Note, Planet Waves Daily Astrology will be off Monday. We will be back Tuesday. Also we will be updating some of our other features through the weekend, though today’s weekend astrology post may appear at the top of the page display for a while. Check below for new posts. Happy holiday.
Today is Friday, Dec. 23, 2011. The waning Moon is in Sagittarius, on its way to the Capricorn New Moon on Saturday. Before we get there, however, the Moon crosses several high-energy points in Sagittarius, which may have you feeling on edge or feeling like you’re about to go out of control. If you’re feeling that way, take a breath and notice that if an astrology website was able to make that statement accurately, maybe it’s not just you.
The Moon square Mars in Virgo, and crossing over a hot collection of points (centaurs, the North Node, the Galactic Core) in a hot sign (Sagittarius is definitely hot), is a factor to consider. Combined with the pressure of the holidays and the short, dark days here in the Northern Hemisphere, this setup may be stirring up issues involving anger, impatience and frustration.
There is a planet in the alignment (Pholus) that says alcohol is a dangerous ingredient to add to that particular emotional brew, if you’re feeling it. Some are figuring out that it’s okay to back off on the ‘festivities’ — and the economic crunch may be facilitating that, and so is common sense. Still, the planets are offering a cautionary note not to drink alcohol if you are not already in a good mood, and to stop the moment you feel any form of depression or anger coming on. If you notice any such feeling, put down your drink and get a glass of water. You will start to feel better.
Once the Moon clears Sagittarius on Saturday, it enters Capricorn, which will have a cooling effect — though there is an aspect to Uranus, the planet of surprises, which may not help bringing the temperature down; you will have to do that (a wake-up call of some kind may help), and you can. Note that a lot of family-related fears, concerns or past issues may be coming up and serving as a point of anxiety if you’re planning to see your relatives over the holiday, or even if you’re not going to. Work out those feelings in advance, or at least give them a voice somehow. The recent eclipse and Mercury retrograde brought losses of loved ones to many families. Stay with your feelings and memories — that is fully appropriate for where you’re at.
At least on the regular affairs of our eventful lives, New Moon offers some sense of closure and a chance to set new intentions and move on. As the weekend passes you may have the feeling of coming through some rough spots and then out of the woods.
This is a lonely time of year for many who feel left out of the festivities, who are far from loved ones or who have to work during the holiday. Remember, you’re not alone. And your observation that certain aspects of the holiday season are overdone or downright obscene is not your imagination acting up. While it may be easier if you have a job to do, if you’re not with family or friends, consider who you might call up. There will be someone. Nobody likes knowing that anyone is left out.
Or take the day and do something you really like. At least through the weekend the frantic pace of life will slow down a little bit. If you have any sort of spiritual practice, there are strong signals coming through on the non-physical level, and many are offering information about healing, in particular, healing family patterns. The way you would tap in is through meditation or quiet reflection. Even 15 minutes or an hour’s worth will help.
Current astrology — and world events — might offer you permission to be more sincere than usual if you’re around your relatives. At least you can survey the human landscape of your family with a little more clarity about who is who and what they really have going on. Part of the struggle with family involves how different they feel from us, which may be followed up by the lurking sense that maybe we’re not that different from them. This is less of a paradox than it may seem. Distinguishing yourself from people you don’t see eye to eye with calls for some extra honesty with yourself, and noticing when your feelings go into robot mode.
There is one particularly beautiful aspect blended with the New Moon, which is the Sun sextile both Chiron and Vesta in Pisces. This means that for whatever comes up today, there is likely a solution at hand, it is likely to provide (and reward) creativity, and it is likely to benefit from some devotion paid to giving it some space. Chiron can bring up problems we have thought about before, though we may not have finalized the process of solving and healing.
Yet with Pisces involved — and with the help of Vesta — remember that the solution to whatever you’re working out is likely to have a creative element, and benefit from empathy. And Vesta says make room for yourself and your feelings.
