Know Yourself, Know Your Enemy

Molly Hall About.com
Know Yourself, Know Your Enemy
Tuesday December 14, 2010


At a holiday party, I heard yet another person say that things had been hard lately. Something in her voice told me she'd never been tested this way. Character building, enduring tough uphill climbs, persevering -- all these are carried on Capricorn energy, which is throwing its considerable weight around now.

The formidable Mercury-Mars-Pluto trio this week now meets rowdy Moon Aries. It can lead to outbursts, which are catalysts often that release stuck energies. Aries revved up is a drive to do something but in this square, we're wise to feel out the true dimensions of what we're facing.

One examples is in the timeless struggle for human freedom. Aries represents Spring, and the sureness that the Sun will rise after a dark day. The transformative energies in Capricorn have us facing where we've become locked up in structures of fear and control.

This dynamic will be with us into 2015, as Uranus Aries squares off with Pluto Capricorn, shaking the foundations, and asking us to fight for a new life. It's key to know yourself and know your 'enemy' (institutions that dehumanize, limit human freedom, demoralize, degrade, etc). The enemy can also be within -- the little dictator within, the materialist, or your need to stick with the familiar, even if it's become obviously destructive.

In the famous book on military strategy from Chinese general Sun Tzu, called, The Art of War, speaks of that wisdom. One translation reads, "Know your enemy and know yourself, find naught in fear for 100 battles. Know yourself but not your enemy, find level of loss and victory. Know thy enemy but not yourself, wallow in defeat every time."

The wise eyes of Capricorn can reveal what we're up against, so we don't go off half-cocked. Together with the energies of vital Aries, we can see where to adapt, where to hold firm, and all the while discovering new reserves of resilience and self-reliance.



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