Sun in Capricorn Country Joe McDonald (of Country Joe and the Fish) appeared in "peace paint" at the Monterey Pop Festival, 1967 Sun in Capricorn "Tricky Dick" President Nixon kept an enemies list of prominent anti-war activists

Most people have heard the term “multiple personality disorder.” Triggered by serious trauma in one or more forms, the name alone implies an undesirable condition. By implication, optimum mental-emotional health (except to depth psychologists like (the late) James Hillman, or Jungians, or some others) is seemingly, to live in one simplistic shallow dimension. To live this way is to eek by on a no “soul food” bland diet, with a side order of lots of meds considered acceptable as adequate supplements.

Long ago, as a new freshman away at college, recently introduced to astrology, I was walking across campus when I literally stopped in my tracks. “They have names!” That thrilling soul-validating insight connected the privately - heard “voices in my head” to astrology’s planetary “voices” named after Greco-Roman Gods and Goddesses. Some of those voices competed with one another for my attention and for influence of my conduct. My unending pursuit of astrology began at that place and time. I was passionately motivated to learn and live true my multiple personality order. Years later, I began offering personal professional astrological consultations, usually jargon-free, but always with the ultimate goal to help others to embrace her or his own unique multiple personality order.

As Jung knew and the better Jungians know, it is important to hold “the tension of the opposites.” However, astrology lived true is more complex and multi-vocal than that, with more than two contrary components to soul-healing, soul-making, soul- living. To really “Get your life together” is perhaps best done with astrology artfully experienced. This art of understanding is even more amazing, more helpful than Jung’s minimalist and significantly inaccurate understanding of astrology. In fairness to Jung, available astrology of his era left a lot to be desired. However, to his credit, though, he respectfully said, “Astrology is the psychology of the ancients.”

The component “persons” within, “The Gods Within” (see Thomas Moore), are the living expression of the astrological planets. Their distinctions from one another are not just due to the gender differences of those “deities,” but also for several other reasons. One important factor is the seasonal tribal origin of each “planetary deity” in a given chart. “Planet” means, “wandering star.” a point of light that moves from place to place through the Zodiac. In astrology, the Sun and Moon are often referred to for convenience as ‘planets” in the sense of also being “wanderers” even though astrologers know that, of course, they are astronomically no such thing.

Gods and Goddesses That Wander

Some people can only see Divinity as monotheism, with God the patriarch always on some stationary heavenly throne, that is not the way of astrology. Astrology is best understand as a “what if” metaphor, poetry in motion. Astrology’s deities are best appreciated in the sense, as the old pop song said, “What if God is one of us?” A given astrological Deity can have power, like Venus, Goddess of Love, but she doesn’t have the powers or preferences of other deities. Further, like them, she cannot just stop in one place in the Zodiac. Even the slower moving “planets” like Pluto must move.

Besides having His or Her unique traits, disposition, etc., as She or He appears to move, She or He adapts a different style of expression, depending on Zodiacal location.

The 12 Tribes of the Zodiac

The overwhelmingly most popular astrology is seasonally – based, not directly derived from constellational alignments. The twelve signs of the Zodiac are grouped by the four seasons, with each season divided into three parts. Consider, even if momentarily, turning away from the ubiquitous abstract keywords of “modern astrology” and re-turning to the seasonal origins of the Zodiac signs. By doing so, you can drop any keywords that are not accurate, and on the other hand realize where the valid keywords have their origins.

Keyword astrology de-personalizes the planetary characters into dead abstract concepts, ubiquitous clichés for the mind, and nothing for the soul. The keyword approach is like processed food: separate components from their organic origins. Put another way, keyword astrology is like reducing a human being to only her or his chemical components. As modern people, in some ways we have come along way. However in doing so, we get away from Nature and human nature.

“Do You Know Where I’m Coming From?”

When a person says, “Do you know where I’m coming from?” she or he is really saying, “Do you really understand me?” To REALLY understand someone astrologically, one needs to know what seasonal tribe that each facet of that person comes from. The most important facets of an individual are those that “shine” the biggest and brightest in the sky: the Moon and the Sun. Of these two, the Sun tends to almost always stay apparently “whole” and daily visible, except during the brief and occasional moments of Solar Eclipses. Even during rain, snow or cloudy times, we all assume the Sun to always be there. For that reason, if a person only knows one thing about his or her own astrology chart, the most helpful thing to know is the Zodiacal sign of one’s Sun.

The Sun is like the king or queen of all the other planets and such. Note the old birthday party tradition of placing a crown on the head of the child on his or her birthday. In doing so, the “royal” dimension of that child is honored on his or her special day. Rulers of countries of the world have different styles of dress and demeanor. Similarly, the Sun in any given sign of the Zodiac has a unique quality that is not arbitrary. Rather, that particular way of being is associated with the stories and circumstances associated with that particular time of the year, about one month per year for each Sun sign. Each sign is of that “tribal” time of the year.

