The Symbolism of Sagittarius: The Archer - SS Ep. 11

So we see here that the angel or king of the abyss of the void has an entire army of ancient Sagittarians which I find fascinating because they're described almost exactly how they're portrayed in ancient Mesopotamia in the imagery of Pobblsog. Greetings from the Pacific Northwest. You're listening to Symbolic Studies Episode 11. I'm your host Mario once again joined by my lovely wife Michelle. Today we'll be discussing the symbolism of Sagittarius, the ninth sign of the zodiac. If you're new to the show, I have regular contributors and invite guests to submit a voicemail on the topic at hand and also play voicemail submitted by listeners like yourself. For more information about the show, my services are how to submit a voicemail. Please visit SymbolicStudies.com. If you'd like to have access to exclusive content, please consider becoming a patron at patreon.com/symbolicstudies or on my site. But before we dive deep into the first voicemail, Michelle, my lady, how are you? I'm doing pretty well. I'm really excited actually for Sagittarius season and I'm also excited to jump into everything with you and our voicemail contributors this month. Yes, indeed. This is a very interesting sign. We're dealing with the hybrid in the center, half human, half horse. This is the sign of the hunter. And I just have to say, too, right off the bat, that bow and arrow symbolism is deceptively deep. The arrow in and of itself. There's a lot of things to get into with that. But to kick things off here, we have a voicemail from a fellow Pacific Northwest resident and regular contributor to the podcast Emily Redout. Hi, Mario. Hi, Michelle. This is Emily Redout at the International School of Astro Yoga calling in to talk to you about Sagittarius energy. So Sagittarius, there's a lot to say. I'll try to keep it brief. It is the mutable fire sign, so the circulating energy of fire. Fire is a very interesting element. We can see from nature and the world around us that what fire does is it first of all transforms as in when it burns something and turns it to ash and energy. And it purifies as in when we use heat to cleanse something. So the Sagittarius energy as the moving fire energy is what transforms our lives in an active way and also what purifies our lives. In other words, what takes our sort of rudimentary existence and helps us to see the spiritual components. Now in mythology, Sagittarius relates to Kairan, the great and wise teacher who is the sentar, who taught many of the wisdom traditions, including astrology, including medicine, including the art of battle and the martial arts. And so he is depicted as being shown with the bow and arrow, not just because he taught combat among other things, but also because he's known as the wounded healer. He is a certain moment in his mythology. He is struck by an arrow that he cannot heal from. And so he winds up ultimately giving up his immortality and being depicted in the stars as the constellation Sagittarius. Now this is interesting because it depicts the understanding that our greatest tools can also be something that causes us harm. This is the understanding that the energies of the body can once liberate us, open us up to the perceptions of higher consciousness. And if we are ill-prepared, harm us. One of the depictions of this is the understanding of what the snake means in mythology. And you'll see if you look at the tarot card associated with Sagittarius, we have temperance. And the Hebrew letter associated with temperance is somic. And if you look at the letter of somic, which means to prop, to hold up, to support, you'll see that it actually depicts, it's one of the three snake letters in the Hebrew alphabet. And it depicts the aura boros, the snake eating its own tail. So when we get into all of this and we start to break down the symbolic meanings that might have been a lot all at once, we see that there's an energy here, understanding the snake forest, the Kundalini, energy of the body. In its state as the aura boros, which is when it fully connects with itself and we have mastery over it. Now Sagittarius shows us how to get that mastery. One is by listening to the truly great teachers. The truly great teachers are one, the inner teacher within, who is the over soul of humanity, which is what is pictured in the temperance card. And also life itself also denoted in the temperance card as the circumstances of our lives being our greatest teachers. So the very things that we view as our hardest challenges, actually eliciting from us, showing us that we have these inner capabilities that we've yet to develop or experience. And so that is of course what's depicted in the temperance card and this is one of the ideas of Sagittarius. Sagittarius in exoteric astrology is associated with the concept of the ultimate truth and also with ideas like travel and higher education, philosophy, sometimes religion. And these are all ways that we try to figure out the truth. We go to other lands, we meet other people, we test what we know against their truths, we encounter philosophy, various religions, various higher educational forms, and we test what we know against those supposedly tried and true philosophies. We, my cat tried to eat my cord, we test everything in our lives against these things and that's just the exoteric component. Now in the more esoteric understanding, the life power itself is helping us to understand, to move into a state where we actually can be masters of our own lives and energies. Now in yoga, in the body, Sagittarius connects to the liver, the hips, and the thighs. These are very interesting areas because your hips and thighs obviously help you to move around two different places. But additionally, these are areas in the body that hold our capacity, one to be well, one of the main indicators of health and well-being is found in how strong the hips and thighs are in recent studies in longevity, but also the liver is the first catch all and great indicator of health in the ancient systems. And so they indicate well-being health and of course that relates to chiron as the founder of modern, or not modern ancient medicine. But we also have this understanding that they hold deep energy and when we release some of that energy, right, through stretching the hips, through stretching the thighs, through moving around, or in the case of the liver, the liver holds anger, and so we have the liver unleashing some of the energies that have been buried in it over time. We find that we have powerful and fiery energy to do what we need to do. Now the downfall of this is if we mistake our temporary circumstances, right, that circumstance which caused anger, that circumstance which caused us to bury a difficult emotion in our hips or our thighs, right. When we mistake those temporary circumstances for the actual enemy or the actual goal or all the things that we attribute to the world of multiplicity. But the wisdom comes in when we realize, oh, every different circumstance in life is a different form of a teacher. Every different circumstance in life can show me, just like chiron the wise teacher, would test his students in practice, combat, or practice circumstances, right. These things can actually show me something that I am meant to now embody, something I am meant to now overcome. And so there's a ton of hope in this energy, there's influence in this energy that suggests that life itself is our teacher. And it also suggests that the way we should be looking when we are encountering things that seem like they are our enemies, our challenges, our greatest things to overcome in life. What we should be paying attention to is chiron read the stars, we look up toward what is the highest principle we can imagine in life. And so whatever that is for different people, there's lots of different attributions about what the highest principle is. But instead of looking at the world of multiplicities and the little things or even the big things as what they appear to be, seeing through their appearances and instead seeing what the higher principle is at play. And that is one of the greatest things about Sagittarius energy. I also think it's a really beautiful thing because it helps us to transform our frustration, our anger, the things that feel like they have overcome us, right. It helps us to take those and make something useful out of it. In the temperance card, there's always shown a rainbow. And it's the understanding that there's this, this message of hope, this beauty that comes because of the storm, right. Not after it, I mean, it is after it in a certain way, but through the storm, these rainbows tend to form. And so it's a really beautiful, it's a really beautiful sign. I could go on and on, but I won't. I'm so grateful that you guys are doing these podcasts. I know people appreciate your wonderful perspectives and thanks for wanting me to share mine. Again, this is Emily Redout. And if anybody ever wants to contact me, I'm over at the International School of Astro Yoga, which is astro yoga dot org. Okay. Have a beautiful Sagittarius season. All right. Emily, thank you so much for that contribution there. I can get on board with so much of what you're saying here with the energy of Sagittarius. And one way I kind of like to distill some of what she said is that the aim of the archer is actually within. And so she's talking about the teacher within, right. Life as a teacher. And I think that part of the symbolism of Sagittarius with it being I aim, that's the main mantra for Sagittarius or some people actually say that it's I see either way, the aim is within or the site or vision is also within. So I think that really the actual target, the center of what Sagittarius is aiming at in one way could be looked at as an internal aim, an internal target because so much of what Sagittarius and its corresponding car temperance is really all about. I think it has to do with inner alchemy and when a lot of people talk about alchemy today, oftentimes are talking about physical lab alchemy, but the original alchemy was actually internal and had to do with your spiritual development. And so so much of the specific type of alchemy that is embedded in the temperance card to me really has to do with the inner journey. And this also has to do with the fact that Sagittarius is a half human and half horse. So clearly there is a journey component with horse symbolism. I've said this before, but a lot of creatures, animals or even mythological gods that have to do with travel, you know, when you're thinking of travel symbolism, the ultimate journey I would say is to the afterlife or is the inner journey that the external journey is kind of symbolic of the internal journey. So when someone is traveling in real life on one hand, they're physically exploring, but it's also emblematic of an internal exploration as well. Absolutely, there's a lot going on here that has to do with this internal transmutation, this internal alchemy, which is really completely encoded with the story of Kyron, which she brought up, right, the wounded healer. And I think it's interesting that Kyron was hit with this arrow later on in life that he could not heal from, but also he has an early wound in being abandoned by his parents. And so his parents considered him to be a freak, and so he was abandoned and adopted by the gods of Olympus, and he became a renowned healer