Knowledge is the wisdom of experience.
– quote on teabag

What made me think I could start clean-slated?
The hardest to learn is the least complicated.
– Indigo Girls

New Moon Sagittarius, Thursday, December 1, 2005, 7:01 AM PST

What do you believe? Sun in Sagittarius ’tis the season of hide and seek, the season of listening to the stories we tell ourselves, the dreams we have for the coming year, the possibilities we envision, the reality we co-create. Where do we find our options, our treasure, our creative ability to imagine a better life? In Scorpio, the sign Sag’s ruling planet is traveling through for the next year. New dreams are about merging with others, healing wounds, exploring the depths of the psyche, becoming financially viable, uncovering your hidden gifts, your secret power source, your treasures to gift the world. Gift giving Sagittarius/Jupiter is the seeker-elect who proclaims: ‘if the entire world is a story, then we can make up a new one!’

And we aren’t glib about this prospect; for this New Moon reveals an ambitious undertaking. Saturn is sitting across the table, a deadpan dinner guest mirroring to us the world we sit in right now, the sum of what we’ve created with our life so far- messy and beautiful with all of its goodness and limitation. How did we create those limitations? The mythmaker of the zodiac knows every future seed originates with a story. When we’re young, we’re told stories; when we watch TV. stories; when we have a conversation with a friend more stories. Are we conscious of the stories we absorb & perpetuate through our attention we give them, through the words that come out of our mouth? Often, we are not. As we gain experience as mythmakers, we realize that if we are to have any control over our future destiny, we see how easy it is to tell really bad tales -and- really good ones. We are learning to become responsible tale-spinners by separating fact from fiction.

To this end, Sagittarius Sun has us seek wise counsel through spirituality, exploration and higher mind pursuits. In the metaphysical wisdom-hub called the Akashic Library*, a great repository of knowledge in the center of the universe sits, recording everything. This is the seat of all knowledge, the ultimate bookstore, the knower of secrets. The sages and mystics hang out here interpreting tea leaves, and reciting the Gita while librarian-angels spend their days in encyclopedic indexes looking up answers to the big questions. But I’m thinking maybe the wisdom of ordinary folk resides in a different place. I picture a farmhouse with a cozy fire, patchwork quilts and hand me down knowledge. Maybe a crone-scribe notes exactly when your secret yearnings turned into dreams, hard lessons fought and won. ‘A-ha!’ moments are double underlined for effect. But there’s also the possibility that this wisdom is even simpler to get at- maybe it’s contained in your personal story.

Home-grown Sag wisdom: 1) experience is the best teacher & 2) the only way out (or in) is through. The irony is that the doorway through is often so close, that we cannot yet see it. Sag needs perspective to grow bigger. With Sag, the story unfolds when we’re a step removed, so remove your self from the familiar by taking a small journey, a hike, or a walk through an open field. Settle in with an object; say a tree, a rock, a feather. Treat it as though it were your best friend, the best listener in the world who wants to set you free by knowing you more deeply. Go ahead, tell it your story. Start at your beginning, and tell the tree about your pain and love. Where exactly in your soul is your first kiss, your first grief, the happiest moment of your life? What about the moment that you touched the sky, that feeling of being most alive- Where do you hesitate? Where do things get fuzzy, irritating or elicit strong emotion? These are often the most interesting parts. Know the story may not follow logic, and this may be where the healing is. Following my own medicine, I asked my aching lumbar to tell me its story. Immediately a mosquito began buzzing in my ear. Then I said ‘no, really, I’m ready to hear’-the mosquito again. Still not getting it, I said ‘okay, reveal your message to me in a dream.’ The mosquito kept me up all night.

The wisdom of story reveals non-rationally, so engage in non-rational pursuits. Psychology says that your hindsight interpretation of a meaningful life experience is forever subject to the murky emotional overlay of your changeable state of mind. This sounds kind of like a dream. In Sagittarius-land, your story eternally re-creates as you move in the world. When that world is pure possibility it’s so easy to believe that truly anything is possible. And of course, it is.

New Moon day 12/01 where will you plant your new moon intention? Mercury, Saturn and Mars all retrograde make this Sag Sun more ponderous than usual. Yet even moving backwards, Mars opposes Jupiter, striking a balance between deliberate action, optimism and energy. This pair always warns us of taking on too much over the next week. With Sun and Moon quincunx retrograde Mars, re-shuffling priorities on how to best proceed is in order. With a dependable trine to Saturn, this new moon feels secure. Sag is hardly a conservative sign, but ruler Jupiter is facing off with Saturn. How does the dream measure against reality? Mars/Jupiter wants us to deliver big, while Saturn/Jupiter wants us to pare down our dreams to the essentials. Meanwhile, Saturn/Neptune has the potential to completely disenchant us out of the wrong dream, if we’re in one. In plain English: your big dream has some practical limitations to be worked out. Remember that retrograde is still a motion. We are still moving.

