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You'll get a more accurate horoscope if you read your Rising sign, and your Moon sign, as well as your Sun sign.  Here's how:

Your Sun sign represents your Self, your way of being in the world. It can represent both the ego (mental) self and the higher Self (soul purpose).   It represents your will and sense of vitality.
Your Sun sign horoscope will tell you what these areas of your self will encounter this month.

Your Rising sign represents your outer mask, the self you show to others.   It represents how you appear to others, how others perceive you, in your true interaction with the world.
Your Rising sign horoscope will tell you what to expect in these areas of your self this month.

Your Moon sign represents your personal self, your feelings, your subconscious.   It represents how you relate to others, how you have nurturing relationships with others, your intuition, your spiritual self, your sense of security, and your habits. The Moon represents your feminine, nurturing side (we all have one).
The Moon also indicates the type of partner you will attract, since it represents your emotional self.
Your Moon sign horoscope will show you what these areas of your self will encounter this month.
 What are your Signs?
 Comparison Interpretation of You and your Lover

Aires       

Your values are changing these days, Aries, and your material security needs along with them – or at least your viewpoint on what constitutes security in your life. What glitters is not always the true gold. An important transformation of your philosophical and belief systems accompanies your journey this month. Your own self-expression is ponderous and problematic and reflects these basic departures from previous conceptions. Your world, including the world of your intimate partnerships, is reborn.

The New Moon that begins the month, on Thursday, December 1st, signals a time of both opportunity and challenge. You are concerned with security needs at this time, perhaps looking behind the curtain to discern the true basis for your security, examining the deeper meaning that this area has for your life. You are gaining some fresh perspective on these and other issues right now, attempting to feel your way into greater intimacy with significant partners and learning how to put your own best foot forward also. The spiritual information that comes your way at this time may be startling.

When Mercury turns to direct motion on Saturday, December 3rd, you may feel a shift in the impulse for change that you have been experiencing. A new perspective is struggling to emerge during the course of this monthly cycle. There is likely to be another shift in the energy at the time of the Mars station of Friday, December 9th, when issues of self and other that have been brewing may take a turn for the better. You are very invested in others around you at this time, but tending your own garden as well, taking a basically idealistic approach to your plans going forward.

The Full Moon of Thursday, December 15th, represents one culmination of the arc of your development, when you feel the need to communicate to others the changes that are taking place inside you and the new vision of future possibilities for yourself that you are no doubt contemplating. There is a way that you may feel stuck in what you are attempting to accomplish right now that could be frustrating, even to the point of bringing up some anger, but the heat can also produce light if you are able to step back from the immediacy of the situation in which you find yourself. Easy to say, hard to do, perhaps, but productive of deep-seated change when you get the knack. You benefit when you silently witness your daemons appear and disappear and marvel at their accomplishments, like dust devils that channel the spirit of the cyclone for a short time only, then vanish into the thin air from whence they unexpectedly arrived. If you can summon up the presence of mind in the variable moment, it helps to remember that you are never angry for the reason that you think you are.

At the time of the Winter Solstice in the following week, on Wednesday, December 21st, the energy shifts again, and you may be more reality oriented. There is still tension in your process, especially at the time of the Last Quarter Moon, on Friday, December 23rd, when you might feel the need to take others into account more directly in your process of growth and change. Relationship issues that arise at this time may be based on prior patterns of partnership that have survived past the point of their relevance to your current circumstances.

You may feel these painful places inside yourself even more poignantly at the time that Venus turns retrograde, on Saturday, December 24th, Christmas Eve. The holidays can be trying in some ways, in other ways productive of fresh insight, and this year is likely to have plenty of both varieties of experience. You will emerge into a different world for yourself and in connection with those around you after the New Year.

Taurus      

You are really in for it this month, Taurus. There is a push-pull of circumstances coming up in this monthly cycle that conspires to stretch your reality just a bit further than you've gone before. You continue to be very involved in sifting through the ashes of previous relationship trauma to find the good stuff, while intently holding your own ground this time through the mill, going deep for the very core challenges that you have successfully avoided up to now. You'll come out the other side, sometime next year, not only older but wiser as well.

