Stick Your Head Out of the Car Window — It’s Sagittarius Season

To understand the Sagittarius, look no further than the exuberant joy of a dog with their head thrust from the window of a speeding car. Tongue out, ears flapping, they display the almost comical canine ecstasy of their total immersion in the sights and smells hurtling by. Yes, it’s reckless, it’s dangerous, it’s life, damn it; let’s live!

Symbolized by the archer, a centaur with the upper body of a human and the lower body of a horse, Sagittarius is the literal horse girl of the zodiac. And, like the centaur’s arrow flying to lands unknown, they are on a quest for knowledge and experience outside of their present understanding. Scorpio season may have handed us the truth, but what does it all mean? Of course, we don’t need to ask the Sagittarius; they are already one hour deep into their treatise on the matter. 

Sagittarius is ruled by Jupiter, the king of the gods and the planet of “yes” ( every “no” will be issued in Capricorn season). Jupiter can also signify where an unconscious desire for more can manifest in excess, hubris, and fanaticism. The creative vigor of this fire sign is related to their ability to stretch the mind, to imagine new possibilities, and even worlds. Steven Spielberg, Walt Disney, and C.S. Lewis are all examples of Sagittarian world-builders who are known for their work featuring talking animals, gargantuan sharks, dinosaurs, alien visitors, and Goofy — who’s definitely a dog likely to a spontaneous car ride.

Sagittarius season arrives as the sun makes its final descent to the shortest day of the year at the winter solstice. The buoyant optimism of this fire sign is here to light our way through the darkest nights of winter (or the nine circles of hell and the seven terraces of purgatory, aka seasonal affective disorder). Straddling the existential void between the nihilistic qualities of darkness and the redemptive turn toward the light, a Sag knows that the only route to the celestial spheres of heaven (or the light of the summer sun) is up.

Sag John Stewart has a career that reflects the passionate Sagittarian search to understand and share knowledge through his political and social commentary on The Daily Show and The Problem With Jon Stewart. Known for implementing a dogs-in-the-office policy at The Daily Show, Stewart has since devoted his time to caring for neglected animals with his wife, Tracey, a vocal animal rights activist and author.

The inflationary aspect of Jupiter can be observed in the hyperbolic — veering into camp — presentation of female sexuality by fellow centaurs Anna Nicole Smith, Christina Aguilera, Nikki Minaj, and Britney Spears. Spears welcomed a new puppy and kitten into her home last year, pronouncing her love for the animals on Instagram in a characteristically verbose, stream-of-consciousness-punctuation-laden post. In her recent memoir, The Woman in Me, she brings up animals as a positive force in her life, even on her hardest days.

Look to the staunch fan-based devotion of the Britney Army, the Swifties, and perhaps most notoriously, Nikki Minaj’s Barbs, for a demonstration of the evangelical leanings of this fire sign. Swift met and fell in love with her youngest cat, Benjamin Button, while filming the music video for “Me” (immortalized in this heart-warming behind-the-scenes video), which also features Olivia and Meredith.

While Sagittarius has a reputation for faith-based sermonizing, we all have skin in the game here. All the things we desire, all the things we fear, all the things we love are rooted in faith and belief in something. This season invites us to be intrepid explorers in our own lives, to eat, drink, and be merry, to laugh at our own jokes, and to find the audacity to believe that life has meaning and is moving somewhere. So, let’s thrust our heads out the window and take the world in.