Full Moon in Gemini | December 18th, 2021 - when it's better to be confused than sure, a disappointment, pain followed by good news, faith, luck, future opportunities, having an ace in the hole

On Saturday, December 18th, 2021 at 11:35PM EST the Gemini Moon opposes the Sagittarius Sun giving us this month's Full Moon - our annual Full Moon in Gemini. 

This is our 3rd of SIX Fulls Moon at 27 degrees (remember all the 23 degrees New Moons this time last year?!) - this one near the mid-point of this celestial magic happening with the Sun conjunct the Galactic Center - our homing signal, black hole at the center of our Milky Way Galaxy. We will explore this 27 repeat pattern at the end of this Full Moon post.

 

Full Moons are times of heightened emotions. The sky is bright. Something is illuminated. It shows us what we are holding onto/where we are/what is reaching its peak/what is finishing up. In Gemini this is about communication and learning, opinions and options. Our siblings and local community. Stuff that is moving. Stuff that changes. 

 

Gemini is the sign of duality (and how, yes, two things can be true/right at the same time) - think of its symbol of 'the twins' - and we often find we have more than one important thing FINISHING UP at the time of a Gemini Full Moon. 

There will also be more than one way forward - Gemini holds the space of the crossroads.

 

With the Moon in Gemini and the Sun in Gemini's opposing sign of Sagittarius - the Gemini/Sagittarius polarity is activated. This is mutable air vs mutable fire. Flexible, adaptable  - these are signs of transition periods. Mutable signs are restless and prepare us for the change of seasons. Gemini is ruled by Mercury and rules our collective 3rd house of day to day communication and language. It also rules siblings, neighbors, local travel, early education, transportation - movement. Its polarity sign is Sagittarius. Sag rules our collective 9th house of the larger world aspects of movement. So big picture thinking and processes, philosophy, higher education, foreigners, long distance travel, legal issues, etc.

Although the Moon's North Node is still in Gemini for another month, this Moon is too far away to create an Eclipse, but I think happening in the sign of her North Node, still gives the Moon an extra whallop here.

Let's unpack the chart. 

The Moon, at 27 degrees Gemini, opposes the Sun at 27 degrees Sagittarius. The Sun is conjunct the Galactic Center. The Moon is trining Jupiter (applying). The Sun is sextiling Jupiter. They are both squaring Neptune - this aspect is separating/in the past. The ruler of Gemini is Mercury and so as ruler of this lunation we look next to see what she/he is up to (Mercury is an androgynous energy). Mercury is in Capricorn with an EXACT square to Chiron. He/she is sextiling Uranus (applying) and has a quintile to Pluto and a bi-quintile to the North Node (both gifts if activated) - which, remember as ruler of Gemini he/she also rules. We can also see Venus is conjunct Pluto - this aspect is just barely separating, but we know she is going to station retrogarde and run into Pluto two more times. We can also see Saturn is squaring Uranus - we know Uranus is retrograde and going to back into Saturn on Christmas Eve (this year's final Saturn/Uranus square - I don't think 'not a creature was stirring not even a mouse' will apply this year) AND we can see Ceres is conjunct the North Node and Mars is opposing them and moving across the South Node - whew. 

 

The Moon's most exact aspect (besides her opposition to the Galactic Center - which we'll talk about at the end) is a trine to Jupiter in Aquarius. And it's applying - in the near future. Jupiter brings optimism, faith, confidence, luck, good news. In Aquarius this ties in to the future, to groups and 'the people'. This trine and the Sun's sextile (opportunity) is this Moon's ACE IN THE HOLE. All's well that end's well.

(I should also add Jupiter is conjunct the U.S. natal Moon 'the people')

Mercury's exact square - remember Mercury rules the Moon here - to hurting/healing Chiron speaks of a vulnerability/wound we have to get past. Maybe words/a conversation, some information now is painful. Maybe we are worried about being able to take care of ourselves or be ourselves. Maybe some bad news comes in or we face a disappointment.

So, we get the bad news/whatever this is, and Mercury is in Cappy, so its serious news and we take it seriously. BUT remember our ACE IN THE HOLE. Have faith. Stay optimistic. Something BETTER is coming along. This Moon covers the next two weeks (and in some ways the next 18 months) and it speaks of LUCK, EXPANSION, FORTUNE, HOPE.

There is a sextile to Uranus that is applying, too - this, speaks of the opportunity coming through us doing something different or differently this time. Uranus is the modern ruler of Aquarius and so Jupiter is answering to him. Uranus is retrograde, so this change is somehow #new/#notnew.