and all these other things because of this. So he was able to transmute these inner wounds, these invisible wounds that we all have. So I think that this original cosmic abandonment, if you will, speaks to history as the wounded healer, as well as him being hit by that arrow. Another thing that people have mentioned with the temperance card is that this is a representation of your holy guardian angel. Now taking that one step further, this holy guardian angel is an aspect of you. It's your highest principle. It's your higher self, essentially. And I think this makes a lot of sense with the sign because we are talking about a higher nature and a lower nature with the Centaur, half human, half horse. And you'll actually see in a lot of versions of the temperance card, she is pouring water from one chalice to the other, and the stream of water is actually dividing her body in half. So there's a higher nature, and then there's also this lower nature, that this dynamic of the high and low being split, you can be seen all throughout Sagittarius symbolism. Hey everyone, I hope you're enjoying our discussion on Sagittarius symbolism so far. If you aren't already aware, I have a series called Symbolic Secrets that's only available through my site or via Patreon. At the moment, I'm releasing one episode for every major iconic card and have released 18 so far. That's about 18 hours worth of exclusive content. Links for everything can be found at SymbolicStudies.com, or if you want to go straight to Patreon, you can go to patreon.com/symbolicstudies. This is also the perfect way to support the show for only five bucks a month. This also gets you early access to every podcast, like the one you're listening to right now. And with all that said, back to the episode. As always, Emily brings it, and I'm so grateful for her contribution, because it's making me think of a lot of things. One of the things that I really love the most about what she brought up is the concept of the teacher within, and also life itself being our teacher. Because how many times do you hear about the best teacher is experience, or you only learn once you experience something, or with wisdom comes knowledge sort of stuff. There's a lot of truth to those things. And Sagittarius has a lot of this energy, because when you look at Sagittarius, even he seems like a person that's been through it. He's very strong. The horse is strong. He has his arrow drawn back, so he's ready to release the arrow. And in order to be ready to release your arrow, there's a lot of work that has to be done to get to that point, right? And so I just really love that concept. And the constant reminder that I try and give myself is looking at the circumstances that happen in life as opportunities, or as a teacher. And it's kind of challenging to sometimes do that, or put yourself in that perspective, but it really is one of the most healthy things that you can do. The other thing that comes to mind with all of this, because we're talking about Kairan as well, and the wounded healer, and one of the plants that came through for me with studying for Sagittarius, was Golden Rod. And I read about this in Star Lore by WT Alcott, and he brought up how Golden Rod is actually the flower of Sagittarius. Because when you look at Golden Rod, it is so bright and shining, and it comes through in late summer early fall, and it is like a arrow on fire. That's what you could look at it like, because that top is just so bright and golden, and it almost kind of looks like a feather duster, or sometimes like a toilet brush or something. It's like the cleanup crew sort of thing for the urinary system and things like that, but when I think of Golden Rod, I think of fire. And so I can definitely see how this would be associated with Sagittarius, and then also one of Golden Rod's main claims to fame is being a wound healer. And so it made me think about we have the wounded healer, and then we have this herb that is a wound healer, so it kind of carries that energy with it. And the scientific or Latin name for Golden Rod means to make whole. So it kind of comes back full circle to what I was talking about, and what Emily brought up of life is our teacher, and that we are our own teachers, and that the teacher is actually within. And so to make yourself whole again is to remember these things, and to actually try and become the best version of yourself. Right, that actually makes a lot of sense, and there's a whole aspect to temperance, and its relationship with Sagittarius that actually has to do with bringing things together. And so you'll notice that there are two cups or vessels in all versions generally of the temperance card, and components are being mixed. It's as though there's a mixture kind of going on, and so this relates to coagulation and bringing things together versus separation. There's a lot to be said about all of that, and when you acknowledge the teacher within, and you recognize that, then you are becoming more complete as well. You already are complete, it's whether or not you can sort of acknowledge that, and embrace that, and understand that, really. And I think that the journey to the center of self speaks volumes about all of that. Some of the other things that stood out were the correspondences to Sagittarius and the parts of the body that Emily mentioned, which were the liver, the hips, and the thighs, and particularly the thighs, and the hips and the health of them, indicating the overall health and wellness. That to me makes a lot of sense, because I think of foundations, and I think of if you build something on a strong solid foundation, it's going to be better in the long run than it would be if you built something on a faulty foundation. You're going to have more problems, more quickly, and more frequently, right? And so if we are looking at ourselves as a foundation or a place to start something, no better place to look than our legs. Our legs and our thighs are really big parts of the body that generate a lot of heat. They generate a lot of energy, and when you're doing anything physically with your legs, whether it be walking, running, squats, lunges, these sorts of exercises actually really get your heart rate going. A lot faster than doing something with the upper body. And so to me, it really does show how important that is. And you hear all the time about bone density and the importance of it, particularly when we get older, and how physical activity is one of the ways to make sure that you're increasing your bone density and keeping it strong and healthy. Well, you know, it's interesting as well. The biggest bone in our body is actually the femur, which is the thigh bone. Great point. And so it's the biggest bone in the body, and it's really fascinating. One of the things I did not realize when I first started my symbolic journey is how potent thigh symbolism is. It's really, really interesting. There are a lot of sneaky instances of the thigh being mentioned in the Bible, in other myths, in the stars. Ursa Major, as an example, is well known in ancient Egypt as being the thigh of the bull. There's many instances of thigh symbolism representing something very sacred, very holy, very foundational, as you're saying. So as the biggest bone in our body, that would actually make a lot of sense. And if I'm not mistaken, Kyron, his wound, where he got hit with his arrow, I believe was in the thigh. So I think that that has a part to play with everything as well. And so if you look out for it, there are more instances than you would probably think with the thigh in world myths and things like that. Last thing that I wanted to mention is just the fact that Sagittarius, his bottom half is a horse. So a horse is very strong. Their legs are incredibly strong and super important to all the things that they do, which is running and pulling carriages and supporting a person that is riding them. You know, these things are very important. And the horse, just to me, signifies power, like horse power of a car, which I think is mentioned later on in the show. Yeah, no, excellent point. Right. I mean, this is how we get around is with our legs. And so without our thighs putting in that work, being that strong foundation, we're not going anywhere. The final thing I want to say is the fact that Emily mentioned the highest principle at play in a situation. To me, this speaks so strongly to symbolism in general and being interested in the symbolic value of something, which is being interested in the sacred aspect of a thing or in my opinion, the highest principle of the thing. So when you're just living your life and you're interacting with different things, animals, plants, elements, whatever it might be, when you try and understand the symbolic value of that thing, you're trying to understand its highest principle. You're trying to understand what it represents beyond the physical, right? Kind of its spiritual essence, basically. So when she mentioned that, I couldn't help but think of symbolism as sort of a tool or a study or a way of inquiring about the world around you. And yourself, it's not only just acknowledging the physical thing, but now you're also acknowledging the sacred thing, which is related to that higher principle in my opinion. Hello, Mario and Michelle, and happy birthday to all my fellow Sagittarians out there. Because surprise, surprise, this is in fact my Sun sign and one of my favorite times of the year. And in true Sagittarius fashion, I'm going to be taking you down a deep rabbit hole with me as we look at a lot of the ancient iconography and imagery of Sagittarius, along with a couple of other very famous figures who share a lot of this imagery. Now, are they connected? Who's to say? But I'm just here to present a whole bunch of information to you and let you make those connections and make up your own mind. So one of the fascinating things about Sagittarius is that it contains two very prominent things, one of which being the center of our known universe, the gigantic supermassive black hole known as Sagittarius A star, which sits between the tail of the scorpion and the bow and arrow of Sagittarius. Sagittarius season also contains the winter solstice, which is a huge marking point for many belief systems, both ancient and modern around the world. And to some of the most ancient people, including the people of Mesopotamia and specifically the Babylonians and the Assyrians, the solstices were viewed as literal gateways, gateways either into or out of this world. They were known as the gateway of man and the gateway of the gods. Now, we will see that in some of the most ancient depictions of Sagittarius we meet a figure by the name of Poblsog. Now, Poblsog is depicted in a variety of different ways. Some of its more distinctive features are a set of wings, sometimes four wings upon its back, the scorpion's tail on the tail of the horse, and the head of a dog as well as the head of a man. Now, in some there are feet of a bird, in some depictions Poblsog literally has the body and feet of a bird with a scorpion's tail holding a bow and arrow, or bird-like feet. Another very prominent appendage being the phallus, which the Babylonians love to put a very specific emphasis upon, and oftentimes represented as a snake-headed phallus. Now, what's interesting is that Poblsog is basically the lord of the underworld and has actually a wife and a child. Now, the wife is