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lover or child. And you see the same fanatical gleam in Capricorn's normally wise and knowing eyes. Get him on his favorite hobby-horse and he'll tolerate no opposition. Refuse his advice and you've permanently offended him. And he'll often manipulate in the most outrageous way to get you to go along with his plans, because he's convinced that he's right and that in the end whatever means he's used - however unscrupulous - will be rendered tolerable by the results.
The thing is, Capricorn rarely allows his vision or his imagination any scope, because he's so busy being realistic. He'll never permit himself any fantasies about what the world might be like, because he forces himself to keep his eyes on what is practically obtainable. Yet he has a powerful imagination and a lot of vision. And it's got to go someplace. And you often discover that Capricorns have a secret vision tucked away somewhere about what they'd do if they ever got into the big driver's seat. The trouble is, keeping a fantasy like that locked in the basement for twenty or thirty years has a tendency to make it turn a little funny. It inflates. When it comes out, Capricorn loses his wonderful realism and gets carried away by his own messianic visions. Of course the world, or you, can be changed. And he's the man to do it. And if you oppose it, well, it's only your own delusions or foolhardiness or stupidity or whatever that causes you to be so unintelligent as to not recognize the Absolute truth of his conviction.
If you're not the recipient of his Great Mission, you may be in the position of being the person closest to him who has to listen to what he plans and who is expected to offer every last ounce of your own energy to see that he achieves it. This is where Capricorn's shadow can often make others suffer, for in a relationship or family situation he is prepared to sacrifice everybody else's will to his own. Whether it's his morality or his views on money or whatever his conviction might be, everyone else is expected to go along. This is the Capricorn father who believes - fanatically - that hardship is good for you, and keeps his children on allowance of tuppence a week where there are thousands of pounds in the bank; it's the Capricorn mother whose stern moral views or social codes are ruthlessly imposed on husband and family; it's the Capricorn friend who takes it upon himself to interfere in your personal life because he believes it's really good for you to tell you your boyfriend's been cheating on you. In short, the Capricorn shadow attempts to bend everybody else's will to his own, and everybody else's needs, desires, ideas, and lifestyles to his own concept of how life should be run. And for realistic Capricorn, that's hardly realistic. Only a deluded fool believes that he can change people's natures by simply issuing a command. And only a deluded fool believes that he even has the right to do so.
Capricorn, because it's a powerful sign which usually accomplishes much in the world, has a dangerous shadow. It's not much more important for the goat to come to terms with his fanatical streak in himself, because he's always likely to end up in a position of responsibility in some way and usually has other people needing his strong, guiding hand. If he misuses that hand, it's far more deadly than the little shadow plays of people who have little influence over others' lives. Tolerance is hard sometimes for Capricorn to learn, because he's often had to discipline himself and his own needs in a ruthless way to get the goal he's after. He can't understand why others aren't either interested in or capable of applying the same discipline, because he doesn't realize that their goals may be different, or that they don't have any goals at all in the same sense that he does.
Capricorn, as we said, is connected with the myth of the Father; and the shadow side of the Father is the tyrant. You can't be a tyrant unless you've blinkered yourself pretty tightly to any point of view other than your own. The recipe for the Capricorn shadow is often a little effort in understanding that different people have different lives to live, different myths to express, and different needs and desires. Capricorn can often benefit from astrology, because it can teach him that there are twelve basic life paths, and not just one. Beneath the suit of armour which Capricorn must don on his journey through an unfriendly and challenging
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