The New Moon that begins the month, on Thursday, December 1st, symbolizes growth through potential obstacles. You are doing some serious digging into your core psychological issues at this time, and taking active partnership in your life very much into account also. There is a spiritual awareness present in your life these days that helps you to focus on the larger picture, seeing where you are stuck and allowing at least as much progress as you can come to in looking long and hard at your situation. When Mars changes to direct motion on Friday, December 9th, in your identity sector, you will likely feel a shift in the energy, making it easier to move forward with activities and partnership initiatives, although you are still dwelling within the foggy places of your dreams more than you are normally used to.

The Full Moon of Thursday, December 15th, signals one stage of culmination of the developmental cycle that you are engaged in, and a time when your higher self is seizing a full-blown impulse toward the ultimate transformation of your desire nature. You are growing along the lines of the larger viewpoint represented by a more integrated approach to relationship dynamics in your life and to your own individual ego needs also. There is nothing wrong with ego when it takes into account the higher as well as the lower self and ceases to steal the show. You are coming from a very high place in your actions and your thoughts at this time, which takes you a long way toward solving the basic earthly dilemma of not always being able to get what you want. You are being handed quite a large order in this regard this month, but nothing beyond what you can handle if you keep your head up and your eyes open to the bigger picture.

With Chiron and your ruler Venus conjunct in your tenth sector, you may also be feeling the pain of past trauma coming up for you during this period of time, perhaps even more so at the time of the Last Quarter Moon of Friday, December 23rd, which is followed by the retrograde of Venus early the next morning, on Christmas Eve. The past is there to inform you of where you have been and not to rule your present reality, although this distinction can be hard to maintain in the crush of circumstances. You may well come into some startlingly different perspectives on this matter through the course of this monthly cycle.

The Capricorn New Moon that arrives only a day before New Year's could provide you with an excellent leap ahead into an entirely new vision of your future possibilities.

Gemini     

It's high time for a change, Gemini. You are coming into a very different conception of the impact of significant partnerships on your life purpose during the course of this monthly cycle. A serious and yet also romantically misty-eyed approach toward what you want to do with yourself when you grow up has you dwelling in the paradox, but the idea of taking a super-responsible attitude to life can be freeing as well, when you look at it right. You are more intent than ever on finding your own way forward, but after the 12th and especially after the 15th of the month, relationship with others around you commands more and more of your attention, encouraging the fuzzy logic of your situation.

The New Moon of Thursday, December 1st, brings relationship issues to the fore, which have been perhaps lying dormant, and brings a fresh outlook to the role that significant partners play in your life. You are stretching yourself at this time, reaching out to others in some new and different ways and tuning in also to your own interior guidance system that whispers its truth in your ear when you remain quiet enough to hear its still small voice. You are in fact more internal then usual right now, which can have the consequence of shutting down your communication. But when you do speak it will be to good effect and with more long-lasting impact. You may be less introspective once your ruler Mercury turns direct on Saturday, December 3rd, and, with the advent of the Winter Solstice of Wednesday, December 21st, still less so and more ready to move forward into the world.

The Full Moon that takes place the week before, on Thursday, December 15th, is an important time of transformation and change for you, especially with regard to your relationship dynamic. You are taking on a gentle and entirely otherworldly philosophical approach at this time which has a spill-over effect on the way that you regard significant partners in your life, hopefully for the better, as you distinguish between you and your partner's issues and grow your ability to give to others in your life without giving yourself away in the process. The balance of a more whole-hearted and better-integrated approach is the reward for the fires of difficulty that it has sometimes taken to get to where you are right now.

When Venus retrogrades toward the end of the month, in the early hours of Saturday, December 24th, Christmas Eve, it paves the way for yet another closer look at old patterns of relationship and belief that have ceased to function for the positive and remain as relics from a prior conception that has outlived its usefulness in your present circumstance. Further breakthrough awaits you in the New Year. You are always growing, always changing, like the river that remains the same but never the same as it flows onward to the unresting sea.

