The month starts out noisily and gradually gets real. The chatter may continue, but can’t stop attention turning to the quality and reliability of the information flying about – and to concrete practicalities of life. Boring? Grounding is more like it. Some of those practicalities come into focus by the end of the year. Fervently.
But first, the noise: Overtalking, rehashing, and “he said/she said” run rampant with action planet Mars still retrograde in the communication hub of Gemini. We’re in the last full month of his retrograde, which continues into mid-January.
Gaslighting, hypocrisy, and fighting words are gradually subsiding a bit, for the moment, as he backs, briefly, out of his ongoing fog-enhancing square to illusionist Neptune. That’s not immediately evident, though. December begins with a Mercury/Neptune square that whips up confusion and worse, and may have you wondering if Mercury’s retrograde. (Not yet; that comes at the end of the month.) Escapism, excusing behavior, and romanticizing surge when Venus makes the same challenge to Neptune December 4.
We’re largely over the noise and mind games by the Gemini Full Moon December 8, when the hubbub hits critical mass. Annoyances become impossible to ignore, with disruptor Uranus in a tight, uncomfortable semi-sextile to both the Moon and Mars. The aspect makes the inherent benefits of a Mars retrograde more obvious and attractive: opportunities to gather more information, to reevaluate and renegotiate agreements, to rethink and rework old business, and to complete matters that have been hanging or left undone.
Meanwhile, the sky is moving assistance into place. Practical talk and approaches are creeping in, with Mercury and Venus in no-nonsense Capricorn from December 6 and 9 on. Their shift delivers an ongoing, double-barrelled reality check, which enables piercing the fog, sorting through sound bytes, arguments, and assertions, and picking out the ones with substance.
Mercury’s move into Capricorn turns thoughts to goals and concrete priorities. Minds and conversations gravitate to bottom lines, to project managing life, to consequences, and to cause and effect. Socializing, too, is dropping its recent fun-loving vibe and becoming downright materialistic. Venus in Capricorn has “Santa Baby” playing on continual loop. She has us all looking at long-term viability and value. This is not a holiday season for overdoing anything. One or two meaningful events are more likely than a packed schedule of parties and running around. Gifts are likely to be fewer, and practical or durable.
We might question ourselves when the Sun squares Neptune December 14, but inspired thinking soon takes over. Calendar December 17 for brain-storming, when a trine between Mercury and Uranus, rulers of the ordinary and higher mind, delivers insights, innovations, and unconventional approaches to money, creativity, and other practical matters.
By the solstice December 21, inner fires are burning bright, stoked by beneficent Jupiter’s return to high-energy Aries the previous day. He’s filling the atmosphere – and our beings – with life force, exuberance, excitement, and a willingness to take risks. Conveniently, some of those pay off quickly. Venus trines Uranus December 22 and brings breakthroughs and unexpected developments in matters of the heart and bank balance.
Revisit your bottom line at the Capricorn New Moon. A square from expansive Jupiter is pushing for bigger, grander goals. No running after them, though. Instead, prepare to go slow. The first step is aligning your messaging and desires when Mercury and Venus meet December 29. The formula fits encountering someone who is … useful. Or having a fruitful “where is this going?” conversation with a special person, who’s probably similarly inclined.
After that, it’s time for another look or three at your projections. After confabbing with Venus, Mercury is turning retrograde, also on the 29th, complicating conversations and getting around until January 19. You may as well lay low and let those goals incubate. Besides, the skies have a holiday treat for everyone. Venus and Pluto, rulers of desire, ring out the old with reminders of what we want, truly, madly, deeply.
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