Signs: Cardinal Cross—Capricorn

Lost am I in light supernal, yet on that light I turn my back

The peak experience: material depth offering maximum spiritual opportunity

Capricorn: esoteric meaning

As one of …four signs which are signs of birth, of beginning and of renewed cyclic realisation (Aries, Cancer, Leo, Capricorn) the general influence of Capricorn is as:

the “birthplace of the [soul],” [or “the Christ” see glossary] the place of the “second birth” and the scene for the emergence of the fifth kingdom in nature when the right time comes. In this sign, the initiate comes into a spiritual awareness which demonstrates later in Aquarius and in Pisces as man, the world worker, and man, the world saviour—both of them with a universal mission. (EA 102-3)

The symbol for Capricorn conceals the mystery of the Crocodiles, or Makara (EA 57). Although the Hindu name “Makara” (“magar” in Sanskrit: मकर) is associated with the constellation Capricorn in Vedic astrology, hybrid “crocodile gods” with similar qualities (semi-aquatic, with a body combining various kinds of animal) appear in many diverse cultures, from as early as bronze age Mesopotamia, when the constellation itself marked the Winter Solstice. The idea of creatures emerging from water and walking on land hints at the the role of hierarchical ruler Venus. There is a connection between the “Venus chain of the Earth scheme” (effectively an “incarnation” or aeon of Earth with a connection to Venus), and the Lords of Flame of the occult philosophy, who were involved in the evolution of humanity from its animal origins.

Whereas Cancer is seen as the gateway into human incarnation, Capricorn is the gateway out, being the sign of the third initiation, where we become “dead” to the purely personal self and transcend the need to learn through repeated incarnations, a role hinted at in mythology:

One legend links [Capricorn] to Babylonian Ea (Gr. Oannes), an ancient god with a human upper body and the tail of a fish who emerged from the sea to bring knowledge and culture to humans. […] In Greek mythology, the constellation was variously associated with the gate through which the souls of the dead passed, with a legendary goat said to have nursed the infant Zeus (and by metaphorical extension, the Sun), and with a myth in which the god Pan (lower half goat, human torso and head with goat horns) tried to escape the monster Typhon by turning into a fish; he managed to morph only his lower half. — Chandra X-Ray observatory (emphasis added)

From another source:

Egyptian priests and some poets say that once when many gods had assembled in Egypt, suddenly Typhon, an exceedingly fierce monster and deadly enemy of the gods, came to that place. Terrified by him, they changed their shapes into other forms… At this same time, they say, Pan cast himself into the river, making the lower part of his body a fish, and the rest a goat, and thus escaped from Typhon. —Pseudo-Hyginus, Astronomica 2. 28.

The idea of a body that is half-fish and half-goat, hinting at emergence out of the waters of human life to finally scale the mountain-top of initiation, is part of the astrological symbolism here. However, Capricorn—like any other sign in the esoteric chart—doesn’t mean that every individual with Capricorn sun or rising is “an initiate”! Like all signs, it works at each level of development, and although the potential is there in all of us, we still undergo the same evolutionary process in all the signs.

Capricorn: rulers

• Orthodox: Saturn
• Esoteric: Saturn
• Hierarchical: Venus

Orthodox: Saturn ⇧

In Capricorn the influence of Saturn is both exoteric and esoteric. It’s influence in Aquarius is superseded by Uranus.

[this allocation] is dealing entirely with… progress [on] the ordinary… wheel of life, and the Saturn… ruling Aquarius is the Saturnian influence of Capricorn, in which sign Saturn governs in two fields. On the reversed wheel, the Saturnian influence exhausts itself in Capricorn and the [individual] is then free from karma and needs no presentation of opportunity [and as] a free initiate … can then proceed with world service undeterred … held back by no thought of self or selfish desire. (EA 137)

The height of personal ambition, achievement and wealth under the Mutable Cross leads—in the best cases—to an urge to improve humanity’s lot. At worst, it leads to a separation of the self in a super-wealthy or powerful elite who must discover some kind of moral compass before they are able to face the psychological challenges of the Fixed Cross.

Esoteric: Saturn ⇧

Stability of purpose, consolidation of the personal self as a vehicle for the expression of greater purpose. Globally, this is the meeting of humanity’s “Dweller on the Threshold” (how we stand in our own light) and “Angel of the Presence” (humanity’s collective inner self) and the realisation that they must be aligned and managed in order to ground initiatives that advance us as a whole.

The exoteric and the esoteric planetary rulers of Capricorn are the same, and Saturn rules … on the Mutable or the Fixed Cross. … On the Mutable Cross and on the Fixed Cross we have the so-called green ray, controlling not only the daily life of karmic liability upon the path of evolution, but also controlling the experiences and processes of evolution. The reason for this is that Capricorn is an earth sign and because the third and fifth rays work pre-eminently through this sign, embodying the third major [cosmic] aspect, active intelligence plus that of its subsidiary power, the fifth Ray of Mind. These pour through Capricorn to Saturn and to Venus and so reach our planet, the Earth. Saturn is one of the most potent of the four Lords of Karma and forces [us] to face up to the past, and in the present to prepare for the future. Such is the intention and purpose of karmic opportunity. From certain angles, Saturn can be regarded as the planetary Dweller on the Threshold, for humanity as a whole has to face that Dweller as well as the Angel of the Presence, and in so doing discover that both the Dweller and the Angel are that complex duality which is the human family. Saturn, in a peculiar relation to the sign Gemini, makes this possible. [Individuals make] this discovery… in the sign Capricorn; the fourth and fifth Creative Hierarchies do the same thing in Libra. (EA 163-4)

The fourth and fifth Creative Hierarchies are respectively the personal human form in which we incarnate, and the human soul (us as “Solar Angels”); roughly speaking, the “dweller” and the “angel” mentioned above.

