7Ø ½ K◦K turnabout (老子) Axis & G's impact
when too much Kan◦Kri outs in Kapri◦Keros (Houses 4-10: Cancer-Capricorn)
- 183 days
- or 26 weeks & 1 day
- or 6 months
- 184 days
- or 26 weeks & 2 days
- or 6 months & 1 day
- 125 working days (1000 hours, assuming 8-hour workday),
- 58 non-working days including:
- 26 Saturdays,
- 26 Sundays,
- 6 federal holidays (US) falling on weekdays
The 4-10 axis or the Cancer-Capricorn axis is all about I generate/get: Duet K◦K axis & G◦G effect (VI-XII)
- Having an emotional and personal impact on those I love and using bonding to get things, represented by Cancer and the 4th house,
- VS generating my own means and relying on status to get things, represented by Capricorn and the 10th house.
Cancer and Capricorn are opposites on the Zodiac wheel, making them a pair to ponder. They swing on poles of emotional and earthly intelligence and homey vs. worldly centres of gravity.
Cancer and Capricorn are a polarity, so there's a familiar resonance, along with the total opposite experience of these signs.
Having big energies in one of these two Zodiac signs might make the other side seem out of my depth (or scope). Like me, I'm a Cancer and find the traits of Capricorn wholly at odds with my nature.
And yet, I can see how cultivating them, in my own Moonchild way, makes me feel more whole. Though I must admit, Capricorn is the most enigmatic to me, and living into its mystery coincides now with Pluto's transit (to 2024). Pluto is the planet of getting to the true authentic core, and the one that reveals. So I'm seeing Pluto in Capricorn as a time when the deeper -- and timeless -- meaning of this sign will emerge.
On the surface, we talk about Capricorn being a go-getter, climbing the social or corporate ladder like its modern totem, the mountain goat [Oreamnos americanus (Blainville, 1816)]1. And yet, in the chimeric creature, the Seagoat², an older Capricorn totem, we see the affinity of this earth sign for the watery depths.
This is a totem that embodies both Cancer, with its oceanic origins and depths, and the climbing goat of Capricorn. To climb high and seize the day Capricorn style, you need to know where you've been, and Cancer's milieu is the emotional terrain of the past.
Anchors and Origins
Speaking of the loamy sea, Cancer is a sign of seeking a safe harbour or putting down an anchor in the imperilled sea (of the psyche). Cancer yearns for home (Cf. though not a Cancer born, R.A.M.'s 1st aim), and may feel like an exile, and always have a touch of homesickness.
The looney Moon-ruled Cancer finds its strength when it establishes a strong shell of protection, for all that is churning within. The Crab's gifts come from its emotional potency, that has to be shielded from being pulled too much outside into external concerns.
Cancer needs a cloistered space (a cell, a hermitage), to know its own true colour and dimension. And to be self-contained, with strong boundaries that don't leak all over the place (䷻ 60 節 [jié], "Articulating" or "limitation" and "moderation". Its inner trigram is ☱ (兌 duì) open = (澤) swamp, and its outer trigram is ☵ (坎 kǎn) gorge = (水) water.). And from the Capricorn side, we can draw in the urge to shield and be discriminating with the company we keep. From that confident place, Cancer can move out into the world, and feel authentic, like they are bringing some of that inner depth to what they do or in relating.
The striving Capricorn needs a strong emotional wellspring, otherwise, as Per Gullfoss writes in Spiritual Astrology, he collapses back unto himself, "caught in the inner darkness and lead-filled chambers of the personality."
Gullfoss notes "Capricorn energy needs to move in both directions at the same time. As branches stretch toward the sky, roots go deeper into the ground." And later, he writes, "It is the ability to stay at the energetic top at the same time as one goes deep down in the valley that gives the rich understanding and satisfaction that Capricorn strives for."
This brings to mind too, the roots of the great tree, like the Live Oak, that are as massive as the branches, but underground. They absorb the nourishment from subterranean aquifers, just as we need that emotional sustenance, to feel secure.
In Capricorn, we find a sign that's keenly aware of time, and that's part of its mystery. What could be reclaimed here is the wisdom of being creators in this material plane, over aeons. And the instinct that we are a continuation of our ancestors, and the ones who come after us.
Blood and Soil
With Cancer and Capricorn, the kinship of blood ties is keenly experienced, but in what ways?
