Sagittarius New Moon

Sagittarius kindles the fire that warms the spirit and sparks the inspiration needed to persevere through challenges. Sagittarius ignites the burning motivation needed to take action and set things in motion just when we’d thought all had been lost. The Sagittarius New Moon on November 23 brings a welcomed boost of celestial fire to apply toward the bigger picture of what we wish to develop and accomplish in the months ahead. It’s the first lunation to follow the incredibly intense eclipse season that featured a Solar Eclipse in Scorpio followed by a Lunar Eclipse in Taurus. Eclipses in fixed signs bring long term changes and with the eclipses activating the tension between Saturn with Uranus, the changes that have been taking shape during the past year of eclipses in the same sign as Uranus have been especially unsettling and destabilizing for many. The New Moon in Sagittarius arrives just in time to help adjust to the plot twists that have manifested in the past month while re-configuring long-term goals and plans in accordance. The fiery Sagittarius Moon is applying to a conjunction with Venus and Mercury closely together in Sagittarius, providing an ideal lunar mixture for deepening into a renewal of values and desires that can fuel our work with resilient, procreative force.

The Sagittarius Moon will unite with Venus and Mercury at the very beginning of its lunar cycle, producing a richly creative time for gathering ideas that can be implemented into form and set into motion. The influence of the mutable fire of Sagittarius will accelerate the pace of events while also possibly dispersing our focus with too many issues or choices to handle at once. However, being the fiery, diurnal home of Jupiter, Sagittarius is a place where Venus and Mercury can join forces in applying their fused artistic and creative capacities to focused goals. Whereas Venus can accentuate sensual perception and mixing of relational dynamics, aesthetic arrangements, and creative options, Mercury can help in distinguishing options, blending influences, and making decisions. While it’s an exceptionally inspirational mixture of influences, we need to be mindful of the quick sharpness of Sagittarius that can set off wildfires with the enthusiastic speed with which it can gallop ahead without pausing for reflection.

Providing a presence of hopeful resiliency is Jupiter stationing direct at 28º48′ Pisces at the same time as the Sun and Moon unite on November 23. Jupiter stationing in stillness will deliver the numinous presence of life giving Zeus more strongly into the world in the days surrounding the Sagittarius New Moon. Jupiter stationed retrograde at 8º43′ Aries on July 28, and so it will be fruitful to consider the ways in which you have grown or needed to release matters during the past four months. Marsilio Ficino in Three Books on Life wrote that “no star supports and strengthens the natural forces in us – indeed all the forces – more than does Jupiter, nor does any star offer more or more prosperous things.” Ficino elaborated that although the bodily forces of attraction, retention, digestion, and expulsion are all aided by Jupiter, that the star of Zeus is especially beneficial for “the power of concocting or digesting and of generating, nourishing, and growing, because of his airy and abundant moisture and his ample heat which moderately dominates the moisture.” With Jupiter stationing in its own domicile, no matter how dark the night of your soul appears, search for the ways in which you are being guided toward a renewal of nourishment, growth, and meaningful vision.

While the moderate heat of Jupiter can enliven the cold, nocturnal water of Pisces, the wet and downward-trending nature of Pisces combined with the temperate moistness of Jupiter and the oceanic vastness of Neptune can also lead one to become temporarily lost in a maze of psyche, imaginal meandering, and external stasis that will requiring passing through a phase of confusion and disorientation en route to recovering deeper truth and purpose. Jupiter stationing direct only six degrees away from Neptune in Pisces brings the renaissance of their conjunction on April 12 back into effect for one final passage from now until December 20 when Jupiter will enter Aries. As I previously wrote about the passage of Jupiter through Pisces in 2022:

“. . . the inwardly directed nature of Pisces allows for extraordinary insight and inspiration to be found through exploration of our boundless inner realms. In contrast to Sagittarius, the fiery domicile of Jupiter where it swiftly gallops with outward enthusiasm, the nocturnal water of Pisces slows down the pace of Jupiter and invites inward exploration that can enable us to sink into embodiment of our soulful essence. The waves of Jupiter in Pisces can wash over and weave in between the places where we have been fragmented, coalescing a presence that can bring together parts of our inner multiplicity that have become disconnected. By taking our time and acting with the flow of surrounding natural cycles rather than trying to force things to happen, Jupiter in Pisces can create an experience of abundance that allows us to feel more expansive with less by aligning us with our authentic nature and values.”

