The Moon represents a person’s emotional body, their instinctual nature, their unconscious, their true motivations, the most fundamental part of their psyche. It tells us what a person’s needs are, what type of emotional food the person must have on a regular basis in order to feel themselves. It is loosely analogous to the female or “yin” part of a person’s emotional ecosystem and is considered indicative of what they’re bringing in through the matriarchal line.

Capricorn is the sign of the Prime Minister, the Authority Figure, the Strategist, the Business Man, the General the CEO, and the Tycoon. When a person’s Moon (emotional needs) is in Capricorn their emotions “switch on” during times of austerity. This is why the Moon is considered “in detriment” when in Capricorn. Soul-crushing experiences that would break the spirits of other Moon signs are actually emotionally nourishing to the Capricorn Moon. Arnold Schwarzenegger, for instance, is a Capricorn Moon. Arnold’s abilities as a thespian were never his strong suit and his legacy as governor of California has been nothing short of catastrophic but I will say this about the man: his performance in Terminator 2 is one of the greatest expressions of all that is practical, responsible, and relentlessly determined about the Capricorn Moon. Take note of the first 20 seconds of this clip as his cybernetic alter-ego the T-800 climbs over a series of obstacles just like a Mountain Goat, the animal symbol for Capricorn:

Capricorn is the sign of kept promises so when the Moon is in Capricorn the person is actually nourished by working hard to keep their promises. In Terminator the reprogrammed T-800 portrayed by Arnold has promised to protect a young child and he keeps this promise to his grave. He also keeps his promise to the child that he will not kill anybody, a promise as difficult to keep for a cybernetic killing machine promising to lay off dairy would be for a Cancer Moon.

Capricorn Moons can spend lifetimes learning not to repress their emotions. Even at the end of Terminator 2, Arnold’s cybernetic alter-ego learns the importance humans emotions . “I know now why you cry, but it is something I can never do”, he explains to his human companion before dying. More than a few Capricorn Moons, so reluctant to show their emotions, can relate to that sentiment.

That scene, so painful and poignant to watch, left many audiences of in tears — something a number of Capricorn Moons could stand to let themselves shed every once in a while.

There’s another reason the Moon is considered in her detriment when placed in this all-business sign, one that is not all together pleasant to contemplate. Of the 12 Moon signs, Capricorn is the only one which can shut of its emotions with the ice-cold totality of a cyborg. If Arnold’s articulation of a reprogrammed T-800 in the 1991 installment of the Terminator franchise is an example of everything admirable about the Capricorn Moon then his articulation of the same character in the original 1984 version is an example of all that is potentially problematic about this placement:

Obviously few Capricorn Moons will ever take things to the sociopathic extremes expressed by Arnold but this placement does have a tendency to retreat behind a fortress like wall of bah-humbug as impenetrable as the metal endo-skeleton of the his cybernetic alter-ego.