I found an insightful interpretation in an article from the Sher Institute of Astrology and Metaphysics, on Cancer: "The primal blood connection of ancestry and DNA whisper their secrets to her."
With Capricorn, that becomes a responsibility or responsiveness to the extended clan.
On Capricorn, from the Sher Institute article: "The world at large is her family. She remembers the secrets of life and death whispered to her through the blood magic of feminine creation, though they take a less personal meaning now. What was once subjective and emotional is now pure earthly power, and the earth may be our giver of life but she also takes it away. One cannot escape gravity and time. Capricorn comprehends and values the magic of time cycles."
Since we evolved with the Earth herself in specific landscapes, we see how Capricorn (and the Pluto transit) reveals the power of inheritances, tradition and sense of place. It seems we are at a crossroads, where we can regrow roots, as an alternative to being rootless.
Capricorn then, with Saturn as its ruler, knows that strong boundaries conserve the unique expression that has organically evolved over time. It is the recognition of being a guardian of the legacy of the ancestors and the inheritance of the descendent.
More on The Cancer - Capricorn Polarity
- Cancer is the first sign of Summer, while Capricorn ushers in Winter -- both are Solstice points.
- Cancer is the Mother, while Capricorn is the Crone or elder 老. Cancer prepares to give birth and provide a nurturing environment. Capricorn lives with the spectre of death and knows that "Winter is coming," and prepares for it.
- Cancer has been likened to loving like a child 子, or unconditional love, while Capricorn's love has conditions and expectations. Cancers reach out to the vulnerable, and fall into habits of dependency themselves. Capricorn is a teacher of self-sufficiency and models that.
- Some Cancer-Capricorn pairs fall into playing the roles of parent and child. And seeing the wisdom of both is part of this polarity, too...
Ultimately, the Cancer-Capricorn opposition involves getting in touch with nurturing, connection, and fundamental security. The two signs have more in common than it might seem: both are highly protective in their own ways, but for both, identifying what genuinely nourishes and grounds may require gently facing fears or wounds (something neither end of this axis is particularly comfortable doing).
Cancer and Capricorn: Contrasting Approaches Toward Self-Parenting
Cancer represents the mothering, nurturing side and Capricorn represents the fathering, disciplining side of our personality (note that our horoscope contains both signs regardless of natal planetary placement.)
Cancer values emotional safety and comfort above all else and will rush to the rescue if we are feeling hurt or lonely. It will do whatever it takes in order to make us feel comfortable and loved (often drawing from the experience of what has worked in the past to remove emotional discomfort.)
Capricorn values discipline and self-sufficiency more than emotional comfort. It does not like emotional vulnerability, and might even consider it to be weak in some way. It would rather show us how to become stronger and more skilled so that we can take care of ourselves better in future.
We can easily see how these two contrasting approaches complement one another: Too much Cancer and too little Capricorn, for example, might mean you indulge in overeating whenever feeling lonely. On the other hand, too much Capricorn and too little Cancer may result in workaholic or martyr-like behaviours where we are constantly exhausted because we do not take good care of ourself.
Toward Synthesis of Cancer-Capricorn Archetypes
The opposing signs need each other in order to successfully express their core purpose. In the case of Cancer-Capricorn pair, one of their core purposes is our nurturing and growth (䷚27 頤 & 35 晉 ䷢). We could consider the following synthesis of ideas:
- There can be no true nurturing without discipline: Going to bed 1 hour early takes discipline but is also nurturing to the self. Same goes with eating healthy or exercising regularly.
- Our goals and ambition need to be tempered with self-care: Being too driven in our work could actually become less productive if it leads to loss of health or a relationship.
- It is difficult to feel emotional security unless we are financially secure: being productive and successful is nurturing.
- Being emotionally expressive could help us become more effective at work: great leaders know how to express themselves and stir up other people’s emotions in order to motivate them. Without the capacity to express our emotions, we may be perceived as too cold and cerebral.
Personality Theory & the Astrology of Relationships – The Cancer/Capricorn Axis
The Cancer/Capricorn axis is ruled by the Moon and Saturn. As the axis of the structure, the tension across this axis concerns the relationship between the parent and the child, the container and the contained, dependency and self-sufficiency.
According to personality theory, this axis relates to the very early developmental period of attachment and bonding. If the caretakers are sufficiently attuned to the child’s needs and if the environment is experienced as basically safe and predictable, then the child can move through this developmental phase without difficulty. A well balanced Cancer/Capricorn axis is caring and responsible, nurturing and providing, building strong structures and nourishing all living things that live within those structures. In an individual chart, the signs and houses in which the Moon and Saturn are placed, and any aspect between them will provide further information about the quality of this relationship.
