As the Sun continues its journey through the buoyant, bright, and jovial sign of Sagittarius, creeping ever closer to its rebirth at the winter Solstice, the Moon is about to overtake the Sun and initiate the new lunar season. The Moon will be fully reborn in the noetic light of the Sun on Tuesday, December 12th, at 6:31pm Eastern time. Happy New Moon to all my readership!
In traditional astrology, new moons indicate new beginnings - an energetic reset occurs as we move from one lunar cycle to the next. As the Moon courses through the twelve signs of the zodiac, she continually transmits energies and spirits from the celestial realms down to the earth to effect change on the world. Now, after completing her zodiacal circuit, she is full and ready for rebirth by reconvening with the Sun.
When the Moon moves into conjunction with her celestial consort, we all experience a rebirth and an opportunity for growth and transformation. Old patterns and alignments become cleared and new ones are ready to take their place. Magically speaking, the obscured moon can be likened to a fallow field – an empty bed rife with possibility and potential. As such, they make excellent opportunities to set new intentions and plant new seeds in the fertile soil of your own subconscious.
Each new moon is special - the sign placement and unique planetary alignments conspire to create a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for creating new beginnings in our lives. This new moon is in Sagittarius, which traditional astrologers associate with expansion, growth, enthusiasm, hope, joy, and confidence. This new moon is uplifted, buoyant, and will bring long-lasting transformation if you choose to lean into the magic of this alignment.
Astrologically speaking, much of the joy and hope that forms the background feeling for this period can be explained by Jupiter, the lord of Sagittarius. Jupiter performs the role of the divine counselor or pontiff to the Sun. Jupiter serves a steward for the throne of heaven and as avid supporter of the true King, the Sun. He gives spiritual counsel and connects all of us with our truest sense of self, reminding us of our purpose and giving us the confidence and faith in ourselves that we need to do our work.
Jupiter is also the royal treasurer - he is associated with material abundance as well as spiritual abundance. And so Jupiter is a natural go-to for people who are interested in building businesses and corporate empires - anybody who wants to expand their power and have their share of resources grow ever larger in a grounded, long-term sort of way.
Sagittarius is Jupiter’s yang, extroverted domicile. We see this confidence and faith externalized and made public. Sagittarius causes us to grow, expand, broaden our horizons, and - most importantly - push us out of our comfort zone. Sagittarius provides us with the faith and zeal that we need to accomplish our life’s work and exhort those around us in kind. This is why people with a heavy Sagittarian focus are often very self-confident, emotionally buoyant, and inclined to encourage and even teach those around them, even if they can be a little pushy about it at times.
During the Sagittarius season when the Sun occupies this sign, the world plummets into the darkest part of the year at the winter solstice. Alongside this darkening of days, most cultures throughout time and place have adopted some kind of merry-making festivities and traditions: Yule, Christmas, Saturnalia, etc. all demonstrate a collective urge humanity has to await the nadir of the solar year and the inevitable return journey back to the Sun’s blessed summertime zenith.
These festivities serve two purposes: it play a practical role in keeping spirits high during the darkest part of the year, and a religious role as the community awaits the rebirth of the sun god. Our collective Jupiterian celebrations and holiday spirit prepare us for our God’s return, and may even guide him on his journey to his new rebirth. By engaging in this work, we wrap up the current year and create space new Sun and the new year he will bring.
Whenever the New Moon occurs in Sagittarius, we can begin the work of preparing for the winter solstice. On a mundane level, we can closing out this solar year as people have always done: with holiday spirit, celebrations, and maybe even a little Sagittarian, centaur-like debauchery; on a deeper, spiritual level, we can begin reconciling and resolvings ourselves with the events of the previous year, meeting them with gratitude and acceptance. In doing so, we create more space in our lives for a new, fresh year and Sun king to be reborn anew.
In keeping with the themes of Jupiter and the bright, expansive quality of this season, the catharsis and release that this new Moon brings can create extraordinary chances open up to grow, expand, learn new things, freshly experience the world, and put yourself out there for your benefit. You may find yourself wanting to explore, study new disciplines, and experience the world in a new way. This is an excellent period to begin a new spiritual practice as well.
During this alignment, people like to grow, try new things, broaden their horizons, and expand their consciousness. Whether it happens through the intake of new knowledge, going on trips, putting oneself out there with possible friends and lovers, there is a guarantee that people will push themselves out of their comforts more than normal.
You should be able to tell that this New Moon is a far cry from the Scorpio New Moon of last month. Gone is the preoccupation with death, emotional pain, triggers, and unconscious shadows. Now is the time to put yourself out there, grow, try some new things, and develop as a person. This is your chance to lean into the abundance - spiritual and material - of Jupiter, one of the most benefic planets in Astrology.
The Moon forms a conjunction with Mars during this alignment, but it’s not very close. Expect some of the usual run-of-the-mill aggravation around holiday-related stress. This is a fire sign after all, and all that fiery intensity can become a little much at times, especially when mars gets involved.
Yellow Topaz is a good stone for people who are working through seasonal affective disorder or melancholia who want to use this New Moon to break out of challenging, stagnant emotions and move into something new. For people who want to see more business growth, green aventurine is a good fit this period.
This new Moon, I truly hope you can celebrate the previous year and all it offered you, in addition to spreading more Jupiter-style merriment to those around you. In doing so, we can make the most of the new solar year that is already almost upon us.
-Merlin