My all-time favorite documentary is Buck, which features renowned horseman Buck Brannaman.
People bring their difficult horses to him at clinics, but what he really is doing is “helping horses with people problems.”
He describes a horse as “a mirror to your soul. Sometimes you will like what you see, sometimes you won’t.”
Buck met his mentor, Ray Hunt, after graduating high school. He recounts how he saw Ray do more things in a couple minutes with a horse than he thought it was ever possible to do, even with the touchiest of colts.
“You could tell the horse truly understood what he was expecting of her. He could take those feet anywhere he wanted. They were his feet. It was just an extension of him. It was like a beautiful dance.”
I recently rewatched Buck and when I heard that description of Ray being one with the horse I immediately thought of the centaur symbol of Sagittarius.
Sagittarius is a yang fire sign located in the darkest period of the dark (yin) half of the year. Its centaur image represents the tension inherent in Sagittarius between the wildness of the horse and the rationality of the human.
Astrologer and Jungian analyst Liz Greene says in Astrology and Fate that woundedness is an integral part of Sagittarius:
Perhaps because of this wound, Sagittarius is able to offer hope and optimism to himself and others, rather than despite it.
Buck suffered severe physical abuse from his father as a child. When Buck’s football coach saw the scars on his back, he intervened and Buck and his brother were placed in a loving foster family.
Because Buck knows the horror of being dominated by force, he can detect the slightest shift in the horse’s body language or mental state. Blending his gentle human direction with the horse’s willingness creates a partnership greater than its parts—a true Centaur.
Buck insists that “an ordinary person can be extraordinary at this. But if you don’t have any guts, if you don’t have any try, you’d be damned lucky to [even] be ordinary.”
Just like horses are a mirror, so, too, are the planetary symbols. Sagittarius shows us where we’re learning to become the centaur—integrating wildness and wisdom, trusting the dance between instinct and direction.
Under this upcoming New Moon in Sagittarius you could ask: What needs your guts? What needs your try? Where is your wound quietly becoming your gift?
The horse is waiting. So is the teacher within you.
Consultations:
Astrology | Typestrology | Tarot and Type
Writing:
Subscribe to the Reading in Depth monthly newsletter about the depth psychology books I’m reading
Get weekly-ish blog posts for free by email or on Substack (also free)
