Back when I launched this website and my monthly Sun sign highlights column, I dreaded the time when I’d have to write about the sign of Capricorn. Why? It’s not that I have any issues with Capricorns. In fact, as a fellow earth sign I’m quite fond of all you goats!
You see, I originally envisioned a column where I could write about real people in my life and display their solar qualities in a practical way that readers could easily identify with. How could I do this, I asked the universe, when it comes time to write about Capricorn if I don’t have a single Capricorn in my life?
So I prayed, and prayed. “God, please send me a Capricorn friend. Give me time to get to know the intricacies of this sign.” For three months I said this prayer. The universe, as you well know, works in mysterious ways and I trust in this elusive process. Well, as it turns out, the universe did something even better than introduce me to a Capricorn friend. It introduced me to a Capricorn teacher.
Capricorn is a sign ruled by Saturn, the planet of discipline, hard work, rules, restriction and delay. Saturn is the taskmaster of the zodiac because, without him, nothing would get done. This planet is the stern teacher and will teach us our most pressing life lessons. In fact, it is directly involved with our karma. So when I first learned about the Capricorn man I now call my mentor, I knew the universe gave me the perfect gift: a teacher who calls himself “gracefully tyrannical”; a brilliant, genius of an astrologer by the name of Noel Tyl. And boy oh boy, is he ever the epitome of Capricorn!
Capricorn is a cardinal earth sign, so along with this combination you’ll notice an ambitious energy for practical achievement. A Capricorn always has his feet on the ground, but they’re moving UP; climbing the eternal mountain of success and goals to be realized. With Saturn being Capricorn’s ruler, it’s usually a slow and steady climb, but rest assured, he will reach the top of that mountain.
Some people think of Capricorn as a sign that is “all work and no play”. While it’s true that Capricorn has a reputation for being overly serious at times and even a bit dry, you must understand that this sign truly feels the weight of the world on his shoulders, and from a very early age!
What a Capricorn is learning most about in this lifetime is how to balance responsibility. This is why you may also notice that, as a Capricorn gets older and realizes some of his goals, they do learn to relax and enjoy the view from that mountaintop. I’ve heard many times the expression that as a Capricorn gets older; he feels free enough to be the child he never could be during childhood. The expression “youth is wasted on the young” surely must have been coined by a Capricorn!
Getting back to my new found Capricorn teacher, I had looked at his horoscope before making my first phone call to him and knew, based on certain interaspects between our charts that he was the perfect educator for me. I knew he would be demanding and I knew that, by signing up for his Master’s Degree Certification Course in Astrology, it would be a VERY long and slow climb up my own personal mountain.
Noel has a reputation you see; he’s world renown and has pioneered countless astrological theories that are practiced today by astrologers everywhere. He is the epitome of success in my field and I understood that, as a Capricorn, he would take this reputation and his responsibility as an astrologer and teacher quite seriously.
His voice was commanding when he answered the phone that day in early October. No amount of looking at his horoscope beforehand could have prepared me for this. His voice electrocuted me. I mean this in the most invigorating, empowering and respectful way possible. It was a conversation that stimulated the desire to work my hardest and become the best astrologer I could hope to be. Other teachers have taught me astrology, but I knew that it could only be someone like Noel Tyl, someone with gifts of Capricorn strength, integrity and knowledge, who would be able to pull the astrologer out of me.
And so the universe answered my prayer in the most ironic of ways. I’ve said before when describing the planet Saturn that he’s like the teacher in grade school who gives homework on Fridays, presents the most demanding tests and assignments and never grades on a curve. He’s the teacher that, while you’re in his class, you “love to hate” because he makes you EARN what you learn.
It is this very same teacher however, that you end up thanking and appreciating most as an adult; after you’ve come to understand the value of what he’s given you by forcing you to learn those lessons. Once earned, nothing can take away what Saturn has taught you. No one knows this better than a Capricorn. Capricorns everywhere can teach us the value of working hard to achieve something enduring. Capricorns remind us of the importance of living a responsible and purposeful life. You know what I say? Thank goodness for answered prayers.