known as Gula, and she sits in the constellation of the Shegoat, which would be our modern day constellation of Lyra, and her divine symbol is that of a dog. And their child, Damu, is a god who lives, descends to the underworld and comes back. It follows that same path that many other gods who've died and ascended have followed, that we see in the Egyptians, we see in the Christians, we see in the cycle of ball, this rising and falling. And their child, Damu, is represented by the swine star, and the iconography for this god is the pig or the boar. Now, what's interesting is that in other parts we meet somebody known as a demoness in ancient lore, Lamas too, who was the ancient killer of babies and pregnant women. And oftentimes, in her depictions, we'll see a dog and a pig on either side of her kind of blocking her in, or even nursing at her breasts. And what's interesting is that the king of winds, or the king of demons, king of winds known as Pazuzu, is the one who can combat this entity known as Lamas too, and push her back into the underworld. And what's interesting is how the imagery of Pazuzu is described, because his imagery is very similar to that of Papalsog. And Papalsog, his imagery is very close to that of Nenerta and Nurgle, who are also entities that fight against wind demons, or these wind spirits, the lilu, or the lilu too, who are depicted oftentimes as looking like goats or mules with wings. It's very interesting how the imagery is very similar, what they fight against looks like that of Lamas too. And then we see that Pazuzu has a very similar description, which I will read from one of these books. So Pazuzu sported talent, feet, and hands, alien in face with protruding eyes, and erect penis, which gave him an appearance similar to that of the Egyptian God best. He looks almost as scary as Lamas too, because he serves as an agent to combat her, much like how the gargoyles upon churches look frightening and scary to scare off other evil entities. And from another book, we see the imagery once again described here as that he commanded the southwest wind, and his portrayed as having the head of a lion with a man's body, wings and feet of an eagle, a tail like a scorpion, and a snake like penis. So we see here that there is a lot of similarity between Poplsog and Pazuzu, including that of the symbols of both his wife and his son. And we know that the wings also give us this imagery of either them being winds, their ability to travel through liminal spaces between lands such as that as living in the dead. We had also met the Greek version of the father of winds, the god of dusk, Australia, who was the father of Australia, the goddess of justice, and represented in the constellation of Virgo. And then here again is some interesting depictions of another figure that is very similar to that of Poplsog of ancient Sagittarius, and this comes out of the Bible out of Revelation chapter 9. It states, "The fifth angel sounded as trumpet, and I saw a star that had fallen from the sky to the earth. The star was given the key to the shaft of the abyss. When he opened the abyss, smoke rose from it like the smoke from a gigantic furnace. The sun and sky were darkened by the smoke from the abyss, and out of the smoke, locusts came down on the earth and were given power like that of scorpions of the earth. They were told not to harm the grass of the earth or any plant or tree, but only those people who did not have the seal of God on their foreheads. They were not allowed to kill them, but only to torture them for five months, and the agony they suffered was like that of the sting of a scorpion when it strikes. During those days people will seek death, but will not find it. They will long to die, but death will elude them." This is the interesting part. The locusts look like horses prepared for battle. On their heads they wore something like crowns of gold, and their faces resembled human faces. Their hair was like women's hair, and their teeth were like lion's teeth. They had breastplates like breastplates of iron, and the sound of their wings was like the thunder of many horses and chariots rushing into battle. They had tails with stingers like scorpions, and in their tails they had the power to torment people for five months, and they had, as king over them, the angel of the abyss, whose name in Hebrew is Abidan, and in the Greek is a polian, that is, destroyer. So we see here that the angel or king of the abyss of the void has an entire army of ancient Sagittarians, which I find fascinating, because they're described almost exactly how they're portrayed in ancient Mesopotamia in the imagery of poplsog. And what's even more interesting is that the king or the angel of the abyss carries a name that means destroyer. And one of the things that is fascinating is if we hop over to the Greeks, and we hear meat the wife of the king of the underworld, the goddess of spring, of fertility, of abundance, Persephone. Now she was first known and referred to as core, which means maiden in the Greek, but later on her name Persephone quite literally translates to she who brings destruction or destroyer. Now when we think about the imagery from the tarot for Sagittarius, here we find the temperance card nestled between the card of death for Scorpio and the card of the devil for our little friend Capricorn on the other side. But here we have quite an interesting card. Here we have an angel who seems to be standing with one foot upon the earth and one foot in the water with light beams coming off of its head, pouring some liquid between two cups, giant wings we see mountains in the background with a glowing crown. We also see a symbol for the alchemical sun or monad upon the head of this angel, as well as the ancient alchemical symbol for fire upon its chest. And this card, as we well know, represents alchemy. It represents transmutation, a changing. But what's also very interesting is when we hopped just one chapter over in Revelation, we see this imagery again. From Revelation chapter 10, it reads, "Then I saw another mighty angel coming down from heaven. He was robed in a cloud with a rainbow above his head. His face was like the sun, and his legs were like fiery pillars. He was holding a little scroll which lay open in his hand. He planted his right foot on the sea and his left foot on the land, and he gave a loud shout like the roar of a lion. When he shouted the voices of the seven thunders spoke." So there we see the exact same imagery popping back up again. All kind of hidden in plain sight in some of the most unlikely of places. And so we come to the actual alchemical meaning of the Sagittarius symbol, which is serration. And that is serration with a sea, not with an S. Serration with an S means little jagged edges on the edge of a blade or tiny little teeth that tear apart. But this serration spelled with a sea is the process scientifically of continuously adding a liquid to a hard dry substance while heating it, while adding heat in order to soften it and make it more wax-like. To make it malleable, moldable, and pliable. To mullify a hard, non-fusable substance to make it more suitable for dissolution. So this process is quite fascinating because we are taking something that is hard, solid, fixed. And we are turning it into something soft and adaptable, something that we can mold, something that is more movable. And when we think about this as applied to ourselves in the context of the human being, alchemically, we think about our very hard or fixed beliefs or thoughts, and how by adding a bit of liquid and heating it up, we can soften those thoughts. We can adapt them, we can make them a little bit more malleable and pliable before we move along in that alchemical process. And how appropriate is that because Sagittarius is a mutable sign and a fire sign. So here we see a process that by adding liquid and heat, we can make it mutable. Now another meaning that Manley P. Hall used for Sagittarius is incineration, which quite literally means to destroy by burning. And we've seen many concepts of the end of the world, and many of which end in fire. The Norse have bragnarock, the twilight of the gods, the world ends in flood and fire, but is ultimately reborn. We see that even in the Christian beliefs here, as I've been reading from Revelation, the Armageddon, the world ends in fire, but then is reborn. And I'll leave you with a quote from St. Catherine of Siena, who is the patron saint of the hospital that I work at. "Be who God meant you to be, and you will set the world on fire." Thank you guys. And that voicemail was from Sarah, a regular contributor around these parts, and that was fantastic. She actually sent me a little note that she wanted me to read in regard to what she submitted. And she says, "Here for clarification, I didn't mean to infer that Pablo Saga and Pazuzu are the same entity. They are quite distinct and separate in their own right, but in bringing up the similarities in their imagery and traits, it may aid us in our decoding of the symbolism of the ancient Sagittarius. The fact that the divine symbols of the wife and child of Pablo Saga, Gula, and Dumu, are often pictured with Lamatsu to bind or block her is an interesting connection. Perhaps these figures, Pablo Saga, Pazuzu, and Inerta are some of the first demon hunters recorded, protectors, guardians of the crossroads between this world and the underworld." She also wanted me to mention her sources for this voicemail, which include the Bible, Lilith Queen of Demons by Gillian McDonald, Babylonian Starlor by Gavin White, Soudou Geber's Summa Perfectionist, and Assyria, the rise in fall of the world's first empire by Eckhart from. Right off the bat, I just have to say that the biblical references were fantastic, and very, very interesting. I had never heard anyone mention the Sagittarius connection here, and obviously, if you're not paying attention to things, symbolically, I could see how you could very easily read through that and not even make that connection. So for me, that was quite revelatory. The army of Sagittarians, as she sort of put it, and in the second revelation reference, she mentioned the rainbow, and then the one foot on land and the other foot in water. I thought it was pretty intriguing as well, because you'll notice that that is a key feature in the temperance card, that oftentimes the angel has one foot on land, another foot in water. So that was all very well received, and it's something that I'm going to follow up with, and look into myself, and I'm kind of curious if anyone else has brought up this Sagittarius connection with these specific entries. With the one foot on land, one foot on water aspect, I do think about the position of Sagittarius in the zodiacal wheel. Because he is the sign right before we are entering Capricorn, which is the Seigo, so we're dealing with earth and water, but then also Aquarius, who is the cup bearer. And so for me, I feel like it's we're in this in between place, and Sagittarius also being half man, half horse. We have that duality aspect going on. Yes, exactly, and I would say that this sort of split duality or straddling worlds relates to humanity in that we are straddling worlds ourselves, in that we live a physical existence, we have a physical body, we live in a material world, but we're also spiritual in essence, we're spiritual creatures. So I think that this is really the human