Is Capricorn Related to Deer?

July 22, 2024 Jen Deer

“Tragelaphus, or Deer Goat” illustration from The History of Four-Footed Beasts and Serpents by Edward Topsell, printed by E. Cotes for G. Sawbridge, T. Williams and T. Johnson in London in 1658.

I have long wondered if Capricorn is connected to the Spirit of Deer, specifically the Stag. Upon further research into the esoteric nature of the zodiac signs, I found several references connecting Capricorn and Deer.

In Elements of Esoteric Astrology, by A.E. Theirens, PhD it states:

The animal kingdom has this sign [Capricorn] represented in the stag, the deer, the different goat species, and the donkey…The donkey is tough, obedient, and intelligent. The goat is capricious and as playful in youth as he is sour in old age. Moreover, he is a solitary animal, very sober in the choice of his food and difficult to manage. The stag is the aristocrat of the sign in the animal world.

Several websites claim that the Stag is affiliated with a Celtic zodiac sign corresponding to Capricorn, yet they do not cite any source texts, and it appears that these Celtic zodiac correspondences might be a recent invention. However, several other sources do support a connection between the Stag and Capricorn.

“Le Diable” card from original Tarot of Marseilles deck illustrated by Jean Dodal of Lyon c. 1701-1715

The Devil card in the tarot is famously associated with Capricorn, supported by a plethora of sources affirming this alignment, including Israel Regardie’s classic A Garden of Pomegranates. In some tarot decks, including the original Tarot de Marseille deck from the early 1800s, The Devil is illustrated with deer’s antlers rather than goat’s horns.

Manly P. Hall, in The Secret Teachings of All Ages, affirms this connection to deer and describes The Devil card as follows:

The fifteenth numbered major trump is called Le Diable, the Devil, and portrays a creature resembling Pan with the horns of a ram or deer, the arms and body of a man, and the legs and feet of a goat or dragon. The figure stands upon a cubic stone, to a ring in the front of which are chained two satyrs. For a scepter this so-called demon carries a lighted torch or candle. The entire figure is symbolic of the magic powers of the astral light, or universal mirror, in which the divine forces are reflected in an inverted, or infernal, state. The demon is winged like a bat, showing that it pertains to the nocturnal, or shadow inferior sphere. The animal natures of man, in the form of a male and a female elemental, are chained to its footstool. The torch is the false light which guides unillumined souls to their own undoing

The Devil card is also associated with archetypes of the Horned God, the rustic and lusty Ancient Greek god Pan, and the Ancient Celtic and Gallo-Roman god Cernunnos. The latter is often illustrated with the antlers of a Stag. These representations of Capricorn as a Stag perhaps speak more to his bridges between wild and civil, animal and human, order and chaos. While the Goat speaks to the archetypes of achievement and persistence, as well as earthy sensuality, and the Sea-Goat speaks to quite esoteric and mysterious meanings, the Stag shows us the refined and quite beautiful aspects of Capricorn.

The Stag is self-aware in a gentle way and yet he does not shy away from his desires. He runs in the woods with a sense of wild abandon and embraces the whole cycle of life with his fellow deer—devoting a whole season to clashing antlers with other bucks and mating with multiple does. Yet he carries himself with an air of elegance and his eyes, if caught in the right light, can reveal a deep intelligence. Perhaps the association of the Stag with Capricorn will remain a bit of a mystery. In addition to the Sea-Goat, he adds another layer of complexity to an already nuanced and mysterious sign.

This post was spontaneously written on a Full Moon in Capricorn on 21 July 2024 which is also coincidentally referred to as the Buck Moon. It occurs every year in July after most of the fawns are born and the stags are hiding in the bushes waiting for their velvety antlers to grow back. Learn more about flora, fauna, and other things associated with Capricorn in my article Capricorn Correspondences.

“Tragelaphus, which may be called a Deer Goat” illustration from The History of Four-Footed Beasts and Serpents by Edward Topsell, printed by E. Cotes for G. Sawbridge, T. Williams and T. Johnson in London in 1658.

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