MULTIFORM New Moon

New Moon at 28*24' Sagittarius

December 19th 8:42 PM Eastern

21st Shape: MULTIFORM

17º 8' 34'' Sagittarius – 0° Capricorn

There’s a particular volume of talk about tonight’s New Moon, a feeling that something big, unique or pivotal is taking place, about which there seems to be a considerable amount of guessing and projecting, or alternately, a deliberate effort to neither guess nor project. The weather I am experiencing here is not the weather you might be experiencing elsewhere, but weather events are also not strictly local, they are part of much larger and complex, systemic motions, and indeed the weather on the day of this New Moon, at least in Midcoast Maine is presenting a considerable shift from the pattern we’ve been in. Late November saw a February-like cold snap take hold in the Northeast which has remained with us until this morning, when the ice has receded, the earth thaw to mud and warm blasts of winds are ushering in a massive amount of rainfall throughout the day. This arrives after weeks of suffering through single digit lows and burning through way more firewood than is seasonal, putting the latter end of the winter’s heating fuel supply in question, which is maybe precisely the essence of the moment; things are becoming different and we don’t know what’s going to happen next.

The conjunction of the Sun and Moon at 28 degrees Sagittarius is applying tightly square to Neptune who is slowly sliding out of Pisces after having been there since 2011 and will be finished with the watery abyss and returning phoenix-like to Aries for good on January 26 2026. I’ve noticed considerable Neptune configurations will be accompanied by misty, gusty, sloppy, foggy, floody or similar weather episodes, so this particular break in the pattern is on cue. As Neptune and Saturn are partnered up through this tail end of the Piscean era and into the extended Aries episode that follows the frigid early winter weeks we just experienced contributed to a keep your head down and repeat your program robotically dynamic since November, like a rigid trance in a period of life that already has had the energy, essence, flavor and meaning washed out of it. This zombified vibe is one part of the grand water trine which presided over the fall season showing us via feeling rather than rational thought what nourishing shapes are potentiating to emerge in our lives, what we’re currently starving for or getting a bit vicious about and what we are obligated to let go of because it no longer has a viable pulse or in some way is melted and deranged never to be coherent or cohesive again.

Neptune’s role in this is varied. It marks the conclusion of a paradigmatic era since 2011 which widened our reception to various immersive states. We became more empathic, and our imaginations more atmospherically inclined. Mass culture learned about holism and some spirituality softened their rigid materialism, yet there was also wide spread escapism. The era of weed gummies and netflix-and-chill has concluded, and all of the viral memes and fake news and pandemic virus’ are rendered irrelevant, while institutional meltdown is apparent, AI bubbles are largely investment suction schemes, and in our personal lives the glue which holds the plot together is quickly liquifying. The set in which our story takes place is starting to look like an outdated facade and a change of scenery is sounding critical alarms.

Neptune’s purpose is largely to cast a spell so vast we don’t realize we’ve been enchanted, and with him tarrying on the threshold between immersive atmospherics and initiatory impulses, we’re getting a large dose of the thing which is about to be over just before it’s over. The strongest part of the trip is coming on as the sun starts to rise which signals to us that we’re cognitively altered even though we can’t stop it. Saturn is there to force us to let go of this old era we’ve escaped to for the past 14 years, and now he’s making us get out of the pool. This isn’t really exactly sobering, it’s largely a switch of which drug we’re on, both personally and culturally. The Pisces to Aries transition, like water breaking and womb evacuating, has wake up its time to be born written all over it, but once we open our eyes for the first time in our next incarnations its still a high saturation experience. This transition is one of perception widening. We’re still in watery limbo getting opiate doused for the moment even if we don’t want to, but the awareness that we are actually letting go and leaving all that we must now admit has dissolved behind a perception widening effect comes over us. Suddenly there is so much more space for other than currently is. It’s just that we’re at the moment so depleted from slogging it out and there’s little traction available so we have no ability to project our rational strategies into the future.

There is incredible temporality to this moment, echoing in various parts of this configuration. All of the Sagittarius transiting planets (Sun, Moon, Venus and Mercury) must square both Saturn and Neptune to enter Capricorn. You may have finally surrendered to the fact that despite your best efforts and abilities to be optimistic the manifestation-culture life-hacks are falling short to the broad futility you keep falling to the feet of. This is where naivety unwinds the plot tensioning mechanism. Mars is already in Capricorn though working chess-like away for Saturn in Pisces, so serious efforts to work with what is currently available are taking hold, and as all the other planets realize this we’ll be shifted into a game-on territory acquisition modality which is much different from our just being disappointed our project paper airplanes went soggy. We’ll be doing what must be done, boots on the ground, to conclude both the past 3 and 14 years and get on with a new existence. One where direct, autonomous action and striking while the iron is hot overtakes manifestation mindsets and trusting our vibes. We’re almost there but not quite yet. We have to first stop believing in the thing that’s no longer working.