condition, is how do you sort of integrate the two, how do you reconcile the two, how do you acknowledge both sides, right? And I think that Sagittarius being split like this, half human half horse really acknowledges this, the higher principle, the lower principle, your higher nature, your lower nature. And so for that reason, I think that Sagittarius, what I used to say often is that I think it might be the most human sign in the zodiac. Because this is really who we are, that you cannot ignore that you are a spiritual creature having a physical existence. If you do ignore that, you're going to run into all sorts of issues, and you're just suppressing the truth, really, you're suppressing reality. And so I think that a lot of what Sagittarius has to do with has to do with that split, and I think that that's what Kyron has to do with as well. Integrating the two sides of who we actually are at the end of the day. And I think for a lot of people today, they're completely ignoring the spiritual side of things. And that is something that they need to get a better grip on, and you do that by going on this inward journey and inquiring within. That really, that is like the first step is like inquiring within, and you know, if you follow a teacher or a sage, funny enough, sage and Sagittarius, etymologically, people have said that they're related, which I think makes a lot of sense. That whatever teacher or guru or sage you might follow, they should be pointing you back to your center, and who you are, and encouraging you to look within and go on that inner journey. And I know you really like the serration alchemical example that she brought to the table, right? Yes, I totally do. Yeah, and I do too. I think it's really interesting and fascinating for a lot of different reasons. So the main thing that kind of comes to mind for me is actually the fact that the original Latin word where we get temperance from means to mix, it means to mix and combine. And so it reminds me of the serration of hot water or warm water, breaking something down, dissolving it, making it softer. And I just see in my mind's eye the two cups of temperance actually mixing together and that the contents are being mixed and combined. And to me, that's really powerful symbolism, and it just speaks to so much of what alchemy, physical alchemy is all about, is combining different things, different ingredients to create different solutions or different elixirs or products or whatever it is you might be creating. And so they say that the first step in any creative process is destruction. And so you need raw materials that you can then bring together so you can create something new so that you can create something that's greater even than the some of their parts. And this to me kind of relates to the dissolving dynamic, I think of the ego actually and how the ego has an important part to play in life, but I think that for a lot of people, it's the mask that they're wearing for other people for themselves. They're presenting themselves in a different way and I guess I'm kind of just imagining this water, this hot water kind of dissolving the ego and allowing your true nature, your higher nature to really come out because I think that's partly the dynamic of the ego is it's something of a veil, it's something of a shield, it's something of a shell that you put out there for other people to assume that that's really who you are. But in actuality underneath that veil or behind that shell or what have you, there's actually something much grander and greater and your higher principle is actually kind of hiding behind it. So I think a lot of people are hiding behind sort of these masks, you know, behind these hardened kind of walls or compartments or partitions, if you will. And they're actually preventing their inner teacher to really come out and they're kind of preventing themselves from accessing sort of that inner sanctum or holy of holies. That is the more transcendental part of who you are and speaks to this higher principle, you know, that Emily was talking about earlier. These are all great points, babe, and I now want to read a quote from Barbara Walker's Secrets of the Terror. She writes, "Temperences' name seems not to have been taken from the common meaning of the English word moderation or abstinence of alcoholic drink. Rather, it has been derived from the Latin temper, a time period like the biblical season for all things under heaven. The angel of the two vessels may have represented a time to love. And now to stack on top of this quote, I have another quote from her that connects this thought, which is according to Hindu scriptures, "The merging of God and goddess, Shiva and Kali, imperfect bliss was quote like pouring of water into water, and all human sexual union was a brief imperfect echo of this cosmic union. And for me, this kind of brings full circle, kind of what you're talking about, of the pouring of these waters, the pouring of the water into the other element, to soften it, basically, though, to create something new, which to me aligns with this merging of the waters of feminine and masculine, to create perhaps a new life. Or even just to create a stronger union between the two, because sexual intercourse is not always about having a child or creating a child. It can be about creating a stronger union between the two that are engaging in this act." And so for me, I feel like these sorts of things, these sorts of combining of waters, sharing of something intimate, it's really such a healing dynamic. And what it really does, it can help you to find out more of who you are and to understand the deeper meanings of life and why these connections that we make are so important. Yeah, well, beautiful stuff all around onto the next one. Hello, Mario, Michelle. It's Katrina from Down Under. And I'm hoping to bring a southern hemispheric perspective to this southerly constellation of the zodiac sign of Sagittarius. Sagittarius Latin for Archer from the root Sagita, meaning arrow. It is a mutable masculine fire sign portrayed as a center with a bow and arrow, not to be confused, though, with the constellation Centaurus. In fact, it's the bow and arrow that distinguishes between these two southern constellations in the sky. Like the arrow spins through the air, as propelled by the tension in the bow, seeking out its target, Sagittarius are known to be seekers of truth, which often takes them on many adventures and journeys. The more popular or accepted identity for the Archer Sagittarius is Kyron, who was a central, great healer, sage and mentor to many famous Greek heroes. But there's a problem with that. Many scholars argue that Kyron does not fit the stereotypical center and the constellation Centaurus is actually attributed to Kyron. Centaurus are renowned in Greek myth for their drunken, deboutry and really hot tempered and throwing wild parties with music and dancing. Centaurus were basically the party animals of the zodiac. Kyron, you can say, was the antithesis of the Centaur, because he was more well tempered. But before I propose an alternative theory of who this Archer could possibly be, I'd like to briefly point out some of the overlapping symbols, which Mario in the last episode pointed out we would begin to find similarities between the signs of Libra, Scorpio and Sagittarius. So let's look briefly at the anatomy of the bow and arrow. The most obvious comparison is perhaps the arrow and sword, which we met the sword in the Libra episode and more recently, the Stinger of the Scorpion. I'd like to propose that the bow also resembles the scales. If we flipped the Libra scales on its side where the arms of the scale curve like a bow and the fulcrum or axis of the scale becomes the arrow. The Greek word for bow is toxon, from which we get words like toxin or toxic, like the venom at the tip of the scorpion Stinger. In the Libra episode, I brought up bird symbolism, and among the four animals that represent the sign of Scorpio, two or birds, the eagle and the phoenix. When one looks at an arrow, set in a bow, I see the outline of a bird in flight. The beak is the arrow tip, the wings resemble the arc of the bow, which is termed the riser, and the fletching or stabilizing fins of the arrow is like the bird's tail. Coming back to the shape of the arrowhead, it curiously resembles the sacrum at the tip of the spinal column. In medical astrology, Sagittarius rules over the sacrum, which is a large triangular bone that forms the posterior wall of the pelvis, which let me get into the temperance card in the tarot. This card features an androgenous winged character, which I personally interpret as more female, and she pairs to be holding two cups or chalices, pouring water between them, while one foot is in the water of what looks like a lake. There are mountains in the distance and grasses in the foreground with yellow flowers, which are identified as irises. Now the word iris is Greek for rainbow, a rainbow forms an arc in the sky, much like the bow. Interestingly, the Greeks also had a goddess of the rainbow, and you guessed it, her name is iris. And iris is identified with symbols as holding a picture of water, the caduceus, and she's also being depicted with wings. The goddess iris was a bridge between worlds, a messenger between the gods and the people. In this regard, I wonder if the temperance card is inspired by the goddess of the rainbow, and I'm hoping Mario could shed some light on this card for me. This brings me to also question who this archer could be. Now it's very obvious that the zodiac is very androcentric, but I believe a lot of the feminine still resides in it, it's just more hidden. Thus I propose Artemis as the archer in question, because she shares so many traits as I'll soon break down. Artemis does not outright have her own star or constellation named after her, but we do find her linked through myths to several other constellations, namely Orion, Scorpius, the Pleiades, and Ursa Major, the Great Bear. And here I'd like to propose Sagittarius as emblematic of her in constellation form and archetype. Artemis is a complex goddess to say the least, scholar and author, Carla Ayonescu, has done great work in uncovering this goddess through antiquity. Among the many epithets of Artemis, namely the Mistress of the Hunt, Lady of the Beast, Mistress of the Animals, that I suspect she is a very ancient, possibly primordial deity, dating as far back as pre-agriculture. To a time when the hunt was both sacred and fundamental to human survival, and Artemis is strongly connected not only to the hunt, but to nature. With her association to mountains, springs, lakes, trees, which were particularly sacred to her, and of course the animals, and she had many as her symbols. The most popular being the bear and the stag, sometimes cats like lions, and she was known to travel with a pack of seven dogs. And when she's depicted carrying a torch, she is holding two snakes. Many historians have traced Artemis to Anatolia and North Africa. In Egypt, we find her as the great divine mother goddess, Neith, who is a pre-dynastic goddess, and one of her symbols that identified her on artwork was crossed arrows. Neith was also called a Mistress, the Mistress of the Bow and the ruler of arrows, and like Artemis, she shot golden arrows. In fact, some historians proposed the Amazon tribes of North Africa, in places like modern-day Libya and Tunisia, worshiped