From the Galactic Core to Your Zip Code

AN AQUARIAN ERA FOR SAGITTARIUS | BY ERIC FRANCIS

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We have all heard the expression, “Think globally, act locally.” Few know what to do about this; for you, it takes on significant meaning at this time in your life and for the foreseeable future, meaning 20 years or so.

In many ways, Sagittarius thrives on contemplating the big world and big ideas and infinite possibilities. Yet in our era, you are being called upon to focus close to home and in practical ways. That is where your grounding is: home and your local community. Your neighbors and businesses close to you are what will matter the most when it matters the most.

Of all the signs, Sagittarius is the one with its origins most distant from our plane of reality, and our planet. In older times it was associated with distant and exotic places, all things foreign, with travel and with belief systems. Sagittarius was in the 20th century the sign where two deep space points were discovered, one of them being the core of our Milky Way galaxy 25,000 light years away.

Then 50 years later, a kind of central galaxy was discovered, again in Sagittarius, about 147 million light years away. The ancient astrologers had the right idea when they detected that Sagittarius is unusual and represents all that is unfamiliar to normal human awareness and experience.

Yet the main action of the Aquarian Era takes place in Aquarius, your 3rd place (house, solar house, or whole sign house). Without even considering any planets, the placement of Aquarius is a defining quality of the whole concept of Sagittarius. The 3rd place covers thought, ideas and language, all of which are high priorities to you. Yet Aquarius places conditions on these things, which necessitates that you respond accordingly. And now Saturn is in Aquarius, Jupiter is soon to return, and Pluto is coming; you will need to know the territory before the power, intensity, and the transformative and destructive potential are turned up.

Aquarius tends to crystallize whatever it touches, and in the 3rd, it touches your mind and your mental process.

The Use of the Mind: The Need for Flexibility

As deeply as I can read into your charts, on the most personal level, the key theme or topic is the flexibility of your mind and your mental process. This is as local as it gets: your world is centered around where you are located, and what you perceive and receive with your senses.

One might think that this flexibility and receptivity would be one of the easiest things for a person to work with, to adapt and adjust, though it turns out to be one of the most difficult. This is true in general though especially challenging when Aquarius is involved in the 3rd house.

Aquarius tends to crystallize whatever it touches, and in the 3rd, it touches your mind and your mental process. It is unlikely you even see how this overlay works. Aquarius in whatever form tends to think of itself as extremely intelligent.

In addition to being the house associated with your zip code, the 3rd is originally the house of brethren, meaning siblings and neighbors. Imagine the extended family farm compound with several houses, barns, work buildings and so on. That is the original 3rd house. It then transforms into an urban version of the extended families in row houses. When considering a house, it helps to remember the physical expression of its meaning. This way you have a clue when you’re there.

In contemporary psychological astrology, the 3rd describes how you use your mind. It’s about thought patterns, and ways of thinking. It also describes your ideas, how you come up with them, and how you think about them. The 3rd describes how it feels to think, and illustrates the style in which to do so.

The 3rd is associated with local or home-based commerce (as opposed to things imported, or requiring long-distance shipping). Our whole society is moving toward this home-based model even as people are still driving around with the “buy local” bumper sticker, while most food is still shipped 2,000 miles and most of what we buy is still made in China.

One of your assignments is to work on changing this trend, and that, in turn, calls for rethinking, redesigning and rebuilding what is close to you. Close to you starts with you and everyone you exchange money with.

Yet the primary context is this: in contemporary psychological astrology, the 3rd describes how you use your mind. It’s about thought patterns, and ways of thinking. It also describes your ideas, how you come up with them, and how you think about them. The 3rd describes how it feels to think, and illustrates the style in which to do so.

The art you need to master is changing your mind. We think of this as reversing a decision, which is not what I am talking about. I’m talking about changing what you think and considering the habits of the mind that does the thinking.

For you, it feels good to think. And it’s also easy to get trapped in an ideation of some kind: what the French call an idée-fixe.

While your sign is considered one of the most expansive and far-reaching of the signs, able to consider the most unusual possibilities, Aquarius in the 3rd describes your thought process as being in focused patterns that take hold, crystallize and are difficult to change. It is easy for you to get set in your ways.

The art you need to master is changing your mind. We think of this as reversing a decision, which is not what I am talking about. I’m talking about changing what you think and considering the habits of the mind that does the thinking.

