The Sagittarius-Capricorn Threshold
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The Sun is on the threshold of Sagittarius, less than a week away from leaving Jupiter's lightning across the plain for the underwater mountain passes of Saturn. Sagittarius is a place of gathering around the fire, of being illuminated by epiphany, of great plans and grand ordeals. But in this last portion of the sign, the mood shifts.
Here we feel the weight of what we've set out to do and how far there is to go. The exuberance is exhausted, the mighty gas of the Greater Benefic runs out. Parts of the vision are sacrificed in order to keep going.
The themes of sacrifice and determination reflect the overlapping rulership of Saturn and Jupiter in this part of the sign. While Jupiter is the domicile ruler of all of Sagittarius, these last few steps are in the decan of Saturn — as if we can already feel the weather of Capricorn before we arrive. Meeting Saturn on the threshold helps us face the edge of our agency while still in the realms of Jupiter's generosity and faith.
The Sagittarius-Capricorn threshold is full of wise and wild hybrid creatures. Sagittarius loses none of its wildness when its horsetail turns fish and its human head grows horns. Even with Sagittarius’s mutable nature, looking here and there — at some point its creatures draw their bow and arrow, and aim. Even with Capricorn’s Saturnian slow-down, its cardinal earth adds layer upon layer and continues to move.
I think planets who ingress into Capricorn remember their time in Sagittarius, and bring that illumination with them, that daring nature to the mountainous terrain of Saturn, where one must go more slowly, have surer-footing, where planets want to know about the value, the quality, the longevity of a thing. Capricorn encourages endurance. Belief and imagination are as key to endurance as any concrete plan.
This last part of Sagittarius and early part of Capricorn stirs the worn-out imagination and dares us to be honest about our power. It is a place of fortitude. A hope that acts — the courage to admit limitation while vulnerably, exuberantly acting like the world can be different than it is. Saturn gives us the grit to get our hands dirty, to risk ourselves for each other, to engage in sacred sacrifice, as an offering, to not wait for someone else to do the work instead, while Jupiter shows us the abundance created in the action, who brings in joy and holiness and possibilities to dire situations.
At the Sagittarius-Capricorn threshold, planets ask: how can the vision come into a long-lasting form that might be shared? what are our limitations and within those limits, what can be taken up in as much joy and inspiration as possible so we can keep going?
