Capricorn (Makara) in Vedic Astrology

Your ascendant, or lagna, is the sign rising on the eastern horizon at the moment of birth. It describes the body, the temperament and the direction a life tends to take. It changes roughly every two hours, so it needs an accurate birth time.

You climb. Responsibility does not frighten you, and you are willing to do slow, unglamorous work for a result that lasts. Authority tends to find you eventually. Allowing yourself rest, and warmth, is the part that has to be learned deliberately.

With Capricorn rising, Saturn is your lagna lord, the planet that carries your constitution and your life's direction. Where Saturn sits in your chart shows where your energy naturally flows.

Your Moon sign, or rashi, is the sign the Moon occupied at birth. In Vedic astrology it matters at least as much as the ascendant, because it describes the mind and emotional life. It is also the sign used for daily horoscopes and for Sade Sati.

You handle feeling by getting on with things, and you are more comfortable being relied upon than relying. There is real emotional endurance here. Warmth comes out slowly and is all the more trusted for it; rest is something you have to schedule.

Saturn owns Capricorn (and also Aquarius), so it is comfortable and free to act here. Mars is exalted in Capricorn, at its strongest. Jupiter is debilitated in Capricorn, at its weakest, though the classics give several ways this weakness is cancelled.

Every sign holds nine nakshatra padas (quarters), drawn from two or three nakshatras. A planet's nakshatra refines what its sign says about it.