Capricorn and Aquarius

The extraordinary upshot of this adventure … but we have not decided yet that this is the adventure we are to narrate.

Picture Old Man Saturn, with his lined face and beard, scythe and sickle—stern-looking, severe, strict but kindly. Now picture wild Uranus, thundering riddles in a booming voice, flashing lightning from his eyes, wearing daffodils in his hair, and playing with a yo-yo. Can you see any similarity or grounds for intimacy? Well, there are some but….

It’s extremely difficult to predict the outcome of any kind of getting together of these two Sun Signs. Mostly, it will depend on the Moon Signs, Ascendents, and such. It may also depend on how tolerant Capricorn can be of the slightly pixilated Aquarian personality. Or how quickly Aquarius gets bored by the Goat’s eternal insistence on the status quo, when the Water Bearer’s whole purpose on this planet is to shake up the status quo. Being a 2-12 Sun Sign Pattern, Capricorn dimly senses some intriguing lesson to be learned from Aquarius, the sign ahead of the Goat on the karmic wheel of Life—and Aquarius tends to be more sympathetic toward Cappy’s little flaws and compulsions than of the peculiarities of the other eleven signs. Aquarius has already been there, has lived through the Saturn experience during at least one past incarnation, and therefore tends to understand the Goat’s hang-ups regarding duty, responsibility, and tradition. But this time around, he (or she) is here to break with tradition—even though Aquarius still recalls how it was during that lifetime when such things assumed great importance, remembering it all subconsciously.

Despite the rare occasions when Capricorns exhibit a quiet and delightful humor, they are essentially serious-minded folk. Their Saturnine dry humor, accompanied by twinkling eyes and a shy little smile, is mostly tongue-in-cheek. Along with their basically sedate dispositions, Goats have a strong sense of the practical, which is usually more visible than their humor. Although Aquarius is a Fixed Sign and Aquarians can therefore be quite determined and purposeful, these men, women, and children are not anywhere near as serious as Capricorn. Aquarius, in fact, enjoys toppling the sedateness of other signs—in particular, Capricorn’s. The Water Bearer will inevitably shock the Goat in various major and minor ways when Capricorn least expects it. Aquarius does everything when people least expect it. That’s the whole point of shocking. If people expect it, there’s no surprise element—and Aquarius simply adores being the bearer of surprises.

A Capricorn associated with the Water Bearer may read these words, murmuring … I’ve never been surprised or shocked by this person I know so well. The Goat should say this person I think I know so well. Because one fine day Capricorn will find a Brussels sprout in the toothpaste glass that hangs over the bathroom sink—and do a double take. Aquarius will wonder what all the fuss is about. What difference does it make anyway? I mean, didn’t you ever get to wondering if a Brussels sprout would sprout in a glass of water, like other plants do—and get curious about the same time you started to take a shower? Doesn’t everyone?

No. Everyone does not. Capricorn, especially, never wonders about anything that isn’t practical. The Goat is unconcerned about whether Brussels sprouts will sprout in water, or whether cauliflower will flower, for that matter—unless he (or she) is a gardener by profession or owns a vegetable market. Even then, Cappy’s most consuming interest will be profit and loss. Capricorns of both sexes need the security quilt of a reasonable bank balance to avoid breaking out in a rash, with their ultra-sensitive but often lovely and translucent skins. Not as large a bank balance as Cancer needs to prevent trembling in terror of poverty, but reasonable.

