So they stayed away for years and had a lovely time.
Considering all sorts of things - such as their earnestness, inquisitive natures,candor and independent personalities - and especially considering that this man and woman are both influenced by the Fire element - also both impressed at birth with the stamp of a masculine Sun Sign, their speech and actions likewise ruled by a masculine planet (Jupiter) - their relationship will never be dull.
Double Fire. Double Masculine. And last, but not least, Double Mutable.Which means they're both strongly inclined to frequently practice the verbal art of communication. They'll enjoy playing word games with each other, mostly based on a desire to discover the answer to the question of which of them gets to lead the elephants in the circus parade, and which one has to follow behind with a broom and (very large) dustpan, cleaning up the pachyderm droppings.
Do you find that harmless little allegory in poor taste? If so, I'm sorry, but after all, this chapter isn't being written for Virgos, Librans, Capricorns and the like. It's meant for Sagittarian men and women, and no Archer would draw back in distaste from a mere mention of pachyderm droppings. Not if they're typical Centaurs. Sagittarius is even more shockproof, if possible, then Aquarius (the elephant Water Bearers). In fact, I have a Sagittarian friend, a girl Archer, whose favorite and frequent expletive when she's annoyed or angry is:"Oh, shut up, and cow flops on your head!" (Sometimes she varies this with:"Oh, shut up, and cow pies on your head," depending on her mood.)
The male and female Archer will take turns giving each other lie detector tests, without benefit of a polygraph. Who needs a "Galvanic Skin Response Polygraph Machine?" Jupiter's own gigantic galvanic response is indication enough. They like to test each other with jokes and riddles too, to check out where each other stands, at any given time, morally, ethically, philosophically and intellectually.
HER: Okay, Humphrey, see if you can answer this riddle. A man was driving in a car, with his son. There was an accident, and the Father was killed instantly.The boy was taken to the emergency room of a hospital, where it was decided he needed immediate surgery to save his life. He was quickly
prepared for the operation, but the resident surgeon came into the room,took one look at the patient, and exclaimed, "I can't operate on this boy! He's my son."
HIM: That's an easy one. The boy was an adopted child, and the man killed in the car was his foster father. The surgeon was his actual Father. Right?
HER: Wrong. Guess again, darling. Boy, are you thick-headed.
HIM: Wait, I've got it now! They got the boy mixed up with another kid his size and age who was brought into the emergency room at the same time,and the second patient was actually the surgeon's son.
HER: YOU might as well give up. You'll never guess it. The surgeon was the boy's mother, you male chauvinist hog. It just never occurred to you that women are intelligent enough to be surgeons, did it? You think all women are flea brains. I want a divorce.
HIM: All women may not be flea brains, but you sure act like one sometimes.First off, that's a sick riddle. Second off, I thought you didn't approve of surgeons or surgery. You're always yapping about it. Besides, if you had kept still, I would have guessed. Who can think with you jabbering all the time? Now that you mention it, I think a divorce is a good idea.
HER: YOU think I talk all the time? Ha! That's really funny, coming from you.And that was not a sick riddle. It was an imaginary situation, so there was nothing negative about it. As for disapproving of surgery, all I've ever said is that about ninety percent of all operations aren't really needed. That doesn't mean I don't realize there are certain human emergencies,like broken bones, a ruptured appendix, and so forth, that require expert surgical attention. I'm only against the sadistic surgeons, who subconsciously enjoy cutting people - and those other ones who pay for their fancy cars and homes with the fat fees they get for performing wholesale and unnecessary appendectomies, tonsillectomies, hysterectomies, and even mastectomies. I'm perfectly aware that our own doctor is an intelligent,sensitive, compassionate man. The trouble is, you never listen to me - you're always interrupting. You've been impossible to live with since you started losing your hair.
HIM: IS that right? Well, you haven't been much fun to live with yourself since you started to get fat last year.
HER: That did it! You have twenty-four hours to pack your clothes and get out of here. And take your dog with you.
HIM: YOU have it backwards. You're the one who has twenty-four hours to pack your clothes and get out. I'm the one who pays the rent on this pup tent,not you. And you can take your dog with you when you go.
(Being Sagittarians, they each have a dog - maybe also a horse.)
