Astrology has a way of mapping out themes with precision. Certainly, I have written at length about the Capricorn correction (aka 2020 COVID cluster of Saturn, Pluto, and Jupiter), the revelation and transformation of structures (things like government and the economy), authority, leadership, and social frameworks. I have written about the need for empathy to replace toxic masculinity and service instead of greed. I have written about the great pause and need for serious and significant reflection to elicit what is REALLY important in our lives.
So, there is all that.
There is another theme that is incredibly relevant as we end the year and begin a new one. This one involves the signs Gemini and Sagittarius and the Nodes of the Moon. This is especially significant now as we enter eclipse season with this Full Moon Eclipse in Gemini.
The nodes of the Moon in astrology reveal the dance of fate and destiny in our lives. Inner and outer, they map larger cycles of transformation. The south node symbolizes the karmic DNA, the unfinished or unhealed archetypes within us, and the north node the dharma to get it right.
The wound and the remedy. The shadow and the light.
In client readings, the nodes are always where I start as they map the soul’s purpose and contract of the native. Everything else, from the personal and transpersonal planets to aspects, are simply tools to help us make that larger journey.
When the nodes are activated, as they are in all eclipses, they signal important choice points of destiny. Needed resets to the system. This Full Moon eclipse in Gemini is known as a North Node eclipse. This means what is highlighted is the Gemini remedy for the Sagittarian shadow we are living. (For more on that, check out Through the Looking Glass.)
And people, we are living some serious Sagittarian shadow.
What does that look like?
In a word. Dogma.
You see, wherever Sagittarius rests in your chart is your most direct vehicle for truth. When this part of you is in its high destiny, competence, honesty, and integrity exude. When you speak, people listen. And they should. Because within that voice is authority, and with authority comes power.
Which brings us to the choice point.
We can use that force for the greater good…or not. Because ‘truth’ can be channeled through larger Truth becoming illuminating, inspiring, factual, and expansive tendrils of encouragement etched with reality. Channeled through a fear-based selfish system, though, and that force becomes dogmatic, authoritarian, exploitative, immobile, oppressive, and selectively convenient. It ceases to be truth at all. However, it is often mistaken for it.
It can inspire or force. It can bring light or trap it. And let’s be real our ‘truth’ is powerfully heady to the darkest and wounded parts of us. It is precisely how things like denial and cognitive dissonance exist.
Adding to the confusion are nuances that grey the lines of demarcation between truth and fiction. What starts out as some foundational truth can easily become tainted by bias, convenience, habit, fear, or assumption. This phenomenon echos the old ‘telephone game’ where a phrase is passed from person to person. It is always entertaining that the phrase at the end sounds nothing like the phrase at the beginning. Until that game becomes real life. Then it ceases to be much fun.
The term fake news is a recent invention echoing this shadowy trend. Other examples of this include a significant rise in dogmatic conspiracy theories. From QAnon to voter fraud to Covid, we are living parallel universes of ‘truth’. We have witnessed the rise of YouTube “documentaries”, experts, social media platforms, and flat out disinformation campaigns causing polarity, division, and unfortunately even death.
Everyday.
Yet the spin continues.
Additionally, the decay of truth seems to be acceptable, encouraged even by those in power. Facts seem unimportant. Actual science labeled irrelevant. Narratives have become convenient. Paraphrasing Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels, ‘if you repeat a lie often enough, it becomes the truth’.
There is also a tendency to vilify anyone that is attempting to fact check. We have seen an all-out affront to scientists, medical doctors, the media, or election officials who are merely trying to fight disinformation with actual data. These are all symptoms of the dogmatically dangerous nature of selective knowing.
Which is exactly what a south node in Sagittarius looks like. We are living it.
Fundamentalism. Rigidity. A closed system.
Historically, I concur dogma might be the most dangerous force there is. (For more on that, check out The Rise of Conspiracy).
Yet this time is not just about what is wrong. In fact, the shadow is arising not to validate it but to give us an opportunity to transform it through the required medicine.
What is the cure for dogma (the South node in Sagittarius)?
That would be the North node Gemini.
In a word, heresy.
Heretics make fundamentalists uncomfortable. Why? Because they challenge the status quo. They question the rigidity of traditionalists. They resist authoritarianism. They crack the walls to let some needed light in. They reveal the uncertainty in everything.
Because without light, nothing can grow, and it is in uncertainty that all the magic happens.
Which is the work of Gemini. To continually allow curiosity to fuel discovery, never settling too deeply into stasis. It is the ability to observe many perspectives and allow those perspectives to expand horizons with new information.
And to be clear, Gemini rules facts while Sagittarius rules consolidating those facts into some organized belief system. Both systems are useful, of course. A problem arises when one side dominates. In this current cycle, dogmatic Sagittarius requires some Gemini re-calibration. Thus, we need more fact-checking and more critical thinking. We need more reason, science, logic, and deliberate contemplation. We need to resist the urge to find certainty, and instead, revel in the not-yet-known. For it is that path that leads to the Truth we seek.
But that kind of Truth is hard to come by. It demands radical accountability, impeccable integrity, and humble honesty. It requires a rigorous journey into the unknown. That force is Gemini.
“An unexamined life is not worth living”.
~Socrates
Additionally, this eclipse is happening on the ascendant/ descendant axis in the US chart. This means we are literally shifting the norms and paradigms that define us as a nation. Clearly, this is obvious as we wrestle with political tension, the founding fathers never quite anticipated. In short- we are redefining our identity as a nation and what we stand for by looking deeply at the values that define us. Things like freedom, sovereignty, and equality were never meant to be selfishly dogmatic or convenient but selflessly inspiring and empowering.
So in this time of incredible revelation and reckoning, let us all take a moment to fact check, critically think, and listen a little more. Let us discuss, debate, and review any beliefs that have cemented into something we call truth. Let us challenge the truth-tellers, whether they be scientists, presidents, media outlets, or spiritual teachers, reviewing their intentions, integrity, and humble wisdom. Let us also become heretics of our own stories, inner and outer, and in doing so become the light-bringers to any black holes of danger. Let us keep knocking on the doors of knowledge by going to the most transparent source we can on any subject.
Because Truth is rarely all the way right or left, but some balanced place in the middle. It is often much more simple than the complicated projections of needed certainty.
Our Truth reveals exactly who we are.
Which is why what you believe is not nearly as important as who you become when you believe it.
“Questions open a space in your mind that allow better answers to breathe.”
― Richie Norton
Want to know what this time is asking of you? Contact me for a reading.
*This Full Moon occurs at 8 ° Gemini.
*Photo Credit: Photo by Aziz Acharki on Unsplash