Your secret strength is time. You are the keeper of the secret of time, and it has bestowed upon you its blessings. Your sign does not merely grow old gracefully, you come into your own in the fullness of time. Some of your greatest contributions, achievements and enjoyments come in the latter part of your life. Benjamin Franklin, writer Henry Miller, painter Henri Matisse and actor Sydney Greenstreet are just a few cases in point. You know this about yourself instinctively, and you set long-term goals, build and sacrifice for a secure future.

Ambition is certainly one of your strengths. You have a special brand of ambition: very disciplined, very patient and not requiring immediate gratification. Certainly we could all learn much about healthy development of human potential from the Capricorn example. No wonder yours is also the sign of the mentor and teacher.

Like your opposite sign, Cancer, you can be moody and insecure. You have bouts of self-doubt. In the past three years, these bouts have come quite often. But perseverance is one of your strengths, so you carry on. You take great comfort in family, too.

Your natural executive abilities are great strengths for you. You enjoy responsibility, even when very young, and you have innate knowledge of how to manage, delegate and administer. Capricorn homemakers are thrifty and organized. You can make a little go farther than almost any other sign in the zodiac. Because you are seldom after short-term glory, you're prepared to live sparingly for as long as it takes to get where you want to go. Nevertheless, your family never feels pinched by this need to economize. Your home usually feels comfortable and secure, and it is always a place where your kids can feel proud to bring friends.

Your ability to learn from experience is one of your key tools to the top. Every Capricorn executive is sitting atop a mountain of hard-won knowledge, which they use daily in maintaining their social and career status. Set a goal to learn a new skill, no matter how much experience you have.

A key secret strength for Caps is that the modern world is about to embrace you and all you stand for as we enter the 21st century. For the past few decades, the emphasis in modern Western societies has been on youth, the quick buck and ever more instant food and fame. In the years to come, respect for maturity, wisdom and family values will return and Capricorn will be reinstated as mentor and keeper of the wisdom all over the world.

If your adversary is a Capricorn, you're up against organized opposition. Whatever Caps' present position, they earned it by merit, by fighting for it, and it won't be easy to unseat them. High-level Cap bosses who appear to be teetering at the edge of a financial precipice are actually sure-footed goats at home in that impossibly rocky territory. Never underestimate them.

Your Capricorn adversary is well dressed, has good manners and is socially savvy. Do not allow these pillars of society to fool you into thinking that they don't know how to fight like heck to keep what they've earned. Many of them worked their way up from the bottom and have street-fighting skills that they won't hesitate to use if attacked. And you can't tell these Caps from those of privileged backgrounds, since they learn all the appropriate manners and more as they work their way ever-upward to a position of leadership in the community. They don't get fat and lazy at the top, though. Their intuition keeps them ever alert to encroachers. So step lightly, and remember that some Caps cherish grudges until the end of time

It's true that some Capricorns fall victim to their own insecurity when threatened - you may be able to trigger defensive behavior in such a goat, and they may destroy themselves by resorting to the use of unwise or unethical battle tactics. They sometimes have a weakness for trying to get revenge.

But you will never emerge unscarred from a battle with Cap even if you win, so find a way to get along with them, instead.