 

What have we learned after 18 months of the South Node in sage Sagittarius? What have we learned after 18 months of the North Node in smarty pants Gemini? The Nodes are at the very beginning of Gemini/Sag now - just 1 degree - and because they are ALWAYS retrograde, this is the very ending of the signs for them.  There is also a separating transit - that square to Neptune, more endings/dissolvings and the Full Moon is itself a time of endings. And keep in mind what transits are without all the astro babble. They are POTENTIALS that we can witness (in others and within the collective), and, become part of our experience as well, to a greater or lesser extent depending on our birthchart/road map/strategic plan for this lifetime. 

So, there is a pain/disappointment/vulnerability triggered. This is very old/inherited. It is here. Cannot be avoided or glossed over. AND this chart shows luck/expansion in the future. So, if something doesn't work out now, have faith it is because something BETTER is coming. The future is opportunistic. This chart is more indication, I believe, that omicron is going to be beneficial as far as the virus itself goes. What authority does with it - we have that final Saturn/Uranus approaching - is a whole other ballgame. We'll talk about that this upcoming week.

OK, let's dial back to that 27 because we had a 27 degree Full Moon in Taurus last month (that Eclipse that kind of seeded the upcoming Taurus North Node) and a 27 degrees Full Moon in Aries the month before that. Next month we have a 27 degree Full Moon in Cancer (January 17th) and the following month a 27 degrees Full Moon in Leo (February 16th). The 27th degree is a very late degree, but not the final ending degree.

In the iChing, hexagram 27 is called Nourishment. With Ceres on the North Node and the Node preparing to move into Taurus, it feels appropriate to think about this. What is needed to nourish us? 

 

How is our hunger motivating us? If we swallow this 'nourishment' - this is a Gemini Full Moon we don't have to 'swallow' every opinion we are offered - what will we become?

Some of the lessons of hexagram 27 in the iChing are - 

 

the ways the truths we choose to nurture and cultivate become the foundations of our personal eco-system, if what we are depending on is not our true support it will be stripped from us, our jaws literally not lining up - taking too big a bite or too little, what happens when we push away the nourishment that is offered/what we actually need to live (to be left starving not being a good idea, but maybe the need to fast/sit fallow at times), the need sometimes to take a big/intense bite to get to the heart of something/to eat like a lion, rejecting established sources and the need to refuse the way things have always been done in order to get to richer flow, learning that we carry our nourishment with us even as we avoid the pitfall of thinking ourselves invincible. 

 

Maybe something here is helpful to someone. 

 

This month's Moon, opposing the Sun on the Galactic Center is uber important. New energies are being illuminated. The Galactic Center is our homing signal, the black hole at the center of our Galaxy. Things are changing so quickly/so much is in such great flux that our data is way out of date and so are the falsely conditioned  instinctive and emotional survival responses we’ve been limited to. Here's where new data comes in even as our emotional (although less emotional in Gemini) Moon opposes and maybe speaks of challenges trying to make sense of it all. With this Gemini energy and that square to Chiron in Aries/sextile to Uranus - there is some kind of paradox about being whole/alone and THAT bringing us closer to others.

 

We will have to keep thinking about the 27's.

xo all

Today's Astrology Forecast and some thoughts about covid cycles | December 16th, 2021 - risk assessment, longish void moon, respecting the mother, making a new choice

 

The Moon continues her monthly journey though Taurus, the sign of her exaltation. 

 

She trines Pluto at 6:28AM EST (with the North Node's move into Taurus next month, this Cappy trine will become a long term thing - highly competent, stable, creative energy), trines Venus at 8:14AM EST (smooth flow with Venusian themes - money, love, women, beauty, values, self-esteem) and will go void off a square to Jupiter at 11:08AM EST (watch over-doing, over-promising, over-spending, etc). 

 

She will be void until 3:43PM EST when she gets into Gemini and starts heading toward her solar opposition - Full Moon - this weekend. 

 

Early this morning EST, before her Plutonian trine, the Moon inconjuncted the Sun - this month's Waxing Inconjunct.

 

This is the Taurus/Sag inconjunct and is kind of echoing that square to Jupiter that carries us into the void, so there is something here about our need for comfort/security/stability at odds with our need for freedom/expansion/more. It's an uncomfortable reminder that we need to take care of our basic needs/self-care FIRST - this is going to be really driven home to us as the North Node moves into Taurus next month. We can't holiday shop (play Santa) if we have no savings. We can't have the energy we need to explore/expand if we aren't nourishing ourselves properly, etc, AND on the flip-side, we can't sit totally still in order to be completely safe. Living requires risk. Growth is what we came for.

We talked in the weekly about Mars journey across the South Node now - a kind of final TEST about not making a mountain out of a molehill. About being older and wiser (Sagittarius is the guru after all) with whatever we have going on now. 

