At 10.22 pm UT yesterday (21st December), those
of us in the northern hemisphere celebrated the Winter Solstice, the solar
festival sacred to the Old King and to the reborn ‘Sun Child’, whom we find in
various incarnations - Mithras, the Mabon, Jesus, among others. ‘Solstice’ means ‘sun still’, and refers to
the sun seemingly being at a standstill – its turning point, the ‘shortest day’
– as well as its lowest point in the sky.
Up to now, the hours of daylight have been decreasing, the nights
growing longer. Today though, the sun
‘stands still’, the Wheel of the Year seems to stop, and time appears to hang...but
from now on the light will start to increase and days will lengthen.
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‘Capricorn’ ©Alison
Coals
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The Solstice also marks the Sun’s ingress, astrologically
speaking, into the sign of Capricorn, the tenth astrological sign in the
zodiac. It originates from the constellation of Capricornus, usually shown as a
goat with a fish’s tale, but is also seen as a more conventional goat that we’d
see on land.
There are, as usual, a
number of myths and stories behind the sea-goat. One involves Pan, the goat
god. When he was attacked by the monster Typhon (so now you can guess where the
name ‘typhoon’ came from!), he ran into the Nile to escape. The part of him
below the water’s surface transformed into a fish. Images of sea-goats go back to Babylonian
times, with symbols for the god Enki being both a goat and a fish. The
constellation of Capricorn is also sometimes called Amalthea, the goat nymph
(in Greek mythology) who reared Zeus after he was saved from being devoured by
his father Kronos.
Kronos, of course, was the father of the Greek gods, and was
also known as the ‘father of time’, giving us the word ‘chronology’. In the
Roman pantheon, he was known as Saturn – the planet that rules the sign of
Capricorn.
Capricorn, then, has links to time, as well as to structure
and boundaries. In the image of the
mountain goat we can see the Capricornian qualities of tenacity and
sure-footedness, determination to overcome obstacles as it works its way
towards to its goal.
It’s about
retaining integrity, but can also be ambitious. There’s a business-like quality
to Capricorn, too – it’s an Earth sign, so it’s practical and level-headed, but
at the same time it’s also a Cardinal sign, so it’s not afraid to get things
going, to start new enterprises. On the ‘shadow’ side, it can appear as greed,
in terms of material ambition.
‘Capricorn’ comes
from my AstroArt series, inspired by
walking the Glastonbury Landscape Zodiac. The image is a collage, using watercolour on paper.
