2009 Sagittarius New Moon
New Moon December 16 09
24 Sagittarius 39
7:02 AM EST / 4:02am PST/ 12:02 PM GMT
December’s New Moon in Sagittarius inspires us to broaden our horizons, mentally and physically. It continues the themes of growth, healing, enlightenment and innovation in the context of the ongoing celestial focus on relationships. It’s a happy, heart-expanding and sociable moment. Bass chords are playing in the background, though, signaling that all is not as light and frothy as it may seem.
Sagittarius is the sign of the higher mind. It’s where we take the information and messages we picked up during the Gemini Full Moon and process them into a bigger picture of explanations and philosophies. It’s where we want to learn and expand and come into contact with concepts that are not native to us. It rules higher education, legal processes and other systems of thought, publishing, and foreign places, people, languages and travel. A New Moon in this sign instills a quest for adventure and experiencing life on a grander scale in some way. It may set us thinking about improving our minds and gaining training and credentials. It will draw focus to our outlook on life. This year it invites us to let that outlook soar far and wide, into the clouds and into the future — and to take some dear companions along for the trip.
The Sun and the Moon are conjunct Venus, ruler of love, money, our possessions and our talents, and all that we value. We can now turn all the experiences and realizations that we have been having on this front into coherent philosophies. We can, at minimum, begin to understand the relationship dynamics that we have been rewriting and renegotiating. Venus is happy, excited and energized as she approaches the Sun and Moon. She is moving into a trine with her cosmic consort Mars, which is exact the day after the New Moon. The masculine and the feminine, assertive and receptive energies, men and women, all are enjoying harmony and cooperation, each stoking the fires of the other. Neither is overpowering the other; instead, each partner is contributing his or her unique qualities and the result is combustion. (Suffice to say this bodes quite well for reigniting relationships, sparking new attractions and having fun socially in general.) Venus carries his enthusiasm and verve to the Sun and the Moon, making this a highly active time. Much of what starts or moves quickly forward at this time will come back around again during Mars’ retrograde, which begins four days later.
The Sun, the Moon and Venus are all sextile their ruler Jupiter, who is traveling ever more closely with Neptune, Chiron and Uranus. (The New Moon is exactly conjunct Neptune by degree.) We’re in the last round of the healing, the blending of spirit and physical existence, the wisdom, enlightenment and optimism and the outright magic that this quarter has been bringing us all year. Last week, Jupiter had the final of three conjunctions with Chiron and the last of three semi-sextiles to Uranus last week too; his final conjunction with Neptune coming up on the 21st. Hindrances are crumbling. Wounds are settling into ancient and forgiven history. The glass is switching from half-empty to half-full, even if the contents have not changed. Dreams are in fact coming true. There is a substantial element now of rewards rolling into our lives and situations coming into being (or into new levels) that have been brewing for a long, long time.
But this energy doesn’t have to end with harvesting the past. The New Moon is receiving the energy of the triple conjunction and carrying it into the future. Be mindful of this when you set your intentions for this Moon cycle. In fact, be mindful of it whether you make a practice of setting intentions or not. How we are viewing our lives right now will reverberate into the next Gemini Full Moon one year away. And relationships are smack in the middle of that perspective. It will not be easy to miss that, with the excitement that the Venus/Mars trine will be sending off. Take all the energy that you are feeling now and channel it into both the past and the future. Ask for a healing of any relationship dynamics and attitudes that are still skulking around in your past. Then look forward. Contemplate what you want to experience with and in a partner, and cast off the limitations and disappointments of what you have experienced before (even in your current relationship, if it’s one that is continuing and growing). Don’t attach your desires to a specific personality, but think instead of qualities and traits. Dream bigger and bigger, and open yourself to the possibility of a partnership that is based on each person being true to their deepest selves — and living simultaneously as a spiritual and as a physical being. Spread this energy around in all your dealings; don’t focus it only on a romantic desire. The triple-conjunction is bringing together communities of heart-driven individuals who accept and delight in one another and share the same life philosophies, passions and dreams for the future. Open yourself to grand adventures with them under this New Moon.
