Come, come, whoever you are, this caravan has no despair. Even though you have broken your vows perhaps ten thousand times
Still, come again, come, whoever you are, Whoever you are, come. Wanderer, worshipper, lover of leaving, come!
-Rumi

New Moon Sagittarius, Saturday, December 11, 2004 5:29 PM PST

A second lunation for Sagittarius, another opportunity to cultivate the seeker. The full moon illumined the inkling of a seed something. We read the lay of the land with its many paths and directions. The river whispered your name, the bending tree told you which direction to best follow your life destination. Your vision was broad, and the particulars needed focus-,it was just beginning. The full moon promised new roads in the backyard of our familiar. Hopefully we discovered some. Sagittarius wants us to reach further, to envision outlandish possibility. This is the searcher, seeker, preacher, teacher, poet-philosopher, mystic & magician in you. Looking for the purpose in all things, this is where we weave context and meaning. To the mystics, the mundane of ordinary life events are like puzzle pieces falling into a larger cosmic web. This new moon wants us to drop the baggage off on the way.

The timing of this lunation seems especially relevant to the new paradigms we’re now living. There have been big shifts this fall; many people have been catapulted into new realities. These changes were subtly announced with elegant planetary patterns, long awaited breakthroughs happened almost seamlessly, like a knife through butter. All your surrender, work, your patient waiting for life, finally softened and allowed room for new. If you showed up to the moment, the effects produced profound results: healings, endings & beginnings. The Divine blew gentle kisses into your ear. For Sagittarius, life is magic, the universe pulsing with color and new experience. The visionary in us lives for expansion. As we get ready to expand, there is clean up work.

The thinker, Mercury the mind, has been stressed. Mercury is moving backwards and has for the 2nd time joined with Pluto, the planet of ‘all that you can’t leave behind’. You may find yourself circling in loops of emotional memory; jealousy, resentment, bitterness, fear, desire…name your injury, the restless and fixed energy of the mind knows the difference between where you want to be and where you are. The mind is thinking with your gut, and your gut has a list of injuries longer than Santa’s. A repeating aspect, you may’ve reached your edge more than once through the past month; this is the phone call you avoid, the phone ringing off the hook. This is the caller asking for a past due invoice. What is it you need to finally stop thinking or believing? You hunger for change and expansion like the roaming mystic/gypsy/poet traveler you are. The urge to expand is countered by an initial contraction. A priori to the new, we must be willing to get deep into the nitty- gritty of our own beliefs, the root cellar of mind.

Imagine a deep forest, dark and still. The landscape pulses waves of dense black-green. You find your story beyond the stillness, where redwood trees begin to look human. Did they just speak & move? Senses so alive, you can taste the rich and thick smells, primordial, earthy. Smell something rotten and fresh alive. This is the mind, fertile and powerful. The mind knows the stories of humanity since the beginning of time. A million voices: tell, untell, remember, forget, relive, release. Your story holds a very powerful connection to the timeless and your very personal beliefs.

Leaning into our personal story may take the rest of our lives. But here we are in the sign of the visionary, at the edge of deep inner space. With Pluto, Venus and Mars in Scorpio, all that we can’t leave behind is our hidden richness, our wealth of energy. It’s all bound up down there like a magical kundalini charging our creativity and desires with raw funky stuff.

Let it bubble up. Investigate the story. Chances are, much has changed since the song first began. Have you noticed? Life has given you so much, even through the darkness of injury and pain. Pay in kind by relinquishing a little piece of the woundedness. With a gentle touch in the right spot, universes shift, realities folding like pudding batter. Find a small way to give up the old story, let obsession be replaced by a new expansionary expression.

To bridge the inner world to the outer- this isn’t a New Moon you’ll want to do alone, or spend doing the same old thing. Sagittarius lives for the open road—take a day trip! Visit someplace special to you, a teacher or church you haven’t been in awhile. Experiment with new perspectives, dialogue. Take in points of view on the outside as food for growth.

12/11

Venus in Scorpio has just left a sextile to Chiron (12/10) and applies a trine to Saturn on Monday. This is soft energy for intense times. Kindness in relationship proves healing. The urge to prematurely act out is countered by awareness of the others emotional, physical limits. Much has been learned through Venus’ tour with Mars the past few weeks; the inner and outer tantrums were just as passionate as the sex. After all the hiss and spit, this is the place where we take what we’ve learned and apply with care.