 

Hopefully this will be applied to collective reasoning in terms of the omicron variant. Maybe we can see the long-term gift - benevolent Venus in Cappy back and forthing over the "time runs out" degree of January 2020 - as yielding a more contagious, but less dangerous and much better prepared for virus than we faced before. We need to work that safety/stuckness vs expansion/risk inconjunct. We can respond sanely and not over-react. Remember it is our collective narcissism (which comes from de-valuing mother/Mother Earth, our natural immune system) that got us into this mess. 

In Vedic astrology, there is a term called Kala Sarpa Yoga.

 

It is the name given to a time period when all planets (they only use planets up to and including Saturn) are captured in one half of the chart by the North and South Nodes of the Moon - which they call Rahu and Ketu, the head and tail of the dragon. The times of Kala Sarpa Yoga are considered troubling times/unfortunate

Even less common than Kala Sarpa Yoga are the times when ALL the major planetary bodies are captured in this 'container' between the nodes (called the Draconic Bowl - sound spooky enough for you?). As Mars crosses the South Node we are ALL IN in the Draconic Bowl - our third trip of three over the last two years. The first two have coincided with greater virus spread and increased lock-downs/responses.

The first Draconic Bowl was February 25, 2020 through May 28, 2020. The second was January 1, 2021 through March 6, 2021 and the third begins now. We truly are 'all in this together' folks.

If we consider Ceres a major planetary body - and why wouldn't we? although keep in mind the Vedic astrologers do not - remember she was at "time runs out" in January 2020 along with Saturn, Pluto, Mercury and the Sun and I think in the future astrologers will see her as the ruler or at least the co-ruler of Taurus - then when Ceres leaves the 'bowl' on January 31, 2022 - this cycle ends. The "mother" has delivered.

 

If we discount Ceres - Mother Earth - and remember it is our discounting of mothering/Mother Earth that creates this narcissistic wounding that got us into this mess (we are going to talk about this in the Nodes post after the Full Moon post), then the bowl will not be 'escaped' until April 23, 2022.

The good news is that after April 2022 this bowl pattern doesn't repeat for at least a decade. Keep in mind it is the decisions we make now, the things we ALLOW that impact the rest of the 2020's and future Earth for our children and grandchildren.

For today, keep in mind that void Moon and the discordance between safety/comfort and growth/being receptive to the new and unknown. There IS a place these energies meet and we can find it.

Back with the Full Moon post and then we'll start talking about January's nodal shift which will change everything.

xo all

a thank you to astrologer Louise Edington for the Kala Sarpa Yoga heads up (say that three times fast)

artwork by the talented Ethemos

Today's Astrology Forecast | Tuesday, December 14th, 2021 (and another look at Wednesday) - chickens coming home to roost, one of the final tests, don't make a mountain out of a molehill

 

 

The Moon has gone void Monday night and moves into Taurus at 3:11AM EST. 

 

With the Moon in Taurus - the sign of her exaltation - we are nourished/nurtured by traditionally nourishing things - good food, comfortable clothes, a warm bath, the soft touch that feels like love. Our focus turns to what we have - our purchases, our resources, our money. We are feeling good if we are feeling valued and if we value ourselves. The Moon begins the day with a trine (brakes off) to Mercury at 5:19AM EST and finishes the day with a square to Saturn (in Aquarius) at 11:36PM EST. 

 

Both Mercury and Mars changed signs Monday, so we might be feeling busy/have lots of errands or things to finish up/have had to change direction or shift what we are doing or saying. Ceres has been moving backward through Gemini and is now hooked up with the North Node (our best collective way forward). 

Both Mercury (through an inconjunct - rock and a hard place) and Mars (through an opposition as he meets up with the South Node) move into tense aspects with Ceres - and Mercury with the North Node today, Mars with the North Node tomorrow.

 

Keep in mind Mercury rules Gemini, so his change of signs is impacting both Ceres and the North Node. In Capricorn, he brings serious information/conversations at odds with Gemini's leanings toward keeping things light/funny/flexible. The inconjunct speaks of the need to honor both sides while understanding there won't be any sure-fire winners here. Traditions and rules need to be more flexible. Authority needs to use a lighter touch AND our need to keep things more airy/nonchalant needs to be balanced with very real responsibilities/commitments. With Ceres here this could pull in mothering situations, situations that require compromise, things that feel outside our control. The Mars opposition could stimulate a culmination/ending.

Tomorrow, Mars is going to move across the South Node (been there, done that) and oppose the North Node. 

 

Moving on old beliefs or taking the same risky actions or thinking we know-it-all or making over-the-top moves like we've made before or escaping with travel/adventure/the old quest instead of dealing with the nitty gritty details could be problematic now. We are dealing with karmic cycles and want to be pointing our sails in the best direction.

