Capricorn Season: Inviting Your Demons In From the Cold

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Intro

Welcome to The Shadow Femme show, a show in which we ask and answer questions about humans, our feelings and the ways in which we make meaning.

I'm your host, Sarah. And in my client practice, Shadow Femme, I combined a bunch of different modalities, including astrology, human design, psychic mediumship.

And lately I've been incorporating cards, especially oracle cards more and more into my work. And on this podcast, I've been sharing every month, an episode about the zodiac sign of the season, with a script that's partially channeled from my guides and that partially comes from my own perspective. And lately, I've been feeling pretty tired. To be honest, I think the winter time is just encouraging me to slow down and rest more. And I found myself more reluctant to write out a script like usual. And I feel like now's the time for me to sort of switch things up to adapt to the moment.

If you're listening to last season's episode, or by that I mean, the last zodiac season, so Sagittarius season's episode, y'all know that I departed from the usual format, where I shared channeled guidance from my guides, and then I just kind of went off the cuff with my own perspectives instead of nicely writing everything out, and then recording it. And today, I'm just going to do everything kind of off the cuff. And I'm going to do some live channeling instead of what I normally do, which is sitting down in writing out by hand, channeling a portion from my guides and then typing it up and then recording it. I'm just going to do everything live today. And we'll see how that goes.

Determination and the Mountain Goat

So to start off with, I just went ahead and drew a card from this oracle deck I have called the Prism Oracle, which has all these cards that are all the different colors of the rainbow, and they correspond to the different emotions and different symbols and keywords. And the card I drew first is Determination.

It's a yellow card, and it has this symbol of mountains and this sun rising above the peak of the mountain. And I feel like that's a really appropriate symbol for Capricorn season because Capricorn is a very determined sign. It's symbolized by the mountain goat, which steadily and surefootedly climbs seemingly impossible slopes. And Capricorn season is usually the time of year when we're encouraged to set our goals for the coming year to sort of reassess what we accomplished and did or didn't do in the previous year. And usually there's a lot of talk or a lot of energy around pushing through to finish out the year and then starting the year with all these goals and dreams and things you want to accomplish.

Sagittarius Season vs. Capricorn Season

I talked about this in the last episode for Sagittarius season, but I feel like Sagittarius—which is Jupiter-ruled, and all about expansion and enjoyment, and its it's the biggest planet, and so with it comes indulgence or even expansion of your waistline—I think that corresponds with the Sagittarius feelings of winter holidays where you eat a lot of food and and you're enjoying it. And it also corresponds with consumption not just in a food sense, but also nowadays in a shopping sense too. And usually there's these Jupiter vibes around Sagittarius season of spending and eating and, you know, merrymaking things like that.

And then we get into Capricorn season, which starts actually right before Christmas. And it takes us through the new year and into most of January. And interestingly this is a very different energy which corresponds to a more a more serious and sober and determined energy.

Capricorn is ruled by the planet Saturn, which is, you know, very different energy from Jupiter. Saturn is the planet of rules and restrictions, regulations. And it's about cutting back and making responsible choices and like, cutting away what doesn't serve you or what's not practical. And so I find it really interesting that those two seasons come one right after another.

And coming back to this card I pulled, I think it's appropriate that Capricorn season falls around the time when a lot of us are thinking about, Okay, what do I want to do? What do I want to accomplish? What I want to reach in this coming year? What didn't I reach in this in this previous year? That's very Capricorn energy, and it's very Saturn energy.

"Measuring Up" at the End of the Year

And so I'm just taking a moment to slow down actually, because I've just been like, riffing off of what was coming to me in the moment and looking at this card. But I just wanted to take a moment to feel into what my guides have to say about this as well and why I drew this card…

So what I'm getting is:

We drew this card for you, because determination is something that there is no shortage of this season.

And we want to remind you that it's already in the air.

And it's something that societally encouraged as well.

This value of determination is something that's upheld, as well, especially by capitalist societies.

And it follows another very capitalist theme of consumption in the previous season, followed by one of capitalism’s other weapons, which is guilt in the wake of that consumption.

Now, we're not saying that Sagittarius and Capricorn have to only be associated with, let's say, guilt for Capricorn, and consumption for Sagittarius. It's not that Sagittarius and Capricorn have to be associated with these more shadowy qualities. But those are the shadowy qualities that capitalism most encourages, and capitalism is very strong and prominent in the Western world. And so, these are the themes that most people existing in those societies feel there during these wintertime zodiac seasons.

There can be a danger of consuming and consuming in Sagittarius season, and then running up against this Capricorn feeling of restriction and this need to cut back, the need to make sober choices, to be suddenly more responsible and more adult.

And with it can come this feeling of the mountain goat on the top of the mountain, or the side of the mountain, and a sensing and a looking down to: How far have I come?

How far have I come in this year?

Capricorn is very associated with time—it's very in touch with linear time, and the passing of time, specifically as it is cataloged by mankind in the form of calendars and clocks, and stopwatches. And so Capricorn acutely feels the passing of time and so it often looks back. It looks back and assesses in increments of time.

And what we all tend to do towards the end of the year, is to look back and say, Okay, this year, this calendar year, how did I do?