Artemis. These tribes and the Burbas, who were the original indigenous peoples of North Africa, whom which the Greeks coined the word barbarians, were astute archers on horseback, that one only wonders if they saw horse and rider as one, as Centaur. Like Centaur's, Artemis loves a good time, and as much as she delights in arrows, she was known to hang up her bow and lead in the dances, celebrations, and songs with the muses. Ironically, Artemis and her twin brother are actually credited in having taught Kyron archery. Speaking of twins, isn't it curious that Sagittarius is opposite the Gemini twins, and here we have Artemis and Apollo, two renowned twin archers. Now, Karin was a famous healer, and I believe this is substantial evidence of Artemis also acting in this capacity. In Minoan Elithea, she is referred to "she who comes to aid" and we find Artemis as a midwife and protector of women and animals in birth. In fact, they are some written versions of Apollo's birth on Delos, where Iris, the goddess of the rainbow, is dispatched to call upon Artemis to come to her mother's aid, Leto. This would seemingly make Artemis older than her twin brother, and there's even some written evidence of carvings engraved to Artemis that predate even her father Zeus or Jupiter. No doubt Artemis' lineage goes far back to primordial goddess archetype. And continuing this idea of Artemis as a healer, we find the plant Artemisia, named after this goddess, also commonly found in such plants as Mugwot and Wormwood. I would like to briefly touch upon Artemis' mother, Leto, that I found very intriguing in how she was described in the Ulfric hymns. Leto is dark veiled, implying hidden one. Hesiod also reiterates this quality of Leto, referring to her as dark gown. And this makes me wonder if it is indirectly referring to the black hole of the galactic center, at the core of our Milky Way galaxy. Now, in North America, you guys refer to Sagittarius constellation as the teapot, and the further north you go, as far as the arctic circle, Sagittarius is no longer visible, as it lies too far south of the equator. But down under, here in Australia where I am, the indigenous aboriginals perceive the sky very differently. They do not identify individual clusters or constellations per se, like we have in the classical Greek or Sumerian systems, but instead identify this vast portion of the sky as the great imu in the sky. They identify the head of the imu by the way of the southern cross, or crux, which points to this dark patch in the Milky Way. Now, the imu is a large flightless bird native to Australia, and the Aboriginal peoples, or some tribes at least, as other tribes saw a kangaroo or other animal kin. They instead identify the dark spaces or dark patches in between the star clusters and dust clouds across the band of the Milky Way, and saw it as an outline of an imu, a dark imu. The constellation Scorpius actually lies across the body of the imu, so these dark patches of the dark imu outline, brings me to the black hole. Sagittarius points or lines up its arrow to the Galactic Center, and the heart of Scorpius, the star Antares, is used as a line of sight to find the Galactic Center. Now, many indigenous cultures around the world share similar beliefs around this dark zone of the Milky Way, believing it to be their point of origin and return in death. And now, it seems that science is catching up. With recent research into black holes, proving these indigenous cultures were perhaps spot on in their assumptions. According to recent research, only a few years ago published in the astrophysical journal letters, scientists are proposing that black holes, which we find at the center of nearly all large galaxies, that black holes existed at the emergence of the universe, not after, like we've previously hypothesized. It is now understood that black holes act as the building blocks or the seeds to anchor and catalyze the formation of galaxies by accelerating star formations. They are very similar to particle accelerators in this respect. One could even use the metaphor of the womb to the black hole. And in my December substark, the Venus diaries, I've gone into more comprehensive detail breaking down my rationalizing of Artemis and who link to the black hole. But I'm going to end it here on this note before I get too deep and philosophical on black hole theory in relation to Sagittarius. And I hope I've left you with some meaty bites to chew on. Thank you guys. Thank you, Mario and Michelle and wishing you a great season ahead. Okay, Katrina, thank you so much for that voicemail. Very, very interesting stuff. And I have to say, Artemis, as it relates to temperance, as it relates to Sagittarius, and obviously the symbolism of the bow and arrow, I'm so on board with. And actually, I reference Artemis in my symbolic secrets video on temperance for the same reasons that you're bringing up. So we're totally on the same page with it. And I'd like to basically take what she proposed here and just add a few other elements. Right. So let's not forget that the name of the temperance card in the thoth deck actually is the art card. So Artemis and art right there. And I've done a bit of research on the word art, and also a lot of words that begin with R, AR, or ER, have a very curious relationship with each other. And so as an example, there is another goddess named Artio, and she's actually associated with the bear. And so I brought her up in that temperance card video. And then I also made mention of the fact that King Arthur, art, Arthur actually is a bear God. That's the symbolism and the round table that King Arthur is associated with King Arthur and the nights of the round table. This round table, in my opinion, is really a reference to the wheel of heaven, which would be the stars revolving around a central northern star, which would be the pole star. And so when we're talking about art and how it relates to the bear, this also relates to the arc tick as well, or arc toasts, there's a lot of words that begin with R, or ER, and go back to bear symbolism. And so Ursa Major, which she brought up, and Ursa Minor are also related to this same dynamic. And so when we're dealing with Ursa Major and Ursa Minor, we're dealing with the great bear and the little bear. And these constellations in today's world, we mostly refer to them as dippers. So basically, they're vessels, meaning they're twin vessels, just like we have twin vessels in the temperance card. And so what do you see in the temperance card? You see one vessel being poured to the other. When you really look at Ursa Major and Minor going around the pole star year after year, it says though one vessel is pouring into the other. Ursa Major has seven stars and Ursa Minor has seven stars. And so together, there are 14 stars between the two, and we're dealing with the 14th card of the major arcana. And we're dealing with inner alchemy. So in my opinion, basically the way I put it is that this inner alchemy could be referred to as polar medicine. It's medicine from within, you know, it's medicine from source. And even in the thoth deck, the temperance card, there's a rainbow that goes over the woman. And within the rainbow, there's a sentence that's being spelled in Latin. And the acronym for the sentence is vitriol. And when you translate this sentence, it basically says, visit the interior parts of the earth and you'll find the hidden stone. The other translations are very similar, but I think worth relaying visit the interior parts of the earth and you'll find the hidden medicine or you'll find the philosopher stone or you'll find what will cure you basically something along these lines, the elixir of life is another one. So it's not saying visit the interior parts of physical earth, it's saying that you are the earth, you are the terrain. So visit the interior parts of earth and you'll find the hidden medicine. It's saying go within, allow your inner teacher to come out, you know, consult within, go to your Holy of Holies, your sacred center, and you'll find the hidden medicine. You'll find what you're looking for basically, it's not an external search, it's an internal search. The aim is actually within. So that's kind of how I took it is that Artemis absolutely with its relationship to the bear relates to other gods or figures that also relate to the bear that also are connected to the word art. Let's not forget heart. Also, there's art within heart. And then there's also art within earth, the word earth. All of these ideas are completely related to each other in my opinion. So when she brought that up with Artemis, I'm like, oh yeah, I know exactly what you're talking about. And there's no issues on my end with that. I think that there's a lot to be said with that for sure. Also, just have to mention the fact that the center, how close is the center as in your center, your sacred center, how close is that to Centaur? Isn't that kind of interesting? Centaur and center are right there, in my opinion, etymologically. You know, you can kind of make that case at least. And I've said this before, but Centaur, at least what I've read, is that Centaur originally meant bull killer. And so the tar and Centaur is literally a reference to the bull as in like Taurus, Centaur, Taurus. And so they were bull killers. That's my understanding. So you can make the case that what their aim is externally is at the bull's eye. And I think this is the case because when Sagittarius is rising, Taurus is falling. And so there's this natural relationship between Sagittarius and Taurus that way. The same way as Scorpio is rising, Taurus is falling. It's the exact same thing. And so even the word target is actually target. It's actually another reference to the bull. And so there's all sorts of stuff kind of going on there. And I do see that there's a hidden feminine dynamic in basically most everything you look at the tarot, the zodiac, et cetera. There's so many examples that, you know, we're seeing more of a masculine sort of presentation that was built upon a feminine foundation for sure. So that makes a lot of sense as well. Earlier, she also brought up the idea that when you tilt a scale on its side, it kind of looks like a bow and arrow. Oh, yes. I had never considered that, but that's kind of interesting. It just reminded me of the fact that when you look into bow symbolism in the history of the bow, which is worth looking into, by the way, the bow and arrow, it was the pre-imminent weapon of choice for thousands of years before the gun. And so people kind of forget that it plays such an important part in world history that it really is worth kind of understanding on that level because it was just so significant. And it was an intimate part of a lot of people's daily lives. It's how they were able to defend their family. It was how they were able to hunt and provide food for their family and all these other things. But some historians sort of theorize that the bow actually came from a very primitive fire starter and that you would have a curved stick that has a string from one side to the other. And that in that string, you'll put a stick vertically and you have the string wrapped around that stick. And as you move the bow and keep that vertical stick in place, you're actually now spinning that stick around and around back and forth, back and forth. And now you're actually creating friction with whatever