 

Impulses/passions/anger with its roots in old situations or that feel familiar are activated. 

 

This is one of the final 'tests' of the South Node Sag of the last 18 months as Mars passes through to see what actions we will take this time based on what we have learned. Everything isn't a test, but this kind of IS. 

 

(we can see this playing out in the collective via the virus) 

 

The way through is still that Gemini North Node and we have a retrograde mama-bear Ceres here to enable some smart nurturing and activate our ability to compromise. 

With Gemini, there is always more than one way through. The steps will be small, so, if it looks like some giant leap is required - LOOK AGAIN.

Ask questions (with Gemini ruler Mercury in Capricorn, they will be more practical, serious, goal-oriented now). Talk. Listen. Deal with facts. Stay flexible. The student is more needed than the teacher. 

 

It's not a coincidence we get this final opposition with Mercury (Gemini's ruler) in serious as a heart attack/daddy-bear Capricorn.

Choose a new way through.  

 

xo all

 

Soooo .... if a problem crops up that feels familiar - choose to dial back a bit what you did before - keep it lighter, smaller, smarter, more localized - does that make sense? No mountains out of molehills right now. 

artwork by Poplavskaya

weekly astrology forecast for creatives | December 13th-19th, 2021 - shifting sands, the conversation gets serious, unfinished business, bold moves, disappointment followed by better opportunities

 

 

We come off Sunday's confusing/draining Sun/Neptune square and start the week with two personal planets changing signs (we will finish the week with another personal planet changing direction, so this week is going to flip around on us). Our attention/our thinking/the conversation shifts. Our actions become less focused/more 'big-picture'. 

 

Unfinished business/old situations are activated. 

 

The end of the week is all about this year's BIG Full Moon in Gemini - 

 

not an Eclipse with the Nodes a hair's breadth from Taurus/Scorpio - but still another nail in the coffin of the last 18 months. Expect multiple situations to come to light/culminate/conclude. With the Moon's ruler squaring hurting/healing Chiron, painful information/conversations/disappointments are possible BUT we also have multiple indicators we can get something BETTER if we go bold/optimistic/faith-full/confident and lean into THE NEW.

 

MONDAY - Mercury into Capricorn, Mars into Sagittarius

WEDNESDAY - Mars conjunct South Node and opposes North Node

SATURDAY - Mercury squares Chiron, Full Moon in Gemini

SUNDAY - Sun sextiles Jupiter, Venus stations retrograde, Chiron stations direct

On SUNDAY/MONDAY we have two planets changing signs. Mercury moves from fun/freedom-seeking Sagittarius - mutable fire - into serious/realistic Capricorn - cardinal earth. Our attention turns to important matters. The conversation changes. We want to start something real. Mars moves from deep/focused Scorpio - fixed water - into fun/freedom-seeking Sagittarius. We want to explore/take bigger steps forward. 

 

We talked about both these transits in greater detail for Sunday HERE.

 

The Moon is waxing. Venus is still direct. This is still good 'start' energy - keep in mind Mercury will return to Cappy during his upcoming Aquarius retrograde and Venus will be repeating this week's storyline, so whatever is 'started' could require some revisions or face some logjams/delays.

WEDNESDAY - Almost immediately, Mars (as us) hits a snag, running into the South Node in Sag and opposing the North Node. Something from the past is returned to/activated as we are given the chance to respond in a new way (rather than make an instinctual reaction - what have we learned?). Or maybe something needs to be finished up. Here in the U.S. many important legal matters (Sag situations) should be and have been a focus and reaching a conclusion. Sagittarius also rules foreign situations, immigration, higher education, weddings, politics, publishing and your own Sagittarius house theme.

SATURDAY - the end of the week is all about the BIG Full Moon in Gemini - not an Eclipse because the Nodes are too close to Taurus/Scorpio now, but our FINAL Full Moon in Gemini of our 18 and a half month Gemini/Sag nodal axis. 

 

Gemini is a dualistic sign (think of its twins signifier), so more than one situation can be culminating, concluding, coming to light now.

 

With Gemini's ruler Mercury squaring Chiron this looks like some painful conversation/information, old vulnerabilities triggered (this is Chiron's final aspect retrograde, before his direct station tomorrow as we move on from this), BUT with the Moon applying to a trine to Jupiter and the Sun a sextile to Jupiter AND with Mercury's next move a smooth trine to change-maker/future-focused Uranus the hurt/pain/disappointment is followed by expansion/LUCK/something ELSE. Keep this in mind. Stay optimistic. Look in a new direction. This sounds like, as these things are apt to, our last 18 months encapsulated into the next two weeks! 