Cancer      

You are exploring many facets of your life purpose right now, Cancer. This monthly cycle provides an object lesson in finding your highest intention going forward, or at least as much of that intention as you can see for yourself at this time. The Full Moon of December 15th may come as something of a shock to your system, but is productive of deep soul connection also. The last half of the month flows over you, slowly, like a river of change.

The New Moon that begins the month, on Thursday, December 1st, touches you somewhere deep inside your mind and gives you fresh impetus toward discovering your higher self intention for this lifetime. You are definitely hung up on security needs right now, as well as re-thinking your societal connection and future plans, and it may be that very little seems to be going right for you at present. However, as glum as it can get, there is still the transformational effect of Spirit acting itself out in your life, following the principle that when one door closes another opens wide.

The stations of Mercury and Mars, coming as they do on the 3rd and 9th of the month, will help to straighten out life in the physical plane, and the Full Moon of Thursday, December 15th will represent an apotheosis of a different type, when you might feel swept away by forces beyond what you can manage, but the best result of what is to unfold lies within your complete control, in the dark and mysterious chambers of your heart and soul. You are making important changes in the way you see your world and play your part going forward, and that makes all the difference.

There is a powerful transformation in the works for you this month, especially at the time of the Full Moon, which, if you catch the wave, will take you farther in an important direction for yourself than you have ever dared to go before.

The Winter Solstice of Wednesday, December 21st, is an important crossroads for you, as it is every year, when you may take others more directly into account, and the Last Quarter Moon that follows two days later, on Friday, December 23rd, representing a time of creative tension in your relationship connection, is also an important turning point. When Venus retrogrades and conjuncts Chiron in the early morning hours of Saturday, December 24th, Christmas Eve, there may be old patterns of intimacy that you will need to explore, with the goal of moving past these issues into greater integration and wholeness.

The Capricorn New Moon of Friday, December 30th, will jump start you into a more highly evolved sense of security with a different viewpoint on significant partnerships in your life and fresh plans going forward, just in time for the New Year.

Leo           

You are getting serious about your ultimate productivity, Leo. You may be spinning your wheels on the surface, getting stuck somewhat in trying to move forward, but exploring the dungeons of your root psychological issues is not without its stern appeal. You are in a darkly charismatic period of time right now, where much of what you have to offer the world around you is coming from such a deep place inside, that you may be feeling the fires of self-transformation as much as the heat of adulation that you are more used to.

The New Moon that begins the month, on Thursday, December 1st, represents a rebirth of your creative spirit, with a twist to the inside. You are exploring the inner process that leads you to your accomplishments in the world rather more than these accomplishments themselves, although both phases are active in your current cycle. When Mercury and later Mars turn to direct motion on the 3rd and the 9th of the month, this introspective mood lightens somewhat, although this period of time is a dark one for everyone, and productive of rich insight if you can cast your mind in the right direction. If you seek positive transformation that you desire for yourself instead of merely becoming frustrated by what is not being achieved in the outer world you will be more in tune with this season of change for yourself and for others around you as well.

The Full Moon, of Thursday, December 15th, finds you exploring the underside of your creativity, with the idea of transforming the pursuit of your creative output as merely an expression of ego, and plugging yourself into society in some different ways than you ever have before. You are learning that what lies behind and beneath your activity holds important keys to your happiness in terms of more whole-hearted participation in the world around you.

At the time of the Last Quarter Moon, of Friday, December 23rd, you are more firmly committed to finding a different way forward in the world, perhaps one that takes other people into account in new ways, since Venus and Chiron are simultaneously occupying your relationship sector. You are in a deep process of change throughout this entire month, and relationship issues are a big part of that process, especially after the 24th when Venus retrogrades, and when ancient relationship wounds may well arise, and including Christmas Day.

New Year's Eve follows immediately after the second New Moon of the month of December, taking place on the 30th, representing a time when you are committing to a new path for yourself, going forward. You are more fully responsible at this time, if you have been doing your homework. If not there is still plenty of time. The universe allows you virtually infinite possibilities for getting it right.

Virgo      

Your home and family are taking major priority for you these days, Virgo. You are going still deeper into your own interior exploration also. It's the way that you truly connect with your family, and with your own base, through the depths of your heart connection. There's a way that the affairs of the world predominate in your thinking, and yet another way that they don't matter at all, compared to the still small voice of Spirit inside you. If you are ready, heed the call. If not heed the call anyway.

