Sagittarius - The Why and theWherefore

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Author: miki

This strange rambling ("...aimless drivel...") is a game I once played as a child — no matter what the person says, you respond, "Why?" and the person must explain their previous statement. It was always intriguing because it was potentially endless and could take you into all kinds of unexpected pockets of fascinating ideas. This is the essence of Sagittarius — to meander through life and explore whatever is there to find, and to divine meaning from what is.

Sagittarius and its ruling planet, Jupiter, represent:

• travel, foreign languages, countries, people;
• publishing, teaching, university, higher learning, pattern recognition;
• philosophy, beliefs, opinions, knowledge, meaning;
• expansion, growth, decadence, greed;
• truth, wisdom, vision, prophecy;
• justice, judges, lawyers and the law;
• religion, spirituality, dogma, faith, what's sacred;
• morals, ethics, ideals, righteousness;
• judgment, bias, prejudice;
• horses, jockeys, sportsmen;
• generosity, philanthropy, abundance, optimism.

From this grab bag("...motle1y crew..."), we can identify a common thread that is about discovery, exploration and probing beyond the known world. Sagittarius, the archer, is forever shooting arrows far upward and outward, reaching beyond its grasp to touch the edges of the universe and then find out what lies beyond that. Sagittarius teaches us that no matter what we think we know, there's something to learn beyond that. If we think we've found the answers, we must ask ourselves if we're asking the right questions. Every truth leads to a new inquiry; every conclusion to a new implication and therefore to a new question. Sagittarius moves toward endless expansion and, as such, represents life's self-perpetuating growth.

Whose Truth?

There are pitfalls and traps in every sign, and Sagittarius is no exception. As soon as we start to speak about a higher truth or a more righteous philosophy, we must ask ourselves if we hold these beliefs because they serve our ego needs, or because there is inherent truth in them. And if someone attempts to share their truth or beliefs with another person, is this done in a spirit of giving or imposition? ("Well, if I know now what I didn't know that I knew, then I'd know if I knew what I was supposed to know. Ya know?")

When we have found answers that work for us, it is very easy to believe that those answers must work for everyone. Some people believe so fervently in their particular philosophy that they also believe in their right to judge others by how closely others' beliefs match their own. When we've found answers that meet our spiritual needs so perfectly, it's hard to be reserved in our enthusiasm enough to say, "I've found A truth," and instead declare, "I've found THE truth."

But Sagittarius (indeed, all of astrology) teaches us about the vast diversity of human expression, needs, vision and values. Our planet ("...that's Earth, for those astrologers who've been staring at charts so long, they forgot what planet they're on...") houses an expansive multiplicity of the human spirit. As our world shrinks and we increasingly connect with each other, we are challenged to meet through mutual respect, appreciation and tolerance, rather than prejudice, judgment and dogmatism.

This is especially true with Pluto having just entered Sagittarius in 1995. Racial prejudice and hatred is a worldwide problem that is rousing global concern. The 20th century has sensitized us to the dangers and horrors of intolerance toward others' ethnicity or beliefs, from the holocaust to Bosnia, from Ireland to the Middle East, from the aboriginal struggle for independence throughout the world to the struggle we all share to live together in peace. If we are to survive, we must learn to honour each others' differences, not crush or dismiss them. If we fail this lesson, we could annihilate each other in the name of truth and justice. Each group may win a battle or two, but collectively we will lose the war.

Questions And More Questions...

And yet, it's not enough to say, "Okay, so we're all different. Let's leave it at that." ("I always say that when I look at humans...") Sooner or later values clash, ethics collide and actions motivated by a particular belief system will violate the boundaries of others in some way. This is just part of life: we are bound to cross each others' path in a way that conflicts rather than enriches. We disagree about who has dominant access to land. We argue about how to deal with crime. We fight about what constitutes crime.

In Sagittarius we ask the tough moral and ethical questions. When we see a parent slap a child, do we intervene (and risk imposing our way on another) or mind our own business (and risk aiding and abetting what we believe is wrongdoing). The Nuremberg trials, in which Nazi soldiers were convicted of war crimes despite their plea that they were "just following orders," demonstrated that the western world considers the individual to be responsible for assessing the moral implications of his/her choices, actions and behaviour. It is no longer acceptable to delegate responsibility to someone else — if someone directs us to do something, it doesn't mean we're absolved from our agreement to do it.

This suggests we are also personally responsible to ensure that wrongdoing does not flourish due to our neglect, apathy or indifference. During the holocaust, many people felt a personal responsibility to do whatever they could to assist the efforts of the resistance. To do less would be to passively enable the degradation and destruction of innocent human life.