12/02-03 Moon wandering in AM, evening into Capricorn. Sun trines Saturn this evening, duty calls, albeit joyfully. Mercury has virtually stopped, so our minds are either completely heightened in anticipation of Mercury direct tomorrow 12/03 (yay!) or we fall asleep at the wheel. The former is likely; Mercury is always a step ahead. During the next few days the mental wheels feel freshly oiled as we find in communication, a joy.

12/04-05 Moon makes no aspects until the evening when it enters Aquarius. However, for the next week (till 12/11) here is the joy of communicating, contract making, and business negotiations. After all the retrograde missed opportunities, computer problems, phone craziness, Mercury makes good with a sextile to Venus. There is plenty of poetry in the air, and now’s the time to begin to clear up those annoying Mars retrograde issues- money owed, car problems, whatever started worrying you around the beginning of October. It’s also a creative period for artists, writers and thinkers. Exquisite thoughts leave the tip of the pen, paintbrush and mind.

12/06-07 Again, the moon wanders through Aquarius until the evening. A wandering moon means she doesn’t aspect another planet until she enters the next constellation, sign. If we lived our lives according to the moon’s movement alone (the planets being the energetic force that act through us, as us) there would be no action of consequence during this period. Of course, other planets can override the moon’s inactivity. In this case, Mercury and Venus are quite active still- tonight when moon moves into Pisces, Sun sextiles Neptune. Really, an inspirational night- a romantic candlelit dinner, some nice classical music, a good bottle of wine brings out the lover in any one. 12/07 begins First Quarter energy, what do we believe is possible?

12/08-09 If we’ve broken new ground, the seeds are ready to burrow themselves deep into the ground. We’re planting fragile stuff here, the stuff of dreams. Are we ready to do what it takes to make it happen? Do we have what is required of us? The serenity prayer: Lord, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, to change the things I can and the wisdom to know the difference. Amen. 12/09 Moon into Aries and we feel our energy again, finally! Mars goes direct, accumulated inertia propels us forward. Even though since Dec. 1 we’ve been fielding Mars/Jupiter’s over-assertion, over-expansion urges we haven’t exactly harnessed the energy we hold for all the big plans. Now, what’s been frustrated releases- as the planet of assertion, competition, aggression, and flare ups of all sorts, course-corrects. The past 2 months have introduced ‘Me vs. You’ questions along with finance, energy and resource re-evaluation. This cycle culminates in new understanding and resolve, with a best foot forward and ‘damn the torpedoes’ kind of feel.

12/10-11 Still enjoying the Venus/Mercury sextile, we’re chatting one another up with poetry & affection, buying gifts for our loved ones, enjoying stimulating, warm conversation in relationship. This is a big shopping weekend no doubt; Moon in Aries kicks it off and continues through Sunday evening. We are lively and ambitious decking the halls and in the malls. 12/11 Moon into Taurus in the evening, kick back and chill out.

12/12-14 Moon in Taurus, but not the usual bull. Mental uplift, Mercury enters Sagittarius. Sag is not the most gifted speaker, preferring bells and whistles, embellishment over fact & details. Our minds are less retrospective than the previous month and a half. We share more freely, sometimes perhaps too freely, in the spirit of giving. Even though we think we’re losing our short-term memory, we feel like we’ve been given a breath of fresh air, there’s new stuff to think about. Optimism helps ease the holiday load. Let your mind roam free this next month, give yourself permission to think about travel, studying a new language or philosophy. Mental breaks involve playfully exploring what is possible.

12/13 Gemini Moon wants to flit about superficially, but as she culminates to full on the 15th, she gets seriously heavy- a really hard thing for Gem. Take this morning to appreciate simple pleasures. Ease your way into the hard stuff. Remember the tool of Sag- perspective. When life starts feeling oppressive: remember to find perspective, ask for a different opinion. If you feel resistance, examine your beliefs. Are they true? ‘Why do I think what I think I think? 12/14 do a little meditation mid-afternoon, ask for guidance and relaxation as you release into the flow of the universe. http://www.dailyom.com/articles/2005/1002.html

*locate your Akashic Record:
http://paganwiccan.about.com/library/weekly/aa120302akashic.htm