Most astrologers are describing Jupiter as a "beneficial" planet of "wisdom", a planet that is "magnifying and expanding" things and situations. Furthermore, Sagittarius (the sign ruled by Jupiter) is generally described as the sign of "religion, higher education and distant traveling". I always thought that these interpretations were somehow weak and fragmentary, not shedding much light to essential facets of the archetypes that they are supposedly illustrating! There are some other important dimensions to Jupiter / Sagittarius / Ninth House and we are apparently ignoring them. Thus, we should start thinking “out of the box” in order to get the wider possible spectrum of meanings out of the afore-mentioned archetypes!
As you probably know, the zodiac is a "dynamic" entity! Each sign in it is representing an "evolved" stage of the preceding one. In this respect, the sign of Sagittarius is located immediately after the two so-called "unifying", "pairing" signs (Libra - Scorpio). Consequently, the main trait of Sagittarius should be the one of "uber" UNIFICATION! But not that much on the interpersonal level. You see the "Archer" is located just a "click" before the "universal" signs (Aquarius - Pisces), which are more concerned with the "collective". Therefore, Sagittarius is actually representing a highly unifying "intermediate step", a stage where the individuals should move past the "romantico-sexual pairing" (which tends to isolate the two individuals, driving them often into a state of "gridlocked stagnation") and thrustingly open themselves up to society!
This is a vital dimension to Sagittarius (and to the Ninth House) that we often neglect: its impetus towards sociability! In other words, the trend to enthusiastically open up to the "unknown others" and to unconditionally mingle and interact with the people and the groups around us! Those individuals having in their charts a strong Sagittarius, Jupiter or Ninth house emphasis are somehow under the spell of this unique "geist", which we might call "a crush on society"!
The Sagittarian energy is thrusting us forward, beyond the often "petty" and claustrophobic company of our "buddies", of "our own people". It is enticing us to open up to the wider world, to indiscriminately socialize, to become good-spirited, elevated human beings. It advises us to overcome our narrow horizons, our selfishness, the "Samsara" of our micro-routine and gradually ascend to the higher state of becoming a "universal being". It is at that state that we feel ourselves twinned with our unknown fellow-humans, ultimately enjoying their company instead of merely being annoyed by it!
Thus, the sign of Sagittarius is inducing a major "consciousness shift", urging us to go beyond the (often raw and immature) "pairing" or the "we are buddies!" thing, to move onto the broader and more mature stage of "socializing"! In other words, to start experiencing our intimate "likeness" to our totally unknown fellow-humans. But this is something extremely difficult for an "average Joe/Jane" to achieve, unless s/he has in his chart elements conferring to him this kind of "social crush" quality! That is why the "geist" of Sagittarius (Jupiter and Ninth house) is ultimately so important to our society! As much as a classical Scorpio is longing to meet his/her much desired lover, a Sagittarius is longing to meet an unknown to him/her group of people (and the more unknown the people around him/her the more s/he longs to get to know them and exchange energies!)
So the "Archer" is a collectively unifying force, a very strong, cohesive, elevated / elevating "societal link"! In order now to be sociable, to be able to comfortably stand beside unknown individuals, one should have an open, elevated mind and display a rather friendly and benevolent attitude to his/her fellow humans! You see, the over-sensitive people, the touchy, immature, suspicious ones tend to be anti-social (as they somehow fear the contact with any kind of people they don't know). Thus they usually enclose themselves within "petty-groups" and environments they are familiar with! This kind of people are automatically set to a rather phobic mode when found in an "open" social environment. So, each time an opportunity arises for them to go out and meet unknown people they mostly overlook it thinking: "why should I go to an alien environment, full of people I don't know, who might put me down, hurt me etc."...
This mentality is characterizing an awful lot of people who are ending up being "couch potatoes", watching TV or "procrastinately" surfing on the net (losing thus valuable opportunities that their participation in a social event might have given them - i.e. to find a good job, a lovely partner etc.). So, we need to overcome this anti-social trend, which is by default prevailing to an average individual. The energy now needed to overcome this "social inertia" is provided to us by the sign of Sagittarius (and on another level, by the sign of Aquarius, whose Sagittarius is somehow a "proto-form", an early "fiery" version)!
Most people do not possess in their charts a surplus of Sagittarian, Jupiterian or Ninth House energies and thus they lack this kind of openness to their unknown fellow-humans. People, in general, have a tendency to "close in" and mistrust those who do not make part of their own regular company. This means that our societies are largely composed of isolated groups/companies of people, who do not readily exchange energies and do not fully communicate with each other (thus these groups are easily degenerating into fractions, cliques etc.).
Such a situation is not producing a healthy social fabric at all! Where narrow minds prevail people tend to isolate themselves in small groups and then the vital "societal energies" do not flow freely - they get "coagulated" instead - creating within the social fabric all kinds of gaps and "polarizations". Consequently, the society as a whole cannot function properly and is ultimately driven into decline and collapse.
This is the case of our modern western societies, which over the past decades have somehow collapsed and led us to the current mega-crisis (a crisis that is not just financial but largely a social/ethical one)! We may detect at the core of this social crisis a deficit of sagittarian "social crush" geist! Actually, this seems to be a major problem in our contemporary western / westernized societies: the peoples' lack of a guileless opening to their unknown fellow humans (without aiming that is at any kind of monetary, professional etc. gains). You see, this unconditional, trustful (but not gullible) "opening up" to our neighbors is imperative, in order to produce an "unclotted", uplifted, full of possibilities collective environment around us!
Thus, the stronger the presence of Sagittarius, Jupiter and Ninth house in our charts the more we have a "crush on society", the more we open up to our fellow humans, the more we feel attracted by the large and unknown to us groups of people! In such a way, we ever more partake in the collective life and in the powerful energies flowing in it - ultimately contributing to the shaping of a more congenial, progressive and elevated society!
Thomas Gazis
Copyright: Thomas D. Gazes
This is a newer version of a Thomas Gazis article that was published οn the December 2013 issue of the Greek magazine "Astrologiki Pyxida" ("Astrological Compass").
