Last Quarter Moon in Sagittarius ☾ Mar 16, 2020

Monday, Mar 16 at 2.35am PST

At the last quarter, the moon rises at midnight, peaks at dawn and sets at noon; this is true all over the world, no matter your time zone. At this station, the fiery moon in Sagittarius squares the wavy Sun in Pisces. The moon initially moves into Sagittarius on Mar 14, two days before the quarter moon. She will then move on to Capricorn the same day of the quarter moon.  This is the last moon phase of the Pisces sun cycle.

Last quarter moons clear the way for the new moon / new lunar cycle. This phase prepares us for a new moon in Aries on Mar 24 – a date many astrologers and pagans consider the new year, so happy almost new year moonchildren! Spring is coming!

Both Sagittarius and Pisces belong to the mutable modality. To be mutable is to be fluid, adaptable, ever-changing. Mutable energy in the skies means that it is time to let these unpredictable waters and fires take us on a wild ride. Pisces swims within while the archer burns through time and space. 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!

Quarter moons are crossroads. This moon phase brings active change in direction (Sagittarius) as a result of deep spiritual 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.

On this quarter moon a few years ago, I spontaneously drove from my wintry midwestern homeland to my old apartment in Boston. I stayed with my old roommate and 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, then plunged us into total darkness.

I thought of Ram Dass, how he started out in Boston, so cold and mechanical like the others, then was led away, so far away, only to come back completely changed. I felt this way too, like the coldness of this 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. Now that I was back, 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, 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 ache. 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, we must ask ourselves difficult questions about what we believe and where we want to be, philosophically speaking. We wonder if we should stay or go? And if it is better to go, then where? And why are we so damn restless? Sagittarius never disappoints. He blinds us in the light of truth, then gifts us with even greater sight. Surface from the ocean floor; expand. 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.

In meditation, focus on the sacral chakra. Keep the fire burning with Sagittarius Yoga. To find your personal moon sign, click here.

Affirmation:  be here now