 

The Sun will be on the Galactic Center so this is awakening energy (they are both conjunct asteroid Industria, interesting with the Venus/Pluto in industrious/industrial Cappy activating big-money stuff and Indistria's connection to the Dow Jones). With the Moon opposing and Mercury stressed this is big-time transformational energy. Things are INTENSE.

 

Expect a BIG post!

SUNDAY - the Sun sextiles Jupiter, at 28 degrees Sagittarius/Aquarius conjunct the Galactic Center - this is optimism/hope/faith pulled into our new collective timeline. Sextiles require some effort to get going - this one is fire and air, so something can catch fire/expand QUICKLY. There is opportunity here. Our faith is rewarded. This is empowering/optimistic energy that is future-focused/humanitarian. Sun/Jupiter says GO FOR IT.

Venus stations retrograde - that post is HERE. Yes, this probably takes some of the oomph out of the Sun/Jupiter but re-view, re-assess we must, AND, keep in mind, the Sun/Jupiter as Venus stations aids her story-line.

 

Collectively, happening in Capricorn this will be about us reviewing our goals, careers, reputations, the authority/structures in our lives. For some, work is put into context as we re-evaluate our feelings about needing to 'earn' love. Personally, our Cappy natal house theme is pulled into the mix. All Venus retros pull in Venusian themes - women, love, money, resources, Earth, our values, our self-esteem, beauty. Part II to the Venus retro as we factor in her multi-leg journey over the January 2020 "time runs out" degrees and, as ruler of Taurus, her appointment as our next guiding star - will be out this week. 

 

We are reaching the end of the line for Jupiter in Aquarius AND heading toward next week's final chaotic Saturn/Uranus square - stay flexible. Take care of yourself and maybe especially your nervous system. Google tapping or mindfulnesss. Figure this sh*t out. Meditate. Long walks in nature. Get enough rest. Hydrate. Mars is in a fire sign, so exercise will really help now. We know the drill, we just have to do it.

xo all - back with that BIG Full Moon post and we'll start looking at next week's final Saturn/Uranus

artwork by the talented proxi-mity

Venus retro in Capricorn | december 19, 2021 - January 29, 2022 - part 1 - 40 days and 40 nights to re-assess what we love and value

 

I am posting this on December 10th - Venus is in Cappy, moving forward. The Moon is waxing (growing). The personal planets are all moving forward. Only Uranus, Ceres and Chiron are retrograde. Venus is starting to slow as she approaches her upcoming retrograde, but this is still a time when we want to be TAKING ACTION. This week, we have some advisements against going-too-big, BUT it's not a time to be sitting still. 

 

So, for now forward action, but in nine days Venus will station retrograde and that will be a whole other story. What story? Well, let's unpack it.

 

With Venus in Cappy we are attracting what we want/need through Cappy behaviors - being sober, competent, realistic, goal-oriented, smart/funny, patient, structured/stable, being a boss. People born with Venus in Cappy probably like to be seen this way and are attracted to partners who are like this (of course, there are other chart factors that will influence this). 

 

For our lovely, benevolent Venus this is something like being a young adult woman living in her father's house. There are rules.

 

Venus goes retrograde every eighteen months and every eight years Venus will retrograde through the same sign. This pulls us back to late 2013/early 2014. You might find similar situations/themes at play in your life this time through. You can also go back sixteen years, twenty four years, etc.

 

If we were to draw a map of these retrograde points in her eight year cycles we would draw a five pointed star. And if we drew a map of these Venus retrograde points (named Venus Star Points) over long periods of time we would draw a perfect and graceful five petal flower/a delicate piece of sacred geometry showing us something of our own Venusian nature's kinship with beauty, balance, love and connection.

Since the 1980's (when Aquarius and Virgo cycled out) Venus has cycled through retrogrades in Aries, Capricorn, Gemini, Leo and Scorpio. Over the next ten years Aries and Scorpio will cycle out and Libra and Pisces will cycle in (more signifiers of the gentler and more cooperative years ahead, I think). 

 

So, different generations of people are born into, and live through, different Venus Star Points. 

 

Venus retrograde - all 40 days and 40 nights - will have us re-assessing BIG themes in our lives.

 

On December 19th, Venus will station retrograde (a few hours before Chiron stations direct) at 26 degrees Capricorn with an EXACT conjunction to Pluto. She will get all the way back to 11 degrees Capricorn on January 29th (hours before our annual New Moon in Aquarius). 

