Planets in Profile — The Moon in Sagittarius

Hey everyone. This is Adam Elenbaas from Nightlight Astrology [https://nightlightastrology.com/].

Happy Sunday, everybody. It's a bonus episode today. We're going to take a look at the moon in the sign of Sagittarius. This is part of my Planets in Profile series. There are a ton of episodes on the website already. We've taken Venus, Mars through the signs, Mercury through the signs. Now we're working on the moon through the signs. And we're at the point in our series where we've reached Sagittarius. So today we're going to be taking a look at the Moon in Sagittarius.

I hope that this will be useful for all those of you out there who have the Moon in Sagittarius natally, or know somebody who does, but also if you're a studying astrologer. I think it's really helpful to get lessons on every planet sign combination that you can. Of course, experience will show you so much, but it's also helpful to have other practitioners that have seen a lot of charts and can help you learn something about these combinations. That's why I've made this series, in the hope that there's just a lot of evergreen learning content on the channel.

With that in mind, before we get into it today, remember to like and subscribe, share your comments, your reflections. If you have the Moon in Sagittarius, what do you most relate to about today's talk? Or someone you know? It'd be fun to hear from you. All transcripts of any of these daily talks can be found on the website; that is nightlightastrology.com. No promotions for the day because it is a bonus episode. So let's go ahead and get into it.

I'm going to put a presentation up on the screen. The Moon in Sagittarius is the focus of our talk today. And I say this in every Planets in Profile episode, but if we're going to understand a planet in a sign, we have to start by understanding the nature of the planet first. Ancient astrology is a practice of planetary interpretation first and foremost. Signs and houses are modifiers, not the primary pieces of the language. So we start with the planet.

The moon as our planet at the center of this series represents universal levels of meaning for the moon, and then there are topical levels. The universal meanings are those that most broadly represent the planet, sort of philosophically. On the universal level, the moon was related to the realm of fortune. That means the daily world of karma, impermanence, change, fluctuation, movement, change of circumstance, daily flow of events, constant changing of mental and emotional environments, the body's environment, circumstantial things. It is the flow of life.

If you live in New York City, they say it's a city that never sleeps. The moon rules the world of fortune, and the world of fortune is the world that never sleeps. It is constantly moving, turning, and alive. So the moon was the ruler of what's called the sublunary realm, the realm of fortune, of karma. On this level, the moon tells us a lot about the karmic environment of our life as a whole in the birth chart, the environment that will somehow be a steady or constant description of the ecosystem that we're living in, and it does so by telling us about that symbolically.

Now by contrast, the moon has a variety of topical significations. These are going to be the topics more specifically related to the moon: concrete people, places, and things. The moon represents the body. It represents mothers and women and pregnancy, home and family, ancestry, tribe, village, clan, culture. The moon is one of the planets that represents marriage, pregnancy and childbirth, property and home and hearth. But anything that we nurture ourselves with is as literal as food and cooking.

Once we have an understanding that the moon can represent a lot of different things, big broad universal things and very specific topical things, the significations of the moon when we read it in a sign will then be modified according to the sign that the moon is traveling through at any given time. So whenever it's in Sagittarius, that's what we're considering today. The meaning of a sign, in turn, is primarily related to its planetary host or hosts, in the case of signs that have an exaltation ruler in addition to a domicile ruler.

Secondarily, the meaning of a sign is determined by the various qualities of the sign. So for Sagittarius, we would put it like this: the primary way of understanding Sagittarius is that it is the masculine temple of Jupiter. So you have a very masculine Jupiter in this sign, and that is very much what Sagittarius is about. It is about Jupiter, about a masculine Jupiter. And then secondarily, it is a double-bodied yang fire temple of the masculine Jupiter. So we put all that together to give a depiction of what this sign is like.