The New Moon that begins the month, on Thursday, December 1st, presents you with the opportunity to take a deeper look at your internal process, a theme carried over from last month. This may manifest as a renewed fascination with your home environment in all that that idea implies, both familial and tribal, as well as dropping down into an introspective stance that allows you to more fully explore your own psychological roots, the relatively unknown places at the core of your being that form the very wellspring of your activities in the outer world of events. When your ruler Mercury changes direction on Saturday, December 3rd, there is a shift in the energy of your reflective attitude, with further shifts still to come as the month unfolds.

You are finding yourself in a new mode of seeing and apprehending the world most notably at the time of the Gemini Full Moon of Thursday, December 15th. At this time your depth explorations take on an outer world perspective while still retaining that interior field of vision that characterizes this monthly period. You have been through something in the two weeks leading up to this moment in time that you are willing now to share with others around you.

The Winter Solstice taking place on Wednesday, December 21st, followed two days later by the Last Quarter Moon, represents yet another shift in your awareness. You may feel like you have been suddenly released from a cannon, as Mercury finally leaves its retrograde shadow and the Sun enters your sector of self-expression, although not without some degree of tension in your coming out party. Resources at your disposal may feel increasingly scarce at this time, or at least become an important focus of your attention. You are striving to see the bigger picture.

The New Moon that ends the month on Friday, December 30th, the day before New Year's Eve, symbolizes another chance to grow in your understanding and to take on a broader perspective that includes but is not dominated by the past. Viva las changes!

Libra     

This monthly cycle if full of dark wonder for you, Libra, slowly unfolding. Communication with your peers constitutes a rich tapestry of soul-level involvement. You are showing off your compassionate side these days, and it's an occasionally painful but ultimately rewarding experience. You are discovering that you are getting serious about your involvement in the world around you and this sense of mission pulls you into new territory and a different stage of commitment. By month's end you'll hardly recognize yourself.

At the time of the New Moon that begins the month, on Thursday, December 1st, you are reaching out to others in some new and different ways, communicating your deepest truth regarding both social and deeply personal bonds. You are affirming the group affiliations that allow you to stay connected to the ebb and flow of the social matrix surrounding you and simultaneously honoring the intimacy that you share with significant partners. There may be challenges to both types of connection but something to learn from each, perhaps something to learn even from the tension between these varied approaches. There could also be surprising implications for how you see your fundamental path for this lifetime.

There are various stages that come to you this month in the unfolding of your journey of self-discovery. One would be the Mars station of Friday, December 9th, when he returns to direct motion in your sector of intimate connection and personal transformation.

Another is the Full Moon period of time, beginning on Thursday, December 15th. This period signals another chance to deepen both your understanding of your situation and your ability to communicate to others around you this more profound glimpse of the higher reality behind the veil, and represents a culmination of your arc of development in this monthly cycle.

Another comes with the Winter Solstice of Wednesday, December 21st and the Last Quarter Moon that follows two days later. This so-called "crisis in consciousness" is likely to further enlighten you regarding where you stand, emotionally and also creatively. If you are an artist or find your happiness in creative endeavors there is likely to be a shift in emphasis at this time. With your ruler Venus conjuncting Chiron in your self-expression sector, you are tuning into some painful places inside yourself, and this on-going investigation colors your world, more so with the retrograde station of Venus a few days later, on Saturday, December 24th, Christmas Eve. You may take on a more introspective stance at this time.

When the second New Moon of the month comes along on the following Friday, the day before New Year's Eve, you are making a fresh start in exploring your depths, transforming your life from the inside out.

Scorpio      

Tough love has never felt this good, Scorpio. This month you are dealing with difficult issues of relationship and career, while breaking through to the other side of some very stuck self-concept concern that is finally yielding. Through it all floats a sense of wonder at your possibilities, the more so the more you dig deep down to the core of your personality. That's where you find the intense gold, the true heart connection.

