Notes on the New Moon in Sagittarius: December 7th, 2018

On December 7th comes one of the biggest moments in the sky this year, easily. Big not in its PR, like a retrograde. Big not in its drama, like an eclipse. Big not in its radical change, like an ingress. The optics of this New Moon may seem deceivingly simple, a byline to the more captivating celestial headlines. But don’t count out these Astrological details, for they cast big shadows. They have the power to shape your narrative, building up over time into plot and prose, into the stories we tell about ourselves. The Full Moon in Gemini had us grappling with personal bylines, details, spinning and reporting on them in ways that could serve our narrative. Now, the New Moon in Sagittarius demands scope, that you situate yourself in bigger arenas, that you allow yourself bigger dreams, that you carve out more room for your multitudinal magic. We no longer have to see our lives through the brevity of a sentence or a paragraph or a chapter, the insidious ways in which we chop up our legacy up into digestible pieces, always separate from our whole. Sagittarius lends focus to the epic, the magnum opus that is your life. The moon’s absence beckons you to fill its space in the sky, a Sagittarius space, where limits are unknown. Here, we don’t have to hold ourselves hostage to smallness, to the way things have to go, to the way things have always gone. We can take on the perspective of eternity, and let the adventure write itself. So that then our space in the sky becomes the space that opens up in our lives.

“I know not all that may be coming, but be it what it will, I'll go to it laughing.”

Jupiter doubles down here. Ruler of the Sun and Moon’s co-residency in Sagittarius, and Mars and Neptune’s co-residency in Pisces, the four forming a two-pronged square with a 2 degree orb. This New Moon offers a taste of what is to come with Jupiter’s yearlong homecoming. We can use all the usual adjectives: hopeful, expansive, optimistic, etc. But all that remains platitudinal unless we assert our right to have them, to feel them. Mars comes bearing this gift, roaring our engines in the direction of experience, taking ethereal concepts and downloading them into our physical awareness. Squares make things obvious and therefore understandable, conquerable. Music is created when wires tense to form a note. And paired with Neptune, this martial music can materialize dreams, or the start of them, and become a place where elusive mirages become real. Under the powerful beams of Jupiter, buoying what can easily be lost at sea, Mars and Neptune swim smoothly in the waters of Pisces. And this is no sea of small fish—this is Moby Dick, your grand myth. You cannot tolerate the small ponds in your life anymore, the spaces that constrict and contort your growth. Now is the time for a bigger container, to confront the vastness within you, and soar.

“It is not down on any map; true places never are.”

This New Moon marks the end of Mercury Retrograde. It is only right that these intentions of grandeur be paired with new clarity of thought. In Scorpio, Mercury takes a magnifying glass to all matters, drilling down past façade and into the naughty bits. Though not exact by degree, Mercury’s co-presence with Venus in Scorpio marks the final stretch of our Venus Retrograde themes (not completely over until Venus struts past 10 degrees of Scorpio, where her macabre motion began). Love was lost, lacking, and labored. What did you learn? What will you take forward with you as the star trails of this New Moon see Mercury’s re-entry into Sagittarius, where the scorpions depth comes up against the centaur’s breadth? It was a moment of extreme invention when one thought to turn the magnifying glass away from things known and pointed it instead at the sky—the telescope. Our collective focus mirrors that moment, hitching our wagons to forces and wonders unknown, instead of continuing to traverse our familiar rocky roads. This New Moon is a reroute, a rewrite, a redo, and a revel. And while no Astrological moment can promise the elixir that fixes your life, we can still enjoy this honeymoon in spite of the things that still taste sour. Jupiter reigns, even when it rains.

“Let faith oust fact; let fancy oust memory; I look deep down and do believe.”

Quotes from Herman Melville's Moby Dick or, The Whale

Notes on the Full Moon in Gemini: November 23rd, 2018

Out from a tumultuous period of retrogrades, from the cosmic weight of planets rolling in the deep of Scorpio, the Full Moon in Gemini now invites us to think our way forward instead of feeling our way around in the dark. The skies are bombastic now, full of opportunities and choices, of adventures and possible foibles. Our hero’s journey sees us out of the dark woods, standing looking upon a vast expanse of land. From Little Red Riding Hood, desperately uncovering the disguised wolves of our lives, trying to make it out alive, to Peter Pan—nimble, cheerful, unending youth and curiosity. It is here where we can be born again into wonder and levity, and their older siblings, rumination and objectivity. This Full Moon will form the backbone of a T-Square, among the most tense configurations in Astrology. And so Gemini comes bearing the gift of flexibility, massaging what is taut, entertaining new and clever ways to hack the system. As Peter Pan said, we can learn to fly using lovely wonderful thoughts, so here we can mitigate any trouble by forging forward with a new set of ideas, and thinking our way into new possibilities.

