Well, here we are – last month of the year, and certainly not going out with a whimper. Of course the excitement of last month continues with Mars stoking up Saturn, Mars and Pluto. The pepper spray incident in the USA, plus the shenanigans in Syria, the public workers strike in UK, the impending collapse of the Eurozone, plus several earthquakes across the globe are all examples of what I predicted.
This month there’s more of the same influence, PLUS the last lunar eclipse of the year, AND the winter Solstice! Who ever said astrology’s not exciting???
The violence and public unrest will continue, there will be stronger feelings of injustice as authorities attempt to keep control, but remember, ‘The government should be afraid of the people’. The UK riots are now revealed as being a back-lash against the police, who have gradually lost the respect of many people. I was brought up to believe that “A policeman is your friend” I cannot say that it is one of my continuing beliefs. Certainly the scene of a battle dressed policeman discharging a pepper spray canister directly into the faces of peaceful protesters sitting in a line shocked the world. However it simply broadcast what people already knew – the police were easily capable and willing to commit thuggery. European police forces should take heed.
The Full Moon in Gemini falls on the 10th during the afternoon, and the eclipse can be seen just after Moon Rise between 5 – 5.30. Eclipses have a lasting effect – around six months for a lunar event. The Moon is in Gemini – so communication and technology is the theme. The two factors which make this one special is that Mars in Virgo is square the Moon and Sun, suggesting that some very precise (Virgo) but compulsive (Mars) words will be voiced. The Moon is in the second house of wealth, so I think we shall hear some hard home truths about economies in general. Standing in the wings at the moment of the eclipse is Uranus in Aries. Not simply Uranus, but Uranus stationary! Standing still, focussed, staring at what’s happening…… Uranus the ‘bolt of lightning’ effect…. But fortunately Uranus is in the 11th house of society and good fortune. Maybe there will be a sudden (Uranus) societal reaction to world events, and maybe some will be compulsive (Mars), but there will be ‘gifts from the King’ as the textbooks say, from that 11th house – and I think that will be more than just Santa Claus! Problem is with Uranus, we must always expect the unexpected, but at least there’s some good news for the months to come. Remember – eclipses have a 6 months influence!
And the Solstice! Normally the major event of December, but somewhat overawed this year by the powerful planetary activities. The shortest day, the day when the Sun enters Capricorn, the Solstice was celebrated by Pagans and Druids as the promise of the Cosmos that darkness would fall no more, and light would return. It is a new beginning – almost like a New Moon, but the Solstice marks the New Year, the darkest moment after which everything gets better. A time for celebration indeed! So, be awake at 06.30 on the 22nd and join me in quiet contemplation of the coming year. I know some will say that New Year is the rollover from December to January, but that’s only because the church and the Romans fiddled the calendars, but the Holly and the Ivy, plus the Mistletoe bear witness to the Pagan and Druid origins of the season.
There’s more to tell from the Solstice chart, but I’ll keep that ‘til next week – until then, on with the daily transits.
30 Nov 2011 to 02 Dec 2011 Venus Conjunction Pluto: Compulsive desire is all the rage, and some people are ready to go to any ends to get what they want. Gotta, gotta, have it, whatever the price anyone pays. So, be sure that you don’t get in between the desirer and the desiree. On the other hand, this is the aspect of unbearably overwhelming passion when put into effect.
30 Nov 2011 to 04 Dec 2011 Sun Square Mars: There is a grating quality to the moment that smells of friction and wasted energy. This can come from needless repetition that overheats the system or from backing and filling because of taking hasty aim. Lessons learned now will be valuable, but get them under your belt before you make final decisions.
03 Dec 2011 to 04 Dec 2011 Mercury Conjunction Sun: High mental energy burns hot, a real brain boiler. The trick is to keep up with everyone without missing a stitch or dropping the ball. Great ideas abound, but don’t buy everything you see until you give it a second, cooler look. Everyone can be too close to the subject to realize that what recommends it is only the heat of the moment.
04 Dec 2011 to 05 Dec 2011 Mercury Square Mars: The seemingly best ideas can get tangled indeed when they are not implemented correctly, and correcting that can be a tangle in itself. Thrashing things out seems to mark the current environment, and you can join in if you must — or if you can afford to, sit out the fray on the sidelines and let others spin their wheels.
