Capricorns are misunderstood. They’re imagined like these bespoke suit wearing strangers who come into a room speaking corporate-rhyme without meaning and inconsequentially, as if Capricorns could ever say or do anything inconsequential. Capricorns are imagined as expensive. They’re imagined with shiny, well kept shoes. That’s a lie. Capricorn shoes are always worn.

Capricorns are rebels, not rule keepers. It’s like they have an instinct to walk backwards. They stop showering for weeks at a time to see what will happen if they resist social conventions around keeping clean. They go to bed at 7 am and wake at midnight to see what it’s like to live nocturnally. Capricorn is made up of contrarian bones. They’re one of the most quietly and infuriatingly wacky people out there.

Then, there’s the sadness of Capricorn, which is really a poeticism and a whimsicalness that they keep on low volume so that it only overwhelms themselves. Capricorns are as whimsical as any Pisces. They see an avalanche and make a movie out of it. They see a pond and make a poem in their head.

What defines a Capricorn, with that Sun nearing its detriment and in its sign of peregrine, is it’s own concept of misshapenness. Capricorn is a sign that struggles to be known. They look in the mirror and notice that they look different today than they did yesterday, finding confusion. It’s a sign that distrusts its own image.

A high pitched ringing, low and spine arching, and a blanket of snow—that’s Capricorn. Capricorns are bewildering the same way that the first snowfall, covering every landmark you once knew, is bewildering.

If you’re not a stereotypical Capricorn, you may not be a briefcase wielding stick in the mud who has the capacity to teach everyone and their mother how to negotiate for a raise. You may not be at home in a business meeting because you’re not at home anywhere. You might wear your own discomfort like a badge. You might have embraced your awkwardness long ago, preferring the honesty of abruptness to the flexibility of smoothness.

Capricorn is the sign in which Mars exalts and Saturn rules. It’s a sign that makes both malefics very comfortable. Capricorns find the discomforting comfortable and, if they don’t, they make it so. Capricorns know how to get through. They understand what it's like to survive something that you weren’t sure if you wanted to survive in the first place.

This is why, I think, Capricorns love to discard things so openly. It’s one of the only times they find freedom. They throw away a book once they’re done reading. They get rid of the flowers drying on their dresser once they’re finished. They throw away old sweaters and knickknacks. They don’t keep old furniture around once it starts getting in the way. It’s like they’re chasing the void of fresh snow. They throw things away because they understand that the self must be diminished before it is shaped.

And this is why Capricorn confuses us. It’s a sign that prefers silence over music, privacy over visibility, and space over stuff. And then Capricorn throws their entire life away, falling in love with a city or a person. They make out with someone at a party and change their entire life. Capricorn isn’t so rigid after all. They’re ready for big changes because they’re aware that none of us live forever.

You’re not a stereotypical Capricorn because you’ve never been rigid. You’re whimsical and you’re ready to turn your life from a lament into an allegory. You’re not a stereotypical Capricorn because you don’t speak in lingo but in bluntness. You know how to find the words that cut. You get it done because it's time, not because you need to prove yourself.

Capricorns do the weirdest shit and they don’t tell anyone about it. They’re ready for collapse. They invest nothing into platitudes. This might look like strength but it’s also a tendency towards the mischievous that keeps Capricorn exactly who they are.