Two of the many things that correlate with the Capricorn archetype are the winter solstice and death. Which is why I found myself visiting a rural burying ground this morning at sunrise in 9 degree weather.
I post a monthly Reel on Instagram on the first day of each zodiacal season and always use my own videos rather than stock ones from Canva.
Yesterday while pondering what kind of video could represent Capricorn I got the idea to go to the burying ground where my father is buried.
Capricorn is a feminine/yin earth sign ruled by Saturn. It is at the part of the year where there is still more dark than light, but the amount of light begins to increase each day.
Ancient astrologers considered Capricorn the gateway of the gods, which is where the person leaves their body, and hence the association with death and the winter solstice. Capricorn symbolizes the journey from home and security to higher achievement and transcendence.
By contrast, its opposite sign of Cancer is the gateway of mankind, where soul descends into matter, and symbolizes home and nurturing.
This morning I meditated on how, at the moment of my father’s birth, Cancer was rising, and its exaltation ruler Jupiter was located in Capricorn.
As Jungian analyst and astrologer Liz Greene says, “The sign in which Jupiter is placed on an individual’s birth chart suggests the way in which he seeks this experience of meaning in life” and is also “where and how we might experience our greatest joy (p. 153 By Jove! The Meaning of the Astrological Jupiter).
The story that came to mind right away as I reflected on one of the many ways my father might have experienced meaning in a Capricornian way was how, after he finished two years of mandatory military service in the Army after college graduation, the NSA (National Security Agency) tried to recruit him and made him a job offer.
He declined because it would have required living in a different country every few years and he felt that would be too difficult as a husband and father. He hadn’t met my mother yet and was single at the time (this is the part where I should mention Capricorn is located in the 7th house of relationships, love, and marriage in his chart). He then settled into a Capricornian type industry that he would work in for the remainder of his career and never left the upper midwest. I can see now how the opposites of Capricorn and Cancer found some balance in his life story.
My astrology teacher Adam Elenbaas says in his year 3 course, “It is always a story that tells the chart, not the chart that tells the story.“
And: “Once a story has started moving into and through a chart, the chart may start helping us continue to tell the story, in unexpected ways.”
Shortly before he died, Jung was discussing astrology with his daughter and told her that “the darned stuff even works after death.”
Standing in that burial ground at sunrise, I felt the truth of this. Dad’s Jupiter in Capricorn – joy in commitment, in staying, in building a life rather than chasing prestige – is still teaching me. The chart doesn’t end when the body does. The story continues, carried by those who remember.
This is what Capricorn teaches: Some things endure.
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