Aquarius seldom does anything reasonable by Saturn standards. To Aquarius, a thing is reasonable if it adds to the knowledge of the world and what makes it spin on its axis. Never mind what other people think. What other people think is the last thing Aquarius worries about. The very last. The next-to-the-last thing these Water Bearers worry about would be, let’s see … social customs and personal appearance. Typical Aquarians make their own social customs, set their own rules. As for the Uranian appearance, these people sometimes look quite strange and unreal in their choice of threads and hair styles (weird is actually the more fitting word). This studied carelessness and originality of dress, manners, and public opinion naturally mortifies and distresses Capricorn, to whom the most important thing in Life is to be well thought of by one’s neighbors. No, first by the members of one’s family. Then the neighbors. After that—friends, acquaintances, and business associates. On reflection, perhaps best to reverse the order, and place business associates first. And finally… . the whole world. It would disturb the typical Cappy if some stranger in Scotland didn’t approve of his (or her) shoes, and the Goat somehow got wind of this humiliation. That’s another thing. Along with Pisces and Virgo, Capricorns are all uncommonly interested in their booties. Their footwear is a major concern—and the purchase of new shoes or boots is a matter to be considered carefully, from all angles, with the cost, the proper fit, and the serviceability of equal importance.

There are, however, some ways in which these two are alike. One of them is that the judgments made by Aquarians are based on firm principles and rockbound facts (something most people don’t realize). These always determine the final decisions of both Sun Signs. But Uranus bestows upon Aquarius flashing streaks of intuition, enabling Water Bearers to skip over all the useless principles and rockbound facts to the real truth, somewhere beyond. Still, he or she began the judgment with principles and rockbound facts. I know it’s a little confusing, but confusing is a word invented by Uranus people. Aquarians think and plan so far ahead, with such an odd mixture of practicality and vision, their ideas and ideals may not manifest for many years—so they appear to be dreamers to the average mind, particularly to the level-headed Capricorn. You must always remember that Aquarius is the sign of genius and insanity, in just about equal proportions. The Goat sympathizes with neither. In fact, to most Capricorns, the two words are synonymous (which they are, in an intricate way). So there could be problems of communication.

It’s usually difficult for Capricorn to believe in the illogical, the unreasonable, the impractical, or the nonfactual. To Aquarius, there is no such word as impossible in the Uranus dictionary, and the Water Bearers believe it should also be stricken from every thesaurus, unless it’s defined as a word describing an attitude that should be avoided. Aquarians all have in common a most curious, inquiring nature. They’re unusually susceptible to the illumination of inspiration, having few or no prejudices—and this includes prejudice against facts. Aquarius has nothing against a theory with facts to support it—any more than he or she has anything against a theory without facts to support it. The Uranus-ruled mind is so wide open you’d think their brain cells would catch their death of pneumonia. But they seem to thrive on it, like the Eskimos thrive on the ice floes. Brain cells, being electronic, are very Aquarian-like themselves. Even Saturn brain cells—if Cappy would give them a chance to leap around on the trampoline of the imagination more often.

I have known, admittedly, Capricorns who are deeply involved and interested in matters such as extraterrestrial research, astrology, reincarnation, and metaphysics—but not many. And those who are have other planetary configurations in their horoscopes, giving them more daring instincts of imagery, more simple faith in the unseen, more childlike trust. The typical Goat is anything but childlike. The closest most of them get to childlike innocence is during the second half of Life, when they at last begin to enjoy the carefree abandon they missed as youngsters—about the same time Aquarius is cartwheeling through the marvelous Uranus brand of second childhood (unkindly and very falsely called by some senility). So one might say that these two get along famously when they’re both older—but the younger they are, the more they’ll be inclined to think each other’s personalities and habits are freaky.

Capricorn novelist Henry Miller is an archetype example of the glorious freedom and childlike glee the Goats experience after they’ve released themselves from Saturn’s prison. The older Cappy Henry gets, the brighter the twinkle in his eyes, the younger he looks, and the more outrageously he behaves.

When one of Henry’s ex-wives left him, she took all the furniture and furnishings along with her, leaving Henry sitting there on the floor, literally. The first thing the Goat did was quite properly Saturnine, practical, and economical. He got boxes from the grocery store to sit on and eat on. Made a dining room table out of them too. After a while, he says, I got this sudden idea. I said to myself, Henry, goddamn it, why don’t you get a pair of roller skates and go roller skating through the rooms here? I had a marvelous time!