Note to other Sun Sign readers: Don't fret. These two fiery lovers kissed and made up a few hours later, while they were both packing their bags (they'd each decided it was more humilating to be left behind than to leave). He impulsively hugged her, admitted she wasn't fat - told her she had been too thin before,that the few extra pounds she gained in her hips were flattering, and he had been only teasing. (He almost lost the game again when he mentioned her hips, but he managed to get away with it.) She affectionately stroked his hair,told him it was only his imagination that he was losing it, and even if he ever did, it would make him only more handsome. (He squeezed her harder.) Then she went on to remind him that American television star Telly Savalas, as Kojak,is completely bald, like Yul Brynner in The King and I, remarking that, in her opinion, both bald and balding men are powerful sex symbols, like that sexy Israeli general and statesman with the eye patch, Moshe Dayan, whose virile image has always simply knocked her out, and made her knees go weak (which very nearly started another fight between them).
Often, Sagittarians make matters only worse when they try to patch up a disagreement, by clumsily tripping over a brand-new goof, more awkward than the original one, in their anxiety to make things happy and cheerful again, like exasperating but lovable puppies - or colts. They'll both have to watch the tendency to exaggerate slightly, now and then. Jupiter is the planet of expansion, and his influence sometimes encourages Sagittarians to make everything just a trifle larger than Life. The other two Sun Signs inclined to exaggerate a little are Leo and Gemini (for markedly different reasons), but Sag is far ahead of them in the stretching department. If either the male or female Sag has a Leo or Gemini Moon Sign or Ascendent, things will occasionally grow quite a bit taller in the telling; otherwise, the Archers will keep the urge under control for the most part, but once in a while they must meet this seldom-mentioned Sagittarian test of their ruling planet, Jupiter. It's been kept quiet too long, and that's why I'm bringing it up, for their own good.
Listen, you two - with this big thing you have about telling the truth, don't you think you should be careful that Jupiter doesn't tempt you to tell a little more than the truth? That's the astrological test of worthiness, you know, for your particular Sun Sign (every Sun Sign has one) - the test of whether you'll permit your powerful urges involving truth and integrity to be distorted by exaggeration. I'll give you a hint. The temptation always comes in the form of a selfish desire to win a point or an argument at any cost. Don't pay the price of your integrity to win.
Nothing these two do will be done faintly or half-heartedly. Their double masculine vibration, channeled through the daring and challenge-loving Sagittarian essence, is bound to result in a close-knit relationship full of good things and bad things.... fun and fights and excitement and anger and thrills and laughter and tears and failures and victories. Like a huge, multi-colored afghan of rich experiences. Speaking of thrills (and spills), the girl Archer can expect this man, if he's a typical Centaur, to be the kind who likes to take a chance. Often,the more dangerous it is, the more he likes it. He'll probably enjoy sports with equal relish, whether as participant or spectator - and so, quite possibly,will she. The Jupiter vibration is sometimes so strong, it dominates most all other influences in a horoscope, even occasionally eclipsing other Sun Signs, for brief periods. I'll give her an example. It may not prove anything about her own Archer, but the purpose of an example is to explain things, not prove them.It will, at least, give her more than an inkling of her Jupiter man's daring nature,in case he's been hiding it from her.
Cleve Backster, the fellow who stirred up such a storm of controversy over what science has labeled the "Backster Effect," opening up the vista of primary cell perception - or if you prefer, the Fish who talks to plants via the polygraph,and made it respectable for us all to converse with our green friends - is a Sun Sign Pisces. However, there are several important planet positions in Sagittarius,including the Moon, in Cleve's birth chart. His horoscope also contains two of what in astrology are called Grand Trines: a Grand Trine in Water - and a Grand Trine in Fire. The way it worked out will fascinate any male Sag (or female Sag, for that matter).
Cleve grew up with a dread of drowning, a fear of fire and a terror of great heights. He lived with his trinity of phobias, nurtured by his Pisces Sun Sign.Then one day, when he was seventeen, his multiple Sagittarian planets and Sag Moon took command, bluntly informing his subconscious that the only way to remove his fears was to conquer them by accepting the challenge they offered.And so, his Neptune vibes trembling, but with his Sagittarian planets shoving him from behind, he perfected a thrilling act of daring and endurance at Lake Mohawk, in New Jersey, which he later performed repeatedly, for two summers,before large audiences in the Amphitheatre of Flushing Meadows, New York.Night after night, Cleve ignited his sweat pants, then dove, like a human torch,
from seventy-five feet in the air into a pool of water blazing with leaping flames(gasoline had been poured in and lit seconds before the stunt began).