The contrasting Jupiter sign would be Pisces, a double-bodied yin feminine ruled water sign that Jupiter also rules in ancient astrology. All the planets had one masculine and one feminine sign, except for the sun and the moon, who ruled masculine and feminine in a more quintessential way. All of this is to say that we take these qualities into mind when considering what Sagittarius is when we put the moon inside of it.

You could also think of the constellation image and lore associated with the constellation that denotes the mathematical portion of the zodiac, whose logic and planetary rulership logic is actually rooted in the alternation of light and dark in the solar year. Nonetheless, the constellation bears some important symbolism of its own. Sagittarius is the sign of the bowman and centaur, and more basically, it is the third and final sign of zodiacal autumn, or fall. That is the sign in which the dominant dark half of the year has taken over since the fall equinox.

Starting with Libra, the sun has steadily descended into the underworld of the solar year, and the yin and darkness has been growing in intensity, power, and prominence. What happens in the sign of Sagittarius is that the turn back toward the light starts happening, especially in the last fifteen degrees of Sagittarius. If you literally look at the sun in an astronomy program, or if you were to track it every day, you'll see that it starts dipping and almost turning around a corner. This happens as Sagittarius is turning the sun back upward toward the light.

Jupiter-ruled signs Pisces and Sagittarius take place in two pivotal turns where light is returning from within darkness: the end of autumn and the end of winter. Sagittarius starts propelling the light back upward. So when you place the moon in the sign of Sagittarius, you're thinking about a moon that is now going to be modified through the lens of a fiery yang jovial temple. This is the fiery temple of Jupiter that starts ushering the light back in the midst of darkness. All of that is what we think of when we think of how the moon will behave and show up in Sagittarius. It will show up and express its lunar nature through the lens or filter of this Jupiter in place.

So the way that we end up translating this is to talk about characters and themes that might come up psychologically, as the moon is one of the core components that we look at for the sake of understanding the mental, emotional, psychological environment of the native's life. We have an adventurous and spirited moon that is emotionally drawn toward exploration. The Jupiter-ruled themes of Sagittarius tend toward moving toward light out of darkness, beginning the shift or turn toward light. That's what's happening.

It's why it's called the double-bodied sign. It has two natures: the descent into the darkness and the beginning of the return of the light. That pivot is happening, and you can literally see it in the sky. Even prior to the winter solstice, there's a momentum shift. That sense of seeking something, of looking for something, of going into the darkness and finding the light. That's the spirit of adventure, of exploration, of some degree of risk taking even. It's an optimistic, hopeful moon that's oriented toward possibility and growth.

These are Jupiter-ruled themes. It's philosophical or reflective, seeking meaning behind experiences. As Jupiter appears as a fiery planet in the dark of autumn returning to the light, one way of adventuring is not just to seek adventure or missions like an action movie, but to also seek meaning, to be philosophical and spiritual as a seeker. That's a very strong Sagittarian theme. Candid, expressive, and emotionally straightforward. Jupiter, fire sign, double-bodied, very changeable, very adaptable, often bold, loud, sometimes a little too loud, very straightforward, sometimes blunt.

Freedom-loving and resistant to emotional confinement. The Moon in Sagittarius loves the open road. It loves the feeling of expansive horizons and possibility, and absolutely loves freedom. For the moon to feel safe in life, paradoxically in this sign, it often needs motion and movement, not restraint, not just the familiar, but the openness of the new. That's actually important for regulating the nervous system, you could say. Often a sign inspired by travel, learning, teaching, or encounters with other cultures and perspectives, because this is a sign that likes to expand horizons.

So the moon in this sign acts that way, a very sensitive nature often in environments that are a part of the lifetime overall that a person will feel most at home with, but that may reflect an ongoing expansion of mind, of heart, of spirit and a lot of growth, orientation, and possibility. Now sometimes Jupiter can be very morally or spiritually oriented with a strong concern toward things like truth, justice, or higher principles, or ideology or belief or faith statements. And the moon can lend almost an emotional fervor to that that sometimes can be almost a little fanatical.