November 5, 2021 - Venus enters Capricorn - sobers up/starts answering to Saturn
November 17, 2021  - Venus reaches 11 degrees (starting her retrograde shadow)
December 19, 2021 - Venus stations retrograde - 26 degrees

January 8, 2022 - Venus meets the Sun - midpoint of Venus retrograde cycle - new beginning for Sun/Venus, CLARITY about our Venus retro story-line

January 29, 2022 - Venus stations direct - 11 degrees
March 1, 2022 - Venus reaches 26 degrees (ending her retrograde shadow/cycle) and then starts covering new ground

 

People with planets/points between 11-26 degrees Capricorn (and the other cardinal signs through squares and oppositions - Aries, Libra and Cancer) will probably be most strongly impacted, but Venus is a personal sign ruling our relationships/money/self-esteem, EVERYONE will feel this one. 

 

So, when Venus goes INTO Capricorn - and this is in play as I post this - tradition/nostalgia will become a focus - maybe the way something has always been done. This doesn't mean we have to continue doing things the way we've always done them, but these things will come to our attention now. We get more serious about money. Our careers/the way we show up in the world. Our reputation, Our authority. We get more serious about love, too. If something isn't going anywhere, this can be the transit we cut it loose. Our focus returns to what is real. We attract stability and longer lasting success/love/money by finishing what we start and honoring our commitments.

 

While Venus stations retrograde, we will be re-thinking this whole boss-girl thing. Maybe the way we value ourselves, and other people, only when we/they are being productive/working. The whole 'feeling we have to earn love' is very Venus in Capricorn, so maybe now we are rethinking this. Old situations where we worked too hard/not hard enough or where we didn't quite measure up will be re-hashed in our heads. Again think - young woman in her father's house.

 

During Venus retrograde we will be doing the "re's" (re-do, re-assess, re-value, re-connect, etc) with Venusian themes - women, beauty, art, love, money, our resources, our values and self-esteem. Someone from our past could re-appear. An old way of making art or love or money could re-appear. A situation we have been through before with Cappy themes could reappear. We will be "reviewing" what we value. In Cappy, this will also play out through your natal Capricorn house theme and the collective themes of - our career, the way we show up in the world, the way we deal with authority/step into our own, our commitments, our fathers, our paternal heritage, our karma, our goals, our reputation.

 

This time period will be asking us, through the situations that transpire/the people who show up - to re-look at how we are investing our time, energy, and resources.

 

With Venus meeting Pluto multiple times, some things will not be coming with us ...

 

 During this cycle Venus is going to meet Pluto three times. So, although a Venus retrograde in Cappy has a Venus/Saturn (ruler of Capricorn) flavor - this one will also have a strongly Venus/Pluto vibe.

 

Venus stations retrograde attached at the hip to powerful Pluto. Merge/purge. Scorpian themes are pulled into the Venus/Cappy mix. So, this is almost like two transits - the Venus/Saturn (Venus in Cappy retrograde answering to Saturn) and the Venus/Pluto. 

 

With Venus/Pluto, things can feel very life and death - whether or not they actually are, this is all designed to show us clearly WHAT WE REALLY VALUE. There could be a death - figurative or literal. An ending. An inheritance situation. A tax situation. A loan situation. Intimacy issues. Reproduction issues. Obsession, compulsion, manipulation, power plays.

Venus/Pluto always makes me think of the way a caterpillar turns into a butterfly - it's fun and educational for kids to watch the chrysalis inside one of those net/cage thinga-ma-jigs, but wouldn't be so much fun for them if they could see what was actually happening INSIDE that chrysalis.

 

This part gets gross, so skip this paragraph if you've just stuffed yourself with all those holiday cookies that didn't look good enough to gift .. with Venus/Pluto we are the caterpillar who is digesting herself into the butterfly. 

 

I wrote about my own Venus/Pluto transit a few years ago (back when Pluto was in Sagittarius and met three times over two years with my natal Venus which is on the Galactic Center). The next couple months is kind of a mini-collective version of that. We have transiting Venus back and forth over Pluto. I had transiting Pluto back and forth over Venus - a much longer/intense/dark night of the soul transit. 

 

It's not the same, but there are similarities, so I'll unpack it a little at the bottom of this post.

 

You probably won't be dealing with things exactly like these, but this might give you a feeling for the kind of 'flavor' Venus/Pluto can bring. Secrets, buried truths. Intimacy issues. Merged money issues. Life/death. There is an intensity.

 

Once Venus stations retrograde on December 19th, the energetic flow is more about the re's. Re-turning to something (sometimes someone) we once loved (this might not be a lasting thing), re-assessing our work in the world/our career, etc. Starting something brand new isn't favored until Venus stations direct on January 29th. We would be swimming against the tides here. Sometimes this can't be helped and we just have to go into the "new" knowing there will be re-visions, etc, later. Venus rules beauty, and in Cappy, we might be feeling tired/older - it still could be best to save any major makeovers until she stations direct, especially if it's a radical change not easily "tweaked" later, if what we want changes.