If the child experiences its environment as hostile or cold, its caretakers a source of pain and rejection, rather than comfort, the very early message is that the world and other people cannot be trusted. The emotional reaction is terror, and the developmental issue will be one of safety. In response to early experiences of emotional neglect or deprivation, the child learns not to reach out, withdraws from and avoids contact with others, and develops their own imaginative, intellectual of spiritual inner worlds. The ‘wounded child’ experiences itself as hated, unwanted or insignificant, that it has no right to exist, which can lead to what is known as a schizoid adaptation.
There is an inherent conflict on the Cancer/Capricorn axis. The Moon, or child within 子, is necessarily physically and emotionally dependent, and its survival depends upon getting its primal needs met. Fearing abandonment above all, the motivation for Cancer is to create and maintain emotional bonds which represent survival, security and belonging, the continuity of the family matrix, community or tribe 家/氏. If the parental Capricorn qualities of responsibility and personal authority remain unconscious and undeveloped, the individual refuses to grow up, becomes increasingly needy, dependent and emotionally demanding and thereby attracts others into their lives who display the equally polarised qualities of negative Capricorn. Others will be experienced as critical, withholding and cold. And so the game goes on, with Cancer feeling chronically undernourished, hungry and resentful, thereby replicating their earliest experiences.
The parental sign of Capricorn, and its ruler Saturn 老, describes the structures and boundaries which separate us from others. It concerns the development of emotional self-sufficiency, self-reliance and self-control, ambition and achievement in the world. Often, great providers, Capricorn is known to be responsible and hard-working.
Early experiences of neglect or hostility lead to the development of a defensive adaptation which bears the hallmarks of the negative, dissociated expression of this sign. Capricorn polarises by cutting off its own neediness from consciousness, withdraws from the presumed threat or danger of emotional contact, and judges, criticises or punishes any dependency needs in themselves and in others. People living on this axis tend to be extremely harsh with themselves, denying themselves the basic comforts of food, contact with nature and the body, living instead in a ‘frozen’ state of terror. Introjecting their own early experiences, there can be a lack of empathy and their behaviour can be cynical, callous or even cruel, replicating the treatment they first received as children. It is a psychological truism that we tend to treat ourselves and others the same way that we have ourselves been treated. Out of touch with themselves, isolating their feelings from their thoughts, they tend to gravitate towards relationships and environments which are themselves harsh, and which reinforce the original experiences of rejection and isolation.
With this Cancer/Capricorn character adaptation, individuals are perfectly capable of presenting themselves as socially available, interested, engaged and involved with others, but a well-defended adaptation on this axis is recognisable by its rather impersonal and formal quality. They tend to remain emotionally withdrawn and apart, due to a fear of reliance or, even worse, dependence on others.
Generally speaking, the only safe relationships are contextual – based on familial, social and professional roles – as long as these do not require or force the need for emotional intimacy. Contextual relationships protect the individual from their sense of not being good enough without a role and provide the necessary structures with which to go through the motions of appearing to belong and to be acceptable to others. People on this axis consider themselves to be observers rather than participants in the world around them. Indeed, they easily feel suffocated if their personal space is violated. Generally speaking, social situations and family gatherings tend to cause anxiety and are normally avoided.
As a method of self-preservation, these individuals are typically introspective, preoccupied with their own imaginative, intellectual or spiritual inner worlds, prone to nostalgia and the fantasy of regression to the safety of the metaphorical womb, a place of ultimate safety. Fantasy is a substitute relationship, free from the dangers and anxieties associated with an emotional connection to real persons and situations. In fantasy relationships, one can be attached to internal objects and still be free. Workaholism and other addictions can serve as substitutes for human relationships.
The reclusive French author Marcel Proust, with the Sun in Cancer, is a good example of this type. Or the actress Marlene Dietrich, with Sun, Mercury, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn and Chiron in Capricorn, whose professed well-known desire was to be alone.
Cancer/Capricorn Stories
There are many stories and films relevant to the main themes on this axis. They concern experiences of abandonment, rejection, alienation from the parents and/or the family, and a retreat into a private and safe spiritual or fantasy world. They also contain themes of mourning and grieving for the loss of the illusion of the adequate support and love which they never received.
