This post comes with an accompanying 10-minute video: https://www.instagram.com/p/DC9zdt8vrgf/
In addition, you may wish to listen to the accompanying episode of The Mountain Mystic Podcast: Be Guided to Your Inner Truth – The power of working with Sagittarius Fire
I invite you to take a moment with me to ground in. That is, to find yourself present in this moment here in your body:
- Find your feet on the floor / your seat in your chair. Feel into this physical connection with the surface holding you in this moment.
- Find your breath down in your body. I invite you to first find it in the 3D expansion of your ribs. Then, can you breathe even deeper down into your abdomen?
- Take several deep breaths down in your body as you are present to your connection with ground holding you here in this moment. Can you breathe deeply all the way down into your root?
Now that you have deepened into felt, present connection with self and the Earth you stand upon, I invite you to join me on a journey into Sagittarius, some of my favorite energy, as we move into the winter season.
To begin, take a moment to read this quote that I pulled from this month’s Stillness Event:
We live in a world over-consumed by the airy and fiery elements. This keeps us ungrounded, perpetually in our heads as we keep our focus on charging forward.
If you’re here, I can assume it’s because you know what it means to live in this imbalanced reality.
The consequence of ever-moving-forward is that we rip ourselves out of presence. What is here and now to be experienced: to be felt, to be witnessed, to be known? How could you possibly know if you are forever focused ahead and charging forward?
Now, ask yourself this:
Have you ever found yourself flying forward through life, racing up ahead in desperate longing for excitement in the new? What adventure awaits up ahead? What exists up there to be created, or to be experienced?
Have you ever found this longing tear you out of reality? Have you ever felt it rip you away from what is here? What is now?
Seriously, ask yourself these questions and be present to the answers… when you are ready, read on.
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Personally, I know this experience well. I know it because it is the energy that embeds itself in every facet of the modern reality that I was brought into and taught to live in:
- Keep pushing forward!
- Get ahead! Keep charging forward to get there!
- Be the best. Be special. And keep that fire raging so that you can get there!
- You can accomplish anything if only you muster the will to get there. Stay focused and keep pushing forward!
And, personally, I know this experience because it is wired into every cell of my being as the fiery Sagittarius that I fully embody.
In today’s post, my goal is to speak to the Sagittarius energy for the gifts and the shadow that it brings. I know we aren’t all a Sagittarius. However, we do all have these qualities within us to some degree. Plus, if you are reading this near my time of posting, the Sagittarius energy is loud in the conscious collective, which means it is an energy that is ripe to tune into.
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Sagittarius Fire – The Shadow
Years ago, I remember myself burning in my own fires. I mean, yea – I had sure accomplished a lot as I’d set forth on a whole list of serious adventures. I had two shiny Biomedical Engineering degrees. I’d spent a summer as a neuroscience researcher under the head of the Bioengineeering department in a red brick building coated in ivy. I’d established myself as an ultra running athlete and rock climber. I’d ran back and forth across the Grand Canyon in a day! Oh, and all the great mountains I’d stood atop! So! Many! Mountain! Tops!
I’d experienced much greatness on these adventures; and yet, something was off. So off, in fact, that the fires that had sent me flying through life eventually began to consume me.
Ungrounded. Burning.
It is not a skillful state.
It is not a pleasant state.
Yea. I can assure you, it really sucks to be consumed by fire.
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Now, don’t get me wrong. I actually LOVE Sagittarius fire as I’ve gotten to truly know it. And, believe me when I say that I was dealt a hand with a great deal of depth to work with Sagittarius energy. It turns out that not only am I a Sagittarius, but I am a 7x Sagittarius with a sun, moon, rising, north node, and 3 planets in Sagittarius! Let me tell you, that’s a whole lot of fire to work with!
But not just any fire.