By contrast, the Moon is only Her brightest and fullest at the brief moment of the Full Moon. Before and after that moment, the Moon is seen as incomplete. Seen from an astrological Minority Report perspective, the Moon in an individual’s chart shows qualities that the individual wants to develop, to become more of the nature of that Zodiacal tribal perspective. The individual s first impressed by the qualities of her or his Moon sign by his or her impression of Mother (or equivalent childhood person. For instance, consider Moon in Capricorn.

Moon in Capricorn: An Emotionally Low-Maintenance Person

Far too many astrologers say the most judgmental, and inaccurate, things about anyone born with Moon in Capricorn. The putdowns even include statements like “the worst place to have the Moon” or where the Moon is in “detriment” or “fall” --- I use to know which. No matter, the sound of either word implies a terrible condition --- “the pits.” With non-personal astrology, such as astrology used for prediction, such terms are very instructive and useful in that context. When involved with such, I take such factors into consideration. However, putting down or writing off a living person, in my opinion, is thoughtless soul abuse and one of that many ways that astrologers do a lousy job of interpretation of the chart and the human that chart represents.

I love the diversity of people and appreciate different individuals for different reasons, including different Moon signs. What I appreciate about the Moon in Capricorns that I’ve known is that they are emotionally low-maintenance people, never emotionally over-needy. No matter what a given individual’s mother-child relationship circumstances (uniquely reflected in his or her birth chart), such a person at a minimum tries to be an emotional burden to others. A particular person may have his or her own issues with this (indicated in the birth chart), but I for one appreciate and respect this character quality. To see where this predisposition comes from, look to the seasonal tribe of Capricorn.

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“Don’t count the days, make the days count.” --- Muhammad Ali, (Sun in Capricorn)

CAPRICORN: The First Tribe of Winter

Winter Solstice is the official beginning of winter, and specifically the beginning of the sign of Capricorn. In the northern hemisphere at this time, sunlight is limited, and warmth is limited as well, and there is less easily accessible food from Nature. It ain’t summertime, and the livin’ ain’t easy. Throughout much of human history, and archetypally even now, surviving winter is the year’s greatest challenge. What to do? How to do it? What not to do? How did those who have survived the adversities of winter before do it? Certainly there are as many lessons in failure as there are in success. Perhaps truly learning the hard way, and/or knowing what those who understand the past is the most practical guidance of all.

No matter the time of year, a Capricorn type is at his or her best learns or remembers the seasonal-based truth of the cold hard time she or he was born into: living frugally, pragmatically, realistically, embodying practicality.

FALSE EARTH, or TRUE?

Capricorn is one of three Earth signs, specifically, Earth in Winter. However, in our modern era, we have a choice between living primarily in relationship to the true Natural Earth or the more recent ubiquitous substitute “ false earth.” The always was and always will be real Earth consists of soil, stone and such, including tangible natural goods like live stock, for example.

Modern man makes the “false earth”: cement, asphalt, chrome and steel, plastic, and the abstract “dead” stock market. True Earth people do not waste any real resources. (Think the original Native Americans who waste no part of a buffalo; think of the Amish.) Such types are “grounded” in the reality of Nature on a finite planet, with Natural laws, such as gravity. They live “down to Earth.”

Seemingly thrifty (read: cheap) false earth people wear human made products like polyester, shop for cheap goods at Wal-Mart and Dollar Stores and such, eat GMO food, and/or vote and invest in perpetuation of such. (For Sun in Capricorn Jeff Bezos, his take is $ 100 billion, and growing non-stop.)

The false earth people use and discard, trashing the True Earth --- it is no “matter” to them. They exploited and often even murdered “True Earth” people everywhere, and thoughtlessly and greedily exploit the natural resources of the True Earth. Their real “bottom line” is whatever makes or saves them money. Their “reality” is based on a man-made “reality” such as “Virtual reality” (a dishonest adjective and an equally dishonest noun). They live or strive to live “above it all” atop a Trump tower or such. San Francisco’s recently built multi-million dollar Millennial Tower, full of false earthling, is already leaning badly, condos losing value.

False earth types travel over their false earth streets paved atop what others would call the True Earth, with such streets paved with what a True Earth type might describe as the dried concealed “blood” of Mother Earth. That same False Earth Capricorn sees no problem in oil drilling or fracking --- what a True Earth type might describe as incessant, world - wide brutal gang rape of Mother Earth. To each his own, and the only value to the false earth type is “to own.” Such types ignore the wise ways of the True Earth original people of this continent: land should not be owned, bought and sold. You can’t eat money.

