BirthAlmanac
English

Earth · Cardinal

Capricorn

The Sea-Goat, the 10th sign of the zodiac year, usually printed as 22 December – 19 January.

A hand-coloured star card of Capricornus: a pale sea-goat with long ridged horns and a shaggy mane, its body ending in a dark scaled fish's tail.
Capricornus · Sidney Hall · Urania's Mirror; or, A View of the Heavens, London, 1825
Element
Earthpracticality, endurance and the material world, in the tradition
Modality
Cardinalthe signs that open a season, traditionally read as initiators
Traditional ruler
SaturnAssigned before the outer planets were found
Modern ruler
SaturnSame as the traditional ruler.

When the sun actually crosses

The moment the sun enters Capricorn and the moment it leaves for Aquarius, each year from 2015 to 2026, in UTC to the minute.

21 Dec 00:0021 Dec 06:0021 Dec 12:0021 Dec 18:0022 Dec 00:0022 Dec 06:0020122016202020242010202621 Dec 00:0021 Dec 06:0021 Dec 12:0021 Dec 18:0022 Dec 00:0022 Dec 06:00201220162020202420102026
Where the sun crossed into Capricorn, 2010–2026, in UTC. The marked years are the ones where a 29 February has fallen in between and pulled it back by most of a day.
YearSun enters CapricornSun leaves for Aquarius
201522 December, 04:48 UTC20 January, 15:27 UTC
201621 December, 10:44 UTC19 January, 21:24 UTC
201721 December, 16:28 UTC20 January, 03:09 UTC
201821 December, 22:22 UTC20 January, 08:59 UTC
201922 December, 04:20 UTC20 January, 14:55 UTC
202021 December, 10:03 UTC19 January, 20:40 UTC
202121 December, 15:59 UTC20 January, 02:39 UTC
202221 December, 21:48 UTC20 January, 08:29 UTC
202322 December, 03:28 UTC20 January, 14:07 UTC
202421 December, 09:20 UTC19 January, 20:00 UTC
202521 December, 15:03 UTC20 January, 01:45 UTC
202621 December, 20:50 UTC20 January, 07:30 UTC

VSOP87, checked against published equinox and solstice times.

Which dates can be Capricorn

Since 1920 the sun has entered Capricorn on 21 December or 22 December, and left it for Aquarius on 19 January, 20 January or 21 January (UTC). On those dates the sign depends on the year, and in a crossing year on the hour; each date's page gives every year.

In the tradition

In Western astrological tradition, Capricorn is classed as a cardinal earth sign. Cardinal signs are the signs that open a season, traditionally read as initiators, and earth signs are traditionally associated with practicality, endurance and the material world. Its ruling planet in that tradition is Saturn.

These are associations reported from tradition, not claims about anyone born under the sign.

Pan in the river

The sign resembles Aegipan, Hyginus says, who was nursed alongside Jupiter, and whom Jupiter wanted among the stars just as he put there the goat that had nursed him. As Eratosthenes tells it, when Jupiter attacked the Titans he was the first to throw into them the fear "that is called panikos," and the fish below his waist is there because he hurled shellfish at the enemy in place of stones.

Hyginus also gives the story told by Egyptian priests and some poets. When the monster Typhon came on the gods gathered in Egypt, each escaped in another shape: Mercury became an ibis and Diana a cat. Pan threw himself into the river, a fish below and a goat above, and Jove, admiring his shrewdness, put that likeness in the sky. The same monster appears again in the Pisces story.

Hyginus, Astronomica, book 2, in Mary Grant's translation (1960), chapter 2.28, checked .

Read on