12/12 Mercury sextile Jupiter, Moon in Capricorn. Take your trip this day, talk to friends, your mind is opened and receptive to information. Mercury is sitting between Jupiter and Neptune for some creative inspiration. The imagination may be rich right now and the perceptual field dense with possibility. Use fantasy, travel, movies, art to give you a lift. Not too head in the clouds, down to earth moon leans toward practical concerns, money, time, effort spent & how our plans fit in the overall scheme of things.

12/14 Moon into Aquarius, Mercury sextile Neptune. The mood is a little experimental and imaginative. Shake it up by doing something out of the ordinary. Eat some squid ink pasta while composing esoteric poetry from your bathtub.

12/16 Venus moves into Sagittarius, shifting social preferences, interactions and tastes from close encounters of the dominatrix kind to a little bit of everything. This is Venus, International Style, with a catch-me-if-you-can attitude that leaves us all very non-committal, but always wanting more. I’ll take one of …everything, please. The marketers for last minute Christmas Shopping love this Venus. Moon in Pisces shape shifts seamlessly.

12/18 First Quarter Moon in Pisces swims around what she wants to do. Impressionable and vacillating, we dive right in to a Moon in Aries that afternoon. Regardless of what’s unclear, we move forward with determination. Moon trines Venus in fire signs, take this Saturday night to the streets and enjoy natural spontaneity and enthusiasm. All fired up for 12/19 when Venus does an about face to Uranus. Someone’s cranky and looking for attention; we find it difficult to reconcile issues of freedom in relationship. Too much or too little, we’re looking at how to get the best of both worlds. Jupiter in Libra andVenus in Sagittarius behold one another in mutual reception. This is like the Goddess of Love receiving the benefits of Fortuna. Whew, a planetary agreement saves the day! For now, and the next month or so it is possible to blend both freedom and relationship. This is also a great aspect for getting those last minute Christmas gifts—your tastes may be unusual or you may find a surprise. Chances are you’ll like what you find.

Mercury goes direct today, meaning green lights, go, the gate has been lifted. Now you can put into action those decisions and purchases, contracts you’ve been holding at bay. Isn’t it nice to have a little more positive feedback from the world? No more round robin on all the endless details, persnickety people and mechanical breakdowns. Mars trine Saturn is a steady hand guiding our energy in the right direction.

12/21 Sun moves from Sagittarius into Capricorn, Moon in Taurus. This is the winter solstice, when the night is the longest. The good news: from now on we get more daylight, not less. Capricorn energy is practical, efficient and focused on sustaining material and social resources; Moon in Taurus emphasizes this.

Tune into Capricorn by thinking of your prairie ancestors at this time of year in the cold, dead of winter. They had canned, dried food, chopped wood from the summer and fall so there would be food on the table, warmth in the house. This is a time of year when resources have always been harder to find- we can easily find ourselves in black or white thinking, focused on the bottom line. Look at your sadness or melancholy through the world lens of this phenomenon and it becomes bearable by connecting you to life.

12/24 Sun sextiles Uranus, Moon in Gemini. Throw a Christmas Eve mixer. This is a social day perfect for sleigh-bells ringing, are you listening… All good spirits are optimistic, and facing forward. The inner revolutionary nudges the Scrooge naysayer away.

New Moon Sagittarius poetry/wisdom offering to the Teacher within:

If we can dream it up, we can dream it down. -Rev Ike

Ring the bell that still can ring,

Forget your perfect offering

There’s a crack in everything

That’s how the light gets in. -Leonard Cohen

I am a seeker, a poor sinful creature.
There is no weaker than I am.
I am a seeker, an’ you are a teacher.
You are a reacher, so reach down.
Reach out and lead me,
Guide me and keep me.
In the shelter of your care each day.
‘Cos I am a seeker, an’ you are a keeper.
You are a leader, won’t you show me the way?

I am a vessel that’s empty and useless.
I am a bad seed that fell by the way.
I am a loser that wants to be a winner.
And you are my last hope, don’t turn me away

I am a seeker, a poor sinful creature.
There is no weaker than I am.
I am a seeker, an’ you are a teacher.
You are a reacher, so reach down.
Reach out and lead me,
Guide me and keep me.
In the shelter of your care each day.
‘Cos I am a seeker, an’ you are a keeper.
You are a leader, won’t you show me the way?

Oh, you are a mountain,
From which there flows a fountain:
So let it’s water wash my sins away.
Reach out and lead me,
Guide me and keep me.
In the shelter of your care each day.
‘Cos I am a seeker, an’ you are a keeper.
You are a leader, won’t you show me the way?
– ‘Seeker’ by Dolly Parton