But be discerning. A retrograde Mercury rules this lunation from 10 degrees of Sagittarius, the sign of its detriment. Add to this, the Moon opposing broad minded Jupiter at 3 degrees of Sagittarius. There is massive potential here for giant thoughts, giant words, enthusiastic conversations and realizations. But, too, is there potential for overlooking details, miscommunication, and generally thinking, saying, and doing *the most--*open mouth, insert foot. The beauty of a Gemini moon is not having to stick to first impressions, triggers, feelings, or impulses—especially the bad ones. Any breakdown in communication, or breakdown in emotion, can become breakthroughs when we learn to see them differently. There are two sides to every story, and with Gemini, maybe even three, four, five. Choose the one that empowers you forward, or exercise those mental muscles until you can. With dignified Jupiter in the picture, conjuncting the Sun with a 3 degree orb, our challenged thoughts and communication can meet an ultimate alchemy. There is nothing too big for Jupiter to heal or help. The bigness that may lend itself to sloppy encounters, can then become a mythic sized redirection of purpose. All you need is a little faith, and trust, and pixie dust.

Teeing up the T-square is Mars, taking up residence at 4 degrees of Pisces after months of back and forth between cerebral Aquarius and calculated Capricorn. Here, martial energies are relaxed, soft, and lacking rigor. Mars in Pisces is compassionate action. Where the past few weeks or months may have laid bare and raw where our lives aren’t working, here Mars comes to assist in spiritual clean up, casting a kinder eye on ourselves and our stories. The drive of Mars may feel diluted in Pisces, like trying to rev a water-logged engine, but all the same is a healing respite. And even the lyrical underwater movements of Pisces can move us forward in subtle ways. So to be sure, there is no resting or stalling when Mars is around, but at least Pisces takes the edge off, as Pisces, boundless and expansive, has no edges. We can look to the apex planet of any T-Square to find relief from the tension of the opposition (here, between the Sun and Moon, Moon and Jupiter). And so Mars reminds us that empathy is our get out of jail free card, that acting on higher minded ideals of universal love and understanding set us free from our smaller, more personal problems. Mars in Pisces is also the lover, the creative, finding the inherent poetry beneath any situation. So dance, cry, write, draw—actively romance your way into loving where you are. Like Pan--If you cannot teach me to fly, teach me to sing! So if you can’t soar above it, learn to love it. And should this sound too airy-fairy Tinkerbell to you, know that Saturn will be sextiling Mars from 7 degrees of Capricorn, substantiating and making practical the healing done here, and helping us make decisions that support our long-term growth.

The Moon, Sun, Mercury, and Mars are all under Jupiter’s rules this lunation, making Jupiter the relevant final dispositor of this chart, this moment in the sky. All actions and reactions, therefore, can be taken in the spirit of, well, high spirits. Even though manic panic planet, Mercury, may seem to threaten the cosmic order we’ve been waiting for, Jupiter looms larger and with optimism. Even Uranus, still opposing Venus in the night sky, is ruled by this positive motivation. So to me, this full moon is expansive and reassuring. Where you teeter totter into overdoing or overlooking or over-feeling things, a Jupiterian caution, Gemini comes in with mental acuity and detachment, with wonder and flexibility, helping you to mind your mind.

Hook: What of Pan? Would unhappy thoughts bring him down?

Wendy: He has no unhappy thoughts.

Notes on the New Moon in Scorpio: November 7th, 2018

Happening at 15 degrees of Scorpio, this New Moon lands right in the middle of the Sun’s annual dip into the scorpion’s sign, pulling us all, if only for a moment, into the undercurrents of our lives. For some, this may feel like drowning. For others, a momentary swim into the deep end of the pool, treading water, affirming that you must stay afloat. Either way, it is Scorpio’s demand that we move away from the shallow end, where sign posts warn: no diving. But dive we must. And safer in the depth that Scorpio contains than to bump your head up against the shallows of your life, the things that don’t budge, the patterns that don’t work. Such is the pain of a life unexamined. And so the Sun and Moon join, like buddy detectives, to give us a chance to dig into those things that dig into us, cast away the thorny bits, and intend to begin again with a new sense of profundity about ourselves. Scorpio’s briny waters can irritate wounds, but so can they locate and force us to acknowledge them, to heal them. And what once were wounds become places where light can enter.