But generally speaking, Moon in Sagittarius has a very buoyant, uplifting mood, and can be very humorous, able to lift up the tone or mood of the situation when it's dark, bring it up toward the light. Now maybe one of the shadows is a little prone to being too exaggerating, or to kind of overpromising and underdelivering. Can be very restless, blunt, and sometimes fanatical or dogmatic. At times the risk taking can be excessive and reckless, almost like the centaurs in the mythology: strong creatures, sometimes very wise (think of Chiron, for example), but also thrill-seeking, party-crashing.

There can be that freedom-seeking that is a little reckless and sometimes a little irresponsible. May struggle with periods of nihilism, aimlessness, or refusal of commitment, when freedom becomes the absolute highest value. The sign really does best when there's a mixture of freedom and almost faith statements or principles that help guide the life so that it's not just sort of aimless, nihilistic, or hedonistic. Now the sign is often redemptive, which means that the search for meaning will often emerge precisely through a contrast between nihilism and faith, or excess and moderation.

So a lot of this sign is about the path of wisdom in contrast to something that may be unconscious. Sometimes experiences of overindulgence, risk taking, or disillusionment can become catalysts that actually push the individual toward deeper faith or guiding principles. Oftentimes, Sagittarius moons will have an environment in life that at one point or another feels like it's lost or wandering, maybe having fun but not anchored. And then often later in life, the trick will be where to find commitment, faith, a sense of something orienting your compass, a North Star, without also becoming confining or entrapped.

Which is also why dogma somehow sometimes has to be resisted or struggled against, externally or internally. There can be a lot with the Moon in Sagittarius in a lifetime: a lot of events and experiences that constellate around questing, crusading, and searching for something. And sometimes that restlessness is something that has to be met and dealt with, almost like refined and made more mature somehow.

So I want to go through some charts that have the Moon in Sagittarius that I think are good examples. I'll start with an obvious candidate, which is the current president, Donald Trump, who has a very blunt and unfiltered emotional expression and sometimes a real tendency to exaggerate rather confidently, overconfident maybe, and sort of overreach. Now, some people love him obviously. I'm not here to get into a political debate about him, just a very simple fact that he's a very Sagittarius moon-like character.

Albert Einstein is another one whose life was driven by a quest for understanding reality, profound philosophical curiosity that defined his life and driven by the search for universal truth and meaning, the overarching theory of everything in the physical universe. Very Moon in Sagittarius. Oprah Winfrey is another example where she loves emotional storytelling that uplifts and inspires other people. She's got that Sagittarius moon faith, emphasis on things like growth, wisdom, the shared humanness of our journeys.

Mozart: joyful, expansive, buoyant, playful through his art and as a person, although he was driven by overindulgence and excessiveness and a bit of creative madness. Very Moon in Sagittarius character. If you've never seen the movie Amadeus, that movie is a great textbook example of the Moon in Sagittarius. Jeff Bezos is another famous figure. You could call him a risk-taking, conquering, entrepreneurial type of person always oriented toward expansion. Again, like him or not, fits the profile of a Sagittarius moon very much.

Michael Jordan was driven by belief in being the greatest, his confidence, his drive toward excellence and legacy, overcoming obstacles, the achieving, conquering hero. About as fiery and competitive as you could get, and also had gambling problems and some excessiveness that he had to address. Very Moon in Sagittarius. Mike Tyson: very similar recklessness, extremes, nihilism, emotional intensity, and eventual philosophical reflection. This is a Sagittarius moon arc of a story for his life. He's now much more philosophically contemplative than he was earlier, where there was a much more reckless version of his character and a fighter, a crusader.

Remember that Sagittarius was one of the signs associated with warfare, and the centaurs were creatures who were experts in battle. Friedrich Nietzsche was a radical truth-seeking philosopher, very rebellious, wrestling with meaning, wrestling with nihilism and higher principles. There it is: Moon in Sagittarius. Warren Buffett is a different example: long-term vision, guiding principles, big picture thinking, expansive, entrepreneurial, etc., but there are some features in his chart that make him significantly more grounded in some ways.

