New Moon in Sagittarius: Light a Beacon

The Sagittarius New Moon will arrive overnight tonight, exact at 2:20 am EST on Friday, December 7.

There’s no doubt 2018 has been a challenging year. While we’re not out of the woods, this soon-to-arrive New Moon offers a beacon of hope.

Sagittarius is the Jupiter-ruled sign of optimism, enthusiasm, liberality of mind and spirit, philosophy, and expansion.

My image for this sign of mutable Fire is the Ghost of Christmas Present from Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, the larger-than-life figure whose good will and generosity scares Scrooge.

In their journey together, Scrooge begins to see that life is wider and deeper than he imagined and is filled with good things. This is the message Sagittarius brings to us all.

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This year, Jupiter himself has recently arrived in Sag and is conjunct the New Moon. He holds his torch high, the one he uses to rain blessings of kindness on the people around him.

Jupiter will travel through Sagittarius for the next year, making this New Moon the opening of a door.

New Moons are times for planting seeds and making wishes. This time, our wishes can include whatever we hope to accomplish with the help of the Great Benefic, the Big Good Thing, Jupiter’s name in medieval and Renaissance astrology.

I always suggest checking your birth chart to see where each New Moon falls. This time, look for the full sweep of Sagittarius in your chart, from 0 to 29. This is the territory Jupiter will cross in the coming year and where he may be sprinkling good fortune for us to savor.

There is another reason our hearts will feel lighter at this New Moon: Mercury stations direct this afternoon, Thursday, December 6, at 4:22 EST. By the time the New Moon arrives, the planet of thought, communication, and transactions will be moving forward once again.

As I write this Thursday afternoon, it could be difficult to believe in the promise of new light. We’re in the Balsamic Moon phase, the deepest dark, the time of composting and letting go.

Mercury, retrograde at the end of shadowy Scorpio, feels very intense. If you feel stuck in the depths right now, remind yourself that a dawn is coming.

Remember that the New Moon is dark. Although we feel the shift from release to emergence as the Sun and Moon meet, we still can’t see the way forward. Seeds are planted in darkness, with preparation and with trust.

The feeling of not-knowing will be present at this New Moon. The Sun–Moon–Jupiter conjunction brings enthusiasm, but Mars and Neptune are conjunct in Pisces and challenging this New Moon.

Mars and Neptune are not a wonderful pairing at any time. In Neptune’s watery Piscean depths, Mars can become peevish and passive aggressive.

There is a desire to act, to do something, anything, yet clouds get in the way. Neptune is less interested in action than in our surrender to the deeper currents in our lives.

At the New Moon, we feel a fresh breeze on our faces, turn toward it, know where we hope to go, but wait before embarking. Absolutely, we are making wishes and setting goals, even as we know more clarity is needed before taking the first steps.

We are embarking on an especially significant lunar cycle. The Full Moon in Cancer falls on the Solstice, arriving December 22 after the Sun has reached 0 Capricorn (which is the astrological solstice) but while the Sun and Moon are both still at the 0 degree. This turning of the year is marked by a Full Moon.

In addition, the Nodes of the Moon, which are the points in the sky where the orbits of the Moon and Earth intersect, have just moved into Cancer and Capricorn. The next set of eclipses will fall in these two signs, beginning with the New Moon on January 6 which is a partial solar eclipse.

The upcoming Solstice and Full Moon will be looking ahead to this coming eclipse cycle.

We may want to pay particular attention to these next few weeks. With that in mind, I offer this list of the lunar phases with dates and times.

I’ve been rereading The Lord of the Rings, so bear with me as I offer two images from Tolkien that fit this New Moon.

One is the lighting of the beacons of Gondor. The city of Gondor is much in need of aid and yet its ruler Denethor, who has fallen under the sway of Sauron, refuses to summon it. Gandalf, a Sagittarian figure in his unlooked-for return from annihilation, sets Pippin the task of lighting the first beacon. When he succeeds, the fires leap from peak to peak and Rohan is summoned.

The other is Galadriel’s gift to Frodo of a glass phial that has within it the light of the star of Eärendil, to be for him a light when all other lights have gone out. This phial saves Frodo and Sam more than once on their journey.

Notice that neither of these lights acts immediately to fix everything. Having lit the beacons, Gondor must wait, not knowing if their message has been received or if Rohan will or even is able to respond. Frodo carries the phial for many leagues and almost forgets it, before remembering and being heartened as well as protected by its light.

So too this New Moon, in the lighting of its beacon, is an offering and a guide, not a guarantee. We have our work to do. We have our part to play in a much wider drama over which we have little control. To make our way, we need all the luck and the light we can find. This New Moon offers us both of these, light and luck.

There is another image I would offer. The ancient Celts believed the light of creative fire is found in the head, that our skulls can be illuminated with a magical power. This is what Yeats refers to in The Song of Wandering Aengus, when he says he went into the hazel wood because a fire was in his head.

Yeats was linking back to Amergin, the bard who named Ireland for himself and his people with his invocation, The Song of Amergin, in which he says that, among many other things, he is the god who puts fire in the head. Some suggest this ancient tradition led to the idea of the halo, the nimbus of light we see pictured around the heads of saints and angels.

At this New Moon, the flames we light are both within and without. Making a wish is like lighting a beacon. Wishes, intentions, and goals are messages we send out to the cosmos, asking for aid and protection as we make our way. They are also messages to ourselves, beacons we light within, claiming our right to shine in the this world and bring our creative gifts forward.

The way may seem dark and uncertain. The New Moon offers us light. If we accept this gift, our paths will feel easier, luckier, and brighter. May it be so for all of us.

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I use Unsplash for most photo illustrations. All astrological charts are my own. The images in this post include the title, adapted from the photo of a man holding magic by Aditya Saxena, the photo of the news on fire by Elijah O’Donnell, and the photo of the balloon filling by Will O.