New Moon Total Solar Eclipse at 23° Sagittarius December 14 2020 9:16 AM MST

Welcome to eclipse season, part two. Two weeks ago, we had the lunar eclipse in Gemini and now follows the solar eclipse in the sign opposite: Sagittarius, where the sun has been traveling from November 22 to December 21.

Remember, eclipse energy can be chaotic and points to times of big beginnings and endings. It can bring hidden things, secrets, and new information to light, and kick off new cycles and patterns in our lives and society.

New Moon Total Solar Eclipse in Sagittarius

On December 14 at 9:16 am MST, the moon will meet the sun in Sagittarius for a new moon (always a conjunction of the two luminaries). This total solar eclipse will heighten the energy of the new moon and also prime us for the upcoming Great Conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn.

Sagittarius is the sign of expansive ideas and ideals, learning, spirituality, and travel—asking us to begin to dream into our larger selves and visions of the world.

The centaur, Sagittarius is the adventurer of the zodiac. Aspects of our lives that may be intensified include goals and plans that expand our horizons and lead to deeper understanding of ourselves and our place in the grander scheme—our beliefs, our visions, our FAITH.

Sagittarius season ends autumn and moves us into Capricorn and winter with the solstice—but despite containing the darkest days and longest nights of the year, Sagittarius is nonetheless a sign of hope, of faith, of belief in the light and its return.

Again, it’s an eclipse here, so except what was hidden to be revealed, and spend time delving into the deeper or darker (shadowed) aspects of these parts of our lives.

Do the work here to examine your belief systems and spiritual values, and root out anything toxic, bypassing, or that just no longer resonates for where you are now—so that you don’t carry it forward in your future patterns, and in the annual intention-setting energy that arrives with the winter solstice.

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If you know your rising sign, look to your chart to see which houses hold Gemini and Sagittarius. This will point you to the areas of your life that will ask to be changed and transformed not only through December, but over the next year (until January 2022), as the eclipses continue to occur along this axis.

The flavor of these eclipses has to do with balancing the micro with the macro, integrating the mundane mental minutia with a wide-angled holistic view. Seeing the whole, and also its constituent parts—the forest and the trees.

It’s also asking us to interrogate and excavate our beliefs, especially around religion and spirituality, and to release that which serves no purpose for us in our daily lives, which constricts or belittles rather than expands, which encourages or allows us to bypass or ignore the pain and inequity of this plane and planet in the name of “higher vibes” or “positive thinking.”

This year demands that we take our grandiose cosmic visions and ideals, and work to make them manifest, make them part of our daily lives and thought processes.

The eclipses last fell along this same axis in 2001-2003 (with the same nodal pattern) and 2010-2013. The last lunar eclipse here in Gemini was November 2012. Thinking back to that period of your life can give you clues as to what areas of your life may be touched by these lunations. (Not that the same or even similar events will occur, but you can begin to notice patterns and periods of shift in the larger cycles of your life.)

South Node Solar Eclipse

The new moon is always about new beginnings and planting what will ripen in the next two weeks and the next six months (until the next full moon in the same sign, Sagittarius). A solar eclipse both heightens and complicates this new moon energy—bringing what is hidden to the surface, revealing what has been in the shadows, and/or awakening our own subconscious material for us to reckon with.

However, a solar eclipse on the south node speaks to release and letting go, moving forward from what we’ve known and been comfortable with into the new.

The north node is said to be the hungry head of the dragon, thirsting for growth and new experiences, and edging us into our evolution. The south node, meanwhile, is the dragon’s tail and speaks to where we’ve been and what we accomplished or mastered or perhaps become mired in. In the natal chart, the south node indicates innate talents or propensities and even past life experiences and wisdom, while the north points us in the direction of what we’re here to learn and push into.

So a new moon/solar eclipse on the south node, then, asks us to examine and establish intentions regarding what we need to release and move beyond, in order to reach the next round of our growth.

