On November 22nd, the sun moved into Sagittarius, so we are now in the swing of Sagittarius season. And in true Sagittarius fashion, this post is very late.
Sagittarius is a mutable fire sign. As a fire sign, Sagittarius has an inherent need for action, and as a mutable sign, Sagittarius can go with the flow and transition easily. Of the fire signs, Aries is like a spark; Leo like a campfire; and Sagittarius is like a wildfire–traveling, shifting, and ranging.
Jupiter, the largest planet in our solar system, rules Sagittarius. Jupiter is about growth and expansiveness. This gives Sagittarius its own larger than life quality. Sagittarians are known for being adventurous. They want experiences, they want to learn, to travel, to live life to the fullest. I think of the famous “mad ones” quote from On the Road as distilling the Sagittarian essence (and not surprisingly, Neal Cassady had a Sagittarius moon.)
Sagittarians can sometimes get a reputation for being flakey because once they feel like they’ve fully immersed themselves in something, their desire to learn more about the next thing compels them to move on. Sagittarians are known for their forthrightness, which can sometimes come across as abrasive or uncouth, but a lot of times, it’s charming. Sagittarians are charmers. Sonja Morgan is a Sag.
As soon as Sagittarius season kicked off, because Saturn is at 0 degrees of Pisces, the sun formed a square (an aspect that causes dynamic tension) to Saturn. Then Mars followed shortly behind, moving into Sagittarius on November 24th and also forming a square to Saturn. Mars, the planet of action, wants to goooooo, especially in Sagittarius, and Saturn, the planet of boundaries, wants to pump the brakes, so in the few days around November 24th-25th, we may feel stymied or limited in ways that are incredibly frustrating. This can be especially emotional around the full moon, which occurs at 4 degrees of Gemini on November 27th at 4:16 am EST.
The Gemini-Sagittarius axis is an interesting one. Gemini is ruled by Mercury, and as an air sign, it’s about quick thinking and talking; Sagittarius is a sign that’s about intellectualizing and philosophizing, so it isn’t as diametrically different from Gemini as some of the other opposite-sign pairings. However, it’s a fire sign, and it’s ruled by Jupiter, the planet of expansion, so Sagittarius is all about big ideas. Sagittarians dream big and leave the details to others. I once had a boss who said, when describing herself, that she isn’t a workhorse, but that she meets people and comes up with ideas, but she leaves the work to her team. That feels very Sagittarius. Sagittarians can experience Geminis as too micro; Geminis can think Sagittarians are unrealistic blowhards.
The full moon in Gemini, opposite the sun, finds our emotional selves needing to tend to the prosaic details. We want to make to-do lists and find shortcuts. But the sun in Sag causes some tension with this need, as we may have our heads in the clouds, or we may be blowing past others’ need to talk it out and get the necessary info.
This full moon is also opposite Mars, right on the sun’s heels in Sagittarius, and the sun/Mars and the moon are in a T-square with Saturn. This means that this frustrating Mars-Saturn square that we’re feeling over the weekend causes conflict and tension with our emotional and physical needs during the full moon.
At the same time, there’s a Mercury-Neptune square happening, which adds some extra confusion around this full moon. Gemini is a Mercury-ruled sign, so the moon is answering to Mercury, and in a tense aspect with Neptune, the planet of murkiness, boundarilessness, and confusion, there’s a general fog over everything. We may feel not only frustrated by our limitations this new moon, but we may also not be able to think clearly and understand quite why. Lovely.
The good news is that after the full moon, the sun and Mars continue to progress past their squares with Saturn, helping things flow more easily. And on December 1st, Mercury moves into brass-tacks, earthy Capricorn, which enables us to focus on getting stuff done. However, Mercury is currently in its retro shadow, and it goes retrograde on December 13th, so get your holiday plans set and your shopping done before then!