Jupiter in Pisces stirring our internal, watery unconscious can create a downward spiral in need of mediation, yet within its oceanic domain the star of Zeus is more than capable of revealing profound treasure. More so than the luxurious treasure of the material realm, the immaterial prowess of Jupiter in Pisces can deliver the treasure of our own essential nature and creative potential. Jupiter will remain in Pisces through the waxing phase of the present lunar cycle and most of the forthcoming lunar cycle until entering Aries on December 20 during a waning Moon in Scorpio. The weeks following the Sagittarius New Moon with Jupiter generating forward movement in Pisces will be ideal for coalescing insight from whatever visions and deepening of purpose you have gathered during 2022 in order to develop plans for how to implement them into your life. Jupiter will be making it clear which dreams of vision have traction and can be developed into strong foundational structures and which ideas need to be washed away by oceanic tides.

Mars retrograde in Gemini has been playing tricks and causing disruption now that it has picked up speed in its retrograde motion and passed through its second volatile square aspect with Neptune in Pisces on November 19. Although Jupiter in Pisces is traditionally labeled a purely beneficial influence, as we know human nature can become morally corrupted and utilize the nourishing growth of Jupiter for excessive enlargement of power, overconsumption of resources, and invasive conquering stimulated by misguided notions of manifest destiny. Mars retrograde in Gemini will be remaining in a whole sign square aspect with Jupiter and Neptune in Pisces, though at the same time Mars will be slowly backtracking away and creating greater space between them in the lunar cycle ahead. The catalyzing of conflict, tension, and friction within mutable signs by Mars, Jupiter, and Neptune has created an atmosphere of pivotal transition that comes with great uncertainty, and so we may have had to face issues of unreliability in the places we had come to depend on, or faced personal conflicts of self-doubt and confusion. Ultimately, Mars retrograde in Gemini will be forcing change. With Mars intensifying in strife in the weeks ahead it will feel uncomfortable and unsettling at times, yet we can also allow for Jupiter and Neptune in Pisces to open up a larger picture for us within which we can place the temporary conflicts of this time to gain perspective on the ways in which we need to make changes in our lives and develop new creative directions.

There will be a heated buildup of tension and activity between the Sagittarius New Moon and the Gemini Full Moon on December 7, for the upcoming Gemini Full Moon is not only forming a conjunction with Mars, it is also creating a lunar occultation of Mars. The Full Moon temporarily obscuring the sight of Mars is an incredible celestial alignment due to it being the peak moment of both the Moon’s cycle and the retrograde phase of Mars. As a result, the illumination of the Gemini Full Moon will plunge us into the initiation that comes at the midpoint of the retrograde journey of Mars when the star of Ares is closest to us in orbit and at its brightest red coloring in the night sky. As the Sun sets in the west, Mars will rise in the east; as the Sun rises in the east, Mars will set in the west. Adam Gainsburg has described the solar opposition phase of Mars as being a period for making a radical commitment to one’s authentic vision, as well as reframing the meaningful motivation of Mars from being all about one’s own needs into serving societal needs. As the Moon’s peak light overcomes Mars in the night sky, we can gain insight into the transmutation of deeper mission in life, and greater clarity into how to act on our larger personal vision. 