While the Goats are still trying to reach the mountain peak of their ambitions, however, they frown on foolishness and frivolity of all kinds. The Aquarian who has such a simple, merry knack for stringing together fascinating words that make no sense… . who is touched by the wonderful madness of genius… . tosses stars into wishing wells and dreams of pink frogs… . can appear to be strange indeed to the earthy Capricorn, who believes in working to make wishes come true. Goats normally speak only words of common sense, so naturally the Uranus natives may sometimes seem to them like creatures from another world, not sensible, ordinary, day-to-day Earthlings. How can frogs be pink, and moreover, why should they be? Green is a perfectly good, satisfactory color for frogs.

I can attest to this Saturn reaction to Uranus. On my mind’s canvas will always be painted the clear image of the look of utter puzzlement and annoyance in the chocolate-brown, steady eyes of my Capricorn daughter, Jill, when her dreamy-eyed, slightly pixilated, Aquarian brother, Bill, walks into the room—dangling weird sentences, wearing a hairstyle like no other human has ever worn, his feet sporting one red sock and one yellow sock, carefully hiding his genius IQ beneath mumbles of, Cool, man, cool.

To give Capricorn credit, after Aquarius blazes the pathway to new inventions and discoveries, the Goats come plodding along to guard the wonders and the miracles—to make them practical enough to eventually benefit us and keep the planet spinning on course. One of the areas of dissension between these two is that Cappies will accept nothing without rigid scrutiny, often through negative criticism. They allow no fallacy or incoherence to cause them to believe the unbelievable. Normally, the Goat will insist on having the meaning of every word they speak clearly understood before they utter it, the meaning of every idea or proposition clarified in their own minds before presentation. Suggestions that don’t meet these strict standards are frequently discarded or deliberately stifled, whereas Aquarius questions all things with two eyes—the cold eye of scientific dissection and the perceptive eye of lightning intuition. The true Water Bearer isn’t sure the idea Capricorn is trying to stifle is a false one, and even if it were, the Uranus-ruled believe that stifling it would be an evil in itself. Live and let live is the Aquarian motto. Get rid of the dead wood, and save only what is useful is the Capricorn motto. Save everything, because eventually all will be useful in the light of new understanding argues back Aquarius. I have no intention of entering their argument. So we’ll leave them here, with only the suggestion that Aquarians might do well to pull up their socks—and the Goats might have more fun if they learned to play with a yo-yo.

Capricorn Woman and Aquarius Man

Let me go! she ordered him.

Wendy, come with me and tell the other boys. Of course, she was very pleased to be asked, but she said, Oh, dear, I can’t. Think of Mummy!

There they are in Manhattan’s Central Park—or in London’s Kensington Gardens, for that matter—listening to a band concert together. Or rather, he is listening to a band concert—and she is sketching the scene in pastels. Doesn’t it sound romantic, lovely, beautiful, harmonious? It would be all those things except for one small flaw. There is no band. The concert he is hearing is in his head. Therefore, when he starts waving his arms in the air in rhythm to the percussion, nods his head back and forth to the tune of the fiddles, taps his feet in tempo and hums the melody, all at the same time, he—well, he looks a little odd to her.

To be perfectly honest, she thinks he’s as crazy as a loon. But being a Capricorn female, with graceful manners in the Bryn Mawr tradition (also Vassar, my dear, whether she went there or not), she will blush slightly, concentrate harder on her drawing, and pretend not to notice. It’s only if he invites her to sing along or asks her what she thinks of the drummer that she’ll get jittery. Capricorns do not get jittery all that easily. It takes something really monumental.

The Aquarian man can very well be that monumental. His strangeness can be gigantic, especially when viewed through the quiet, steady eyes of a Capricorn woman’s sedate nature and proper behavior pattern. I realize someone might point out I wrote in the Capricorn Woman section of my first book, Sun Signs, that this is the only woman who can look at an ugly frog and know he’s actually a prince in disguise—or something like that. So I must admit that if she can have that sort of love and faith, I suppose she could also decide this freaked-out character might somehow be salvaged into a creature more resembling the kind of husband and father mold she insists a man fit into if he’s going to be worth her time and trouble. Assuming he has enough other solid virtues, she could even break down and pretend she hears the drummer—and sing along with him, to humor him temporarily. Just until she has a chance to change him and gently point out that she understands his eccentricities, but it’s a matter of what other people think. I mean, you have to keep your image respectable in front of strangers. Everybody, but simply everybody, knows it’s important to be respected—and how can a dodo bird be respected? Loved, yes, but respected?

