Western zodiac
Sagittarius
Sagittarius Nov 22 – Dec 21 (approximate) · Fire · Mutable
You aim at the horizon and tell the story after.
Dates are approximate: sign transitions vary slightly by year and time; your exact sign is calculated astronomically.
Why Sagittarius is Sagittarius
Fire + Mutable + Jupiter
Fire concerns expression and drive; Mutable signs adapt and distribute; Jupiter is the classical planet of expansion, belief and generosity. Together they produce the Sagittarius emphasis on distance, meaning and candour: a fire that moves. The tactlessness and the wanderlust come from the same recipe.
Sagittarius at a glance
- Element
- Fire
- Fire concerns action and expression: the drive to do, show and begin.
- Modality
- Mutable
- Mutable signs close a season and adapt; they change and distribute things.
- Degrees
- 240°–270° tropical zodiac
- Thirty degrees of the ecliptic, measured from the March equinox. Every sign is exactly thirty; the constellations behind them are not.
- Seasonal position
- Late autumn, Northern Hemisphere
- The tropical zodiac follows the seasons of the Northern Hemisphere. South of the equator the calendar dates are the same and the season is the opposite.
Sagittarius in detail
Strengths
Optimism and honest perspective: the tradition's summary of what the combination above is for.
Shadow / growth edge
Commitment, to a place, a person or a project past the fun part.
Relationships
Sagittarius is traditionally read as loving adventurously and truthfully. The classical caution is staying through the ordinary chapters.
Work and ambition
The tradition suits Sagittarius to teaching, travel and big-picture strategy: meaning first, then method.
Sagittarius as Sun, Moon and Rising
In modern Western astrology the Sun, Moon and Rising are often called the “Big Three”: the Sun is read through identity and direction, the Moon through emotional needs and instinct, and the Rising through how you enter the world. The same sign plays a different role in each.
- ☉ Sagittarius Sun
- What it describes: The sign the Sun occupied on your birth date. In modern Western astrology it is read through identity, vitality and direction; traditional astrology read it for the life's honour and the father, and by sect.
- How Sagittarius tends to express here: A Sagittarius Sun is traditionally read as identity built on meaning: freedom as the condition growth needs, and a question always pointed at the horizon.
- What it does not mean: It does not mean your whole personality is this sign. Nine other bodies and the houses have a say.
- ☽ Sagittarius Moon
- What it describes: The sign the Moon occupied at your birth. Modern astrology reads it through emotional needs and instinct; traditional astrology read it for the body, the mother, and the fluctuating conditions of a life.
- How Sagittarius tends to express here: A Sagittarius Moon is traditionally read as needing room to roam and something to believe in. Confinement, physical or emotional, is said to read as sadness.
- What it does not mean: It does not mean your feelings are fixed. It describes what tends to settle you, not what will happen to you.
- ↗ Sagittarius Rising
- What it describes: The sign rising on the eastern horizon at your birth, from the exact time and place. Traditionally the sign of the body and of how life meets you; in modern shorthand, presentation and approach.
- How Sagittarius tends to express here: Sagittarius Rising is traditionally read as an open, candid, often funny manner: people tend to trust it quickly and to hear the short answer before they asked for it.
- What it does not mean: It does not mean your entire personality is this sign. It is the door, not the house.
Sagittarius’s opposite: Gemini
Sagittarius and Gemini sit 180° apart, and both are Mutable: both move. Sagittarius looks for the big meaning far away; Gemini collects the small facts close by. The axis is about belief and information, and each sign thinks the other stops too soon.
Explore Gemini →The three decans of Sagittarius
A sign is thirty degrees wide, and the tradition has never treated all thirty as identical. Each splits into three ten-degree decans, roughly the first, middle and last ten days the Sun spends here. Two systems assign a planet to each decan and they disagree, so both are shown and named. Your decan is decided by your degree of Sagittarius, not your birthday; your natal chart gives it exactly.
Sagittarius I
0°–10° Sagittarius
Modern triplicity decan: Sagittarius · ruled by Jupiter. In the triplicity system the first third of Sagittarius emphasises the sign's own qualities, under its own ruler.
Traditional Chaldean face ruler: Mercury. In the older Chaldean face system these same ten degrees are assigned to Mercury.
Sagittarius II
10°–20° Sagittarius
Modern triplicity decan: Aries · ruled by Mars. In the triplicity system these degrees take a Aries colouring, the next sign of Fire, and Mars joins Jupiter in the reading.
Traditional Chaldean face ruler: Moon. In the older Chaldean face system these same ten degrees are assigned to Moon.
Sagittarius III
20°–30° Sagittarius
Modern triplicity decan: Leo · ruled by Sun. In the triplicity system these degrees take a Leo colouring, the third sign of Fire, and Sun joins Jupiter in the reading.
Traditional Chaldean face ruler: Saturn. In the older Chaldean face system these same ten degrees are assigned to Saturn.
The first is a common modern triplicity scheme: the three signs of the element in order, starting from this one. The second is the Chaldean face system, older and still standard in traditional and tarot work, which runs the seven visible planets in order of apparent speed through all thirty-six faces without regard to sign. Two books can give different decan rulers for the same degree without either being wrong; they are using different systems. AsterNym shows both rather than picking one quietly.
Famous Sagittarius charts
Public figures whose published birth date puts the Sun in Sagittarius:
Where does Sagittarius appear in your chart?
You may carry Sagittarius as your Sun, your Moon, your Rising, or in none of the three and somewhere else entirely.