Capricorn Traits & Personalities
(December 22 – January 19)
DUALITY: Feminine
TRIPLICITY (ELEMENT): Earth
QUADRUPLICITY (QUALITY): Cardinal
Capricorn is reserved, prudent, patient, uses strategy instead of force, seeks security, is acquisitive, disciplined, determined, and quick to seize opportunity.
RULING PLANET: Saturn – Roman god who presided over the sowing and reaping of grain. In ancient times, the outermost planet of the known universe. In astrology, Saturn represents obstacles, limitation, restriction, discipline, responsibility.
SYMBOL: The Goat – A surefooted animal who is able to ascend the heights by taking advantage of every foothold. The goat butts its way through obstructions.
GLYPH (WRITTEN SYMBOL): ♑ The pictograph represents the V-shaped beard of the Goat and the curved tail of the Fish (the Sea-Goat, which was the ancient symbol for Capricorn). It also pictures the human knee and circular kneecap (the part of the anatomy that Capricorn rules). In symbolic terms, the glyph is two straight lines that meet one another, connected to a circle and a crescent. This represents the melding of authority and responsibility that is strengthened by both energy and passion.
DOMINANT KEYWORD: I USE.
POLARITY: Cancer
Capricorn is the sign governing reputation, career, standing in the community. Its natives seek honor, praise, and approval in the world at large, but tend to be emotionally reserved in personal relationships. Cancer, Capricorn’s opposite sign, is the sign of domesticity and home life. Cancers derive security from the love and closeness of mates and family members.
PART OF THE BODY RULED BY CAPRICORN: The bones, joints, and knees: Capricorn natives often have beautiful bone structure, but they are subject to stiff joints, rheumatism, and orthopedic problems.
LUCKY DAY: Saturday
LUCKY NUMBERS: 2 and 8
MAGICAL BIRTHSTONE: Garnet – Attracts popularity, high esteem, and true love.
SPECIAL COLORS: Dark Green and Brown – Classic, comforting colors of nature and the earth.
CITIES: Oxford, Boston, Brussels, Chicago, Montreal
COUNTRIES: Mexico, Afghanistan, Bulgaria, India
FLOWERS: Carnation and Ivy
TREES: Pine, Elm, and Poplar
METAL: Lead
ANIMALS RULED BY CAPRICORN: Goats and animals with cloven hoofs
DANGER: Other people may harbor hidden grudges and resentments because of Capricorn’s coldness and reserve. Secrets from the past are often used against Capricorns.
All About Capricorn
Capricorns are ambitious, and the lives of those born under this sign are marked by a purposeful pursuit of their destiny. Your motivating force is desire for success, money, status, position, authority, and (though you may not realize it) for love.
Capricorn is both an earth sign and a cardinal sign, and the combination of practicality (earth) and initiative (cardinal) produces a personality geared toward leadership and power. In the zodiac Capricorn is linked to the Midheaven—the point at the top of the horoscope that represents high achievement. You’re a born climber who’s not content to poke along down in the valleys. As long as there is a top to get to from the bottom, you will persevere in your upward striving. Your symbol is the Goat, and everyone knows how goats bound up impassable terrain, finding footholds where no one thought they existed. You always carry with you the knowledge that there are tasks to be fulfilled and if you can’t move mountains, then at least, like the Goat, you can scale the heights.
Your ruler Saturn is the planet of limitations, which includes the limitation of time. (To the ancients, Saturn was the symbol for Father Time.) You have a heightened sense of the value of time, which helps to make you a superb organizer and planner. Unlike those who don’t look beyond next month, you will carefully examine your goal, separate it into all its necessary steps, and plot out a long-term timetable that often involves years. In the sign of Capricorn the quality of patience reaches new heights. One of the hallmarks of your sign is that you learn to wait for things you want. You are willing to give up today’s temptation for tomorrow’s reward.
An aura of melancholy and sternness often surrounds you. Saturn has been called the Celestial Taskmaster, for it symbolizes responsibility, discipline, and restriction. As a child of Saturn, you need something to improve and to perfect. You could have been the prototype for Lewis Carroll’s sly and charming jingle about industriousness: “How doth the little crocodile improve its shining tail…?” You are ambitious, practical, and, above all, determined. You are not interested in vague theory; you want to put any knowledge to use. Your active mind quickly grasps ideas, and you have an admirable ability to concentrate. You are precise and orderly, and generally don’t trust others to look after details. When you give your word you stick to it, and when you undertake a task you complete it to the best of your ability. You tend to fuss over details and to make sure all contingencies are covered. It’s your way of being in control.