Sun in Capricorn Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., Peace and Human Justice Advocate Sun in Capricorn FBI "Chief" J. Edgar Hoover hated MLK and secretly tried to deter him (or worse)

CAPRICORN “Earth”: Mountain in Nature; Cornerstone for Stoneworkers

Capricorn “Earth” is different from Taurus Earth or Virgo Earth. In Nature, Capricorn is associated with “mountain.” The Sea Goat climbs up the mountain. Indigenous people see certain mountains as particularly sacred. In many cultures with “Sky God” deities, the mountaintop is a place of spiritual experience. Biblical Moses received the Ten Commandments engraved on stone when he went to the mountaintop. Biblical Abraham almost sacrificed Isaac on a mountaintop. Sun in Capricorn Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. is most famous for his “I Have a Dream” speech with the line, “I have been to the mountain top….”

In ancient Greece and other cultures, birth defective children were left on top of mountains, to be returned to the Gods, unless somehow able to miraculously survive. A Capricorn individual is sometimes symbolically the sacrificial “goat” while another Capricorn individual is instead an amazing survivor of extreme adversity in the harshest of circumstances. (Speaking of surviving harsh circumstances immediately after being born, Jesus Christ’s birth is celebrated when the Sun is in early Capricorn, a birth in a humble Nature setting.)

When humans work with Nature, Capricorn is associated with the cornerstone. It is the first stone in a structure of many stones (or bricks). A cornerstone, the first stone laid, hold the 90 degree right angle (“square”) tension of where one wall meets the other. The historical moment of that beginning is engraved upon that stone.

RESPONSE-ABLE for What? RESPONSIBLE To WHOM?

As one of four “Cardinal” signs, Capricorn starts off something, re-orients toward life in a new or “re-new-ed” perspective. For Capricorn, a reasonable, realistic response to the actual or symbolic challenge of “Winter” is assuming response-ability for some purpose and for someone. What purpose? For whom?

For some Capricorns, acquisition at the literal and figurative expense of others is one’s purpose, done for oneself only, or perhaps for some limited few, such as one’s immediate family and/or small board of lazy, greedy major stockholders or investors. For such Capricorns, his or her tribe is small, and all others matter not. To such a type, more is usually better than less.

By contrast, for a True Earth Capricorn, one’s purpose is not so selfish, and one’s tribe is greater in number, including not just the living, but also living in accordance with ancestral wisdom of old, and even mindful of generations not yet born, even a “tribe” that includes non-two-legged beings. To this type, less is often responsibly better than more, taking no more than that which will be used. This is true conservation, the conservation of natural resources, unlike the political “conservatism” of a non-sustainable exploitive inequality.

CAPRICORN: a “Feminine” Sign

The Water signs and the Earth signs, including Capricorn, are described as “feminine” in contrast to the “masculine” Fire and Air signs. Why? Air and Fire want to go up, or stay up. By contrast, Water and Earth are heavier elements than air and fire. They want to stay down, or move downward. Relatively speaking, we can contrast one pair in relation to another pair. Think “Yang” and “Yin.”

Before and outside of our patriarchal astrology, Capricorn was/is considered feminine in another way --- the place of Grandmother wisdom. Tribal Capricorn is not for governmental-type organization. In many indigenous cultures, including the Iroquois, a council of “grandmothers” decided all big decisions involving the tribe. Perhaps in the cyclic way of astrology, we will “circle back” to this model of collective organization. “Grandmotherly” or not, societies of every sort have rules of law.

CAPRICORN IS ANSWERABLE TO LAW, BUT WHO’S LAW?

Some Capricorn Sun signs behave as “a law unto oneself.” “I am not a crook” Sun in Capricorn Richard Nixon comes to mind. Nixon also said something to the effect that “If the president does it, it is not illegal.” Long-time head of the FBI, J. Edgar Hoover, similarly conducted the bureau as he saw fit, not only as law allowed. In contrast, some Sun in Capricorns (MLK, for instance) choose to only obey the sensible and just laws, but consciously and deliberately suffer the consequences of disobeying those laws he or she deem unjust.

Most Capricorn types (Sun, Moon, Ascendant), regrettably, obey even the most arbitrary and petty of laws. They all but worship materially successful men like Steve Jobs, Warren Buffet or Bill Gates (no matter how exploitive of Nature and humanity. They serve as fearful and rigid cogs in the machine of society, miserable, nameless, forgotten. The false earth “system”, throws them away like so much Amazon excess packaging. Tragically, such poor souls will likely whine neurotically to his or her last worried breath, “I have to, I had to…”

Other Capricorn Sun Signs merit far more respect. (See list accompanying this Report for some examples of the admirable and the regrettable.) Every modern Capricorn must decide for herself or himself, at any given point in life, what is truly necessary to do, and what is truly necessary to have, to what extent to involve oneself in the “false earth” presently dominating the True.

