Donna says: This weekend being Father’s Day, I wanted to publish a book excerpt from Mary English’s series of in-depth zodiac portraits, which always contain a helpful section about fathers who belong to the sign involved. This is from How to Cheer up a Capricorn and is posted here with permission of the publisher.
©2012, by guest blogger, Mary L. English
I know a few Capricorn fathers. They take their families very seriously. They take their role of provider and leader equally seriously. They also get dreadfully upset if their children get into trouble, or aren’t realising their ambitions.
Please keep in mind what sign you are, however. If you understand yourself, and your own motivations, you’re less likely to clash with other people. I have heard clients of mine complain about a Capricorn father, if they are Fire signs or Air signs and sometimes Dad is accused of being severe and overly formal.
These tend to be clients whose parents are now very elderly, so maybe this is because of the values of the older generation not fitting in with modern life. However, I don’t have many clients that make an appointment to discuss their father. It might come up in conversation but that isn’t the reason they come to see me.
To understand a Capricorn father, tackle him based on what element is predominant in his chart.
If he is a Capricorn with lots of fire in his chart, you will bond best by doing physical things, being excited, rushing around, being sporty or challenging.
If he is an Airy Capricorn things will need to be discussed, debated, thrashed out, thought about, spoken about, and decided.
If he is a Watery Capricorn, he will want to talk about his feelings, other people’s feelings, old hurts, old upsetment, sentimental things, things that are cherished.
If he is an Earthy Capricorn, he will want to know you have sorted out your physical world. He will be focused on money, security, meals, shopping (food), health, your work, his work, other family members’ work and will probably lend you money if you ask nicely! He’s also likely to allow you a considerable amount of responsibility from an early age.
I know a Capricorn father who allowed his young daughter aged five to walk to school on her own. Her journey involved crossing three roads, not especially busy roads but with a regular amount of traffic during the rush hour. I found out later that both she and he were Capricorn.
At the time, I was walking my young son to school and noticed her walking unaccompanied. I visited the family and expressed my worries about her walking on her own, and Dad launched into a vicious tirade. He said if he were too namby-pamby she’d never learn anything, and she needed to learn how to walk on her own. I agreed but pointed out that a child that young might be capable but the risk was with other people.
The next time I saw them he was walking her to school, mug of tea in his hand looking very grumpy, as if his breakfast had been disturbed, and her looking equally upset. Had I known at the time that they were both Capricorn, I would have kept my own opinion!
Readers, do you have a Capricorn father, or do you know one? What do you observe about their parenting patterns? Leave your thoughts in the comment section.
NOTE: All of Mary’s books in this series on the 12 signs are available in every different format, so you can get them on Nook
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/mary-english?store=nookstore&keyword=mary+english
Itunes for Mac devices
https://itunes.apple.com/ca/artist/mary-english/id409400894?mt=11
Amazon (books and Kindle)
http://www.amazon.com/Mary-English/e/B002T5OG4A/ref=ntt_athr_dp_pel_pop_1
Biography: Mary English was born in London and educated in Switzerland at the American International School of Zurich. She comes from a large family and is one of 5 children. Mary has been writing since she was 13 when her sister Lucy (a published author of fiction) gave her a diary for her birthday. Mary lives in Bath, UK with her husband, son, and her black cat.
She sees clients face-to-face and writes personal Birth Charts for visitors to her website. It was these consultations that inspired her to write about the Sun Signs to help her clients understand their motivations and learn about their Astrology profiles. Mary is a member of the Society of Authors, The Astrological Association of Great Britain and The Association for Astrological Networking. Visit her website at http://www.maryenglish.com.
More Posts from Mary’s Zodiac Series:
- How to Survive a Pisces Dad—and How I Survived Mine
- How to Survive Your Pisces Sweetheart
- How to Bond with an Aquarian Woman
- Scorpios in Service Careers—Dealing with Life and Death
Sky Writer 
I have an interesting Capricorn father friend. He lives in a country away from his wife and kid. He loves his son very dearly and talks about him often to everyone. He doesn’t mention the mom much, he doesn’t seem to like to talk about their situation but there is some strong emotion there when we’ve all been able to hit on it for a sec. He works very hard and says it’s easier/less stressful to make a living here than abroad. It would be easy/cheaper for him to move his family here but after 5 years it looks like it will never happen. He goes home about 6 weeks a year on school breaks.