She is wrong. Woefully wrong. This man cares not a fig about being respected. He has nothing against it, mind you, but it carries no weight with him. And this will be, from time to time, a rather large bone of contention between them. The Aquarian male is highly individualistic, with some really far-out opinions and ideas. The Capricorn female can also be highly individualistic, with some very far-out opinions and ideas. The difference is, she keeps them to herself, to avoid ridicule and harsh judgment from others, while he has no qualms about advertising his eccentricity. Since they both have their little idiosyncrasies, they can empathize with each other’s. It’s how they handle them that creates the tension.

Her world, unlike his, is not invented. It’s a realistic place, purified by peaceful and practical peripheries, sometimes refined by art (many Cappys are artistically inclined), peopled by puppy dogs, dreams of warm kitchens, families singing carols together, maybe an apple tree with a proper swing attached, on which she might soar out only far enough to achieve modest success through hard work. Capricorn yearnings never exceed what may be deserved. Her Water Bearer’s world can be both inventive and invented, unreal—and clogged with sudden shortcuts to magnificent waterfalls; a place where the unusual can happen, and usually does, peopled by all kinds of characters in all shapes and sizes. This is a man with friends of every type and description, who will shuttle back and forth, in and out of both his dream world and the real world—among the daffodils, dinosaurs, waterwings, and Wassermans.

She’ll have to enjoy his friends. That’s a must for a woman in love with an Aquarian man. He has an almost unearthly loyalty and devotion to them, and you have to remember too, that he can call a doorman he’s met only once friend. Aquarians have a very loose definition of the word. Sometimes he’ll even get absentminded and introduce his wife as, my good friend, Eloise… .

The Aquarian man, I’ll tell you right now, has a thing about promises. Not for them—against them. It’s the strange blend of Uranus integrity. He thinks it’s both wrong and ridiculous to say something you’re not sure you’ll mean a week or a month or a year later. No one can be sure he won’t change (especially Aquarians, who are always changing), so why mislead anyone? Most people born under this sign can’t stand being accused of breaking a vow or letting a friend down, so they just do the best they can without making what to them might be a false commitment. Who knows how a person will feel tomorrow about what he said yesterday? Not an Aquarian, that’s certain. This doesn’t mean there aren’t many Aquarian men who keep their marriage vows and remain with one woman for a lifetime. There are. Some of them are deeply in love; but even those who aren’t are reluctant to go to the trouble of seeking a divorce. It’s seldom another woman the wife of an Aquarian faces as a problem. Not in the accepted sense of the term. Women interest this man for what to him is a very sound reason. They make up roughly half of the human race—and Aquarius is intensely concerned with the various problems of the human race. The fact that women are members of the opposite sex, with a magnetic, masculine appeal (the birds and bees bit), may escape his notice at first. He’s not unaware of sex by any means, but it’s of secondary importance—secondary to his flights of fancy, his haunting dreams, visions, self-absorption, dedication to his work or career—and always and eternally, his Friends. I used the capital letter deliberately. Nonetheless, if a woman makes even a mediocre effort to love this man, she will, in most cases (not all but most), be rewarded by a faithful lover or husband who provides plenty of variety, interest, fascination, unexpected surprises, and excitement. A Capricorn woman should make more than a mediocre effort, since this woman has been the type, since childhood, to follow the precept that anything worth doing at all is worth doing well.