 

That 26 degree Cappy will be strongly hit by the Venus/Pluto and the 11 degree Cappy ultra potent for CHANGE. Venus will trine Uranus from 11 degrees AND the final Saturn/Uranus square on Christmas Eve is 11 degrees Aquarius/Taurus. So, the number 11 is hot, hot, hot.

 

Also when Venus stations retrograde, Juno is going to be at the "about to get hot" 11 degrees Cappy. This is about marriage/serious commitments and contracts and she will have multiple meetings with Venus as this stuff gets re-looked at in BIG ways. Another indication this Venus retrograde needs to be taken seriously.

Some good news for Venus in Cappy is she (as we) is going to sextile (opportunity) Neptune in Pisces. First on January 5th while retrograde and then again toward the end of February after she meets with Mars and he meets with Neptune. Cappy/Pisces is 'making the dream real' energy and activated during this transit. This, plus upcoming aspects with Jupiter let us know once we get PAST THE DEATH (Pluto), there is ALOT to look forward to!!

 

We'll talk more about all this as we get closer, and we'll also look at the ways Venus is interacting with the "time runs out" degree of 2020 in part II - there are REAL reasons to believe the virus's latest variant is a good thing (no matter what the fear-mongering media is saying). 

 

We'll have a Full Moon in Gemini the day before Venus stations with the Sun on the Galactic Center and Chiron changing direction, so we've got some shifting ground to cover before the Venus retro. 

 

Also during the Venus retro, the nodes will move into Taurus/Scorpio appointing Venus our North Star - think GPS destination point here. I am going to write about the Taurus/Scorpio next because that's a collective BIGGIE and, although it doesn't start until January, happening in our money houses - and involving Venus and Pluto, too - it is reinforcing the retro energies AND it can pay off (ka-ching) to start thinking about this sooner instead of later. 

 

Hope something here is helpful. We'll talk about it as we get closer, too. 

 

Here's a little rundown of themes by house. This area of life will be familiar to you because it was uber activated for a couple years when it was all Cappy all the time. This is approx 11-26 degrees Cappy, so could be more than one house in your chart. You can also check this chart for your Sun sign house to factor that in.

CAPRICORN RISING - 1st house Capricorn - our identity, actually our heroic quest for identity
SAGITTARIUS RISING - 2nd house Capricorn - (one of Venus's natural houses) our values, our resources, our money, our self-esteem
SCORPIO RISING - 3rd house Capricorn - communication, information, writing, doing multiple things at once, siblings, community, transportation, tech, commerce
LIBRA RISING - 4th house Capricorn - our roots, home, family, security, home-business, family-business
VIRGO RISING - 5th house Capricorn - self-expression, creativity, romance, children
LEO RISING - 6h house Capricorn - work, health, service, pets, daily obligations
CANCER RISING - 7th house Capricorn - (one of Venus's natural houses) partnerships
GEMINI RISING - 8th house Capricorn - merging/purging, other people's resources, taxes, inheritance, secrets, life/death, sex, spouse's income
TAURUS RISING - 9th house Capricorn - travel, higher education, publishing, religion, beliefs, wedding, legal issues, politics
ARIES RISING - 10th house Capricorn - profession, vocation, goals, public life
PISCES RISING - 11th house Capricorn - the goals that bring us into connection with others, friendships, causes, networks, the internet
AQUARIUS - 12th house Capricorn - things done last, things forgotten and put away, imagination, healing, spirit, addictions

xo all

(copied and pasted from an old post about my Venus/Pluto cray-cray)

For me this transit turned on like someone had flipped a switch in me as Pluto moved within orb and turned off just as quickly when he moved out. This process took a couple years. You can only have one Pluto transit like this in your lifetime and many people never have one (Pluto moves very slowly and may not contact your natal Venus degree during your lifetime). My Venus being in a fire sign in my 2nd house certainly exacerbated the whole thing.

During that transit - some minor Pluto passions stirred - I started reading true crime books, sorting out the family finances, got into Bitcoin (this was early in and I could have made a mint if I stuck around, I did make some bucks) and renovating my bathrooms. I fell more deeply in love with astrology which I consider Uranian, but is Plutonian, too. Textbook Pluto stuff.

 

The big thing that happened though - I became obsessed with my husband. Strangely obsessed. Venus rules my 7th (partners) and 12th houses (past life/ancestral story-lines, etc). I felt jealous/consumed. I never felt like this before/don't think I'd want to feel like this again. Our physical relationship got crazy intense. This made him very happy ... until it didn't. Being an Aquarian Sun with an Aries Moon he needs his space and I was, quite unconsciously, always there.
  

