Do You Need a Mindset Reset?

What a month December is already proving to be, with a lunar (full moon) eclipse at 8º Gemini just as the month kicked off, and the next one in the winter series happening today! This is a solar (new moon) eclipse, and it lands at 23º Sagittarius.

Sitting down to write this, I actually just connected some interesting dots that I haven’t seen elsewhere and which might shed some light on what eclipses can herald. (Note, I did not say “cause.”)

As a full moon, that lunar eclipse represented completions or a culmination, and it happened to land near the midpoint of Donald Trump’s career point (tenth-house cusp) and his Uranus, the planet of sudden or unexpected change.

Today’s new moon solar eclipse falls almost exactly on Donald Trump’s moon and karmic south node in his fourth house of home, family and roots. This is why, months ago, when someone asked my thoughts about the election outcome, I said, “Well, I see a change in his job and home.”

This is an important thing to consider when we try to extract “meaning” or “significance” from astrological configurations, whether in our natal (birth) chart or from the movement of the planets in the sky.

It’s easy to get caught up in the narrative—to imagine or embellish the data we’re presented with. And while our interpretations can be entertaining and impressive to the person we’re reading for, they can also unduly influence a situation. Something I always tell my students: The best way to "read" a chart or transit is to use the archetypal language of the planets, signs and angles and try not to "interpret" too much.

People always want to know what something “means”; whether it’s “good” or “bad” or if they should be excited about it, or terrified. My answer is always the same: E. None of the above.

Bottom line: Planetary patterns and movements activate. Their purpose, if we can pretend to know that, is to help us learn, grow, act, stop acting, release, experience more joy, become more empathetic and compassionate, etc.

The pathways to those shifts can seem “easy” and full of support, or they might feel like the most uncomfortable, excruciating or impossible challenge. But it’s only our humanness that causes us to ascribe these qualities to the aspect or transit.

And so today’s solar eclipse, the only Sagittarius new moon of the year, is ultimately neutral: What comes of it depends on what you “do about it.”

New moons traditionally mark times of beginnings, of embarking on something with a clean slate or blank canvas. Depending on where 23º Sag falls in your chart, that area of life is ripe for reinvention. Sagittarius rules some very noble values and aspirations: truth, freedom, justice, expansion, abundance, passion, entrepreneurship, travel, education, religion, philosophy, law, risk, athleticism and animals. (And that’s the short list.)

I think it’s fair to assume that the past nine months have been pivotal for most of us. Interestingly, that’s the normal gestation period for humans. Which items on the above list have you been incubating this year? And what’s ready to pop?

One week from today, Jupiter and Saturn, which have been traveling together with Pluto in Capricorn all year (something they haven’t done since the 1500s), are going to meet up at 0º Aquarius, in a cosmological event so rare and major that it even has a name: The Great Conjunction.

I’ll write more about that later, but I wanted to give you a heads-up that we—you!—are on the threshold of a very significant shift. Whether you realize it or not (or like it or not), life is preparing you for the opportunity to move into your individual and our collective future with a new vision, renewed passion and reaffirmed conviction. And you can steer this in any direction you want to go.

‘Cause here’s the thing. Life doesn’t happen “to” you; you are co-creating it every minute of every day—and it all starts with your thoughts and beliefs. If your mindset needs a reset, the time for that is now.

There’s no more “someday” or “eventually.” You’ve had nine months of gestation, and now it's time to share your—brainchild?—with the world, even if your world is tiny. The point is to put it out there and see what it can accomplish and who it can help.

Astrologers consider eclipses to have a two-week “manifestation” period, meaning if you want to max out the potential of this fresh-start energy, you should take one bold step before the end of the year. And if it makes uncomfortable, self-conscious or even a little scared, well then, brava! The Archer would be proud.

Do you need some help navigating the coming months? It might be time to book a reading with me. Whether a first-time session or a follow-up, I’m always here for you!