Strange situation if I’ve heard of one. He has an Aries moon and can be quite, uh, vigorous on a subject once he’s gotten an opinion on it. Chiron conjunct Venus in Aquarius opposite Uranus certainly must explain the unusual situation with his wife. He is a very hard worker, lives a studious, hardworking, and frugal life excepting his taste for gourmet foods and wines (budget version though).
By: Dizzy on June 15, 2013
at 12:52 pm
Thanks for sharing your observations, Dizzy. Donna
By: Donna Cunningham on June 15, 2013
at 1:55 pm
Great post to read before Father’s Day! Thanks Donna! As a daughter of an earthy Cap father (also with his Mercury and Moon in Cap), what Mary English writes rings true. From the time I can remember, my father trusted me to live out my life through my own experiences. He is terra-firma dependable. He gives wise advice. He is generous. To add one more trait, he has such a fantastic sense of humor that it can make laughing almost hurt!
By: Menstrala on June 15, 2013
at 2:30 pm
Sounds like a great example of a Capricorn. That sense of humor, though, my experience of Capricorn/Saturn types is that their sense of humor tends toward the dry/wry type, which I, personally, enjoy the heck out of. If your father’s is uproarious, I’d bet there was some Sag in the mix–like Mercury in Sag, perhaps. Donna
By: Donna Cunningham on June 15, 2013
at 2:45 pm
Capricorn is my favorite sign, and I always appreciate their sense of humor. However I can count in one had the number of times my best friend (a Capricorn) ever called just to say hello. It always has to be useful.
By: RU on June 19, 2013
at 4:03 am
Oh you sure got it right, Donna 🙂 His Ascendant is Sag with Cap at the end of his first house.
By: Menstrala on June 15, 2013
at 2:53 pm
LOL! I just knew it!
By: Donna Cunningham on June 15, 2013
at 4:23 pm
Hi Dizzy & Menstrala, thanx for your comments. My youngest sister is a Cappie and my grandmother was, (they are both in the book) so I’ve seen up close how they feel responsible for things. In fact they LIKE having a responsibility. The little girl in the above account liked being ‘big enough’ to walk to school….I should have asked her sign before I spoke to her Cappie Dad!! xx
By: ukastrologer on June 16, 2013
at 1:07 am
My father has all his personal planets in Capricorn, with the exception of Mars in Pisces. So I know all about earthy Capricorns. Reserved to the extreme, incredibly practical (particularly for fine detail), as tough as old boots, has many old boots being a bit of a hoarder (you never know when you might need it!), frugal, dry humour when it’s vocalised, not emotional (but there’s no doubt of his love). If I made my father cross when I was young, then I knew I was in BIG trouble.
He passed this onto my sister as a Sun-Mercury-Saturn conjunction in Taurus and I have a T-square with Saturn focal point, plus Saturn rules my 3rd house; I take after his reserved nature. Consequently we both get on with him, although I would say I prefer doing something practical with him as this is when he’s at his best. I’m sure he’s proud of us, but he would never say so.
I think he missed his calling; he should have been a 19th century explorer! I can imagine him out in the wilds, living off berries and voles, reaching the summit first. I guess the Mars in Pisces just didn’t have the feist to go out and get it.
By: Rose on June 19, 2013
at 1:05 pm
My Capricorn father was serious but fun. He passed on his love of literature and poems, especially Ambrose Bierce. He enjoyed people but would not take any guff from them either. He cautioned me about various things in life but trusted me to make my own decisions. He was much easier to deal with than my judgemental and unpredictable Aquarius mother.
By: desert lady on June 23, 2013
at 12:58 pm
I had a Capricorn male friend who was a super business man with a good sense of humor and a vegitarian back in the early 60’s. He was ahead of his time in many ways.
By: barehand on June 26, 2013
at 11:20 am
Well this sounds familiar. I am a very fiery Aries Sun/Leo rising, and Dad was a Capricorn. He was terrifying in general, but I had a much more combative relationship with him than my Libra brothers did- if you could call it that- there was no direct combat allowed. Very severe, very strict, and very scary.
