The entrance of the Sun into Sagittarius is the rekindling of will and consciousness after the long autumnal descent. Since leaving Leo, the Sun has fallen silent: peregrine in the mutable and mercurial Earth of Virgo with a partial solar eclipse; then his zodiacal fall in the cardinal and Venusian Air of Libra; and finally submerged in the fixed and martial Water of Scorpio. Three stages of descent, purification, and reconciliation with matter, the Other, and the shadow.
I. The Restored Dignity of a Watery Sun
Now, in Sagittarius, the Sun has risen once more. It lifts its head from the subterranean waters and breathes again the rarefied air of the heights. It regains its diurnal nature and becomes once more the ruler by triplicity of Fire, asserting itself as the sigil of the masculine, warm, and luminous principle.
Sagittarius is the first of the transcendent signs, the one that, after the Scorpionic ordeal of death and rebirth, opens the soul towards the Divine in the upper arch of the wheel. When in Sagittarius, the Sun symbolically ascends to the ninth house, the Domus Dei, the House of God, allowing the mutable fire to ignite faith, belief in the Invisible, in the Unseen. The bow points upwards.
Sagittarius is, moreover, the final step before the summit. After this passage, the Sun will reach Capricorn, the tenth house, the cardinal Earth that marks the highest point of the wheel and the beginning of the solar rebirth. There, at the Winter Solstice, the light slowly begins to grow once more in the northern hemisphere. As always, the Sagittarian journey prepares that ascent: it is the visionary fire that foresees the effort and the gravity of the Saturnine mountain.
But, in a sky saturated with Water, the fire of Sagittarius is born under unusual conditions. Mars peregrine in the same sign is the other single source of fire, but also mutable, also unstable. A total lunar eclipse in Pisces, two recent stellia in Scorpio, and the near absence of Air, Earth and Fire have left the heavens heavy, moist, and inward-looking for months. Even as the Sun rises into Sagittarius, it also carries the residue of this cosmic humidity.
II. Jupiter Retrogade As The Ruler of the Sagittarian Sun
The reason lies in the condition of its ruler. After all, Jupiter is exalted in the cardinal and lunar Water of Cancer, the zodiacal Nadir, the lowest point of the sphere, and moves in retrograde motion. It is a ruler that does not see Sagittarius from Cancer. There is no line of sight to the Domus Dei, the ninth house. The regency is blind and indirect: the Sun strives upward while its ruler turns toward the omphalos of the Earth. And, indeed, Jupiter will stay retrograde and instropect throughout the Solar journey in Sagittarius.
The connection between the mutable Fire of Sagittarius and the cardinal Water of Cancer is, by nature, antagonistic. Diurnal heat meets lunar cold; Jupiter’s expansive faith bends inward, now retrograde in its own jupiterian bound in Cancer, a gesture of spiritual recollection. Fire wishes to advance but Water wishes to preserve. There is nonetheless a pact of sect that maintains their essential harmony: Sun and Jupiter belong to the diurnal current. Even retrograde and dwelling in a feminine, phlegmatic sign, Jupiter sustains the Sun with inward wisdom. It makes this solar passage not a fiery outburst but a slow, consecrated ascent, contemplative and aflame within.
III. The First Decan of Sagittarius
Since it is the Sun we are talking about, it is always worth observing its movement by decan. The first ten degrees of Sagittarius are ruled by Mercury, a decan associated in the Tarot with the Eight of Wands. The mutable Fire is at the service of intellect: a mental impulse expanding in multiple directions, swift, inspired, but often scattered, like the arrows of the Centaur that seldom strike the same mark twice.
But the current retrogradation of Mercury in Scorpio lends a depth of introspection to this fire. The planet of discourse and rational mind moves backward through dark waters, having only just been purified by his cazimi with the Sun in the final degrees of Scorpio. The light of the Sun therefore is passing through two veils: the greater rulership of a retrograde Jupiter in Cancer, and also the retrograde mercurial tone of this first decan. It is a consciousness striving upward while still bearing the weight and humidity of the waters upon its skin.
IV. Three Squares Against the Water of Pisces
As for the transits, the Piscean waters will offer little rest to the Sagittarian Sun. In December, three squares will take shape with bodies in the final sign of the zodiac: first with the North Node, and later, toward the end of the journey, with Saturn direct and retrograde Neptune. It is a clash between the two mutable modalities of the primordial principles of creation: Fire and Water, action and reception.
The Sagittarian Sun, driven by the thrive to expand and to find meaning, will face a series of squares against the caput draconis, the Lord of Time, and the symbol of dissolution, three forms of resistance pressing from the Piscean depths. Each contact marks a testing of the solar will: the North Node pulls the flame toward karmic ascent, Saturn confines it within the walls of necessity, and Neptune retrograde blurs its edges in pure mist. These squares forge friction between the yearning for height and the demand for surrender, turning the solar voyage through Sagittarius into an ordeal of purification where clarity is born through tension.
The symptoms of this Sun in Sagittarius may manifest as moral fatigue and a scattering of purpose. There is still an excess of sensitivity, sudden emotional reactions, and a vague nostalgia that seeps into the creative impulse. The collective may seek direction, but each attempt at clarity can dissolve into doubt or weariness. Idealistic visions and sermons of faith multiply, but few withstand the test of reality. There is an oscillation between exaltation and disillusion, with the fire of will dampened by a pervasive humidity that still demand withdrawal, silence, and inner purification.
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