The New Moon that begins the month, on Thursday, December 1st, represents the chance to make your resources really count. You are fully invested in the world of outer manifestation at this time, but with a decided inward turning that gives you greater depth of passion below the surface as well as a strong business sense. At this time you are going strong with intimate and other forms of partnership also. There is a certain degree of conflict perhaps between public and private, inner and outer, but the creative tension that surrounds you at this time is productive of long-term gains. You are seeking to actualize both deep-seated dreams and your desire for healing, and your dynamic with significant partners is very much an important piece. You are taking a second look at your relationship dynamic at this time, as you have for weeks now, with an eye to move this part of your life closer to your ideal. You will reach one necessary stage of your development when your ruler Mars changes to direct motion on Friday, December 9th. At that time you may well feel the pull of the next phase, leading you on to your own evolving future self through intimate partnership with another.

The Full Moon of Thursday, December 15th, also puts you in a place of connection with significant others in your life, and further pushes forward the transformation that you are in the midst of. Partnership and intimacy are an important component of how you define yourself as apart from and in contrast to significant others in your life, and you are feeling your way toward a better and more fruitful integration in this area. Your security needs are uppermost in your mind right now, and the balance between self and other that accomplishes your relationship goals without losing yourself in the process.

This theme is repeated at the time of the Venus' retrograde station that takes place in the early hours of Saturday, December 24th, Christmas Eve. At that time you may find that old patterns of relationship and self-involvement arise to be finally healed by the force of your present day understanding. It's a rough road that you must follow through this holiday season but worth the struggle and the heartbreak in terms of greater wholeness and peace of mind. Rather than the simple but fleeting pleasures of eating and drinking and luxury, your heart will be filled with the joy of surmounting great odds and getting to the top of your particular mountain anyway.

Sagittarius     

It's hard to let go of cherished notions, Sagittarius, but they might be holding you back. Your philosophical stance – the way that you regard the world around you – is changing utterly during the course of this birthday month, and along with it your concept of what you want to do with your life. You are coming out of a deeply reflective period of time, perhaps discovering that a healthy dose of spiritual optimism goes a long way for you right now. You have always been a secret proponent of natural religion and now just maybe the time has come to put your money where your mouth is.

The New Moon that begins the month, on Thursday, December 1st, represents a perspective change in several areas as well as a fresh start for your self-concept, a rebirth entirely appropriate to your birthday time of the year. You are getting more serious, and more grounded, regarding your basic beliefs that form the underpinning of everything that you do, reinventing your faith in yourself and reevaluating where exactly you are heading at this point in your life. At the time of Mars' direct station, on Friday, December 9th, when he returns to forward motion once again, you are likely to feel the shift in your everyday mundane life. The world of your ordinary affairs is the backdrop for imaging just who you are getting ready to be when you grow up, this time around. There may be tension in the mix. This month is a difficult time to be on planet earth in some ways, but very productive of far-reaching changes if you look at it right. Old patterns can bend and yield, hopefully gracefully, during this extremely volatile holiday season.

The Full Moon that comes along on Thursday, December 15th, is a time of newfound awareness when you can take a look backwards as well as toward the future, and can find the expansive energy to include others in your process of growth and change. Venus conjuncts Chiron the following week, and slows down in its forward motion, as it turns retrograde in the early hours of Saturday, December 24th, Christmas Eve, and this period of time may also symbolize an important turning point in relationship and transformation, and in exploring the hidden depths of your psyche. You are concerned with your resources at this time, and not just the total in your bank account. The underlying significance of the material world and the physical security that it represents will be a focus of your attention, as you again are seeking to uncover the deeper meaning.

With the Capricorn New Moon near month's end, just one day before New Year's, you are determined to make a fresh start in your security needs, and try your very hardest to make use of recent discoveries in getting yourself on the track that you know is there waiting for you, the dharma that you came into this lifetime to fulfill. You are making vast strides in self-discovery during this monthly cycle and getting to the point of realizing that it is not by faith in yourself alone that you get your act together. It helps when you take Spirit into account, acting itself out in the ups and downs of your earthly existence.