By: DP on July 7, 2013
at 4:00 pm
I hope we Cap dads are allowed to respond. I am definitely Cap with Sun/Moon/Mars, ASC and SN in Cap. And I WAS the disciplinarian but I think I connected better with my daughter than her mother. They were ‘joined at the hip’ and in my uneducated opinion codependent but my daughter and I hiked, swam and talked together, as friends. We were in Indian Princesses, where my ex did not do as many fun things together with her. On vacations my daughter and I did things together (enjoying the local stuff) while my ex shopped, lol. Even after we divorced when my daughter was 15, my ex and her mother called me to help calm my daughter when she was in crisis. So I like to think I was a staedy, fair and a sometimes fun dad. I certainly was not the best dad ever but also not the worst. Her mother died tragically of ALS about 1.5 years ago, and since, my daughter and I are closer and try to contact very often even if only to say ‘I love you’ (we live 600+ miles apart). Her view might be a little different but she has expressed she felt we were much better able to communicate/understand each other than she and her mother. I’ve looked at our charts together and we have several stressful aspects but also some nice ones. Her Sun is trine my ascendant. BTW, she is a Virgo, with AQU ASC and Gemini Moon so both earth, whereas her mother was very Leo (Sun, Merc, Pluto, Saturn). I’m not entirely sure I understand our connection, but maybe b/c she has Neptune right on her MC and I kind of understand/relate/empathize with Neptune-her Uranus/Jupiter/Mercury are conjunct my natal T-square focal point Neptune. I didn’t teach her much about healthy relationships but she does know how to set and maintain boundaries and even does with me, lol. She still remembers when I read to her when she was very small (in the mid 70s) from a book called TA for Kids and we kidded about ‘warm fuzzies’ and ‘cold prickles’. Anyway, I don’t think all Cappy dads are hard nosed strict rigid and cold, even though they might not be the most fun. Thanks for letting me respond
By: Bob Miller on September 14, 2014
at 12:56 pm
Found this post looking for any information about capricorn. My dad is a very earthy capricorn, lots of planets in earthy signs (uranus, jupiter and saturn in Taurus). Succesful self made man, entrepreneur, type A, with heart issues. He has no imagination at all. Everything is down to earth. He let his kids take public transport alone anywhere in the city at the age of 12, and I grew up in a city of 10 million people. He believed college is a waste of time, and that his kids should just take care of the family businesses. We all went to college, and it was a rebel act.
Donna, there is a major stellium coming in a few years, in capricorn. Pluto, jupiter, sun, saturn, mercury, all in January 2020. Its going to be big, and somehow I don`t see people writing about it over the internet yet. I get very curious on what you would say about it! Like, I was looking myself, and the last time pluto made conjunction with saturn was, if I am not mistaken, in 1516 when the americas started to be colonized, and the Tudors were chopping eachothers heads in England. So imagine now a mega stellium there in jan 2020?
By: Arya on March 16, 2016
at 1:49 pm
Hi Arya, I too am very interested in ths conjunction as it is within 1 degree of my Sun and exact on my solar return. However, the conjunction of Pluto and Saturn occurs about every 38 years or so. So where did you get the info the last one was in 1516? The last one was in Nov 1982 according to my ephemeris. Did you maybe mean the last one that occurred in Cap? Not trying to start an argument, just wanted to know where you got that info. Thanks
By: Bob Miller on March 16, 2016
at 2:18 pm
Now that’s a good question, Bob. I’d be interested to know the parallels, also, if so. Donna
By: Donna Cunningham on March 16, 2016
at 2:30 pm
I think the actual conjunction of Pluto-Saturn in Cap around that time (1516) was in Jan 1518 (not sure if old style or new style date) but a huge event was the posting of Luther’s 97 theses in Oct 1517 which set off the protestant reformation. Not many more impactful events than that! Affected religion, governments and led to fighting for many years (some still going on). A couple of years later Cortez conquered Aztecs in Mexico and set off European domination of the Americas. Saturn and Pluto would still have been in Cap, just not conjunct.
By: Bob Miller on March 16, 2016
at 3:25 pm
Interesting to know the history, you two.
By: Donna Cunningham on March 16, 2016
at 4:28 pm
That’s very interesting, Arya. However, Pluto and Saturn were conjunct for a couple of years in 1947-8 and then again in Libra 1981-82. Also about 1914-15. The conjunction happens about every 35 years, in a regularly recurring pattern.