Crucially, Mars retrograde in Gemini will be applying to a flowing trine aspect with Saturn in Aquarius that will become exact on November 28. As Jupiter in Pisces begins to gain forward momentum in the week following the Sagittarius New Moon, Mars and Saturn will be open to exchanges with one another that can facilitate a separating from what needs to be shed or released from the past, while simultaneously making solid and steady progress in the development of goals. As we come into deeper relationship with what dreams or visions have emerged from the recent season of astrological chaos, the flowing trine between Mars and Saturn is ideal for applying discipline toward our life, cutting away excess, and focusing our energy and time into the work and relationships that truly matter to us.

Sagittarius 1 Decan

The New Moon in Sagittarius is in the first decan of Sagittarius associated with the Eight of Wands card illustrated above by Pamela Colman Smith. The image of eight staffs sailing swiftly across the sky above a flowing river evokes a focus on fast movement that is fitting for the Sagittarius New Moon and its forthcoming waxing phase. Mercury is the ruler of the first face of Sagittarius, revealing the necessity of managing and mediating a multiplicity of developments while applying the speed of thought to passionate goals. T. Susan Chang in 36 Secrets described the Eight of Wands as signifying the movement of goods, thoughts, and ideas as well as taking quick action on insightful revelations. Change wrote that the speed of Mercury combines with the “great range to shrink distances and shorten times” of Sagittarius to enable fast action that can be deadly accurate. As a result, the fast moving powers of the first decan of Sagittarius stress the importance of creating the internal space necessary to ensure we are acting from our own integrity and are aware of then consequences of our actions.

In Henrich Cornelius Agrippa’s The Celestial World, the swift directness of the image for the Eight of Wands is directed toward warriorship: “In the first face of Sagittarius rises the form of a strong man armed with a coat of mail, holding a naked sword in his hand: the operation of this is for boldness, militancy, and freedom.” Austin Coppick in 36 Faces combined the militancy of Agrippa’s image with the velocity of the Eight of Wands image into the symbol of “The Poisoned Arrow” for the first decan of Sagittarius. Coppock described “the speed of an idea or vision, the velocity of imagination” as being the chief meaning of the first face of Sagittarius, writing that “the essence of this decan entails the swift emergence of a motivating vision and the attainment of a vehicle to move one toward the pictured goal.” Yet Coppock also stressed the importance of realizing how our thoughts can be manipulated by external sources, noting that the Hellenistic text 36 Airs ascribed the daimons of plague to the first face of Sagittarius. Coppock noted that “the secrets of propaganda” and other viruses that can “infect the psyche” and hijack our bodies are also amongst the spirits of the first face of Sagittarius. Coppock elaborated that since the “energy patterning of this decan is linear and ruthless,” that manipulative propaganda can strike like an arrow show with violent precision at a target.

As we live in a time period in which so many people attached to their phones and other devices of Internet streaming also means that more people than ever are vulnerable to manipulative propaganda, the Sagittarius New Moon is a call for remembering our essential integrity and how our mind, body, and emotions are vulnerable to infections from external sources. For the first face of Sagittarius not only contains the perils of spirited propaganda, it also provides habitation for the spirit of our own inviolable soul. Indeed, Austin Coppock stated that while we can become infected by the enthusiasm of external propaganda within this face, we can also encounter “the ideal self, the half divine hero . . . composed entirely of spirit fire” and from whom “a story unfolds – a quest, a target, a driven myth.” May the fertile darkness of the Sagittarius New Moon lead you to encounter the mystery of the essential myth most aligned with your creative destiny.

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References

Agrippa, Heinrich Cornelius. (2021). Three Occult Books of Philosophy. Translated by Eric Purdue. Inner Traditions.

Chang, T. Susan. (2021). 36 Secrets: A Decanic Journey through the Minor Arcana of the Tarot. Anima Mundi Press.

Coppock, Austin. (2014). 36 Faces: The History, Astrology and Magic of the Decans. Three Hands Press.

Ficino, Marsilio. Three Books on Life. A critical edition and translation by Carol Kaske and John Clark. (1998). Medieval and Renaissance Texts and Studies.