I did not know much about Sagittarians until now. While researching this post, I became enthralled with this sign of the Zodiac. In particular, because Sagittarius “symbolizes the fervent urge to transcend the barriers of convention, to move outwards and onwards in the search for wisdom and truth,” according to Reverend Bill Darlison, in The Gospel and the Zodiac.
That’s exactly what I’ve wanted my whole life.
I also learned that Sagittarians are warriors. The sign “represents acts of derring-do, swashbuckling heroism, taking a chance, having a gamble, anything, in fact, which takes the individual out of convention’s groove and gives a bit of momentum to his or her life.” Its glyph (K’) expresses this perfectly: the arrow directed to the heavens, symbolizing the power of man’s aspirations and the deadly earnestness of his quest.
This idea was captured by William Blake (a Sagittarius) in Milton in several lines, including these: “I will not cease from mental fight, Nor shall my sword sleep in my hand, Till we have built Jerusalem.”
“The Sagittarian phase of the spiritual life is the point at which we learn to act confidently and courageously to make our vision a reality,” says Darlison. “Blake’s ‘New Jerusalem’ can only be created by means of the bows, arrows, spears, chariots, and swords, which symbolize the Sagittarian challenge to all those powers, like sloth, indifference, and habit, which enslave the human spirit, and with which we are called to do battle. This requires the other Fire-sign virtue, faith, because all ventures of this kind must be undertaken without any certainty as to their eventual outcome.”
The Sagittarian ‘higher mind,’ says Dane Rudhyar, is ‘mind plus will, plus faith, and vibrant openness to ever-new possibilities.’ The one who enables himself to become a vehicle for the Sagittarian higher mind becomes a genuine avatar, one who can ‘stimulate, mobilize, or fascinate human beings into doing what the latter would otherwise be unwilling and too inert to do’
Sagittarius is ruled by Jupiter, which in classical astrology is called ‘the Greater Benefic,’ because of its association with all things that expand the mind and which lift us out of our spiritual torpor.
Sagittarians Seeking Zeal
The intelligence required to reach this level in our spiritual advancement is zeal. At the Sagittarian stage of our journey we need zeal because “the restless pursuit of spiritual values constantly presents the seeker with new challenges and new journeys,” writes Darlison. In fact, “all long journeys — spiritual, religious, philosophical, as well as physical — are Sagittarian.” Zeal gives us great energy and enthusiasm to complete our journey.
The theme of journeys in this sign is why Sagittarius has become associated with horses — the primary means of all long-distance land travel in the ancient world. One of the names for Sagittarians among Greeks was Hippotcs, meaning “On Horseback.” Famous horse symbology includes the Centaur and the donkey on which Jesus road into Jerusalem.
Ptolemy designated Sagittarius a hi-corporeal sign with two-bodies, a concept that had mythological expression in the Centaur. The mythological image of the centaur – half man, half horse — married the twin qualities of intelligence and strength. It’s easy to see how the centaur came to symbolize the human being — part god, part animal; part creative intelligence, part destructive passion. Metaphysically, it is the “symbol of the warfare between the spiritual and carnal aspects of the individual.”
Manilius described the Sagittarian type in this poem, hinting at the signs connection to horses, and reputation for being undaunted and for pressing onwards heedless of danger:
“The double Centaur different Tempers breeds,
They break the Horse, and tame the fiery Steeds;
They love the sounding Whip, the Race, the Rein,
And whirl the Chariot o’er the dusty Plain:
Nor is their Humour to the Fields confin’d,
They range the Woods, and tame the Savage Kind.
For in the Frame, in double forms exprest,
The Man is uppermost, and rules the Beast;
His bow full drawn implies, his Rays impart,
Strength to the Limbs, and Vigour to the Heart.
Quick active Motions, full of warmth and heat,
Still pressing on, unknowing to retreat.”
Jesus and the Unbroken Donkey
The horse metaphor continues in a story of Jesus, when he sends two of his disciples into a village to find a colt ‘on which no one has ever sat.’
“We generally interpret this scene through the eyes of popular piety, which has robbed it of its powerful spiritual message,” says x. “We are taught that riding on a donkey shows Jesus at his most humble, but we forget that the animal Jesus rode was ‘one on which no one has ever sat,’ i.e., an unbroken animal. Jesus was riding sedately on a ‘bucking bronco’!
“Members of the horse family are not born as our natural allies. They are born wild and turbulent; they instinctively rebel against human dominance, and in order for them to be any use to us at all they have to be brought into subjection. Their natural, uncontrollable energies have to be harnessed to a will that is stronger than their own. They have to be ‘broken’ and when raw power is brought under the control of intelligence, a formidable alliance is formed.”
“It is images such as this that will enable us to understand the spiritual meaning of Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem. In calmly riding an unbroken horse into the holy city, Jesus is shown to be capable of dominating the forces of the Fire element, the animal passions.
“His action symbolizes the mastery of the bestial by the spiritual, the mastery of what we might today call the ego (or, in Freudian terms, the ld) with its selfish cravings, by the powerful forces of self-knowledge and self-control.
“Jerusalem is the city of peace — ‘salem’ is the same word as ‘shalom’ in Hebrew and ‘salaam’ in Arabic — and in order for us to enter symbolically into the holy city of peace, individually and collectively, we must attain the same level of mastery over those troublesome aspects of our animal nature that Jesus is shown exercising in this little story.
“And it is the objective of all spiritual practice, in whatever tradition it comes down to us, to attain this level of control over the wilder aspects of our nature. The greater jihad (holy war) ‘is the struggle against the lower self,’ said Muhammad. In short, we should strive to become creatures of will, not of whim.”
Lord Krishna on the Battlefield
When discussing horses used at metaphors for religious concepts, a classic story from Hinduism must be mentioned as well — the story of Lord Krishna in the Mahabharata. It is a perfect Sagittarian tale of the battle between man’s divine and demonic natures, and of our quest to train the mind to bring our wild senses under control. Every single element of the scene has a specific symbolic meaning to tell an important spiritual lesson.
In the ancient story, Krishna rides to the middle of the battlefield in a chariot with four horses and his student, Arjuna, as his passenger. Two armies are lined up on either side of the battlefield — one representing the divine and the other the demonic. The Kurukshetra Battlefield is the inner battlefield we each must face. It’s the only place where one can confront, do battle with, and vanquish our own inner demons.
The chariot represents human’s physical body, the instrument through which the self, intellect, mind, and senses operate. The four horses represent the senses through which we relate to the external world by perception and action — vision, hearing, smell, and taste. The reins represent the mind through which the senses receive their instructions to act and perceive.
Krishna, the charioteer, is holding reigns to control the horses. He represents the higher self who is the wise giver of instructions to the mind to achieve the ultimate goal — perfect self realized enlightenment. Without a wise charioteer keeping them under control, the horses could easily careen wildly in any direction — just like our emotions.
The story tells us to ask ourselves: Who is driving our chariot? Too often our reins (mind) are flapping around freely without the proper inner guidance, instead of giving proper instruction to the horses (senses). Hence, we careen down any road we feel like going. The chariot (body) takes a beating, the horses (senses) get tired, the reins (mind) get worn down, and the charioteer (intelligence) gets lazy.
The story inspires us to use our intelligence to give clear direction to the senses. It means training all of the levels of ourselves, so that we might experience the still, silent, eternal center that lies between the impending battle. And the intelligence in Sagittarius is courage to do just that.
What I particularly love about the stories that represent the Sagittarian message is that they are so similar in two very different man-made religions. Yet, both inspire us to embrace the zeal we need to fight life’s ultimate battle — and emerge victorious.
