It is sad to have to say that the power to fly gradually left
them .... In time, they could not even fly after their hats.
Want of practice, they called it; but what it really meant
was that they no longer believed.
Most children remember how to fly (astral travel) and all sorts of other grand things for some years, a decade or a dozen, say, after their entrance into this stodgy world. But Capricorn children forget quite rapidly. It takes most small Goats only a few months or so to lose all memory of where they came from. . . and what wondrous powers they possessed. By the time they've passed their six-month birthdays they are seldom able to any longer see the druids dancing in the moonlight, under the oak tree, on Twelfth Ni ght Solstice . . . although I know of one small Capricorn girl named Jill, and another named Lael, who remembered them well enough to draw rather charming sketches of them years later.
However, we mustn't sniffle over them in sympathetic sentimentality, because (as I've told you in other Capricorn chapters, and also in my first book,Sun Signs) the Goats are chronological miracles. As they grow older, they grow younger. After normal children have long since become boring adults, trotting off to work, their briefcases under their arms, Capricorns - who were all born looking and behaving like their own great-grandparents - will be starting to reverse gears and travel backward toward the blooming cheeks, light hearts and merry, twinkling eyes of true children.
It's Mother Nature's magical gift to the Saturnine Goats. Assisted by old Father Time Saturn, himself, she allows Cappies to begin - slowly and gradually,the way they do everything - to recapture the faith and wonder of their lost youth, when the years of responsibilities have passed. Better late than never. In fact, it may be better, even, than sooner - when you really think about it. The exact calendar age when this miracle occurs is individual with each Goat, but happen it will.
How very perceptive of these people to teach us the valuable lesson that we contained the wisdom of how to be happy when we were born into this earthly existence, then threw it all away, but if we wish, we can make up for our foolishness later, and laugh at arbitrary life spans, even laugh at the false propaganda that the process of death and decay is unavoidable. Trust Saturn, the ruling planet of Capricorn, to teach that sort of lesson. Saturn's tests for the soul are wearying and severe, but his rewards never fail to be solid gold, and lasting.The way it works out with a pair of Goats is that they may have a somewhat smothering and restrictive influence on each other when they're young, but together they'll have more fun than a whole cageful of baboons later on. Of course, when they're younger, they make up for their precocious maturity and stifling caution by sharing their shy sweetness and cozy dependability. Admittedly,with some Capricorns - though not all - this may be soured a bit at times by gruffness and sternness. Nevertheless, the qualities of sweetness, coziness and dependability are worth a little mutual crankiness. It's comforting to a Goat to have another Goat around, someone who is reliable - someone who will still mean on Tuesday week exactly what he or she said on Saturday last. Especially if you've been hanging around with a bunch of Geminis, Librans or Aquarians. ppppIt can be a blessed relief.
When two Capricorns toss in their lots together - no, that doesn't sound right, Cappies never toss anything. When two Capricorns carefully enter an office,home, classroom or bank together, they communicate with one another much in the same manner as busy ants, with their antennas wiggling silently,bustling away in perfect coordination and understanding. Whatever they do,they will be working admirably hard at doing it. Even if they are only talking together, they work hard at saying things that matter, that mean something,rather than just exchanging silly superficialities. Capricorns absolutely never exchange silly superficialities. If you'll picture Capricorns Howard Hughes, Carl Sandburg, Gary Cooper, Richard Nixon, Humphrey Bogart, J. Edgar Hoover and novelist Henry Miller sitting around together having a fireside chat, discussing matters of mutual concern and interest with Capricorns Jill Kemery Goodman, Steve Mackin, Lael Weisman, Royce King, Sinthia Sullivan, Lennart Mucke, Evelyn Brewer and Rachael Fallon, you will not expect the conversation to consist of silly superficialities or expect them to be wasting their time in inconsequential chitchat and meandering minutiae.
Now, you might say, "I don't know Jill Kemery Goodman, Steve Mackin,Lael Weisman, Royce King, Sinthia Sullivan, Lennart Mucke, Evelyn Brewer or Rachael Fallon, so how can I picture such a scene?" You are wrong. You do know them, because I've told you their Sun Signs; therefore, you know them as well as I, or at least well enough to picture them. Astrology is that reliable, especially when it comes to Goats. Other Sun Signs may deviate and differ here and there in their Sun Sign attributes, due to additional planet positions at their birth, but Cappies almost never deviate or differ in the basic Sun Sign essence,despite their other planetary positions. They root into the Earth and behave with nearly perfect predictability, bless their hearts. Whether they are naughty or nice, they are predictable. You can see why they like to flock together. They know they can trust one another. (And while they are trusting one another, they keep one eye open for any monkey business.) Did I say "flock together"? I'd like to retract that descriptive phrase. Most Goats are loners - or they have just one very good chum for a lifetime of chumming. Never more than three.That's a rule written into the Saturn Constitution, called the Third Saturnine Amendment. When it comes to people picking, a Capricorn's first choice for good company is often another Goat. If not, then some other Earth Sign, followed in preference by a Water Sign. Most of them tend to be extremely wary of Fire and Air Signs, and this may be one of their few misjudgments, because life requires a mixture of personalities to be interesting.
