A Woman Entering A Convent could only occur during the sign of Capricorn at 24°, as with this sign we treat the theme of renunciation. You might say Capricorn puts the nun in renunciation. Ba-dum-bum. And it makes perfect sense this symbol is ruled Virgo, the virgin in service, whether as Christian or Buddhist nun or, back in the day, as Vestel Virgin. The former may be wedded to Christ, while the latter would have had some serious sex magic happening with the god as priest. All in all we are looking at “total commitment to a transcendent goal.” Convents and monastaries speak to humanity’s belif in the possibility of leading a transcendent life of service.

There may be any number of reasons we would enter into such service. I have to say that as I child I wanted to be a priest—I think because I thought the altar was a stage; but every once in a while I think, screw it, I could totally leave this rat race and head for the hills and take a vow of silence and just make Chartreuse all day. Indeed for some, the nunnery might be an escape—of family or society—to others, it represents the peaceful pursuit of a spiritual ideal to which the whole being aspires. Capricorn is the sign of aspiration and ascendence after all. And the world can be so bloody distracting when one is trying to achieve a totally spiritual state. Those stone walls, plank bed and assigned chores, and no questions asked, could make it easy to concentrate on what’s really important. The point is, it’s there if you need or want or crave or are called to it. It’s just one more type of relationship that we individuals might have with society, albeit a rather removed one.

The soldier in the last image was also in the service. The nun takes that italicized phrase to a new level. She has transcended the give-and-take, action and consequence, punishment reward dichotomy out of her equation, no matter how noble (the soldier’s) life might be. Here we find acceptance of the fact that beyond daily normal patterns of behavior and responsibility, there exitsts another way to experience life which has social significance too, but on a higher spiritual level. In Hindu culture, the renunciation of worldly life and the taking up of the begging bowl is not a cop out but a culmination of the social process. We herein see the complex parodox of the human, being able to transcend its self and surroundings for a life consecrated to a higher state of consciousness. In the rigid, ascetic, disciplined life of the nun (Capricorn structure at its most austere, with the purity of Virgo virginity at its core) the individual finds boundless inner freedom and an oxymoronic transcendent security.

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