Author’s note: This article refers to 29 degrees Capricorn (29 Capricorn through 0 Aquarius), not the 29th degree of Capricorn (28-29 Capricorn).
Sign: Capricorn (Internalized external expectations. Status, order, and hierarchy. Fear of failure. Scarcity mentality. Authority, sovereignty and dignity. Large corporation and institutions.)
Decanate: Virgo (Skills, functions, work ethic, the search for truth, noble goals, technocrats and bureaucrats.)
Duad: 12th duad Sagittarius (Courage and search for freedom in the face of grave danger. Secrets and uncertainty.)
Degree number: 29 (Acceptance and resignation. Adopt or die.)
Numerology: 11 (Personal relation with the Oneness)
Working Symbols:
(1) In the aftermath of a disaster, an underground political party swiftly overthrew the dictator in power and established a new regime.
(2) A skilled pilot overcame fear to complete a monumental test flight during an unexpectedly severe storm.
(3) After a closed-door meeting, authorities provided fabricated and ambiguous answers in a news conference.
The last degree of a zodiac sign is commonly known as the anaretic degree. Its energy is dominated by the conflict between three neighboring signs: the dominant sign (in this case, Capricorn) is undermined by its predecessor (12th-duad Sagittarius) while being challenged by the incoming sign (Aquarius), which aims to make incumbent irrelevant and obsolete. The tension among conflicting qualities makes this degree cagey and crisis-prone.
The degrees 20 through 29 in the 30-degree cycle are related to people and matters at the outer reaches of our influence. At 29 Capricorn, the dominant energy is past its prime and in decline. There is a prevailing now-or-never, even do-or-die urgency.
People with a natal planet or crucial point straddling between two signs are acutely aware of the impermanence and transient nature of their worldly existence. There is a constant, nagging anxiety about time running out and opportunities slipping away. The internal countdowns force them to ponder on their achievement and legacy at an early age. As their own perspectives and priorities shift, life becomes a series of last-ditch efforts as they grasp at the shifting sands, constantly falling behind.
The tension and urgency drown out the subtler influences, but they are nonetheless parts of the whole. The decanate energy (Virgo) is still in play, directing attention to ethics, standards, and truths (or the lack thereof). This degree suggests resignation and acceptance of a trajectory beyond one’s control; number 11 brings the spiritual dimension to the degree – it could be “let go and let God” as well as god-like arrogance. The 12th duad resonate a 12th house vibe, adding secrecy and uncertainty (sometimes intentionally), while Sagittarius brings faith and freedom into to the mix.
In the case of 29 Capricorn, the threshold between Capricorn and Aquarius holds the potential for great insights and the opportunities for breakthrough – if one can muster courage, faith, and cool detachment. That being said, it comes with a lot of caveats. Kozminsky Degrees observed the influence of 12th duad Sagittarius and noted those under its influence “is cautious and generally fortunate, … may gain a position of importance, but will not be able to hold it, … The higher he aims the more he renders himself vulnerable to shafts of those above him.”
Carelli Degrees warned: “inability to alter the direction of one’s inborn impulses. … Lofty ambitions, huge hopes; an extraordinary energy, often foreign to the native himself, but anyhow likely to boost him very high; but he may dash along like a fiery meteor, whereas the results of his actions will disappoint everyone as the power propelling him toward the goal may lot [sic] him overreach himself and go astray.” Sepharial similarly cautioned that “with the decline of his natural forces there will be a falling off of ambition and purpose.”
The arc of a hero’s meteoric rise and fall is aptly illustrated by the life of Charles Lindbergh, who has Jupiter at this epic degree. Ill-prepared for the publicity following his historic solo trans-Atlantic flight, Lindbergh and his family self-exiled to Europe.
Lindbergh considered communism as a greater threat to Western civilization than fascism. He learned firsthand about Germany’s advanced technology through numerous official visits, and hoped that Germany, if left unchallenged, would expand eastward and defeat the Soviet Union. This would allow the United Kingdom and France time to build up their militaries and, should Germany be weakened in the process, avert the devastating war in Western Europe which, in his opinion, would either results in Germany’s victory or devastation of entire western civilization.
At the onset of World War II, Lindbergh strongly advocated the preservation of American independence and democracy through impenetrable defense and staying out of the European war. In public speeches, Lindbergh called out the British, the Jewish and the Roosevelt administration as “war agitators” and accused the Roosevelt administration of dictatorship and deceit in its rush to war. President Roosevelt, infuriated and threatened, was convinced that Lindbergh was a Nazi, despite his secret inquiry had failed to produce any evidence. Three days after Roosevelt publicly labeled Lindbergh as a “Copperhead”, comparing him to Northern traitors and saboteurs during the Civil War, Lindbergh resigned his military commission in protest. He was publicly opposed by families and associates, denounced as an anti-Semite, a racist, a Nazi-sympathizer and an appeaser.
After Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor, Lindbergh devoted wholeheartedly to the U.S. war effort, flying 50 combat missions as a civilian aviator while President Roosevelt refused to reinstate him. It was not until 1954 that President Dwight Eisenhower restored Lindbergh’s commission and promoted him to brigadier general. But the damage to his reputation was irreversible.
Witnessing the destruction of nature and civilization by his beloved science, Lindbergh grew disillusioned with human intelligence and technological progress. He became a crusader for conservation cause, racing to save indigenous tribes and endangered species of animals from extinction.
This complicity of this degree is beautifully distilled by Lindbergh’s reflection on his existence in the continuum in space and time, between the material and the mystical:
I grow aware of various forms of man and of myself. I am form and I am formless, I am life and I am matter, mortal and immortal. I am one and many — myself and humanity in flux. I extend a multiple of ways in experience in space. I am myself now, lying on my back in the jungle grass, passing through the ether between satellites and stars. My aging body transmits an ageless life stream. Molecular and atomic replacement change life’s composition. Molecules take part in structure and in training, countless trillions of them. After my death, the molecules of my being will return to the earth and sky. They came from the stars. I am of the stars.
Charles Lindbergh, Autobiography of Values
Despite their apparent conflict, Capricorn and Aquarius in mundane astrology share a preoccupation with authority and order. While Capricorn rules through individuals at the top of the social hierarchy, Aquarius rules through the groups and committees. From competing egos to competing ideologies, both camps attempt to claim orthodoxy and maintain superiority by excluding and oppressing those who refuse to fall in line. Despite Aquarius’ contrarian tendency and its upending of the existing framework, it shares with Capricorn dictatorial tendencies and a disregard for individual freedom.
As the Capricornian (ego-based) order breaks down, an Aquarian new order is shaping up at neck-breaking speed. Truth, common sense, and conventions are stretched to the breaking point by various interest groups. Pluto in Capricorn era brought immense power to large corporations; Pluto in Aquarius will be the era of weaponized ideologies, warring factions, breakthroughs in experimental technologies, some of which will be destructive. We can expect large technology corporations to continue dominating our world, and drastic upheavals in the pecking order of power players.
This new regime is revolutionary, technocratic, and group-centric, where the individuals merge into the group identity and relieve themselves of personal accountability. Without self-determination and self-awareness, a transition to transpersonal consciousness is no guarantee of humanity’s ascent up the evolutionary ladder.
At degree 29 of Capricorn, we find difficult transitions and uncertainties that call for faith, adoption and acceptance. Recurring themes include: breakdown and degradation of structure, paradigm, standards and objective truth; crowd control through censorship, secrecy and misinformation; and drastic rise and fall of prestige and status.
Courage and leap of faith during crises
- Charles Lindbergh (Jupiter), American aviator who piloted first solo trans-Atlantic flight.
What pilot has not been in positions where he was in danger and where perfect judgment would have advised against going? … If one took no chances, one would not fly at all. … What kind of man would live where there is no daring? And is life so dear that we should blame men for dying in adventure? Is there a better way to die?
Charles Lindbergh, The Wartime Journals
Subjective facts, relative truths, and the changing science
- Jules Verne (Uranus), French novelist who is considered as one of the founders of the science fiction genre. Verne argued that his scientific novels were not based on science and should not be treated as such. He was merely attempting a “very high ideal of beauty of style” and giving romanticized descriptions of the world.
- William James (North Node), American psychologist and philosopher who established Pragmatism.
Hands off: neither the whole of truth nor the whole of good is revealed to any single observer, although each observer gains a partial superiority of insight from the peculiar position in which he stands.
William James, Talks to Teachers on Psychology: And to Students on Some of Life’s Ideals
The “facts” themselves meanwhile are not true. They simply are. Truth is the function of the beliefs that start and terminate among them.
William James, What Pragmatism Means
The critic’s trouble … seems to come from his taking the word “true” irrelatively, whereas the pragmatist always means “true for him who experiences the workings.”
William James, The Meaning of Truth
- Joseph Campbell (Chiron), American writer and mythologist.
You must remember: all of the great traditions, and little traditions, in their own time were scientifically correct. That is to say, they were correct in terms of the scientific image of that age.
Joseph Campbell, Mythology and the Individual
- Werner Heisenberg (Venus), German physicist who discovered the Uncertainty Principle.
Every experiment destroys some of the knowledge of the system which was obtained by previous experiments.
Werner Heisenberg, The Physical Principles of the Quantum Theory
Of course, we all know that our own reality depends on the structure of our consciousness; we can objectify no more than a small part of our world. But even when we try to probe into the subjective realm, we cannot ignore the central order…In the final analysis, the central order, or ‘the one’ as it used to be called and with which we commune in the language of religion, must win out.
Werner Heisenberg as quoted in Quirks of the Quantum Mind
- Kellyanne Conway (Sun). President Trump’s 2020 campaign manager and first woman to run a successful presidential campaign. During her term as the Senior Counselor of the President, she coined the term “alternative facts” and repeatedly referred to the fictitious “Bowling Green massacre” as facts.
