โIโm terrified of passive acquiescence. I live in intensity.โ - Virginia Woolf (Venus in Cap)
A Capricorn Venus has the amplified audacity of a Sag Venus, but cinched at the waist. Donโt let any lightheartedness fool you because theyโre professional-grade serious. They live life sharp & rich (in mentality or reality), spending money on things that either reflect or enable success in their work. Yes, it can be an austere power minimalist at times, a silvery, celluloid black, but in Venus ๐ฅ๐ง๐๐จ๐๐๐๐จ becomes a key verb. An engineer watching its machine turn on, a queen in her queendom, the devil card, the meta-director, a mountain. Walt Disney was a Capricorn Venus. Thereโs a dark humor in creating that kind of twistedly palatable world. While a lot of us go through life trying to make sense of chaos, this placement is stepping back, taking in the whole picture and dissecting its parts. They are undeniably committed to a carefully understood vision. And while it may seem odd, or myopic, or even corny at first, they almost always come out on top, having shown us a more refined image because in the end they are self-contained personal authority incarnate, wisdom from up high.
Everyone below has a Capricorn Venus:
William Blake - Urizen โpresiding over the decline of moralityโ - a print Blake made as a frontispiece for his epic poem ๐๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐๐ฐ๐ฏ๐จ ๐ฐ๐ง ๐๐ฐ๐ด, 1795Bruce Conner - #120 ๐๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ๐ข๐ญ๐ข, 1970Robert Smithson - ๐๐ณ๐ฐ๐ฌ๐ฆ๐ฏ ๐๐ช๐ณ๐ค๐ญ๐ฆ / ๐๐ฑ๐ช๐ณ๐ข๐ญ ๐๐ช๐ญ๐ญ, 1971Grant Wood - January, 1940-1Cindy Sherman - Untitled Film Still #58, 1980Gillian Wearing: Self Made, 2010 TrailerGordon Parks - Ingrid Bergman, Strombol, 1949Syd Barrett - with his paintingFelix Gonzalez Torres - ๐๐ฏ๐ต๐ช๐ต๐ญ๐ฆ๐ฅ (๐๐ฐ๐ญ๐ฅ๐ฆ๐ฏ),1995Marlon Riggs - Tongues Untied, 1989BjรถrkMaria Callas - in her Paris apartment (where she lived 19??-1977) & in Cherubiniโs Medea,1958
Andy Kaufman Leos Carax - Annette, 2021Malcolm McClaren - Waltz Darling, 1989A Capricorn Venus is truly attuned to the bourgeois touch, but a good one breaks it down and subverts it. Whether deconstructing period pieces or upcycling to look regal (John Galliano) or being the first to mass market high-end global fashion by collaborating with very accessible mall stores (Kenzo Takada), itโd be impossible not to say theyโre particularly genius at the business of fashion. Clockwise from top left: 1 & 2. Kenzo Ads from the 1980s 3. Kenzo - SS 1978 4. John Galliano - Givenchy FW 1996 Couture 5. Galliano - Dior FW 2007 CoutureElsie de Wolfe - bathroom and dance pavilion at Villa Trianon; Versailles, France, 1930sVirginia Woolf - Monkโs House; Rodmell, England (built in the 16th century & where she & Leonard Woolf lived from 1919 to 1969. He continued to live their after her suicide in 1941)Susan Sontag in her Upper West Side apartmentA Day with Toni Morrison (1978) Interview + ReadingJoy Williams - excerpt of โ#59 - Looking Goodโ from her book ๐๐ช๐ฏ๐ฆ๐ต๐บ-๐๐ช๐ฏ๐ฆ ๐๐ต๐ฐ๐ณ๐ช๐ฆ๐ด ๐ฐ๐ง ๐๐ฐ๐ฅ, 2016