Because of your diligence, people sometimes fail to give you credit for creativity. Yet you are highly creative—your skill is to link this to your talent for organization. You put dreams into action, and are especially drawn to the artistic arena and the performing arts.
You think of yourself as a real person in a real world that allows little time for idle pleasure-seeking. In certain ways, Saturn is an austere and strict parent that lives inside each Capricorn. Essentially, you feel you can depend only on yourself. The child in you feels unworthy—and your lifelong lesson is to shed this feeling and learn to love yourself. You do not need to be your own parent who disciplines and keeps you toeing the line. You yourself must allow the spontaneous part of you to play and run.
Your remoteness of spirit is often misunderstood by others; it has been described as cold passion. But you are not cold as much as self-sufficient. Because you need to organize and control your surroundings, on occasion you take a strong hand in other people’s lives. To you, it’s not meddling but handling things better. Beneath your reserve there is a sensitive and sympathetic person, and anyone who needs a strong shoulder to lean on needn’t look further than Capricorn.
Certainly you do not deserve your reputation for being sober and gloomy. One of your more striking characteristics is a sense of humor. Your wit may be dry, incisive, but it is extremely funny and has a way of erupting when others least expect it.
As is your nature with everything else in life, you are cautious and conservative with money. Chances are you will amass wealth during your lifetime (usually in the later years), for you know how to make sound investments. In business your success is due to painstaking preparation. The journey of ten thousand miles may begin with a single step, but you know you can’t get anywhere unless you first know where you’re going. You may not size up a situation as quickly as some, but this can be an advantage, for it means you won’t heedlessly plunge in. Instead, you will research, examine what others have done before, and gather all relevant data. Only then, with a thorough understanding of the details, will you begin to move. And then you won’t be stopped until you reach your goal.
You are not comfortable with ambiguity. You seek certainty and tend to see things in black and white. Emotional gray areas are troublesome, and you turn away from them. To the unevolved Capricorn there is only one “right” way, which is his or her way. Capricorn can be closed-minded and critical, and put value only in power and success.
Your basic concern is for security. That goal comes first and you are usually materialistic. You can be spiteful toward those who stand in the way. You have a great sense of pride and will not forgive anyone who belittles or slights you. By the same token you will repay favors done for you. Scorpios also go out of their way to repay a kindness, but in their case it is done out of a sense of gratitude and fidelity. With you the motivation is pride that does not allow you to live comfortably under an obligation.
More than any other sign of the zodiac, Capricorns marry for money and prestige. In most relationships you must dominate, because when you are in control you do not feel vulnerable to another person’s power. In small ways you are continually testing the loyalty of those close to you. You are the loner of the zodiac, but have a great need to be loved and appreciated. Unfortunately, you won’t let this need be known—in fact, you are a past master at concealing it.
Underneath the mask, you wear still other masks, and it can take a long time to discover the real you. To others you may appear aloof, indifferent, hard to reach because you are so self-contained. But the very elusiveness of your Capricorn personality can be hypnotically attractive. Like a riddle wrapped inside a sphinx, there seems to be a fascinating secret buried in your depths.
Anyone who cares enough to penetrate your shell of reserve will be greatly rewarded. Your affections and loyalty run deep, and you cherish and protect those you love. And you stick around when the going is toughest.
The Inner Capricorn
You don’t need anyone to convince you that life is serious business; you’ve known it all along. That’s what keeps you anxiously asking yourself: Am I fulfilling my responsibilities? Am I achieving as much as I should? Am I self-reliant enough? You know you have the persistence and strength of purpose to reach your goals. But you also have a deep need to connect on an emotional level in your relationships so that you won’t feel separated from those you care about. You worry about keeping all that’s valuable to you—which includes relationships. Despite your intelligence and the fact that you’re so determined, you often feel insecure. You’re a bundle of conflicting emotions. You require discipline and order—chaos drives you crazy and makes you doubt yourself and what you’re capable of. But maybe the gods meant for you to have some doubt; if you believed you’re as powerful as you really are, you’d be impossible to live with!
How Others See You
You’re often seen as an irresistible force and an immovable object. People put you in charge because you’re decisive—you’re famous for having a great sense of realism. When others need a rational head in a crisis, they call on you. In personal relationships, some friends will stand in line to unload their problems on you; others avoid you because they think your outlook is too downbeat. Everyone agrees that it’s difficult to divert you from your course when you’ve set a goal. Some people feel that in order to find the real you they have to strip away layers of secrecy, but most understand that your aloofness stems from a deep sense of personal privacy.