The Moon goes void of course immediately after meeting the Sun, from 7:02 AM to 5:32 PM EST. We have the entire day to sit with the energies of their union and contemplate what they mean for our lives and the expression of our ego.
As the Sagittarius Moon spins off fun and flirting and passion and parties, a serious undercurrent is roiling beneath the jolliness. The Sun, the Moon and Venus are all in an out-of-sign conjunction with Pluto, the great transformer, and will soon join him on his current turf. The Moon meets him at 11 PM EST on the 16th, some 17 hours after the New Moon, and intensify, purify, focus our emotions. The Sun will meet him on Christmas Eve, Venus four days later on the 28th. Enormous issues of power and desire will bookend Christmas and color the whole week. A greater hand than our mortal one is shaping our experiences. It is forcing us to look at how we share power, how we relate, what we desire and how we got after it. As we enjoy the laughter and optimism of the Sagittarius New Moon, we understand instinctively that it’s not all idle play. The course of our future is at stake.
The Sabian Symbol for the New Moon at 25 Sagittarius is
A CHUBBY LITTLE RICH BOY RIDES UPON A HOBBYHORSE
Commentary: ‘A Chubby Little Rich Boy Rides Upon a Hobbyhorse’. The dictionary defines a ‘Hobby Horse’ as “1) a strong active horse, of middle size 2) A stick, often with the head or figure of a horse, on which boys make believe to ride 3) A subject or plan upon which one is constantly setting off; a favorite and ever-recurring theme of discourse, thought, or effort; that which occupies one’s attention unduly, or to the weariness of others; a ruling passion.” ‘A Chubby Little Rich Boy’ shows a young child that has all his material needs met; he’s well fed and looked after. He ‘Rides Upon his Hobby Horse’, which could be anything from a real horse to a stick horse, and presumably he enjoys the fun and the motion, perhaps it soothes him or just keeps him occupied when he has nothing else to do. Perhaps there are many other things he could be doing, such as school lessons or domestic chores, but he’s probably not thinking about those right now. Does he really enjoy what he’s doing or is it more that he’s gotten into the habit of being on his ‘Hobby Horse’? If he’s just started playing, he may soon discover that he can’t actually go anywhere with this “toy” as it’s very limited in its range or motion. Indeed, if it is a “rocking horse”, it has no forward motion, rather it continually goes over the same ground, backwards and forwards.
Oracle: Somebody in this situation may feel that they are doing what is necessary, but it is probably not the real thing, but more of a training session. Are you, or someone else, doing something over and over? Perhaps there’s a feeling of being bored with all the big plans and big endeavors that go nowhere and largely come to nothing. This is more like a practice run. Still, this may be a time of learning. Looking upon life’s experiences as a lesson will help you to move onto the next stage of the situation. Keep up the practice and the play, one day you’re going to have to prove yourself in a more rigorous, demanding situation.
Keywords: Hobbies and their pleasures. Unrestrained, imaginative play that can lead to truly wonderful creations, physically, emotionally and spiritually. Protected practice. Having to have one’s sexual needs fulfilled before one loses energy. Exercise, doing something because one can. Constantly going off on distracting schemes. Boys and their toys. Unrestrained passion.
The Caution: Someone spoilt and shallow. Feeling that one can take on anything, without thought to the actual consequences. Playing when one should be more serious about life. Not doing one’s work, avoiding it by doing ‘fun’ things instead. Having no friends to play with.
Do not handicap your children by making their lives easy. Lazarus Long
Nothing is so hard for those who abound in riches to conceive how others can be in want. Jonathan Swift
It is amazing how quickly the kids learn to drive a car, yet are unable to understand the lawnmower, snow blower, or vacuum cleaner. Ben Bergor
In this era of affluence and of permissiveness, we have, in all but cultural areas, bred a nation of over-privileged youngsters, saturated with vitamins, television and plastic toys. Judith Crist
Well, you know when you’re rocking in a rocking chair, and you go so far that you almost fall over backwards, but at the last instant you catch yourself? That’s how I feel all the time. Stephen Wright
“Why do you ride that crazy horse? Inquired the shadow with little remorse. Neil Young