Sagittarius LQ Moon At 24°13’—March 14
Today begins another, separate celestial buildup through the month of March…
This buildup begins to build up as the previous buildup begins to temper and separate—while this buildup is between Mercury moving toward the sun, ultimately connecting in a triple conjunction with Neptune, all three squaring Mars… and today—today the moon illuminates it all through moving into a t-square alignment with this building square.
Reflect back to the full moon and how it was in aspect to Mars, as well—this last quarter moon grows much tighter through its square to Mars now, by two degrees. Because overall—the moon is illuminating a last quarter moon… and so there’s so much more building here—there’s so much being pushed out into the ethers here.
So basically, in other words… yesterday’s reflections, whatever they were, as well as Jupiter’s conjunction to both Chiron and Vesta—which you can read about here—all of these details are likely trying to influence your moving forward despite whatever it is that is steadily, most persistently confronting you.
It is likely that you’re beginning to feel a heavier pressure… building, flickering, blazing.
Shamanic astrologer Raven Kaldera writes of this moon Sagittarian last quarter moon, a moon Kaldera refers to this moon as the Hunter’s Moon, a moon that reflects the Hunter in its mercilessness—that “the only way out of this implacable trap is to develop some… needing to understand that people are on different paths and see different truths, and those truths come reasonably from their own experiences…”
We are all on our own independent journey.
This moon reminds us that we can’t change others, particularly if you’re unable to understand where another is coming from. Despite any reactions or responses, facial expressions, manipulative tactics or otherwise disapproving comments—this is a moon that reminds us of “this hubris in thinking…”
Further, it is within this specific last quarter moon in Sagittarius that Sagittarian energies become aggressively needy in needing to be right—or be assured of getting their way…
Yikes.
Kaldera writes that “what no one knows is that there is more to that fear, gnawing in the belly of every strongly Sagittarian individual, than just the terror of the enclosing walls with no way to escape—there’s also a fear of the other possibility—the fear of human failure… and Sagittarius knows this instinctively even as he twists away from committing, knows on some level how susceptible he is to it, especially when it comes to the emotional, irrational moon…”
The degree through which this ultimate fear of failing occurs is intrinsically associated with ambition, and the natural bolstering of your own personal ambitions.
This degree encourages you to participate with your own life—and its natural ambitions.
Participating in your own life with resourcefulness and creativity—you know that infamously old Sagittarian adage: to fake it till you make it… though, through this degree—faking it really is all that’s available, as it will eventually require an actual commitment… not to mention the human failing detail which may suggest, through this degree, that much repeating and repetition will also be expected—which it typically otherwise known as participating in commitment.
Much is to be learned now…
Further descriptions of this particular degree include: working oneself up into a creative frenzy; finding one’s own wavelength and going with it; tempering the spirit through life’s trials; an enthusiastic participation with life; and an excitement for living…
Do these represent, for you, that which is needing to be learned, or confronted, or faked at this time?
Are you faking your responsibilities?
Are your own personally appointed obligations keeping you from participating?—who’s fault is this?
Now to apply that upon this…
Today’s last quarter moon occurs within the third decan of Sagittarius, a decan governed by Saturn, associated with the 10 of wands in the tarot…
Astrologer Austin Coppock quotes Agrippa, explaining significations toward “the difficulties which one must endure to complete an act of will [now]… there is exhaustion here, but satisfaction as well.”
What must be done within your reality?
Coppock writes of this decan, that a sacrifice is indicative… “to set a goal and to follow it through to the end… yet not all such initiations are chosen—life does not always offer choices… we can press on, doing what we must, or abandon the path—these desperate circumstances serve as initiations to mysteries that happier moments leave unrevealed.”
Tarot writer TS Chang poses the question to the reader, of the 10 of wands, “what happens when you try to carry the weight of the entire world on a long-distance hike?”
The Ryder-Waite 10 of wands card depicts an image of a man struggling to carry ten sticks from the middle, with all the ends of either end positioned in varying directions, furthering the feeling of complicated burden… and Chang reminds us to keep in mind that that is not a real solution, nor will this effort last very long—and to prepare within your ego boundaries, to ask yourself “where are you going to drop them?—in front, or behind you?… drop them behind you, and you move on—less empowered maybe, but baggage-free… drop them in front of yourself, and you get to do this all over again.”
I really appreciate Chang’s elemental perspective of this card…
Chang speaks of the imagery itself, noting that the wands are made of wood—and wood fuels fire. As the last decan of Sagittarius, obviously, this is quite fitting—and as the last fire sign of the zodiac, particularly—one can either go out with a bang, quite literally, or learn to temper the fires in an effort to enjoy warmth, comfort, and light. Chang writes “one thing I can tell you about building a fire is that if you load in too much wood, it won’t light—fire feeds on earth—but it needs air to breathe… so too can ambition stifle the talent and inspiration that surrounds it.”
Isn’t that such an eloquently optimistic way to take this decan on?!
It is important to remember through these days that this third decan of Sagittarius is ruled by Saturn—and this is where “the taskmaster doubles down on [our] ambitions, driving us to extraordinary accomplishments while assigning almost unbearable burdens… the Master of the Hourglass will take all the time you offer, and more—there is often a sense of suffocation, being smothered in obligations—in order to make sure you have a little leeway to breathe freely, play by [Saturn’s] rules and schedule the downtime.”
Chang writes, essentially, that through the energies of this decan/card—that “there are more chores than can comfortably be done by one person… it’s the ‘workaholics’ card; Chang rarely finds this card “to signify new growth so much as dogged cleanup—the kind physically taxing chores which take you well beyond your current fitness level, leaving you with a bequest of sore muscles and stiff joints the next day…”
Finally, Chang reminds us that those sticks will fall…
Where, oh where, will you choose to drop them?—and how, oh how, will you choose to utilize them?
Of course—anything involving Saturn typically implies either working (quite harshly and determinedly) through the struggle or challenge—or resisting (just as determinedly) and wreaking the havoc and unimaginably harshened struggle that results. The choice, as always, is always ours to make… though, it may very well not feel like an opportunity—our Saturn-related lessons eventually, as it’s nearly always ‘eventually’ with Saturn, to reward us with Time.
I wonder if this third decan of Sagittarius, then, is largely one of either more closely learning or exploring our own personal limitations and consequential need for boundaries that work for us rather than against us—or an emerging need through these days to (finally) claim these for ourselves…
Sometimes we take on quite heavy matters that don’t even belong to us.
Sometimes we work so continually, so intensely, so fastidiously—that one day, we simply break, we’ve ‘worked ourself to the bone’, as such an appropriately Saturnine expression would suggest… perhaps these are the days when we are confronted with some of these matters so that we may better secure our personal parameters to further secure and safeguard our needs, as well as where we should put down our burdens.
Again, as Chang stresses—we must carry our loads… but we also get to put them down.
And this requires your participation…
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