METAPHYSICAL CAPRICORN

Capricorn is represented by the mythical creature of the goat-fish, also called kusarikku, emerging from the sea to climb a stark, steep mountain.  The sea represents the mother of all creatures, the fertility and nurturance of water, and the mountain peak symbolizes the aspiration to behold the face of God.  The goat-fish has the tail of a fish, which is at home in the water, and the front half of a goat, which is at home negotiating the mountain.  However, the goat-half longs to emerge from the sea and climb to the mountain peak while the fish-half longs to remain in the water and finds climbing the mountain extremely difficult - that tail must swish very hard to ascend.  The fishtail of this creature symbolizes our complacent desire to remain in an emotionally safe, nurturing environment but it is pulled inevitably upward by the urge of the goat-half to take the risky and difficult journey to rise above our lowest, animal nature (fishtail) and climb, against the resistance of inertia, to the pinnacle of our being - our divine nature.  The dualism of kusarikku emerging from the sea is also symbolic of the evolution of life from the sea to land and the transitions between land and sea, above and below, height and depth, common and esoteric.  Mastering the essence of Capricorn means living for a higher purpose - that of contributing to the spiritual growth of Earth by raising our individual, divine consciousness one-step at a time and by helping others to do so.  Capricorn is the sign of the sage and mentor.

The visage of the devil or Satan is usually that of the goat because Satan (and Saturn in our birth charts) represents our temptation to bind ourselves to the physical realm through the pursuit of earthly desires or the acquisition of power.  Before we can escape the wheel of reincarnation (represented by Saturn), we must master and overcome our material (and emotional) attachments and desires.  Capricorn and Saturn represent the lesson that nothing in this physical realm belongs to us because we take nothing material from this world with us when we die.  There is no spiritual benefit to acquiring wealth, possessions, fame or power (the lower, fish-half of Capricorn and the cross in the glyph for Saturn).  Whether we leave this plane satisfied with our spiritual growth has less to do with what we do with our life and more to do with how we live it.  The secret path back to paradisiacal reunion with God is the discipline of concentration (Saturn and Capricorn).  The geological process of concentration turns opaque, chaotically arranged matter (rock) into the beautiful, clear, transparent form of a crystal.  Metaphorically, we can awaken our true self - our divine consciousness - through the power of concentration.

A secret of the winter solstice (the date the Sun enters Capricorn and the shortest day of the year) is the fact that, thereafter, the days slowly lengthen and the Sun begins to ascend to its highest position in the sky of the northern hemisphere on the summer solstice.  The winter solstice also began the Saturnalia, an annual celebration giving thanks for a good harvest and honoring Saturn, the primary Greco-Roman god of horticulture.

Capricorn is the tenth sign of the zodiac so it is emblematic of the numerology of the number 10.  Ten represents law (e.g. the Ten Commandments), order and dominion - all Capricorn keywords.  Ten also represents return to unity, completion of journeys and return to origins, like the above symbolism of Capricorn.

At the other end of the spectrum is Bush's abuse of power (also Capricorn) and his growing list of failures (Saturn).  Examples are:  a withdrawn Supreme Court nomination and a threatened Democratic filibuster of his subsequent nominee; his usurpation of powers not granted his position in the Constitution when he signed the Orwellian secret order to wiretap overseas phone calls and e-mails made by U.S. citizens without court approval and by the National Security Agency, which has no domestic jurisdiction; his authorization of secret prisons in other countries with poor human rights records where torture has almost certainly been used; the inability of the Justice Department to charge Jose Padilla, a U.S. citizen, with terrorism and unconstitutionally denying him judicial access for three and one-half years; the lack of enough support in the U.S. Senate to renew the Orwellian, doublespeak-named Patriot Act; the ineptness and absence of compassion by the Bush regime in the delivery of aid to the victims of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita; insisting on invading Iraq when there was no evidence that they threatened the U.S. in any way; no plan to withdraw our troops from Iraq, which begs the question of whether the thought has ever crossed his mind (I previously wrote that the Bush plan is to fill the pockets of independent contractor, corporate supporters of his as long as possible - through 2008 or 2009 - via lucrative contracts financed by U.S. taxpayers to rebuild the Iraqi infrastructure that Bush was responsible for destroying), etc., etc.  This sounds a lot like the Nixon regime!  Read the article about all of the parallels between Bush and Nixon's charts.