the new moon in sagittarius for writers
with writing prompts
Beloveds! I have finally dug myself out from the mountain of work I was under. A few newsletters got delayed over these last few weeks due to end-of-year deadlines, so those will be going out this week and next, including an extra special gift guide that I am extremely excited about (iykyk). Also this week, we have a Mercury Rx, so you’ll be getting something for that tomorrow, too.
Also! An interview I did with Amanda B. Hinton over at The Editing Spectrum just got published, and y’all, it was such a delight. We talked about childhood, spirituality, the reality of being self-employed, and more. The comments section is fun.
A final note! My birthday is in 10 days (!!!), and since I didn’t really get to celebrate it as a child, I make an extra point to do so now as an adult. If you would like to contribute to my birthday celebrations, or just enjoy this newsletter and feel like sending a tip in lieu of subscribing to the newsletter at this moment in time, my venmo is jeanna-kadlec (jeanna, not jenna!). I am also always accepting gift cards to Sphere & Sundry (email is jeannakadlecauthor@gmail.com). This is my 12th house luminaries self working on putting myself out there so that, as certain people tell me (you know who you are), I can allow myself to be appreciated. Or something.
And now, for the New Moon in Sagittarius.
December 22nd is my birthday, but December 10th was my due date.
I know this because my mother reminded me of it constantly when I was growing up. You were nearly TWO WEEKS late! she would say. And I was so upset as the days went on, because being pregnant at that stage is miserable.
But the story took a turn you might not expect, one she used to make a very specific point, especially as I got older.
Just as I was at my most upset, a series of catastrophic winter storms began to roll in, Mom would tell.
And I prayed, dear God, please let her stay put. Do not let her come right now. The plows can’t keep up. Ambulances can’t even get through the streets. They are getting women in labor to the hospital on snowmobiles. People are having to use their backup generators at home, and we can’t do that with a newborn. Please please please, baby girl, do not come yet.
Obedient to the last, I stayed put, rolling around in placenta until the worst of the blizzards was over and my mom could get to the hospital in a car rather than on a snowmobile (although wouldn’t that have been metal as hell?). I was born on the winter solstice that year, just after the Sagittarius New Moon phase that had occurred a few days earlier.
My mom’s takeaway from my birth story has always been that God’s timing is perfect.
My takeaway is that creative projects — whether books or babies — often take unexpected routes to arrive.
It’s arguably the same lesson.
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Today’s New Moon arrives at 20* of Sagittarius at 6:32pm Eastern.
If you’re feeling the itch to do something — to see people, to go to a protest, to get a new tattoo — it may well be because this moon is sitting with Mars, which brings out our courage and our conviction, but also our rage and our desire to feel the change in the world (or in our body).
When a moment is so full of Jupiterian hope and optimism, and so fueled by Mars’ desire to do something about it, it can feel full to bursting. The anticipation and excitement can be hard to hold when the moon itself is actually new, with its job being to plant. There can be an impatience to already witness the fruit of our labor, to see results now.
(We’ve been working, we say, stomping our feet into the earth. Why are you not yielding anything?
Meanwhile, it has been an hour, a day, a week, a month.)
Our appreciation of Mary Oliver’s reminder that attention is the beginning of devotion may fray around the edges of our Mars-fueled impatience. And our grasp of time may fracture even further as the moon leans into a conversation with dreamy Neptune, which can cloud our reality and provide a more appealing fantasy. Certainly, this book can be finished by the end of the week! Of course this congressperson will bend if only I call them now! And so on.
Such moments are an invitation to cultivate patience, which is to say, creative endurance.
But this Sagittarius New Moon is also an invitation to go deeper: to sit with our beliefs and really ask what we believe in, and why?
What is worth fighting for, and why?
In a time of genocide, what is worth creating, and why?
Sagittarius, after all, is the philosopher of the zodiac. Sometimes the zealot. Still other times, the traveler. When this archetype does sit still — even for a moment — it is to distill the lessons and the teachings, to meditate on what has been gleaned, to come back to the foundations and the core values that guide all action.
To remind us that our movement and creation are intentional. That even a wildfire serves a purpose of clearing the forest for new growth.
When we are acting in alignment with our values and our beliefs, those movements and creations flow all the more readily. The seeds are planted all the more easily.
This is not to say that it is easy to wait when life holds us up — when winter storms of one kind or another roll through, preventing or delaying a much-anticipated new beginning.
Just that when we are rooted, it is easier to pull back and see the bend of that larger arc.
Towards justice.
Towards love.
Towards hope.
Towards freedom.
Towards creation.
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I like my birth story because I think it is a good example of how the unexpected turns of the universe’s timing can turn out to be a blessing in disguise. And isn’t that so often the way? Due dates and writing deadlines are such arbitrary things, after all — quite random, really, and so inherently flexible.
What is being created arrives when it arrives, and it usually arrives exactly when it’s supposed to.
New moon. New beginnings. And the birth of creative projects that, themselves, have their own identity, yet to be formed.
We can only continue to show up for the work, and pay it attention, as a sign of our good and proper devotion.
Writing Prompts for the New Moon in Sagittarius
What do you believe about art, and why? What do you believe about your art?
If you have a new idea for something, what is it? What about this idea excites you? How does it speak to your desires, your values, your beliefs, your desire to take action, etc.?
P.S. A reminder that registration for Showing Up to the Work: 12 Weeks to a Viable Draft is open! We begin January 3, 2024.
We were doing a bunch of renovations when I was pregnant with my third, and I was not at ALL ready for her on her due date, so I told her if she could wait, that would be awesome, and she waited another two weeks, until we had everything set up and ready. I guess this really is a thing you can do, if your mom did it too.
We share the same birthday. Happy almost bday! 🎉