A Quiet Contemplation of Capricorn, Aquarius and Pisces
Article © 2013 by Joyce Mason
All Rights Reserved
If
you covet your alone time and replenish yourself with things such as
meditation, quiet reading, or writing your innermost thoughts in your journal,
you are an introvert. If you charge your batteries among people, the more the
merrier, you are an extrovert. Vive la différence.
I call
these distinct orientations Innies and Outies. Some of us are a bit of both, but the true
test is the battery charger. If the last place you want to go is to a party
when you’re tired and need replenishment, you are an Innie. If you avoid crowds
like a computer virus--Innie. Can’t stand to be alone for very long, even when
you’re blue? Outie.
These
perspectives have a lot to do with managing winter.
The Innie 500
Extreme
introverts usually have no problem identifying themselves as such. All their
lives they have been called shy, wallflowers, reserved or withdrawn. People
more in the middle of the two extremes, but who are introverts by the recharge
test, often don’t realize this fact about themselves until later in life. I know
many people, myself included, who tested in their younger days as extroverts on
the Myers-Briggs Personality
Inventory. Later, as they individuate and express who
they really are, they are surprised to go from an “E” to an “I.” The Inventory
tests your preference on four personality pairs:
- Extraversion or Introversion E or I
- Sensing or Intuition S or N
- Thinking or Feeling T or F
- Judging or Perceiving J or P
The reason some introverts ever tested as extroverts is because the Western world rewards extroversion and most introverts adapt their behavior toward outgoing to reap the rewards of their culture. Go-getters get the job, not those who are a man or woman of few words who enter the interview in a calm, meditative state. Americans, especially, love people with big personalities.
The
majority of introverts become very adaptable, feigning extroversion to survive.
This switch of orientation is rarely asked of extroverts—unless they become
inner seekers and learn the value of stillness and listening to their own
thoughts. The great gurus and avatars tell us every truth we ever need to know
is within us.
Going
within is the reason for winter, the most introverted season of the year.
Annual R&R
Winter
asks us to slow down, regardless of whether we’re Innies or Outies. It’s a time
everyone needs to recharge, even if society doesn’t support it—and even if
you’re an extrovert with little experience directing energy inward. I’m not
saying you need to quit your job or go on a retreat from Winter Solstice till
Spring Equinox; however, a retreat sometime during these three months isn’t a
bad idea, and creating at least mini-retreats during this time is crucial to
remaining a well-functioning human being.
It
occurred to me that the winter signs would have some hints about ways we can do
that in an optimal way, complementing the Sun’s movement through each sign
during the dark months of the year.
Winter
into Spring is not just the name of one of my favorite New Age albums by George
Winston; it’s a good tagline for the winter signs, as it grounds us clearly in
the process Capricorn through Pisces represents, going from most dark to the cusp of increasing
light—from slowdown to “springing” into new activity. Here are some thoughts on
how this works.
Capricorn. (Dec. 21,
20012 – Jan. 18, 2013.) As the
Cardinal sign that “opens” for winter in the carnival of animals in the sky, a
Goat greets us as we plunge into the darkest night of the year. It’s a great
time to learn more about the mythology of
Capricorn. You’ll learn about Pricus, father of a race of sea-goats who
live near the seashore. They are intelligent creatures who think, speak and are
said to be favored by the gods. (Hear that, Caps? You’re smart and lucky!)
Chronos, the god of time, created Pricus. Chronos is also Father Time, the old man dressed as Death as another year passes and the baby New Year is born. I’ll leave it up to you to read the full tale in the link, but it has to do with manipulating time. When the Sun is in this sign, every January 1, we change calendars to a new year. It’s a great time to ponder where you’ve been and what you’ve been doing with the days, months and years you’ve been allotted—and if the sand is more on the bottom than the top of your hourglass, a time to prioritize and ponder if you’re going to get done everything you set out to do this lifetime. Touching base with time is very therapeutic and important to pairing your purpose with progress.