Sagittarius fire is of a certain flavor. Yes, it is the kind that longs for adventure and expansion, propelling me ever-forward and outward! It is the kind of fire that propels me to be running through the forest, and up mountains, and to sign up for wild events like 100 miles that demand I climb mountain after mountain after mountain!
More than this, Sagittarius fire is a fire that directs us towards something important. What is important? Well, that’s a great question that Sagittarius can help guide you into.
Working with the power of Sagittarius Truth Fire
What is it that matters to you? Where are you going and why are you working so hard to get there? As you take those steps along the way, where is it that you are placing your attention? Where is your gaze cast? What is your mind set on? What is your heart open to?
What is it that matters to you as you move through this life? What is important. What is true for you?
These are the types of questions that consume me in every moment as I guide myself forward through any sort of journey I find myself on.
Now, the problem is that, once upon a time, I didn’t know how to answer these for myself. I only knew how to call upon pieces of what I’d learned about the world and what life should be. Furthermore, I only knew how to call upon small, individual pieces of myself to direct my to where I believed I should best be going.
Working with Sagittarius has helped me to live differently, in a way that skillfully directs me forward in true alignment with all parts of self. With this, Sagittarius helps me to fully embody the fiery truth of my self in my unique human experience on planet Earth.
The following practice will help you to work with Sagittarius energy, and with the elemental nature of Earth, herself, to ground you into a more skillful way of working with this powerful flavor of fire.
Practice
Take a moment and breathe down into your body. Again, find that grounded connection with your root in contact with the physical surface holding you in this moment. Really, feel into it: bring your full attention to these sensations rooting your body into the solid ground beneath you. Continue to breathe deep down into this point.
As you rest your focus here, I invite you to turn your attention towards the fire element. For me, I find it right below my navel, resting atop my root as it connects to the chair holding me in this moment.
Breathe into this fire, but do so with gentle care. This isn’t a breath meant to ignite, but instead, to connect. Allow this breath to illuminate this fire, as if the light of the fire itself is starting to glow with a greater intensity. Not the kind of intensity that sends flames roaring up through your body; but the kind that enlivens embers.
Stay focused here for several breaths, connecting with these internal fires of your own that burn within your depths. Can you connect with them in a way that brings life without causing flames to roar within?
Stay present here as long as you desire. Is there anything that your inner fires illuminate for you? Any guidance for the journeys you are taking in life? Any journeys that you are currently taking that these fires are telling you to change course away from? Any fires of desire that are lighting up guiding you on a new path forward?
Note: You can go deeper into this practice in The Mountain Mystic Podcast through a guided meditation practice
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A most important lesson: Ground in your fire
There is something often overlooked about the Sagittarius sign that goes beyond this fiery arrow racing through the sky. While we often take our attention to that bow and arrow, what we don’t commonly recognize is that Sagittarius is a centaur: a man embodied as a horse.
Take a moment and feel into that centaur for me:
- Feel into that horse: four legs grounding a strong, muscled body down onto the Earth.
- Feel into that upper body of a man: strong and agile as it wields the bow that will send that arrow flying through the air!
We like to focus on the arrow. It sends us flying off on exciting adventures towards unknowns that promise an adventurous journey of expansion! In this, feel that fiery element. Feel as it roars with excitement with an energy that moves you into that which is greater than here and now!
Feel the power within that fiery arrow!
And, as you do, take a moment to sit with me in this powerful lesson. Because, if my trials have taught me anything, it is this:
Before you embody that arrow – the one full of fire racing through life chasing the new and the exciting – you best damn well be grounded, connected, present on this Earth and in your body.
What does it mean to be grounded, connected, present in your body upon this Earth?
Take another moment to feel into your own internal fires burning within. Connect with that heat, and with that energy alive within. You might feel how it wants to move you, how it wants to drive you forward into something worth moving towards!
However, instead of racing towards that forward propulsion, I invite you to instead turn your attention deeper. Can you feel deeper into the ground beneath you? Again, it’s that rooted connection with the physical surface holding you in this moment; and, from this space, even deeper down into the Earth beneath you:
- can you feel into the dirt?