Saturn is with you here now and will be through early 2023. There are two ways to respond to this: one is to get stuck, and the other is to allow yourself to revise your entire mental approach.

In our time, electricity is merged with the concept of an algorithm or thought routine. The all-pervasiveness of digital electrical technology is presenting a condition of the whole world becoming entrapped in a conceptual structure that it cannot escape.

The Impact of Electricity and Algorithms 

Anything involving Aquarius will be subject to the effects of electricity, which currently powers all contemporary technology. Electricity has become the direct conducting medium for everything we do, including buying artisan goat cheese at the farmer’s market.

In our time, electricity is merged with the concept of an algorithm or thought routine. The all-pervasiveness of digital electrical technology is presenting a condition of the whole world becoming entrapped in a conceptual structure that it cannot escape.

This is more than just about our relationship to robots, databases, nanotechnology injections, and immediate and short-range thinking, which are all taking over consciousness. It’s about who and what we are becoming; who and what you are becoming. All of this rigid electricity is difficult for usually warm, flowing and flexible humans to accommodate, and it’s affecting your thought process perhaps more than that of anyone else around you.

To sum it up in one word, the greatest risk to your peace of mind and your ability to experience the truth of the world within and around you is thinking algorithmically.

It is usually impossible to see these environmental influences for what they are, making it equally difficult to see how we become like our environments far more than we influence them. But Saturn’s presence is here to make you aware — and to urge you to become aware before the arrival of Pluto in March 2023.

To sum it up in one word, the greatest risk to your peace of mind and your ability to experience the truth of the world within and around you is thinking algorithmically. This includes any time you define a thought process and stick to it without constant nonstop review; any time you set expectations that are not flexible; or any time you develop ideation that you cannot easily revise. This includes concepts of who you are and who you are not. This is not the time to be declaring yourself anything, particularly if the result is to get you admission to a group or class of society. Those are the times to pay attention.

The challenge is about noticing the way you think: the underlying methods, assumptions, patterns and pre-formed concepts that lead you to come to the observations and conclusions that you do. This is a real exercise in self-awareness, and an investment in your future. Right now you have help, in the form of Saturn in Aquarius, which is here to teach you about these things. Saturn is “the revealer of what is so.” It is essential that you do so. It is essential that you see the systemic ways wherein your thought process is prone to errors.

Pluto tends to operate below the level of awareness, or you might say it represents what we are not acknowledging. The problem with what is not acknowledged is that it tends to create chaos and instability on a deep level.

Saturn is Conscious. Pluto is Less Conscious.

Remember that this time in your life is preparing for the arrival of Pluto in Aquarius. You might review what transpired during the fairly recent Pluto in Sagittarius era — when Pluto was in your own sign. That was from 1995 through 2008. The easiest way to do this is to consider where you were at the starting point and the ending point. Then ask yourself how you got there.

Pluto tends to operate below the level of awareness, or you might say it represents what we are not acknowledging. The problem with what is not acknowledged is that it tends to create chaos and instability on a deep level. That requires much energy to suppress.

So, for a while, we have Saturn to help push things into the light in a more practical, methodical way. Once Pluto arrives, you will be subject to what you might call total hypnosis. And the only remedy for that is to stay awake. The only way to stay awake is to know when you are not. This is the essence of the spiritual path. Your life calls for nothing else right now.

Saturn serves as the bottom-line reality check, especially when acting in its own sign. It’s also the most dependable governor of change: the kind that matters, is persistent, incremental and durable. Saturn also has a way of bringing out problems in any system, if only by putting it under stress.

Be aware of any issue where it seems like there is only one side of the story, or where the other side is so stupid it’s not even worth thinking about. Engage in long conversations with people you do not agree with.

Through this process, you are being called on to be aware of confirmation bias, defined as the tendency to interpret new evidence as confirmation of one’s existing beliefs or theories. This is why you must be brutal about seeing your thoughts and trying to prove yourself wrong. I cannot emphasize this enough. You are going to be making life or death decisions. Even if your body knowledge is working perfectly, your mental level thoughts might invalidate or suppress it.

This is why you need to have both your mental intelligence and your physical/emotional intelligence tuned perfectly. And that means seeing the flaws in both, and that means testing yourself. One of the most important ways to do this is to pay attention when you get into an argument. Notice how you’re arguing, notice what you’re saying, and evaluate whether you’re actually listening.