it's standing on top of. And so then that allows you to create a spark so that you can actually create fire. And that this early fire starter, it was then theorized that they found out that they could actually launch that stick with that fire starter with that curved piece of wood with that string. And then of course, from there, they developed all the ways in which to make it stronger and more powerful. So I think that's interesting. The sign that associates very strongly with the bow and arrow is Sagittarius and it's a fire sign and literally the origins of the bow and arrow itself may literally come from the want or desire to actually create fire. Hey there, it's Mario. Once again, I wanted to take a quick moment and let you know that I am available for several services, including terror readings, private lessons and graphic design, which is actually what led me to study symbolism to begin with. Long story short, if you think I can help you with your symbolic journey or if you're in need of symbolic assistance for your business, you should definitely get in touch. I've conducted hundreds of sessions over the years, whether it be terror readings or private lessons. And I'm always amazed at the depth of conversation we're able to uncover together. It's definitely a good time. Should you be interested in any of these offerings, you can find more information at symbolicstudies.com. All right, back to the episode. All right, Bob, anything that you wanted to add to this voicemail? Well, you bringing up the dippers makes me think of a lot of things, but it does bring me to a quote that I have written down from star lore, which is stars within the constellation of Sagittarius form a figure known as the milk dipper. The dipper appears inverted and the title is appropriate as it is situated in the Milky Way. Very interesting, the dipper connection, right? Right, exactly. Yeah, I think there's something to it. I probably say this all the time now, but I think when you're looking at the origins of the zodiac and I think of a lot slash all of the terror cards, there's a Northern origin story. And so I look at the Northern sky. That's part of my deal. That's part of my weave and one of the strongest cards that actually weaves into this is temperance, right? And so that's what I was getting into with my temperance card video and everything else. So that's kind of my claim. I think it's all really right there and this might be another nod to that. I think it is. And lastly, before we move on, I want to comment on the connection that Katrina brought up with Artemis and Sagittarius and Mugwort and the Artemisia family of plants, because I can't not think about the protection that is offered from Mugwort in terms of like an energetic aspect of the plant. And I always associate Mugwort as do a lot of other people with a crown sort of element or a great mother or I like to think of her as more of like a grandmotherly energy, which is a protector. She is a wise old woman that you will probably go to for advice or for comfort or for just the camaraderie of being around someone that has a lifetime of wisdom. I also think about the aspect that I learned about her through my research in Mugwort of her being the protector of her own chastity, but the chastity of all women. And regarding protection, I just want to mention the fact that if it hasn't been said yet, the early version of Sagittarius, Poblosog and other composite figures like that, they were psychopumps. So they were the guide of souls. So they took you to the other side. In my opinion, when there's a leader like that, and they are leading the way and they're showing you the way and they're leading the journey. They are natural kind of protectors in and of themselves. So just like a shepherd, the good shepherd, the shepherd leads his flock, but he's also the protector of the flock. And so any sort of psychopomp, I think naturally has this protective sort of dynamic and that they want to see you get to the other side safely. And just to kind of bring it around back to my northern symbolism, we've, if we're dealing with a psychopomp figure and they're leading people to the other side, a lot of cultures have outright basically said or alluded or suggested that the stairway to heaven exists in the northern sky. That you are going to the northern sky and that that literally is sort of the gateway to the afterlife. So Poblsog Sagittarius, if they're a guide of souls to the other side, early Sagittarius had wings, you know, so there's this angelic component with that. They're taking you to the northern sky arguably. That's one way of looking at it. And I just want to say that I love the fact that she brought the aboriginal dynamic and put that on the table with the imu in the heavens. And it could be another figure, of course, as you was saying, but the dark spots kind of being acknowledged. It's really intriguing to me that that's even an emphasis or would be an emphasis because we spend so much time thinking about the lights. And we spend so much time thinking about the light spots and what's being highlighted that arguably the dark spots clearly are worth, you know, at the very least acknowledging and that I'm not surprised that there's lore associated with that. But everything she mentioned along those lines, I thought was very interesting. And what do you know? Usually the dark spots are where you find the most potent things that maybe need to be transmuted or illuminated or what have you. Yes, yeah, exactly. Hey Mario, hey Michelle, it's nice to be here with you guys again discussing Sagittarius this time. I have a few notes here I'd like to go over. I have about four main points I'd like to make. And of course, a few other auxiliary points for each of them. But so without further ado, let's take a little bit of an adventure here with the Sagittarian symbolism. First off, I'd just like to point out one of the main things that sticks out to me with this is the association with the chariot tarot card, in my opinion, because it represents mobility. Without our legs, which is the part of the body associated with Sagittarius, the thighs, without those, we lack mobility here on this terrestrial sphere. We as creatures of the most high or whatever it was that created us gave us dominion over the earth, right? So we have what we have given to us to traverse the terrestrial realm are these two legs, right? So when we get into the symbolism of the thigh and the legs and Sagittarian symbolism, I think that we're also waiting into the waters, if you will, of the ecliptic, the part of the zodiac where the dark signs kind of reside. And this kind of relates to the story of Hyrum Abith, excuse me, where there's a few laborers that slay him, right? So they're kind of associated with the three winter signs, essentially. And so you can kind of start to think about the lower nature of man descending into this portion of the body as well. And some Buddhist terms, this might be kind of like traversing the carnal ground. So think about when you're driving around your car, your chariot, which is also associated with Odin, you're also harnessing horse power, right, under the hood. And so these are like the serpentine legs that we sometimes see with melucine or some other things like the Starbucks logo, for instance, denoting the ability to traverse the catholic realms like caves, waterways, etc. as opposed to terrestrial realms, like the earth. So I think that there's a little bit of a hint there as to what type of legs does something have. If I have wings, for instance, like Hermes has wings on his ankles, for instance, well, then he's more well suited, of course, for the air realm, I suppose, right. Or having tell feathers, perhaps, is another mark of that. So I wanted to move on to something else real quick and happen to have this particular page up. So we'll be covering this one first. There's another interesting story that relates to the leg. And so in Welsh and Nordic and Germanic folklore, we have stories of the wild hunt. In fact, it's ubiquitous. You find stories about the wild hunt all over the earth in various versions, but the one I'm focusing on today, of course, will be the Germanic one. And so there's a character that leads to hunt. And of course, depending on the culture, this is named a different individual. For instance, in Welsh, it's Gwen, Appnid, but in others, it can be Odin as well. And so whenever we consider the role of the leader of the wild hunt, they lead a cavalcade of spirits to go hunt and round up all of the ghosts that really aren't supposed to be here any longer. And so, and of course, it said if you encounter the cavalcade or Odin, as it were, you'd want to lay yourself prostrate before him, because he doesn't travel any higher than an ox's yolk. It is said. And so that's about as high, of course, as the thigh. So, of course, the legend from scientific point of view, they think that maybe it's good advice to try and avoid lightning strikes, but even with that, we still have the thunder and lightning preserved in Jupiter with the thigh and about that level, right? So, I think either way, it's somewhat still related. So, with the wild hunt story, if you encounter the wild hunt and you challenged the hunters, you could be punished in some strange way, or perhaps even cruelly. However, if you assisted the wild hunt and they're endeavor and you claim the prize, whatever it were, you could be given various prizes among which may include a piece of the game, if you will. And that was be in the form of a leg of, you know, various animals that maybe were beginning hunted. And so, this leg, however, may be cursed. And so, you may have to take it to a priest or a magician to be able to find a way to trick the wild hunt and to taking the leg back by asking for salt or something like that. So, I find that a very curious element of the story to consider, because anytime you're dealing with fake creatures, which are typically a part of the cavalcade in the wild hunt, there's often some trickery involved or something like that. And of course, you never accept food from fairies. So, in this case, if you accept the leg of the animal, that does count as fairy food in this case. So, word of caution to anybody out there that runs into the fairies. And so, moving on to our next point here, just wanted to mention that Gilgamesh and Incadue and their story with the Bull of Heaven. They have a little tussle with the Bull of Heaven and basically the overcome it when they're able to disable the Bull by ripping off its leg. And so, I think that kind of has some of the same symbolism here. And I wanted to move on to Genesis 32, 22. And the reason for that is because this is going to be dealing with Jacob wrestling with the angel. And I got about two minutes left here, so I'll try to be quick and brief. So, Jacob wrestles with God. During the night, Jacob got up and took his two wives and his two maid servants and his eleven sons and crossed the four to the Jacob. And he took them and sent them across the stream along with his possessions. So, Jacob left the linen. There was a man wrestled with him until daybreak, when the man saw that he could not overpower Jacob, he struck the socket of Jacob's hip and dislocated it as they wrestled. The man said, "Let me go for this daybreak." But Jacob replied, "I will not let you go unless you bless me." "What is your name?" the man asked. Jacob replied, "Which