By Len Wallick

What passes for immortality in our time is attained by those who set young imaginations on fire all over the world so as to live longer in culture than in body. Such is the case for two of the most widely influential figures of our time, Bruce Lee and Jimi Hendrix — both double Sagittarians born on Nov. 27.

Jimi Hendrix

Sagittarius is the third of three so-called fire signs, following Aries and Leo. As such, Sagittarius represents the most evolved expression of the fire element in astrology — evoking spiritual inspiration and emblematic of the highest aspirations.

You can grasp the symbolism of superlative fire by Sagittarius’ ruling planet: Jupiter, the largest planet in the solar system, named after the ruler of ancient Rome’s pantheon of deities. Hence, it is not surprising that two of the most surpassing modern immortals were Sagittarius twice over in their natal astrology.

Bruce Lee was born on Nov. 27, 1940, in San Francisco, California. Jimi Hendrix was born on the same day two years later in Seattle, Washington. Both were born early enough in the morning to have Sagittarius as both the rising and solar sign in their natal charts. Hence, both were double Sagittarians.

The ascendant (or rising) sign and the Sun are two of the three most important points in any natal chart, along with the Moon.

The Sun represents (among other things), consciousness. The ascendant, (also among other things) corresponds with an apparent reason for undertaking an earthly incarnation expressed physically as a distinguishing proficiency or trait.

In their combination, a Sun and ascendant in Sagittarius correlated with an evident drive for both Jimi Hendrix and Bruce Lee to distinguish themselves as different and original. Tellingly, both are known by names other than those given at birth. Also notable is that in distinguishing themselves Bruce and Jimi polarized people, predominantly along generational lines.

Bruce Lee

As a rule, those who were inspired by Jimi Hendrix and Bruce Lee were and continue to be the youth of the world. Young people tend to rebel against the established order they were born into, and as part of normal human development, choose means to express their individual and collective passions, which differ from those handed down by elders.

The subject of passions is meaningfully addressed by another layer of natal astrology Lee and Hendrix had in common: being born with the Moon and Mars in water signs.

The three astrological signs associated with water (Cancer, Scorpio and Pisces) constitute a steamy complement to the triumvirate of fire signs. What fire is to spirituality, water is to intuition. Where inspiration burns, emotions also flood. The hot thirst of aspirations is quenched only by satisfaction. In the combination is something of what sets humanity apart from both machines and other biological beings.

The energy associated with Mars is (in the words of Robert Hand) “a fundamental part of the ego drive.” The Moon, for its part, is well known for its association with emotional attachments. Put a natal Mars and a natal Moon in water signs, then combine with the Sun and ascendant in fiery Sagittarius, and the astrological native is not likely either to express or provoke indifference.

Finally, at least some of their appeal to youth is partly attributable to the tragic fact that neither Jimi Hendrix nor Bruce Lee ever grew old.

Jimi died on Sept. 18, 1970, in London. Lee passed from this mortal coil on July 20, 1973, in Hong Kong. Both were still young by anybody’s standards.

Hence, every surviving image of Bruce Lee and Jimi Hendrix speaks to immortal qualities that persist in those who were born long after their death. Qualities taken up by those who have long been inspired to emulate and honor the memory of two virtually immortal and doubly Sagittarian spirits.

See charts for both Hendrix and Lee below.

View glyph key here.

View glyph key here.

Mercury enters tropical Sagittarius in direct motion at 9:26 pm EST tonight (02:26 UT tomorrow) as a messenger, not as a passenger. Planets move through signs, and in doing so bring their archetypal messages to express through a given sign’s ‘nature’ (or ‘signature’, if you will) as an example of change manifesting in your life.

Perhaps you should take the occasion to at least think about emulating Mercury by your example. After all, you are here, and existence is so much more meaningful with a purpose.

One question rational discourse cannot resolve is whether you came here with a purpose that preceded your existence, or whether purpose is something you bring to being here. Nonetheless, it makes sense to assume nothing you can’t readily prove. Centuries ago a fellow named Rene Descartes covered the first base for you with a premise never disproved: “I think, therefore I am.”

Even so, it’s often the path of least resistance to ride along as a passenger with how others think. It requires conscious effort to get off the bus upon occasion, actually making it your purpose to convey yourself. Mercury’s ingress to Sagittarius tonight is just such an occasion. 

Among versatile Mercury’s many roles in astrology (beyond its mythic image as a messenger) is a representation of how you think. Accordingly, astrology posits that Mercury changing signs indicates some sort of corresponding change of mind is in order.

You don’t need any astrologer to tell you the nature of your thoughts since Mercury re-entered Scorpio (following its last retrograde of 2014) on Nov. 8. However, it would be implicitly helpful if you were to demonstrate a capacity to get off the Scorpio thought-bus and be open to changing how you think with Mercury’s ingress to Sagittarius tonight.

It would also be explicitly helpful if your being open-minded were to serve as an example for others to emulate after Mercury’s implied shift of expression upon entering Sagittarius.