Lending a hand with that is Jupiter stationing direct in Taurus on Sunday for the first time since it went retrograde Aug. 30. That is making the spiritual energy of Sagittarius and Pisces (the signs of Jupiter) more accessible in a tangible way. In particular it’s a message about applying creativity and love to the world’s very much retrograde financial conditions.
One the eve of this end-of-year holiday, look back for a moment on what an intense, eventful, challenging year this has been. Many people are rating 2011 the worst year of their lives, some are saying it was the worst year ever for natural disasters and it was a horrid year in politics. But some energy is stirring in the form of actual objection to the way things are going on the planet. We are at the point where something has to give. If you are feeling that in your own life, ask the old question, “what gives?” sincerely and you may just get an answer.
Looking for insights on how this week’s astrology affects your personal Sun and rising signs? Try out Planet Waves Light, our streamlined horoscope service. For deeper cultural context and astrological investigation, the premium Planet Waves subscription includes the same horoscopes, plus extensively-researched articles on Fridays.
Woo hoo, Amanda! Envious! I love seafood and I’m so sorry it doesn’t love me back. 🙂
aaaaaaaaaaaaaand: i have fresh squid!!! woohoo!
as in, fresh-off-the-boat-at-noon squid!
of course, this means extra time cleaning the darn things (beaks, ink sacs, speckled skin, little round sucker scales)…….. and i have yet to decorate the tree i’ve had for a week now………….
but: fresh squid for tomorrow night!
My sister’s kitchen is alive with the smells of ginger, rice, mung beans and chicken soup simmering on the stove.
Tonight, we expect the temperatures to hit the 30s, which by East Coast standards is far milder than what we Californians are used to. We’ve got firewood stacked up and ready to go.
We’re getting ourselves settled in for a night at home, cuddling warm with the straightforward and humble foods from our mother’s native place of Northern Luzon. It’s a lot more spartan there than in central Philippines, therefore, the food is more simple, basic – chicken, mung beans rice porridge, ginger garlic, sauteed mushrooms, greens and rice.
Tonight is a remembrance of my parents culture, our roots, and the kids love the security of these familiar tastes and smells. This last year, three major women in our family underwent health scares: my sister’s five-hour spinal repair surgery in July, my unanticipated bleeding in early Autumn, and my sister’s mother-in-law being brought back by family effort from the brink of suicide because she was too afraid of dying on the operating table from much needed and well-established surgical procedures that would save her life in a pinch. My nephew’s girlfriend dumped him coldly, while my niece challenged the status quo and moved herself out of her parent’s home up to the Bay Area.
This Christmas all is well. We looked into each other’s faces last night and realized what a long road we’ve traveled. My Cancer niece is officially in love with her boyfriend, my Aries nephew getting ready to come up to SF to go to grad school in industrial design, and I am at the ready to be Cool Aunt +, and working on a book with my long-time collaborator and best friend.
It feels as though this time our little world went through fierce transition. But we made it through, all of us. So happy that this little corner of the world, at this moment redolent of ginger and soon-to-be of sauteed garlic and collard greens is restoring itself during tonight’s long winter chill. I am grateful we are here, all of us. We are here for each other.
A happy late Solstice, ongoing Hanukka, or an early fish-oriented, usurped pagan holiday, to all (take your pick!). What was it Homer Simpson said, “Happy Chrismakka?”
Good words today, to heed and remember this weekend. So much is swirling about, like leaves in a winter wind, that taking time out to contemplate the future seems difficult – yet not so when one considers that time now seems less fixed. I’ll take a stretchy piece this weekend when I can and certainly again before year’s end.
Love to all.
Be, thank you for all your posts this year. That Gemini south node has been conjunct my liliths quite a while, and conjunct my tertiary progressed sun. I’ve created my share of the chaos – but then it it’s always something. I will be gone from my work situation when all hell breaks loose. I read part of the China story you mentioned yesterday -holy cow. The coming year may just be amazing.