means he'll catch her, actually." Then the man said, "Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God and with men and you have prevailed." That inner part of the thigh there is where he was touched, and so after that Jacob had to walk with a limp or a cane, at least for a short period of time. There's an instrument known as the Jacob's staff, and it's used for measuring declination and ascension of celestial objects. So, I think this mention about daybreak, here is kind of curious, right, especially with the Dandelion nations, which are in light and dark, and parts of the zodiac, and parts of the day, even. So, moving on here, I'm going to run it up against my limit. Revelation 1916, we see a mention of the thigh, and so this character, the Messiah, comes in on a horse, a very Sagittarian symbol. With a tattoo or a marking, it says on his leg and his robe, it says, "King of kings, Lord of lords." So, Jupiterian symbolism here with the mentioning of king and repeating it, so it's like Jupiter, Jupiter, in a sense as well. And then finally ending with Genesis 315, when the woman's seed is crushing the head of the serpent, so that too, although is the heel crushing the head, it's still the leg. And so, I think, capitalistically speaking, this relates to Netsack, which is representing victory, and so the strong right leg specifically, in this case, helping to achieve victory, just much like the strong right arm of the Lord, the right leg of the Lord is sometimes emphasized. So, remember that, whenever you are thinking Jupiter, think of your strong right leg, so thank you so much for your time, and I went about a minute or so, I apologize for that. It's a pleasure, as always, very well. And that voicemail comes from Joshua, the branch. Thank you so much for submitting. I always love his perspective and what he brings to the table. One of the first things he mentioned here is the connection between the chariot card and Sagittarius, or the centaur. That is a connection that is not really brought up that often, but actually, there's a few sneaky correlations between the two, and I see what he's saying, absolutely. In fact, I think it's interesting that when you look at the glyph for Sagittarius, it's an arrow, and Crowley of all people, he wrote in his book of Thoth, that the arrow is the simplest glyph of Mercury, because it represents directed will. And so, he makes a correlation or a connection between the arrow and Mercury, and Mercury has a lot of phallic symbolism associated with him. And so, he's associated with posts and columns and poles, the phallus, the world axis, you know. And so, the arrow is right in line with other world axis symbols, basically. It's not a common to see Mercury holding a wand with twin serpents wrapped around it, the caduceus, you know, the wand and the arrow are kind of one and the same. The wand represents the element of fire as an example in the tarot, and it has to do with energy being sent forth, you know. And the arrow really kind of distills that down in a way as well. But I bring this up because there's a huge relationship between Mercury and the chariot card as well. In fact, we often quote Barbara Walker in this program, and she has a tarot deck that she illustrated. And in her version of the chariot card, she puts a glyph for Mercury right on the body of the chariot itself. Whether we're talking about horses pulling a chariot, or whether we're talking about leg and thigh symbolism and how our legs are our wheels, it's how we get around symbolically. Or we're just talking about travel symbolism in general, you know, I can see exactly what he's saying with the chariot card, and then also with Sagittarius symbolism and Centaur symbolism. The other thing I wanted to mention is the fact that he brought up the wild hunt, and that is really appropriate. And it reminded me of something that is a huge weave with Sagittarius season in that if we're going to look towards one sign that represents the wild man, it would be Sagittarius. Oh, yeah. I think that you can make a case that the wild man is best preserved as Sagittarius. And so when we're dealing with the wild man, we are dealing with a traveler. That's why they're wild. They're wild to people who live in a city. And so they're wild to people who live in a village. They're wild to people who are living a more sedentary stationary farming agricultural sort of life. Whereas the wild man is always traveling. And so there's a lot of figures that have an association with this overall general archetype. The hermit relates, I would say the shepherd also relates. And so what is often kind of the case with a wild man or a figure that is known as being the traveler is that they bring wisdom from another domain. They bring wisdom of an older kind of nature. In that way, the wild man really exists between realms. He exists between the realm of nature and sort of all of the things that come with that. He has an understanding of plant life and the animals and the seasons and things that are truly wild. And when he comes to a village or he comes to the city or he interacts with the city dweller. They are very wild and to the city person or the villager, they have knowledge or understandings that are basically lost to most of their people. And so I would say St. John the Baptist as an example, he's another example of sort of this wild man figure. They say that he wore fur and he ate really simple foods. I think it was like honey and crickets or something like that. And he brought knowledge from an older time. That's kind of another way of saying it is that the wild man has quote unquote primitive or primordial knowledge that he preserves and sort of bestows upon the modern people. That's kind of one of the dynamics, right? And they spend a lot of time by themselves too. That's another aspect. So if you're a hunter, you're going to be quiet and you're going to be traveling and you're going to be hiking and you're going to be doing all these things. And so I think that Sagittarius being half human, half horse being clearly a hunter and obviously having a horse body and being able to travel fits right in line with the wild man sort of stuff. And as well, I would say if there's another sign that relates to a lot of wild man symbolism, I would say Capricorn actually encodes a lot of this stuff as well. Capricorn has a relationship with the devil card. There's an aspect of pan sort of being the wild man as well. And pan is related to Capricorn and go symbolism and all these things. So really the way I would put it is that Sagittarius to me seems like that is a clear candidate for the wild man, but also there's a lot of bleed through. There's a lot of sort of overlapping themes. I would say with Capricorn as well. So I'm just really glad he brought that up because this is the time of year of the wild man as well. I would say that it's late fall, you know, early winter that the wild man is sort of best expressed during the season. And this reminds me of a quote I have from the book Outer Space by Job's. At the time the sun entered this section of the sky, the hunting season opened and Sagittarius always has been considered a patron of hunters and the chase. I love this quote because the hunter aspect, but also the chase, which goes along with the legs and the horse and being mobile and being the wild man who comes to the town, who then leaves the town and is on his feet, who's traveling and all these things. And the chase is way more masculine. So the man chases the woman receives and I say this all the time, but all you have to do is look at our basic sexual organs and how they work and operate. A man's fallace is external and the seed of man, the sperm cells of man, leave the confines of man. So even the sperm cell goes on a chase to inseminate the egg, the sperm cells actually go on a journey to a foreign land essentially to inseminate the egg. Meanwhile, it's the egg of woman that stays in the confines of woman to become inseminated. And so this relates strongly as well just to the symbolism of the bow and arrow. So the bow is more feminine, it stays with the archer. It doesn't go anywhere. It's more passive. This is no different than a woman traditionally who is more domestic, you know, who is on her throne, who receives. And it's the arrow, which is more masculine that actually leaves. And so the bow and arrow is actually symbolically man and woman, the arrow being man, the bow being feminine. Right. And this reminds me of the traditional aspect that we know well and we talk about, but the man going out to hunt, gather whatever they need, bring home the bacon. Exactly. And then the woman is at home, he brings her the bounty, which then she turns into multiple different things, whether that be for sustenance or for medicines or for, you know, supplies for the home, whatever it is, she is the one that receives this and then turns it into something of different value. Yeah, that's a great point. She is the alchemist at home. She is the one who is turning these things into meals, into medicine, into all the things that you're just saying here. So yeah, so all of that stuff, the wild hunt, I'm so glad he brought that up because if he didn't, I don't know if I would be talking about the wild man aspect, but that's a huge, huge part of Sagittarius symbolism in my opinion. I'm really grateful branch brought it up to because the aspect of the hunter and Sagittarius and then going back to what I talked about earlier, the plant golden rod. There are aspects of hunting with golden rod and the old history of golden rod that some believe that if you were to find a patch of golden rod in the forest growing wild, it's an indication that there's a hidden spring underneath. That the golden rod is showing you where there's water. Also, golden rod, the actual long, sturdy stems of golden rod were sometimes used as divining rods to find water and there's a whole rundown of how and when to harvest the stocks of golden rod to use as divining rods. So I wanted to bring that into the fold because I really do think that the connection between golden rod and Sagittarius is super strong and a lot of the things that we're talking about right now and then the other knowledge that I have of golden rod, it just makes so much sense to me. Wow, that's actually really, really interesting. I didn't know that one. Yeah, it's actually more new information to me because I've been just looking into stuff. But when I thought about that, I'm like, oh my goodness, that is so Sagittarius and then also all the things we've been talking about with temperance and the pouring of waters and combining the waters and we all know the sacredness and the importance of water. And so I just to say, golden rod, very phallic Sagittarius's penis used to be emphasized more so back in the day. We're dealing with the arrow as well, very phallic in nature. So it all just kind of overlaps and relates to each other. It really does. And then I mean, golden rod and the golden color of urine, which as I mentioned earlier, a lot of people know golden rod as a really great supporter for the urine. A supporter for the urinary system in general, but basically it is going to inspire the body or should I say encourage the body to eliminate with urine. So golden rod is known as a diuretic, which is an herb or a substance that will allow you to eliminate through the urine or produce more urine. So you can