How about that for fulfilling a horoscopic double Grand Trine in Fire and Water! It's also a perfect illustration of the Sagittarian compulsion to take a risk and accept a self-dare. But Cleve's not sure whether his performance was an act of cowardice or bravery (Pisces modesty). For you see, all the audiences required or expected of him was the dive itself, which was certainly thrilling enough. But back in New Jersey, when he was practicing his act, as he was standing up there seventy-five feet in the air, gazing dizzily down at the water and fire below, his Pisces Sun Sign refused to allow him to take the plunge. He was terrified. That's when the idea struck him to first spray his sweat pants with gasoline and ignite them. When his rear end caught fire, says Cleve, his reluctance to dive disappeared in an instant. There was nowhere to go but down - and in a hurry! Actually, the idea of setting his backside afire was planted in his mind by the practical-joke-loving influence of his Moon in Sagittarius.
Years later, in 1968, Backster's odd blend of Sag curiosity and Pisces perception caused him to light a more serious fire on what one might term the"backside" of stuffy science. Erudite but dogmatic men, like Taurean Dr. Arthur W. Galston of Yale, are still attempting to delay the detonation of the bomb Cleve rather prankishly dropped into their unprepared laps, a bomb that threatens to explode the revelation of the profound theory of the Oneness of the Universe - and each day, the fuse burns shorter!
The female Archer may as well prepare herself to be the object of a few similar mischievous pranks from her Sag lover or husband, and she'd be wise to leave his sense of fun and games intact.
Unless one or both of them had the Moon or Ascendent in a Water or Earth Element at birth, this man and woman are not what would be called cautious with cash. They'll cheerfully spend it, invest it, lend it and gamble it. As cheerfully as they earn it, for it's a rare Archer, male or female, who will remain in a job or career he or she finds to be distasteful. They're quick to quit a boring occupation and move on to one they find exciting. Sometimes, they'll leave in outrage over some injustice, sometimes because they've been insulted - or because(more likely) they've insulted the boss. Sag doesn't mince words. Yet neither he nor she will be unduly upset over a temporary period of unemployment, or be overly concerned over the risk in changing careers. Both of them are optimistic
about the future and seldom gloom around, anticipating a rainy day. Symbolically,Sag expects sunshine, and nearly always gets it.
Both vibrating to the Fire element, these two probably will have few adjustments to make in the achievement of sexual fulfillment. Unless there's a negative aspect between his Sun and her Moon (or the converse), which may create some disharmony, requiring a compromise of sexual attitudes, Sag and Sag will trustingly reach out toward one another, with no fear of rejection, and not be disappointed. They'll feel an instinctive sort of familiarity in their touching, a mutual understanding of each other's desires which doesn't need to be expressed in words. Affectionate bear hugs, laughter and pillow fights are often part of the lovemaking ritual between two playful Centaurs. There's a warmth and spontaneous joy to their passion, and somehow, they feel comfortably "at home" in each other's arms. Their major sexual problem might be jealousy, the hurt or anger felt when one of them discusses an old love affair the other one fears might be renewed in the future. Both of them require and demand freedom as an individual; yet they aren't always willing to return the favor. (It's called selfishness.) Sagittarius isn't normally an overly jealous sign, but when two Archers get together, start asking frank questions, and start receiving equally frank answers, if they allow the inquisition to go too far, the resulting discussions might give even a stone statue a twinge of jealousy.
There could be religious arguments between them, in the beginning, but with a little caution these could bring them both closer to a comprehension of what Life is all about, and gradually closer to each other. Neither of them will stand for being left behind while the other one goes out in search of adventure.And so, they'll have to arrange to do everything together, when possible even when it's impossible. Separate vacations for this man and woman, especially if one or both of them have the Moon or Ascendent in an Air Sign, won't increase the stability of their relationship but may very well have a surprise ending, with one (or both) forgetting to return. As a team, they can feel sure that their intimacy will deepen over the years. But if they take a chance on one of those"open marriages," it could be one of the rare times they lose a gamble.
Traveling somewhere together is always and forever a powerful magic for this couple - even if only overnight, sharing a sleeping bag, deep in a pine forest, near cold, clear rivers where the wind smells good and the stars are bright overhead. Or some faraway, unreal place, like Siam or Scotland. (Scotland is unreal if you've never been there. Any place is unreal if you've never visited it, even Brooklyn.) Regular intervals of moving, searching chasing the swallows, and waking at dawn to a coral-streaked sky over a strange, cobblestoned street.... is a necessary life-style for two Sagittarian lovers or mates.And if the boss won't say "yes" to a double vacation, when those wings within are beating insistently, then they'll just have to give notice, and quit. Don't worry.Jupiter luck will drop just the right new job or career into their laps when they return. Want to bet?
