I don’t know about you guys, but right now is A LOT. Life, the news, this country, the world . . . it’s enough to make you crawl into your protective Cancer crab shell for good. On top of that, Mars just stationed retrograde on Tuesday, joining Jupiter, Saturn, Neptune, and Pluto, which are all already spinning backward through the skies (with Mercury coming soon). We also have three eclipses this summer: two in July and one in August. But when the horrors and injustices keep piling up in the news, when pressures in our personal lives aren’t letting up, when the astrological weather feels like a dark joke, how do we keep showing up for the collective?
In the age-old wisdom of flight attendants everywhere: put on your oxygen mask first. This summer, we have to take good care of ourselves so we can take care of the collective. And this Capricorn full moon arrives with blessed timing this Wednesday so we can establish the structures we need to make it through.
In Tarot, Capricorn rules the Devil card, highlighting the zodiac sign’s shadow as well as its luminance. The Devil is bondage, oppression, repression. It’s all the chains that keep us trapped—addiction, harmful behaviors, self-defeating mental loops, negative relationships or dependencies, illusions of helplessness—and it is also our liberation. The Devil, when it appears, is always an invitation to free ourselves, and that’s the energy this Capricorn moon is bringing. Liberation through hard work, compassionate discipline, and personal accountability.
This full moon lights up the Capricorn-Cancer axis of emotional responsibility, healthy boundaries, collective progress, and structured self-care. The sensitive water sign of Cancer (the current sun sign) may try to pull us into its depths with a mad case of the feels, but the Capricorn full moon can give us the tools to navigate those waters in a way that does not deny or repress emotion and also doesn’t let it sweep us away. We can use this time to root into both the stable Capricorn earth energy and the nurturing Cancer water energy, and discover a plan for how the fuck to support ourselves through this summer of radical shifts.
What practices can you put in place to take care of yourself? Remember to move your body. Remember to eat. Do you handle your emotional body responsibly? Make a list of mental red flags so you can tell when you’re spiraling. Create a toolkit of things that make you feel good to regain steady ground when it happens. Do you have a support system? Talk to the people closest to you about how you can support each other. Establish boundaries for how much you can give.
Capricorn’s emblem of the Sea Goat—a mythological creature that is one-half fish and one-half goat—illustrates the power of the Cancer-Capricorn axis beautifully, so that’s the symbol I use for this full moon spread. It’s a creature that exists as one being in two worlds—water (emotion, intuition) and earth (the material world, the body)—encouraging us to bridge the gap between the two. Tonight, we can tap into this moon’s power to illuminate our inner and outer lives, revealing where we need to apply some compassionate discipline, where we need some structured self-care, and how we can partner with our emotions and resources for steady progress this summer.
It may not be glamorous, but what we need right now is that realistic, stable, and determined Capricorn energy. This isn’t the time for dramatics. This is the time for maturity. We’re talking that Knight of Pentacles, calm-and-steady, dependable responsibility. That slow, steady forward movement. That grounded, rooted refusal to give up.
Look at the world around us, friends. We don’t have time for an emotional breakdown. We need to get serious about supporting ourselves emotionally and physically so we can show up for ourselves and for the collective good. Put on your oxygen mask first, and then you can help the person next to you.
Take care of yourselves, friends. And then we can take care of each other.
xx, Claire
CAPRICORN FULL MOON TAROT SPREAD
For emotional responsibility. For compassionate discipline. For structured self-care. For supporting our emotional bodies so we can surmount obstacles and conquer challenges individually and collectively.
THE SEA: Our emotional landscape this summer.
THE FIN: What will help navigate it.
THE SCALES: How to best support our emotional selves.
THE HOOVES: How to make steady forward progress.
THE HORNS: What needs more discipline or responsibility.
THE MOUNTAIN: Our biggest challenge this summer, and also our biggest potential triumph.