The Decline in Sagittarius

Ever the optimist, Sagittarius nevertheless presents an intriguing paradox that bears examination. It is during this particular season of the Sun that we find something quite daunting. To our modern minds, we think nothing of it except for the inconvenience of early darkness and short hours of daylight. Yet if we step back for a moment, we notice that it's during this season of Sagittarius that our life-giving provider, the Sun, is declining into almost total decay.

Ancient peoples feared this time of year. They didn't always know whether the Sun would again come back into its rightful ascent following the equinox at Capricorn. If one is simply watching the sky, one only sees the encroaching darkness with each passing day. Indeed, the Sun's path through the sky actually becomes lower and further afield from where it is to be found during the summer months of the northern hemisphere. What can be said of all this darkness?

Enter Sagittarius stage right.

For it is when we have no reason to hope that we need faith the most. It is when we are at the bottom that we must turn our attention upwards. And it is in the midst of darkness that we must embrace the future light that we cannot yet see.

Thus Sagittarius is no longer just an enthusiastic optimist for no reason, but rather because we need the gift of sight when we are all but blind. Sagittarius is known as the Seer (the see-er) and is our way of seeing into the darkness so that we may discover our way through it.

In the natural zodiac chart wheel, where Aries is located at the 9 o'clock position, Sagittarius is one of two signs poised at the peak of the circle — at the 12 o'clock position, that is. The other is Capricorn. This means that it is these two signs (primarily associated with Jupiter and Saturn, respectively) that have the greatest capacity for a big picture view. This is because they simply have the highest vantage point, and can thus encompass the widest vista.

However, it is important to note that while Capricorn is positioned after the 12 o'clock position (moving counter-clockwise in zodiacal order), Sagittarius is positioned before this point. This indicates that in Sagittarius, we are still moving uphill, so to speak. The quality of this period of time is actually very difficult and becoming increasingly oppressive. Although, as already stated, this does not preclude us from having faith that: Tomorrow, the Sun will rise.

Our Sagittarius Sun-Moon Cycle

Becoming a Seer

It is in this spirit that I would like to share a few thoughts about this Sun-Moon cycle. The New Moon occurred about two weeks ago and, as all conjunctions do, it signified the planting of a seed of some kind. Of course, with both the Sun and Moon in Sagittarius, we are looking at a new cycle of faith and optimism which is to be used for seeing into the darkness. What darkness exactly, and what are we hoping to find?

While the specific answers to these questions depend upon our individual charts and lives, we can at least speak thematically about them here. One thing we know is that counterpoint to Sagittarius is the sign of Gemini; and the Full Moon which is upon us is of course a Sun-Moon opposition in these signs (at 19 degress).

About Oppositions:

I view opposite pairs of any factor (sign, house, etc.) to be complimentary rather than in conflict. Though I'm aware that opposites can repel as well as attract, we miss the point entirely if we remain unconscious of the way in which opposites are to be integrated. Our work is that of the alchemist who seeks to turn lead into gold. Our lead is the seeming incompatibility of various factors and our own unwillingness to work consciously with them. When we choose to do so, however, our gold is not only the integration of these factors in a way that is personally unique and special to each one of us, but is the only way in which we can truly say that we are alive. After all, what is a life lived unconsciously other than a dead one?

The difference between Sagittarius and Gemini is that the latter is concerned with gathering and assimilating intelligence while Sagittarius is trying to bring it together into a cohesive, usable whole. Sagittarius needs Gemini so that its ideas remain fresh, energized and communal. Gemini needs Sagittarius so its perceptions and images can find meaning.

We might imagine a funnel, with Gemini as the widest opening, ingesting the swirling tide of collective ideas and images, while the Sagittarius side — also an open end, because both signs are mutable — is narrower, more focused, and intending to pour the concentrated energy gathered from Gemini into a container which can inspire a vision of something yet unseen. It is unseen because this season of Sagittarius occurs while the Sun is continuing its descent.

This is the paradox!

That a new vision can come forth while the light is decreasing reveals something about the nature of vision itself. Perhaps in order to see — metaphysically speaking — we must first allow the darkness to close in around us, to envelope us with its seeming demise. Then with all distractions veiled in the night, we turn inwards toward contemplation and use faith to discover something new — something that can galvanize our spirits enough that we are able to fill the container with a blaze of fiery hope and optimism.

The container is Capricorn that — with its companion Saturn, the Great Manifester — receives this outpouring of meaning concentrate for the purpose of materializing it into the world. For what use is a vision if it is not to become real? This is not to dismiss the value of imagination, but rather to encourage the substantiation of it so that it can be shared and so that it might enable some real, actual effect.

What is worthy of bringing into the world?

What is so meaningful that we might consider placing it into the hands of the Great Manifester?

This Sun-Moon cycle is such a time to ask these types of questions. It is our season of withdrawal yet of simultaneously looking up and out. In true Sagittarius big picture fashion, we are enobled to dream of a better day — a better way — as the Solar Spirit descends both literally in the sky and viscerally within us.