Seagoat Swims, Mountain Goat Climbs as Pan Revels All Fascinated with the Forbidden

Part Two: A Cold Moon Opens Pandora's Box - Whose Dharma is it anyway?

This Capricorn New Moon will help us understand all phases and incarnations of the Capricorn energies descending upon the planet.
Notice the illusion presented in the Devil card or the image of the 19th century image of Baphomet, created by Eliphas Lévi. Levi called his image “the Baphomet of Mendes" from legend's of the goat of Mendes. Actually the Egyptian Mendes was a ram deity but this image of the the Occult. Later Crowley adopted the image and rumors of the Baphome worshiped by Freemasons has persisted. Note that the Baphomet's arms bear the Latin words SOLVE (dissolve) and COAGULA (congeal).
This lunation shows one face to the world yet has a hidden agenda that only our deeper introspection can reaveal.

Esoteric astrologer Alice Bailey considers Capricorn as the sign of the initiate who is tested daily by the challenges of Saturn (Karmic Lord of Matter and Time).
Capricorn is rules a most Saturnine time of lonely ambition and discipline ruling world of the five senses, the world of limitations as connected to the symbol of the mountain goat. Yet like all the Zodiacal signs there is an unevolved and evolved or more spiritual side where mind over matter is desirable and being of use is more important then using others.

In the classic book: Archetypes of the Zodiac by Kathleen Burt, Capricorn is associated with the search for Dharma which of course connotes Karma or the fact that we reap what we sow. Dharma has been defined as the underlying order in nature and life. The Sanskrit term: Dharma literally translates as 'that which upholds or supports' (from the root 'Dhr' - to hold), here referring to the order which makes the cosmos and the harmonious complexity of the natural world possible. Could this cold, seeker of wealth and power really be searching for divine order? When we did just a little deeper, Kabbalistic origins through the Zohar offer even more insight: Saturn (ruler) was created with the letter Beth that was given to it wisdom, even though Saturn is the planet of destruction, since it has no desire for anything that has to do with the body or the physical realm and that is why it cancels them. The letter Ayin created Capricorn. Together we get a very energetic and powerful combination, Ayin + Beth = the 72 Names of God which Moses used to split the Red Sea. Ayin Beth correlates to the Tetragrammaton (Yod Heh Vav Heh).



The association of the Goat with Capricornus dates back as far as ancient Babylon. Capricorn, the Seagoat, is reflected in the image of a powerful Babylonian deity named Ea. He has the lower half of a fish and the head and torso of a goat. The god lived in the ocean. He came out every day to watch over the land, and he returned to the sea every night.

Pandora Connection
In the chart above this Capricorn New Moon set for 1-8-2008 @ 6:37 AM ET in Washington, DC has 3 degrees 51 Capricorn rising. This is the degree of Sun sign for the famous creator of the Twighlight Zone: Rod Serling This ascendant has an interesting image of "Pandora with her back to the mysterious black box, the other hand resting on the lid. Later she is seen with on her knees looking through the chest's keyhole."
Check out this teleplay by Serling: "The Boy Who Predicted Earthquakes"


This fascination for the forbidden also approaches and crosses the realms of magic, occult and shamanism and it is no real surprise that Carlos Castaneda was also born with this degree of his Sun. According to the Pandora myth, she opened a container jar (pithos) releasing all the evils of mankind— greed, vanity, slander, envy, pining — leaving only hope inside once she had closed it again. Her other name, is Anesidora, "she who sends up gifts" all sent by the Gods. With this lunation there will be other symbolic boxes which we all most open to discover our own dharma.

We find both Sun and Moon @ 18 Capricorn ala Sabian: "Amid heavy shelling a destroyer bears down on an enemy ship, the captian standing resolutely at the helm." If ever there was an image of the Bush-Cheney group going down with the ship, this is it!
This lunation is not just about the determination and keeping your cool amid mayhem or the steady persistence of the sign of the goat but about surprises and sudden turns of events.

Pan Returns
The other side of this Capricorn archetype which is rarely seen now peaks thru the wooded veil in search of mirth and pleasure is Pan. The parentage of Pan is unclear; in some myths he is the son of Zeus, though generally he is the son of Hermes, with whom his mother is said to be a nymph. Mistakenly connected with the Greek word pan, meaning "all", but actually derived from the word pa-on, which means "herdsman" and shares its prefix with the modern English word "pasture". Pan is famous for his sexual powers yet in myth from Syrinx to Echo ran away from his seductive nature or was it lecherous desire? Pan's flute will be clearly heard as this new moon arrives.
In the chart above, Mercury has just entered the other winter sign Aquarius with Venus (currency) applying to a SQ with both the modern ruler of the water-bearer: Uranus and with Pallas the mystical strategist in Pisces. Mercury @ 1 degree Aquarius whose Sabian symbol tells of the traveller who finds the ancient temple in the desert which has fallen to ruin but is still being adapted for modern use." This sounds a lot like our corporate and government institutions that are decaying and ready to hit an incredible destructive phase with Pluto's ingress into Capricorn on January 25th right after the next Full Moon on 1-22-08 in LEO.
Stay tuned for more on both lunations.