Loosening the reigns, further seasonal musings + the re:appearence of ritual as embodied sanctuary.
I have to be honest, I've been sat wishing I could pull my recent Capricorn Astro-series post back from your mailbox so that I may tinker with it some more .. adding fresh insights that are only arriving now as I (we) are living Capricorn season in REAL time. (I have edited it slightly on the blog so it will be slightly different to the one you received)
However, It's come to me, that as I begin writing my astro-series posts each month, I'm still standing in the season of the sign before the one i'm writing into.. I wrote the Capricorn post whilst moving through Sagittarius ~ all of a sudden, this makes no sense to me.
I thought, initially, that It mattered to get my post out at the turning of the wheel, the exact changing of the seasons..that it would maybe be more clean & helpful that way.. I set that rhythm as my boundary when I set forth on this journey, to complete all 12 signs through this nutritional astro-mythic lens and get them live just before, or just as we step over the threshold.
In my minds eye, I thought of it like a useful map for the journey ahead..which I told myself that we need right at the beginning... right?!
on second thoughts..
Sitting with this chapter now, in these quiet and slow winter days ~ with several planets in Capricorn, not just the sun ~ the current aliveness of this sign is coming in strong & weighty, with insights gathering & landing into my slow solemn body daily. I am inspired to move a little deeper with the season..
I am to loosen the reigns & soften the rigidity of my original rhythm (Saturn structure) that I initially put in place ~I am to write about the season as I live it.
To me, that's what feels most nutrient dense. most rich & most real in this living moment.
are you with me?
⋆.˚ ☾⭒.˚ ⋆ 𖤓 ⋆˚࿔ ⋆｡ ﾟ☁︎｡ ⋆｡ ﾟ☾ ﾟ｡ ⋆ ⋆.˚ ☾⭒.˚ ⋆ 𖤓 ⋆˚࿔ ⋆｡ ﾟ☁︎｡ ⋆｡ ﾟ☾ ﾟ｡ ⋆⋆.˚ ☾⭒.˚ ⋆ 𖤓
In my mind's eye, Capricorn and its planetary ruler Saturn, forge themselves from deep earthen minerals & the flecks of ancient bone & stone, along with a splash of water ~ memory ~ together they bind into a rich clay that forms into a receptacle of sorts, a divine vessel, a cooking pot. Something that holds & endures through time, becoming a talisman of both legacy & legend.
The Moon, ruled by Cancer, cardinal water ~ is Capricorn's opposing sign. They share the same axis, these two signs go hand in hand, they feed one another ~ as do all signs of the zodiac and their opposite, we can look to both for further clues & insight unravelling the wisdom of one another.
On one hand we have womby, moony Cancer ~ a sacred receptacle in and of herself. Cancer is a homing sign, a place of deep sanctuary for emotional and physical growth, nourishment, and the kind of protection a mother offers her child, both in and out of the womb.
On the other hand.. We have Capricorn, who feels like more of a tangible vessel, one we may hold and stir over the fire. One that may withstand the crush & the grind of stone on stone.. it is not soft & squishy.. but dense & firm.
The vessel that gives itself through form, limit and protection ~ what lives inside, is that born of another essence.
Saturn doesn't create the content of life, but rather becomes the container to hold it.
It's the perfect season to truly sit alone and chew on this imagery..
Saturn work, is solitary work, by nature
responsible for its own intimate rhythms..
it's own pulse..
Like the skin of the drum ~ stretched, tempered and tightened over time..
The living fabric that holds the depth of the beat..
The magick of what radiates is in the tension..
in+tension = intention
In the slow tuning, as the skin is warmed gently by the fire to tighten..
In learning how much pressure it can hold, so the beat can travel deep, steady, and true..
Without the skin, there is no rhythm..
Without the boundary, without the tension ~there is no resonance..
The drum does not make the sound alone ~but it makes the sound possible.
Elk and Cedar drum I crafted this summer
Just like our skin, and our bones. Our living vessel holds us together in this physical form ~ The quiet architecture that makes our living experience, truly possible, the foundations of our being.