Oddly enough (or on second thought, perhaps not oddly at all), an Aquarian male often arouses unreasonable jealousy in his woman—even when she’s a normally cool, placid Goat Girl. Since he can be intellectually attracted to a stranger at first glance, let alone first meeting, he may treat the stranger as an intimate friend. If the stranger is female, his Capricorn wife, or whatever, may fail to realize it probably means nothing. She’ll have to remember that this man is inclined to divorce love from physical passion; and therefore can love his friends, while sharing sexual union only with her. Actually, a Capricorn is better equipped to tolerate this than most other Sun Signs. Even so, it can be upsetting. She’ll just have to keep in mind that once he has given himself completely to her on a physical plane, he sees no reason why he can’t continue to have warm, intellectual friendships with other women. An Aries or Leo woman could show him plenty of reasons why he shouldn’t—and couldn’t—after giving him back his friendship ring (or throwing it at him), but a Saturn-ruled female can understand it all, if she half tries.

The physical side of their relationship may be changing and unpredictable. Everything with Aquarius is changing and unpredictable. His attitude toward sex can range from intense curiosity to detached acceptance. Hers can range from a sense of mating as a duty of love—expected, therefore indulged in—to a deep and wholesome enjoyment of their intimacy with no false modesty or pretense. Neither of them is likely to either underrate or overrate sex. Both are inclined to accept it for what it is, no more, no less—and are capable of experiencing it without excessive passion or emotional storms—although some Aquarian males do bring a tone of dreamlike unreality to physical mating, an air of titillating suspense to courtship and preliminary lovemaking. And some Capricorn females blush, with a rising pulse, regarding the subject of sexuality, all of their lives. He may fantasize somewhat in the area of lovemaking, which she will find mystifying, even disturbing, but if they are emotionally and mentally in love, these two can surmount any minor problems of sexual adjustment.

If one of them has the Moon in harmonious aspect to the other’s Sun, their physical union will be more than satisfactory. With a square or opposition between their mutual Sun and Moon, fulfillment may be elusive. In either case, there may not be the overwhelming soul-hunger attached… . of the type poets write about. Capricorn women are frequently quite slow in developing the sexual instinct, and so are many, but not all, Aquarian males—so the later they marry, the better chance they have of making a success of it.

Grounds for dispute may arise over her exaggerated devotion to her family, or his refusal to cooperate with her in keeping up appearances with neighbors and relatives. But they should concentrate on each other’s virtues and forget petty annoyances and differences. A Capricorn woman can be surprisingly affectionate, emotionally stable, and loyal—with a strong sense of moral responsibility. She’ll seldom do anything to cause him pain or embarrassment. This is true of all except the rare coldhearted Goat, who takes the wrong path in childhood and has no capacity whatsoever for romantic love, while accepting sexual love as matter-of-factly as a handshake. But we are assuming the Cappy or the Water Bearer is reading this section to better understand, and doesn’t fall into that unfortunate category.

As for the virtues of an Aquarian lover or husband, no man can keep an intellectual challenge going as long as he can—and love does begin in the mind. Correction: It begins in the minds of those born in the Air Element, like Aquarius. To those born in the Earth Element, like Capricorn, love begins with emotional security. This man is a little short on reliability and emotional security. But with enough tolerance and patience from his mate, he can learn. A Capricorn woman who can look upon an ugly frog and see a handsome prince should be able to handle that.

He would like to discover a world where leaves never fall—and the Sun never sets. She is sure there is no such world. If they expect to achieve contentment together, she’ll have to help him search for it anyway. And who knows? Maybe he’ll surprise her and find it… . if she’ll open her mind, unlock her heart, and discard that word impossible from her vocabulary… . as he did the first time he ever heard it.

Capricorn Man and Aquarius Woman

Tink, where are you?
She was in a jug for the moment, and liking it extremely.
She had never been in a jug before.

A love relationship between this man and woman can run smoothly on course for long periods of time, until she pops up with some humiliating and incomprehensible remark in front of a group of friends or his holy (genuflect please) family—or suddenly decides to turn upside down because of a change of opinion or plans. Then the Capricorn man will become slightly nervous—a very rare situation, since Goats are hardly ever nervous, as you know by now. When they do get upset, they bite their nails and break out in boils or warts. (I know one Colorado-planted Capricorn man who goes off by himself and sets off dynamite caps when he’s nervous, but he has the Moon in Aries.) When an Aquarian woman gets nervous, which is quite likely after being subjected to unrelieved periods of Saturnine discipline and drabness, she may stand on her head or wiggle her ears anxiously, as a Uranian flash signal that she’s disturbed and restless.

