Mercury in Capricorn

Mercury in Capricorn indicates that your mind is serious, practical, skeptical, clear and analytical. You have a good memory and powers of concentration, as well as a fine attention for detail. You prefer concrete subjects to grand ideas and flights of fancy. You tend to worry, to be moody, or even fearful where material things are involved. You may need to develop empathy, tolerance, your sense of humor, or a more positive and optimistic outlook on life. This is a good position for management, teaching, science or research.

Famous people with Mercury in Capricorn (and who also have their Capricorn Mercury in the first house for added emphasis) are Alvin Ailey, Steve Allen, Walther Bothe, Nicolas Cage, Gerard Depardieu, Robert Duvall, Hermann Goering, John Lilly, John Milton, Yvette Mimieux, Paul Newman, Brad Pitt, Telly Savalas, and Alan Watts.

Mercury is neither masculine nor feminine but neutral: it is silver, reflecting all that it contacts. Mercury in Capricorn is therefore similar in energy to Saturn conjunct Mercury, where the restrictive, responsible, ambitious energy of Saturn adds practicality, maturity and ambition to your speech, thought and communication. The more aspects you have to Mercury in your chart, the greater and more complex your consciousness. The reflective mind needs aspects for its expansion, and the closest aspect is the most important. In the physical body it rules the nervous system, the arms, hands and shoulders, the lungs and the respiratory tract. Its position by house in your chart is where your mind or attention is focused.

This Mercury-in-Capricorn page and much of this 550-page resource website are excerpted from You and the Universe.