This is the day of the New Moon in Sagittarius, a New Moon as vibrant and contradictory as Sagittarius itself. The Sun, Moon, Mars, and the asteroid Ceres all travel through Sagittarius, with Mars close enough to conjunct the New Moon.
In this sign, travel is key.
In mutable Fire, we find a restless spirit the craves new horizons, new experiences, new ideas. There’s an openness to the unknown, respect for difference, and genuine longing to learn and understand deeply.
That craving is one side of a Sagittarian contradiction in which Sag is also sure they know best, already. There’s a confidence, an intellectual security in this sign, that leads to talking over others. If someone is mansplaining with excitement, enthusiasm, and an overriding desire to share, Sagittarius could be involved.
The presence of Mars with this New Moon will enhance its fiery qualities. Mars brings urgency. Whatever we need to do or say, we need it now. Yesterday. Last week, even.
Mars will increase Sagittarian plain speaking. Mars is always direct.
The New Moon and Mars trine the North Node of the Moon, and the asteroids Eris and Chiron.
The North Node is desire, in some ways a desire that is never satisfied. The head (and therefore the mouth) of a dragon, the North Node is where we want what we want without rhyme or reason. This too makes this New Moon feel more urgent and pressing.
Eris is a chaos goddess very new to astronomy as well as astrology. She aligns with chaos in the world, something very much in abundance. She wants attention. She wants meaningful action.
Chiron is the wounded healer, a place we feel triggered. Yet Chiron’s goal is never to wound, but rather to show where the wound is, so we can explore, understand, and heal.
We can see how the New Moon reflects current world events. It’s neither an exaggeration nor a metaphor to say “the world is on fire.” How we, personally, respond is also reflected in the New Moon.
Are we so triggered we can’t face it? Look to Chiron. As you can manage it, consider exactly how and why you’re triggered. Anyone with direct experience of violence, war, discrimination, or displacement can be struggling now. Our connection and triggering might not be current, but rather ancestral.
Family history can feel very powerful in this present time. Resmaa Menakem’s book, My Grandmother’s Hands is an excellent resource here. He writes that we cannot heal current systemic issues without examining our own legacies. You can find his work at https://www.resmaa.com/. As you explore these patterns, support yourself and those around you as you can.
Are we so activated we can’t be effective? Look to Mars and the North Node. It’s difficult to examine our own patterns of anger while we are actively angry. Yet, if we can, it’s an excellent crucible. We’re in it, so we can look at what’s happening within ourselves. While anger can be understandable and justifiable, it often gets in the way of effective action.
What exactly do I mean, when I say “look to Chiron” or “look to Mars and the North Node”? First, I mean this is where in the New Moon chart we see the likelihood that certain patterns will emerge.
More specifically, I mean, consider how the New Moon chart connects to your birth chart at these specific points.
If you find yourself triggered and hurt, check to see whether the Chiron in the New Moon chart is aspecting your Chiron or something else that can highlight these issues. If you find yourself feeling angry and combative, check connections between the New Moon Mars and/or North Node and your birth chart.
Fundamentally, your experience is your own. Understanding the astrology can help you work with your chart more insightfully. Always be sure to first honor the experience you’re having and work with that.
There’s more going on with this New Moon. Of course there is.
The New Moon squares Neptune in late Pisces. This is a powerful Neptune. First because Neptune has just stationed direct and is moving more slowly than usual. Outer planets, when they station, act like a storm stuck in one place, a weather front that doesn’t move. It’s intense.
Neptune is also the modern ruler of Pisces, very at home in this sign.
On one hand, Neptune brings confusion, disinformation, delusion, and manipulation. Neptune in Pisces reminds us all is not as it seems. This is true, but can lead us down rabbit holes.
Neptune in Pisces coupled with this fiery New Moon can create absolute belief in conspiracy theories. We can feel 100% certain about things that are not supported by actual evidence.
