Last Quarter Moon in Sagittarius ☾ Feb 26, 2019

Tuesday, Feb 26 at 3.29am PST

At the last quarter, the moon rises at midnight, peaks at dawn and sets at noon – and this is true all over the world, no matter your time zone. If you view the moon at midnight, the Sun will be positioned directly beneath your feet. Staring at the moon during this time will align you so that you are looking right out (approximately) along the forward path of Earth’s orbit around the Sun ^__^

The fiery moon in Sagittarius squares the Sun in Pisces. Quarter moons clear the way for the new moon / new lunar cycle. On Mar 5, the moon moves into Pisces, marking the end of the quarter moon period and beginning of the new moon.

Quarter moons can be turbulent, full of conflict. They are like sharp, angular crossroads. This moon phase brings active change in direction (Sagittarius) overlaying deep introspection (Pisces). Restlessness inspires forward motion. Dreams, wishes and fantasies take manifest form. Yet this phase is decidedly rose-tinted. Pisces is the queen of wishful thinking, Sagittarius the starry-eyed hunter of the cosmos. When these two wrestle in the skies, illusion mounts and cracks. Attachments notwithstanding, it is time to be honest about what is or isn’t working.

Sagittarius is Pisces’ fiery predecessor, bursting with energy, contagiously enthusiastic. Ever the optimistic adventurer, he flips the fishes out of the water and up to the starlight as if to say: be free, be joyful! Pisces lives within, swimming in a trance, while the archer burns through time and space. The fishes teach the centaur to reflect. Without such reflection, Sagittarius is easily carried away by big ideas.

On this quarter moon a couple years ago, I spontaneously drove from my wintry midwestern homeland to my old stomping grounds in Boston. I stayed at my old apartment where my old roommate still lived. I was so excited to be there, I felt manic. Walking in my old neighborhood, I was reborn. I saw an old lover. We wandered in sweet silence through an art museum. One installation was a tiny room where Amy Winehouse’s “Back to Black” crooned and intermittent lights illuminated our surroundings. At times we were plunged into total darkness.

I thought of Ram Dass, how he started out in Boston, cold and mechanical like so many others, and how he was led away, so far away, only to come back completely changed. I felt this way too, like the coldness of that place clamped my heart until a spark, then a flame, then a raging fire took hold of my soul and flung me elsewhere, and in these other places I was cracked open. When I visited, I sang and danced in the street, in the train, on the bus, in the cafes and book shops and narrow alleys. I felt joy, endless joy, and I was warm all over, brimming. I remembered what it was like to be asleep, and how long I slept, and how deeply. It’s a shallow breath and a faint heartbeat but it is there, between the sirens and the music of one thousand languages, between the eyelid and the eye, in the softness of your lips, a kernel of light, a smile, a shy, aching tendril unwinding unto humanity. Bodies wrapped in coats, bags pressed together like absent-minded lovers, riding the train in silence, thinking of home and dinner and bed.

At this quarter moon last year, my partner and I were deciding whether or not to live out in the woods again, totally off the grid. We felt pressured to make a decision as soon as possible, and I in turn put pressure on my partner to decide. To stay or go? And if it is better to go, then where? These are the kinds of questions we must answer at this full moon. Do yourself a favor and take it slow.

Luna’s waning light gives way to gradual descent into darkness: a return to the womb. Sagittarius never disappoints. He blinds us in the light of truth, then gifts us with even greater sight. I wish you enough strength to shoot the archer’s bow and enough sensitivity to care for the fishes swimming in your heart, forever chasing tails. Like a sonic boom, like golden glitter snowing silently, ascend to worlds that do not yet exist. Surface from the ocean floor, expand. You know who you are and what you believe. Rise from seated lotus and begin. Practice hip-opening poses in yoga, walk somewhere you’ve never been before. Wear purple tones to open the crown chakra. In meditation, focus on the upper chakras (third eye and crown. Keep the fire burning with Sagittarius Yoga. To find your moon sign, click here.

Mantra:  be here now