04 Dec 2011 to 06 Dec 2011 Venus Trine Mars: The energy to do what it takes to get what you want is easily at hand, so take a big scoop and enjoy. Effortless give and take are in the atmosphere, so seek out mutually beneficial moves and plug right in, no struggle necessary. Projects or commitments begun now will turn out joyful and eminently satisfying for all.
10 Dec 2011 to 13 Jul 2012 Uranus Stationary Direct: Uranus stands still before moving forward in its normal direction. Rather like a walker at a cross roads stopping to observe the scene, it will act on whatever catches its eye. Only time will tell what that will be.
10 Dec 2011 to 10 Dec 2011 Moon Opposition Sun: Full Moon brings fruition, but also high emotional tides; what you do now may turn out to have been overdone when you look back on it. Deals sealed now may swing erratically later on, but if kept under control will be fat and fruitful. This is the time for plucking the fruit from the tree, not planting one.
14 Dec 2011 to 12 Mar 2012: Mercury Stationary Direct. After the crossed wires of the past few weeks, Mercury stops, ready to move forward again, on to March. The fog clears, and communication/technology will make sense again.
17 Dec 2011 to 19 Dec 2011 Venus Square Saturn: Whittling away at your needs too insistently may only serve to magnify them and force a spiraling return to an overtapped well. If you take what you need and be done with it, what you have will suffice, even if you have some reservations. Total satisfaction may have to wait a bit, complaints don’t help, only annoy.
So there is the beginning of the month, more next week, with lots of news about the winter Solstice. Meanwhile, enjoy the Eclipse.
PART 2
One of the nice things about dramatic activity and action around the world is that it becomes so much easier to say ‘…told you so…’ And so it is again this week. Big earthquake in Mexico, much of Scotland without power due to horrendous gales. Major upheaval and resistance to the established order across the world, especially in Syria, and now growing in Russia, leaving the troubles in Libya, Bahrain, Pakistan and Afghanistan seeming like a storm in a teacup. Of course the UK is in the news for daring to stand against handing domination and control of Europe to Germany; but I think Britain’s been there before!
In coming weeks I think a recent trigger for action will be the death from ‘natural causes’ in custody of a protester in China. The Chinese authorities have a dilemma with the downturn is the rest of the world causing millions worldwide to cut their spending – and that means a cold wind is about to blow in China, with cuts in growth and raised expectations.
Did you see the eclipse? I confess I did not because here it was only partially visible. Many parts of the world did, and we will all feel its effects over the next six months. A new awakening, a watershed of technological progress, and possibly a watershed of philosophical understanding. Will the world wake up at last I wonder?
Of course next week we see the winter Solstice, the moment when the Earth reaches its maximum tilt away from the Sun which it orbits. That creates the shortest day/longest night phenomenon which is celebrated worldwide by every culture both ancient and modern. The Aztecs, the Mayans, the ancient Egyptians all celebrated this festival of the dawning of a new year. As mentioned last week, various fiddling with calendars by the Romans and the churches have caused the Western world to celebrate the relatively modern ‘Christmas’. Solstice occurs at 06.30 on December 22nd as the Sun enters zodiac sign Capricorn. At that precise moment, the Sun exactly squares dramatic Uranus, suggesting a season of dramatic happenings; it is exactly trine to Jupiter, promising hope and expansion. Those will be the major themes for the next three months. The Sun has passed several aspects with Chiron, Mars and Neptune, but we have already seen the shattering of dreams, the wounding and the wars. The trine of Saturn to both Chiron and Neptune suggests that given discipline, our hopes and dreams can be kept alive, and the suffering we currently endure will pass. This year, the New Moon in Capricorn (there’s one every year) occurs just after the Solstice – It seems the Cosmos is telling us loud and clear of a new era.
And 2012? Well, I’m still working on that one – It will be an overview of what the new year will bring. The annual forecast for 2011 proved to be spot on, so watch out for the 2012 edition.
Meanwhile, the transits for the rest of December.
17 Dec 2011 to 19 Dec 2011 Venus Square Saturn: Whittling away at your needs too insistently may only serve to magnify them and force a spiralling return to an over tapped well. If you take what you need and be done with it, what you have will suffice, even if you have some observations. Total satisfaction may have to wait a bit, complaints don’t help, only annoy.