Be aware of any issue where it seems like there is only one side of the story, or where the other side is so stupid it’s not even worth thinking about. Engage in long conversations with people you do not agree with.

In the style of Aquarius, the key to intelligence is knowing when you don’t know.

Among the many ways to end-run confirmation bias is to interpret the same data several ways; to solve the same problem several times; and to learn how to argue both sides of the issue like a good attorney. This can be challenging but you must learn how to challenge what you think you know, and try to prove yourself wrong. In important cases, ask other people to do this for you.

In the style of Aquarius, the key to intelligence is knowing when you don’t know. If you can do that, you can do anything. Yet this is more about willingness than ability. But the deepest question is this, your one takeaway from this reading if there is to be just one: What are you doing with your mind? What are you doing with your intelligence? This is your most valuable asset. How are you putting it to work for you? Are you interested in mastering the full power of your mind?

These questions will take on profound meaning as Pluto enters Aquarius. You will want to work them through long before that time comes. With Pluto in Aquarius, the cost of not knowing when you don’t know will be an order of magnitude higher.

The series of profound events in Capricorn in January 2020 is likely to have shaken you out of what confidence you had. They also challenged any false confidence and false lack of confidence — and this in turn has necessitated that you learn where you stand with yourself, and know where you stand with yourself at all times.

The Impact of Events in Capricorn in 2020

We all experienced a shock in 2020. We are far from recovered; we are just getting a sense of what might have happened and how we feel about it. For you there was a deeply personal angle, as the events took place mostly in Capricorn, and all involving Pluto.

For you, one effect of Pluto in Capricorn (2008-2024) has been to push the issue of self-respect and self-value.

Capricorn is your 2nd place (house, solar house, whole sign house), which covers that group of issues, so this would have a double-edged influence: of pushing you to question your self-value, and driving you to be independent, including financially independent. This is easier said than done, though motivation helps. Capricorn on the 2nd can have a paucity of self-respect, and this is related to your self-value and your earning capacity.

The series of profound events in Capricorn in January 2020 is likely to have shaken you out of what confidence you had. They also challenged any false confidence and false lack of confidence — and this in turn has necessitated that you learn where you stand with yourself, and know where you stand with yourself at all times.

While the events in Capricorn represent an ongoing discovery process, the initial shock of birth is over; it is you who must push and challenge yourself to keep growing.

These deep transits may have pushed the unraveling of a new layer of your family’s imposition of its values on you. Society was falling apart, which meant losing many of the things that sustained people and provided their mode of involvement. You may not have noticed the effects of these events related to your family because most families were thrown into crisis; this is not the usual time for psychological reflection. And yet this same crisis forced people to reckon the basic facts of the relationship to their family and its collective values.

Events pushed some families together, and drove some apart. Many individuals were excluded from the family based on their personal choices and values. This was revelation and proof of a preexisting situation that may have eluded your awareness or willingness to confront it.

However, society itself is a kind of family system, and that is contained in Capricorn. When Capricorn is shaken up, we must rely less on “the system” and more on ourselves — and this is often good for people. At the same time, there is a new class of people who have become reliant on government benefits.

It is currently a seller’s employment market. Many businesses, especially small ones, are desperate for the help they need. In past times, being older worked against someone; today it is an asset, if you have those old-timey values like showing up for your job every day.

While the events in Capricorn represent an ongoing discovery process, the initial shock of birth is over; it is you who must push and challenge yourself to keep growing.

You can be sure you’re doing something that’s actually creative if it scares you, or tests your confidence, or takes you somewhere. You want to attempt what seems impossible. True creativity, as with true intelligence, always has an edge of uncertainty.

Capricorn Meets Aries: 2nd to 5th Houses

For some years, events in Capricorn and Aries have been interwoven and even interlocked. They will be for many years, due to the action first of Pluto and Eris, and then also to clusters of small but potent planets now in the early degrees of both signs. The effect will be to drive your creativity and self-discovery and all but make it inevitable.

The action here is in Aries, your 5th place (house, solar house, whole sign house). The 5th wants to take risks, and with Aries involved, this is taking the chance of being yourself to a degree that pushes you beyond the edge of your previous ideas.

Let yourself be driven, or lured by creativity, or the need to dare to get out of your previous approaches. This is an essential part of learning new ways of thinking, as long as you do not assume that what you invent or create is “correct.” Someone is not a true artist until they see the imperfection in their work, and taking that one step further, it is the true artist who can make that imperfection work for them as a mark of distinction.

