How do we find truth? What are the processes and life experience that allow us to come forward and say what we believe? How do we recognize the very personal nature of truth and belief, and that sometimes they shift and change...and that allowing our beliefs to shift and change is a good thing?
On Thursday, December 6 at 11:20pm Pacific we have a New Moon in Sagittarius that allows us to explore a vision for our lives, and the beliefs and truths that underlie that vision. This is a lovely lunation, partially because it's got that zesty, zinging, visionary Sagittarian vibe going for it. Partially because it takes place as most planets -- all but Chiron and Uranus -- are moving direct. Finally some forward motion!
Sagittarian energy is most commonly associated with adventuring, exploring, questing and risk-taking. It is the sign that represents truth and belief. It loves growth, expansion, higher learning, culture. There's a lot of movement going on there. Inspiration. Spark.
One way to look at Sagittarius is through its placement in the zodiac. It falls between Scorpio and Capricorn, two of the heavier, more intense signs of the zodiac. After the clash of the conscious and unconscious in Scorpio, we emerge into Sagittarius where there is light, temperance and purification. We get to play for a bit, recovering before the work of building the manifest world -- the structures of our society -- begins. We synthesize the knowledge we've gained at all levels of being into a greater wisdom.
Sagittarian optimism is a thing. It's a long haul through the first eight signs of the zodiac. Sagittarian fire is the faith that sustains us through the hard times. It is the beliefs that help us to make meaning. Meaning helps us to orient to our experience.
Since early October, we've been in incredibly Scorpionic waters, tossing and turning and learning so much about our desires and fears, the ways our relationships actually work and the ways we want them to. For this New Moon, we still have Mercury and Venus in Scorpio, but we are emerging more fully into direct action again.
But before we can get there, we need some time to receive the visions that are arriving for us. One thing can be said for living in a culture where so many structures and beliefs are falling apart -- there's lots of space to envision the new. A square aspect between the Sun and Moon in Sagittarius and a Mars-Neptune conjunction in Pisces invites new dreams and visions to the mix. These dreams and visions may seem foggy or confusing, but they ask us to pay attention, for over the coming years we will need to keep our visions for a greater, more life-enhancing civilization very close to our minds and hearts. The house where this lunation falls is an area of life where new truths, beliefs and visions might be starting to arrive.
Your job, should you choose to accept it, is to receive those visions, be honest with yourself about what you want, and act accordingly.
The outward, action-oriented energy of Sagittarius can be overdone. It can become overconfident. It can also be a defense mechanism in which we react to the intensity we encountered in Scorpio by refusing to go back, therefore focusing on the external world. We begin to think that if we just make outer world changes, the inner world will follow.
That can be true in some situations and small amounts, but big time change requires adjustments to both our inner and outer worlds. Sagittarius' association with wisdom and right action lies in its ability to be patient and present, but also it its association with intuition. Intuition is a spark of fire we have within us. It's a function that orients us to our inner truth, the one based in the experience of our current lifetime, but also based in the way our cells remember thousands of years of living in harmony with the earth and each other.
Intuition is the still, silent part of us that knows how truth feels and that never guides us out of fear. We have an opportunity to recover and reconnect with our intuition -- our inner compass -- at this time.
Sagittarius is the heat of compassion. Compassion that fuels love for self, other and world, but also the compassion that is a force for justice. Not the kind of justice we associate with Libra, which is really more about fairness and equality. The kind of justice that comes from living in a world where giving, sharing and receiving have been restored to their right place as fundamental human laws, and where abundance of food, water, shelter, art and education are human rights.
Sagittarius knows that compassion is not a passive concept, but an active one, for once we see and believe in a world in which compassion towards the earth and all of its beings is a central ethic, the injustice of settling for anything less is intolerable and unacceptable.
So dream big for this New Moon. Even if it's a big dream for a small area of life. We have some wish-making energy here, friends. The universe is sending some support for risk-taking and expansion -- so it's important to be sure that you want what you're asking for. But the seeds you plant now will begin to take root. Just remember to nurture, water and feed them along the way.
New Moon exact at 11:20pm Pacific Time
December 6, 2018
15 degrees 7 minutes of Sagittarius
Amanda is an astrologer and soul worker who can be found online at www.aquarianspirals.com. Amanda does astrology and tarot readings on Thursdays at East West.