- Dec 7-16, 2020 (Saturn), U.S. Food and Drug Administration confirm that Pfizer’s vaccine candidate is 95% effective. The first emergency use authorization for the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine was issued and the vaccine campaign began.
- February 16, 2023 (Pluto). Chinese president Xi declared “decisive victory” over COVID after uncontrollable spread and lockdown protests.
- March 14, 2023 (Pluto), OpenAI released GPT-4. Despite of capable of passing standardized tests (some with flying colors), it is also known for hallucinating, internal inconsistency, deception, erratic behavior, and strong bias.
Structural damage; breakdown or breakthrough of boundary, order, or paradigm. Drastic changes in social, economic, or political principles. Meteoric rise and fall.
- Titanic maiden voyage (Moon). Titanic struck an iceberg and broke in half on its maiden voyage.
- Halle Berry (MC), first African-American to win the Academy Award for best actress.
- Bitcoin (Jupiter). A cryptocurrency regarded by its proponents as the tool against government surveillance and central banks’ currency manipulation.
- March 9-20, 2020 (Saturn). Stock market “Black Monday I” (Marcy 9, 2020) “Black Thursday” (March 12, 2020) and “Black Monday II” (March 16, 2020). Italy, Norway, and Spain started nationwide lockdown. Federal Reserve announced that it would cut the federal funds rate target to 0%–0.25%, lower bank reserve requirements to zero, and begin a $700 billion asset purchasing program. BlackRock, the world’s largest asset management firm and the leader in exchange-traded funds, managed the purchasing program on Federal Reserve’s behalf and was allowed to purchase its own funds.
- December 14-19, 2020 (Jupiter) Germany, The Netherlands, Turkey, Poland entered nationwide lockdown. In the U.S., the Electoral College meets in the state capitals to officially elect the next President. Joe Biden. Outgoing President Donald Trump continues to dispute the results of the election, citing widespread electoral fraud.
- December 16, 2020 (Jupiter-Saturn super conjunction) Twitter says that it will ban false and misleading claims about COVID-19 vaccines on its platform. The Federal Reserve vowed to keep funneling cash into financial markets until the U.S. economic recovery is secure, Nasdaq Composite closed at a record high.
Reference
Campbell, Joseph. Mythology and the Individual. Audio. Joseph Campbell Foundation, 1997.
Carelli, Adriano. The 360 Degrees of the Zodiac. American Federation of Astrologers, 2000.
Charubel, and Sepharial. Degrees of the Zodiac Symbolized. Astrology Center of America, 2005.
Cole, Wayne S. Charles A. Lindbergh and the Battle Against American Intervention in World War II. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt P, 1974.
The New York Times Web Archive. “Daring Lindbergh Attained the Unattainable With Historic Flight Across Atlantic,” August 27, 1974. https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/books/98/09/27/specials/lindbergh-daring.html.
PBS: Public Broadcasting Service. “Fallen Hero | American Experience”. https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/lindbergh-fallen-hero/.
Heisenberg, Werner. The Physical Principles of the Quantum Theory. University of Chicago Press, 1930.
Jahn, Robert G., and Brenda J. Dunne. Quirks of the Quantum Mind. ICRL Press, 2012.
James, William. Talks to Teachers on Psychology, 1899.
———. What Pragmatism Means. Createspace Independent Publishing Platform, 2017.
Kozminsky, Isidore. Zodiacal Symbology and Its Planetary Power. American Federation of Astrologers, 1917.
Lindbergh, Charles Augustus. Autobiography of Values. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt P, 1978.
———. The Wartime Journals, 1970.
New York Times. “Lindbergh Is Named A Brigadier General; LINDBERGH NAMED RESERVE GENERAL,” February 16, 1954. https://www.nytimes.com/1954/02/16/archives/lindbergh-is-named-a-brigadier-general-lindbergh-named-reserve.html.
The New York Times. “LINDBERGH SEES TRICKERY ON WAR; Lists Roosevelt ‘Subterfuges’ at Garden Rally — Wheeler Charges Secret Pledges ,” October 31, 1941. https://www.nytimes.com/1941/10/31/archives/lindbergh-sees-trickery-on-war-lists-roosevelt-subterfuges-at.html.
Archived http://www.charleslindbergh.com/pdf/103141_lindy.pdf
Sherard, R.H. “Jules Verne at Home : His Own Account of His Life and Work.” McClure’s Magazine, January 1894.
Persico, Joseph E. Roosevelt’s Secret War. Random House Trade Paperbacks, 2002.
New York Times. “PRESIDENT DEFINES LINDBERGH’S NICHE; Puts Him With Vallandigham, Leader of Copperheads in ’63, and Valley Forge Quitters,” April 26, 1941. https://www.nytimes.com/1941/04/26/archives/president-defines-lindberghs-niche-puts-him-with-vallandigham.html.
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