New Moon in Sagittarius: Surrender as Faith
Holding ourselves within the divine
Hello hello friends and welcome to this experiment! I’m beginning this writing adventure after a several-year hibernation filled with transition and loss and attempts to rest. I’ve had exciting transitions like finishing my creative writing degree, moving for the first time in nine years, beginning a relationship with a new therapist, and embarking on a deeper study of astrology. I’ve also begun harder transitions like the unexpected loss of a dear loved one, accepting the end of a long-term relationship, and managing chronic pain and sleeplessness. It has been (and will continue to be) a journey finding the balance between expressing and accepting all the feelings that arise and moving forward with grace.
Since January, I’ve been navigating a puzzling pocket of symptoms that leave me in cycles of insomnia, fatigue, and chronic pain. It has required me to surrender in many ways. Surrender has meant accepting when my body needs rest. It has meant calling out sick to work because I am too tired to think or when fatigue and sore limbs leave me tender and teary. Surrender has meant seeking care within a system that is not made to provide care for fat people or people with larger bodies. It has meant seeking preventive or early care during a public health crisis in an already strained ecosystem—when doctors and nurses and medical professionals are understandably exhausted and calibrated to emergency.
Keeping on becomes more challenging when considering the amount of trauma, violence, and loss many of us are asked to hold in our minds and bodies on a daily basis. We continue to live in a global pandemic where hundreds of people die every day and even more experience debilitating prolonged symptoms of COVID-19. We continue to live in a world constructed with systems of racial inequality and oppression that actively harm Black and Indigenous people of color. Many of us live and work while war continues in the Ukraine. This week has been especially tender with the murder of queer and transgender people in Colorado on the eve of the Transgender Day of Remembrance. None of these things are as simple as the sentences I list them in, and contain multitudes of hurt, helplessness, grief, sorrow, and anger.
And yet, what has sustained me during this time is the mess and serenity of surrender. Surrender has meant creating space for what I’m feeling. Surrender has meant knowing when I am engaging with the depths of suffering that comes from continuing to want what isn’t. Surrender has meant accepting the reality in front of me. It has meant acknowledging the things I can control and the things I can’t control. It has meant taking action in the ways I can. It has meant yielding to the unknown, whatever fears may surface.
But surrender is also a balm. Sometimes surrender means faith in new possibilities.
On October 28, 2022, Jupiter reentered Pisces in its retrograde journey. Jupiter energy is expansive, always has one more thing to add to the conversation, and always, always steering toward adventure. In traditional astrology, Jupiter rules Pisces and Sagittarius, two energies that ease into the limitless of connectedness and faith. Pisces, the watery dreamer who is tapped into the emotional conscious of the collective. Sagittarius, the fiery archer aiming their arrow for that just beyond the horizon.
So to me, it is fitting that on that same day, Rihanna released "Lift Me Up" as a part of the Wakanda Forever soundtrack. If you want to experience Jupiter in Pisces, take a listen to this dreamy balm for the soul.
It imagines an abundance of care found in surrender—surrender as faith that we can be held in the ways in which we are interconnected with those in this world and other worlds—ancestors and descendants in the past, present, and future.
Lift me up
Hold me down
Keep me safe
Safe and sound
The video doubles down on those vibes. Rihanna, arms wide open in surrender, sings a prayer for belonging—a call for care—on the crashing shoreline.
Jupiter reentering Pisces in its retrograde journey can be an invitation to remember the vast possibilities that come from our interconnectedness.
Today, Jupiter stations direct in Pisces while the moon renews itself in the sign of Sagittarius. This new moon is blessed by the forward motion of Jupiter in Pisces, and it’s an invitation to rest, reflect, and cultivate hope, unconditional acceptance, and emotional growth for the next six months.
To see where this energy is landing in your chart, look for the houses that contain Pisces and Sagittarius. You can check your rising sign and the corresponding houses in the graphic below. (To take a closer look at your natal chart, visit Astrodienst.com.)
Aries: 9th House (Sagittarius) and 12th House (Pisces)
Taurus: 8th House (Sagittarius) and 11th House (Pisces)
Gemini: 7th House (Sagittarius) and 10th House (Pisces)
Cancer: 6th House (Sagittarius) and 9th House (Pisces)
Leo: 5th House (Sagittarius) and 8th House (Pisces)
Virgo: 4th House (Sagittarius) and 7th House (Pisces)
Libra: 3rd House (Sagittarius) and 6th House (Pisces)
Scorpio: 2nd House (Sagittarius) and 5th House (Pisces)
Sagittarius: 1st House (Sagittarius) and 4th House (Pisces)
Capricorn: 12th House (Sagittarius) and 3rd House (Pisces)
Aquarius: 11th House (Sagittarius) and 2nd House (Pisces)
Pisces: 10th House (Sagittarius) and 1st House (Pisces)
With those areas of life in mind, I invite you to reflect:
How can you embark on a new adventure?
Where can you go beyond your day-to-day world?
What makes you feel held?
Who or what inspires you or gives you hope?
When can you choose surrender or faith to extend your emotional growth?
That idea that keeps tugging at you, why not say YES?!
If you have any questions or reflections, please feel free to leave them in the comments! And of course, if you enjoyed this reflection, kindly share with a friend. Thank you for reading!
Conjurings ✨
What I’m working on at the moment.
I’d love to hear what creative projects you’re working on too—from writing to art to embroidery!
Podcast: I’m deeply grateful for my Lion-hearted friend Maribel (of
) for helping me begin to nurture something I’d never thought I’d pursue: a podcast about death. I'm excited and terrified, which is a great balance. There will be more to share in the coming months as more material is sifted and sorted. 🕯️🖤Fiction: In the early months of the pandemic, I managed to work on and finish a partial draft of a novel for my graduate program, which sent me into a creative hibernation by the end of 2020. As I start to emerge from that rest and compost that material, I’ve been enjoying a class taught by Marcella Haddad, called Alchemy, Symbolism, and the Mythic Journey, which has really engaging, thoughtful, and organized content.
Memoir: Another benefactor of that creative hibernation was my memoir project about the body and shame. Three years later, I’m revisiting this project with a renewed focus on the health care system and the care of the body. Especially helpful and inspiring has been a class taught by Leora Fridman called Writing Vulnerability and Care.
Consultations: In early 2021, I spent my hibernation revisiting and deepening my study of astrology with Corina Dross of Flax and Gold Astrology through their online offerings and their Healers and Weavers Cohort. (Their horoscopes at Autostraddle are at the top of my list to read each month!) After much studying and coming to terms with my Saturn placements, I plan to start offering consultations next year. But if you’re interested in a reading, with some grace and understanding for me as I work out my process, please be in touch at juvo@substack.com.