Aim true and wish hard my babies, the last new moon of the year is on the rise.
On Dec. 12 at 6:32 p.m., sun and moon will meet in lemonade-out-of-lemons, more-the-merrier, highway-is-my-home Sagittarius.
The mutable fire sign is associated with action and adaptability, moving through the world hungry for its marrow, open to its shifting sands.
This is thrill-driven, caution-to-the-wind energy that encourages us not to sip timidly from the cup of life, but rather to drink it wholly and heartily, to let it roll down our chins, stain our bandanas and to always, always ask for more.
The new moon in Sag is forming a disorienting square with Neptune in Pisces. Neptune being the planet of dreams and deception can compromise clarity, but it also encourages needed changes in perspective and perception.
Sag = Pan
I liken this aspect to the scene in “Hook” when the Lost Boys sit down to feast (Say grace. GRACE!) and the cantankerous middle-aged Peter Pan, played by Robin Williams, can’t see or taste the food…until he lets out an inspired, enlivening string of insults and allows his imagination to fill his plate and start a food fight. This moment reminds us, as do the aspects of this new moon, that we cannot eat dreams, but we are empty without them.
We cannot eat dreams, but we are empty without them.
As an aside, the Lost Boys en-masse — and Peter, too, once he gets his s—t together — with their defiant adherence to a ‘never grow up,’ ‘I believe I can fly’ ethos are Sag energy at its most pure and inspiring.
Meaning of the new moon
A new moon transpires when the moon is in conjunction with the sun and no longer visible from our vantage on Earth. As such, the new moon always falls in the same zodiac sign the sun is currently moving through.
The sky goes dark, giving us a canvas of pure potential and boundless imagining, especially under the influence of good-times-loving Sagittarius. The new moon equates to a clean slate, turning over the fresh dirt and blank page of a month-long lunar cycle.
The sky goes dark, giving us a canvas of pure potential and boundless imagining, especially under the influence of good-times-loving Sagittarius.
In astrology, the sun symbolizes the ego, the essential self and our forward trajectory, while the moon represents our internal compass rose, primal nature, need for nourishment and subconscious urges.
When these two bodies align in sign, it’s an opportunity to assess and progress. This week that opportunity takes shape in the optimistic, arrows to the sky, wing-and-a-prayer, mutable fire of rocking n’ rolling, truth-as-blunt-force-object, hope-as-the-best-high Sagittarius.
Under this new moon we are reminded that the unknown is the last horizon of hope, and that curiosity — a better bet than caution if we allow it — is our best defense against fear.
All of that vigor and optimism will be put to use as Mars. Our planet of action is also moving through Sagittarius, alongside the sun, the moon, and Mercury, planet of the mind. With this dense planetary energy at hand and at arrow, we truly are more poised than ever to move fierce and fearless towards our hearts desire — and our most wild imaginings.
The new moon in Sagittarius will also form a lucky trine with the North Node in Aries, the portal to passion, personhood and our highest potential. With this aspect, the bonfire of our becoming burns bright. This is lead-don’t-follow, roll-the-dice, failure-as-fortification, hell-bent- on-being-yourself, let-the-chips-fall, confidence-is-king kind of power.
Now or never and ever forward, my dudes.
Meaning of the new moon in Sagittarius
The experimental, experiential nature of this sign and this new moon is best eulogized by triple Sagittarius and straight haired sage Joan Didion, who in her 1975 commencement address (aprops — Sag is the sign of higher learning) to UC Riverside advised:
“I want to tell you to live in the messy world, throw yourself into the convulsion of the world. I’m not telling you to make the world better, because I don’t think that progress is necessarily part of the package. I’m just telling you to live in it. Not just to endure it, not just to suffer it, not just to pass through it, but to live in it. To look at it. To try to get the picture. To live recklessly. To take chances. To make your own work and take pride in it. To seize the moment. And if you ask me why you should bother to do that, I could tell you that the grave’s a fine and private place, but none I think do there embrace. Nor do they sing there, or write, or argue, or see the tidal bore on the Amazon, or touch their children. And that’s what there is to do and get it while you can and good luck at it.”
You heard it here folks, carpe that ever-loving diem, get it while you can and good luck in the getting. Enjoy the mortal coil while you fill it and the road while you walk it.
I’ll see you for the winter solstice on December 21 and the full Cold Moon in Cancer on December 26.
Astrologer Reda Wigle researches and irreverently reports back on planetary configurations and their effect on each zodiac sign. Her horoscopes integrate history, poetry, pop culture and personal experience. She is also an accomplished writer who has profiled a variety of artists and performers, as well as extensively chronicled her experiences while traveling. Among the many intriguing topics she has tackled are cemetery etiquette, her love for dive bars, Cuban Airbnbs, a “girls guide” to strip clubs and the “weirdest” foods available abroad.