Capricorn    

You are deep sea diving into the depths of your own process right now, Capricorn, coming up with the eventual pearl. Your life is changing all around you through the ebbs and tides of this monthly cycle while some part of you remains, detached in a still small center inside yourself somewhere. Finding a way to express yourself more fully in this dark end of the year time seems to involve a purposeful renewal that connects you more passionately to your own interior development. In spite or perhaps because of this retreat into inner stillness, you are coming on strong in both intimate connection with others and also your own plans for a better fit with society at large. All this takes place as you prepare for a spiritual emergence at the time of the New Year that will rock your pre-existing world.

The New Moon that begins the month, on Thursday, December 1st, symbolizes a time of inner exploration, journeying into the stillness behind and beyond your conscious mind. You may have amazing dreams at this time, which can actually inform you about where you are at psychically right now if you can tune into them carefully and listen between the lines. It helps to have a pad or journal beside your bed, ready to roll, and to inform yourself before drifting off regarding your intention to retain the most important parts of the dream information. You are seeking to expand your future possibilities but you may be in a waiting mode for the first half of the month, when you feel that you must look before you leap. By Friday, December 9th, however, when Mars changes direction in your sector of self-expression, you may be regarding your situation in an entirely different light.

The Full Moon that follows nearly a week later, on Thursday, December 15th, illuminates your process of deep transformation that has been occupying your mind and psyche over the last two weeks. You are ready to move forward with a whole heart and this involves intimacy with significant partners. There are implications for your future plans, which although optimistic to the extreme at this time are also potentially conflicted with regard to changes that you need to make in the core of your being, depending on how far along you find yourself in your arc of development that is being called for by an intense and demanding universe. The state of nature in which you find yourself in may not look benevolent in the short term but in the larger scheme of things it always turns out to be. If you go easily you go gracefully, whereas you go more painfully to the extent that you resist the pull of Goddess or fate as you choose to call it, and your life becomes more difficult all around.

The Winter Solstice that takes place on Wednesday, December 21st, is always an important time for you, and in this monthly cycle is doubly so, as you come out from under some of the pressure of the few weeks that precede it.

The New Moon in your sign that nearly ends the month, a day before New Year's Eve, represents another opportunity for a fresh look at your situation. You are making new commitments at this time, and they involve further changes, to the extreme. Take the opportunities for growth that have been presented to you on a platter and run with them, at least to the extent that you can. You won't be sorry.

Aquarius      

Great difficulties and also great rewards are in store for you this month, Aquarius. In the early going especially you are in the best position all year to wish for what you truly want and to dream those wishes into concrete form. You are capable of powerful manifestation right now, but that doesn't make this monthly cycle any easier. Then again, easy is overrated. What you have to go through at this time are the lessons of partnership, career and security, as you make more definitive plans for the future that take into account the bigger picture and also the ultimate challenges of your existence. Dare to dream as large as you really are.

The New Moon that begins the month, on Thursday, December 1st, represents the chance to vision future possibilities for yourself into being. With Mercury and Mars both retrograde at the time of the New Moon, it may be best to wait until the middle of the month to act on these drams and schemes, but you can be thinking like mad and refining your ideas until that time. You are also likely to be focused somewhat on the concept of your own security at this time, what makes it happen in your life and is it primarily material security that you crave? You may be feeling the yen for something a little less substantial but with more actual currency at this time, since truly is it said that "man does not live by bread alone." Also during this first part of the monthly cycle you may be feeling the conflict of your own needs versus the needs of others in your life, and as well the conflict between your private life and the public persona that you project out into the world. You are very optimistic regarding your career and professional endeavors at this time, but you are still digging deep beneath the covers of your existence to mine the gold of true heart connection.

With the station of Mercury on Saturday, December 3rd, you regain a sense of normalcy and begin finding a new way forward into your next phase. And when Mars turns direct as well, a few days later, on Friday, December 9th, another turning point is reached.

These events, leading up to the Full Moon of Thursday, December 15th, establish a pattern of positive flow that may guide you to a reevaluation of your connection to your fellow members of the societal matrix that surrounds you and informs your decisions for the most part. You are gradually transforming your social affiliations and the way that you see your path joining with others going forward, and your dependence for support on friends and groups that you favor. Something about the need to connect with your own deep center, as well as to others around you, may be driving the changes that are happening within you at this time, and taking you into a different direction that you had established in your life up to now.

