Capricorn III: Vault

Cardinal earth: keys, compartments, secrets

• Atmosphere: Vault

• Sign: Capricorn

• Plant: Angelica

• Planet: Mercury + The Sun

• Dates: 13 January – 20 January

• Tarot: 4 of Pentacles

And here we securely warehouse the goods (or the revenue we receive from them, which amounts to the same thing). These are assets, real and illiquid; the principal on which the interest grows. It is the hoard beneath the mountain, the treasure under lock and key.

– T. Susan Chang, ‘Capricorn III: Money in the Bank’

Capricorn III is the place where the building work of Capricorn II comes to fruition. Where the vault is filled with treasure, and the ruler carries a ring of heavy keys.

This is a decan co-ruled by the Sun and Mercury, and this pairing can be imagined as the one who wears the crown, with all the responsibilities and rewards that brings.

This can be a place of expansion and fulfilment – or rigidity and calcification – depending on the person wearing the crown.

There is the potential for reconnecting to more vulnerable aspects of the self in this decan, in allowing the heat of the sun to soften icy Mercurial powers and to reconnect to exiled parts of the self kept in compartments, safely locked away.