Eclipses in Capricorn:
The Buck Stops Here
by April Elliott Kent

I took a short vacation over the holidays that included a near-total news blackout. My only source of information was through my friends' Facebook postings, which is how I learned about the failed pants-bombing attempt on Christmas Day. When I tuned into NPR a full ten days later, this was still the top headline and comprised the majority of the news coverage. Between rolling my eyes (get back to me when you've got something new to report on the situation, media!) and dialing to the local jazz station, I overheard President Obama's invocation of Harry S. Truman's famous declaration of presidential responsibility: "The buck stops here!", itself a riff on the concept of passing the buck (passing blame onto others).

Because I'm an astrologer born just one day after Obama, I'm intimately familiar with his chart and know at any given time exactly what planetary activity he's up against. And because I'm an astrologer who is especially interested in eclipses, my ears pricked up at that particular quotation - because in it, I heard the upcoming Solar Eclipse in Capricorn (January 15, 2010) preparing to fall precisely on Obama's natal Saturn.

In my Moonshadow Eclipse Report, I describe eclipses in aspect to natal Saturn, in part, like this:

The buck stops here! This cycle often leaves you feeling pushed up against a very solid wall, blocked and frustrated at every turn, and feeling victimized. With eclipses in aspect to natal Saturn, the key is to determine where your responsibility truly lies in a given situation, and then accept it - but don't accept a scintilla more or less of the praise or blame than you deserve.

Saturn describes the universal rule that says you create your own reality. If you refuse to accept your responsibility for authoring your current situation, someone else will likely come along and make you do it, blaming you for a lot of stuff that really isn't your fault; nothing gets you clearer about what really is your responsibility!

That bit about responsibility sticks in some people's craws. But I don't mean to suggest that the awful things that happen to you are a function of your nasty karma or your failure to think positively enough. Rather, I consider Saturn's message empowering, not punitive. The very word "responsible" implies that you are able to respond. Nowhere in that word will you find the concept of "blame." Responsibility is not about assigning blame, either to yourself or others; rather, it's about finding the most useful way to frame a given situation, and to accurately assess the ways in which you are able to respond to its challenges and opportunities.

This year, with two eclipses falling in worldly Capricorn (Solar Eclipse January 15, Lunar Eclipse June 26), ruled by Saturn, I suppose all of us are, to some extent, grappling with the question, "Are you living the life you want to live?" And whether the answer is yes or no, the buck ultimately stops with you.

Let's put on our magical time-travel beanie for a moment and check in with yourself at age six. Ask this kid, "What do you want to be when you grow up?" and see what kind of reply you receive. You probably didn't have a precise idea of where you would end up - most likely, your answer was drawn from the relatively shallow pool of possibilities that you saw around you - but from those choices you probably selected the one that seemed most interesting and involving.

Regardless of your life circumstances at that age, it's likely that it was the most secure you will ever feel in your life. Assuming the norm - that a kid's food and shelter are supplied by someone else - your only job was to perform well in school, do your chores, and prepare for the future. The possibilities you could imagine were limited, but your freedom to choose from them was vast. As you got older and farther along the path, and your responsibilities grew, did your direction in life grow clearer, or become clouded by fear, obligation, and limitation?

It's not necessarily a bad thing if you didn't realize your childhood dream of becoming a rock star, an astronaut, or a doctor. Maybe you found other dreams that have filled you with joy - dreams that had nothing at all to do with a career, and everything to do with building a home, family, and sense of belonging to your community.

Wherever you ended up, it's natural to occasionally experience doubts and insecurity about the choices you've made. Often, the ability to experience these feelings is the first step to making new, more satisfying choices.

Eclipses falling in Capricorn mark a critical juncture at which you realize what you want to become is in direct conflict with the support structure you've built for your life. Basically, it's time for a renovation. Imagine your life as a modest bungalow. It has everything you need - but let's face it, a little extra closet space would be nice. Perhaps you'd like to build a second story with a master suite and walk-in closet - but in order to do this, you'll first need to reinforce the foundation.

Similarly, your challenge this year lies in finding where you are able to respond - identifying ways to reinforce the structure of your life so that it will support you in achieving your new goals, without destroying the foundation on which your dreams are built.

© 2009 April Elliott Kent
All rights reserved

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