I remember when I first started studying astrology back in 2014. I sat in a bar with a man and looked up his natal chart, discovering that he had Mercury in Capricorn. I think that a lot of astrologers have specific moments that they refer back to in and around certain placements. This is the one that I refer back to when I think of Mercury in Capricorn. I remember this moment because, as we looked up delineations of Mercury in Capricorn, we found a great number of descriptions signaling that Mercury in Capricorn is organized, that it is neat, or that it is compartmentalized.

I keep this word, compartmentalized, with myself for Mercury in Capricorn because the man I was sitting with reacted to it. “Compartmentalized!” he giggled. “What does that mean?” He played it like a joke. “Aren’t we all compartmentalized?” It seemed, in some way, to strike a nerve that no one, including myself, was allowed to know anything about.

For the record, I don’t think Mercury in Capricorn needs to be diligent or neat or orderly or detailed. I think that we see the goat side of Capricorn and forget that it is also a creature that swims out to sea.

Mercury in Capricorn can be perfectly messy. In fact, it can be all over the place. It swings from one thing to another not through association but through repulsion. Mercury in Capricorn is one of the only Mercuries I meet who regularly become repulsed or disenchanted by ideas.

Mercury is mostly peregrine in Capricorn unless it has some bound rulership. Maybe this has something to do with it. Or, maybe, it has to do with Saturn. Mercury in Capricorn is a Saturnian Mercury and Saturn’s style is that he likes to reverse his position whenever it comes time.

Mercury in Capricorn is quite dramatic for this reason. It doesn’t care so much about incremental movement or about being allowed to lean your mind in one direction slowly and then come back. It cares little for the frivolous. Mercury in Capricorn is ruthlessly concerned with the bottom line. If it is going to change its mind on something, then it is prepared to change all the way. If it changes its mind on one principle, it will also change its life.

This is the drama of Mercury in Capricorn. It doesn’t allow itself the time and space to be a hypocrite. It doesn’t allow itself the time or space to practice idiocy. It either knows what it is talking about or it doesn’t. When Mercury in Capricorn knows too much about an idea, it begins to break itself down in a way. When an ideal dies for Mercury in Capricorn, it truly dies. It is dead, buried, and its corpse becomes repulsive.

This is why Mercury in Capricorn lives in people who love, so much, to change. It is important for them to know and to understand that they are a changed people who are still capable of more change.

This is also why I spend so much time, I think, trying to ease Mercury in Capricorn into acceptance of a younger self who hasn’t changed yet.

Mercury in Capricorn is often embarrassed. This is the truth of Saturn wherever it shows up. Because Mercury in Capricorn is embarrassed by their younger selves, embarrassed by their own choices and their agency and their will, it sometimes prefers to see themselves as inert. Their past selves, in memory, become as inert and buried as an old idea that no longer needs to be meaningful.

This, I think, is part of the pain but also the genius of Mercury in Capricorn. It is sure when it encounters an idea that has already died. It understands that it must mourn a self that believes in the old ideas and it also knows that this mourning is what keeps the alive self alive.

This aspect of Mercury in Capricorn can be disquieting to those who feel entitled to Mercury in Capricorn’s attention.

This, I think, is why the man at the bar reacted to the word “compartmentalized.” Compartmentalized is such a Freudian word. It refers to repression which refers to fear which refers to things that are hidden from the self. I don’t doubt that Mercury in Capricorn is capable of compartmentalization but I also don’t doubt that all of us are capable of compartmentalizing our different needs and selves away from our other needs and selves. I also don’t doubt that compartmentalization is both okay and necessary.

Mercury in Capricorn doesn’t just compartmentalize. Mercury in Capricorn is a Mercury that will choose not to just someone or something attention and stick by it. This is because Mercury in Capricorn believes in choosing your people and in choosing the places where you explore, exercise curiosity, and ultimately grow. It believes in deliberation and it believes in being honest with dislike.

No, Mercury in Capricorn will not give you attention if they do not want to. Yes, Mercury in Capricorn is truly interested in who you are if they talk with you, ask you questions, and try to get to know you. Mercury in Capricorn knows how to control attention, you see, and it doesn’t believe in wasting it on things that take away from itself. Mercury in Capricorn doesn’t believe that it needs to be accessible to everyone.

There is something trustworthy about Mercury in Capricorn. There is also something about it that is off putting to the wrong people. It lets itself dislike ideas, things, or people. It doesn’t burden itself with the expectation of becoming likable. Rather, it knows that there is an immense value and honesty to the choice to dislike.