You can be sure you’re doing something that’s actually creative if it scares you, or tests your confidence, or takes you somewhere. You want to attempt what seems impossible. True creativity, as with true intelligence, always has an edge of uncertainty. I work with a Sagittarius research partner who is a brilliant investigator, to the degree that is a high art. Yet she is never sure she has the issue right. She works with her uncertainty and therefore so do I.

Marshall McLuhan said that learning is learning that something is possible, and that is what your chart is calling for. This is only experienced in the course of an experiment.

When she is uncertain about something, I check myself. Then as the process goes on, I set the standard for when we have it right: for what I can actually say. (Usually, she continues to investigate, keeping the true spirit of investigative reporting alive, and is always willing to disprove a previous theory, conclusion or observation.) This the spirit of art, and of science, and would serve well as the spirit of your life.

In a similar way, true confidence has an edge of insecurity. It’s your friend. Work with it. Let it power and empower you. There will be times you must act on a hunch or with incomplete information. The more practice you have, the better. The more you refine your skill of pattern recognition, the fewer data points you will need to see the pattern. The most important pattern you can see is when you are stuck.

And while “changing your mind” is one way out of that, conducting some kind of bold experiment will facilitate having that change not be abstract. Marshall McLuhan said that learning is learning that something is possible, and that is what your chart is calling for. This is only experienced in the course of an experiment.

The sexual aspect of life is rarely discussed in astrology, or in society. Most of what we get is romance and political controversy.

The Sexual Element

The sexual aspect of life is rarely discussed in astrology, or in society. Most of what we get is romance and political controversy. Romance means sex in the context of relationships where it is about the other, not you; and it implies monogamy without any prior discussion or negotiation. Politics means that sex is thought of as a function of law and rights and not of human nature. Has anyone had sex in the Supreme Court chambers, where all these decisions get made?

The 5th place, which for you is Aries, is one of the most important houses that describes sex (by both house and sign): the sex you want rather than the sex you need, or feel obliged to offer someone. And the sex that is the expression of who you are individually rather than who you are influenced to be through any external pressure, whether acknowledged or not. Right now Chiron is the stand-out planet transiting this house. Though there are several, Chiron is the most accessible and noticeable. Though there are several ways this may be manifesting for you in a noticeable way.

Aries is the sign of self-actualization and the 5th provides a forum for doing so; this is why you are so obsessed with art, and why you know that finding yourself comes through creative and self-creative experiences, including sex.

One of the reasons sex is so important to you is that it provides a space where you can let go of reason, rationality and theory. For you sex is about feeling and feeling deeply. But it is also about finding yourself, and that is the emphasis now.

One is as a factor that points out your sexual injuries. This in turn may lead you to want to do something about them, though that requires admitting what they are. Usually sexual injuries are projected as blame, anger, guilt and shame. Often they are suppressed by either ignoring sex or sublimating it into another form. Chiron is not going to let you do this for long; it always calls into the question what it is.

There are two other locations to look for most matters of erotic and sexual feelings and for you they are placed in water signs Cancer and Scorpio. One of the reasons sex is so important to you is that it provides a space where you can let go of reason, rationality and theory. For you sex is about feeling and feeling deeply. But it is also about finding yourself, and that is the emphasis now. And it will be for many years. This involves planetary movements in Aries, which is the first sign of self-actualization.

This is vitally important to Sagittarius, which can be invested in ideas so large it can forget what it means to be a person living on a planet. Aries is one of your most helpful vehicles when it comes to bringing your ideas to the level of direct personal experience. Yours is one of the most cosmic signs, and on Earth, sexuality is one of the most cosmic experiences.

The combination of Sagittarius as your primary sign and Aquarius on your 3rd house could lead you to turn anyone or anything into a religion, which means dogma.The way out of that is that burning curiosity about the truth of who you are.

It is the spark of the divine available to anyone who wants it. That religion has waged war on sexuality for its entire existence is informative: we have a clue what religion is a substitute for: essentially, everything (or everything that could help you grow). By religion I do not mean your direct relationship with God or source. I mean a set of rules and a mandatory cosmology. The combination of Sagittarius as your primary sign and Aquarius on your 3rd house could lead you to turn anyone or anything into a religion, which means dogma.

