Image by Edmund Dulac

It’s the nostalgia for me.

 

The familiar combinations of colors, the melodies jingle-jangling through the speakers, and the zhuzhing of any applicable surface with ribbons, tinsel, and cotton skips the record of my consciousness, and for a moment I’m in an experience of innocence and hope.

 

This time of year, it’s the nostalgia that simultaneously lifts the spirits and weighs upon our shoulders. Many of us are inclined to walk ahead while facing backwards, either wishing things were “like they used to be” or wishing they were different, but comparing nonetheless.  In this way, we can easily become disoriented to what is happening right now, in the present moment. When we hold the value of the past above that of the present, we do a grave disservice to our future. Accepting what is at face value, not only liberates us from the emotional assignment of comparison, but gives us exactly the information needed to make the next move, to take the next step.

 

Memory can be a powerful tool for change and transformation, but all too often and especially recently, it has been manipulated to inhibit progress and change. Campaigns and movements that wish to bring back something lost to the past are most effective in devaluing the present and halting any exploration into an alternate future. Memory is a teacher, it is informative and cautionary. We can and absolutely should remember in order to learn from our mistakes and successes. However, any idea, system, or relationship that “worked” in the past will never work quite the same in the future because time and circumstance have forever altered the setting. What we carry forward with us, or what we plan ahead must also be informed by the present moment. 

This year, the general commitment to the season feels stronger than in years past, but also remarkably different. There’s less of a tendency to close our eyes to the layered and complicated reality which we inhabit, and more of an acceptance of what is, even if it is uncomfortable. The option to bury our heads in the sand snow is still there, it is still marketed to us as the delightful and *better* alternative. “Buy this and you don’t have to think about the tens of thousands of innocent lives lost in Palestine!” And sure, ignorance can be bliss. But I think we have found a stronger bond with our community as we have navigated these last four tumultuous years, and we are ready for something new, perhaps even something radical.

 

 

Most of us have been told since we were very young not to judge a book by its cover. And yet so many of our “hot takes” are emotional responses to appearances, instead of critical assessments of nuanced contexts. Each experience, interaction, or situation is layered with histories that have composed its present expression, but at the core lies an inner truth which is Cosmic and enduring. An example would be that everything in existence has dignity, or a wasteful use of resources creates future deficits. A circumstance has a myriad of outer truths, perspectives of those involved directly or indirectly, but only one inner truth. The Cosmos/Universe is not human-centric or human-serving, and perhaps this is our greatest evolutionary challenge; to accept our place as a part in the whole, and experience emotional maturation from a perspective of “me and my needs vs. the other” to a sense of “we and all of our needs.”

 

Now, I may have lost some readers right there. The changes that must happen sociologically, politically, and economically in order to foster this kind of growth are almost impossible to imagine. I’m not saying that this challenge is easy or even attainable in my lifetime. But if it’s not obvious from our current faltering systems and the global cries of people in crisis that we are shirking this responsibility, then I fear for what would force a mass and collective change. Instead, as your resident optimistic Sagittarius, I have a deep and immovable faith that we are slowly figuring it out. We are seeking new markets, new kinds of leadership, and we may still be grasping in the dark, but we are seeking.

 

We each carry access to Inner Truth, it is the primal memory of what Cosmic Harmony feels like. And if in your daily life this feels far from your experience, I commend you for the work you’re doing to balance your nervous system in a matrix that benefits from your being dysregulated. You are at least aware of how you feel, and that my dear friend is the first step!

 

Perhaps you’ve had an experience, where the “rules” tell you the correct response, but something inside of you knows otherwise. Even if it seems illogical, that is the Inner Truth; the guiding principles that do not serve a profit or an ego. Hearing this knowing is enough to keep awakening it. Operating from it ripples out to those around you and inspires them to start listening. 

 

 

Today’s New Moon in Sagittarius opens the door for optimism, and invites us on a quest for the truth. In this new and expansive season ahead, we can feel safe to reach out, to reach for what might be beyond our understanding. This energy is not about getting mired in the details, but instead widening the aperture and seeing the greater picture. Sagittarius is our archer, bow drawn and target locked. They don't always have a step-by-step plan, but they’re getting where they need to go come hell or high water because their sights are set on the end goal. 

They have A DIRECTION. 

In many ways for Sag, the ends justify the means. 

 

With a wide square to Neptune in Pisces (the conflict of seeking something transcendental), a wide conjunction with Mars (a desire for action and emotional expression) and a quincunx to Uranus in Taurus (a potential for karmic upset or change), the New Moon in Sagittarius is offering us the opportunity to find new meanings, new purpose that is aligned with our inner truth, the inner truth. In true Sagittarius fashion this sense of meaning or purpose is not necessarily about our job, any one relationship, or any one experience. It is the through-ribbon which strings these individual parts of our lives like a garland. This meaning is the river and the current which carves your unique place in the collective, and as a collective can move us toward real, systemic change.

 

Sagittarius is also one of the two chimeras of the zodiac along with the next sign of Capricorn. I like to bring our attention to this aspect of these signs because they are mythical. They are expressions of the dream of union. What seems impossible lives and breathes in an act of defiance to what we “think of” as nature. In folklore and myth, the centaur is often a strong, sometimes brutal character, a symbol of two powers united. He is also, as in the case of Chiron, a warrior and a healer seeking the answers to our wounds. Currently in the sign of Aries, Chiron is pointing to our wounds of immaturity and individualism, sound familiar?

 

Today as well, our dear messenger Mercury stations retrograde in Capricorn. Yup, Mercury is in the microwave until January 1, 2024. So while this can make for holiday travel trials, shopping stress, and shipping snafus, it may be exactly the reminder we need to slow down in our interactions, be gentler with our communication, and make sure all the kids are in the van before heading off to the airport, Mrs. McCallister. It’s an excellent opportunity to shop local, even if you don’t live where you’re sending the gifts. For example, in the past I have reached out to a chocolatier in New Hampshire where my mother lives and they happily delivered the box I ordered to her door. Many small businesses are happy to accommodate where they can. 

 

In fact, this Mercury retrograde in Capricorn is a great time to rethink your relationship to capitalism in general. Maybe you’d really like to start building more channels of mutual aid in your building or your neighborhood. We all still need to pay our bills, of course, and is there one habit you’d like to change? 

 

This transit could also bring up our relationship to traditions. Perhaps you’re being called to celebrate this season differently. What traditions no longer serve you, and which would you like to revive?

 

At the height of the New Moon, the Sun and Moon will be in Gate 26 Gate of the Egoist, Line 4 Censorship. It will serve us to remember that Ra’s Human Design is based on a specific translation of the IChing. According to most Human Design resources, Gate 26 is about manipulating memory in order for the will to persevere. This gate is attributed to sales and specifically “closing the deal.” However, the name of Hexagram 26 is The Taming Power of the Great/Success Through the Great, referring to the ability to counter the ego in another. The beautiful thing about the Ego/Will Center in Human Design, where this gate is located, is that it does not need the external value systems but it understands them, or has the potential to do so.

 

With the Sun and Moon in Gate 26, we may be tempted to overpower the other through the manipulation of memory, specifically through only remembering what we want to or what serves our end goal. However, here in this gate lies the potential to say the Inner No to the ego altogether, diffusing the situation and opening the avenue for true connection and fulfillment. Success Through the Great suggests that there is a power greater than our ego which we may all answer to, and which has the power to transform the other. Furthermore, a power some may say is Love itself. ♥️