Our last South Node eclipse in Sagittarius for the next two decades will happen on December 3rd/4th
Letting Go
On December 3rd/4th, we dance our last dance at the South Node in Sagittarius eclipse party. It’s Closing Time. We’ve done what we could do. We’ve shed the skin we’ve needed to shed in the Sagittarius corner of our charts. We’ve learned the lessons and let go of what we could. This final eclipse on December 3rd/4th brings the finishing touch. We won’t have another South Node eclipse in Sagittarius for nearly two decades.
Eclipses occur when three objects move into alignment. For lunar eclipses, the Earth is between the Moon and the Sun, resulting in the Moon being shadowed. For solar eclipses, like the one on Friday night, it’s Luna that finds itself between the Earth and Sun, while the Sun performs a vanishing act.
How To Work With Eclipses
Symbolically, the smudging out of the luminaries triggers something in the lizard brain. As the clockwork dance of the Sun and the Moon measures out our days, a disruption of their steady light provokes fear and awe. Eclipses are best spent in quiet contemplation, accompanied by gentle self-care. These are events to observe rather than channel. Eclipse energy can be disruptive and volatile, so it’s not a time to start new ventures, if you can help it.
In astrology, the North Node is represented by the head of a rapacious dragon. Hunger, intake, and sudden gains tend to mark the fateful events seeded by North Node eclipses, which we experienced on November 19th in Taurus. The South Node, on the other hand, is symbolized by the scythe-like dragon’s tail. It releases and purges.
Past Eclipses in this Series
The first eclipse we had in Sagittarius, on June 5th, 2020, was more than memorable. No matter where you were in the world, we were in the middle of one of the largest and most significant uprisings in history. From a New York Times piece entitled, “Black Lives Matter, maybe the largest movement in US history,” the opening sentence reads, “The recent Black Lives Matter protests peaked on June 6th, when half a million people turned out in nearly 550 places across the United States.”
It may be important to note that, in at least one of the “birth” or inception charts we use for the United States, Sagittarius is rising. In fact, one of them gives the United States a 12-degree ascendant, and that eclipse that happened on June 5th was at 15 degrees Sagittarius. So you could say that the United States, and all the shadowy material that this country has yet to reckon with, was eclipsed and activated by that astrology. It was one of the more important, poignant, and global moments in a longstanding movement of racial justice led by Black activists, artists, and thinkers since the inception of what we call the United States. That was the first eclipse in Sagittarius. Of course, Sagittarius is a sign all about what we believe in and why, what is the truth, and how we seek it.
The next eclipse in Sagittarius took place on December 14th, 2020 which also was a very poignant moment in American history, as it was the day that the Electoral College formally voted, confirming that Joe Biden would be the next president of the United States. The following Sagittarius eclipse happened on May 26th, 2021. That one had Jupiter, who ruled the eclipse (because Jupiter rules the sign Sagittarius), in Pisces, its water domicile. Maybe because Jupiter was in such a strong position, this eclipse was a lot milder.
The Last Dance
We don’t know what will happen with the final eclipse on December 3rd/4th, but because it’s the last eclipse in a series, it might hearken back to the first couple of eclipses and tell us something about the whole cycle.
Of course, all these eclipses happened in the middle of a global pandemic. The South Node is an emptying out point, and Sagittarius is a sign that relates to travel, education, and general exploring. While the South Node slinked through this sign, we witnessed a serious dwindling in travel, as well as the ways we used to attend school, college, and university. As this final eclipse dons on us, we’re hearing about the latest COVID-19 variant of concern, Omicron, and borders are once again restricting who gets to enter them.
Where it Lands for You
As individuals, we can look to the part of our chart that contains Sagittarius for all of the info that we need. (Read your Sun in Sagittarius horoscopes for more information.) Eclipses stimulate the part of the chart they occur in, and again, South Node eclipses ask us to release, let go, and reckon with the past. Eclipses dredge up shadow material: we have to confront our own shadows, our own ghosts. In the process, we always get back a little bit more energy, agency, power, and most importantly: our humanity. Imagine what the world would be like if each and every country, government, institution, organization, corporation, etc., made amends? Imagine a world where it’s more important to act with integrity than it is to make a profit.
On December 3rd/4th, spend some time in reflection. Sit with the grief of anything that has fallen away. Know that by lightening your load, you carve space for future flourishing. But first: let yourself rest. Open yourself to the process of letting go. There’s nothing for you to do but be.