The Sagittarius New Moon takes place on 20 Dec 2025 01:43 am UTC at 28 degrees 24 min Sagittarius. This new Moon occurs just before the winter solstice when the Sun enters Capricorn on 21 Dec at 15:04 pm UTC.

Grianstad an Gheimhridh/ The Sun Stop of Winter (Winter Solstice)

The Winter Solstice is the shortest day and longest night. It is an important turning point in the tropical Zodiac. This moment is celebrated in Ireland centred upon the Boyne Valley monument of Newgrange. As the sun rises on the day of longest darkness it fills the chamber of this burial mound with light. The call to faith that the light bright days of spring and summer will return once more. The golden glow of the Sun rewarding our faith in his consistent return.

This new Moon is ruled by Jupiter retracing his steps through his place of exaltation in Cancer. A place where his buoyancy is boundless in this watery house of growth and nurture, in the temple of the moon. Jupiter though happy here may be searching for something missed the first time around.  Perhaps a change of mind, or emotion about something that has occurred since his retrograde began. Jupiter is currently in his own bound at the time of this new Moon indicating an abundance of, or a centring of faith. Faith to stick with something that is in the midst of deep transformation. Faith in a path that we cannot yet see clearly. Faith that what is changing is what is needed, what is necessary.  

The New Moon is in the bound of Mars at the very end of the sign of Sagittarius. Part of the seeding is the dying away or ending of something. It’s similar to pruning a plant to encourage new growth to occur, sometimes this pruning needs to be aggressive to encourage verdant abundance with the pruner having faith that the plant will thrive rather than die of shock!

This New Moon is applying to a square with Neptune having both squared Saturn earlier in the week. Neptune is at the end of his 14 year stint in Pisces. The seeding in Sagittarius maybe cutting out some of the Neptune in Pisces surrealness, cutting through the fog of Neptune in that house for a moment. Providing some clarity on what needs to be pruned from the topics of the Pisces/Sagittarius parts of your chart. This might be a Jupiterian excess of hubris so there may be a humbling aspect to this lunation that suddenly becomes crystal clear to you. This too is fodder for the pyre when Mars & Venus hit their cazimi moments in early January while also opposing Jupiter.

Athraímid ár bhfocail/We change our Words

Mercury, also co-present with the new Moon, is approaching a square with the nodes. Mercury in exile is not wholly comfortable in Sagittarius and ruled by a strong but backtracking Jupiter. Mercury has cleared his retrograde shadow and now will be calling to mind the nodal story playing out in the houses of your chart ruled by Pisces and Virgo.  Mercury at the south bending is asking us to release an idea that may have become engrained in the Pisces Virgo axis.

A spiralling narrative associated with the topics of those houses in your chart that you’re beginning to realise is actually inaccurate. You may have been stuck in the detail of something unable to see the wood for the trees. Now however a birds eye view of this story gives you greater understanding and a desire to confront or name it. This New Moon harbours a change of mind, of thought, of word. The previous lunation cycle had both luminaries square the nodes, Venus and Mars also ran into this square. Deeply held personal ruminations are being turned over in preparation to be spoken out loud, to be alchemised.

Fite Fuaite / Interwoven together

The tapestry of the personal planets is tied intimately with the dance of the luminaries in this approaching season of Capricorn. Their threads are tightly interwoven. Venus and Mars will both be cazimi (in the heart of the sun) in Saturn’s temple in early January while opposing Jupiter in the temple of the Moon. Each of us are being called to transform and burn up the old in terms of Venusian and Martian significations; art, beauty, love, cohesion, anger, courage, energy, motivation. The houses in your chart ruled by Venus and Mars will also undergo this deep change and necessary maturation. While Venus and Mars routinely cazimi as part of their retrospective synodic cycles this triple conjunction is not so common. This will be particularly significant to you personally if you have Venus or Mars as a timelord for 2026.

An Grianstad/The Solstice

The astrology of 2025 and 2026 is collectively transformative. Indications that the world is changing and we are entering a new era are bound up in the movements of the great outer planets, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto. The old structures are being slowly dissolved in an increasingly disorientating fashion. Saturn, Neptune and Uranus are all preparing to change signs and move into new modalities, new elements, new signs. Things will feel different in 2026. The burning up of old material held in the symbolism of the faster moving personal planets is a change that we all will undergo in preparation for the new, however it may appear.

At this New Moon and this Sun Stop in the midst of winter, it is the perfect time to meditate on this past year and welcome the change that is incoming. There is no need to wait until the calendar New Year to reminisce you can begin celebrating and honouring your endings while welcoming the return of the light of the sun.