Welcome to the Capricorn Full Moon, the time in the lunar calendar when the spotlight is on duty and responsibility, growing up and maturing, serious decisions and personal milestones. Capricorn draws a line and sets a bar in equal measures. The full moon is exact on July 21, 2024 at 6:17 am ET, 29 degrees Capricorn-Cancer. That’s 3:17 am Los Angeles, 11:17 am London, 12:17 pm Johannesburg, 3:47 pm New Delhi, 8:17 pm Sydney, and 10:17 pm Auckland.
Full moons are decision points. Something is put into the light of the full moon. We may reach a critical point. We may have to navigate an event or a demand. With this full moon at the last degree of Capricorn, we’ve reached a finale and culmination.
This is the second full moon in Capricorn this year, two full moons four weeks apart. The Capricorn Full Moon on June 21 was at the beginning of the sign, a bookend to the July 20 Capricorn Full Moon — two halves of a story. Look for the thread connected events of late June and now.
Capricorn is one of the “four pillars of life”, the four cardinal signs that hold up the sky. As a result, they hold up our lives. The Capricorn pillar is a reminder that it is essential that we need a strong sense of responsibility, that we need to mature, grow up, and build our lives. Ruled by Saturn, a planet that takes 29 years to go around the sky, Capricorn also reminds us that things take time.
This full moon hits a nerve, it marks a sobering reality or choice. It may feel like an ending. With Saturn in Pisces, the decisions that we are making, the future that we are building need to be fulfilling, emotionally and spiritually. Saturn is also squaring Jupiter. We’re at a crossroads.
What’s interesting about this full moon, apart from the fact that it’s the second Capricorn Full Moon this year, is that it is right next to Pluto, but Pluto is in Aquarius, on the other side of the divide. While Pluto has only been in Aquarius a short bit, Pluto was in Capricorn from 2008 to until earlier this year, returning on September 1 for a finale to last until November 19.
As much as this full moon is about events from June and July, it also is about a much larger story arc that began in 2008 when Pluto first entered Capricorn. Is it possible that we’ve reached the end of a 16-year story? What was going on in your life then? What has changed and transformed? (Read Pluto in Capricorn: Sign by Sign to review themes and archetypes.)
In short, this isn’t your average Capricorn Full Moon. While we may be navigating aspects of our lives that are pillars, in the sense that they are structural and hold things up. We may have to do the mature thing. And yet we’ve come to the end of something that may have been in the works for many years.