Depth Knows Depth

by Sarah Faith Gottesdiener

 
The last lunation of this year begins this Friday. Appearing a whisper after the winter solstice in the Northern Hemisphere and kicking off a cycle that will straddle the Gregorian calendar years, this is the New Moon in the New Moon time of year. (See my book, The Moon Book, for more information about this concept.) We are in the void, and everyone will encounter this energy void differently. This is not a time for superficial pursuits or unkept promises; this entire lunation asks us to dive down deep within.

Growth isn’t always external. In order to grow, roots must be tended to. Clear away the weeds that threaten to overrun the gardens of our lives. Notice the soil that nourishes or starves your life force. This weekend, consider the overall shape of your life. What we do, over and over again, adds up. If your days were an accumulation of a destination, where would you eventually end up? The choices we make, tiny and large, eventually become our destiny.

If the way you treated yourself morphed into a mirror, what would that reflection look like? Self-inquiry can stir up activation: be kind, yet honest. Avoidance never solved a problem. A deep spiritual practice is not comfortable: it reminds us that the truth is a gateway to the wisdom that our particular curriculum offers up. A deeper spiritual practice asks us to create roots that unfurl down into the underworld so that our visions may take wide and expansive flight. Greet discomfort with softness: you aren’t “bad” or “wrong” for acknowledging what must be changed, or where more depth, ease, or space is needed.

All year, you’ve been asked to relate differently. You’ve seen how prominently relationship factors into everything. You’ve understood that it is our relationships—the invisible yet impactful strands of love, care, perception, energetic tone, as well as the tangible fronds of action, communication, and thoughtfulness—that underscore our magical and material worlds alike. It is the how as much as the what. Relating to shadows and fears with compassion accelerates healing. Collaborations with other humans help grow trust, enable one to be seen, and create miracles. Intimately and reverently relating to the earth, animals, elements, and spirits reminds us of our place in the greater golden web—it emphasizes how much a part of nature we truly are, and motivates us to support the planet. Taking your magic, dreams, and community seriously creates paradigms that ripple out in unforetold ways. How have your relationships with all of the worlds around you shifted and grown this year?

Your relationship with yourself is the most important one of all. What have been the themes of your relationship with and to yourself this year? We treat ourselves as both object and subject, as both observed and observer. How has your self-objectification waned or waxed, and around what themes? There could be some regrets about the year: some betrayals, some risks that weren’t taken. This is the time to write those all down, process the lessons as best as you can, and generously pour some forgiveness into the wounded parts. The desires and goals that still remain must be embraced. This is the time to write them all down. Add the ones that can’t wait to this New Moon’s altar. Perhaps what you’ve written off as being nonexistent in your life is simply dormant: those roots need fertilizer. It takes bravery to clarify non-negotiables and actually enforce them at the expense of likability or safety.

This Moon asks us to stretch out past the dopamine hits of digital likes and positive responses from strangers, past the seemingly urgent small fires of the day’s tasks and other’s requests, past the temporary storms of emotions that can push us out into a bereft sea, past the binary, past the limits of your mind, into a field of possibility. Stop playing small. Stop avoiding your destiny. Let yourself rest in the depths. Going deeper always ends up in expansion. Depth knows depth.

How has this year changed you? How will you continue to change? What will you do? The planet says land back. The climate reminds us constantly that we are in crisis. The people say defund the police. There’s no more room for carceral punishment, abuse, or hierarchies: not in our larger systems, not in ourselves. The Goddesses, Goddexxes, Gods, Spirits, and Deities of the world urge us all to stop settling for crumbs, to delight and lust after impossible futures so that we might get even one inch closer to them in this life, to create paradigms and paradises however and whenever possible, to swim in the reality of our values.

Keep fantasies and practicalities in this moon’s spell bouquet, held tight in the same fist.

— To read the rest of Sarah Faith Gottesdiener's New Moon in Capricorn essay, along with her exclusive Future Dream Reflection Ritual, download the December Guide. Looking for lunar insights and magic making opportunities like this? Order the 2023 Many Moons Lunar Planner!