Capricorn Sign

Mythology

Cronus is the ruler of the Titans, the same ancient giants which were described in the Greek mythology. In the Roman mythology he is called Saturonus. As the son of Uranus – the skies God, and Gaia – the earth’s goddess, at this point of time there’s a clue about his role as a connector between heaven and earth and between the spiritual – heavenly and the land –earth. The Mythology describes his rebellion against his father – Uranus, he castrates him with the sickle he got from his mother and removes Uranus from his control of the world, then he takes his place as the ruler of the Gods. Cronus was used to “swallow” his born children because he feared they would reject him and take his place. One of his children was rescued by the scheme his wife – Rea. The survivor was Zeus who fought him and defeated him. The Roman mythology adopted his character and called him ‘Saturanus’, they even added to his rule the rule over time (the word chronology – means time).

Looking at the religious dimension

An interesting representation of Cronus-Saturn of the Capricorn sign is: it resembled in Yanus – that two-faced man who pointed each one to a different direction. The faces pointing back and forth resemble the diachronic, historical time which contains a conscious order of the past-present-future time, what was and what is still expected. Yanus, considered the God of Gods in the roman mythology, contains in him a Capricorn way of thinking and anchors the duration and historical linear time. This gives him exclusivity without a doubt. This way of thinking is central in the Monotheistic religions. The starting point of Judaism occurred in Sinai Mountain, when Moses received the two tablets of stones. In Christianity, the initial event was the Crucifixion of Jesus in Golgota hill. In the Islamic religion it was the Hijra of Muhammad from “Mekka” to “Al Medina” in 622 before the Common Era, which then begins the years of the Islam. Emphasizing the starting point of time, the first source when history began, suggests a religious point of view. Since genesis, the Judaism separates God from creation. The trancendent God would be a flaw, the basis for creating the history (linear history enfolds within it the trancendent God). The Capricorn time is a ticking clock from Alpha point to Omega, until the end of all times. Capricorn won’t get the liquid clock in the painting of Salvador Dali, to him, history and time are not only rigid, but also directional and not cyclic. In the middle, at the time from the starting point to the ending point, there is a flaw in consciousness, collectives and individuals including a package deal of consciousness and choice, a historic “luggage”, sin and fault, supervision, reward and punishment. It’s important to emphasize, Saturn’s time is not just historic but also moves forward, to a specific destination that might be fulfilled by a group which would accept the strict rules of God’s game. For almost 2000 years, Christianity created thousands of interpretations, of all kinds, which meant to prove that each Verse of the Bible doesn’t stand for itself, but is an ingredient in super-narrative which is the Story of the Annunciation of the revelation of Jesus. Undeniably, the truth is without doubt, it is known in advance and is rooted in all religions since their existence. Everything is hidden in the Holy Scriptures. The individual is only a temporary layer in the chain of generations. Linear is the shape and structure, the people are the content which would fill the necessary shape. Chaos and circularity of Pisces in an India orientation, for example: we are in the Maya era, which is a mistake, a false thinking… a Pisces illusion, a kind of dream, all of these cannot appear in Capricorn. The trancendent God, the unbridgeable gap between God and humanity is the center of thought. Professor Biderman highlights (philosophy journeys india and the west, 2003) the constant gap and distance between the Creator and the Creators. This division is the basis for preferring the external over the inner. Regarding the archetypal Capricorn, the memorialization of the unbridgeable gap between humans and God will lead to the dimensions to sin and guilt. The reward and punishment are in the hands of God. Capricorn rejects the revolution, astrological, mystical dimensions of Pisces. From this aspect, these try to diminish the unbridgeable gap. That’s why revolution is a dangerous thing. It’s the essence of Judaism, a conceptual paradigm which prefers the exterior over the interior, the objective over the subjective, the transcendent before the psychological (Biderman). According to the Capricorn, the creation is a type of distance, and it is like that even before the first sin was committed. The attempt of the mystical Pisces to “lower the sky” indicates the starting point which distinguishes between the upper and lower. Pisces sign doesn’t have an trancendent God, the history fades in the cyclic and circular conception, which brings the directional, realistic, meaningful, fault and sin with punishment perspective. Here too, the Original sin gets his impotency. Without it, redemption is unnecessary because the situation before it means that heaven exists. Furthermore, the guilty one becomes a flaw which the Capricorn consciousness lays on, the free will, since we feel guilty we are aware that something is wrong, we could have chosen and act differently. In the Capricorn sign, guilt and free will are bond together. This is the difference between the Capricorn-Judaism and the Pisces eastern teaching in an archetypical way. The linear historic time is a confirmation to Capricorn of the purpose of the end of days by a one-way direction of history who owns a goal. Capricorn is a Meta-narrative and from here comes the deterministic dimension of this sign. A type of “must” wraps the exterior assumption, which blocks every accidental and randomness. The interesting fact is that the source of the word “clock” derives from the word “cloche”, which means clock in French. The first clocks filled a social part, in this permanent way they were located in the front of churches.

