Sagittarius New Moon

forgiveness is self-love

Sagittarius New Moon

December 19th
5:43 pm (pst)

Hi friends,

Here we are at the final lunation of 2025.

We did it, friends! We made it through this year!

While this last year may have felt extra challenging to many of us, this Sagittarius new Moon comes in with a steady warmth and a wish for us to end this year and begin the new one with a lighter load and a greater sense of freedom.

Forgiveness, especially self-forgiveness, is the doorway to that freedom.

I don’t mean the type of forgiveness to help someone else feel better. I mean the type of forgiveness that is actually about setting ourselves free, as opposed to anyone else.

Instead of carrying old frustrations or resentments into the new year ahead, this lunation is inviting us to simply set it down.

Truthfully, none of us want to be dragging resentment, self-criticism, or the heaviness of unmet expectations into 2026. Instead we want to move forward with more space inside our bodies, more clarity around our truth, and more love for the person we are and who we’re becoming.

Thankfully, this Sagittarius New Moon wants the same for us too, and so she is planting the seed of forgiveness within us to help us grow.

Forgiveness is a release valve for the heart. It unclenches the places we’ve kept tight, softening our resistance. And when we turn our forgiveness toward ourself, forgiveness is also an act of radical acceptance and self love.

Read on for more:

  • on the energies of this Sagittarius New Moon

  • on how to work with this lunation

Sagittarius Energy: Light and Shadow

The mutable (aka adaptable} Fire sign of the zodiac, Sagittarius is known for their passion, adaptability, explorative curiosity, and love of adventure.

Symbolized by the Archer, Sagittarius energy is also known to be seekers of truth, lovers of knowledge and very focused.

At their best, Sagittarius helps us stoke our flames of hope, optimism and our inner spark. Sagittarius does this by helping us reconnect to meaning, possibility, and to an inner knowing that life can feel different than it has.

Sagittarius’ archer energy also inspires us to zoom out and see ourselves with a wider perspective. And when we do this it becomes much easier for us to have compassion, both for others and ourselves. And when we do this, we also see how holding on to past hurts and resentments does little to impact those who hurt us, yet can do much to impact our own bodies and lives.

And when we realize this, forgiveness and forgiving - both others and ourselves - becomes an act of pure self-love.

Yet of course all light casts a shadow…

Sagittarius’ shadow can find us moving too quickly over (under and all around) our own emotional experiences. Sagittarius can cling to positivity in a way that is avoidant of feeling undesired emotions, or taking accountability.

Yet please remember the Moon NEVER wants us to bypass the full complexity of our emotions! Instead the Moon want us feel our deepest feelings and express our truthiest truths! And this Sagittarius new Moon asks us to tell the truth about ourselves with compassion and forgiveness so that we can soften toward ourselves and move forward with more joyous momentum.

While this new Moon is all about forgiveness as an act of self love, it’s also important to remember that forgiving isn’t the same as forgetting and it certainly isn’t the same as reconnecting. It’s entirely possible—and sometimes essential—to forgive someone while keeping your boundaries strong, your distance firm, or even your no-contact intact.

(And there are also some occasions in which it’s not about forgiving the person who hurt us, because in some instances that hurt might go too deep, and that’s totally ok too)

In many other other cases, it’s often actually about forgiving ourselves. Forgiving ourselves for being in certain situations, for allowing people to mistreat us and for mistreating ourselves too.

As always, the Moon honors the complexity of being human.

The Astrology: The Gap, the Grief, and the Grace

With the Sun and Moon meeting in Sagittarius during this lunation, also squaring Saturn (discipline, responsibilities and challenges) and Neptune (spirituality, dreams and illusions) in Pisces, there’s a very human tenderness in the air.

Saturn reminds us of what has felt heavy this year, what hasn’t gone as planned, and the responsibilities and challenges we’ve carried. Meanwhile, Neptune amplifies the ache of our hopes and the places where reality simply didn’t match our dreams. Together, this transit may have us very aware of the gap between what we wanted and what actually occurred.

While you may notice this upswell of emotion around what didn’t happen, or around the choices you wish you could do-over, this Sagittarius new Moon doesn’t want any of us to get stuck in regret. Instead this lunation is offering space to look at your year with compassionate honesty and then choose to forgive yourself anyway.

Because forgiveness can help clear your path ahead.


What Are You Ready to Begin?

This New Moon in Sagittarius offers more than release—it offers renewal. It brings a moment where your inner landscape becomes fertile again, ready for new intentions, new hopes, and a gentler way of relating to yourself.

If you’ve been carrying old emotions, looping through the same stories, or feeling the weight of unmet expectations, this lunation opens a doorway.

The Sagittarius new Moon invites us to shift from heaviness into possibility, from regret into clarity, and from self-judgment into a more compassionate and courageous new beginning.

Forgiveness becomes the soil for this next chapter. When you forgive yourself, you’re not denying what’s true—you’re choosing to stop holding your past like a barrier between you and the life you want to create. You’re choosing to treat yourself with the same tenderness you would offer someone you deeply love. And from that softened place, you can plant new intentions with a clearer heart.

This Sagittarius New Moon is not here to erase the past. It’s here to help you transform your relationship to it. Forgiveness becomes the moment you decide that your healing matters more than your hurt, that your future deserves a clean slate, and that you are worthy of softening toward yourself.

You don’t need to forget anything. You don’t need to minimize what happened. You simply get to choose not to carry it anymore.

As you prepare to cross the threshold into a new year, let this be the reminder you come back to: forgiveness is self-love—and self-love is what opens the path ahead.

May the forgiveness of this Sagittarius New Moon help you step into the coming year with more compassion, self love and with far more trust in being a safe space for yourself (and others too).

with infinite love and lunar blessings,

Rachael

working with the sagittarius new moon

Manifest/Intentions:

An attitude of forgiveness, for ourselves and others, that keeps us free from the burdens of resentment and victimhood.


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