I was so happy to receive your responses to my previous post, You Can’t Always Get What You Want, but Don’t Stop Trying. Some of you wrote, “what’s the point of living without aspiring to evolve?” One wrote that she was just about to give up on her dreams, thinking that she’d already got so many blessings. My words inspired her to continue following her heart.

The responses also made it clear that I neglected to mention something important. When we talk about aspirations, ambition, and success, we usually think about material, practical success, like publishing a book or having a bigger audience. These are my personal current aspirations that I haven’t accomplished yet.

Capricorn wants to be good at everything, not just materialistically. It is an earth sign, and therefore tends to be practical, but if Capricorn is on a spiritual path, and seeks inner growth, she also wants to be best at that. 

One of my main motivations for writing my book is that I feel that spirituality, as most of us learned it, got us confused and took us away from ourselves. We came to believe that we should not have longings and desires, or that we should always be peaceful and agreeable, or that we should always have pure thoughts and feelings, or that we should never burst out with anger, or that we should always be in service for others and put our needs last, or that we should not feel pain for the loss of our loved ones because everything is impermanent and death is a part of life.

All the examples I listed here are based on conversations with wonderful, spiritual, goodhearted people. I have seen these patterns showing up again and again. We came to believe that spirituality means not complaining, not being frustrated, just being grateful for everything. Unfortunately, this is not how the human experience works. Instead of accepting our human nature, we feel bad about it, or guilty, or ashamed. We feel like there is something wrong with us because we are not perfectly spiritual. Sometimes, we try so hard to be in a state of bliss that we completely repress ourselves.

For a Capricorn it is hard not to be perfect. She tends to judge herself harshly. She wants to be the manifestation of material and spiritual success. She wants to be the master of life by pushing herself forward and working hard. But to be a master of life, Capricorn needs to learn the biggest lesson of Cancer, which is compassion and a deep acceptance of what it means to be a human. And this is where the upcoming full moon in Cancer on Tuesday, December 26, gets into the picture.

Cancer is like the mother who loves her children regardless of how annoying or how successful they are. She loves them because they are who they are and because they are her children. Nothing else matters. Cancer is the side in all of us that can love ourselves from that motherly perspective.

Capricorn needs to learn that it is okay to have negative thoughts and emotions, that they are a part of being a human. Just like Jack Kornfield said, “Much of spiritual life is self-acceptance, maybe all of it.” When we learn to accept our human nature, we become more authentic and aligned with ourselves, and life becomes so much sweeter. This is the secret power of astrology.

Cancer needs to learn from Capricorn to turn her pain into work and service, rather than letting the pain manage her, either by being emotionally frozen, or by being overly emotional.

Sometimes it is just too damn hard. With my Cancer rising, I want to go to bed and hide under the blanket. I want to give up on all my aspirations and throw them to hell. I want to cry and ask why why why there is so much cruelty and hatred in the world? And why why why I am not as successful as I’d like to be? But then I get back to my Capricorn moon and I remind myself that there is a reason and a purpose for everything, and that we came here to evolve and grow through our challenges.

It is a choice to believe this is true, and I am very aware of this choice. I do not know that it is true, there is no certainty that I am right. But as I wrote on my post, Our Beliefs Determine How Long and How Well We Live, we can, and we should, choose our beliefs. This belief helps me find my strength amidst the challenges, so I hold on to it.

Suggestions for contemplation and journaling around the full moon in Cancer:

• Do I judge or suppress my thoughts and feelings because I perceive them as not perfectly spiritual?
• Do I have compassion for myself for being a human with negative thoughts and feelings?
• Do I love myself like a perfect loving mother would have loved me?
• Do I tend to sink into my pain and hardship, or do I find my strength and purpose through my challenges?

Merry Christmas for those of us who celebrate this wonderful holiday! I am currently in Texas, celebrating with my family.

Sending you much love,

Yael