You’re lost at sea, then I’ll command your boat to me again.

The New Moon will be trining Neptune at 13 degrees of Pisces, acting as a sort of light house, a star in the distance that we can hitch our wagons to. Neptune is a healing salve here, reminding us of universal love and compassion, the tools we need to come into acceptance of ourselves, our stories and of others. The command is to let wishful thinking become wishful knowing, a conviction that all that is tended to here, the dark and ugly, can be transmuted into something bigger and more beautiful that can serve the unfolding of your life. This is the alchemy of Neptunian water--base metals, rough and penetrating (Scorpio) can become smoothed into gold. But with Mercury squaring Neptune from 8 degrees of Sagittarius, this dreaminess can easily become a dream, the delusions that fuel our demons, and the fantasies that keep us from attending to what is. By all means, see life through a softer lens. Just don’t layer the filters up so high that you lose track of what is real. Go forth practicing your practical magic.

Catch a wave and take in the sweetness.

Mars in Aquarius, ruler of this New Moon, will be squaring ever-expansive and hopeful Jupiter, now in his final stretch at 29 degrees of Scorpio. Mars catalyzes what it touches, and with Jupiter in the picture, this is the galvanization of optimism, courage and enthusiasm. (And oh what is to come when Jupiter returns home the following day!). The great benefic has been traveling the murky waters of Scorpio since 2017, ensuring an ultimate warmth and camaraderie around matters hidden or held deeply entrenched. Let Jupiter be a beacon of hope, the inflation into a depleted life jacket. Any turbulent time can be reframed by asking and considering what there is to be learned. Wisdom is also a gift of Jupiter—knowing better, doing better, feeling better. In the middle of whatever bad may be happening, no matter how tempting it may be to let yourself be overcome with overwhelm, a gaseous and gregarious Jupiter rides the waves, always afloat, reminding us: this, too, can be good.

The darkness, the deepness, all the things that make me who I am.

A sextile from the New Moon to Pluto at 19 degrees of Capricorn may feel like a rip tide. Just when you thought you’d gone deep enough, here Pluto comes to pull you deeper. Sextiles operate a bit softer, but nothing is ever subtle with Pluto around. While this won’t capsize you, it will demand you batten down your emotional hatches. Pluto in Capricorn breaks down structures that are not strong enough to weather storms, and Moon in Scorpio, its detriment, can be sensitive to the Plutonian intensity. The call here is for personal power and resurgence. The waters that threaten to drown you can become the tears called forth for catharsis, and the sweat from battles never conceded. In the end, all can be transcended. The symbiosis of a sextile is between two elements that feed one another. Here, water feeds earth, and earth grounds water. Whether you feel you’re at rock bottom, or just between a rock and a hard place, learn to soften it by leaning into your emotions this New Moon, knowing that the Pluto promise is that they will soon be transformed into new life and seen in a new light.

Oh, you thought we were done talking about Venus Retrograde? Though not the ruler of this lunation like she was for our prior two, Venus is still very much around and worth a quick mention. On this New Moon, Venus will be opposite a newly regressed retrograde Uranus in Aries from 26 degrees of Libra. Matters of love reign, literally. Venus in Libra is dignified, out from soupy Scorpio and ascended back to her throne. This is a lighter Venus as retrograde themes come to an end. Uranus is still the shock factor, so always expect the unexpected, and here, in your relationships. But leave room in your heart for the pleasant surprises as well. This retrograde season isn’t going to end as darkly as it may have begun, and that alone is surprise enough for those beaten and battered. Uranus may threaten the Libran balance Venus strives for, but balance can always be achieved when you consider what deserves to be on your scales.

Don’t look too far, right where you are, that’s where I am.

New Moons are primo times for setting intentions or writing down goals. But in the dark waters of Scorpio, and hidden in the night sky, leaving behind a palpable absence, this inky New Moon may instead be a great opportunity to just be still in whatever currents are within you. Knowing bright new horizons are on the way and that the cosmic dance of planets in and out of signs, backwards and forward, will soon dazzle us all, is even more of an invitation to just be. The gift of this New Moon doesn’t have to be future-oriented, something you’ll later get or seize or understand. Rather, it can be something to be enjoyed in the present. For Scorpio, the depth of discomfort you hold now, then becomes the depth of joy you can hold later. So hold on.

Italicized lyrics by Lana Del Rey, “Mariners Apartment Complex”