The Sun in Sagittarius represents mutable fire, and its keyword is "I perceive." Sagittarius is symbolized by the Centaur as an archer: half human, half animal, aiming an arrow heavenward in a symbolic attempt to free itself from its lower nature. This is a theme for all Sagittarians: how to integrate their philosophic, truth-loving, spiritually oriented soul with their brute, coarse animal nature. Notice I said "integrate" here, not "free oneself from" or "rise above." Both sides are truth for the Sagittarian: the horse and the rider going together to the stars.

You are the philosopher, priest, teacher, and con man of the zodiac, always ready to teach or to sell your philosophy. Friendly, outgoing, gregarious, and sports loving, you can be very extravagant when over-indulging your expansive nature. A lover of truth and honest to a fault, you can be brutally tactless. Physical activity, grand themes and big gestures are to your liking. Like your animal side the horse, you do not like being fenced in. Sagittarians love freedom and travel, and can be skittish when it comes to commitment. No one, however, is purely a Sagittarius—or any other sign for that matter. Human beings are a mixture of all 12 signs, houses and planets, as depicted in your chart on page three. It is the art of the astrologer to describe this complex of harmonious and conflicting symbolic energies within you.

Jupiter, largest planet in the solar system, is the ruler of Sagittarius, and one of its/your weaknesses is trying to be too large. This can take the forms of false arrogance or of overdoing things. Sagittarius can be brutally tactless; it is important that you extend this courtesy to yourself as well. And as for overdoing, you can’t do everything at once—so be aware of overextending and over-committing yourself, as well as procrastinating. Sagittarius expands on the "ten thousand things" of life collected by the opposite (monkey) sign Gemini, spinning stories and philosophies from the collected data. Neither sign of this polarity is complete without the other. Sagittarius needs the data of Gemini, and Gemini needs the reason for collecting the data in the first place: the larger picture of Sagittarius. Together these two signs are the clowns of the zodiac.

In the human body Sagittarius and its ruler Jupiter rule the liver, the hips and the thighs. Sagittarius deals with ultimate understanding. In the Bible, Jacob was lame in his hip—his understanding—and had to wrestle all night (his ignorance, his shadow) with an angel (his enlightenment, his understanding) until it blessed him. Jupiter, along with Neptune, co-rule Pisces, which rules the feet. The soles of our feet are that which we stand upon, and it is from our soles/souls that under+standing flows.

Famous Sagittarians are/were Woody Allen, Kim Bassinger, Beethoven, William Blake, William F. Buckley, David Carradine, Dick Clark, Winston Churchill, Sammy Davis Jr., Emily Dickinson, Walt Disney, Kirk Douglas, Douglas Fairbanks Jr., Jane Fonda, George Gershwin, Betty Grable, Jimi Hendrix, Toulose-Latrec, Bruce Lee, Harpo Marx, Margaret Mead, Bette Midler, Diego Rivera, Edward G. Robinson, Frank Sinatra, Steven Spielberg, Tina Turner, Mark Twain, and Flip Wilson.

There's a conflict between your true, inner self, and the images and beliefs as to who you are that you've picked up and now hold to be true. This "learning" may have come from your parents, others in your childhood, or through your own way of perceiving the world based on biases from past life experiences. Whatever it's apparent source, the resulting tension between your will and your emotions is frustrating, and could eventually result in psychological problems unless you resolve present subconscious patterns. Your parents could have separated while you were still young enough to have felt it strongly. Childhood male-female models are often absent, ambiguous or unacceptable with this aspect, so there may be tension and/or a need to experiment in relating to the opposite sex.

You may try to escape your limitations by rushing into new experiences, but lack the perseverance to carry them to a conclusion. Self-defeating habits manifesting in the Moon's house can be changed by lessons and strengths associated with the Sun's house. You may feel that everyone else around you is in the wrong (or to blame), but it is really yourself with whom you are out of touch. Until you define, focus on and persevere with your goals, until you get back in touch with your core, you will experience difficulty depending on yourself for long periods of time.