- the rocks?
- the roots?
- the soil?
Feel deeply down into the Earth beneath you as you hold these fires that burn within. As you rest in this space, know that it is simply your attention (your consciousness) that is here aiding in the grounding of these fires.
For further grounding techniques, I invite you into a wide range of offerings. My Deep Roots Guided Meditation is free for you and will take you deep into self; and, into connection with Earth, herself.
Or, you may wish to go evener deeper with my Embodied Foundations Workshop Series.
To continue reading into some peculiar ways of working with Sagittarius energy, I invite you to read on…
Further thoughts on Sagittarius and the Zodiac as a construct
The power of one particularly magical centaur
There is a fun phenomena about the Sagittarius centaur that I recognized recently, and it is the fact that he takes form of one particularly powerful archetype: that of Chiron, the wounded healer. Chiron comes to us from Greek Mythology, and you’ll find many different stories around his myth and the way he shows up in the world.
For me, Chiron is a centaur that is devoted to embodiment. Chiron doesn’t keep anything separate from life. Chiron embodies life as he stands willing to feel it all!
How willing are you to feel it all? Yes, the good! How we long to feel more joy and fulfillment as we cast ourselves forward into exciting adventures!
And, along the way, are we willing to feel the rest of life: the pain and the grief; the wounds. Are you willing even to feel into those wounds?
Chiron shows us how to hold all of life – especially our wounds! – within our felt, present experience of reality. More than this, he shows us how we can stay grounded, present with even our deepest wounds, and still charge forward!
Yes, we can be free to continue to pursue life’s adventures even as we are held back by the pains and woes of it all. However, if we are going to do things this way, we best be skillful with each step along the way!
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Working with Chiron, I am guided to reflect on a powerful question: How often do our desires to go racing forward stem from an inability to be present with what is?
I remember back to a time when some of my greatest physical accomplishments were manifesting. I was climbing harder than ever before! I was pushing the distance ultra running. I was finally free to pursue mountaineering at a level that matched my heart’s desires!
In a way, I was living it up chasing down dreams and desires. But was I truly embodying the joy and fulfillment that is here to be received on this human journey? I can tell you that I wasn’t; and, I can tell you that I wasn’t particularly willing to stare at the truth of the wounding that was happening, either.
Chiron teaches us that we can’t fully live life if we are keeping ourselves distanced from our wounds. Cut off from felt connection with wound, we also cut ourselves off from the flow of life! By finding the grounding that allows us to bring our wounds back into our felt, conscious awareness, we become free to charge forward along the paths that are truly meant for us!
No longer do we rush forward on the paths of distraction; but, instead, we walk with skill: grounded and present to all of life for all that it is!
Back in a time when I was at my greatest wounding, I recognize the role I played by refusing to be present to what was happening in my reality. I try my best not to judge myself for this: we are all just doing the best we can in each moment. And, when life becomes dark, we do the best we can to navigate difficult and painful terrain. Sometimes this means distancing ourselves from the wound. This can be temporarily helpful.
However, as we find ourselves moving through life, are we able to turn towards that which is painful or otherwise unpleasant so that we can know life for all that it is? Can we stand embodied, present with all that is here and now? Can we feel life so that we can know life? And, in truly knowing life, are we able to move forward with far greater skill?
Learning from the Shadow of Sagittarius
I founded Upward Slopes back in 2020 based on my awakening to the realization that so much of life in the modern world is spent in devotion to getting away from “here” so that we can be “there”
I awakened to this realization during a time deep in my own burning as the world around me simultaneously burned in its own flames. Yea, 2020 was a grand time of showing what happens when we spend life ignoring the truth of what is here; what is real.
