Capricorn

Meaning

Capricorn is the tenth sign of the zodiac, from 270° to 300°, opened by the December solstice, the longest night of the northern year. It is earth in its cardinal form, ruled by Saturn, and astrologers read it as the sign of structure: setting a long aim, accepting responsibility, and building, step by step, something that will stand.

A planet in Capricorn tends to plan, to measure its effort and to respect what works. As a cardinal sign it takes the initiative, by organising rather than by improvising. Its gifts are patience, realism, dependability, a dry humour, and the endurance that turns a rough idea into an institution, a body of work or a career.

Its difficulties are the weight of that seriousness: rigidity, overwork, worth measured by results alone, feelings postponed until everything is secure. The opposite sign, Cancer, holds the private roots that Capricorn’s public role grows from; the pair is read as the axis of home and the world, of belonging and achieving.

Tradition exalts Mars here, at 28°: drive at its most disciplined and effective. The Moon is in its detriment and Jupiter in its fall, which says that this sign shows its care through reliability more than through comfort, and its generosity through what it builds.

In practice

• The Sun in Capricorn, from 21 or 22 December to around 20 January (the day shifts from year to year): a sense of self built through effort, competence and the long view.
• The Moon in Capricorn, in detriment: feelings kept in good order and shown through dependable acts; comfort may have to be learned, not earned.
• Capricorn rising, on the Ascendant: a composed, capable first impression. Saturn rules the chart, so its sign, house and aspects show where that patience is invested.
• Saturn in Capricorn is in its domicile: method, authority and staying power. Mars in Capricorn, exalted, works with focus and strategy. Jupiter in Capricorn, in fall, grows by careful steps rather than by leaps of faith.
• Capricorn on a house cusp: that area of life is taken seriously and planned for the long term.

Across traditions

• Jyotish calls the sign Makara, a sea creature, gives it to Saturn, exalts Mars and places Jupiter’s fall there too; measured from the stars, it begins about 24° further on, and the Sun enters it around 14 January, the day of the Makar Sankranti festival.
• Human Design places gates 58, 38, 54 and 61 wholly in Capricorn, with the end of gate 10 and the start of gate 60.
• The Chinese calendar opens Capricorn with Dōngzhì, the winter solstice, and sets Xiǎohán, “minor cold”, at 15° Capricorn, where the month of the Ox (chǒu) begins.

Origin and history

Babylonian astronomers drew here the Goat-fish, a creature of the god Ea, lord of the fresh waters below the earth: a goat in front and a fish behind. The Greeks called it Aigokerōs, “the goat-horned”, and the sea-goat has stayed its emblem. Ptolemy explained Mars’s exaltation here by the southern position of the sign, where the fiery planet grows hotter still.

The Tropic of Capricorn keeps the name it took when the Sun reached its December solstice among these stars. By the boundaries astronomers published in 1930, the solstice point left the constellation Capricornus for Sagittarius in the 2nd century BC, and the Sun now crosses Capricornus from about 20 January to 16 February. In the old doctrine of planetary houses, Capricorn is Saturn’s night house and Aquarius its day house.

How Ulune calculates it

A body is in Capricorn from 270° to 300° of tropical longitude, measured from the March equinox point. In the dignity table Saturn holds its domicile here and Mars its exaltation, at 28° by tradition; the Moon is in detriment and Jupiter in fall. The triplicity rulers are Venus by day, the Moon by night and Mars participating, after Dorotheus; the terms run Mercury to 7°, Jupiter to 14°, Venus to 22°, Saturn to 26° and Mars to 30°, and the faces are Jupiter, Mars and the Sun. The readings’ decans are those of Capricorn, Taurus and Virgo, ruled by Saturn, Venus and Mercury.

Correspondences