"I can't fly."
"I'll teach you."
"Oh, how lovely to fly!"
"I'll teach you how to jump on the wind's back, and then
away we go!"
"Oo!" she exclaimed rapturously.
Yes, I know Pisces is a Water Sign, not an Air Sign, but have you never heard of a flying fish? Before these two get carried away with the idea of flying anywhere together, they'd best synchronize their propellers and adapt themselves to each other's decidedly different mores. Although it's true that they frequently mix and match traits very well, they are not cut from quite the same pattern. For instance, very few Fish are formal.
The typical Pisces male cruises through Life, taking little or nothing seriously, including himself least of all custom and tradition. He's as informal as can be.
Conversely, all Capricorns are formal. As formal as can be. The girl Goat projects an image of "class" and "quality," whether she lives in a railroad car down by the depot (where she won't remain long) or in the governor's mansion whether she spends her time signing up for food stamps (which she won't
do for long) or shuffling her stock certificates. Everything this girl does is formal and formalized even breathing. She inhales and exhales correctly. She also brushes her teeth carefully and thoroughly, in the right direction, and even gargles discreetly. You may wonder how one manages to brush one's teeth and gargle in a well-bred manner, but this female has the hang of it.
An acquaintance of mine in San Diego, California, has a neighbor, a Capricorn girl named Laurie, who works in a topless bar. Now, that's a comparatively rare occupation for the normally shy and reticent (on the surface) Saturn-ruled female. But now and then it happens to even reputation-conscious Cappy.Nevertheless, despite the fact that she's temporarily employed in such an untypical Capricorn manner, she never forgets or neglects her Saturnine sense of status and style. Along with the group of three or four girls she works with, Laurie is naked above the waist, as she performs her acrobatic dances on the barstage,turning miniature cartwheels and the like, to the beat of rock records from overhead speakers. Yet, Capricorn Laurie stands out from the rest. That is, one notices her. There's something that sets her apart. Whereas the other girls are totally topless - above Laurie's twisting and turning nude torso, around her neck, Laurie wears a modest white collar, demurely fastened with a black bow tie.
At the sound of the music that signals her entrance cue, Cappy calmly adjusts her collar and bow tie, then prances out before the customers with her dignity intact, secure in the knowledge that she's dressed formally and appropriately relatively speaking. If the owner of the bar should ever demand that Laurie remove her "costume" to match the appearance of the other girls, I guarantee you Cappy would coldly resign before she'd comply. After all, a lady is a lady, and anyone with true class and breeding dresses correctly for all occasions.(Obviously, Capricorn Laurie considers her appearance in the bar to be a "black-tie affair," not one of those ill-bred come-as-you-are-when-invited parties.) She won't be there much longer anyway. Laurie is moving to Las Vegas soon. A girl has to think of her future and make plans to advance herself. After Vegas, perhaps Broadway or Hollywood, and a starring role in which she'll dance fully - but still formally - clothed. Capricorn Laurie, you see, thinks of herself not as a topless dancer (that's merely a practical expediency of the moment),but as the new Ginger Rogers or Ann-Margret. Considering Capricorn's patient and plodding, yet nearly always successful, trek to the top of the mountain, it's quite possible that she is.
Laurie may not be aware of it, but she's following a solid, well-marked path up the mountainside. Everyone's favorite ecdysiast, Gypsy Rose Lee, was also a Capricorn. Like Laurie, Gypsy had her own, personal sense of Saturnine dignity.Disdainfully refusing to imitate the other burlesque queens of her day, Gypsy never exposed her totally nude body. With carefully designed costumes, featuring
strategically placed zippers, she revealed just enough to intrigue, but never enough to be vulgar - and consequently, made more money and achieved a more lasting fame than today's centerfold girls could ever hope to realize. The most popular and unique part of her performance was her wry Capricorn humor.One of her closest and most trusted friends was showman Mike Todd, who used to take the "the Gyp" to art galleries (when he was in the chips) to thank her for making one of his Broadway musicals a hit. "Take your choice," he'd tell her, chomping on his cigar, "pick a painting, and whatever it costs, it's yours."Capricorn Gypsy never failed to select the most expensive painting of the lot - usually in the $4,000 price range (quadruple the sum for today's inflation), and they all greatly increased in value over the years - according to Mike Todd's sensitive, perceptive biographer, Art Cohen, who was tragically killed in the plane crash that ended Todd's life. Also according to Cohen, when Gypsy hit the jackpot, playing the lead in Mike's hit show Star and Garter, she sensibly
purchased the three-story, twenty-six-room town house built by Anne Vanderbilt, on East Sixty-third Street, in Manhattan - and "its five thousand dollar marble floor, fountained patio, seven baths, and elevator were a considerable improvement over her thirty dollar a month flat." Later, the town house was worth ten times what Cappy paid for it. Like Laurie, Gypsy was a practical lady, whose modesty was equalled only by her common sense and ambition.I relate these little stories as a hint to the Pisces male that not every Capricorn woman is a schoolteacher or librarian, which brings us to the second thing the male Fish should know about this usually soft-spoken, always hard-headed lady. Not only will she frown on informality, sloppiness, and improper behavior (especially in public), she'll also disapprove of a lack of ambition in a man or in a woman, including herself.
