Linda Goodman's Sun Signs (51 page)

He'll enjoy the children more when they're older, but babies and toddlers might puzzle him a little. Sagittarius fathers usually love to take the youngsters on outdoor excursions. He may be closer to the boys and share their sports and activities, but he'll be tender with the girls. They'll find him more of a pal than a father image. The older they get, the closer they'll be to him. Now and then, his frankness may disturb them when they need privacy. Children are sensitive about their secrets, and their feelings may suffer from his curious questions and plain-spoken observations. Youthful escapades will amuse him, rather than anger him, but his very tolerance might keep them in line. He'll probably be strict only if they tell a lie. It will be one of the few occasions they'll feel his displeasure. Don't ignore him for the little ones. When he wants you to fly some kites with him, drop the diaper pins and the talcum, call a sitter (not your mother) and go.

The archer thinks with both his heart and his mind. He won't always be wise. Sometimes he'll be foolishly courageous. He'll stumble and fall, then get up and try again. But you'll forgive him for almost anything, because he'll set your heart free with a very great gift—an honest love.

She's not always going to say the kind of things you want to hear. Most of the time, she'll raise your eyebrows with her remarkable, flat statements and her embarrassing questions. But now and then she'll say something so special and splendid, it will make you feel like singing.

You may need a sample. Scene: Coffee shop. You've just gotten up the courage to tell her you love her, but before you can say it, she looks at you with wide-open, guileless blue eyes—or forthright, steady brown ones—and asks you curiously, “How do you feel about being so short? Does it make you neurotic or anything?” While you're gulping, trying manfully to recover, she'll add, “You shouldn't care about it. Lots of men were short. Like Napoleon. And Fiorello LaGuardia.” That's almost adding insult to injury, but before you get a chance to walk out, thinking no woman ever deserved such ungallant treatment more, she'll muse dreamily, “I hate men who look like bean poles. You're perfect. I noticed when we were walking over here tonight—we measure just right together.”

Sit back down. You're staying. For a long time. A friendly, frank Sagittarius woman has just wound herself around your heart with her own, peculiar brand of charm. She'll always be a little outspoken, because she sees the world exactly as it is, even while she's wearing those ridiculous, rose-tinted glasses. That, you must admit, is quite a talent. It's not everyone who can apply clear, reasonable logic to every situation, and retain the happy faculty of believing things will get better or else deciding to accept them for what they are.

Sagittarius females are regular Pollyannas. It will cut when she tells you she wishes you would make more money, but then she'll add, “Of course, too much money can make people selfish. Maybe it's lucky that you're poor.” Admittedly, it's sort of a left-handed optimism, but you'll get used to it. This woman will never lie to you. Sometimes, you may wish she would. Show curiosity about how she spends the nights you're not with her, and you'll get a detailed, perfectly honest report of the letters she writes to that handsome intern she met last summer on her vacation and how many dates she turns down on the phone. She may even relate her troubles with insomnia, brought on when she lies awake at night wondering if maybe what she feels for you is friendship instead of love. You'll feel like yelling at her, “For Pete's sake,
lie
a little once in a while, can't you? A man has his pride.” Don't yell too loud. You'll offend her, and she's not exactly non-combustible herself. Sagittarius females have been known to fly into some pretty fiery rages.

She will probably live alone. Sagittarius women are very independent, and both sexes have a strange aloofness to family ties. Maybe it's because they travel so much, they don't get home often enough to get to know their families well. Even if they only travel to the movies and girlfriends' houses, they're restlessly on the go. I don't want to frighten you, but I once knew a Sagittarius woman so unaware of the nuances of family relationships that she invited her rejected beau to come along on her honeymoon with her new husband. The poor thing looked so lonesome. He said he'd pay his own way. Why are you looking at her like that? Did she do something wrong?