And if you feel like I’ve been talking a lot about letting go and release the past few months—I have. That has been the tone of the second half of 2020 (well, much of the whole year).

And while destruction is rarely as appreciated as creation—it is just as vital.

Nothing is created without destroying what it was before. No choice is made, in our art and in our lives, that doesn’t erase all other choices that could have been.

Once you write a sentence, the thousand other lines the story could have followed are eliminated. Once you make your first brushstroke, a million other things the painting could have been are obliterated.

This is a time of embracing destruction and release, of excreting and exterminating the choices and lives and projects we are not going to make, the paths we are choosing not to go down, at least for now.

You cannot give your attention to everything. And many things we give ourselves over to are wasteful at best, and toxic or abusive at worst. Old patterns and stories and voices we’ve put on to protect ourselves at some point along the way; old coats, old shells that now threaten to drown us if we can’t cut them away.

Most importantly—if we do not do the work of releasing and shedding and burning away what is no longer useful or good for us—life will do it for us. Astrology offers us a guide, a spotlight saying, look here, work on this, work with this… or be blindsided by the winds of change, which are a-coming, like it or not.

And—good news—we’re almost to the Winter Solstice and the Great Conjunction! A huge, pattern setting time where we’ll do lots of lovely intention and goal setting. More on that to come!

So for now, use the following writing prompts to focus on the cutting away, the release that will ready you for the MAJOR shifts and changes coming (and watch for my newsletter with rituals and writing prompts for the Great Conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn on the Winter Solstice, December 21, 2020).

Solar Eclipse in Sagittarius Ritual + Journal Writing Prompts

I personally don’t set intentions or do spellwork or extensive rituals during eclipses, so this is a mini ritual focused on examining your spiritual beliefs and practices, learning, travel, and expanding your horizons (Sagittarius-flavored themes) and exploring what you might want to expand into in the next six months in this area of your life (until the full moon in Sag in April 2021).

1. Gather a notebook and pen, along with a candle and matches/lighter. Sagittarius is ruled by Jupiter, so a blue or purple candle would be nice, white is also appropriate.

2. Turn off all the lights. It’s a new moon, so you shouldn’t have much moonlight either. Embrace the dark. Spend some time here.

3. In the dark, write in your notebook (it’s okay if it’s messy/illegible) in response to the following question: What belief or story (well-intentioned or not), MOST holds me back from doing the things I want to do or feel called to do in the world and/or in my art? (The “most” is important, we’re trying to single in on one belief, or at most a couple of intertwined beliefs. If needed, make a list and then choose one phrase from that list.)

4. Light the candle.

5. By candlelight, write in response to the following questions: What would letting go of or destroying this belief look like, what would it mean in my daily life? What would I have to do or change in order to live authentically beyond this belief, as if this belief were no longer true for me? In other words, what would I do if this belief were no longer true for me?

6. Make a list of things you would do, or would have to do, to live your truth, if this belief or story were no longer part of you, no longer true for you.

7. Give yourself a hug. This is not easy work.

8. Snuff out your candle.

9. Return to this list on the winter solstice and see whether any of these things belong in your intentions for the coming year. Add them if so.

Full Moon in Sagittarius Creative Writing Exercise—Fatal Flaws

Choose one character, preferably one you’ve struggled with or need to know more about.

1. Answer the questions:

- What does my character think are their main flaws?

- What flaws does my character have, that they aren’t aware of or refuse/are unable to recognize?

- Which of these is/could be my character’s fatal flaw, the thing that will instigate Dante’s “movement of spirit” and ultimately lead to their downfall, or, which they will overcome in order to succeed (or a bit of both)? Choose one flaw. Write it out in a word or specific phrase—name it.

2. Write a scene in which your character’s fatal flaw gets in their way, haunts them, or causes them trouble in some way. No need for this to be a climax or dark night of the soul scene (although it could be), but choose some event, action, or interaction, which depicts and reveals what holds back, trips up, and perhaps destroys the character.

Photo by Mohamed Nohassi on Unsplash