Afterwards, I had hard-earned a very real understanding of the kind of intensity/passion that I (also being a detached/in my head Aquarius) had never experienced - the kind that drives people nuts. I understand totally why my soul chose this experience and am grateful, although at the time it was a kind of agony of vulnerability. I understand people's obsessions in a deeper, more personal way now. 

 
In more recent years, hubs had a Pluto transit/conjunction to his natal Venus. His is in Capricorn. Venus rules his natal 2nd house (money, resources, possessions) and 9th house (expansion/freedom/over-doing, etc). He did not get obsessed with me - no lessons left for either of us there I guess - DAMMIT. But he did get obsessed with the idea of purchasing quite an expensive object. Two of them actually. First a boat purchased at auction after Hurricane Sandy, (surreptitiously with joint finances, all very Plutonian) that he proceeded to secretly rehab for a year. We had it in the water for one amazing summer, but only sporadically after that. He has a million excuses about why this is, but the truth is his longings and affections had by then moved on to object number two. Which he proceeded to purchase, again secretly with joint finances, after spending hundreds of hours researching (I am probably not exaggerating/might be a bit) on the internet. This time his "longing/compulsion with having" ended almost instantly upon purchase because the transit ended that very week. Luckily we sold it and didn't lose much money, but the second purchase created big-time trust issues between us. It's kind of amazing neither of our Pluto transits split us up. Pluto rules third party situations and this stuff gets trickier when other people are pulled into the mix - that didn't happen with us. I'll give astrology, and my transit coming first, some of the credit for us outlasting the intensity, but when I tell you things had to come back from the dead, I am not kidding.

Asking yourself during this transit - why do I want this? why I am obsessing over this? why am I jealous? am I trying to manipulate/control something/someone? is someone controlling me?

With Pluto we have to accept the death/what we have lost/the ending and claim the real power we gain through the loss - which, yes, might look like ownership of some pretty barren landscape for a while ... but, this is Capricorn - GIVE IT TIME.

artwork by the talented SillyJellie

Today's astrology Forecast | Thursday, December 9th, 2021 (plus Friday the 10th) - moving with the moon

 

 

The next couple days are all about our beloved Luna. 

 

TODAY - our waxing crescent Moon is finishing up in Aquarius - we are nurtured/nourished by change, the future, doing something different, unusual people and situations, our groups and causes, astrology, intellect, detaching emotionally from hot button situations. She meets up with Jupiter at 3:52AM EST and then goes void off a square to Mars at 4:59AM EST. That closing square could make us antsy, easily annoyed/angered or, since it follows the Jupiter conjunction add to our enthusiasm/get us really fired up. Watch for tendencies to take on too much now, act impulsively or over-react.

She will be void until she moves into Pisces at 9:53AM EST. 

 

In Pisces, we are nurtured/nourished by our imagination, spirituality, art, music, going with the flow. Our boundaries are more porous, so we are more likely to pick up other people's moods, thoughts, colds. She will square the North/South Nodes (Gemini/Sagittarius) and then go on to square Ceres backtracking through Gemini.

Squares to the Nodes speak of decision points. The Moon is our emotional compass, so what will make us feel better? Choices between the past and the future come into play. The North Node is still in Gemini, answering to Mercury and home to that retrograde Ceres. So, the way forward involves information, communication, staying flexible, keeping options open, thinking local and detailed. With Ceres activated situations involving mothering, seasons of life and things that are out of our control and require compromise might come to our attention. The Moon in Pisces wants to feel her way through whatever this is/use our intuition, but the North Node (our best way forward) is requiring logic/details. Ask questions. Stay open to new ideas/fresh intel. Keep things small and local.

TOMORROW - the Moon continues her journey through loving, but sometimes confusing/draining Pisces. She sextiles a retrograde Uranus at 6:21AM EST - time to do something differently or different - then reaches her first quarter square at 8:35PM EDT squaring the Sagittarius Sun and finally meets Pisces ruler Neptune at 10:50PM. 

At the first quarter Moon we face our New Moon's first tension/frustration. Pisces/Sag squares can bring a required sacrifice or test of faith. Beliefs can dissolve. Our hopes/plans for more can come up against our escapist tendencies (sometimes just exhaustion). Squares in Pisces are intended to enable release, so what will escape if we just open our fingers a tiny little bit? Are we able to let that go? This can also be about getting over an obstacle/closer to that greener grass over there by eliminating escape/distractions. The follow-up meeting to Neptune is good for creative work, healing, compassion, charity work, connecting with the past (is anyone else loving the Beatles documentary) and REST.

xo all - back tomorrow with the Venus retrograde post

artwork by the amazing moonywolf