Today, those who protest against abortion also believe it is wrong to stand passively by while human life is taken. "But what about the mother's right to govern her own body?" cry those who support freedom of choice. Surely a potential life should not have a power of veto over an actual one? The priorities in such a situation are not clear. Each side has valid points, and there are probably at least as many viewpoints as there are people. ("Ah yes, humans are like a box of chocolates... Sticky on the outside and nutty on the inside!") Sagittarius is the zodiacal energy that explores the wormy issues, trying to determine the big picture from a few conflicting pieces of it. It's not an easy job and there is never a final answer that doesn't get turned upsidedown later when new information is added to the puzzle.

Lest Ye Be Judged

The only thing that's clear in Sagittarius is that everyone is compelled to make the journey into this unknown territory, whether we adhere to someone else's system of beliefs that closely reflect our own (as in institutionalized religions, cults, etc.), or whether we embark on a quest to find our own answers (through a more solitary spiritual journey). Either way, we must form an allegiance with whatever we feel is right.

And the more complicated and multifarious the world becomes, the more we are called upon to choose our spiritual adherence with great care. Who and what we align ourselves with can be a flag we fly that represents who we are, and can therefore be a criteria for judgment. Witness how astrologers are often judged to be flaky, gullible fools ("What, like they're not?!?"), and whether the judgers have ever studied the subject is usually not considered to be a relevant factor in the assessment.

Judgment and assessment are close cousins that are both part of the Sagittarian territory. When we judge others, we hold a moral conclusion about them and assume our perception is an accurate view of their essential nature — in other words, we believe we see the truth about them. We judge people, situations, things and ideas as morally "good" or "bad." When someone breaks the law, they are judged to be unfit to live freely within society without restriction, and they are punished through jail, fine, etc. When we judge others (or ourselves) we conclude that the person is unfit or unworthy in some way.

Although judgment has its place in our world, it is often used to condemn that which is more a representative of our own Shadow fears and biases. Racism is a variation of judgment based on emotionally charged opinion and designed to pass as dispassionate assessment. Blame is another form of judgment that takes a one-sided view of a person and concludes they have sole responsibility for a situation. "Judge not lest ye be judged" alludes to the principle whereby our judgments reflect (at least) as much about ourselves as they do about the judged. ("Horrors! Does this mean if I say nasty things about humans, I'm secretly HUMAN???")

Assessment, on the other hand, is a more neutral medium by which we appraise value, usefulness or validity based on certain criteria. Although this is similar to judgment, it doesn't necessarily involve a moral perspective. It is more objective and detached. Assessment is essential for our survival in the world. If we did not form assessments of our surroundings we could not make decisions or learn.

Knowledge And Wisdom

The Sagittarian qualities of judgment and assessment are two edges of a sword that we wield in the name of truth, justice and the quest for the ideal. It can ruthlessly cut through the bonds of reason and truth, or it can cut through TO reason. ("As opposed to when we slice-and-dice our enemies with cutting remarks...") And we have only our power of assessment to tell us if our opinions are based on one or the other. This is the tricky part of Sag — we must pull ourselves up by our philosophical and speculative bootstraps. And we can never be sure if we've grasped a supreme Truth, or if our beliefs are like the planet Jupiter — big balls of gas with an impressive image but little substance.

There are no boundaries in Sagittarius, save what we have collectively agree is the truth. Philosophically speaking, everything we "know" is purely a result of speculation and reasoning based on our "root assumptions." Nothing is "given" and all our understanding is a function of assumption. We assume that because the sun has come up every day of our lives, it will come up tomorrow. We assume that because certain laws of the universe have operated consistently, they will continue to do so tomorrow. We assume we are real and that our lives are not a dream. (Chuang Tse woke after a dream that he was a butterfly and wondered if he was now a butterfly dreaming he was a man.) We assume others are real and not a figment of our imagination. (Are people around us manifestations of our consciousness, like characters in a dream?).

The Great Expanse

Sagittarius would have us stretch ourselves to "touch the face of God" and know what it is possible to know, beyond our doubts, beyond our human limitations, beyond the light and darkness of human frailty. Through Sagittarius we are driven to touch our divine spirit and explore the pathways between it and the myriad of ways in which that spirit manifests itself. This includes all the expressions of that spirit, including our cultures, our religions, our philosophies and our areas of knowledge — all regions in the territory of Sagittarius. These regions are further explored in Aquarius from a more holistic viewpoint, but for now our itinerary is to explore the many domains of Human understanding to discover who and what lives there.

We must expand our horizons on every level, find new truths, scout out unexplored territory and be open to all that we encounter. ("Ya, so if you see a white winged horse flying around, be sure to say hi! And then dodge the droppings...") Whether it is our religious or spiritual beliefs, our philosophy of life, our awareness of root assumptions, our motives and mission in sharing our knowledge, our attitudes about diversity, or our vision of what could be, Sagittarius brings us to the edges of the known universe and compels us beyond.