The symbol for Sagittarius baby, is the 9th sign of the zodiac, is that of an arrow, whose point is aiming in a north easterly direction. Ruling planet: Jupiter

Sagittarius Baby– Cosmic Seeker

Your Cosmic Seeker comes with a Cosmic DNA that will always have them seeking. Seeking more knowledge, more understanding and more enlightenment. You’ll read in many Astrology books how Sagittarians love to travel and explore and they certainly do and you’ll have to make sure your property is fenced with this little guy, but it’s their sense of discovery that lies behind it all.

This is a very rich and symbolic star sign, full of adventurous tales, epic morals and human triumph. At its core is knowledge. From the moment your Cosmic Seeker is born, they’ll be on a life long quest to find answers, often they’ll be answers that can’t be found. They’ll want to know the meaning behind everything.

Feed this hungry mind, with tales of adventure, mystery and fantasy. They will, in particular, like mythic tales and will enjoy watching fantasy movies and when they’re older, they’ll be into epic tales like Lord of the Rings. Any story where there is an epic journey for knowledge, understanding or right over wrong, will appeal to this little guy.

This is not a particularly intellectual sign, although most Sagittarius are intelligent, they want to know the meaning, not the facts. They are always on a quest of some sort and as your little Cosmic Seeker goes about the day, make sure there is lots of stimulation and ways to feed their curiosity about life.

These are happy little souls who from the moment they are born seem to sense the ‘bigger picture’. They’re not too worried about the little things in life and tend to be very calm and content souls. They have a great sense of excitement and when they’re little, the night before Christmas, Birthdays or special events will be especially tortuous, they simply can’t wait. Their sense of excitement about life is high and they see things we don’t.

While you’re paying the bills, doing the washing, juggling jobs, family and responsibilities, your little Cosmic Seeker is playing out fantasies in their head, wondering what this could mean and that could mean.

Although this is the sign of travel, in my experience Sagittarius actually don’t travel any more than any other sign, but I have also observed that they don’t need to. In the 21st Century, where the Internet, books and DVDs can bring it all into their own living room, many Sagittarians spend their whole life time travelling the world, without ever leaving home. Its the spirit of adventure and discovery that is important to them.

Follow their interests and no matter what the subject that is the ‘flavour of the day’, encourage it. Get them encyclopaedias and have a big map on the wall. When my little Cosmic Seeker was young, we had a great big world map on the wall, the size you find in school classrooms. As we watched news events around the world, he’d love to find the places on the map.

This is one fun little Angel to have in your family and you’re going to love them to pieces. They’re happy, cheerful and the flame of hope, optimism and the utter joy of discovery burns brightly in their eyes. Keep it aglow and this little cherub will enrich your life beyond belief.

Sagittarius is the third and last Fire Sign and those born under this rule are warm, generous and larger than life, they seem to have such a relaxed nature and approach to life that your stress levels decrease, just being around them.

Sagittarius Baby – The Constellation

Sagittarius is the ‘heavenly Archer’. He stands with his bow drawn back, his arrow pointing directly at Antares, the bright red star we met in Scorpio, which is placed at the very heart of the Scorpion. Controversy and doubt have surrounded this Constellation since antiquity and still remains. He is the Archer Crotus, the Horseman who lived on Mount Helicon, or Chiron, the Centaur, who was a philosopher, healer and teacher to many of the Heroes of ancient Greece?

There are, in fact, two constellations referred to as ‘the Archer’. They are Sagittarius and Centaurus. These two Archers have confused the stories about the celestial archer for thousands of years. The Constellation of Centaurus can only be seen in its entirety in Southern Skies and not totally visible to Mediterranean sky gazers.

Whatever the true origins of Sagittarius, this sign has come to embody the attributes of both the ‘hunter’ and of Chiron, the Centaur.

It was the Romans who first named the constellation Sagittarius. ‘Sagitta’ is Latin for ‘arrow’.

A star map shows that Sagittarius lies, for most part, within the Milky Way, a place from which souls descended down to earth. Ancient Astrologers were aware that the Milky Way was in fact a collection of millions of stars spinning around a central point, like a giant disc. They proclaimed that the bow of the Archer pointed to its centre. It has taken until the 20th Century and the advent of modern science, to verify what the ancients ‘knew’. Something that has been born out time and time again.

So, who is the Archer personified in the Constellation of Sagittarius?

The Archer of the heavens is seen as half man, half horse – a Centaur. In this case not just any Centaur, by Chiron.

Centaurs were typically a rowdy bunch, very much into heavy drinking, wild parties and fighting. They were also given to uncontrollable sexual urges. I guess you could call them the football hooligans of the ancient world. Chiron could not be classed in this mould. Chiron was a philosopher, teacher and healer.

Chiron was also divine and as such was immortal. It is he who has been accredited with teaching many of the heroes the art of battle. Heroes like Hercules, Achilles and Jason. In fact, it was said that he invented the Constellation of the Archer in order to guide the Argonauts on their journey in search for the Golden Fleece. Chiron was a gentle and wise teacher. He was also versed in the arts of medicine and healing and is said to have tutored Asclepius, the first doctor.