Stories belonging to the Cancer/Capricorn axis reveal that the ‘unparented child’ has an overwhelming need and yearning for a parental substitute – someone who will love, protect, care for and even die for them, as a parent will for a child. There is often a desire to create a family to offset the loneliness they felt as a child, or to prove that they do, in fact, have a right to exist, by achieving professional recognition and respect in the world. This is balanced by a real fear of rejection and abandonment, which leads to emotional distancing, to mask the level of neediness. A general pattern of isolated withdrawal reinforces the fundamental sense of being isolated and alone. In spite of longing for friendship, companionship and love, there is a strong feeling of loneliness, especially in the midst of a crowd.
These stories are tinged with regret, nostalgia and the eventual necessity of separation.
Relationships on this axis tend to be transitional. Eventually, the parent substitute will have served their purpose and provided us with a sufficiently safe and protective environment, helping us grow in confidence and independence until we are ready to move on, which is the core function of parent/child relationships. Alternatively, the parent substitute may leave us, or even die, which finally breaks the parent/child bond and leads to a period of profound grief and mourning for what we never had, but finally enables us to grow beyond this developmental stage. A further possibility is an eventual realisation that the partner is incapable of healing what is, of course, their own primal wound, and they may seek another parental substitute, and continue to repeat the pattern.
Peter Pan
The universal and enduring appeal of J.M. Barrie’s story of Peter Pan reveals its archetypal significance. It has been the subject of numerous adaptations, prequels and sequels, not to mention the 1953 Disney animated feature film, live-action feature films, various stage musicals, TV series and video games.
Peter Pan was a boy who refused to grow up. He ran away to the magical realm of Neverland when his parents had another child and forgot about him. In Neverland, he was the leader of the Lost Boys – a band of infants who fell out of their prams and were never claimed by their parents – so they were all orphans, a central theme which continues throughout the story, along with the fear of growing up.
Wendy3 was the oldest child in the Darling family, with two younger brothers. One night, she woke up to find Peter sitting on the floor, in tears. He was crying because his shadow wouldn’t stick to him. In other words, he had no substance, since we only acquire a shadow when we are embodied, incarnated and solid – manifested. Spirits and sprites do not have shadows because they do not exist in the real world, with all its demands, limitations and existential problems, such as the inevitability of death. Wendy sewed his shadow to the tips of his shoes and Peter was delighted.
Peter persuaded Wendy to fly with him to Neverland and to be his mother there. She agreed, but only if she could take her brothers, John and Michael with her, whom she is already looking after. They fly to Neverland, where Wendy meets the Lost Boys, who also want Wendy to be their mother. Wendy took care of the boys by day, and told them stories at night, in their cosy house under the woods.
Neverland is populated by Indians, Mermaids and Pirates – all figures of Peter Pan’s imagination. The most interesting figure is Captain Hook – a shadow figure who, tellingly, is pursued by time – mortality, and with it the fear of growing up, old age and death – in the shape of a crocodile who has swallowed a clock. The crocodile symbolism is significant since Peter is terrified of being dragged down into the shadow waters of the unconscious, preferring the detachment of air and flying as his element. Eventually, after a series of adventures, Hook is eaten by his nemesis, the crocodile, and Peter returns Wendy, and her brothers to their home. Wendy’s parents agree to adopt Peter Pan and the Lost Boys, but Peter chooses to stay in Neverland, where he will never have to grow up.
It has been suggested that Michael Jackson had what has become known as the Peter Pan Syndrome. Speaking openly about his childhood in a 1993 interview with Oprah Winfrey, he acknowledged that his youth had been lonely and isolating. In a 2003 interview with Martin Bashir, he said, “I am Peter Pan”. When Bashir said, “No, you’re Michael Jackson”, Jackson replied, “I’m Peter Pan in my heart”. The fantasy home Jackson created was called “Neverland Ranch”.
J.M. Barrie
J.M. Barrie was born at 6.42 am on 9th May 1860 in Kirriemuir, Angus, Scotland, the ninth child of ten. A journalist, playwright and children’s book writer, his life and relationships bear many of the hallmarks of the Cancer/Capricorn axis, which he had across his ASC/DES, with Venus in Cancer and the Moon in Capricorn. Barrie’s story has been told in the film Finding Neverland (2004), starring Johnny Depp (Moon in Capricorn, North Node in Cancer) and Kate Winslett (MC/IC Cancer/Capricorn).
