Transcend Limitations and Find Liberation
Capricorn (December 21-January 20)
Discover the opportunities hidden within your difficulties and open the door to self-discovery
Capricorn is a cardinal, earth sign, ruled by Saturn. Its symbol is a mythical sea-goat. Its metal is lead, its colours are black and dark hues. The parts of the body assigned to it are the skeletal system and the skin, and the time of life is old age. Its keywords are prudently, coolly, and aspiringly. The Capricorn symbol is a sea-goat, which in Sanskrit was Mahara the sea monster. The lower half is a sea-goat which can plumb the depths of the sea, and perhaps corresponds with the depths of the subconscious mind. Its upper half is a goat, which can nimbly scale mountain peaks, and leads us from the inner world of the mind, back out into the outside world.
The sign has an association with gates and doors. During the period of Capricorn, we leave behind the old year, and walk through the doorway into a new year. The period between the ending of the old year and the beginning of the new one, is an in-between time, a pause. Capricorn teaches us to learn to rest in that empty space between an ending and a new beginning. The pause can be a scary, bewildering place, especially if your default mode is keeping busy. The wisdom of Capricorn is that if you can allow yourself to fully experience emptiness, you create a space for new life, and new energy, to fill you up. It’s the medicine you need when you feel all used up, all energy spent, nothing more to give. If you can relax into this emptiness, if you can trust the pause; you will find that new ideas, and fresh inspiration will come to fill you up again. The peace of the pause opens the door to rejuvenation and renewal.
In his book “Astrology”, Louis MacNeice refers to Capricorn as “the gate to spiritual life”, as “under Capricorn, like a yogi, one practices control” and he considered that with this sign we “are on the brink of spiritual rebirth”. Saturn’s ruler-ship imposes boundaries and limitations, and it is the overcoming of these obstacles that gives us the opportunity for spiritual growth and opens the door to freedom.
In the Capricorn-inspired yoga practice in the Yoga by the Stars book, I have included asanas that restrict and bind the body, such as Eagle Pose (Garudasana) and Cow-face Pose (Gomukhasana); these restrictive poses give us the opportunity to relax into difficulty, and so find the freedom inherent within the pose . This is contrasted with opening, expansive poses which echo the Capricorn theme of doors opening and closing, and the idea of working with our limitations and rising above them. This in turn opens the door to transformation and life comes alive again. Capricorn teaches us that as one door closes, another door opens.
The sign has an association with gates and doors. During the period of Capricorn, we leave behind the old year, and walk through the doorway into a new year. The period between the ending of the old year and the beginning of the new one, is an in-between time, a pause. Capricorn teaches us to learn to rest in that empty space between an ending and a new beginning. The pause can be a scary, bewildering place, especially if your default mode is keeping busy. The wisdom of Capricorn is that if you can allow yourself to fully experience emptiness, you create a space for new life, and new energy, to fill you up. It’s the medicine you need when you feel all used up, all energy spent, nothing more to give. If you can relax into this emptiness, if you can trust the pause; you will find that new ideas, and fresh inspiration will come to fill you up again. The peace of the pause opens the door to rejuvenation and renewal.
In his book “Astrology”, Louis MacNeice refers to Capricorn as “the gate to spiritual life”, as “under Capricorn, like a yogi, one practices control” and he considered that with this sign we “are on the brink of spiritual rebirth”. Saturn’s ruler-ship imposes boundaries and limitations, and it is the overcoming of these obstacles that gives us the opportunity for spiritual growth and opens the door to freedom.
In the Capricorn-inspired yoga practice in the Yoga by the Stars book, I have included asanas that restrict and bind the body, such as Eagle Pose (Garudasana) and Cow-face Pose (Gomukhasana); these restrictive poses give us the opportunity to relax into difficulty, and so find the freedom inherent within the pose . This is contrasted with opening, expansive poses which echo the Capricorn theme of doors opening and closing, and the idea of working with our limitations and rising above them. This in turn opens the door to transformation and life comes alive again. Capricorn teaches us that as one door closes, another door opens.
Capricorn-inspired Meditation Questions
- What doors has my yoga practice opened for me?
- What is my response when confronted with a challenging yoga pose and how does this mirror the way I respond or react to difficulties in life?
- Are there any yoga poses that I believe are impossible for me? And would visualising myself in this challenging pose help to make it seem more possible for me?
- Have there been times in my life when facing a difficulty has revealed hidden opportunities and led to a new beginning?
Capricorn: Transcend limitations and find liberation. Find new ways of working with and overcoming restrictions in your life. Discover the opportunities that lay dormant within your difficulties and open the door to self-discovery.