Chronos, the god of time, created Pricus. Chronos is also Father Time, the old man dressed as Death as another year passes and the baby New Year is born. I’ll leave it up to you to read the full tale in the link, but it has to do with manipulating time. When the Sun is in this sign, every January 1, we change calendars to a new year. It’s a great time to ponder where you’ve been and what you’ve been doing with the days, months and years you’ve been allotted—and if the sand is more on the bottom than the top of your hourglass, a time to prioritize and ponder if you’re going to get done everything you set out to do this lifetime. Touching base with time is very therapeutic and important to pairing your purpose with progress.
My New Year ritual includes a systematic review of the year
that just passed. Capricorn (my Moon) loves organization, structure and getting
serious about things. As an Innie, I keep a journal, writing down dreams and
observations throughout the year. I relish New Year’s Day, when I review the
previous year’s journal. It is often revealing about where I’ve been and where
I’m headed. I’m often too busy in the doing to understand the nuances of what
I’ve been through and how much I’ve grown. This annual review is the literary
equivalent of my height recorded periodically as a kid in pencil on the pantry
door. I recommend this or any other kind of evaluation of where you stand in
time against what you want to accomplish, modified by asking yourself the most
important final question, Am I happy? Happiness
trumps any amount of shoulda’s.
Aquarius. (Jan. 19, 2013
– Feb. 17, 2013) This time of year suits extroverts, since the sign of Aquarius
is friendly, communicative and loves groups. As the middle month in the winter
cycle in the Northern Hemisphere, it’s the best time to take a bit of a break
from the slowdown to celebrate love on Valentine’s Day and to think about your
friendships and community relationships. Both Outies and Innies do this best by
being with people, then taking some contemplative time later to ask if your
friendships and community are serving you well—and how you’re serving them.
This would be an ideal time for looking at synastry between your chart and your
closest friends. The same works for groups. If you volunteer for a charity, it
had a start date (usually when it filed its nonprofit papers) and a birth
chart. Same with your neighborhood or community. When was your city
incorporated? Are these friends and communities of various kinds in your life still
a fit? Are there areas of stress that need repair? Sometimes the detached, astrological
viewpoint can be a guiding light for making changes during the livelier months
of the year, if you reflect on them during the most natural season of downtime.
Pisces. (Feb. 18, 2013 –
Mar. 19, 2013) When the Sun is in Pisces, it’s “the dark of the Sun,” parallel
to the dark of the Moon—the last weeks before the darkest season of the year
fades and life bursts forth into the light of spring. It’s a time of endings
and dying. This is perhaps the most important time all year for quiet and rest.
It is the end of the cycle of the natural year which is born anew on Spring
Equinox. Think of the Pisces Fish and go underwater.
This is a time to contemplate your emotions, sensitivities,
dreams, and whatever brings you bliss—meditation, prayer, music or silence. What
ingredients do you contribute to the cosmic soup? How do you lose yourself in
others or because of them? How are you doing with saying those necessary noes?
And what does it feel like to be lost? Let yourself be directionless and
egoless for a while; allow yourself time in the fog. You’ll pick up all kinds
of information on intuitive levels that you’ll bring with you into spring. It
can be a true balm to simply float and let information come to you from the
inside out. Innies are probably already very familiar with this process. Outies
may be surprised at what you’ll discover.
Late winter can be a time when we’re more prone to illness
and need much more rest than normal. Plan your life to embrace this need and
postpone new projects and amped up activity until late March. Relish this time
of final gestation before for nature’s rebirth—and yours on the Spring Equinox.
Whenever you honor the wisdom of winter, your spring is
bound to be a clean slate and a true, new beginning. This cycle of beginnings,
fulfillment and endings is the continuous gift of life.
~~~
Photo Credits: Winter
Sky © THesIMPLIFY - Fotolia.com; Zodiac Signs © stokkete - Fotolia.com- Fotolia.com
Postcript: The Jung Typology Test or Myers-Briggs Personality Inventory, like astrology, can explain a lot about you. I’d encourage readers who haven’t already to take the test and read some of the write-ups about your configuration. I’m an INFJ. Please comment and share your four!
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