A Goat Girl is amazingly surefooted when she's climbing a ladder. Not a stepladder - the ladder to the success and recognition that bring her a sense of self-esteem. If not public achievement, then at the very least, her grimly determined goal will be to gain the respect and admiration of her friends, neighbors,and relatives. Especially her relatives. She probably only has one or two close friends, three at most, from grade-school days. As for neighbors, if she lives in the country, they're a far piece down the road, and if she lives in the city, well. . . . metropolis cave dwellers aren't very chummy. So actually, it's her own family she needs to impress, in a quiet way, if she's not the kind of Goat Girl to
pursue a wider fame. Cappy will rise to the "best of the breed," in however large or small a circle. She'll sell the most Avon products in her district, have the cleanest house on the block - or be acknowledged as a chef supreme for her Thanksgiving and other holiday family dinners. Status is status, whatever form it takes.
Unless she was orphaned as an infant or small child, this girl will stick to her family like a persistent burr. If she was orphaned, she'll transfer her frustrated and detoured sibling-parent loyalty to her own immediate family, children,and grandchildren - or she'll attempt to encompass both family circles with Saturn's compulsive, devoted duty. It's a lovely quality, one of her most endearing character traits. But the Fish should be aware that he'll always rank second to her family with her, not in love or affection, but in the areas of her prime concern and attention.
Actually, the Pisces man will probably adjust contentedly to her family fetish.Unless his birth chart contains afflicted planets in Gemini, Aquarius, or Sagittarius, he'll enjoy being made an honorary member of her family, and love her all the more for her devotion to them. It proves she's reliable, dependable. . . . words which have a strong appeal to his Neptune subconscious,though he may fight it. He's more relaxed, less restless, when he feels a sense of emotional security in a relationship. Families are stable. (Naturally, there are some Cappies who, for one sad reason or another, are without any family ties,but it's extremely rare.) Yet, regardless of his need for stability, if the family togetherness is overdone, it could create a problem. When a Pisces man begins to feel someone's constantly looking over his shoulder, and discussing the pros and cons of every move he makes, he'll begin having nightmares about the Great Inquisition (as he did when he studied it in history class, in school). All Pisceans have a thing about personal privacy - and freedom. Freedom of thought, action,
and movement. Any sort of confinement (mental, emotional, or physical),whether actual or merely implied, will cause him to become restless and irritable.The Goat Girl should remember that a Fish needs to know he's swimming in a large body of water. Like the Nature fish, it's unkind to confine a male Pisces in a small tank, where all he can do is swim eternally in circles, never straight ahead - to explore. Never mind all the pretty, decorative shells at the bottom of the tank, it's both cruel and boring, and causes both kinds of poor fish to become neurotic. Like the unkindness of keeping a bird in a cage. Or tying a goat to a fence post. How would she like to be tied to a fence post, and have to depend on someone to toss her a few crumbs, now and then?
Although the Capricorn woman can be silently possessive, unmistakably indicating her disapproval by an icy look, or a refusal to communicate, she's not likely to subject her Fish to stormy, emotional scenes of angry, tearful jealousy and he just might be so grateful, he'll stay away less and less frequently,until he's nearly as rooted as she. (Roots are what he's really seeking, but he doesn't know it.) All Pisces men are alike in this way. When they're cheerfully given all the freedom they need, they seldom roam far, and are nearly always faithful lovers and loyal husbands. But when their freedom is smothered, they'll feel nervous and restless, and begin to slip and slide out of the grasp of unfounded jealousy, until they become unwilling channels to prove the wisdom of the old rule that a person will become what the one he loves and who loves him expects and believes him to be.