The very first thing she has to learn when she becomes involved with this man is to love and respect his family as her own; even more than her own. This is a necessity, whether his family resembles a Norman Rockwell painting or the Borgias. He’s not blind to their flaws, defects, and vices, but no matter. A Capricorn man will feel obligated to worship his parents and insist that everyone else in his presence worship them, despite any failings they may have. Otherwise, he suffers from the guilties. His family’s shortcomings are either rationalized or overlooked. They had better also be overlooked by the woman who expects to be invited into his heart. He may occasionally be forced to honestly find fault with them, but he prefers the criticism to come from himself—not from outsiders. Of course, there’s no denying that such filial loyalty is admirable, especially since it gives a hint as to his future attitude toward her and their own children. I won’t keep you in suspense. It will be the same unswerving devotion, unless he should happen to have an afflicted Venus, in which case this man can become, not only a cold tyrant, but even occasionally promiscuous—in a peculiar, quiet sort of way. Aquarian women can take heart, however, because very few Capricorn males have afflicted Venuses, and even those who were cursed with such a planetary flaw at birth usually manage to control it with the help of Saturn’s iron self-discipline.

Because this is a 2-12 Sun Sign Pattern, a strong mutual interest in money or financial security, plus self-sacrifice, will enter into the relationship in some form. Also, he will secretly look up to her, sensing she has some indefinable wisdom to teach him which he has not yet learned (and she does, oh! she does!), while she will be gently tolerant of his occasional, inexplicable depressions and indigo moods—his now-and-then prudish, stuffy spells—because of her own soul memory of having lived through the Saturn experience in a past lifetime. Still, she has no intentions of spending her present existence bound by such stifling ties of caution. This is her lifetime to experiment with the wonders of the world—and every Aquarian female has this yearning within her heart, even if she only pursues it astrally at night—when she’s pretending to sleep.

He is Earth and she is Air, so their basic motivations have little in common. Often, these two will make a mutual business endeavor—or hearth, home, and family will be the focal point of their relationship, and once in love, they’ll both try to overlook the obvious differences in their natures and personalities. If one is to mold the other, it will be more likely she who is molded than the Goat. Not always, but most likely. Capricorns are already pretty much set in their earthly sameness clay at a very young age. Aquarius, being of the Air Element, is more pliable, more adaptable to circumstances—more moldable. (Still, she was born under a Fixed Sign, and may, at some time, demonstrate an unexpected stubbornness.) But normally, if she must change to keep his love, then change she will, although change comes so easily to Aquarians that we need not excessively extol her character for doing so. It’s a natural process to this woman. Change is not a natural process for the Goat. He dreads major changes of occupation (career or profession), residence, and friendships. While she longs to meet new people and is happily at home among all types, he’s reluctant to submit himself to communicating with any but his immediate family, or within the tight circle of his few close friendships, most of which were formed in childhood. Consequently, their social life may be somewhat subdued—and there’s always the possibility that she will be haunted by a feeling that something is missing.

Now, I did say that she would most likely be the one to change to fit his mold. That’s true. I do not retract it. But I’ve also warned you that Aquarius is a Fixed Sign. So there will be ways she will discover to manage and manipulate him, while sweetly appearing to conform to his every wish. A little sneaky? No, just the Uranus talent for fitting square pegs into round holes and round pegs into square holes in a rather charming, confusing way, quite subtle—and generally not even noticeable on the surface.

After she chains her dreams to his more mundane habits and desires, she may not at first recognize her own restlessness. Later it will begin to show in a variety of ways… . by going back to school to get a degree, visiting her home town alone for longer and longer periods, taking up a hobby like music, singing, dancing, or astrology to absorb some of her unused energy—or in becoming insistently anxious to have a baby. These are all changes. And Aquarius has faith in change. To the Water Bearer, the right change at the right time can solve simply anything.