How did I measure up? And usually we're encouraged to do it in this very earth sign way (and Capricorn is an earth sign) of: What did I produce? What did I create that is of tangible value?

We'd like to remind you is that not everything that is of value is tangible. And not everything that is tangible is of value. And especially in a year like this, we also want to remind to you that we are all very much still in a pandemic, in a time of trauma, at a time of active trauma, a time when…when history is still being made, and we haven't even gotten a chance to…to write it and to read it back and reflect on it.

And so we just want to remind you that this is an exceptional year in what…in what will be a string of exceptional years. And you can't—you cannot measure yourself according to the old ways. You cannot measure yourself according to: How much did I work how much should I produce? How do I measure up?

The world is turning into an era where there are more and more planets moving into the following sign of Aquarius. And with this comes a shift from more Capricornian Saturnian ways into a sign that is still ruled by Saturn, but in a very different way—into more air sign energy, which knows how to value more of the intangible.

And so with this card of determination, we want to invite you to be less determined…to be less determined to because—and I guess I'm being shown this image of a river, and it's like the current is already so strongly going in that way—

You're already surrounded by this energy of accomplishment and pushing pushing to the end of the year and starting out the start of the next year strong. So it's like it's already so powerfully going in that direction. You also don't need to do self-flagellate you don't need to be extra hard on yourself because you didn't accomplish what you wanted to accomplish.

So they're saying what we'd like to remind you of is that this is an exceptional year.

It didn't happen in a vacuum. Things that you managed to do or not do—those didn't happen in a vacuum, free from all the trauma and upheaval of this year. It all happened at once. And so you can't measure yourself according to pre-pandemic standards.

Okay, I'm going to draw another card.

Making Friends with Your Inner Demons

Okay, interesting. So I drew this card from a deck called the deck of character. And you know, I love this deck so much—they're kind of like simple and tongue-in-cheek or silly drawings that look like they're done with Sharpie line just a plain white background in the card I got is Demon.

So what came to me right away for this was the title of astrologer Liz Greene's book, “Saturn: A New Look at an Old Devil. And just, like, Saturn’s relationship with Satan and therefore this card, “demon,” and Saturn being the ruling planet of Capricorn.

Okay, I feel like this is related to guilt, what we were just saying about Capricorn guilt.

What we have to say about this is the fact that Capricorn is often associated with guilt. And with pessimism, with self-criticism, those are the more shadowy qualities of this sign.

And, in a sense, you could say that this is a sign that has its own—maybe more inner demons than most others.

Winter time, with its darkness, can be a time where, in the long nights, these so-called inner demons seem to come to the surface.

There can be a certain sadness or certain nihilism around this time of the year.

And what we'd like to say…

So, I'm being shown this image, this concept. So there's this artist Yumi Sakugawa. And they have this concept—I saw a sketch that they did called, “Having Tea With Your Demons.” And it was really cute, it's really endearing. And I just loved it and loved the concept. And so my guides are kind of showing me that image, this idea of sitting down and having tea with your demons and having a conversation, to actually get to know them to ask them questions to get curious about them. And I just love the idea of sitting down to tea with them, because it's like, kind of quaint, and polite, and sweet. And kind of adorable.

And yeah, and so my guides are showing me this concept. And let's see, what else did they have to say…

So this is a time when you can sit down you can have tea with your demons instead of letting them freeze over in the wintertime, instead of letting them be frozen over, emotionally, coldly…left out in the cold, or trapped in your subconscious below the frozen layer of ice.

This can instead be a time when you are brave, when you are determined.

Determined not in the way of accomplishing goals, per se, but in terms of persistence and bravery when it comes to sitting down with yourself and having these curious conversations.

These conversations that are meant to get to a point of integrity with yourself.

Integrity

So integrity is definitely a key word I associate with Capricorn. It's like the main word I think of when I think of this sign.

And so I feel like especially if you're a Capricorn moon, like emotional integrity is so important to you. I feel like that's the highest expression—one of the highest expressions of this zodiac archetype—is craving integrity and aiming for integrity within within oneself.

And also, when it comes to actions as well in the outside world, earth signs are definitely signs of action and of showing what they value through action, even more so than words.

Conclusion

I feel like I feel like it's time for me to wrap this up.

Capricorns out there, I hope you don't feel shortchanged by this episode. This format came about again, because I've just been I've been pretty wiped out and felt a certain resistance around doing these episodes the normal way and so I’ve been switching it up and just doing everything in one go this time. I hope you still got something out of it.

And that even if you're not a Capricorn, I hope that this was helpful for you because I feel like my guides came through with what was relevant to just the moment, the kind of season that we're in, the kind of energy that we're in.

And as far as updates from me, I can say, I have a couple of new offerings, and I'm going to be announcing in January. So look out for those. And those will involve, you know, one on one, live channeling. So if you enjoyed this episode, you might enjoy one of those sessions.

And I also just wanted to take a minute to thank you for listening, and especially if you've been listening, you know, since this podcast’s inception just a few months ago, and if you've been following along with my work for this past year, thank you. And I know my practice and even this podcast has…they've gone through a lot of changes, even in just a short amount of time. And so, thank you for being along for the ride. I really appreciate your time and attention and I hope you have a great rest of the year. I will see you in 2022.