The psychological – mythological dimension of Capricorn

Capricorn and his ruler Saturn come to expression in the mythologic-folkloristic character of Senex, the wise old man: An archetype which represents a chronological maturity and a combination of life experience together with intelligence (Rachel Hillel, The Old wise Zarathustra, Jungian Model for Clarification of Nietzsche’s Year 1978). The Latin word “Senex” refers to the old age, which means the end or weakening of the physical strengths that enables the beginning of wisdom. His mystical signs are: Sickle, Scythe (a clue for harvesting and collecting the crops after ripening), a dog, a skull (a symbol of ending) and a watch. The Capricorn Senex is identified with the Western cultural heritage of awareness, order, hierarchy and control. The Senex symbols repression, lack of spontaneity, conscience and guilt. It preserves the existing, it has signs of depression, prohibitions and punishment. The Capricorn Senex is connected with winter and dark images, night, stones, salt and maiden. In mythology, castrating the father Uranus and swallowing his children are a Capricorn characteristic of preferring the old over the new. For Yong, the Senex is a historical character that brings the past and the tastes of generations long gone from this world. Saturn, as a wise old man, reflects the human need for meaning and discipline. He is aware that the lack of intentional goals and principles are not tolerated over time. Instead of the embarrassment and confusion of Pisces, he places order, discipline and an organized structure. The Capricorn delays are basically a process of maturation which aims to recruit the mental strengths in order to deal with stress, initiatives and actions. As an archetypal character in astrology, the Saturn-Capricorn in the old and wise image, the Sunkes is connected with the figures of a prophet, a preacher, a holy man, a philosopher, a spiritual father, a leader, a judge, a Rabbi, a priest, a shaman, the elder witness and a scholar. Jung argues that the wise and old man actually represents the visible side of God and is the mediator between God and human, whom he sees as the figure of God himself. However, Saturn has duality that include forces identified with the devil such as, the Gnostic God- Abraxes. In this God there are the positive and negative, light and shadow. Contradictions have a psychological importance because they are a condition and choice for awareness and spiritual development. The dark side of Capricorn, the wise old Senex, is also evilly reflected and connected to the dwarves. In fairy tales, he is also described as an old man who loses one eye, a symbol of enlightenment, like Osiris and the German God – Votan. In Gnosticism, Saturn is the God of mystery. In Greek mythology, Hermes Trismagistos is comparable to him, who is considered the father of all prophets. Jung recognizes Saturn with a shadow, the same inferior function in his personality, but the confrontation with the shadow is an initial step on the way to a person’s meeting with himself. In the alchemy language, this is an experience with the “nigredo”. In the folkloric literature, this meeting is symbolized by a descent into hell. In a Saturn-Capricorn progress, Faust and Zarathustra are being tested. In simple words, the Saturn shadow is a result of the negative characteristics within us on the other. The devil, by Jung, is an archetype discovery of the collective shadow, that’s because the basis of Saturn is a patriarchal-father one, keeps values and ethics (the word ethics derives from the Greek language “eathos”, which means habit, law and order). The Capricorn has a dimension of fatality. The fatalist type might build, from his sense of fate, the time dimension: “there’s nothing to do, this is fate, this is what happens, this is destiny..”. Pessimism has an important role since it throws on the future, linear, moving forward to a clear destination which is defined in advance and has a specific meaning. In a “package psychological Capricorn deal”, pessimism, determinism, fatalism and apocalypse turn into invisible delegates which are buried deep into knowing humans, and serve the Saturn historical time, connected to Yanus. Maybe time is slippery, it’s unclear and needs to be confirmed through these categories, together with the judgment dimension.