Chiron’s tale is one of the most powerful in Greek mythology and one of my personal favourites. It is said that Hercules visited his friend and mentor in his cave. They shared a drink while Hercules told him of his adventures. The other Centaurs smelt the wine and gate crashed the party. Hercules picked up his bow and arrows, dipped in the poison from the Hydra he had just slain as one of his epic ‘labours’.

He killed the Centaurs, but in the confusion Chiron was injured, some say in his knee, others in his ankle. Being immortal he couldn’t die, but had to endure insufferable pain. Despite all his knowledge of medicines he could not cure himself. Thus, he was doomed to suffer for eternity, that is until he gave up his immortal life for Prometheus. He was allowed to die and as a reward was placed in the heavens as the ‘Archer’.

The second part of this wonderful story is that of Prometheus. Prometheus was a Titan, one of the race overthrown by Zeus. Prometheus (which means foresight) had the gift of prophecy and also a deep sympathy for mankind. He stole a flame from the heavenly forge of the gods, which represented enlightenment and knowledge, hid it in a hollowed out funnel stalk and carried it down to earth.

Zeus was outraged by the theft, so set out to annihilate mankind by sending forth a flood (a great earth wide flood is depicted in the mythology of every nation on earth, even in the Bible). Just as the Bible has the story of an ‘Ark’ so to does Greek mythology. Prometheus warned his son, who built an ark and went on board with his wife.

The flood lasted for 9 days and nights, but on the tenth day the rain ceased and Deucalion (Prometheus’ son) made a sacrifice to Zeus. Zeus was touched by his piety and granted his request to renew the human race. This is part of the great ‘Deucalion Flood’ story of Greek mythology.

Prometheus didn’t get off so lightly though. Zeus seized Prometheus and bound him in chains that were ‘unbreakable’, to a large rock. Zeus sent down his eagle each day to peck out Prometheus’ liver, but each day it renewed itself. This torture went on for 30 years.

It is at this point that the story of Chiron and Prometheus intersect. Chiron was immortal, so therefore couldn’t be spared his suffering. He went to Zeus and offered his immortality (and therefore his status as a god) on condition that it was given to Prometheus.

Zeus sent Hercules to unchain Prometheus, who was then made an immortal god and Chiron was released from his eternal suffering. Mankind forever was the benefactor of the wisdom, knowledge and enlightenment Prometheus suffered so much to bring to us all.

Therefore, Sagittarian energy is one of knowledge, wisdom and learning at the expense of all else. Chiron gave his life to spare Prometheus. Prometheus endured 30 years of torture, in order that mankind could be more than ‘beasts’. Sagittarian energy is one of sacrifice to acquire something of greater value.

Sagittarius Baby- The Planet

Jupiter is the 5th planet of the Zodiac and by far the largest. It is colossal, 318 times bigger than earth, in fact, Jupiter is twice as large as all the rest of the planets put together.

None other than Zeus, king of the Olympian Gods, has since antiquity, given this celestial giant rulership. There is no more fitting deity. When you look into the night sky, Jupiter is the 4th brightest light you see (after the Sun, Moon and Venus) and has been observed since prehistoric times.

Jupiter is a gas planet and as such doesn’t have a solid surface. When we look up at Jupiter, we aren’t seeing the light reflected from the planet itself, rather the clouds that cover it. Jupiter is made up of 90% hydrogen and 10% helium.

Its make up (methane, water, ammonia and ‘rock’) are almost identical in composition to the primordial ‘Solar Nebula’, thought to be origins of the entire solar system. The only other planet that has this composition is Saturn – and these two planets ‘rule’ our very lives.

Jupiter’s ‘Great Red Spot’ has only been visible to man for 300 years, with the advent of the telescope. This ‘Great Red Spot’ is big enough to hold two earths. This is, in fact, an area of ‘High Pressure’ cloud formation. Scientists still don’t know why it’s existed for so long or what is causing it. It’s not a physical landmark, rather a meteorological one.

Jupiter expends more energy out, than it receives in from the Sun. In fact, Jupiter itself has the characteristics of a Sun, however, the heat and energy it expends isn’t from nuclear fusion like the Sun, rather from something that is called the ‘Kelvin-Helmholtz mechanism’, which is the slow gravitational compression of the planet. Therefore, it never gets hot enough to cause nuclear reactions.

Jupiter is as large as a gas planet can ‘possibly’ get. If any more matter were added, it would simply be compressed by gravity. It would get more ‘dense’, but not bigger. To become a star from its internal heat source, Jupiter would have to be 80 times larger than it is now to produce enough heat to manifest the nuclear heat needed to become a star.

As this isn’t possible, then it will always remain a planet, even though it has the potential to be a ‘star’ in its own right. You may as well be talking about Zeus himself.

Jupiter’s magnetic field is much stronger than Earth’s, with a magnetosphere that extends more than 650 million kilometres (further than Saturn), yet its field is oblong in shape and although it extends so far out towards the other planets, the field towards the Sun only extends a few million kilometres. Jupiter, mighty as it is, still concedes authority to the Sun.

