Carpe Diem #168, Sagittarius (The Archer) (Zodiac 9)

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Yesterday we had our second Special of this Carpe Diem month and now we are going further with our Zodiac Days of Carpe Diem. Today we stop at Sagittarius (The Archer), our ninth sign in the Zodiac. As I was preparing this episode I thought about a novel written by Paulo Coelho, 'The Way of  the Bow', in which he describes his lessons for shooting with the Bow in the Zen Buddhistic way. So this sign has a fine line with haiku. As you maybe know, one of the rules of haiku composing is a Zen-Buddhistic layer. So Sagittarius can be seen as a Buddhistic sign in the Zodiac.

Sagittarius November 22th - December 21th

Sagittarius is the sign which leads us into the cold dark part of the year, the Winter. It ends his journey along the sky on the Winter Solstice (December 21th).

Let us look at the meaning of Sagittarius.

The symbols for Sagittarius are the hunter and the centaur, a mythical half-man, half-horse. This sign symbolizes the search for wisdom; this is the sign of the philosopher and the explorer. They have an appetite for learning and travel. 
Such people prefer to be footloose and fancy free, however should they become involved in a relationship they make it as enjoyable and as much fun as possible. Normally they are very gregarious, but they will be glad to find the time for that special relationship. 
They concentrate all their attention on whatever they are doing at the moment, and seem to see no other way but theirs until their effort is made.
To have an open minded and intellectual curiosity means that these people are willing to learn about other people in an effort to understand them, while being trusting and open. High spirited and congenial, they are a gifted conversationalist, a wonderful storyteller, and a born entertainer.
One of their great difficulties lies within relationships. They are completely able to be faithful to two people at once. 
The men of this Sign nearly always marry on impulse and regret it afterwards, but they are too proud to show their regrets and too conventional to appeal to the courts for assistance, so they often pass for models of married happiness even when they are the most wretched. The women born in this Sign are, as a rule, the nobler of the two; they love to make their husbands successful and will sacrifice everything to that end. They are usually great church-goers. On the other hand both men and women when they settle down they usually treat themselves strictly. They refuse to let the relationship get stale and always look for ways to bring excitement into the union. 

My wife and my youngest son are both 'Archers'. In a way they are 'four hands on one belly', they can't without eachother. They have a very strong bond. The same strong bond as I have with my youngest daughter. By the way I am the real father of our youngest two kids, the oldest two are my stepkids, but they were very young when they came to live with me with their mother. So the oldest two kids are (in a strong way) also my 'real' kids.


deep concentration
looking straight forward to the target -
inhaling power

the arrow seeks its path
Inner Eye follows it, right in target -
exhaling power


A nice set of haiku (or senryu) inspired on the above mentioned novel by Paulo Coelho. That's our episode for today my friends. I hope you're inspired and will share your haiku on Sagittarius.
This prompt will stay on 'til April 13th 11.59 AM (CET) and I will post, Capricorn (The Sea-Goat), our next stop in our journey along the Zodiac, later on today around 10.00 PM (CET).