The last ten degrees of Sagittarius is influenced by Saturn, which renders Sagittarius’ questing enthusiasm a forced marched towards obtaining the holy grail no matter what. This is akin to the climax of any fantasy epic where the characters are so far along on their journey there’s no turning back, despite the legions of adversaries and fire-breathing dragons, they must proceed even if it kills them. The issue at this moment is it’s proving difficult to rouse this kind of rally as our worlds are in a meltdown and futility abounds. The trick is somewhere in between, which we’re catching onto as planets move past the slap in the face portion of this into Capricorn, where we regroup militaristically around anything which isn’t made of absolute candlewax and mobilize for the final push out of the foul-end of the last decade and a half. This “ok time to get serious then” turn pretty much catalyzes the vibe shift as Saturn and Neptune return to Aries in late January and early February. It’s as if one end of the chain of planetary rulerships works better than the other. Even though everything is ruled by Jupiter and ultimately the Moon, and the two are in mutual reception for this lunation, offering unique intuitive coherence of what you do have at your disposal, it’s the “when the going gets tough…” sentiment which triggers the energy necessary to progress into the future. The ironic part is that the whole big miasma holding us back is temporary to begin with, so things are only futile for so long, even though the vibe of everything slipping through our fingers in the moment is totalizing.

The lunation occurs in the 21st Shape of MULTIFORM, which in Greek and Roman classical times would have been exactly the two weeks in which Kronia/Saturnalia took place leading up to Winter Solstice. This in itself emphasizes again the themes of totalizing temporality, as this is a stretch of time where things are overtly other than the typical order. This year’s with Jupiter ruled by the Moon, who switches signs in just less than every three days, we have been subjected to a past two weeks typified by being temporarily not normal archetypally in a year where every few days we are set to source nourishment from a different mini-melodrama. It’s a bit like we’re emotionally channel surfing, and since everything has been in Jupiter ruled signs its all encompassing.

This New Moon represents the quiet and contemplative seeding of something new in the short term embedded into a moment where the year significantly pivots to light increasing out of darkness in a broader era shift that drains the last decade and a half away and prods us toward sprinting into the rest of our lives which might look and will definitely feel different than before. Spring and Summer 2025 was the more-than-foreshadowing period when we all gave our future a test drive but before we were allowed to take our next life vehicle home and make it our new daily driver. We are destined to drive this new thing, but currently our garage is flooded and has a broken down car in it, and until we get that jalopy out there’s no room for the potential we tasted in recent warmer weather.

All of the lunar mansion lists cross culturally make a shift in form and content in one way or another starting at the 21st. The Greek Magical Papyri has the 21st as Polymorphos, or MULTIFORM, and all the Shapes which precede this are animals whereas all the Shapes which follow are cult objects of Hekate. Winter Solstice was considered the Excarnation Gateway allowing souls of the recently departed waiting to leave the realm of the living a chance to exit and be re-absorbed into the celestial heavens. Simultaneously, the underworld passage from death to re-birth of the mystery initiate could also here commence, as the long night of the winter season found participants traversing the subterranean labyrinths until re-emergence at vernal equinox having learned to parade with the divine.

The two weeks leading up to the darkest night of the year saw the world upturned, MardiGras-like, in a bacchanal of feasting, gambling and gift giving where societal order was reversed or at least unheeded. The anything-goes amalgamating episode allowed for the phantasmagoric to widen the valley of perception as wildly juxtaposed combos evoked original chaos, or better yet, pre-societal Saturn when it was the observable laws of nature to be followed rather than the edicts of the empire. The wilds of Saturnalia were woven with indigenous ritual elements, and this was a celebration of shamanic Saturn rather than authoritarian Saturn. The scythe itself is an incredibly ancient tool which predates agriculture and were often made with jaw bones set with flint teeth for gathering vegetation.

MULTIFORM in the PGM likely refers to the Echidna, the composite being, or mother of monsters, who births all the other composite beings. This theme of birthing, or begetting pure, exponential potentiality is likely important, as Sagittarius is anatomically both hips and thighs, so also from whence life biologically emerges into existence. There is significance here to the passage from watery Pisces to Prime-Moving Aries, as the theme of making the final push, as in childbirth, is also in play, and this lunation reminds us that once unleashed anything can ensue, it is in a state of unboundedness, things take on a life of their own. The theme of combination is also significant, as the square to Pisces clangs in tension with all that mingles and blends, this time maybe for this final push, this last march towards the future out of the muck of the past including combining things you might have previously tried to keep separate or hadn’t seen as being possible to exist in simultaneity.