As the holiday season gets into full swing, and the year draws to a close, I, too, would like to extend my sincere love and gratitude to everyone at Planet Waves — writer-contributors and reader-contributors and those readers who are silent, but no less present. This is an exceptional blog, and I truly feel at home here. Thank you from my heart to yours!
— Sarah
Well, Amanda, maybe that does just have something to do with it! Trans. Mercury conjunct your Neptune might also cause some guilty thinking. I usually come away with a sense of being reminded that I’m not so in control when those two get together in my chart. Also, that somehow the Universe seems to always provide the help necessary to fix the problem I created. Merry Christmas to you and much love. be
I have learned a great amount studying Planet Waves articles and podcasts, which I found very informative, as a student and also in my personal life; they have given me guidance and direction on many days. I found them deep, but also easily accessible to a beginner. I have been much impressed, by the integrity and quality of the material channelled by Eric and his colleagues contributors, regarding astrology and all the other topics too.
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I’d like to take the opportunity to thank you , for all your wonderful work at disseminating clarity and wisdom, in a time when events can be confusing and for being pioneers of a new kind of journalism, where information is given in a balanced and very generous way.
“So for the next few days we are being advised (by the moon’s node) to base our future plans on past experience and results.”
i wish that sounded encouraging to me right now! but given how fraught my yesterday was with poor judgment resulting in extra difficulty and stress for others and myself, i’m feeling some trepidation. it seemed like every time i made a decision with what felt like responsibility, clarity and absolutely *no* weird sense of doubt or intuitive tug at all, it ended up being drastically wrong.
i did notice that transiting Mercury was conj my Neptune exactly all day, so maybe that has something to do with it. but i’m still at a loss as to what lesson to take away from it, given the utter lack of intuitive warnings that i can sometimes see in hindsight.
anyway — thank you to everyone for reading, for sharing and for being part of this community we have here. and thank you to eric for reworking this post mightily after my apparently misguided attempt.
have a great weekend everyone, and if you celebrate christmas, may it be bright with love.
Amanda: Your winter-in-Maine photographs find where i live and knock on the door. Thank you.
Dear Daily Astrology,
What gives? Well, the south node for one thing. Releasing stuff means giving it away. . maybe giving it back to the universe or giving it new life or just giving it to the Salvation Army. Thank goodness at the end of the month the south node will finally be leaving the 14+ Gemini degree where it has been since before Halloween. All that time it has been conjunct the Transneptunian Object Chaos. No kidding.
On the other hand/end, the north node at 14+ Sagittarius will be leaving for the 13+ degree of Sagittarius, so I took a look at what Dane Rudhyer had to say about where it still is today. The Sabian Symbol is of the ground hog looking for its shadow on Ground-hog Day, February 2. D.R. says of this “The value of anticipating new turns of events and ascertaining future prospects.” Isn’t that wonderful? Doesn’t it sound perfect for the end of 2011?
Here’s what else he says. . . ” In our modern industrial society where policy changes and decisions often take several years to reach full actulization, it has become essential to plan with an eye on probable future developments. [whatever that could possibly mean!] Such planning requires a study of past trends and the extrapolation of the results. What above all is implied in the symbol is a sensitivity to social or planetary rhythms, and the need to ensure at least relative safety by planning ahead.”
So for the next few days we are being advised (by the moon’s node) to base our future plans on past experience and results, and remember this symbol is about the Ground Hog Day itself, and not the movie. This advice seems to gel with your caution about drinking, as past experiences tell us to go easy. Also, you know your family and friends, so take a hint from past experience and outcomes when you are with them to “ensure at least ‘relative’ safety”. (Couldn’t wait to use that!)
And let go of as much of the chaos as you can. Clear the air (Gemini) and prepare for the separation from all the confusion that has been nagging you for the last 2 months. Now THAT’S something I can drink to!
be
mary: Finding myself very touched by your comments. Those keys to the art studio might very well be the key to more. Thank you and may the next few days bring the peace of mind represented by your dove.
Huffy: You are most welcome. May the holiday season bring you the same blessings your words have brought me. Thanks for the dose of Animal as well.