What brings them together in the first place is frequently the invisible vibration of integrity she sends out, like a radio signal. Capricorn men can’t stand flighty, promiscuous, vulgar, aggressive, or basically dishonest women. So he picks up this signal, investigates, finally decides she is steeped in the same qualities of truth and honesty as he and—after a decent interval—proposes. Whatever he proposes (and it will usually be a business partnership or marriage—or both), it will always be a decent interval. Goats do not leap into things.

What he fails to realize is that, although she does have integrity, it is her own individualistic brand of the stuff. Aquarians are, above all, true to themselves (also honest with themselves), ever true to what they believe truth to be—but that’s not quite the same thing as the Saturn brand of integrity and traditional custom of honesty. Capricorn lives by the rules. So does Aquarius, granted, but they are her own private and individual set of rules.

Another thing that probably brought them together initially is her beauty. All Uranus-vibrating females have an unearthly, fragile beauty, like a morning mist or a summer rainbow…. first here, then invisible… . now returning; along with clearly defined features, faintly reminiscent of Greek goddesses. Her eyes probably magnetized him too. There are no eyes quite like Aquarian eyes … . dreamy, mysterious, always with that faraway and long-ago-in-tomorrow look. (Yes, I meant to say long-ago-in-tomorrow. It’s a time thing. All Aquarians understand the Einstein time thing.) His eyes are strictly focused on (and in) today—guileless and earnest, much different from hers. The difference attracts.

One thing that could conceivably cause trouble between these two (unless the Aquarian female’s Moon or Ascendent is in an Earth Sign, to match the Goat’s more sedate image) is the typical Capricorn male’s neurotic ideas about his woman working. Most Goats frown on career women. Some Capricorns are so oriented to masculine-feminine stereotypes, they’re firmly convinced that any man who marries a successful career woman just has to be marrying her for her money—however obvious it may be that the love between them is clearly reciprocal. This type of Goat is stubbornly certain any such man is only pretending to care. It has to be the cash. Even if he himself ever sincerely loved a successful career woman, he’d be equally convinced that his own motive was ambition—no matter how beautiful, desirable, or intelligent she might be, or how deeply he cared about her.

Unless her Capricorn man has a real hang-up about forbidding a woman’s independence, the female Water Bearer (born under a Fixed Sign, remember) may strangely admire his somewhat old-fashioned viewpoints. After all, she fell in love with him because he was a man she could count on to be in the same place most of the time, unlike all the other men she knows, who are as unpredictable as—well, as she is herself (or was herself, before the Goat molded her more into his own image). With all her own chameleon qualities of suspense and intuitive hunches and kooky, upside-down thought processes, the Aquarian woman often seeks in a mate the dependable, the reliable, and the secure. It’s a non sequitur, but as I’ve pointed out repeatedly (in other sections of this book), Water Bearers are all living non sequiturs. Maybe they’re attracted to stability because of the basic Fixity of Aquarius. Fixed, after all, is Fixed—even though you’d never guess it by their vague speech and abstract behavior, which is rather like seesawing at the time you’re traveling in a circle on a Ferris Wheel.

Their quarrels will usually be about outside situations—incidents or people she tends to be tolerant of—and he tends to be rigid about. Yet, mold her as he may, she will nevertheless rule the roost when they go to the post to argue, with her gently persuasive, Air Element charm—by appearing to suggest. In this manner, the Aquarius woman, in the end, wins nearly every quarrel or confrontation with the stubborn, earthy Goat, perhaps because she amuses and confuses—and does it all so effortlessly, never demanding, only suggesting when others can’t hear her. No wonder everyone thinks he’s the real boss. If their Suns and Moons are opposed or square, he might wake up some rainy morning and finally realize he’s being delicately manipulated, reject such an unmanly role—and ponder a separation. He’ll ponder it for a long, long time. A Capricorn man never does anything hastily, especially break up a home, which tears him apart. A separation or divorce will hurt her too. Nevertheless, an Aquarian woman adjusts to a broken relationship in the long run more quickly and easily than any other sign except Gemini, Pisces, or Sag. Divorce, like marriage, is essentially a change—and change never frightens this woman as it does others.