Between Capricorn and Aries, between Englishman and German

Saturn stands as opposed to the philosophical and psychological aspect to Aries and his mythological ruler – Mars. Aries was expressed when he was translated, at a group level, to the Faustian character of the Germans. Rebecca Schechter (Cosmology and Language, 1999) believes that the Germans needed a Faust, who sold his soul to the devil, for the pleasures of the present time and this world. As for Prof. Shlomo Shoham (in his book “Valhalla Golgotha”, Auschwitz), the Germans needed Faust, and in the astrological language- they needed Aries – as a permit to be released from any limit of guilt and Capricorn consciousness. Mars is the antithesis to Capricorn which connects between God and morality and norms, the recognition of limitations and boundaries. The German Aries decided to destroy his authentic representatives of Saturn – the Jews. They are the representatives of conscience and guilt, they are responsible for spreading the religion and the Capricorn morals to humans. The Jew is seen as interfering the spontaneous-instant-creative experience in the “here and now”. Hitler favored Nietzsche’s yellow animal (Blond de Bista), instead of repression and guilt. Instincts, aggression and power replace the Saturn’s shrinking. Faust wants to stay forever, and Zarathustra wants an eternal return. In astrological glasses, they both want the present time, the peak of vitality. Nietzsche’s “Aries-Dionysus” prefers dancing and replaces Christos. As for Zarathustra, Christianity is defeated with the death of God. Mars replaces Saturn. At a group level, England and the Englishmen can be identified as the loyal representatives of Capricorn. Since temporality is the flaw of Saturn and a major Capricorn motif, we can see that in the Englishmen, the time is clear for everyone in London’s Big Ben clock. This is not the only time point for them, the English people dictate time to the world, as proper to the authority of Capricorn – time through Greenwich Time. The British character does have the characteristics of Capricorn: it dictates formality, distance, correctness, hierarchy, stiffness and status, which come to expression by the idea of “the English gentleman, the calculated and understanding man with the demand for “manners”.

Famous Capricorn

Maybe it’s no wonder that celebrities in different territories were not just Capricorn sign but also came from England. Pink Floyd sang “The Wall” (1982), the same Capricorn-wall of protest of the conservancy, distancing and coldness of Saturn, which characterize the British establishment. Maybe it’s not easy to cross the Saturn rings, that’s why Pink Floyd ask: “Is there anyone out there”? … ,The attempt to break through the Capricorn’s Castle, Buckingham Palace. In his book –”Reflections on the French Revolution” (1790), the conservative Irishman, born in the 18th century, and the philosopher Edmund Berk (12.1.1729), points out the importance of history and the Capricorn’s conservatism. Sir Isaac Newton (25.12.1642), the British physicist and mathematician, one of the greatest scientists of all generations was a Capricorn. His physics reflects the astrological Capricorn since he speaks about the first axiom of persistence-inertia – which, in Newton’s opinion, lyes in the material and causes it to continue to move consistently as the Capricorn. For Newton, time and space are absolute. His nature Capricorn drew him to theology, so he claimed that God was the direct cause of the material action in the world. Even the heavenly bodies and their movement need direct intervention from God”. “Time and space are not only absolute”, Newton wrote in the second edition of his famous book “Principia Mathematics” (1687), “They are Divine”. Newton’s universe is a huge clock… Another interesting Capricorn is Rudyard Kipling (30.12.1865). He was born in India into the British colonialism. His famous book was “The Jungle Book” (1894). The book is a Capricorn book because he deals with education which begins in the primitive nature nature- in the presence of the wolf’s lap, and moves forward to a normative Capricorn framework that grows into civilization. Mogli is a great Capricorn story because it deals with the values of morality and the education question. The Hollywood actor, Mel Gibson (3.1.1956), is a Capricorn sign who deals with the movie “Jesus Passion”, with the religious motif of luck.