Now, what actual evidence is, and how we measure it, is not something everyone agrees on. After all, this is an astrology podcast and many view astrology as bogus and nonsense. So we see the slippery slopes Neptune can point us to.
At the same time, Neptune does indeed remind us all is not as it seems. This is a place of dreams, visions, creativity, poetry, spiritual experience, and deep connection. Neptune squaring the New Moon can open doors we might miss. Pay attention to your dreams and intuition. Also, open-ended creative exploration can help us work through triggering or activation.
There’s another pattern in the New Moon chart that will be important going forward.
Venus opposes Jupiter while both aspect Mercury. This is both benefics, both of the planets that tend to bring us good and pleasant things, connecting to the planet of mind and communication as that planet stations retrograde. Jupiter is also influential as the ruler of the New Moon.
Yes, we’re about to enter a Mercury retrograde and are already in the pre-retrograde phase referred as the shadow. This will be an interesting retrograde because it includes two signs, Capricorn and Sagittarius.
It’s a fortunate thing, a blessing if you will, that Mercury has this connection with Venus and Jupiter. This enhances our capacity to learn and grow from our experience, and to respond to others with grace and generosity.
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I never look at a retrograde without also examining the pre and post periods. Which makes sense because what’s happening during any retrograde is, a planet (in this case, Mercury) moves forward through the zodiac to a particular point, stops, goes back to an earlier point, stops again, and goes forward through the same degrees.
Those degrees are visited three times. Understanding the potential and the impact of a retrograde relies on considering this triple visit. Those degrees in the zodiac and in your birth chart get a lot of focused attention. Looking only at the backward, retrograde movement tells only one third of the story.
We entered the retrograde preview November 25 with Mercury sextile Venus and square Neptune.
Mercury stations retrograde tomorrow, December 13, with a sextile to Venus and trine to Jupiter.
Mercury stations direct January 1 while conjunct Mars, square Neptune, square the Moon, and trine the North Node.
Mercury leaves the post period January 20 while conjunct Mars and trine Jupiter.
This is a lot of words to describe a fairly simply pattern. We notice when Mercury stops and turns back, then stops and turns forward. The “turning forward” point marks the beginning of the preshadow, or preview. The “turning back” point marks the end of the post shadow, or post view.
The whole package is important in understanding how a retrograde affects us.
This is notable in the current Mercury retrograde because two signs, Sagittarius and Capricorn, are involved. These two signs have very different personalities.
We begin the retrograde with Mercury in careful, sober, slow, hard working Capricorn. This Mercury helps us stay grounded during the fiery New Moon, supported by Venus and Jupiter.
Then Mercury reenters fiery Sagittarius. We find ourselves fired up, restless, possibly combative, possibly overly sure of ourselves. Later, we renter Capricorn and things calm down again.
The task will be to balance these two modes, the Sagittarian and the Capricornian. Since this happens within the New Moon phase, finding this balance is part of our New Moon journey.
How do we stay calm and productive during difficult times? When is it necessary and appropriate to get fired up? Which state do we prefer? What does it take for us to shift from one to the other? All these questions can become part of the New Moon.
Fire jumping is when a fire burns so hot, new fires appear on their own nearby. This happens when the atmosphere is superheated, supercharged, and flammable things burst into flames. This is an undesirable and challenging way of experiencing the New Moon conjunct Mars.
There’s something else here though–parallel evolution. In biology, it occurs when similar environmental pressures lead to similar adaptions. Think about wings in birds and bats. Completely different organisms, yet their wings have similarities.
In society, certain ideas emerge in different places, in different people, at the same time. The best know example is probably the idea of natural selection, developed independently by Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace at the same time.
When the time is right, when our thoughts, ideas, and orientations align, we can make leaps in how we think about ourselves and our world. What we need now is fire jumping of the best kind, an emergence of ways of acting and being and doing that bring us out of the fire and into new ways of living together.
This is one potential this New Moon in Sagittarius holds.