A Capricorn seldom complains about another Capricorn's faults and failings,which is quite sensible of them, because they have the same faults and failings.It's like criticizing yourself. They also benignly smile upon each other's virtues, which, again, is only natural. Like all other Sun Signs, most Goats think their faults are great strengths, and so when they see them reflected in another Saturn person, they approve.
Almost every Capricorn is devoted to relatives and family, sometimes grudgingly, and with a sigh of resignation, but nevertheless, devoted. Once in a while one of these typical family-worshiping Cappies enters an association or relationship with the rare kind of Goat who has, for heavy and soul-wrenching reasons, cut ties with his or her family. The first or typical Cappy will deeply sympathize with such a situation, and have the good sense not to nag the other about it, but he or she will be secretly very deeply affected and will treat the Goat who is separated from "family" with unusual gentleness and compassion.
From youth through adulthood, until the reverse aging syndrome begins,Capricorns are dyed-in-the-wool realists. They face life squarely, without flinching. When life socks it to them, they don't whine, complain or try to pin the blame on someone else. They simply get up, dust themselves off and make a practical decision about how to turn their failure into at least a semblance of success. These people will figure the most deviously deliberate ways to attempt to salvage something of value from any kind of wreckage of their plans. When I said they won't try to .pin the blame on anyone else, I should have added that they also dislike to shoulder the blame themselves. That's because they never make mistakes. Or if they do, they are not enthusiastic about admitting these rare slip-ups. They may glance around a little nervously, chastise themselves privately with great severity, but they will seldom publicly say "I'm sorry - I was wrong - forgive me." Capricorns feel that the best way to handle a goof is to bury it, make a firm mental note never to allow it to occur again, and do nothing to call undue attention to it. After burying a mistake, the Goat will not set up a road sign with an arrow pointing to the spot. Only now and then will a Capricorn with an afflicted Sun or Ascendent say or do something against his or her own nature. Most of the time the Goats will take a rusty failure, the nails and broken glass of defeat or ridicule, and do their darnedest to Scotch-tape or glue them together into something usable. They don't always succeed, of course, but they are determined, and they usually won't back down unless they see a steamroller headed toward them. Then Cappy will move. For these people are, to repeat - practical. They're extremely shrewd at estimating the extent of their difficulties and the basics of the situation, whatever it may be. Note that I said "estimating," not guessing. Capricorns never guess. They estimate. There's a difference. The former is chancy, the latter is based on data and deduction.
Unlike Taurus people, who will shove despite all obstacles, and who sit obstinately while the steamroller runs right over them, Capricorn is level-headed and wise enough to know when retreat is the only solution short of total disaster.If there's one thing Goats try to avoid at all cost, it's total disaster. They'll utilize every aspect of disappointment, every twist and turn of fate to some sort of advantage before discarding it - as Nature's billy goats will find something of nutritional value or chewing pleasure in whatever you offer them.
This is why, when two Capricorns get together, they can make gigantic successes from only small scraps of possibilities. They plod along, side by side, not wasting any more time speculating than absolutely necessary, getting things in the proper perspective and paying strict attention to priorities. After a reasonable length of time, they reach their combined goals - and no one deserves an achievement more. They worked for it, earned it and waited for it. It's hard to resent a Capricorn team's success or begrudge them their security, because you know they paid their dues to get there (but not a penny more!). Goats are not really stingy, they're genuinely generous with their real friends (all three of them) and their families - just a little reserved with the cash when it comes to anyone else.
The association of two Capricorns is not all seriousness and sacrifice. Only about three fourths of the time. But, during that remaining fourth, these two can enjoy life more than others ever suspect. For the Goat finds deep pleasure and satisfaction in Nature, art, music .. and improving the mind. Cappies can find happiness and excitement in anything that makes good sense, and that includes a lot of things. Tinkering with cars or engines, building or constructing,gardening, reading, creating beauty from the plain and ugly, watching the interest grow in their savings accounts - challenge and inspire the Goats. To be able to remodel an old shirt into wearability, or to mend the broken washing machine
so it agitates like new, thrills them. The women darn socks and patch the dish towels; the men putty up the cracks and turn old glass bottles into lamps. It seldom bothers two Capricorns to be snowed in during a blizzardy winter. They have, literally, a thousand and one things to keep them busy and contented.