Sexually, the union of Capricorn and Aquarius may leave something to be desired. Not always. Just sometimes. Aquarius is a masculine sign, ruled also by the masculine planet, Uranus—never mind how soft-spoken she may be. The changing moods of her undeniably feminine mystique, with its contradictory masculine vibrations, at first excites the Capricorn man, but later may merely irritate him. Somehow, her real essence eludes him. As for him, well… . his earthy sensuality draws her irresistibly at the beginning of the romance, then later could become a heavy thing to bear—since her ideal of sexual expression is far more ethereal, requiring imaginative, preliminary, mental preparation to actual lovemaking. But love, of course, can turn every gravel alley into a Yellow Brick Road. All it takes is a little magic. So, if they really try, these obstacles can be overcome, as each fulfills the other’s very different needs through the Goat’s capacity for patient, gentle affection—and the Aquarian capacity for tolerant understanding of human nature, especially his.

Assuming their Sun-Moon aspects are harmonious, the relationship will deepen through the years until gradually, each will supply what the other lacks. She’ll become more secure and settled… . less restless and yearning. He’ll become less rigid-frigid, more free and open. They’ll become less and less like themselves… . more and more like each other… . blending into such unity that their friends begin to think of them as one person, one unit of measurement, not two individuals. Obviously that’s not a natural state for Aquarius, but if carefully balanced, it can work beautifully. Most people forget how desperately the Goat secretly and silently longs to romp and frolic. Only stern Saturn holds him back.

I once knew a Capricorn man named Roy, from Oklahoma, who used to visit Colorado every summer, where he felt free to break Saturn’s restrictive bonds and just be himself—in the clean, fresh, mountain air that always acts as an exhilarating tonic to Goats. After all, they are mountain climbers, at home in high altitudes. Ten thousand feet above sea level, in Cripple Creek, Colorado, this Cappy frolicked like an elf or a druid of old. He discarded his proper Oklahoma business clothing and wore whatever he pleased. Some of his outfits would have made Elvis Presley (also a Goat, by the way) seem conservatively dressed. But he looked marvelous! One day he merrily left his house at the break of dawn, wearing nothing but a pair of bright red and yellow swim trunks … . to pick wildflowers. Another time, he burst through my front door during a violent summer electrical storm, with T (as he affectionately called her) somersaulting along beside him—the bright-faced, delightful, and unpredictable Aquarian woman who was his dearest friend as well as his business partner (antiques, what else? Capricorn’s favorite career) … … . and handed me an unexpected bouquet of sweet peas, drenched with rain … . smelling exactly the way I’m positive Heaven must smell. He had spent the entire morning driving down rain-soaked country roads with T, the two of them rejoicing in every Uranus thunder clap and flash of lightning … . just to find them for me.

This Goat’s sense of fun and laughter, his beautiful sensitivity and psychic perception, were illuminated with a loving heart that so very much longed to be free. Nevertheless, he suffered from the usual Saturnine shy and bashful spells—and there were days when he brooded in bleak melancholy, approaching despair, for no apparent reason. But Aquarian T was exquisitely patient as she waited for the gentle rainbow she knew would soon sparkle again in his aura—and it always reappeared.

The Aquarian woman who loves a Capricorn man should handcuff the Saturn in him now and then, grab his hand, and throw him a challenge: Hey, funnyface! Want to go wade in a puddle, play tag with some turtles, build a house with no walls … and laugh at nothing? The shy Goat may surprise himself, and skip right along beside her. But if he should ask, How can you build a house with no walls? the honeymoon is over—and so is love.

Even so, it can be miraculously reborn. And isn’t that what Aquarians do best—make miracles?

Capricorn Pisces
Earth—Cardinal—Negative Water—Mutable—Negative
Ruled by Saturn Ruled by Neptune
Symbol: The Goat Symbol: The Fish
Night Forces—Feminine Night Forces—Feminine