Sagittarius

Mutable fire, ruled by Jupiter

Mutable fire is fire on the move, spreading from one thing to the next. The tradition reads Sagittarius as restless, frank and hopeful, a sign that wants to see further, go further, and understand the reason for things. Aries, cardinal fire, is read as the spark, and Leo, fixed fire, as the steady blaze; Sagittarius is the flame carried somewhere new. The reading gives it humour, generosity and a philosophical turn, and also tactlessness, overconfidence and a dislike of being tied down.

Jupiter rules Sagittarius, and Pisces too in the traditional scheme; in fire it is read as belief, teaching, exploration and an open hand. Mercury, the ruler of the opposite sign, is in detriment here, careful detail lost in the big picture. No planet is exalted or falls in Sagittarius traditionally, though some writers exalt the Moon’s south node here. The decans run Mercury, the Moon and Saturn as faces, or Jupiter, Mars and the Sun through the three fire signs.

Sagittarius as Sun, Moon and rising sign

The Sun in Sagittarius

A Sun in Sagittarius is read as a self that grows by widening: new places, new ideas, a better argument. The tradition describes someone optimistic, candid to the point of bluntness, good company and quick to laugh, drawn to philosophy, religion, study or the open road. It lists the other side too: promising more than can be delivered, impatience with routine, and a preference for the next horizon over the present one.

The Moon in Sagittarius

A Moon in Sagittarius is read as needing room, meaning and a sense of adventure to feel secure. It lifts its own mood by making plans, and it is read as recovering from setbacks by finding the lesson in them, or the joke. Being fenced in unsettles it. The tradition reads its emotional honesty as refreshing and at times careless. The Moon spends about two and a half days in Sagittarius.

Sagittarius rising

Sagittarius rising is read as an open, friendly, enthusiastic manner, often with an outdoor, restless look about it, and it makes Jupiter the ruler of the chart. It is the natural sign of the ninth house: long-distance travel, study and belief. At London’s latitude Sagittarius takes about two and a half hours to rise, longer than average; at Sydney’s latitude just under two.

Sagittarius is late autumn in the north, as the days go on shortening towards the solstice, and late spring in the south. It ends at the December solstice. The Sun is near its fastest here, since the Earth reaches perihelion in early January, and takes about twenty-nine and a half days to cross the sign. A few days before the solstice the Sun passes in front of the direction of the centre of the Milky Way, which lies in the constellation Sagittarius.

The archer

The archer is a centaur drawing a bow, identified in some accounts with Chiron, the wise centaur who taught heroes, and in others with Crotus, a satyr credited with inventing archery. The glyph is simply the arrow. The tradition reads the aim more than the creature: a mind pointed at something distant, half animal energy and half human thought.

Sagittarius and Gemini across the wheel

Opposite Sagittarius is Gemini, mutable air against mutable fire. The pairing is read as meaning and information: Sagittarius seeks the principle, Gemini the particulars and the words for them. It runs through the ninth and third houses, the far world and the near one. Planets across it are read as a question of whether to believe or to check, with each end keeping the other honest.

The sign and the constellation

The constellation Sagittarius is best known by an asterism, the Teapot, set in the brightest part of the Milky Way. The Sun is in front of it from about 18 December to 19 January, mostly during tropical Capricorn. During the sign Sagittarius the Sun clips the corner of Scorpius, spends about eighteen days in front of Ophiuchus, the serpent bearer, and reaches the archer’s stars only in the sign’s last few days. Sidereal Sagittarius begins about 16 December. The page on signs and constellations shows all three for today or for a birth.

Common mix-ups

The Ophiuchus story is aimed at Sagittarius more than any other sign: people born in early December are told their real sign is the serpent bearer. It is true that the Sun stands in front of Ophiuchus then, and equally true that the tropical signs were never measured from constellations. Births on 21 or 22 November, and on 21 or 22 December when the solstice arrives, need the time and place to settle the sign, which a birth chart works out.

What this page claims

This page sets out how Western astrology reads Sagittarius and where each part of that reading comes from. It describes a vocabulary rather than a person, and it predicts nothing about anybody born with the Sun, the Moon or the ascendant in Sagittarius.