This magnetic field makes human journeys to Jupiter dangerous. They contain high levels of energetic particles (radiation), far higher than those in the ‘Van Allen’ belts around earth. It would be instantly fatal to an unprotected human being.

Jupiter also has rings, like Saturn, but these are so much fainter that they were only discovered by ‘determination’. When the Voyager 1 scientists insisted, after travelling 1 billion kilometres, that it was at least worth a nosey to see if they could see if any rings existed. Everyone thought this was impossible, in fact the chances for finding anything were given as ‘nil’. But find them they did. It was a major scientific coup.

In July 1994, the comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 collided with Jupiter, giving scientists on earth a spectacular view of the affects of a deep space collision. Just as Prometheus allowed himself to be chained to a rock for 30 years in order to bring us knowledge, so to does Jupiter itself continue to do so, right down into the 21st Century.

Jupiter has 28 satellites, all of them named after people who figure strongly in Zeus’ life, most are the names of his many lovers.

Sagittarius Baby – The God

After reading about Jupiter, how could anyone, but the ruler of the Gods, possibly rule over this powerful planet.

Zeus was one of three brothers, who overthrew their father, Cronos. Zeus and his brothers took part in an epic battle to overthrow the ‘old order’, symbolised by their father ‘Cronos’ the last of the Titans. We meet Cronos in the sign of Capricorn. The Olympians were victorious and after the battle, rulership of the sea, skies and underworld were given to the victorious, brothers Hades, Zeus and Poseidon.

They drew lots and Hades received Tartarus, the underworld. Zeus got the skies and Poseidon the seas. The earth was given rulership to all. Cronus had imprisoned the Cyclops and the ‘hundred handed ones’ in Tartarus. Zeus released them and in gratitude they gave Zeus the thunderbolt, Poseidon the trident and Hades the mask of invisibility.

Zeus, however, claimed dominance over his brothers. The Greeks called him ‘All Father’. Cronos was told in a prophecy that one of his sons would overthrow him and take over his place. To guard against this happening, as each of his children were born, Cronos snatched them from his wife (Rhea) and swallowed them before they could open their eyes.

Naturally Rhea wasn’t very happy about this, so when she knew that her sixth child was on the way (Zeus) she bore him in secret and gave Cronos a stone to swallow instead. Zeus grew to manhood out of sight and when the time came, he prepared a potion and disguised as a ‘cup bearer’ gave it to Cronos to drink.

This made Cronos violently sick and Zeus’s five brothers and sisters were disgorged from his mouth. They were obviously pleased about this and swore eternal gratitude and allegiance to Zeus. Together they overthrew their father’s rule.

Zeus made Mount Olympus his home and established a hierarchy of gods who obeyed his ultimate law. Zeus was a dictator and although the other gods swore allegiance, there is no doubting that this was ‘total’ law. He had a volatile, fiery and prolific spirit and when roused he would express this with the power he possessed in his thunder and lightening bolts. He also used his powers to pursue his many lovers.

Of all the gods he is the most virile, but also without ethics. It didn’t matter whether the object of his desire was married, part of his family, or just plain not interested. If he wanted, he got. From his lovers he produced many children, including Athene (goddess of Justice), Dike (goddess of natural law), Moira (goddess of fate) and the nine muses. His wife Hera (also his sister), was the goddess of childbirth. Zeus dispensed both good and evil according to the law, the law he himself set down. He is also the ‘protector’ of man.

Sagittarius Baby – The Season

Sagittarius is the last sign in the Autumn triad. Therefore it is a ‘mutable’ sign. Mutable means the ability to change, be adaptable and to think ‘outside the square’. By their very nature, a mutable sign, coming at the end of a season, rules the transition into the next. All the lessons learnt over the season, need to now be applied to the coming one. While still in one reality, they are already planning for the next.

While the Sun is moving through Sagittarius, the cold weather of winter is on its way (Astrology is birthed in Northern hemisphere seasons and although we live in a global world, we may be experiencing Southern hemisphere energy in our daily lives, but deep down in our primordial genes, we are still conditioned to our North Hemisphere ancestry).

Deep down inside, the earth still holds onto the last of the summer heat jealously, unwilling to yield it up just yet. It wants to wrap the seeds planted in spring and keep them warm until gestation is well under way. It needs to protect and keep the seeds alive and warm. These seeds don’t just contain new plant life, they contain the promise for the future, just as we hold the secret seeds in our soul that Prometheus stole from the heavenly forge on our behalf.

Wood is being collected and stockpiled for the coming winter months and all thoughts are turned to ‘fire’. For mankind knew that it was fire that would ensure their survival through the cold months. Without it they would die. In the same way, Sagittarian energy tells us, without spiritual fire, our souls will die.

This is also a time of generosity and hospitality. People are drawn together out of necessity, often around the fireplace.

Sagittarius energy, although marking the end of Spring, is about the celebration of life. Rather than mourning the end, a time of light and warmth, people are drawing those very things into their souls, in order to sustain them during the dark months ahead.