The Lightening & Brightening of Capricorn

We've moved into the zodiac sign of Capricorn now. What's to say about this sign? On the whole it gets a bad rap, probably only second to Scorpio for negative reporting.

Keywords for Capricorn, the sign ruled by planet Saturn, include: serious, disciplined, careful, cautious, thrifty, cold, organised, solid, old-fashioned, conservative, business-like, and even the adjective coined from their ruler's name -"saturnine". Sounds boring, doesn't it?

A handful of well-known Sun Capricorn people who seem to fly against the keyword stereotype: David Bowie, Jim Carrey, Rod Stewart, Janis Joplin, LL CoolJ..........

I draw a blank from personal experience, regarding Sun Capricorn people, but I have this idea at the back of my mind that many of 'em have a wickedly dry sense of humour - I'm not sure from whence that idea springs, its roots are possibly in planets lying in neighbouring signs.

In any case, I suspect that Sun Capricorns do not embody much of the accepted stereotype unless every personal planet lines up in that sign. Sun Capricorns are liable to have two or more personal planets in neighbouring signs Sagittarius and Aquarius, both likely to dilute Capricorn considerably, and bring in a hint of happy-go-lucky Sagittarius flavour, or some whacky Aquarianisms. Conversely, it's quite easy to pick up Capricorn flavour in natives of those two neighbouring signs, where close personal planets are often found doing a turn in Capricorn.

I'd expect to see more typical Capricorn traits in a person with Saturn rising in Capricorn, the ruler rising in its own sign. That's when Capricorn is going to be more easily seen in public, even if that person's natal Sun and Moon are nowhere near the sign of the seagoat. It's unwise to place too much confidence in Sun signs, they are an easy label, a convenient rule of thumb, a fun grouping, but they are liable to be terribly misleading.

(Sir) Anthony Hopkins has Sun and ascendant in Capricorn - perhaps slightly more stereotypical than those people mentioned above. He comes over as fairly serious and disciplined, a little old fashioned. But even here, his Moon in Sagittarius and Jupiter in Aquarius tend to "mix it up and make it nice", added to which, Capricorn's ruler Saturn lay in Pisces as he was born, lightening its heavy influence quite a lot.

















Graham Chapman (of Monty Python- shirtless in the photo), with Sun and ascendant in Capricorn, Moon in Taurus, Saturn in Taurus sounds like someone Earthy and sensible - heading closer to the stereotype - but Venus and Mars lay in Sagittarius, which kind of knocks it all smartly on the head.



(Sir)Sean Connery (aka the original James Bond) is the nearest I can find to matching a typical Capricorn stereotype, yet his Sun and Moon are in Virgo, an Earth sign which doesn't tend to smother Capricorn completely. He has Capricorn rising with Saturn in first house very close to the ascending degree. Saturn is his dominant planet and Capricorn shares sign dominance with Virgo. The ususal culprits for messing up Capricorn's serious reputation, Sagittarius and Aquarius, don't get a look in in Connery's chart, by the way.

Hopkins and Connery both happen to have been knighted by Queen Elizabeth II - that in itself is rather Capricornian! However, Hopkins is unimpressed and says he only accepted it to make his (then) wife happy! Connery describes it as one of the proudest days of his life. He had been denied the honour for several years due to his passionate Scottish nationalism, and support for Scottish Independence.

I have to say that I'm with Hopkins on this!



POSTSCRPT: We lost a Sun Capricorn lady yesterday - Eartha Kitt. I wrote about her last year - here: "Carmen Jones, Eartha Kitt and Astrology". I noticed that she died as Jupiter conjoined her natal Sun. RIP.