth and understanding on the keynotes, here, both attributes of the sign of Sagittarius which rules this symbol in a twelve-fold sequence. We can take this oracle literally, depending on your beliefts—the metaphysical notion that we shoose the instant of our conception and the precise moment of our borith, thus the exact organization of the constellations—but we can also view this symbolically as well, in that we can, at any moment, be reborn in certain embodiment of our beliefs or self-imagination. Ask any Sagittarius person and they will tell you that they have a strong will toward new experiences, whether they be constructive or destructive remains to be seen. But here in the sign of Capricorn, whose motto is “I use” this experience will not be wasted of frivolous, it will be fully absorbed and utilized. Even if there is a destructive aspect, the lesson learned will not be for nought, but fully assimilated into the consciousnesss. What is at the core here is the desire to prove to oneself, not to others, contained Capricorn energy ruling the former impulse, whilst expanisive Sagittarius may govern the latter.

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At 2° Capricorn we encounter Three Rose Windows In A Gothic Church One Damaged By War which follows the previous sign whereby one claims central power to wield for the collective. Ruled by Scorpio in a twelve-fold sequence, we here see that sign’s element of destruction—ruled by Pluto, named for the god of demise. One will lose some elements of that which characterizes the spirit of the collective in the assumption and display of power. The ntegration one seeks to maintain will be compromised via any display of vioulence. The rose window represents the three-fold spirit of man, and in making any violent move, that which will be destroyed is not just the target of man’s violence but the part of himself where his love and compassion “lives”. Waste is the keynote of this oracle which is the flipside of the Capricorn motto “I use”—Capricorn is the sign of preservation and resource and it makes one ultra aware of what is being squandered or wasted.

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An Indian Chief Claims Power From The Assembled Tribe is the oracle at 1° Capricorn. The transpersonal power of the previous oracle has now become the power to lead a community. The “we are” of this sign’s Libra rule is implicit. Authority and status are Capricorn elements and this first oracle of the sign sets up the importance of heirarchy and when this degree is present we see the need to assume power over others for the benefit of all. Taking on the power is also something of a sacrifice as we leave ourselves open to be scapegoated in the process for the collective failure as well as success.

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At 30° Sagittarius we find The Pope, Blessing The Faithful. This would be ruled by Virgo in a twelve-fold sequence. I’m not a big fan of the Pope, even this one who seems nice. I just don’t like appointed pontiffs as a rule. Imagine accepting the position to play the role of God’s representative on earth. How does one get that job. It’s all politics I suppose which seems to defeat the purpose. The oracle asks us if we are ready to play a transpersonal role as a symbol. I’m going to say I’m not.

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