“I’m terrified of passive acquiescence. I live in intensity.” - Virginia Woolf (Venus in Capricorn)
A Capricorn Venus has the amplified audacity of a Sag Venus, but cinched at the waist. Don’t let any lightheartedness fool you because they’re 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 𝙥𝙧𝙚𝙨𝙞𝙙𝙚𝙨 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. There’s 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.
As always, all the following people possess this placement.
William Blake - Urizen “presiding over the decline of morality” - a print Blake made as a frontispiece for his epic poem 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘚𝘰𝘯𝘨 𝘰𝘧 𝘓𝘰𝘴, 1795Bruce Conner - #120 𝘔𝘢𝘯𝘥𝘢𝘭𝘢, 1970Robert Smithson - 𝘉𝘳𝘰𝘬𝘦𝘯 𝘊𝘪𝘳𝘤𝘭𝘦 / 𝘚𝘱𝘪𝘳𝘢𝘭 𝘏𝘪𝘭𝘭, 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 - 𝘜𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘵𝘭𝘦𝘥 (𝘎𝘰𝘭𝘥𝘦𝘯),1995Marlon Riggs - Tongues Untied, 1989BjörkMaria Callas - in her Paris apartment (where she lived 19??-1977) & in Cherubini’s 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), it’d be impossible not to say they’re 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 - Monk’s 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 “#59 - Looking Good” from her book 𝘕𝘪𝘯𝘦𝘵𝘺-𝘕𝘪𝘯𝘦 𝘚𝘵𝘰𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘎𝘰𝘥, 2016