18 Dec 2011 to 20 Dec 2011 Sun Sextile Saturn: Small investments are the safest, and small returns mount up. Conservative thinking can pay off if you don’t make a big deal out of it. Any boat you launch now will be hard to rock, even in a storm, so it’s a good time to ease her away from the dock and put gradually to sea. The world awaits, but don’t rush.
20 Dec 2011 to 14 Jan 2012 Venus Enters Aquarius: Everything is worth a try for the next few weeks, and branching out to have a little of each is what it’s all about. That of course includes taking the banal with the sublime, and if mixed tastes are not your style you may want to tread water for a while. On the other hand, there will be some dishes up for grabs you wish you’d known about earlier, so don’t turn a blind eye.
19 Dec 2011 to 21 Dec 2011 Sun Sextile Neptune: Implicit understandings based on mutual visions are the opportunity of the day, so don’t take your dreams for granted. What you share with others on the inner front greases the path to harmony and profit, so anything you can cook up along those lines will provide you with a tangible window to your imagination.
20 Dec 2011 to 21 Dec 2011 Venus Square Jupiter: An inclination to overdo beyond diminishing returns is fuelled by the desire to get things just right. One more added touch, just another taste, try it once again, until satisfaction goes out the window. Sometimes less really is more, even if it doesn’t seem like it, so backing off may save you both time and money.
20 Dec 2011 to 22 Dec 2011 Venus Sextile Uranus: You don’t have to go crazy trying to discover new sensations. Sometimes the slightest variation in a time-honored recipe will turn things around with hardly any effort. Try a new ingredient, a new position, a new side road – you’ll be surprised what’s just next door and around the corner, and who’s doing it, too.
22 Dec 2011 to 20 Jan 2012 Sun Enters Capricorn: New Year’s resolutions are just part of the getting-earnest style of the next month, where sincerity, business, and sometimes desperation are the drivers which themselves lose steam when the New Year turns out to be just another new year. Pretending deadly seriousness can be a kick, but living it is a drag, so play there, but don’t stay there.
21 Dec 2011 to 23 Dec 2011 Sun Trine Jupiter: If you want your plans to develop on track and evolve big time, this is the time to lay them on the table. Imagination and inspiration go hand in hand with motivation and coordination more than usual, so bring everybody together in that spirit and you’ll have an operation that can’t be beat.
21 Dec 2011 to 23 Dec 2011 Sun Square Uranus: Abrasiveness and annoyance are qualities you might be running into right now, so make sure you’re not displaying them yourself. Impatience is not a virtue, even if you know you’re right, and it’s easy for everyone to pointlessly butt heads. Schemes laid now may well be half-baked, so take a second look, maybe a third
24 Dec 2011 to 24 Dec 2011 Moon Conjunction Sun: New Moon is the very time for giving up the old and ringing in the new, rebundling your energies into another package. Commitments made now are intense, all-eggs-in-one-basket, but give them time to develop and to get their bearings. Time for laying cornerstones, the walls and rafters come later.
25 Dec 2011 to 04 Oct 2012 Jupiter Stationary Direct: hope, optimism, growth and expansion are what Jupiter promises. After a period of reflection, Jupiter re-works some ground, and after March (ish) we will start to see the benefits.
28 Dec 2011 to 30 Dec 2011 Sun Conjunction Pluto: Putting up resistance and providing it are in the air, so be ready to find a way around issues not worth fighting for. Undertakings begun now will have a strong element of power and change, but they can wind up taking up all your time in order to retain control of them. All or nothing choices can be avoided just by waiting them out.
29 Dec 2011 to 29 Dec 2011 Moon Sextile Sun: Taking it easy and letting things happen will let opportunities continue to grow that are already underway. Situations beginning now will be cooperative and helpful to you as they progress. A general atmosphere of getting along together prevails and will continue to if you just go with the flow.
And so there it is, the last transit of 2011.
Enjoy the festive period, have a Cool Yule, and I look forward to your company in the New Year, when we can turn our minds to hope and optimism for the future.
Blessings of the Cosmos to you all.
Your Ibiza Astrologer
