Full Moon in Capricorn: What’s Holding You Back?

When it comes to stepping out into the world, to being visible in your work, to pursuing your long-term visions and goals with persistence and resilience, what gets in your way?

This is inquiry and illumination of the full moon in Capricorn, which peaks on July 3, 2023 at 7:39 am ET at 11º18’ of Capricorn.

The zodiacal wheel contains 12 signs, grouped into pairs. Each full moon pulls focus to a specific axis, with the sun in one sign and the moon in the opposite sign.

This full moon brings our attention to the Cancer-Capricorn axis, which is typically associated with the fourth and tenth houses. Each house represents an area of our lives; the two houses in each axis help shed light on the polarity at play.

Cancer: The Place of Nurturing

Cancer’s waters represent the nurturing and incubation of the womb. This sign is associated with the fourth house, the area of our lives that speaks to home, family, lineage, and care. Cancer is how we were nurtured, and how we learn to nurture ourselves and others.

In a word: Cancer is our foundation.

Cancer is ruled by the moon, which makes its home in the nurturing waters. It is a sign of emotion and feelings. In the body, Cancer relates to the heart. It’s symbol is the crab. The crab protects its vulnerability with a hard outer shell, and when frightened or overwhelmed it quickly retreats into its shell and back into the sand.

Capricorn: The Long Road to Vision

Sitting across from Cancer is Capricorn, the tenth sign of the zodiac. Capricorn is an earth sign that is all about persistence toward attaining long-term goals. In Capricorn, we develop the resilience to travel the long hard road, to do the things that will take time and patience. This sign is ruled by Saturn, the planet of time and boundaries.

Capricorn generally correlates to the tenth house. The tenth house sits at the top of the chart, at the high-noon position on a clock face — it’s the most visible point in the chart. Not coincidentally, this is the area of our lives that relates to career and public roles — it’s where we are most visible.

Capricorn’s symbol is the sea goat, a creature that signifies persistence and resilience.

In the body, Capricorn correlates to our bones and skeletal system — the very foundation of our physical being.

The moon, with its home in Cancer, is in its fall in Capricorn — which means it doesn’t like to be here. Capricorn is not a place that welcomes emotion. This is a sign ruled by Saturn, a place of stoic perseverance and sometimes harsh criticism.

Similarities and Polarities

There is both synergy and polarity in the Cancer-Capricorn axis.

Both are Cardinal signs, which means they initiate the seasons and actions.

Both speak to our past, to our upbringing, our conditioning, and what we internalized through our childhoods and our experiences.

Both, ultimately, want the same thing: safety and security. They simply go about it in different ways.

This is where the polarity comes in. Cancer attempts to achieve security by going inward. Under threat, it retreats to engage in self-care or to seek care from others. It incubates. It feels all the feels.

Capricorn attempts to achieve security through pushing through the outer world and amassing material security. It attempts to keep emotion out of the picture and focus purely on achievement and attainment of goals.

Our invitation at the full moon is to see where we land on the spectrum and mediate the polarity.

The Foundation for Risk

Every wisdom tradition, as well as science itself, follows the same formula: if you’re stuck in moving forward, trace the issue back to the foundation.

In the body, all movement patterns start with the feet. Stability in the feet allows for the mobility that helps us step forward provides grounding for the capacity of our upper body.

In the Chakra system, everything traces back to the root chakra.

In the Kabbalah Tree of Life, it all traces back to Yesod – the foundation.

Even in complex math problems, when you’ve hit a snag you must go back to the beginning to make sure your early solutions were correct.

So too, here.

One of the core lessons of the Cancer-Capricorn axis is that in order to put ourselves out into the world, to feel safe in sharing our work and taking on our public roles, we must be rooted in a solid foundation.

The foundation of security we need is both emotional and physical.

Over the past 4 years of living a nomadic life without a home of my own, I’ve learned how difficult it is to put myself out in the world without a literal physical home base. Being rooted in a place, with access to community — having a safe space to retreat for both physical and emotional support — is crucial to putting ourselves out into the world.

Capricorn loves a good plan to reach the goal, but even the best plans fail when we don’t feel safe to take a risk and be seen in our work.

We may attempt, even successfully for a time, to shut down the emotions and push through the resistance, but eventually that tactic falls short.

Repressed and suppressed emotions ultimately control us from beyond our conscious awareness, resulting in self-sabotage.

Full Moon in Capricorn: Creating Our Own Safety

Racking up accomplished goals and material wealth will eventually wear thin.

When we are seeking security from an external source, we will always fear it being taken away or running out; there is never enough. At some point, all the achievements stop working to plug the hole of safety and security.

The invitation at the full moon in Capricorn is to find the security within. This is the work of reparenting ourselves, of learning to hold safe space for our emotions without repressing them.

This lunation invites us to become and create the safe space we need, to build the solid foundation that supports our ability to take a risk, to step out into the world, and to be seen in our work.