I’ve been focusing on the generation born in 1988-89, as every child born on the planet during those years has a triple conjunction of Saturn-Uranus-Neptune in Capricorn–many millions of them. Those born in the winter could have as many as three or four other planets in Capricorn, so a whopper of a stellium. As transiting Pluto has been traveling across the triple conjunction, transiting Uranus has been squaring it, so they’re going through an extremely difficult time… many of them in meltdowns of one sort or another.
My hope has been that when they get their Saturn return in Capricorn at about age 27-28, they will finally come into their own. But now that you’re telling me it is still another Capricorn stellium involving transiting Saturn and Pluto, it sounds so very difficult for them that I’m very concerned.
Donna
By: Donna Cunningham on March 16, 2016
at 2:28 pm
Irember that time period. A massive lineup in Capricorn took place in my 4th house. I had a very spiritual dream earlier and was told to make the drum I had seen by a well respected medicine healer in the native community. In the dream it was like reconnecting with an old friend; the turtle drum. The way it’s parts came to me was magical and the drum almost made itself. My hands were its tools. I made and blessed it during the conjunction….it might have been winter solstice but I can’t remember that for sure. I felt a strong connection with many others on the same wavelength at the time accompanied with an uplifting instrumental music like East Indian or dirvish. It was a special time.
By: Barehand on March 16, 2016
at 2:43 pm
You have such amazing experiences, Barehand, so attuned to the heavens and to Spirit. It might well have been at the Winter Solstice, as that is when the Sun enters the sign Capricorn. Donna
By: Donna Cunningham on March 16, 2016
at 2:47 pm
There is an article in the Dec/Jan 2016 issue of TMA which talks about this conjunction and the Pluto-Saturn cycle by Maurice Fernandez.
By: Bob Miller on March 16, 2016
at 2:52 pm
The Pluto-Saturn conjunction is at 22 Cap on Jan 12 2020. There is a Lunar eclipse at 20 Cap on Jan 10th. Lots going on in the skies in those few days (My Sun at 21 Cap 59, lol, my Asc at13 Cap 47 and SN at 18 Cap26, also have Moon and Mars in early Cap degrees).
By: Bob Miller on March 16, 2016
at 2:58 pm
OoooF!! All that and a lunar eclipse, too. I have been feeling for quite some time that I truly would not want to be around any more in 2020, not knowing the planetary picture, but just the rate that the earth is changing.
And I don’t think I will be, either, as I’m 73 3/4 now and don’t come from a long-lived family. I feel that I’ve fulfilled my life work well already. Donna
By: Donna Cunningham on March 16, 2016
at 4:27 pm
I notice also that the USA’s FIRST Pluto return is in December 2022 and transit Pluto comes in close orb to that position in 2019-2020 time period. I am just a couple of years behind you and not sure I want to be around either. Could be very “interesting” times, lots of change and reckoning. Saturn was not near Pluto in 1776 but interesting that Pluto in Cap brings huge “transformation”, and often violently.
By: Bob Miller on April 8, 2016
at 8:44 am
BTW, you have had a very fulfilling and impactful life to your many students, clients and fans. We appreciate the tremendous contributions you have made to our lives and to astrology. Thanks very much!
By: Bob Miller on April 8, 2016
at 8:47 am
Plutos been sawing it’s way through my 4th house and my Venus conjunct saturn both at 20 degrees has me in trepidation at what you say will be happening in 2020!
By: Barehand on March 16, 2016
at 3:53 pm
20cancer
By: Barehand on March 16, 2016
at 4:00 pm
Forgot to say the north node of pluto is 20 cancer. Don’t know what that added piece means??
By: Barehand on March 16, 2016
at 3:56 pm
My dad is an Earthy Capricorn and he is just like you described. If I didn’t realize my fathers ways because of his zodiac sign we would get into a lot of arguments bc I didn’t understand why he is the way he is. He is very focused on work and is loaded with cash bc of his very hard working and determined nature. But isn’t about to help out his own family financially unless we “earn it” and or ask very nicely. Also, if the family doesn’t show Capricorn dad we are equally focused and hard working then we will hear his wisdom on how we need to work harder. Lastly, my dads expected me to be an “adult” since I was a child making me grow very mature.
By: Karmyn Perez on April 11, 2017
at 11:36 pm