The retrograde of Venus that comes along on Saturday, December 24th, Christmas Eve, brings up potentially painful issues of relationship and familial connection that have been buried for many years, perhaps, and are only now coming to light because you are ready to make a shift in the way you view them. These relics of the long-dead past are only as toxic to your system as you believe them to be, and you have the opportunity right here and right now view them from a different perspective. Rethinking these issues may take you far into the next year, but if so it will be well worth the effort. After all, your emerging and continued wholeness is the only game in town, really.

Pisces    

This is the dawning of a new mandate for change and growth, Pisces. You are expanding your horizons during this monthly cycle and getting serious about your highest intention for yourself, as you explore new facets of the path of your ultimate destiny. Most important, you may find at this time that this path is firmly rooted in your spiritual depths. The belief systems that you live by are subject to change and expansion right now along with your mission statement and the way that you show up in the world. All this is very exciting, though challenging; you are stretching and the process is painful like the snake shedding his skin. But what a relief when you are finally free.

The New Moon that begins the month, on Thursday, December 1st, symbolizes new career initiatives for you. You have been more inner oriented lately than outer, perhaps stuck somewhat on day-to-day issues, trying to find the gold amongst the glitter and sort out where exactly you are heading at this time in your life. The season will be ripe for moving forward later in the month, as you gain insight and process recent trials. When Mercury changes to direct motion on Saturday, December 3rd, there may be a shift in home and family and relationship concerns that you have been mulling over during the past three weeks of the Mercury retrograde period of time, which doesn't actually come to a close until after the Winter Solstice when it leaves its retrograde shadow. Another point of new direction for you is represented by the Mars direct station of Friday, December 9th, when you may find yourself reaching out to others in a new way. You are struggling to communicate to others around you exactly what is most deeply true for you at core level.

The Full Moon that comes along on Thursday, December 15th, arrives as a culmination of all this recent activity to achieve your particular goals. You have the information you need at this time to make a major change in the way that you operate, the challenge lies in acting on your shifting perspective, coming out to others around you with a new persona that more closely matches your current worldview.

The Winter Solstice of Wednesday, December 21st, marks a cycle that is ending and also just beginning. As the daylight gets to its shortest point the seed is also there for longer and longer days and greater and greater illumination.

The New Moon that ends the month, on Friday, December 30th, in your sector of wishes and hopes and future plans, marks an excellent time to visualize new possibilities for yourself into being. This coincides with the New Year of renewed faith in your progress, and makes the traditional time of resolutions a very powerful one for you indeed. Of course you cannot totally abandon the past. We are always carrying a large part of the past upon our backs as we travel, and the trick is to make it an adjunct rather than a determining factor in the course that we take going forward. Inhabit the most feasible part of the change that you want to see in the world around you as best you can, and everything will turn out all right in the end.

Overview of the Planets this month:

The Astrology of December features Mars in Taurus, Pluto in Sagittarius, and the Grand Cross in fixed signs that includes Mars opposite expansive Jupiter, as well as Saturn in Leo opposite Neptune in Aquarius. Mercury is also retrograde as the month begins. The Mercury retrograde period of time has one ending on December 3rd, when it returns to direct motion, and another at the time of the Winter Solstice of December 21st, when Mercury finally leaves its retrograde shadow. This month's astrology also focuses on the transformational effects of Pluto in Sagittarius. The Full Moon of December 15th conjuncts Pluto, which also makes aspects to both ends of the Mars - Saturn square, a square that remains active all month long, bringing passionate deep inner reflection and perhaps challenges to the way we actualize our intentions and relate to others around us. The sesquiquadrate from Pluto to Mars is exact at the beginning of the month and then peaks again at the time of the Winter Solstice and subsequent Last Quarter Moon of December 23rd when it is accompanied by an almost exact contra-parallel aspect as well, amping up the energy between these two powerhouse planets.