Most Cappies are unusually kind to pets. They'll never spoil an animal,fuss over it or allow it to get hairs all over their navy-blue sweaters, but they will be good to it. They also love babies, the small and teeny-tiny human infants and animal kingdom babies equally (secretly they adore them), but they will never be found "kitchy-cooing" them. At least one Goat I know, Royce King (the one you said you didn't know, but you really do), keeps the symbol of his Sun Sign, a pet Goat named Gomer, right in his front yard in Cripple Creek,Colorado. Gomer is not allowed by Cappy and his Virgo wife, La Verne, to come in the house and eat dinner at the table, but aside from that, he is definitely a "member of the family." No Goat ever had it so good, because you know how Capricorns are about "family." If you want to see a Capricorn's hard heart go suddenly soft, try as he or she will to disguise it, just show the Goat an appealing kitten or puppy or cuddly baby - including a baby porcupine. These folk, who spurn any sort of "mushy" talk or overt sentiment, verbally or otherwise, will see a two-month-old puppy and exclaim, involuntarily, "Oh, the adorable thing! Look at his fat little paws, and his plump little tummy, and his soft little eyes."Then they'll blush furiously, compose their features and remain silent for an hour or so to punish themselves for capitulating to an open display of emotion.
Capricorns are greater secret-keepers than either Cancer or Scorpio, and the deepest secret they keep (from everyone but each other) is their sentiment,buried beneath Saturn's strict composure and self-control, all the more intense for being so suppressed. Once two Capricorns reach within to strike that chord in each other's hearts, the music of their mutual vulnerability will move them to the kind of recognition that brings unwonted tears to their eyes.
Capricorn Howard Hughes is the ultimate example of the Saturn nature.Yes, you read the verb correctly, I said is - not was. He exemplifies the pure strain of Saturnine responsibility, seriousness and dogged determination to climb to the mountain peak. He's a loner, with Saturn's preoccupation with the mechanical - and the great, sweeping vision of Capricorn for practical, not frivolous, miracles. He possesses (no, not possessed, but possesses - present tense) the intense Capricorn ambition, the wisdom to keep his own counsel, Saturn's brooding silences and inky spells of depression and futility - also Capricorn's innate shyness and rigid self-discipline, plus the insistence that his associates and few friends (the normal Cappy quota of three) be as sensible, efficient and loyal as he is himself. Beneath all his hardness and firmness of purpose lies a softness and sentimentality, a gentleness and tenderness only a very few would ever guess were there - and even fewer have ever glimpsed. Then too, there's the matter of Capricorn's longevity (don't forget the magical reverse-aging process either), and Hughes fits also these Saturnine nuances. Astrologically and historically, the planet Saturn is synonymous with the cold and the north, which is why the Goat is more content living in sub-zero temperatures than most of the rest of us. (Neither is Hughes an exception to this rule of Capricorn.) Since Saturn keeps secrets so well, it's both appropriate and proper that a great secret is contained within this chapter, to be revealed sooner, perhaps, than anyone
knows. Except, of course, the Goat. You can be sure the sensible time for revelation will be chosen. Capricorn never rushes things, and instinctively avoids the premature. One might also add that the Capricorn sense of humor and sense of timing are both exquisite. This, also, fits the picture of the aforementioned secret. It seems almost superfluous to add that Saturn, in astrology, has domain over wills, as in "last will and testament." When dealing with any Capricorn, especially this one, it's well to remember that sense of humor.
Two Goats frolicking (they do sometimes frolic) together can result in a beneficent scene for both. Even as children, these two normally get along remarkably well, quietly using their Crayolas, taking turns placing pennies in their piggy banks and, on the whole, having a gently jolly time of it. As adults, they may have some differences, and since Capricorn is a Cardinal Sign of leadership, there could be a taffy pull now and then over who is really in charge of the association or relationship, but they are less wearing on each other's nerves than other 1-1 Sun Sign Patterns frequently are. They are, of a certainty, less shy with each other than they are with others, more relaxed.
The typical Capricorn has a kind of blanket rule about everything: Whenever you're in doubt about something, don't do it, because it's likely to be wrong. And another rule: Don't rush into things. Time is always on your side.Wouldn't you just know that Cappy would consider Time (ruled by Saturn) a good friend, rather than an enemy? When a couple of compatible Goats join their industrious hands, hard heads - and most important, their gentle hearts - they're guaranteed of doubling their already impressive individual potentials for solid achievement, financial security and emotional serenity, and
what could be more sensible, more practical than that? The last sentence contains a "drawoh-drabor" twin riddle. Don't try to guess it. The answer is too mind-boggling, unless your mind does not boggle easily. Saturn minds do not