There's one thing you'll have to learn right away, or the relationship will never get off the ground. When you want her to do something, ask her. Don't tell her. The cave man technique went out with Tarzan and Jane, as far as she's concerned. She enjoys being protected, but she doesn't want to be ordered around. Not even her mother gets away with that. Who are you, that you should top her mother? She may have an Aries mother, and if a Mars woman can't boss her around, no male on earth is going to do it. However, there's a queer twist to her nature. Although she dislikes being bossed, especially in public, when she's testing you for firmness, be firm. Jupiter women can't stand weak, wishy-washy men. If she gets too high-spirited and her clever tongue gets too sarcastic, or she threatens some action that really incenses you, give her a light touch of the Tarzan treatment. Just enough to keep her in line. Like “You do that and I'll break your neck.” She may react with surprising meekness if she thinks you're serious. A Sagittarius female has no intention of giving up her individuality for any male, but she kind of likes to know you think of her as a woman.

She may confuse you, but that's nothing to what she does to herself. Many a Sagittarius female mistakes friendship for love and love for friendship. If you're one of those old-fashioned men who prefer evasiveness and timidity in your women, you'd better look for another Bridge partner. This young lady has bright, frank ways with men, and she's not going to play any silly games of “Guess how I feel!” or “Guess what I think!” How she feels and what she thinks are identical with how she acts and what she says. Her outspoken bluntness naturally causes misunderstandings, and a good share of fiery battles, let alone hurt feelings, but it doesn't crush her spirit. Jupiter pride comes to the surface and rescues her in a crisis, allowing her to pass off her heartache as the biggest joke of the season. Inside, she may be weeping, but she'll employ such clever wit in answering the questions of friends about the break, that they'll decide the whole affair was a harmless flirtation on her part. Little will they guess how she soaks her pillow every night, wondering what she could possibly have said that fractured everything. It might have been when she told him not to stop by her apartment the time he called from the lobby around midnight—because she was “busy talking with a man who had a few problems.” Actually, the man was her brother-in-law, but with the peculiar Sagittarius twist of leaving out the core of the story, she neglected to mention that. Why should she have to explain herself? (All Sagittarians show a raging, righteous anger when their integrity is doubted.) Or it could have been when he asked her if she minded him bringing his little sister along to the movies and she blurted out, “Gosh, I hope that doesn't mean she's going to be hanging around all the time when we're married.” She may have sincerely liked the young woman, but the natural Sagittarian fear of being suffocated by in-laws brought on her thoughtless and forthright statement. Now she misses his sister as much as the man, but it's too late to explain what she meant. Besides, no one would understand.

Impasses like this are impossible for her to fathom, for all her logical mental processes, and often lead the Jupiter woman into a never-never land of romance, not knowing where the fire might flame up, or why, and afraid of being burned when it does. Then she'll play it too cool and be unable to take anyone seriously, least of all herself. She'll flirt openly, but without any intention of making it a lasting or a forever thing, and gain the reputation of a cold heartless female. A fire sign is never cold or heartless, but then there are a lot of astrologically ignorant men out there who don't know that. If such a state of affairs should happen to lead to spinsterhood, she certainly won't be a dry and bitter old maid. She'll still clown with life and have a barrel of fun. She'll have a dozen interests to replace a man—and enjoy every one of them.

Of course, you're not interested in a Sagittarian spinster. You plan to make one your wife someday. (At least, I hope you have honorable intentions. This poor woman has enough problems without you setting out to seduce her.) Let's stop dwelling on promiscuity, and think about marriage. Like the male Sagittarian, she's a little skittish about wedlock. You'll need to use some bright, colorful pieces of tinsel as bait to get her pinned down (to accepting your proposal, that is). She's breezy and unconventional in her relationships with men. Since she considers herself your equal, she may copy your mannerisms, as well as wear your sweater. If she also likes sports and camping, as lots of Sagittarian females do, you may have trouble distinguishing her from the boys. But she's not the same. For one thing, your sweater looks different on her. Not that Jupiter women are offensively masculine by nature. They can be the softest, most feminine women you ever squeezed. It's just that she pals around with so many men, you get used to seeing her in the crowd—everywhere but in the steam room and the gym. Since she's so scrupulously honest and aboveboard, she may be a little careless of her reputation and contemptuous of the hypocrisy demanded by society. If you question her about it, she'll be plain-spoken. She'll probably tell you that waltzing in at midnight doesn't indicate promiscuity any more than coming home at a more conventional hour indicates innocence. She knows her morals are above reproach, and that's all that matters. Naturally she's dead wrong. What other people think matters very much to a female reputation. But try to understand her attitude. Don't think she's fast and loose just because she laughs at a few jokes, usually without the slightest idea of what they're all about (the subtlety of the double-entendre often escapes Sagittarius). So—she stays up to watch the sunrise from the George Washington Bridge (or from the top of a silo, if you live in the country)—that doesn't mean she's the wildest woman in town.

