Advent Calendar 2023

Sagittarius, the last of the fire signs, coincides with the increasing darkness of early winter. As the landscape becomes starker and the year moves toward its end, external activity is curtailed and the world of the imagination comes alive.

The sign of Sagittarius is linked with the mythic centaur, whose origins go back to Babylon, and who is found in the figure of Chiron among the pantheon of the planetary gods. The centaur's duality is reflected in the contradictory nature of the sign, for it possesses both the raw vigor and power of the horse and the aspiring vision of the human spirit.

The name Sagittarius comes from the Latin word for arrow, sagitta. The centaur's arrow, flying toward some distant goal, is an image of his quest for greater understanding, not only of his own mythic wound, but also of a universe in which the gods are just, though suffering and death are still part of the condition of all living things.

Half beast and half divine, the centaur embodies the paradox of the human animal whose powerful and potentially destructive instincts are guided by hopes, ideals and a world-view which recognizes the sanctity of life.

In myth, centaurs could be rowdy and uncontrollable, especially when drunk. Yet the arrow of Sagittarius in the heavens is aimed directly at the heart of Scorpio, thus suggesting that the centaur's enlightened vision can illuminate those darker human passions that lead us into blind destructiveness.

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