When Barrie was six years old, his older brother David, and his mother’s favourite, died in a skating accident, a loss from which his mother never recovered. His father did not interact at all with his children. Barrie tried in vain to replace his lost brother in his mother’s affections but was rejected, an event which was to mark the rest of his life. After her death, Barrie published an adoring biography about her.
Growing up shy and sensitive, Barrie became a writer, a socially sanctioned way of retreating into his imagination and creating his own, safe, fantasy land. He married the actress Mary Ansell in 1894 and they began taking walks with their dog in Kensington Gardens, a park near their London home, where Barrie became a favourite of the children brought there by their nannies, entertaining them with his antics and stories about pirates and fairies. In a hostile world, it is only safe to form relationships with animals and children, who will never leave or abandon you, unless and until, of course, the children grow up.
The children Barrie was fondest of were the young sons of Arthur and Sylvia Llewelyn Davies, George, Jack, Peter, Michael and Nico. He told the boys pirate stories which became the basis for his 1904 play Peter Pan, or The Boy Who Would Not Grow Up, which became a huge hit in Britain and the US.
Barrie’s marriage was an unhappy one, cold and formal and by many accounts sexless. It was certainly childless, though Mary was anxious for a child. She began an affair in 1909 with the writer Gilbert Cannan, and the marriage ended in divorce.
Barrie remained close to the Llewelyn Davies family. When Arthur and Sylvia died of cancer within a few years of each other, he became the guardian and surrogate father to the boys. Both George and Michael predeceased him. George was killed in action in 1915 during World War I, and Michael drowned at Oxford in 1921. Twenty-three years after Barrie’s death in June 1937, Peter, who had become a successful publisher, committed suicide by throwing himself under a London underground train.
It is remarkable how many famous writers of fantasy have experienced similar experiences of rejection and abandonment in their childhoods. Actors also seem to be drawn to play characters which reflect their own personality adaptations.
Dustin Hoffman
With Jupiter on the ASC in Capricorn and DES, Venus and Pluto in Cancer, Dustin Hoffman, for example, is clearly attracted to themes of loneliness, abandonment and alienation from the family. One of his most famous films is, of course, The Graduate – a significant rite of passage film in which we see him on the painful pivot of regression back into the family – the mother, in this case, played by Mrs Robinson – or having the courage to reach out into adulthood. In other films, such as Rainman, Midnight Cowboy, Kramer vs Kramer and Tootsie, he portrays figures who are alienated, rejected, or outsiders. Significantly, he also starred as Captain Hook in the 1991 film Hook and played the theatrical producer Charles Frohman in Finding Neverland.
- A sure-footed goat antelope, Oreamnos americanus, of the North American mountains, having black curved horns and a shaggy coat. From Middle English gote, goot, got, gat, from Old English gāt, from Proto-Germanic *gaits, from a substrate language. 羊 (yáng), 山羊 (shānyáng) ➠chèvre (bouc, bique) *kápros m, a he-goat, billy goat
The constellation Capricornus was commonly imagined as a type of sea-goat. This has been done since the Bronze Age within Mesopotamia. Then the Babylonians used MUL SUḪUR.MAŠ, 'the goatfish', to symbolize the god Enki.
The sea goat is often referred to as the 'Capricorn goat' because of its association with the Capricorn zodiac sign. The creature remains the same.
The sea goat has the body of a goat from the waist up and the tail of fish. It is a very unusual creature, even for mythical standards, because the two halves don't seem to make a whole lot of sense together. Goats are designed to climb steep and rocky cliffs while fish are designed to move smoothly through water. Neither half compliments the other. In fact, they almost make it a completely impossible creature altogether.
Most mythologists have the origin of the Capricorn goat screwed up, just as they have Capricorn mythology screwed up. Some believe the image of the sea-goat comes from the story of Typhon, the king of monsters. They attribute the image to the god Pan, a satyr, who jumped into the river to flee Typhon's assault on the gods.
Others say that there was a separate figure named Aegipan (notice the similar name), who was the sea-goat of Capricorn legend. There are no real conclusive clues as to where this mysterious god came from or where else he is referenced.
The best explanation of the Capricorn goat comes from the Capricorn zodiac sign myth that was discovered in later writings.
Basically, the sea goats came from the first sea goat, Pricus, who was created by the god Chronos. The legend goes that eventually, all the sea goats made their way inevitably to land where they became the four-legged goats that we know today, leaving Pricus as the sole sea goat and the figure in Capricorn mythology.
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