What Capricorn means: the sign that takes the long way up

Zero degrees Capricorn is the winter solstice

The sign starts at the moment the Sun is farthest south and the northern day is shortest, and runs for the next thirty degrees. Capricorn is a division of the ecliptic counted from the equinox, not the constellation of the same name, which the Sun does not reach until about January 20; the Aries page accounts for the slippage. The sign is cardinal, opening winter, and the third earth sign. The tropic of Capricorn is named for it: the latitude where the Sun stands overhead on the day the sign begins.

Capricorn gives a planet a ladder

Whatever a planet governs, in Capricorn it is done with a plan, at cost, and for the long term. The planet works as if someone senior were watching, and takes the slow route because the slow route holds. Mercury in Capricorn says the useful thing and no more. Venus in Capricorn shows affection by turning up, on time, for twenty years. Mars in Capricorn outlasts everyone who wanted the same thing faster.

Capricorn Sun, Moon and rising, in a person

A Capricorn Sun keeps the receipts from its first job and does not speak of the promotion until the contract is signed. Its purpose is the long climb with a title at the top, the qualification or the mortgage paid down, and the business that ran from a side table for five years before anyone was told it was a business.

A Capricorn Moon fills the tank, pays the bill and writes down a plan for the thing that might go wrong, and feels better for having done so. The feeling itself is attended to once the chores are finished, and sometimes not at all; being respected is how it knows it is loved.

Capricorn rising arrives three minutes early, in the darker jacket. The manner is quiet and a little formal, and the stranger finds themselves checking the plan with this person before they have found out what the person's job is.

Cancer opposite, Saturn and the 10th

Cancer is the sign across from Capricorn: public standing at one pole and the family behind a shut door at the other end, so a Capricorn planet answers to whatever sits in Cancer. Saturn is its ruler, and Saturn's domain, where effort goes, what is held back and what that costs, is the sign in a sentence. The house that matches Capricorn is the 10th: career, reputation, authority.