If we feel that we have been spinning our wheels, this December could have us moving forward and progressing with our interests. There is a great deal of movement this month as three planets turn from retrograde to direct motion — Uranus on the 10th, Mercury on the 13th and Jupiter on the 25th. During this entire month, we also have an Earth Grand Trine, which we have been experiencing since the second week of November. Our ability to be productive, get things done and accomplish a great deal can be extremely strong, just so long as we focus our attention and not get diverted by superfluous distractions.
Even though times may be tense and stressful, with releases of the past necessary to engage the future unencumbered, this month we can celebrate the spirit of the season — the birthing of the light — and commit to our own personal journey of self en-lightenment.
We may feel a new day dawning as we begin the month. We might not be as enmeshed in the craziness that seems to be going on in the world and in many people’s lives. Perhaps we have grown used to it. Possibly, we are closing ourselves off to it and focusing instead on the sparkling radiance of people, situations and incidents happening in our own lives. We might even be more aware and mindful of the mini-miracles occurring frequently to us, those little glimmers of good fortune and manifest blessings that increasingly come our way. Whatever it might be, we start the month with hope and wonder.
Being the holiday season, we can be reaching out to friends and family, making our connections and even reconnecting with people with whom we may have lost touch during our hurly-burly days. Our sense of prospects and possibilities may be strong and we might be looking at what could be and even acknowledging situations that in earlier days we would have cast off as impossibilities, now seen as having real potential. The world is changing. Our personal world is changing.
Although we can be infused with enthusiasm and exuberance, we also have to avoid glossing over details and assuming that our confidence will tide us over any difficulties and make everything all right. Especially during the first week of December, we could have more going on than we might be able to effectively handle. We could feel energized, but we are also liable to be impetuous and hasty in our thoughts and in our actions.
Holiday shopping can be a frenzy, and it would be wise for us to keep a rein on our expenditures. We may find some incredible bargains, but it would be wise for us to be discerning and selective in our purchases.
The 10th of December has a Total Lunar Eclipse at the time of the Gemini Full Moon and with Uranus just having turned direct, ending its five month retrograde cycle. Change is not only in the air. Change is in play. Changes can occur regarding our thoughts, our belief systems, our relationships and even where we are, with getting out of Dodge in order to have a fresh perspective a top priority. We do have to realize that like the Hindu goddess Kali change can be wild and uncontrollable. Change, once unleashed and set into motion, may have its own trajectory and incorporates the law of unintended consequences. We may all want changes to our life, but I would suggest we keep in mind the writing of George Bernard Shaw in Man and Superman: “There are two tragedies in life. One is not to get your heart’s desire. The other is to get it.”
We may be feeling expansive and ready to engage new and different activities. But even if we initiate new projects, let’s try and maintain due diligence in the overview and concentration on the specifics. Otherwise, we could have a tendency to start off with great expectations, only to find ourselves glossing over important factors and skipping essential details.
With Uranus turning direct on the 10th and Mercury turning direct on the 13th, there can be issues with travel, communications, computers and unexpected variables, all of which could create problems. What is being told to us might not be the truth or the whole truth. Everyone might be a little self-absorbed, easy to self-justify and prone to cut corners. Let’s remember that during these times, the notion of ‘what goes around comes around’ is not some eventuality, but often an instantaneous hit on the backside.
The mid-part of the month can be filled with holiday parties. Although we may have work to attend to, our interest might lie more with social get-togethers, holiday festivals and a general enjoyment of the spectacles of the season.
Towards the latter part of the month, the sales marketing jingles and the cash register jangles may ring up a tendency for us to overspend. We might feel obliged to get something for everyone and we could easily get swept up in a holiday buying frenzy.
We may feel in something of a whipsaw of emotions as we reconnect with our past, yet look enticingly towards our future. While we may feel obligated, even restricted, by elements of our past, we could also use such feelings as an indication of some of the changes we have gone through on an internal level. Let’s keep in mind that everything begins in the abstract with the concept, the intention, the impulse, the seed. Eventually, force takes form, the internal manifests on the external. And so it is for us leading up to Christmas. We may revisit the ghosts of our past, yet long for the externalized change of our future.
Christmas week is a busy week with two Sign changes as Venus enters Aquarius on the 20th and the Winter Solstice on the 21st-22nd as the Sun enters Capricorn. We also have Jupiter turning direct on Christmas Day.
Before Venus enters Aquarius, while still transiting Capricorn, Venus squares Saturn on the 18th. Duties and responsibilities could be foremost in our mind as we pay deference to our past and to connections that are more social obligations than desired interactions. But any reconnections may provide us a mirror to see where we are now versus where we have been.
Certainly, this Christmas week will be replete with Dickens’ concept of Ebenezer Scrooge in A Christmas Carol as we visit incidents, connections and circumstances of our past, our present and our future — all in the NOW.
We may feel pulled in various directions during this Christmas week and there is the energy to match it. On Sunday, the 18th, Venus squares Saturn. On the 19th, the Sun sextiles Saturn. On the 20th, the Sun sextiles Neptune and Venus enters Aquarius where it squares Jupiter. Venus sextiles Uranus on the 21st and the Winter Solstice with the Sun entering Capricorn occurs late on the 21st, early on the 22nd. As the Sun enters Capricorn, the Sun trines Jupiter and squares Uranus on the 22nd. The Capricorn New Moon occurs on the 24th and Jupiter turns direct on the 25th. It’s an energetic week, and one when we may question whether we are coming or going but obviously knowing that we are in swift movement.
The Winter Solstice is indicative in the Northern Latitudes of the birth of the Sun, for this day is the day of greatest darkness before the Sun moves north increasing daylight, day by day increasing in light until we get to the Summer Solstice. This birth of the Sun is also symbolized in Christian theology with the celebrated birth of Jesus, the birth of the Son of God. For each of us, the Winter Solstice speaks to a birthing period, although we tend to see the celebration of the New Year as being the time of out with the old, in with the new. A ritual, gesture or acknowledgment at the time of the Winter Solstice is also a way for us to spiritually engage our own rebirthing, our birthing anew, which is especially punctuated during this time of paradigm shift.
While change is definitely in play, it would also be wise for us to realize that things can change in a nanosecond. Even our plans can go awry, due to unexpected variables. This is a time for us to be nimble and quick and to always check and recheck the parameters, the conditions and the circumstances in which we find ourselves moving. And, of course, it is essential for us to embrace a new way of being — accepting ourselves as co-creators with the universe unfolding and letting go of our sense of control over all situations, our belief that we alone can make things happen. Liberating in deed but also possibly scary as we let go the reins of our assumed control and acknowledge the magic of being open and receptive to the natural unfolding with its moments of serendipity and its incidents of synchronicity.
The end of the month may seem quieter, and certainly quieter than Christmas week. We could use this time to rest up, recharge our batteries and tie up loose ends of the year that we might want to bring to closure before we come into the new year of 2012.
The 29th has the Sun conjunct Pluto and during this time we could be quite incisive regarding what we need to be rid of and what we need to focus on. It would be a good time for us to make our resolutions, our resolve to concentrate on the most meaningful, substantial and essential in our lives and to let go of the dross, the outmoded, the dysfunctional and the no longer relevant.
We are at a threshold crossing, and each of us can determine how and when we make the crossing. And during this process, we can even choose to step forward and to step back. We do not have to make all our changes in one fell swoop. We may make them incrementally and like building a suspension bridge we can put the slats and the ingredients of our future down as we go back and forth between our intended future and our recent past.
December 2011… engaging the spirit of the season soulfully.
