The last new moon of the year has arrived with firey brilliance
The new moon makes her (dis)appearance on Tuesday, December 12th in the part of the sky known as Sagittarius. Here, the moon conjuncts the sun, meeting up in the same sign as the season we’re in and magnifying that energy and offering us a chance to lay down new intentions. This new moon is exciting as its the very last new moon of 2023, and it's kind of a big one: we’ve got a Mars conjunction, a square to both Saturn and Neptune and (quite fortuitously, I might add), a trine with the North Node of Destiny.
New Moon
The new moon is the best time for setting intentions, manifestations and beginnings. The energy of the moon at this phase is fertile, new, and full of potential. Maybe it's helpful to remember that when the sky is at its darkness point, potential is at its highest. This is a great moon to manifest with, not just because it gives us a chance to set our last intentions for the year but because we are working with the miracle bestower, Jupiter.
Jupiter, The Great Benefic
Jupiter is the planetary ruler of Sagittarius, and oh, how I consider those Sag people to be the lucky ones. Having Jupiter on your side is a blessing of luck and optimism. An endless faith in the goodness and generosity of the environment around you. A spiritual wisdom so vast and godly that as you reach its mountainous heights, it whispers the greatest secret in your little ear: go back down, for everything you desire that expands your mind, body and soul is down there on earth in the great adventure we call life.
Sagittarius New Moon and Sagittarius Season
The archetype of Sagittarius is the seeker and the explorer. Here, we have choices for how we engage in this energy. It’s easy to find ourselves in a mode of being the perpetual seeker. There’s something captivating about the quest itself and the search outward. However, we lose the essence of Jupiter when we forget that the point of the seeking is the exploration, not what it is that we came to find. The energy of Sagittarius is best expressed, exuberantly and optimistically, when the focus is on the day to day adventures that we encounter and the way those experiences change us. By the time we reach our destination, if we have traveled the road of Sagittarius and followed the benevolent wisdom of Jupiter, we will find we are somewhere totally unexpected, yet somehow exactly where we always needed to be. This is, in essence, because it doesn't matter where we end up at all. The point, the purpose, comes from walking out your front door and being out there in the world. Every moment matters, not because every moment must be utilized, but because every moment is already giving us something we need. In the heart of Sagittarius, the only thing we really need is life. As in, the state of living; the state of being. Of being a part of this world and having so much to explore for the sake of just engaging.
New Moon in Sagittarius Trine North Node in Aries - Start a Fire
There are a lot of harsh aspects to this moon. Mars is conjunct and Saturn and Neptune both are making a square. This is putting some pressure and tension onto the moment of rebirth. It's possible this will be challenging, however, the positive aspect of the North Node in Aries trine the new moon is adding an energy of movement towards our destiny. These squares can reveal what it is you need in order to move forward in the best way for your soul at this point. We want to be mindful not to get stuck in this energy of tension or struggle and to instead utilize that north node in Aries (ie, our ambition, instincts, desires, motivations, and prioritizing our own life and sense of self) to pull that struggle through to the other side of breakthrough. This all happening in the sign of Sagittarius is an added blessing as we are being assisted by lucky, and oh-so-generous Jupiter. This means the possibility of turning struggle to success is high and full of potential. Our ability to meet this potential will have to do with our ability to meet ourselves and our Mars energy – our sense of self and our inner fire.
New Moon Square Saturn and Neptune - Grounding and Fantasy
Saturn is the planet of long-term success, life lessons, hard-work, stamina and sustainability. It is the taskmaster, and we receive our hardest lessons from Saturn's cold and detached love. It is always here to help us move forward and mature in huge ways, yet the way that it goes about that is consistently frustrating: be on the lookout for restriction, delays, limitations and needing to really put in the elbow grease to see any kind of results. The good thing: when we work with Saturn and we give it our all we are rewarded by long-term, sustainable success. When we have to forge our dreams ourselves, and with Saturn’s guidance, we get to create structures of longevity, not just ephemeral achievements.
Neptune is the planet of the mystic, the spiritual worlds, illusion, deception and imagination. In many ways, it is the representation of our dreams. Both of these planets are currently residing in the sign of Pisces. Pisces is ruled by Neptune and in traditional astrology ruled by Jupiter, which gives us an additional influence of Jupiter, which is always gratefully received and connects these two points beautifully. The fact that both of these planets that square the new moon are in the sign of Pisces tells us that we are working on making our dreams come true, and that we have good opportunities to move closer to them. The warning is to not get lost in a cloud of fantasy, as we are dealing with Neptune in hard aspect plus in the sign of its domicile, Pisces, so this energy is amplified. It’s amplified a further time by Saturn, which is adding a seriousness to this energy that can help us push past the fog of Neptune if we don’t allow ourselves to be put down by the weight of Saturn’s responsibility. This will require a level head and a willingness to do the boring, hard and monotonous work. It will also require a groundedness that protects us from the illusions of our dreams wreaking havoc on our lives. Let me explain what I mean by that, in the way that this came up for me:
Sometimes we have these huge dreams that feel consuming and unattainable. These are the kinds of dreams that stop us from moving towards them because they are so unapproachable, so wishful and huge, that we feel like our only option is meet them or fail to meet them and never recover from the disappointment of our lives thereafter. I realized, under the void of this Sagittarius new moon, that these dreams are projections of self-sabotage. When my dream says to me, it's this or nothing and my response is to shut down because the dream in question is so vast, then this dream is not a motivator but a way of constantly telling myself a story of my own failures and inability. It's self-fulfilling; the dream is too impossible and comes with too much rigidity, no flexibility and no real path towards it. It exists, not to push me forward and towards a beautiful life, but to keep me from it. To keep me always in a place of wanting and lacking. A place of doubt about what I am capable of and what is meant for me. In realizing this, I was able to look at the dream critically, and see that it was more of a hazy fog than even a mirage. Yet, this unrelenting visage held a sacred seed, the seed of my soul's actual intention to manifest this dream. The dream itself is not the things that come with it, but the fulfillment from doing what I love. The dream is not money, success or recognition, its contentment, peace and fullness from a place of depth that the ego can not touch. There is no attachment around it, there is simply the act of engaging with what brings joy. No journey to take, no end goal to meet. Just the simple act of doing that which makes my heart sing.
Last New Moon of 2023
As you think about the intentions you want to set as you close out this year and open up to a new year of possibilities and manifestations, ponder if it may be that the journey itself, whatever it may be, can bring the fulfillment you seek. Maybe simply engaging in the things that bring you joy can bring your dreams to life. If we focus on making today as beautiful for ourselves as we possibly can, we may just find that each day we wake to a beautiful life.
Comments