Astrology: New Moon in Sagittarius – standby for liftoff!

December 4, 2018 Confluence

Reading Time: 5 minutes

By: Janette Dalgliesh – Confluence Daily is your daily news source for women in the know.

Over the past couple of weeks, we’ve begun to feel the pull of Sun and Jupiter in Sagittarius, that urge for expansion and exploration tugging us forward to bright new possibilities.

And right now as I type this piece, I know it might not feel much like that at all.

That’s partly because of good ol’ Mercury Retrograde still at play, with the whole review, rethink, reassess mojo. (You have been doing that stuff, right? Cuz you won’t want to bring too much baggage along for the next phase of energy!)

But it’s not only that. Right now it’s also because we’re experiencing a Dark Moon in deep-dive Scorpio, where things tend to be Profound and Important and Highly Significant. In this Pluto-ruled sign, words seem to need more capitalization than usual. Nothing is trivial or surface, and it can feel very Serious and Weighty and Significant.

Dark Moon invites us to turn our focus inwards, to engage in contemplation and preparation before the New Moon.

In other words, it’s not a time for racing forward at full throttle.

So the best strategy for right now is to use these next few days for all your pre-flight checks.

Old beliefs brought to awareness for processing and transformation? Check.

Old business models or systems examined to see what needs an update? Check

Old toxic relationships dragged into the light ready for deletion or healing? Check.

Old thought-and-emotion habits re-evaluated and readied for upgrading? Check.

You’ll want to wrap up the review work as much as you can, because as the Moon moves forward into Sagittarius and lines up with the Sun (giving us the exact moment of the New Moon), it’s as though that Sun-Jupiter-Sagittarius dynamic ignites at a whole new level.

And what makes it really ZING is Mercury, just a few hours earlier, changing the (apparent) direction of his movement through our sky, and beginning to pick up forward momentum so that by the time of the New Moon, he’s well underway and picking up speed.

Have you seen footage of an Apollo launch?

It starts with the initial rush of ignition, followed by a pause, as the power builds up while the rocket is kept in place by the hold-back arms. And then the mighty craft is released to rise into the air, accelerating at a blistering pace until it breaks free of Earth’s gravitational embrace.

This is the same dynamic. Slow burn to start with, then New Moon ignites the fuel at a whole new level while Mercury takes off the brakes.

For reference (and for those of us who like to mark such events with a ritual* of some kind), here are the exact times:

Mercury Retrograde – Thursday December 6, 2018 at 4:22pm Eastern US time
New Moon – Friday December 7, 2018 at 2:20am Eastern US time

Between now and December 21 when the Sun moves into practical, get-shit-done Capricorn, there’s likely to be a huge upswelling of optimism, a yearning for new beginnings, a craving to explore what lies beyond. Enjoy it, and know that there is no requirement to rush it by starting an action plan right now. This is not about “how do I make shit happen?” This is about “holy cow, I just had this amazing idea of A Thing I want to do, be or have and it’s totally out there!!!”

Sagittarius is known as The Archer, usually depicted as a figure with bow and arrow, the bow drawn and ready to take the shot. But the symbol or glyph for Sagittarius is not the figure with the bow, nor the bow itself – it’s the arrow. The focus of this optimistic energy is not what’s in our immediate here and now, nor is it the mechanism by which we traverse from here to there. It’s the reality which lies at the other (exciting and sometimes scary) end of the arrow’s trajectory.

And when we focus on that exploratory, anything-is-possible zone beyond the familiar, it stretches our ideas, it gives us new goals and new ideas about the adventures we’d like to experience next.

And – by the way – that’s great if your brain is prepared and ready for the exploration too.

Brains love variety, but they mistrust change. They’re not remotely interested in accuracy, but they crave a coherent narrative.

Left to its own devices, your brain could either get super excited about a thrilling but wrong-for-you venture and take action to commit you before you’ve got all the information you’ll need.

Or it could hijack a brilliant opportunity by wrapping you so tightly in metaphorical cotton wool, you can’t move at all.

So we’re not going to just leave it to chance.

During the Dark Moon, take the opportunity to check in and make sure any reviewing, rethinking and reassessing work has at least been recognized as something for you to do. If possible, do whatever work you need to do, to clean things up. Our clean up work is never completely “done”, so make sure not to get bogged down in “I haven’t finished yet!!” – instead, aim for “done for now”, and call it good.

At the New Moon, set intentions to embrace and explore any and every possible opportunity that comes your way, while stepping up to be the CEO of your brain so it doesn’t inadvertently pull you off the rails or hold you back.

Embrace that full-on Apollo-launch dynamic. Set your direction and keep facing forward, no hesitation and no venturing off into side paths. Imagine that rocket trajectory, accelerating to the speed of sound within less than a minute.

In other words, get ready for blast off!

* for a Sagittarius New Moon ritual, think fire. Keep it simple and light a candle as you set your intentions for expansion and exploration of boundless possibility.

And if you’re aware of any unhelpful thought or emotion habits – aka vibrations – that just won’t shift, check out Vibration Rehab, the process I originally created for my own self to detox from chronic anxiety.

Janette Dalgliesh has a simple mission in life – to help every person unlock their capacity for resonant joy, and live it. A keen student of astrology, brain science, chaos magic, law of attraction and positive psychology, she serves her people through astrology consults, coaching, teaching and writing. Her international clientele raves about her wildly accurate, individualized readings, but she doesn’t do general weekly predictions – for those, Janette recommends Kim Falconer (www.goodvibeastrology.com) and Mystic Medusa (www.mysticmedusa.com). Find Janette on Facebookor via her website – or you might like to pick up her free brain-rewiring resource, Identity Shift 101 here.