Embracing The Paradox Of Capricorn–Rise Of The Sea Goat

Honoring the mystery of the sea-goat.

A few days ago, I did a reading for a Capricorn. He was born at zero degrees and while he had a number of elements in his chart, in many ways, they supported the thrust for achievement, purely Capricorn in it’s distillation. I could also see where there was another side to him, a decidedly more emotional side. While every chart has supportive aspects, underlying themes, or even it’s shadow, there is something of a dilemma, a paradox that exists in Capricorn and it relates to our world as it is evolving through Pluto’s stay in Capricorn.

Even the most casual followers of astrology know that Capricorn is represented by the goat and the goat is the animal of ascent, in almost all aspects. It climbs mountains and corporations. It endures and will eat almost anything to survive. It’s also a utilitarian animal. It can produce milk and clear a hillside of grass and weeds. It overcomes any obstacle in it’s path over time to achieve it’s goals. Richard Nixon overcame an abusive and hard riding father to eventually become president. His quest to achieve power and domination over his father and his legacy, one that included significant doses of humiliation, also led to his downfall as well.

of all the Earth signs, even Virgo, Capricorn might be the most self aware. It cannot rise to the heights that it does by simply acting on it’s own instinctual impulses, though this should not be discounted as well. Capricorn must be fully engaged in it’s ascent, so that it may take advantage of any opportunity that crosses it’s path. But unlike Virgo, which can be caught on the horns of dilemma regarding ethical or moral decisions, ones that could impugn it’s sense of purity and service, Capricorn is more fully aware of the moral implications in it’s rise to power and quest for prominence than we might know–but this is the paradox or dilemma of Capricorn.

When Nixon was president, he was faced with the fact that he was embroiled in a war that he could not easily withdraw from, while not admitting some form defeat to the Soviets, deep in the heart of the cold war. Now whether Nixon truly believed this, or was simply operating under intel from his advisors one could see that he was faced with a moral dilemma, which was risk a smaller portion of American lives, versus the majority of the free world in the face of Soviet expansion and onslaught. Now Nixon was probably as psychopathic as amy other US president, but one could see, regardless of ones position on the war, that he had to make a choice for the greater (at least in his own mind) good, while still serving the interests of the military industrial complex.
I live in a company town. A giant, steel network of tubes, like extruded chromium intestines intersect and wrap around a sprawling sea of tanks and vats, refining oil into it’s various states and storing it for distribution around the world. It’s Chevron Oil, the same guys that trashed Ecuador in search oil and had a landmark suit slapped against them. Chevron is a emblematic of a Capricornian establishment. It’s oiligarchigal. I don’t agree with their methodologies or business practices. I don’t condone buying up patents and squatting on technology. But without Chevron, my town would be a ghost town and the families it feeds as a result of their presence here is yet another examplet of the paradox of Capricorn. The old German woman behind my place gets to keep her cafe open and employ half a dozen people on a full time basis. That’s the institutional example of the paradox of Capricorn. Corporations mostly suck. They’re flawed in many ways and often promote an organizational psychopathology that supports an unhealthy culture and yet . . . they do promote some form of economic support, either directly or indirectly.

The paradox of Capricorn is also at the heart of what used to be called, “The New World Order” and has now been re-branded into “Global Governance” since a lot of people were getting pretty uptight around all of the recent talk regarding The New World Order. Whether it’s the environment or the fall of currency, we’re getting all kinds of solutions to our problems at a “global level” while a lot of our issues are an amalgamation of many local ones. The Capricorn mindset, especially the Pluto in Capricorn mindset sees or at least convinces itself of the greater good, as it relates to global governance. It sees the needs of the many, outweighing the needs of the not so many. Do I think that Gordon Brown and Angela Merkel and Barack Obama are aware of the fact that they are pushing an agenda that a lot of people aren’t in agreement with? You bet. Are they willing to push their agenda in spite of that for “the greater good”? Uh huh. Will there be a small, select, group that still controls most of the planet’s resources and will those that will try to initiate global governance profit off of their hard work and allegiance towards such an endeavor? You betcha. Are all of them convinced that this is in the best interest of the common good? Some are–certainly not all. However, it’s the people at much lower levels, ones that push hard and are ideologically driven, they are the ones that believe most fervently. Global governance for all intents and purposes is a very Capricornian issue. But what does this mean for the individual?

A much earlier symbol of Capricorn is not just a goat, but a sea-goat. It’s almost half goat, half dolphin. This image goes all the way back to Mesopotamia and has it’s link to Enki, the creator god in “The Epic Of Gilgamesh.”. What did Enki do besides create, brew beer, get drunk and bed? He cared about his creations, perhaps too much. The fish part of Capricorn’s ancient symbol represents the emotional body or in some ways, Enki’s emotional body. It lends a natural balance to the sign that seems to have been lost over the ages as the sea goat morphed simply into a goat, which has it’s representation as Baphomet.

It’s essential that if we are going to move towards any type of global governing, even if it’s one that we naturally aspire to and want to create because it’s the ultimate form of communion, we have to have full and total compassion. It cannot be an exercise in will which excludes the thoughts and feelings of independent and sovereign communities, whether they be located in the heart of the amazon or the heart of New York City. But this is just the broadest application of the symbolism of the sea-goat as compassionate yet enduring to commitment of it’s goals. It has it’s own meaning in our lives as well, no matter where or if you have any Capricornian aspects in your chart. We need to see as much of the whole as possible and begin to reconcile disparity in the world around us and ourselves, which is an ongoing knitting of the mystery of paradox, embodied by the sign of Capricorn.