All in all, the month of December is a volatile month, which may increase our understanding of where life is taking us this time around. Venus also retrogrades in the last week of the month, conjunct Chiron in Aquarius, bringing an introspective and potentially painful awareness to our relationship energy just in time for Christmas Eve and New Year's. If we keep our eyes open, this holiday season is likely to provide even greater impact to our core level process than usual.

Along with Mercury, the other two personal planets, Venus and Mars, are also retrograde at one time or another during this monthly cycle, making it particularly dicey and difficult, but productive of rich insight as well. As the month begins, Mars remains retrograde from last month, up until December 9th, when it straightens out into forward motion once again, allowing everyone to breathe a bit easier and to get a few more things accomplished, although still with considerable trails and tribulations, especially in the early going, leading up to the Full Moon. Venus turns retrograde near the end of the month, in the early morning hours of the 24th. Venus is at that time at the very beginning of Aquarius and conjunct Chiron, so there may be an especially poignant period of time during Christmas Day and in the week leading up to the New Year's Eve celebration. Venus with Chiron symbolizes exploring old patterns of relationship from the past, perhaps painful ones, and reliving their trauma. The up side is that we may be able at this point in our lives to move beyond them into greater wholeness. The universe hands us difficulties but not without a purpose, and if we take the high road in our approach we may surprise ourselves with how far we have come.

The Grand Cross in the fixed signs of Taurus, Scorpio, Leo and Aquarius that also characterizes this volatile monthly period has the effect of pulling us simultaneously in several different directions at once, expanding our awareness in the course of driving us a little crazy with the conflict. If we are fully alert to our possibilities at this time, we are drawn to taking a deeper look at the roots of our desire and how we manifest concrete results in this world. On one level, with Mars (representing action) in retrograde for the first part of the cycle and square Saturn (representing limitation) we are confounded in our attempts to accomplish our goals. The Jupiter – Mars opposition plays into this conundrum by emphasizing enthusiasm for action without there being any sort of easy resolution. When Mars changes to direct motion on December 9th the opposition to Jupiter is still within one degree and the T-square is also tight, at a three-degree orb. This will be a trying time, as Mars stands still and squares Saturn, especially since Pluto aspects both ends of the square with a sesquiquadrate aspect.

Pluto is also contra-parallel Mars at this time. Pluto with Mars means the transformation of our aggressive urges for higher purpose, or else the greater intensity of these urges that may explode into anger as stored-up emotions finally burst forth from the frustration of building intention with no easy outlet. The Moon is also in Mars-ruled Aries on this day, while the Sun in Sagittarius nears its pending conjunction with Pluto that takes place just at the time of the Full Moon in Gemini on the 15th of December. What can be done to smooth out the intense power of this configuration?

Obviously the greater awareness we have of the energies involved the more likely we are to take the high road, that is to step back from being triggered or descending into reactivity, but rather to watch our emotions as they arise and wait for them to subside. Easier to say than to do in the heat of the moment, but we can prepare to give it our best shot.

The other archetypal symbol of this Grand Cross would be Neptune in Aquarius, and more particularly the Chiron / Neptune midpoint, at around 8 degrees, that participates more precisely in the configuration with Mars, Jupiter and Saturn. The nature of Chiron with Neptune is the wound of misplaced ideals, potentially the wound of disappointment and deception, or of self-sacrifice. We are tempted to give too much of ourselves away. There is also a way that we detach from the world in all this – the wound of our own unreachability. This is the way we might react from too much reality, represented by Mars and Saturn in our face. Again, it is good to be aware of these potentials so that we can at least be alert to their possible manifestation in our lives and in the lives of others around us.

The Mars station and return to direct motion means that Mars stays in square with Saturn and Chiron/Neptune for the entire month, so we will have plenty of chances to practice restraint. This formation is triggered by the New Moon at the beginning of the month and also by the December 30th Capricorn New Moon just before New Year's Eve. Near the end of the month also, Venus retrogrades in Aquarius conjunct Chiron lends greater poignancy to the Chiron / Neptune leg of the T-square. These configurations are massive in the effects they symbolize. As these greater cosmic cycles come directly into our lives through the interaction of the personal planets and the Sun and Moon, it is up to us to make the most of it.

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