December 19: Sagittarius New Moon
We take the salty with the sweet at the New Moon at 28°25 Sagittarius at 8:43PM ET on December 19, 2025, that is in conjunction with Venus and a square with Saturn and Neptune in Pisces. The last lunation of the year, this dark moon at the darkest time bids us to renew our faith in something we can't see or touch but believe can help get us through.
This Moon is an opportunity to set intentions around what you value in the Sagittarius area of life (see your local astrologer if you don't know what that means!). What we go after is determined by inspiration and motivation. Sagittarius wants us to move towards knowledge, enlightenment, and adventure. Not all who wonder are lost but all that running around can feel futile and exhausting unless you have a meaningful goal. Venus attracts us to people, places, and things that resonate with our taste, aesthetics, and values. What you spend money on reflects what you consider worthy of your investment. (Consider shopping local this holiday season to support your community and redistribute wealth away from billionaires).
Venus and Mars are on a journey traveling closely with the Sun for several more months. Venus moved under the Sun's beams as soon as it entered Sagittarius on November 30, marking the start of a purification and renewal process that will peak at 16°22 Capricorn on January 6th. Venus traveling with the Sun through three signs–Sag, Capricorn, and Aquarius–invites us to consider our worth, value, and satisfaction in these areas of life.
This lunation, in a square with Saturn and Neptune in Pisces, will not let us escape what has been difficult over the last several weeks. The hard aspect between Mars in Sagittarius and Saturn that peaked on December 8, was active from December 4-14th, and brought tension, conflict, accidents, and endings. We've been experiencing these troubles in the mutable area–Gemini, Virgo, Sagittarius and Pisces–since March 2023. The challenge will move into the cardinal signs–Capricorn, Aries, Cancer, and Libra–once Saturn enters Aries on February 13, 2026. We don't have to watch out for such intensity again until Mars enters Aries on April 10th.
The Yuletide celebration at the Solstice marks a turning point into Winter when we let go of what has been and release into the gentle stillness of night. The Sun's square with Saturn at 25°29 Pisces on December 16, challenged us to become disciplined in our actions towards our goals. Saturn brings a healthy dose of reality. We may have gotten information that was hard to accept or needed to swallow our pride and admit where we have gone astray. The square with Neptune at the Sagittarius New Moon invites us to dance with our dreams, even as we try to show up for the daunting tasks of adulthood.
The Moon in Sagittarius can make us quick tempered and fast to take action. There is an optimism to the philosophical outlook bestowed by Jupiter. A quiet acceptance of human needs and wants that underlie our most confounding behavior.
At this Solstice lunation, we are encouraged to reflect on what 2025 has brought. At the pagan holiday of Yule we breathe into the pause, and allow ourselves to acknowledge everything that did and did not come to pass this year. The good, wonderful, hard, devastating, and heartbreaking. Many of us faced real fears in our personal lives, and, in looking at the world, had to acknowledge the level of human cruelty that can only be described as evil. In this space of quiet unknown, when we can't yet see what next year will bring, we ask for a divine blessing to have the strength to go forth and begin again.
The witches Wheel of the Year is based on the Celtic festivals and holidays that marked the change of the seasons. The Sun enters Capricorn at 10:03AM ET on December 21, and the wheel turns again. The word Solstice comes from the Latin "sol" and "sistere" meaning "stationary sun" or "sun stand still".
A solstice is when the Sun reaches its most northerly or southerly position relative to the celestial equator. These are the days of the longest and shortest amounts of light that happen in December and June. In Western countries, the seasons are defined by the solstices and the equinoxes. The tropical zodiac begins with the vernal equinox ingress. In Western Astrology, the tropical zodiac marks the start of the astrological new year when the sun enters the sign of Aries.
On the Winter Solstice the Sun appears to stand still in the sky. Myths describe what happens in this time between time when worlds are created and destroyed. In Celtic mythology, the Dagda is similar to Jupiter. He is a father god, master druid, and chief of the magical folk, the Tuatha Dé Danann. The Dagda is associated with the Sun and has a cauldron of abundance that never empties. His power is so great he can control time, the seasons, weather, crops, and even life and death.
The Dagda makes the Sun stand still so he can have an affair with the goddess Bóinn, while her husband is away. In one day that lasts nine months, she gives birth to their divine child, Aengus. His arrival marks the turning point of life returning to the land. The earth goddess, Bóinn, is associated with the sacred river that flows through the area in Ireland where the megalitic stone monuments were built 5000 years ago.
Ireland holds the largest collection of megalithic art in Western Europe found at the Brú na Bóinne prehistoric passage tombs of Knowth, Newgrange, and Dowth, which were built circa 3200BC. The large round earth structure at Newgrange/Brú na Bóinne still perfectly marks time at the Winter Solstice.
The entrance to Brú na Bóinne/Newgrange is aligned with the rising sun on the Winter Solstice so that light shines through a roofbox above the entrance and floods the inner chamber for 18 minutes on the day before, of, and after the Winter Solstice.
In the interior of the cavern, the reflected light from the shaft on the floor illuminates a triskele, triple spiral emblem, on a chamber stone that represents the trinity of Sun (father), Earth (mother), and Divine light (child).
In Irish, the word solstice is grianstad meaning sun stand still and Aengus means "one desire". His birth represents a turning point of life returning to the land after the cold of winter.
At this Solstice Moon, allow yourself to connect with your one desire, that which moves you out of the familiar and towards something miraculous and new. Allow yourself to be still and breathe into the darkness, the sacred pause. Set your intentions and then rest. Trust that what is meant to be fulfilled will manifest in the Spring. Until then, we dream.