“The wisdom of the centaurs derives from the fact that they span two realms – the human and the animal – and Sagittarius is the only one in the zodiac signs to have this breadth of perspective.”
– Lindsay River & Sally Gillespie
Lifting our eyes towards the horizon
My father was a Sagittarius – a quintessential one. He believed that crisis was an opportunity and his confidence that things would work out bordered on denial of any pressing issues. He had big energy and an infectious way of making you feel at home, in that informal, disarming manner. Sometimes the way he spoke, or better yet preached his truth, was too much to stand in the way. As a fire sign, at times, he burned a bit too hot for the likes of me and all my Air planets in Gemini.
My father came from a huge family, and out of his 12 siblings, he was the only one who made his living in a foreign country. Other siblings lived away for a bit, but my father was the one that wanted to come to America out of his own desire. He felt at home here, in a land of opportunity and possibilities. It fit his Sagittarius spirit. A lot of my own understanding of Sagittarius’ nature came from observing my father and various other family members. From the looks of it, I was born in a clan of Centaurs!
After the still and deep waters of Scorpio, it may feel like we’re about to have whiplash as we lift our heads away from self-examination around emotions, power, and trust, to set our gazes towards broader horizons. If you think of the zodiac signs, not as isolated dimensions but a link in the process of becoming more whole, it makes sense that after the questioning of Scorpio on issues of life and death, that we’re now able to lift our heads towards other possibilities and different horizons.
The bridge between the self and society
The last four signs of the zodiac – Sagittarius, Capricorn, Aquarius & Pisces describe our connection with society. We move away from me & mine, me & other, to now encompass me & the wider world, and Sagittarius builds this bridge. Even the Centaur’s very image sets the tone here as a being that has its nature in two different worlds.
A core element of the Sagittarius questing spirit is related to the desire for self-expression within a larger context. The bigger questions they ask as they dive into all manners of adventures in life are: what is the meaning of this? What is the truth?
This is not a sign concerned with the details of how things are implemented or done, leave that to Capricorn, but it’s the dimension of our soul development that is concerned with understanding and gaining wisdom from the larger story. While Gemini, its opposite and complementary sign, gathers the information and knowledge, in Sagittarius, the desire is seeing the patterns behind all the dots that create a story. The possibility here is that knowledge becomes wisdom through EXPERIENCE.
In this, I remember my father motivating me, if at times not throwing me straight into the pool, to take action. He believed that action led to clarity. In other words, have the experience and the wisdom will come from that. He was suspicious and impatient of too much thinking. To him, it was a form of creative constipation. As a fire sign, Sagittarius still carries in its dimension a need to go out there and do it. Fire propels one to take that step and cross the threshold. This highlights a core desire for this sign to be true to their self-expression in a way that activates society and culture.
The Seeker, The Scholar, The Philosopher
Being the third and last of the Fire Signs, Sagittarius takes the courage to take Aries’ first step, the celebration of self and its expression of Leo beyond the shire. Through physically traveling around the world or intellectually stretching their mind, Sagittarius is on a quest to see what’s behind the horizon. However, this shows up; Sagittarius is wrestling with big philosophical ideas around meaning and why we are here. Granted, not all Sagittarius will be the philosophical kind; my father, for one, wasn’t. He had too much Aries in him for that.
Often considered the sign of the seeker, scholar, and/or philosopher, we can see these three archetypes both as a process of maturing for the Sagittarius soul or as ways of being in the world in different stages of their lives, not necessarily in a chronological way, but often happening at the same time.
The Seeker speaks to the aspect of wanting to leave, one way or another, the known world and go in search of their version of the Holy Grail. This could be through leaving one’s small town to go to the big city or by searching through learning ways of seeing beyond the mentality of one’s upbringing. The Seeker is an aspect in search of EXPERIENCE and isn’t afraid of making mistakes in life. They’re not about to follow the cookbook rules of their contemporaries. When suppressed, this desire to seek can turn into an existential dissatisfaction very similar to the fable of the fox and the sour grapes.
The Scholar’s focus is on stretching the mind by exploring ideas beyond the limitations of their current knowledge and going beyond the familiar. They’ll seek to learn and explore in any way they can, academically or otherwise. Remember that Sagittarius has a keen desire for experience, so the tendency is not to get stuck in some Ivory Tower. The Scholar’s better angel is following their curiosity and not getting stuck in their own knowledge, where the temptation to fall under dogmatism/fundamentalism (shadow aspects of Sagittarius) is strong.
The Philosopher experiences intuition coupled with wisdom. A philosopher is a lover of knowledge, and this is where the heart comes into play. It’s the integration of the two aspects of this sign, half-human, half-animal. The stretch here is more than one’s physical or mental horizons; it’s a stretch of one’s own heart and intuitive understanding of the meaning and purpose of one’s own life. The Philosopher aspect knows that the heart is a muscle in continuous movement and stretching. It’s the heart’s wisdom that allows one not to be stuck in the fundamentalism of their own ‘clarity’ or knowing. It’s an aim that we all, independent of our own Sun Signs, should strive for.
Where’s the Sagittarius in you?
The beauty of astrology is that we have the entire zodiac in our charts. So even if you don’t have any planets in Sagittarius, you still have a part of your life that is ruled by the questing spirit of this archetype. This is the part of your life that begs to stretch itself beyond the known confines and strive to see what’s behind the horizon. It’s not the place to settle into a routine that will ultimately stiffen your soul.
Wherever you had Sagittarius in your chart is the place for you to stretch yourself, lift your head from the grindstone, and look to the horizon that beckons you. It’s the place to learn through experience and see how your self-expression can benefit and serve the world around you.