The tension of our skin, connective tissue, and bones hold us in place, shaping us, containing us, protecting what is most vital. Our organs and muscles are cradled within this divine structure ~ the heart, the brain ~ all held within this living earthen cauldron, carrier of our very blood & soul. From here we meet the world outside..
~ RITUAL AS HOLDING POT ~
From here, we move from the awareness of our own biological form ~ the structure that simply is, toward the structures we choose to put in place within our own lives.. The building blocks that hold and support our exhausting-aliveness-filled becoming.
The structures that support & receive not only our experience ~ our kin & communities too.
Resonance ~ Repetition ~ Ritual ~ Embodiment
To paraphrase Byung-Chul Hun from his book 'The disappearance of Rituals'
~ Rituals stabilise life. Time that rushes off is not habitable, therefore through a self-sameness (he calls it) rituals & repetitiveness stabilise our lives. Repetition reaches the heart (to learn something by heart)~ the world turns into a reliable place through repetition & ritual.. making oneself at-home in the world.
I really resonate with these words, especially the making oneself at-home within the world and how repetition reaches the heart.. I want my world to feel more reliable in all the transience and unknowing I often feel & experience, this nomadic chapter of my life calls & craves the reliability felt from having a sense of home, feeling grounded in my place in the world and my own heart.. and whilst I (we) can't expect much guaranteed certainty from the world outside.. I can sure try my heartiest at cultivating more ritual meat to chew on and linger with for a while, forging myself a holding space for the sensitive trinkets & talismans of my inner world, along with the maybe more uncomfortable truths that call for a safe place.
Intensional repetitive practice, can come to hold the precious riches of our living hue-man experience. Protecting them. Connecting them.
~ COMMON-UNITY
"Rituals are symbolic practices. The greek word 'symbállein' means 'to bring together'. Practices of symbállein, are in the sense that they bring people together and create an alliance, a wholeness, a community."
These practices become formative..they gift us time in-space to linger, to rest, to regenerate, to heal, to create, to connect, to collapse ~ like crushed herbs in a pestle and mortar..we feel in+tensionally held with the possibility of landing into a sense of home. Something of living substance, warmth & body, something bigger than us, holds us.
In tern, we are learning how to hold the tension within our lives in a more embodied way. Protecting us from the discomfort of 'not knowing', the discomfort of uncertainty; creating the capacity to linger with complexity .. to hold the tension and not need to resolve it straight away. I see this as growing in resilience. And resilience is a Capricorn/Cancer super power.
"When there are no rituals to act as protective measures, life is wholly unprotected"
Let all this linger for a moment. . .
Eventually, our chosen rituals come to shape our identity ~ they cultivate a rhythmic ground, a cauldron, a receptive holding space for ourselves to grow & move from, ultimately supporting the quality of how we show face to the things & people we care for. They support how & what we become, within & amongst the wildness of this world, from the inside out.
Therefore, rituals may be a key to how we come to build structures of legacy that influence greatly, not just our own soul work, but something that in tern pours into our communities and the world around us ~ this feels like deep Saturnian work. Slow, intentional, shaped over time.
Saturn is going to enter fire sign Aries this year (2026) & the in~tensional cultivation of ritual feels especially vital for the current times. Not ritual as rigid obligation, but something we choose. again & again.
A chosen rhythm that begins with us, supporting rather than draining us.
The nuance is choosing what feels good & resonant for you. At the beginning there will be (tension) as the mind/body adjusts, rewrites, rewires and maybe even tries to reject it. Repetition can be boring, & the medicine to be harvested from boredom is a whole other conversation .. Ritual can evolve & change over time, it doesn't need to stay the same form forrrreveer, it can adapt, grow & breathe just as we do. Meeting us where we desire to be met. It's living, forged from the earth ~Remember!
When (in)tended well, these rhythms become vessels for sovereignty & agency ~ an Aries spark ~ that moves through us and outwards, serving all that grows & gathers beyond the self.. ✦
Giorgia Lamola Glenville
slightly edited version