Stephen King: prolific storyteller, driven by imagination and by wrestling with the darkness and finding light within it, which has been a theme that he has admittedly said has driven his work. What is the darkness within childhood? What are the dark corners of the human psyche? How do we meet it and overcome it? It's at the center of all of his work. Very Moon in Sagittarius. Plus, he struggled with addiction earlier in his career that he had to overcome in a period of nihilistic recklessness.

John Mayer: another way of looking at him is to say that he has a similar drive to be great, like a Michael Jordan of guitar. At the same time, he's often been criticized for being somewhat cocky. I'm not trying to judge him; I'm just reporting on what his legacy has been thus far. But he's a great example of a Sagittarius moon: sort of prolific, a little bit like a Mozart in a way with guitar, but also has struggled at times with alcohol, admittedly has talked about getting sober as a big part of his life.

Tiger Woods: drive toward greatness, overcoming excessiveness. Jiddu Krishnamurti: spiritual independence was a big part of his work, rejection of dogma in favor of direct truth, direct experience, personal discovery, really rejecting traditional, freedom-restricting religious experiences or institutions. Another one is Liz Greene: a totally prolific writer, astrologer, systematizer of archetypal and depth psychology into the field of astrology. She is framing astrology through psychology, myth, and philosophy, and is just a luminous sage whose life has been a quest for both meaning and systematizing of truths. At times has been criticized as being a little dogmatic, but aren't we all?

Martha Stewart: similar entrepreneurial empire builder of her own brand. It's very common to see this. Selena is another example; she's also really known for having a kind of joyful, expressive quality of warmth to her personality, very uplifting emotional presence and cultural bridging as part of her legacy. And then I think of people like Joan Rivers: super blunt, super comedic, questioning truth and higher authority at every turn, irreverent but not nihilistic. She is someone for whom meaning and faith and philosophy meant a great deal.

Thomas Jefferson: simple example of someone whose belief in liberty and freedom, both ethics and guiding principles shaping a society, played a huge role in the development of our nation and its laws and governing principles. And Jon Stewart, who is a blend of satire, truth, and justice-seeking humor and bluntness with moral commentary, resistance toward dogmatic, rigid institutions or people. That's just classic.

A few movies that came to my mind. Ever seen the movie Into the Wild? That movie is about the pure archetype of freedom and existential questing and a rejection of convention in search of things like truth and meaning and direct experience. Very Jiddu Krishnamurti. Great example. The Hangover is a comedy, but it is a Sagittarius moon movie that's all about recklessness, overindulgence, humorous consequences, and trying to get back to some kind of decent moral ground.

Groundhog Day is a wonderful exploration of moving from nihilism to meaning. Bill Murray's character having to feel entrapped and exploring freedom within the repetition of the Groundhog Day motif, going from nihilism to meaning, is the heart of that movie. Eat, Pray, Love: a book and a movie, very Sagittarius moon seeking, meaning, spiritual expansion. Finally, The Wolf of Wall Street: that is all about unchecked sense of expansion, indulgence, winning at all costs, excess, thrill seeking, moral overreach. The dark side of Sagittarius really: let me succeed at all costs, let me expand at all costs, Zeus without any moral compass. That movie was all about that.

So anyway, a few things that I put together today that I hope will be useful for you as you study the planets and the signs. This Moon in Sagittarius may now make a little bit more sense to you reading it in your chart or the charts of people you know. Thanks for watching. I appreciate it. I hope that you've been enjoying this series coming out little by little. Next we'll move to the Moon in Capricorn. That'll be fun. That's my own moon. So I'll try to be as honest as I can. Hope you're having a great day. We'll see you again tomorrow. Bye, everyone.