Liberation is Written in the Stars: Full Moon in Sagittarius

Hope is a dangerous thing. When you hope for an outcome, there are expectations and when they don’t happen, we inevitably get let down. And yet, when there is a dire situation, hope is all we can cling to. There are times when all we have is our faith; a mystical and numinous force that we pray to. This full moon and the cosmic alignments are just what we need right now: A restoration of a belief in the impossible and dare I say, some good luck.

I became interested in astrology as a liberatory tool because both astrology and revolutions require you to learn history, interpret patterns and cycles, and desire radical change. When you read a natal or transit chart, there is no Earth; meaning there is no glyph that represents the planet Earth. We read the chart by interpreting the aspects that the planets make to each other from our perspective from Earth because we are the Earth. When I realized this as a novice astrologer, it changed my relationship with the Earth. I had a spiritual understanding that I am not only from the Earth, I am the Earth. We are also the sun, the moon, and the other planets. As Carl Sagan said, “The cosmos is within us. We are made of star stuff. We are a way for the universe to know itself.”

This realization also made it easier for me to understand why colonizers, as Indigenous wisdom keepers say, have “soul loss.” We are already in a zombie apocalypse because colonizers are the walking dead; they are dead inside. They don’t have a connection to their spirit and the Earth. They roam this planet extracting and wielding violence because of their insatiable appetite for anything that has life (I promise I’m going somewhere with this!)

One of Celine Semaan’s tweets says, “Resistance is not wanting to live in the limited imagination of the white colonial mind.” I think that sentiment is so apt for this full moon in Sagittarius. We don’t have to accept this reality. It is a reality that is founded on theft, violence, and greed. It’s not a reality based on imagination, regeneration, and the centering of life. We resist because we honor life and all sentient beings on our planet. The first step towards co-creating a new reality is the belief in it: a future timeline that most of us and our ancestors have never experienced before. This reality lives in the recesses of our imaginal minds. We must give it the space and time to emerge from our consciousness.

A full moon happens when the sun is opposite the moon. Full moons signal completion and something coming to fruition. The full moon in Sagittarius is ruled by Jupiter, the planet of expansion, luck, and opportunity. Jupiter is also associated with beliefs and knowledge, and at the time of this full moon, Jupiter is in the sign of Taurus connecting with Venus. Both planets are at the anaretic 29th degree, meaning that they are at the last degree of the sign. When planets are at the last degree, like Venus and Jupiter, they are completing their journeys through the sign of Taurus which is the realm of the tangible, sensual, and earthly pleasures. Venus is the lesser benefic signifying resources, relationships, worth, and value. On this full moon, the benefics might leave you with a lucky gift or even a lucky break: perhaps something you’ve been coveting for a long time.

As I type this, a part of me realizes how frivolous some things have become as we are consciously aware of the polycrisis. It’s not that there have never been genocides, ecocides, and famines but now we are fully aware of them happening simultaneously as we are live-streaming these atrocities on our devices. I think this is where our hope comes in. Sagittarius is the “archer” archetype. We shoot our metaphorical arrows into the heavens and believe that in our lifetimes, there will be a free Palestine, Congo, Sudan, (and the list goes on and on) while we disrupt and resist.

This faith also extends to ourselves and each other. How many of us risked our jobs, livelihoods, and relationships to speak out for the first time about Palestine? Trust is built on taking consistent action for yourself and your community based on shared values and morals. You gain more confidence when you keep your word that when you say you’re going to do something, your actions align. If you have been going through your own crisis: whether financial, relational, or you’re just trying to exist in late-stage capitalism, this could be the reprieve you’ve been waiting for.

Jupiter rules both Sagittarius and Pisces. Both signs are about belief— believing in something that you don’t have any evidence for. You don’t know the “how” it’s going to happen. Some people might accuse you of being delulu but you just know that everything is going to work out because of your faith in God, Allah, or the Universe.

The sun in Gemini makes a trine, which is a harmonious aspect, to Pluto in Aquarius. For reference, the last time Pluto was in the sign of Aquarius was during the American, French, and Haitian Revolutions which is why it is also called the Age of Revolution. Pluto represents transformation and power and Aquarius represents the collective. Our revolution can be facilitated through sharing information, collaborations, and building networks.

Gemini is the storyteller. Ruled by Mercury, Gemini is the master of collecting information, data, and sometimes receipts. Because of the duplicitous nature of Gemini, the twins, you might get to see another side of the story that you otherwise wouldn’t be privy to. If you find your identity(ies) at the margins of society, this is the time to tell your story. Write the book, the poem, the song, or the screenplay because if you don’t own your narrative, someone else will tell it for you. The harmonious trine between the sun and Pluto is an energy that invites us to use our voices because there is power in telling our own stories. When you share your stories with others, it gives other people permission to do the same. As people of the Global Majority, telling our own stories is a pathway to reclaiming our own narratives.
New and full moons are alignments between the two luminaries: the sun and the moon. Spiritually, they signal the beginning and ending of monthly cycles. If the sun and the moon are also a part of us, then something within us comes to fruition as well. We can become aware of this if we allow ourselves some time and space to sit with and allow the divine inspirations and downloads to come in.

As an astrologer, I cannot discount the life-changing impacts of a celestial event in revolutions. Nat Turner’s Rebellion is my favorite example. On February 12, 1831, Nat Turner, who was enslaved in Virginia, witnessed a solar eclipse (which is when the moon eclipses the sun). He saw the symbolism of the moon covering the sun’s light as a Black man’s hand reaching over the sun. He took this as a sign from God that he was to lead a rebellion. Nat Turner’s rebellion, also known as the Southampton insurrection, was one of the largest slave rebellions in US American history. Nat Turner believed in another reality.

For centuries, maybe even millennia, the oppressed have resisted and persisted despite our histories being erased and been retold through the colonizer’s lens. As descendants, we have forgotten the magick that resides within each of us. We have forgotten our birthrights, our ancestral lands, and our cosmologies. ### It’s time to dream bigger, expect the unexpected, and reclaim our power back.

I believe our primordial ancestors are the stars. Our ancestral lineages all had connections with the planets and celestial bodies. If we can begin to connect back to their wisdom, we can start to understand the patterns and cycles we are individually and collectively in so that we can finally reinvent the wheel. We do this by becoming radical in every way; we become radical in our authenticity, our imagination, and our actions.

On this full moon, create a sacred space for yourself and take some time to receive the messages and downloads that are waiting for you. The universe is mysterious and magickal and so are you. Believe in yourself and the unique gifts and talents that are within you. Believe in the limitless possibilities for your future and for our collective liberation.