eliminate. I just think that the whole golden connection and we've talked about this in other streams with the connection between urine and gold and what that means and how, how basically precious it is because at the end of the day gold is the most precious metal that you can have. So there you go. Exactly gold is the king of precious metals and we actually mentioned the fact that there's so much urine as medicine symbolism that relates to Sagittarius that that was actually the focus of one of our presentations was all of the Sagittarian connections with that. But maybe we can get into that in another time. Yeah, and I'm glad you went there because it's totally been on my mind and I think it's just so fascinating when it comes down to all the symbolism that's connected to Sagittarius. And with all of that said, thank you branch once again. Multiple things come to mind when I consider Sagittarius. The first which being the Sagittarius is the only fire sign that incorporates a human element. Areas in Leo are a ram and a lion respectively, but Sagittarius is half horse, half human. The human portion being from the waste upward with suggested Sagittarius has a greater aptitude for higher cognition for higher consciousness that Sagittarius has greater dexterity as it has hands and fingers and also Sagittarius can speak Sagittarius is able to communicate its insights, its wisdom, its experiences. And also therefore makes it more relatable to the human experience yet more alien to the human experience all at once because Sagittarius is a mythological creature. The centaur is not something in which we can find in the natural world, which oddly also incidentally partners it with Capricorn, the only other sign that is associated with a strictly mythic image, the goat fish. So there's something very very accessible about Sagittarius because we can speak to Sagittarius and we can listen to it. Yet it is also extremely alien all at once. That's a very very pronounced dichotomy, very paradoxical. Also, if we consider Zeus Jupiter, the planetary ruler of Sagittarius as he is evidenced in Greco-Roman and myth, he is a god of thunder and a god of lightning, so thunder suggesting bombass of personality and lightning and that he illuminates the sky with his power. He is a source of literal enlightenment, literal illumination and we know this to be a glimpse of the truth that Sagittarius has always journey to see transcendent fundamental spiritual reality, truth with the capital T as the dictionary defines it. Also, if we are electrocuted by a bolt of lightning, it suggests that the tremendous spiritual fervor or enthusiasm that we get from Sagittarius and a definition of that will be breakdown of the etymology suggests special confirmant or conference with the Holy Spirit as if one is literally possessed by the Holy Ghost. So those are two things that come to mind when I think of Sagittarius off the top of my head. The exotic creature, obviously it's a hybrid, and the further back you go, it even looks more exotic and it looks even demonic, right? Some versions of Sagittarius having a demon in the back of its head, a scorpion tail, sometimes having chicken feet, you know, and things like that. And so I think that that's really well received essentially that there is kind of this contradiction of sorts, you know, between it being accessible on one hand, you can speak to it, it's human, et cetera, but also it is very much a hybrid creature. I just want to mention as well that Mercury, I see Mercury all over the place and I think that it's by design, I think Mercury is intended to wear all these different masks and play all these different parts and everything else. Mercury has a lot to do with hybrid creatures, Mercury has a lot to do with composite creatures. So even like the mermaid, mur, Mercury, mermaid, half human, half fish, you can say that there's a mercurial correspondence with that. And so I would say that Mercury kind of plays a part in Sagittarius as well, being this hybrid composite creature. And as far as the lightning bolt is concerned, it's long been viewed as a bridge between heaven and earth. So most things that shoot up towards the heavens have been kind of imagine that way, the tree, the ladder, the tower, you know, the obelisk, there's so many different examples, but the lightning bolt is that bridge but from the heavens. So if you're touched by a lightning bolt or you see a lightning bolt hit the ground, it is sort of a touchdown, you know, from this more divine sort of space. And so I've even heard too that the lightning bolt hitting water, you know, that there's this masculine and feminine thing kind of going on there. It's like the fall is being quenched in feminine waters, something along those lines, right? Yeah, so I'm leaving a message in regards to Sagittarius and the arrow. So in regards to the arrow, I'd like to think of it as how Sagittarius has this one-pointed direction whenever they are able to focus and zero in on a target. Of course, I also like to symbolize or correlate the arrow with Sagittarius in regards to the demeanor or personality considering the arrow is going upward. Therefore, in my perspective, it gives this optimism in a way. So yeah. Okay, that was an anonymous call from Florida. So a mysterious Florida man. Thank you so much for that voicemail. Yeah, I think that's a good point. The arrow being pointed upwards. That says something. And the easiest way I can explain it is to use the wheel analogy, which I'm very fond of these days. But if you imagine a wheel, the outside of the wheel is related more so to earth, it's related more so to physicality, multiplicity, things outside of self. It's the least balanced part of the wheel because it's always turning. I always say that you want to get to the center of your wheel. That's the transcendental part of the wheel. And so if the circumference of the wheel relates to earth, that means that the center of the wheel relates more so to the heavenly domain, to the divine. And so that is to say that when I point up symbolically, you can make the case that I'm also pointing in as though we are in this sort of a great wheel. And so that's how it sort of makes sense at least in my mind. So if you are thinking of an ascended realm, an ascended place, if you're thinking of God's throne, if you're thinking of all of these things, the heavenly domain, you are thinking of a place that's actually more central. That's kind of the symbolism. So what he's saying here is that the arrow pointed upward, he was saying that it's something that is kind of an optimistic thing associated with Sagittarian personality types, right. And I see it as a sort of aspiration to connect with the heavens, which to me, as I'm saying, metaphorically, is to connect to the center, basically. And here we go back to Centaur, which is the animal or the creature that we're dealing with here with Sagittarius season. Also, just notice kind of interesting, the arrow of the Scorpio glyph is also pointing upward. Ah, yes. So Scorpio right before Sagittarius also has an arrow and it's pointing upward as well. And I do like that he brings in the optimism aspect of Sagittarius and this Jupiterian energy that's very expansive and positive and kind of just abundant. I think of abundance when I think of Jupiter and I think of there is though, there is value in outward motion as well. And I think that which emanates outward has come from the center. The radiance of the sun or something like that, that's something that I think of when I think of Jupiter. And I think this overarching optimism that comes from Sagittarius basically is there to help us to find our center and to go into these inner realm so that we can, as Emily was saying, use life as a teacher or tap into our inner teacher, which is the ultimate teacher after all. This upward optimism that maybe you can see in Sagittarius with its relationship to Jupiter is actually contrasted very nicely and deliberately with the next sign, which is Capricorn. And now we're dealing with Saturnian symbolism with Capricorn. And so instead of this expansive dynamic, instead of this masculine dynamic, we're actually now dealing more with a contracting dynamic and more of a feminine dynamic as well. And interestingly enough, I just brought up the arrow pointing upward with the Scorpio glyph. He brought up the arrow pointing upward with the Sagittarius glyph. With the Capricorn glyph, we now have an embedded downward arrow. And even when you look at the card that corresponds with Capricorn, it's the devil card, and in the right-of-weight version, there's actually several hidden downward arrows. And even with the glyph of fire, which relates to Sagittarius, we're dealing with an upward arrow. And then when we're dealing with the glyph for earth, which relates to Capricorn, we're dealing with the downward arrow. So kind of interesting. There's a nice sort of interplay between these two signs like that. Yeah, I like that. Okay, with all of that out of the way, this is the end of our Sagittarius episode. Thank you so much for everyone who contributed something, including our regulars, of course. I really encourage you guys to check out their work. All of their links will be in the description. And thanks to everyone who contributed a shorter voicemail. It was all well received, and I think that this was a fantastic episode. We will see you next month for a show on Capricorn. Yes, looking forward to the next one. Thank you, everybody, and happy birthday to Sarah. Yes, indeed. Happy birthday, Sarah, and all of the other Sagittarius out there. Okay, this concludes the live recording, Michelle and I made on Tuesday, December 2nd. What a fun episode this was. Once again, I'm incredibly grateful to our regular contributors and voicemail submitters. Symbolism can contain endless interpretations, perspectives, and insights, as you well know. So it really helps to have a variety of opinions and angles to approach a topic like one of the astrological signs. But with that said, as always, a huge thank you to everyone who submitted a voicemail, especially our astrological symbolic dream team, which includes Emily Ridout, Katrina Emanuel, Sarah Henlin. And of course, Josh with a branch is without a doubt part of the symbolic studies family as well. Emily Ridout can be found at astroyoga.org or Emily Ridout.com. Sarah's Instagram can be found at Sarah_Henlin. That's S-A-H-R-A_H-E-N-L-I-N, if you want to follow her posts. Katrina can be found at KatrinaEmanuel.com. That's K-A-T-R-I-E-N-A-E-M-M-A-N-U-E-L.com, or you can follow her substack, the Venus Diaries. Josh with a branch has a link tree, which you can find in the description. Also, I have to mention it. In case you weren't aware, I am available for terror readings, study sessions, and graphic design services. I say this all the time, but graphic design is actually how I found symbolism. If your project could use a symbolic consultant, or creative, please let me know. As always, for exclusive content, head on over to patreon.com/symbolicstudies or symbolicstudies.com/secrets. Without a doubt, this is the best way to keep up with everything I have to offer, and it's just five bucks a month. Links to all of the symbolic studies accounts across the internet can be found at symbolicstudies.com, and that's going to do it for this episode. We'll see you next month with a show on the symbolism of Capricorn. Until then.