Indeed, the RigVeda has attributed to the 21st Nakshatra Visvedevas, viśve and devāḥ meaning “all-gods”, which is a composite deity of all the Vedic gods together as One. This combining everything together for a greater purpose is natural for Sagittarius, famously a archery capable centaur. Also very Jupitarian heading into Saturnian is this Nakshatra involving themes of Goodness, Truth, Determination, Talent, Time, Enjoyment, Firmness, Ancestors, Abundance, Joy, Pleasantness, Sight, Fame, and Leadership. Again this is reminiscent of Kronia/Saturnalia with it’s festivities, feasting, gambling and gift giving in honor of the being that holds the world together into something stable enough to inhabit.

The 21st Chinese Xiu is The Trio, referring to the three stars atop Orion, often depicted as the top of the “house” which frames fu talismans. This trio critically reflects the tripart cosmological nature of reality, or heaven-earth-man spectrum of things in taoist organization. Like the Vedic All-Gods, this is essentially the whole enchilada, the inseparability of Everything-ness, the diverse structure which is the Whole, or the plethora within the World Egg. The relationship of Sagittarius to Gemini here is also palpable. The ancient traditions often would combine the tropical time of year with the visible stars at night during that time of year, which would be opposite the position of the sun, as they spent time looking at the night sky rather than screens, this was a seamlessness of zodiacal spectrum.

This Xiu speaks of borders, frontiers, fortresses, and the need for limitations and boundaries.  It contemplates when to tighten the belt (such as when you are prematurely running out of firewood). It warns against energetic vampires, and loss of vitality through excesses, both would be of concern in weeks long saturnalian bacchanals. It is considered to have a childlike, charismatic and paranoid character and divination is encouraged to access auspices. The fangshi residing over this station is dressed for ritual hunting divination and carries a staff topped with three wavy blades. I’m reminded of the Hekatean, appropriate for this place of thresholds and gates, of departures and births, and how a triple blade points in three directions, like when you come to a fork in the road you can go one of three ways. Liminality abounds in a moment of totalizing temporality, and heavy handed Hekate is an appropriate figure to consider when the final push is necessitated in an era shifting transition, as she is seen as patroness of midwives.

The combination-being theme continues with the Picatrix seeing this mansion as “a man with two faces, one forward one behind”, essentially Janus, emphasizing the crossroads nature discussed above and the uncertainty mentioned in the beginning and again suggested in the Chinese perspective: things could go either way. This mansion is called The City, something abundant in intersecting roads. There are elections for increasing harvests and firming profits but a talisman for destruction. I find fossil fuels are a common theme in MULTIFORM, as if the phantasmagoric Echidna, related to natural gas belching caves as Apollonian sacred sites, is something of a crude oil affair composed of compounded dinosaur body energy, so firming profits while also ushering in apocalypses is appropriate. The spirit here from the Grimorium Verum “brings books”— fitting for Picatrix’s City, where literature might be more handy in an urban atmosphere. This could be volatile substances still, as certain texts blow minds, and with all the Neptune involved, the theme of perception widening is more than double fold.

The phantasmagoric, urban, saturnalian, literate threshold crossing nature of multiform may be evocational of Babalon, as echidna was the original Mother Of Abominations. This of course is rooted in biblical Revelation, the centerpiece of apocalyptic literature. An apocalypse has come to mean a kind of end of the world, and with the outer planets shifting it certainly is the end of one immersive world episodically, and the dawning of another. Apocalypse originally meant ‘uncovering’ or ‘revealing’, thus The Book of Revelation, and did refer to a kind of text or literary genre. In this sense we also find the transition from one era and another, the before and after of a kind of epiphanic door opening, a catalyzing of exponential tangents; that is, once the veil is lifted and more is revealed, perception widens and certain spells are broken.

We might call this an awakening, and the transition from Pisces to Aries is just that; but not necessarily in the trope-ish spiritual sense; this is more like waking up in the morning and emerging from dream into the light of day, but in the case of our current lunation, we wake up from some kind of troubled slumber still drunk from the metaphorical night before. What kind of choices do we make and perspectives do we have in the context of opening our eyes still blurred by intoxication we wish we could shake off but know that we’ll have to just accept that it will eventually run its course, and we can proceed as normal, maybe with new vows and new appreciations stirring into shape which may cause us to behave differently in the future so as to not continue mired by our pasts.