Since most of us cannot assume to read your mind, being an example means being a messenger and expressing yourself as somebody who is open to how others think, somebody who is simply willing to change.

Simply being open to changing your mind may not seem like an exceptional message, but it is. It’s emblematic of what Mercury is doing tonight, and Mercury is profound company to keep.

Indeed (as well as in word), when you consider some of the human company you might be keeping today, a lot of what you see and hear is likely to be from those who have made up their mind.

By simply being open to how others think, you will be the exception among those who have made it their purpose merely to take exception. At the end of the day, it is only by setting such a simple yet profound example that anything or anybody is likely to change.

And change, once started, tends to acquire a momentum as others join in. So, unless you think the world is fine the way it is right now, please consider to what extent you are a passenger in it all. What purpose you might serve by simply moving out of a previous signature and into another, like Mercury the messenger?

Offered In Service

Len is available for astrology readings. You can contact him at lenwallick [at] gmail [dot] com.

With the Sun newly in Sagittarius and Mercury about to join it — and both squaring Neptune in Pisces — the sky is urging some caution lest you run (or drive) faster than you really need to and hit a slippery patch. That’s a metaphor for human interactions and your inner thought process, but consider taking it literally, too — especially if yo live in the U.S. Today is the busiest travel day of the year thanks to tomorrow’s Thanksgiving holiday.

Photo by Amanda Painter

As Eric Francis wrote in Monday’s Astrology Diary, “Anything square Neptune is slippery, and with the Sun, the bigger they are the more slippery the floor.” He adds that Neptune squares “urge caution, awareness and the gathering of facts. They especially urge keeping a grip on your own idealism and ungrounded expectations.”

If you ever hope or expect that your family will be any different at holidays compared to how they usually are — and then get disappointed — re-read that last sentence. Sun-Neptune aspects lean toward believing what you want to believe, regardless whether it’s true or not. That quality is critical to notice in matters outside of family, too.

Mercury enters Sagittarius at 9:26 pm EST Thursday. Mercury in Sadge generally indicates a quick but potentially unfocused mind, one that is thinking so far ahead about the big picture that it misses the details. It’s also prone to foot-in-mouth disease; its saving grace is that it’s sincere and cannot stand deception.

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Jupiter and Saturn are taking their time, each in their own way. So, it may seem, is humanity taking its time to decide what we will be. It’s a process in which every one of us is involved, like it or not. Each in our own way we are determining more than just our individual fates — we are determining the fate of our kind.

It’s not a simple thing to be living now. Nonetheless, it is a great privilege, and a great responsibility you have accrued simply by being alive.

From the cold streets of Ferguson, Missouri, to hot, parched desert battlefields there is both a great raising and a great lowering going on. For as many as are rising above their fear all over the world, there are also many lowered by fear. The net result is taking its time — but like Jupiter and Saturn, not taking forever.

Closer to the Sun than Jupiter and Saturn are the personal planets — Mercury, Venus and Mars — making their appointed rounds swiftly to mark our years. Farther from the Sun, from Uranus outward, are planets of history, distinguishing centuries and even millennial cycles by their own circulations.

In between are Jupiter and Saturn, the inter-personal planets by which decades are determined and generations are judged.

Right now, Jupiter and Saturn are taking their time coming to some astrologically implicit conclusions, giving each and all of us some extra time in the bargain. And a bargain it is, the nature of which each and all of us will determine in the months to come.

In four short months, Jupiter has traversed more than two-thirds of the way through tropical Leo. In recent weeks, however, Jupiter’s progress has slowed practically to a stop as a prelude to a five-month-long retrograde (beginning on Dec. 8), which will enforce a review of nearly half of Jupiter’s advancement so far.

Saturn, for its part, is about to conclude more than two years of slogging through the waters of Scorpio to refresh its spirit in the fires of Sagittarius on Dec. 23. Nevertheless, it is in Scorpio for nearly seven more weeks, and a retrograde next year will compel Saturn’s return — allowing Scorpio to collect what it is justly owed before Saturn is finally free.

So it is that in the immediate future of the inter-personal planets time will be taken, and given. The question is what you will do with the time being given to you.

Will you apply the awareness astrology offers to raise your own and that of others? Or will you lower yourself to indifference as if that will change anything?

The late, great astrologer Rachelle (“Rockie”) Gardiner often preached that, “patience is the key to heaven.” By that pithy observation she did not invoke a mythic key to pearl-encrusted gates.

Rather, she meant that none of us can make the planets, nor their apparently synchronized earthy cycles move any faster. She implied that each and all of us are best served by taking the time given by the heavens gratefully and using it wisely to access what of heaven Earth does indeed offer.

So how will you take your time during the season to come? That’s your question to answer, along with the rest of us, every one, as the heavens patiently watch.

Offered In Service

Len is available for astrology readings. You can contact him at lenwallick [at] gmail [dot] com.