The moral of the story is that the quickest way to insure a Pisces male's being unfaithful is to expect him to be, and let him know your suspicions - while the most reliable way to insure he'll never be disloyal is to have complete faith in his integrity, to let him know his love and his support is needed and appreciated. More than most Sun Sign males (except maybe Gemini and Sag), this man is strangely vulnerable to being completely trusted. Somehow, it makes him ashamed to betray that trust. Yet (also like Gemini and Sag), if he's doubted,the doubt itself (although he may not consciously realize it) weakens his will,at the same time that it strengthens the darker side of his curious nature, creating the necessary excuse for an inclination toward variety and multiple experience.
No one, man or woman, really wants to be unfaithful to love. Unfaithfulness inevitably brings only the sharp pain of guilt and tangled emotions, never joy. But some men must have a constantly changing challenge, varied forms of excitement (not necessarily sexual), or become deadly bored and depressed.The wise Goat Girl who loves a Fish will understand this, and provide him with so much brightness and lightness and unexpected surprises within their own relationship,that he finds the kaleidoscopic interests he needs - with her. That's truly the way he'd so much rather have it, in his secret heart.
It may sound strange, but there's much that is practical in the way the Pisces man and Capricorn woman approach their sexual relationship. She may be,at first, more than a little shy - but by "at first," I mean before she's ever been embraced by a male, before her first goodnight kiss. Once initiated, this woman isn't the kind to be coy or play romantic games. Her sexual expression is as direct as everything else about her - and, of course, also like everything else,practical. As for him, he is, like all the Neptune-ruled, completely shockproof in all things, including the area of his own lovemaking experience. Added to these individual and mutual qualities of the Fish and the Goat is the fact that the Earth and Water elements are represented in their passion, which adds both depth and imagination to their sexual union, causing it to be a many-faceted rediscovery of themselves, especially if there's a single or double conjunction, sextile,or trine between the Sun and Moon in their birth charts.
If there's disharmony between his Sun and her Moon, or vice versa, her approach to sex may not be romantic enough to fulfill him, and might leave him still vaguely yearning - while his approach may seem to her to be too light and fleeting, not deep enough to satisfy her inner longings. But even so, the foundation of friendship these two share because of the 3-11 Sun Sign Pattern vibration and the easy communication usually achieved through the 3-11 influence will probably be sufficient to enable them to smooth out any problems,after a while. Often, the understanding achieved after trust has inspired confession deepens desire in a startling way.
It's not that she wants to deny him. Her first instinct is to provide the man she loves with anything she knows will give him the warm feeling of security, on every level. But she often thinks the only way to do this is to be a rock herself for him to lean on in every storm. That's fine, it's wonderful, but it's not quite enough. She'll have to be his rock (for he does need that kind of security), yet also somehow manage to match his own personality and desires, which are so much more peripatetic than hers. It won't be easy for her to make a deliberate effort to be looser, more willing to fly in the wind and take chances, more adaptable and less cautious. But if she really wants to keep him near her, and mold love into a forever shape, she can always call on Saturn to firm her resolve.Whatever a Capricorn woman wants intensely enough, she has the strength within her to make happen. She can do anything she really wants to do, anything at all. Her patience and her instinctive wisdom are a formidable combination. In the final analysis, Neptune can always be conquered by Saturn, when Saturn chooses to take the time and trouble to be victorious.
The greatest gift a Goat Girl brings to her gentle Fish is the warm comfort of her dependability. He knows he can depend on her steady faith in him, when he's discouraged from repeated disappointments, weary and soul-wounded from the rejection of his dreams by a cold, uncaring world. The greatest gift he brings to her is his marvelous Neptune imagination.
He'll tell her she has skin like a lotus petal (he's never seen a lotus) - hair as golden as a sunset over the Swiss Alps, or as shiny black as a raven's wing (he's never been to Switzerland, and the only raven he knows of, firsthand, is the one in Poe's verse) - and eyes like sapphires (even if he's never seen such a gem,and couldn't distinguish a sapphire from a piece of blue glass).
When he tells her she reminds him of the Mona Lisa, neither will he need to have viewed da Vinci's original masterpiece to be unerringly right in his comparison.Every Cappy's smile is hauntingly reminiscent of Mona Lisa, because the girl who posed for the painting was a Capricorn herself rumored by several historians to have been a direct descendent of Anne, mother of the girl called Mary, who was the wife of Joseph, the carpenter - and it was the mystery of the woman Anne that da Vinci was attempting to capture through the expression of holy secrets in Mona's Saturn eyes. Only a Pisces man would sense that truth without ever having read it anywhere.
