The Sagittarius New Moon arrives as Autumn winds carry us toward Winter. We shed layers and leaves of old ways we’ve outgrown and patterns no longer necessary. We receive the gifts that matured in us throughout the year, and move with the lessons we’ve integrated. We spark flames in candles, or turn on sparkly lights as the deep darkness of the season spirals around us, calling us inward, into the warmth of wisdom cultivated over time and experience. 

There is depth to the fiery bow of the Centaur. There is wisdom in the arrow, and wild authenticity to this archetype that ignites in us the capacity to contemplate cosmic matters, and wakes up in us the philosopher, the space traveler, and the weaver of worlds.

Sagittarius energy is grounded, spacious, and transformative. Her wisdom runs deep. His attention is broad. Their awareness is encompassing. The Sagittarius new moon invites us to expand our views, to look beneath the surface, to question rather than answer, and to hold more than one way of thinking, seeing, and being.

With sagittarius we transition from one season to another, we come almost to the end of a solar year, standing on the edge and shifting into a new point of view, a new place, a new version of ourselves. We move between human and beast, the paradox of being an animal and also something that’s quite different from all the other animals. We cross between horse and person, between mythic and realistic, between earthly and cosmic. We hold the dichotomy of being a multidimensional creature, made of personal and universal, of collective and individual, of immediate environment and the expanse of galactic grandness. 

With this archetype we are called to travel between one perspective and another. It’s not that we should skip having an opinion, it’s that it should be formed by continuous exploration of more than where we stand. Sagittarius is an adventurous spirit, with the legs of a horse to carry it through a changing landscape. With the centaur we’re called into the urgency of a more broad perspective. We cannot afford getting stuck in a world view that only sees partial truth. 

This sagittarius new moon finds us in the midst of war – not only the war between Hamas and Israel, but a war on social media, a war between narrow mindedness and the capacity to learn, between trendy righteousness and actual care for human life and human rights, a war that shakes universities and farmers markets, a war that pours its poison into the way we view one another because of our stance, or our lack of one, a war that pushes people to feel like they have to say something even though they don’t actually have the knowledge to support their heartfelt solidarity with one side or their anti whatever they are anti of. 

This archetype runs across fields of knowledge, gallops through plains of understanding, and destabilizes the ground of our beliefs. It asks us – begs us – to move around and look at the view from as many points as possible. 

With the Sagittarius new moon we are reminded that we can hold the pain of people in Gaza, along with the pain of Israelis. We can be pro-Palestinian AND pro-Israelis. We can stand with the Israeli hostages and their families AND fight for Palestinian liberation. It’s complicated. It’s difficult. But we can do it! One-sidedness is only causing more harm. 

This archetype asks us to be smarter, more compassionate, less righteous, more real. It asks us to be open minded and sharp minded at the same time; open as the mythic landscape the centaur rides through, sharp like the arrow it directs at the sky.  

We don’t need to become so open minded and inclusive that we don’t take a stance. We need to be strong and soft and accepting, and also know how to hold clear boundaries. We can do this, people! We can be pro-humanity and environmentalists, we can learn to see the way that antisemitism is embedded in our culture. We should be able to include in our ant-racist work some anti-antisemitic work too! 

If we fail to stand with the Israeli women who were raped, mutilated, and violently violated sexually by Hamas, we fail to stand with humanity. We cannot call ourselves feminists, or human rights activists if we put these horrific cases of gang rape in the context of the conflict. We wouldn’t do it in any other case. Ever. To anyone. So let’s stop doing that to these women because they are Israeli. 

We can sit with the pain of displaced people – Palestinians and Jews, in Gaza, within Israel, in the West Bank, and around the world. We can see that one side suffers from oppression and the other from terrorism, as well as a long history of being persecuted. And that the fear of the other perpetuates more violence on both sides. We can recognize that there are horrific actions and closed mindedness, hatred, fear, and rage on both sides. And we can be more discerning with the information that comes at us. 

We can and should condemn Hamas, condemn the settlers, condemn Netanyahu, criticize the right wing government in Israel, and not justify terrorism. Sagittarius has a “yes and…” mentality. We can be horrified by the atrocities of October 7th. It doesn’t make the unbearable conditions in Gaza acceptable. We can stand against Israel’s occupation AND fight for its right to exist. We can fight against the rise of antisemitism and fight against islamophobia. 

Can we see that there are people suffering on both sides? We don’t need to pour more hate into this fire that threatens to consume humanity. 

The archetype of Sagittarius lives in us as the capacity to hold more than one thing, to be more than one thing, to move within a multilayered reality, as a multidimensional being. 

We want to be careful of whataboutism as we wrap our arms around a “both and” world view. We don’t need to compare. We don’t need to justify. We can sit in the discomfort of a heated reality without adding oil to the fire. 

Sagittarius is interested in the truth, and it knows that the truth is complex. This zodiac sign lives in us as the keeper of knowledge, and it reminds us that we need to know more about a situation before we gallop into it. 

This Sagittarius new moon begins a lunar cycle that will take us into the new year. What are you taking with you from this archetype through this lunation and into the next solar cycle?

Comment below and share your thoughts. I’d love to hear from you. 

Check out this FREE video to explore the Sagittarius New Moon together, with a little meditation at the end. 

And join us for the Winter Solstice somatic Ceremony to dive deeply into the mythopoetic power of this seasonal shift, to ritualize it in your body, to breathe and contemplate and move in ways that will support your transition into the new year. All the details are here. 

So much love,

Hagar