The truth is, she's a trusting child at heart. Her outlook is so naive, it makes her vulnerable to wolves, con artists and phonies (though oddly enough, not in other areas, just in romance). Forget about how cleverly she argues and how startlingly logical she can be. All that has nothing to do with her heart. Her mind isn't under discussion. It's bright and intelligent, and well able to take care of itself in any emergency. But her heart is defenseless. It falls down and gets bruised quite often.

That's another thing. She's slightly clumsy. At times when the Sagittarius woman strides down the street like a thoroughbred horse, you'll think she's the most graceful woman you've ever watched—until she stumbles on a crack in the sidewalk, awkwardly grabs the awning over the fruit stand to catch her balance and upsets two crates of oranges. The owner may swear a little, but he'll soon shrug his shoulders, tell her to skip it, and hand her some grapes. The sunny Sagittarian disposition can melt the hardest hearts. Now and then, this woman will remind you of a clumsy puppy dog, wagging its friendly tail, and walking all over your feet. But then friendly puppy dogs do get lots of people to love them and feed them. Of course, dogs are a little cheaper to feed. The typical Jupiter female has a large appetite. She likes good food and wine, nice clothes, and when she travels, she likes to go first class. Sagittarians are extravagant by nature (unless the Moon is in Capricorn or there's a Virgo ascendant). Money for the sake of money doesn't interest them, and it takes quite a bit of training to teach most of them the meaning of a dollar bill. Check her ascendant carefully before you loan her your credit card.

The Sagittarian woman you're involved with may be in show business, because lots of them are drawn by the lure of the footlights. If so, start out on the right foot by expecting her to put her career first, until she tires of it. The sweet sound of applause and the thrill of the encore will ring in her ears with more conviction than all the romantic phrases you can conjure up. Never force her to choose between pleasing you and the excitement of pleasing whole gobs of people at once with her sunshine personality. After a while she'll grow disgusted with the hypocrisy and artificial glitter she finds all around her in the world of show business, and she'll come running home to try domesticity with someone who is real. You. Someone who believes honesty is beautiful and deception is ugly. You again. Leaving a career won't remove the wings from her heels forever. They were fastened there at birth. The travel bug will always be nearby to give her a case of wandering fever. Vacation with her when you can; otherwise let her go off to ride the carousel herself, and trust her. She loves you, not the clowns and organ grinders she likes to pass the time with.

Because of her casual attitude toward romance and her shyness of marriage, you may think she's lacking in sentiment. You are so mistaken. She'll cry rivers at sad movies and read poetry with wet eyes. She's probably saved every note you ever wrote her, scraps of the flowers you bought her in the rain, and the tickets from the hockey game where she met you.

Don't expect your Sagittarian wife to be Susie homemaker. Sagittarius women are acutely bored by the confinement of dusting and mopping. No sooner does she make a bed than it gets unmade. Gosh, you'd think the darned thing would stay neat for a few days anyway, it was such a drag tucking in those sheets at the corners. She'll hate it all with a purple passion. When she has a home of her own, however, she'll probably swallow her distaste. She'll prefer that you get her a maid if you can possibly afford one. If not, she'll doggedly keep it shining. Her mother will never believe it. That sloppy child waxing the coffee table? Impossible. Pride and the eternal Sagittarius logic does it. She needs to be surrounded with beauty and cleanliness to be true to herself. The message reaches her that, if she doesn't wipe up the linoleum, no one else will. If she was forced by circumstances to do a lot of chores in childhood, she may rebel at first, but she'll eventually reason it out, and settle down to sweeping the corners with a minimum of resentment.