We can push forward for a time. We can disengage from what we don’t want to feel; what we don’t want to know as truth. However, at some moment, that truth will surface. And, if we continue to do things the way we’ve been doing them in this world, all those hidden and dis-embodied woundings will continue to burn.
Can we learn to walk with greater skill, with deeper knowing, so that we create a brighter and more beautiful world in the here and now. Truly manifest without the hidden bullshit? This is the vision here as The Mountain Mystic (previously Upward Slopes).
One last Sagittarius teaching (for today)
There is so much here in this world (and in our own bodies/minds/emotions/etc.) that we do not want to be present to. At the same time, there is so much potential out there that just seems so much more exciting!
We long to be that fiery arrow racing through the ethers off to something better.
The truth is, Sagittarius doesn’t care about getting anywhere. Sagittarius doesn’t care so much about a future point. All that Sagittarius cares about is the way that you get going to where you are getting to.
In other words, Sagittarius is all about how you take those steps forward as you expand and expand into a greater version of who you are meant to be.
We do not do this by keeping our focus on some distant point. We do this by becoming ever-more-fully embodied.
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A note on working with elements, the zodiac, and archetypes
As I mentioned up above, I am relatively new to working with the zodiac. It is only in the past few years (having gone through my recent Priestessing training) that I have been shown the powers of working with this particular framework (mental construct).
As I mention the words “framework” or “mental construct” recognize that the zodiac is one way of working with reality through a best attempt ability to understand reality. It isn’t definitive, but an open landscape to help us stay structured while simultaneously be playful and curious.
As a Biomedical Engineer, I was taught how to create and/or work with frameworks. We often called these “models” as our best-attempt constructs to understand reality. As an engineer, I was taught about the imperfections of such models. We can never fully hold Truth in our heads; rather, we can always only do our best to touch upon reality.
It is the same thing in the world of spirituality, even though in this space it is the norm to fight and argue over which model / ideology / framework is truly capital “T” Truth. That’s bullshit, guys. As humans, our minds are not made to hold “T”ruth. We are only ever meant to do our best; and, more importantly, to be humble enough to shift our beliefs as we come to know truth ever-more-deeply in each moment.
Because of this, when working with any sort of spiritual framework, I find it helpful is to detach from clear constructs with precise meanings and instead to allow ourselves to shift into the realm of play. Creativity is essential here. Because of this, I long to bring forth Zodiac and mythologies in a way that don’t have to precisely align with the constructs already in place “out there.” I long to bring them through in ways that are sparked and illuminated for me, here.
With this, I simultaneously understand the desire to be as clear and precise as possible and to ensure that the frameworks we are working with hold a certain validity. There is a power in holding clear to well-established constructs that hold within them a collective understanding of reality. And believe me when I say I cling to this desire to have clarity of mind and mental constructs! With a North Node in Sagittarius, this means I have a South Node in Gemini. My life path encompasses the mind and its relationship to Truth. I was born into this world with a need to be clear and precise in my head. I cling to structures that speak to clear meaning. And, with a South Node in this territory, I recognize that I, myself, am on a life-long journey of letting go of the need of my mind to have clear meaning and a realizing of what it means to embody Truth.
As a 7X Sagittarius, I recognize that the arrow isn’t one that is here to send me flying from one adventure to the next with limitless freedom; but instead, is more about that fiery direction sending me closer and closer to what is true.
What is true? A great question, one that will never be fully grasped by my mind, but instead is to be perceived through all the different intelligences of my whole being.
This is why I work with elements, and with archetypes, and with the zodiac. It helps me to grasp reality in ways that I wasn’t taught in my head/mind/mental focused version of reality that I learned as a student in school nor as a Biomedical Engineer.
Yes, the zodiac is mental construct: it helps our minds make sense of this world. More than this, the zodiac is a structure to be embodied. Experience the energies that it brings forth. Work with them not as an idea in your head but as an energy to be lived. Play with the zodiac in this way and witness the wonder that unfolds.