The way out of that is that burning curiosity about the truth of who you are. That is the way out of any dogma, rut, mental pattern, stuck situation, lack of knowledge, your need to move on or your need to grow: feed your curiosity and a necessary part of that is feeding your sexual curiosity. And do not be content with seemingly easy answers.

Bear in mind that the “problem” with doing this is that it will prompt you to challenge any idea you have about relationships in general, or any one in particular. For you, that would be a positive development and here is why.

You are in contact with the fact that the universe itself changes all the time. It is in a constant act of self-creation. However, from the standpoint of life on Earth, this kind of transience can seem especially brutal.

Gemini on the 7th Place: The Reaction Against Mercurial Relationships

Gemini is the sign opposing yours, in whatever house system we may consider Sagittarius. The opposite region is called the 7th place, and it describes both your relationships and how you think about them. Remember that “how you think about them” is most likely to be how you experience them and how they manifest. This is why the concept of ideation is so important to your wellbeing.

Gemini is ruled by Mercury, which goes retrograde three times a year. This gives you the feeling that your relationships are in a constant state of flux, and need constant reevaluation. This is true. The world operates on what it thinks of as the basis of “permanent relationships,” which are never supposed to change.

However, you are able to perceive that everyone is changing all the time. Yet this does not make you feel secure in any way. You are likely to react against this by striving for relationships that you perceive as everlasting. This is not a condition that exists on our planet, in the framework of space and time. Here, we live with the passage of time and constant change, exhausting as it is.

It is vital for your growth, wellbeing and happiness that you confront change directly rather than trying to fight against it. There is a rhythm to your relationships, and to the world in which they exist, and when you feel that rhythm you will be much better adapted.

You are in contact with the fact that the universe itself changes all the time. It is in a constant act of self-creation. However, from the standpoint of life on Earth, this kind of transience can seem especially brutal. It also presents one of the most challenging experiences of living on the surface of the planet, and perhaps the most necessary: working within the structure of what is finite — even if it’s an illusion or secondary reality.

It is vital for your growth, wellbeing and happiness that you confront change directly rather than trying to fight against it. There is a rhythm to your relationships, and to the world in which they exist, and when you feel that rhythm you will be much better adapted. You tend to attract people whose minds are active and who are constantly in a state of adaptation to the changing conditions of the world. It will help if you learn from them and take their lead.

The long-term presence of a kind of alternative Mercury — Admetos, lasting for about the next 50 years — is saying that this approach will take you deeper than any other approach.

The 10th is the most powerful of the career houses; it is where you seek your true success, recognition and build your future.

Virgo on the 10th Place: Your Professional Life is Your Point of Integration

Because your sign is ruled by Jupiter, the Mercury ruled signs are especially important. One is Gemini on your 7th, covered above; the other is Virgo on your 10th place (house, solar house, whole sign house).

The 10th is the most powerful of the career houses; it is where you seek your true success, recognition and build your future. Virgo has a mental quality, like many of the dominant signs in your chart. Yet the mental quality of Virgo is much different than that of Gemini. It is slower, more meticulous, more grounded (as an Earth sign), and carrying the theme of holistic consciousness.

All of the other factors and transits I’ve described come back to this point of integration, where the seemingly many topics and facets of your life become one. Sagittarius is about the single-minded point of determination, that is the sum total of all that you define as your mission in this lifetime. It comes down to the work that you do, by which I mean what you perceive as being directly connected to your purpose and what you want to be of lasting value.

Part of being a Sagittarius means a devotion to something larger than yourself. Yet this cannot be merely symbolic or honorary. No form of patriotism will suffice.

As the Aquarian Era develops, it will become more apparent with each passing year that you need to focus your efforts, and to gather the many seemingly separate ideas and challenges into the one. What that implies is that all of the different facets of your life that I’ve described above feed into one central experience of who you are.

Part of being a Sagittarius means a devotion to something larger than yourself. Yet this cannot be merely symbolic or honorary. No form of patriotism will suffice. You have personally incarnated with a mission and with original instructions or some deeply individual relationship to your mission.

Let everyone, everything, every facet of your existence, every experience, every turn of events, and every lesson learned, guide you there. Though this will ultimately require making many thousands of decisions, they are all one decision, and you have the power to make the most important choices right now. What you are learning is above all else thinking for yourself, and this, too, is the central theme of the Aquarian Era.