Okay, so someone asked me the other day, “what tarot card is capricorn?” and it got me thinking. I’ve been messing around with tarot and astrology for ages, sometimes they connect up neatly, sometimes… not so much. So, I decided to dig into this specific connection myself, just to sort it out in my own head again.
My Process Finding the Capricorn Card
First thing I did was just sit with the idea of Capricorn. What pops into my head? Ambition, definitely. Structure, discipline, kinda serious, loves to build things, sometimes gets a bit stuck on the material side of things, you know? Hard work, responsibility. Also, that earthy, grounded vibe. Their planet is Saturn, which is all about rules, limitations, karma, time.
So, I pulled out my old Rider-Waite deck, the one I’ve used forever, pages are soft, you know? I started flicking through the Major Arcana. My first thought drifted towards cards like The Emperor, maybe even Justice because of the structure and rules thing. But that didn’t feel quite right. The Emperor is Aries, usually. Justice is Libra.
Then I remembered the traditional associations. It’s one of those things you pick up over the years, maybe from a book I read ages ago, or some workshop notes I have buried somewhere. I started thinking about the darker side, or maybe the more complex side, of that Capricorn ambition and structure.
That’s when The Devil card came to mind. Now, hold on, I know what people think. Devil card = bad. But that’s way too simple, especially in tarot. I looked at the card imagery again – the figures chained, but loosely. The focus on the material world, on being bound by ambition, or status, or even rigid thinking. It started to click.
Connecting the Dots
Capricorn energy, when it gets out of balance, can become really fixated on work, on success, on the material. It can feel trapped by its own ambitions or responsibilities. That’s kinda the vibe The Devil card talks about – being chained to something, often by your own choices or perspective. It’s about the shadow side of ambition, materialism, and feeling stuck in structures, even ones you built yourself.
And the Saturn connection seals it for me. Saturn rules Capricorn, and it’s all about boundaries, limitations, hard lessons, reality checks. The Devil card often represents facing those limitations, confronting the “shadow self,” the parts of you that are driven by base desires or fears, or feeling restricted.
So yeah, after going through that thought process, looking at the cards, and just sitting with the energy of Capricorn and Saturn, I settled back on the traditional link.
The Devil is the tarot card most commonly associated with Capricorn. It’s not about Capricorn people being evil, obviously! It’s more about that intense drive, the connection to the material world, the potential for getting caught up in ambition, and the life lessons related to structure and limitation that Saturn brings. Took me a bit to walk through it again, but it makes sense in its own complex way.