THE SEAGOAT MYTHOLOGY of CAPRICORN

As many know, our seasonal-based astrology’s Zodiacal signs are no longer in complete alignment with the constellations of the same name. They used to be, but have slowly but surely drifted away. However, like a people who emigrated from their homeland (Irish Americans, for example), each Zodiacal sign carries the mythic memory of the mythology of the constellation of the same name. For Capricorn, the image is a “Sea Goat.” Like Pisces’ two fish connected by a common cord, this mythic story is related to the frightening story of the terrible Titan, Typhon. Pan, the Nature-based goat-man, cloven hooves and all, frolicked joyously, playing his “Pan pipes” and chasing after any females who might have happened by. In order to attempt to get away from the horrible monster Typhon, Pan turned himself into a being with an upper body of a goat, but with a fish tail. By choice or not, unlike Pisces’ Venus and Eros, Pan did not get away. Instead. Like every Capricorn, Pan lived in a world of great adversity and an often present or ever-present intimidating “other.”

Just as Pan had to contend with Typhon, for every Capricorn, life includes some formidable, seemingly life-threatening adversary. For some, for example, the dreaded threat might be communism/socialism/civil rights (e.g., Dick Nixon and J. Edgar Hoover.) Other “Capricorns” fought the evil that was Nazism. Still others contend with some other “monster.”

No matter what one’s own perception of the specific “monstrous” manifestation of life’s greatest challenge, EVERY Capricorn Sun Sign operates in juxtaposition to challenging life circumstances.

NOTE: Speaking of life in awful times, including “Monster” storms and devastating fires, now and in recent years, we have had Neptune and Chiron in Pisces and Pluto in Capricorn. (See article at my website: www.chironsouljourneytruth.com )

“BIG CHIEF Won’t Kneel Down, Not On the Ground”

Every Zodiacal sign is associated with a part of the human body. Capricorn is associated with the knees. Think CAP-ricorn and “Knee CAPs.” Kneeling is associated with subservient respect for a Deity or a temporal ruler. Capricorn is “ruled” by Saturn/Chronos, the “Lord of Time.” 2017 in American football has been the year of “Taking a knee” during the playing and singing of the U.S.A. national anthem, a song written by a racist with an original racist verse. Ironically, what looks like a gesture of greatest tribute to the U.S. A. flag is more a bodily prayer of protest, as if praying for Divine intervention to bring “liberty and justice for all.”

Capricorn’s first degree image is an “American Indian chief.” Some African American in New Orleans “mask” as colorfully dressed American Indians, each “tribe” led by a “Big Chief.” In songs like “Indian Red” the singer sings as the voice of a “Big Chief” who “won’t kneel down, not on the ground”, an artful protest against expected racial subservience. Capricorns can give subservience, demand subservience, or protest expected subservience in the interest of justice. This issue is a restatement of the issue of obeying law or not, as presented previously in this article.

CAPRICORN: BEYOND THE CLICHED STEREOTYPES

The thirty Sabian Symbol degree images for each sign of the Zodiac, give us further clues toward the understanding of each sign. Individually, each expresses a particular uniqueness. Examined as a group, we get clues about the sign itself. About twenty-five years ago, I wrote a series of articles about each sign from such a perspective. Some of my observations follow.

• The genuinely successful Capricorn is one who has reached into the threatening darkness and found the sacred light within and has brought back that special something to society. To this sign, the physical only is not enough, nor is the spirit alone enough. Capricorn represents man or woman as true spirit incarnate, living not in the hermits cave, but (in) the tribe of evolving humanity, seeking no release from this world, but instead accepting the reality to “be here now” in spite of life’s adversities.

Putting Thirty Pieces Together: Conclusions About the Sign of Capricorn:

• The main theme of Capricorn is development of human mastery, physically, socially and spiritually, within certain narrow, freely accepted limits.
• Respect for the propriety of time and space
• “Sensible”: common-sense-ical; often “sensate”; utilizing the five senses, particularly aware of Nature’s condition at the moment

Putting Thirty Pieces Together: Conclusions About the Sign of Capricorn:

~ Honest vulnerability (One can only do so much….)

~ Enjoyment of life, even in very limiting circumstances

~ Practical application of occultism or old lore or “truisms”

~ “Walking the Talk”: Living one’s beliefs in “the real world”

Thank you, you particular Capricorns, past and present, for living true!

READ: Some CAPRICORN SUN SIGNS (Bold Italics = recently in the news, 2017) Click here

Astrology’s MINORITY REPORTs Coming in the first part of 2008 include:

AQUARIUS: COLD AIR sign of mid-winter: Of Insiders and Outsiders (No Fifth Dimension nonsense)

WHEN EVIL DESPOTS SEIZE POWER, What to do? Applying the mythic-based Wisdom of Chiron