Moon in Capricorn

Capricorn is the sign opposite Cancer, the Moon's house, and so Lilly 1659 names it her detriment. Detriment means exactly that opposition on the wheel, and the word should be taken no further. Ptolemy (Ashmand's 1822 translation) gives Capricorn to Saturn on grounds of cold, and the contrast between the Moon's moisture and that dry sign is the old reasoning in a single line.

Ptolemy's tropical signs make the mind busy with public affairs, fond of distinction and inclined to theology and divination. He applies this to the Moon and Mercury together, and the Moon's share of it would concern what a person feels drawn to. Lilly also gives the Moon a share in the earth signs by night, the one listing that connects her with the sign at all.

Alan Leo 1899 gives Capricorn patience and a grave manner, and Adams 1928 finds it severe. Modern astrology reads this Moon as reserve about feeling, usually as something that can soften with time, and that hopeful turn comes from the modern writers.