At its best, Sagittarius lives its whole life in a passionate search for truth. At its worst, it believes it has found it.

As it always does in December, the Sun stays in Sagittarius until the Solstice (12/21). This year, Mars is there as well, all month. Mercury too retrogrades back into Sagittarius on 12/22, and Venus joins them as December draws to a close (12/29).

It’s a good time to get to know this sign a little better.

Sadge cares

The fire element is about pure self-expression: nothing is more important than displaying the identity.

What’s intriguing about Sagittarius is that, alone among fire signs, it uses its subjectivity for things that seem to be non-subjective. It attaches itself to concepts, causes, and grand ideas. Issues that would appear to be of universal concern, such as religious or ideological views, are espoused with intimate fervor.

When it locks on to an idea, Sagittarius really cares. The person is ignited not just by the topic at hand, but by her relationship to that topic. This is why the truth — however the person defines it, at the moment — matters as much as it does: her self-image is at stake.  Personal identification is the secret sauce.

Air signs like Gemini and Aquarius, by contrast, don’t get attached in this way. They explore ideas from a conceptual distance. Neither approach is better or worse, of course; neither more or less intelligent. It’s a qualitative, not a quantitative difference, one that is useful to remember when dealing with our Sadge brothers and sisters, so we can know where all that heat is coming from.

Teachers and preachers

At best, Sagittarius’s heart-based approach takes what would otherwise be a dry, pallid concept and fills it with heat and light.

Sagittarians are able to deepen and exalt whatever they turn their attention to, stretching a shortsighted opinion into a fuller and richer perspective. This is why they often become persuasive educators and speakers. Any situation can become a teachable moment.

The downside is that an idea, fueled by emotive force, can take over like a runaway fire. This is the pitfall of Sagittarian enthusiasm (literally, filled with god energy). Unless there is a distancing element elsewhere else in the chart– something to provide objectivity and balance —  there may not be enough detachment to see clearly.

Much depends, as always, on how well the native understands himself. Many a Sadge disavows his own subjectivity, insisting that his viewpoint is based solely on fact and reason. But masquerading as a Gemini will not work well.

Emotion can strengthen a point of view when it’s recognized as such. When it isn’t, transits like these in December will weaken our persuasiveness, and lead us into excess.

Be especially careful to stay clear-eyed and balanced mid-month and after the Solstice, when the Sagittarius planets run up against Neptune in Pisces. The Sun squares Neptune exactly on 12/16, Mercury on 12/26 and Mars on 12/27-28.

Images

Giuseppe Angeli, Elijah Taken Up in a Chariot of Fire, c. 1740/1755

George Nelson, The Searcher 1928

Rembrandt van Rijn, The Apostle Paul, c. 1657

Unknown engraver,Witchcraft at Salem Village 1876