Wednesday’s New Moon in Sagittarius offers the excitement of new beginnings, invitations to adventure, and enticing new horizons. Take in a deep breath. Exhale fully. Look around you. It’s a new day.
This New Moon finds the Sun and Moon at 01° 37’ Sagittarius conjunct Venus and Mercury at 09° 39’ and 10° 14’ Sag. The first decan of this mutable Fire sign is associated with speed and boldness.
Mercury rules the decan and has added strength here. Venus and the Moon bring enthusiasm and the ability to encourage others.
The New Moon trines Jupiter, an exchange of energy and support as the ruler of Sagittarius makes their own transition.
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Jupiter stations direct five minutes after the New Moon is exact. When planets station either direct or retrograde, they’re especially strong because they’re barely moving. Think of a powerful storm or a beautiful rainbow. If conditions keep the rain or the shining spectrum of color right over us, we feel it more directly and intensely. Jupiter brings good things.
In Sagittarius, we have Fire that is less driven than Aries or Leo. Sagittarius loves to travel, meet new people, explore unfamiliar cultures and landscapes. Sag never met a stranger. There’s resilience here born from the conviction that life is good. An openness to learning of all kinds.
Sagittarius is more the seasoned traveler than the curious kid, though. Gemini, the sign opposite Sag, is the irreverent, curious, trickster energy of youth, ready to turn things upside down just to see what happens. Sagittarius respects what they encounter, knowing they can learn and be transformed by other philosophies, other ways of living.
There are no other aspects to the New Moon. This feels like freedom, the capacity to act without outside pressures or influences. The ability to choose our journey and ride toward it. This is a nomad Moon.
What does it mean to be a nomad? It’s not aimless wandering, searching for something never found. Sometimes dictionaries offer that as a definition, but the root of the word “nomad” is “nomos” which is pasturage, an allotment of land for grazing.
Nomadic peoples move throughout the seasons in a planned and often sacred round. On a materialistic level, we see people and flocks moving to the best grasses, the most reliable water sources. On a cultural and spiritual level, nomads tend to sacred landscapes. Ceremonies renew connection to the land. Celebrations honor the abundance the Earth gives.
Nomads journey to remember, to deepen connection, to honor the ancestors and the gods, and to gain insights about what lies ahead.
The world does not stay the same. As nomads move through seasons and places, the cycle is the same but the experiences shift. There are losses and gains, grief and joy, a deeper understanding of life.
We might think of astrological cycles as a landscape through which we travel. Our birth charts never change. Yet our journeys through life involve such complex overlays of different planetary cycles and influences, coupled with our own choices and responses, that we can honestly say, wherever we are in life, we’ve never been in quite this situation before.
It’s an adventure.
One part of the pandemic challenge has been lockdown. Feeling it’s not safe to be out in the world. Wondering when we might travel again, go out and explore, meet those strangers about to become friends.
Certainly one impulse we may feel at this New Moon is to call it done. To decide everything is ok, no restrictions needed. It’s all good.
Here we confront a downside of Sagittarius. The love of learning and pursuit of wisdom that is so much a part of this sign, plus the happy confidence and optimism, can create a very strong conviction of being right.
If we find Sagittarian certainty getting in the way of common sense and safety for self and others, we can focus in on the long term commitment to learning that Jupiter and Sagittarius offer. There’s a difference between knowing the world is fundamentally good, and tossing all caution out the window.
As we remain more sequestered than we’re used to, this New Moon offers buoyant support for inner journeys. There is so much to learn and so many resources for exploring. Yes, this Moon may have us googling websites and thinking about the next big trip. And we can be wise about our choices.
After all, the New Moon is a dark time. The path ahead will become clearer as the Moon gains light in the sky.
One framework for following the lunar cycle is the Hero’s Journey, the mythic pattern Joseph Campbell developed from his studies of myth and religion across the world. If the New Moon is the beginning of a hero’s journey, then we are receiving The Call.
We’re not always ready for the call when it arrives. In fact, great stories are full of reluctant heroes who say, oh, I couldn’t possibly. You must have the wrong house. I’m not that sort of person.
At this point in history, we feel exhausted. The challenges we face are immense. It’s easy to become disheartened. The Call arrives and we say, I haven’t got it. There’s nothing left. I can’t.
All that might be true and still new quests show up for us. New adventures. New journeys. And we do have choice. We can choose the journey we need. We can focus on healing, repair, resilience. We can pursue new knowledge and insight. The key thing is to listen, attend to what shows up, and follow the path.
The path we’re embarking on is sure to hold surprises. As we move through this cycle, heading to the next New Moon, we’ll experience planets heading out of bounds. This happens when a planet moves farther away from the equator than the Sun can go.
Planets out of bounds are not exactly breaking the rules. It’s more like the rules are suddenly invisible. This is a lunar cycle in which what we think we can do, how we approach limits, and what feels possible, could all be off the charts.
Mars is out of bounds (and retrograde) in Gemini and remains so throughout the cycle. Mars, already beleaguered by the backwards movements of being retrograde, is also not interested in rules. Doesn’t even care about guidelines. This Mars is going rogue.
As we continue through the cycle, the Moon, Mercury, and Venus will also slip out of bounds, sometimes coming back in then popping out again. Sometimes, the Moon, Mercury, Venus, and Mars will all be out of bounds at once.
So it’s good to keep in mind that how we see and experience the world could be more than a little quirky. This has positives. We desperately need original thinking. It also creates issues when we’re all going off in different directions, following our own star, and wondering why no one else sees it.
The big opportunity at this New Moon is the invitation to optimism, hope, and excitement. It’s not foolish to have a big heart. It’s not stupid to feel the world is fundamentally good. What we want with this Sag New Moon is engagement.
Where do you feel new life stirring? Where can you hear adventure whispering your name? This New Moon offers hope and asks for hope in action. We can imagine a better world, wiser, more welcoming, inclusive, just. Now we need to find the path to build it.
All images are original Midjourney renders.