Hierarchical: Venus ⇧

…Venus is also the hierarchical ruler of Capricorn, thus showing the power of the mind and its place and purpose in connection with both the major human crises: Individualisation and Initiation. (EA 355)

“Initiation” here means the stage of personal integration, so that the personality becomes solely the vehicle for the less strictly personal aims of the inner self or “soul”. Ray 5 “pours through” Capricorn to Earth via Venus in this case.

Everything abstract and formless needs form and will refine that form to suit its purpose. In the resulting processing of experience is our esoteric role in the refinement of matter. For the deeper significance see Makara—the cryptic “secret of the crocodiles” and the mythology of Venus in Capricorn. Also see the 5th hierarchy (EA 37, 45-49), the fifth kingdom and the Lords of Flame.

[After] the third initiation [we] can consciously mount the Cardinal Cross, [and are] released from the ruling of Saturn and [come] under the influence of Venus, …ruler of the Hierarchy which is that of the Crocodiles. [Only] upon the Cardinal Cross [does] the significance, purpose and potencies of the Creative Hierarchies become clear… (EA 163-4)

Decanates

See the notes about the inconsistency of decanates in Esoteric Astrology. For comparison, Stephen Pugh’s decanate rulers are listed, alongside current orthodox rulers and those given in the book.

Esoteric/developmental: conscious development (annual signs from Aries via Taurus to Pisces)

0-9°: Saturn G: Capricorn, “Saturn reveals the nature of the third aspect of divinity, the nature of intelligent substance”

10-19°: Venus D: Taurus, “Venus reveals the nature of the second aspect, which is consciousness or intelligent love” (also note that Venus is Hierarchical ruler of Capricorn)

20-29°: Vulcan Z: Virgo, “the Sun—the physical Sun and the heart of the Sun [in this case possibly Vulcan, also as the Will/life aspect] together—reveals the synthesis of [the above] two”

Exoteric/experiential: humanity in general (precession from Aries via Pisces to Taurus)

29-20°: Mercury C: Virgo, “the Sun stands exoterically for Mercury” which only enables “the vision [to] be intuitively perceived” once Saturn has done its work. Otherwise, the fluid mind in the service of individual ambition

19-10°: Venus D: Taurus, “material stability, pleasure and comfort”

9-0°: Saturn G: Capricorn, “breaks up existing conditions by the force of its energy impact”

• Orthodox: Saturn, Venus, Mercury (Capricorn, Taurus, Virgo)
• EAst e/o: Saturn, Venus, Sun (Vulcan?) / Mercury, Venus, Saturn
• Pugh e/o: Mercury, Venus, Saturn / Mercury, Venus, Saturn (no reversal?)

There is contradiction in Esoteric Astrology about Capricorn’s decanates. On p173 they are given as “Saturn, Venus and the Sun” but on p442 we read that “Saturn, through which energy flows from Leo, via Shamballa, to Humanity, governs two decanates in Capricorn”, which may be a transcription error or conflation, as Saturn is both the orthodox and esoteric ruler of Capricorn. (See Saturn: Details as this planet has multiple connected roles in esoteric astrology).

Further, the Sun is stated as standing “exoterically for Mercury and esoterically for a hidden planet” (a familiar role seen throughout esoteric astrology), but in this case the decanate in question is ruled by Virgo whose esoteric ruler is Vulcan—a likely candidate here for “the heart of the Sun” (EA 393) although generally Neptune represents the “heart of the Sun” (e.g. in Leo). However, it is Vulcan’s influence that supersedes all “lunar control” of the personality, which is then “lost to sight in the radiance of the Sun, the soul” at which point the “light of Vulcan and… the Sun are one” (EA 132).

Finally, of the three veiled planets, Vulcan represents the third aspect or “the nature of intelligent substance” for which Saturn opens the door in Capricorn. So Vulcan appears to be the most fitting candidate for the “hidden and deeply significant planet” veiled by the Sun in the third decanate.

Two sets of rulers for the three decanates are available. According to Alan Leo, we have Saturn, Venus and Mercury. According to Sepharial we have Jupiter, Mars and the Sun. Of these two, the first is the more correct and the more esoteric. The true rulers are Saturn, Venus and the Sun. I would remind you that Mercury and the Sun are interchangeable but that in this case the Sun stands exoterically for Mercury and esoterically for a hidden planet.

Saturn relates Capricorn to the previous sign Aquarius, upon the ordinary wheel, and Jupiter, exoterically understood, relates Capricorn to Sagittarius upon the reversing wheel. It will be obvious to all esotericists that the Sun is the obvious ruler of the third decanate, veiling as it does a hidden and deeply significant planet and being that which reveals divinity at the time of the third initiation. You will note how, in this great sign of initiation, Saturn reveals the nature of the third aspect of divinity, the nature of intelligent substance; Venus reveals the nature of the second aspect, which is consciousness or intelligent love, whilst the Sun—the physical Sun and the heart of the Sun together—reveals the synthesis of these two. (EA 172-3)

Vulcan— …reveals that which is deeply hidden and brings it up into the light. Esoterically—the heart of the Sun (EA 393, under Taurus)

Saturn, through which energy flows from Leo, via Shamballa, to Humanity, governs two decanates in Capricorn [see above about this inconsistency]. Hence its extreme potency today in the triangle of Humanity. Saturn breaks up existing conditions by the force of its energy impact, thus enabling the influence of Mercury to be more fully expressed. The vision can then be intuitively perceived when obstructions have been removed. (EA 442)

Esoteric Astrology: 172-3, 393, 442