Thank you for a Daily Astrology blog that nourished us with the information we need to take care of ourselves this weekend.
For me, I’ve got myself this wid open space this weekend, forgoing the family crazy as I’ve managed to do many times in the past. I seem to find a way to soak up all kinds of seasonal music and, as it turns out, I was given a key to the art studio full of paints and brushes and wonderful devotional vibes.
In addition to the christmas music, I’m a crazy lover of christmas cards. I keep them and look through them as I (sometimes) send out. This year I was taken with this beautiful rendering of a dove carrying an olive branch, which I’ve painted again and again and again. I now have this painting hanging over my bed, have another for my brother and sister-in-law and another for my pal who may come over for a visit this evening. Wouldn’t you know it but the card was the very last card sent to me from my father … (“ed”) … a very troubled relationship to say the least. I enjoy the opportunity to see this energy of spirit offering me and my father peace, years after he passed on.
Love to you all, Eric & Amanda & Len … and be … and everyone who takes time out to share their spirit with me here.
mary
I tried to think of a quick sound bite for 2012…
all I could come up with was ‘Game Changer’
Eric,
When time permits, I read your articles – but whenever I am feeling overwhelmed by the energies that are swirling around me, I make a point to read your post for the day. Amazingly, you are seemingly and incredibly spot on. Today’s energy is wrought with heaviness and negativity, but it is comforting to know that this is not all in my head and this too shall pass. I consider you and your writing my “astrological compass” during times such as these. Also, I want to thank you for the warning re alcohol. During intense astrological weather, it’s so easy for some of us to pick up a cocktail to try and take the edge off of such hard core emotional transitions. Bless you for this insight. It will help carry me (and I suspect many others) into the weekend and the Holiday. 2011 came in like a lion and it looks as though it will be leaving as a lion as well.
Namaste,
Virgo – 9/20/64
tender article today, thanks so much!
2011 for me had a fair amount of internal tension, culmination, and a kind of penultimate release. Saturn in my 12th was the landscape in which I experienced my exact Pluto square, the eclipses in my shared psychic energy house, and this current “residue work” of Neptune in Aquarius cleaning up issues with my family and my roots. The actual release? Do I even get there? I’m not sure. There is always another stage of growth. For now, the horizon feels warmer, more full of potential and self empowerment than ever before in my life. I look forward to sharing that warmth in the small capacity I may have.
Happy Weekend!
HS
Vis a vis alcohol, I just did a missing persons case involving two guys who went driving off on an ATV in California at 2:30 Sunday morning, and never came back. The Mars square Pholus aspect was very close, and Mars was prominent in the horary chart I used to do the case. While I don’t predict death (certainly not to the search and rescue team for whom I was asked to do the reading) it was pretty clear that they were dead and that alcohol was involved. They were found yesterday, having driven off a 500-foot cliff at Cuddeback Lake, a dry lake. Autopsies are pending. I will be interested to see the BACs for both young men (they were experienced local driers in their late 20s). Mars-Pholus is still ‘in the mix’ this weekend and I suggest being extremely careful with alcohol and driving, including keeping an eye on other drivers, and planning routes and driving times carefully.
Thank you dear ones, for this beautiful. timely and sensitive blog. I closed the working year with an unpleasant encounter with my boss, which was just more of the same – more of how things have been for a long time now. It left a feeling of anxiety and slight depression – of carrying on the same old story into 2012. And yet I’m determined to break out of that pattern – and I know that my boss is a manifestation of “my life story”, that I’m slowly clearing. But how I would love to say her “Be gone, before somebody drops a house on you!” Anyway, am off to see the wizard now (the folks back home) – happily, a lot of stuff HAS been cleared there. Thank you for everything, Eric , Amanda, Len, and all you wonderful PW writers. And a very Happy Christmas to you and my lovely fellow readers and posters. Here’s a Chrstmas carol Ă la Animal. Liz xxxxx
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ysIzPF3BfpQ