“Mister Tambourine Man” Martin Sharp

December 14, 2020 

23° Sagittarius

There is high drama in the skies this month—fitting for the finale of such a year. I am hard-pressed to think of an aspect of private or public life that has not been tested, questioned, threatened or reshaped over the past twelve months. It seems clear at this point: we are entering an age of renaissance and reform. And the times, they are a-changing.

The line it is drawn, the curse it is cast. On Monday (the Moon’s day) the skies will be host to a total solar eclipse in the sign of Sagittarius, amidst the stars of Ophiuchus the Healer. Whatever we are downloading as a collective, it contains both centaur wisdom and serpent dreaming, both venom and resurrection, and reaches above and beyond human parameters.
These potent celestial events have been observed by skywatchers for millennia, and treated as harbingers of power curtailed, as the Moon, symbol of the people, briefly blocks out the light of the Sun, symbol of leadership and authority. Jupiter, the ruler of this Sagittarius eclipse, must watch handicapped from the last degree of Capricorn, the sign of his fall. The pawn puts the king in check. A blow is dealt to the zealot and to the autocrat, but also to our sovereignty and vitality. The order is rapidly fading. 

Mercury, our mouthpiece, is conjunct the South Node. All over the world, the troubadours are singing, protestors are crying out, the twittersphere is abuzz, journalists and teachers are struggling mightily, and the voices of future generations are being born. They keep their fingers on the pulse, their ears to the zeitgeist, and keep us informed of the battles outside raging.

This eclipse, with its Gemini polarity point, is about the importance of listening and learning. Keep an open mind, and don’t criticize what you can’t understand. Like improv actors, let us remember our “yes, and…” thinking, to encourage and expand communication when in unfamiliar territory. The Sagittarian challenge: let go of the commitment to certainty. Don’t speak too soon, for the wheel’s still in spin. And to all who are watching and awakening—keep your eyes wide, the chance won’t come again. 

It is said that history doesn’t repeat itself, but it does rhyme. This eclipse has a resonance with the solar eclipse of December 2001, and before that, December 1982. We’ve been here before, and yet, this time is entirely new. The message of Sagittarius and Gemini in the coming year: pay attention and try to keep up. And the fundamental lesson of these mutable signs, and of astrology as a whole: We are continually revolving and evolving. The present now will later be past. The times are *always* changing.