December 2010 begins in a frenzy of New Moon madness, slips into a sulk, then goes deep, dark and mysterious, then suddenly crescendos into a wild fit of pushme-pullyou activity at the eclipse Full Moon, finally finishing with a weird, wobbly Mercury station at the dawn of the new decade.
We start the month in the choppy waters of “eclipse season”, a period one full lunation prior to an actual eclipse, and continuing in metaphorical monsoon-fashion until the lunation one month following an eclipse. This takes us, therefore, from the Full Moon on November 21st 2010 through the winter solstice Lunar eclipse and Jan 4th Solar eclipse to the New Moon of Candlemas on February 2011.
At the dawn of December, most of us will be revved-up or feeling flustered due to the end-of-November planetary interactions betwixt Mars and Jupiter plus Moon and Pluto. We are hurtling like fiery comets of implacable determination even while munching our breakfast cereal, and woe be to those who break our rules (especially while driving), or try to distract us from our self-appointed dates with destiny – or the next stoplight.
As if we needed it, the burst of juice that typically accompanies the New Moon should send us straight into overdrive, Sagittarius-style. To keep the juice joy-filled, I have some suggestions: 1) Plan ahead and made an itinerary before you go-go-go. 2) Expect the unexpected; with a Uranus station coinciding with this Saggi-fire New Moon you can bet that “exciting” “erratic” and “edgy” are key vocabulary words for the next two weeks. 3) Obtain some karmic brownie points by displaying these heavenly attributes – mercy, compassion, patience and forbearance. 4) When your plans go awry, remember that you are at choice about the attitudes you take and the re-actions you display, if not about the circumstances that confront and be-devil you. Good luck, pilgrim.
GIFT PURCHASE WARNING! Due to the upcoming Mercury retrograde, which is official from December 10th until December 30th, it is my astrological duty to warn you that toys and devices that require batteries or cords, or used for transmission, communication, copying, or data processing, exchange or translation -or playback – including CDs and DVDs(!) are more likely to go haywire and require a return, fix or some sort of replacement if bought during the Mercury retrograde. WARNING! WARNING, Will Robinson! WARNING!
It is a bummer to be the bearer of potential bad tidings, but please don’t shoot the messenger. In fact, it is the sudden slow-down of the Messenger God Mercury at the 1/3rd-way point of the month that signals a momentous mood-shift and possible crankiness-in-general from too much of too much. What comes to my memory is one of my favorite poems from childhood, by Mary E. Wilkins Freeman…
The Silly Ostrich
The ostrich is a silly bird,
With scarcely any mind.
He often runs so very fast,
He leaves himself behind.
And when he gets there, has to stand
And hang about till night,
Without a blessed thing to do
Until he comes in sight.
Be not, therefore, like the ostrich, and leave yourself behind. Mercury back-dawdling in crusty Capricorn from December 10 through 17 wants us to seriously reevaluate our goals and intentions in line with our assets and resouces. This might make us look askance at habits of conformity, especially in regards to the insidious propaganda that abounds now, propelling us to ‘buy, buy, buy’ because the Great Recession has gone bye-bye, so we can guiltlessly purchase our way back into the supposed prosperity we enjoyed before the chickens came home to roost two years ago.
“Not so fast,” wags a wiser, meeker Mercury as it regresses further, all the way back to the sign of the Archer starting on the 18th of December. “Don’t tell me you still believe in Santa Claus?” Mercury slyly queries. “Well then, why do you act like you do, as if some Santa-savior is gonna fly down from heaven and save your sorry asses from the debt you are accruing and adding to? Santa’s belly is the only thing eternally growing in this world, and that is because it is a magic belly; your resources and reserves are truly bound by the facts-of-life on this glorious globe, so wake up and smell the sorry values that are stinking up the joint. You are so “in this boat” all together that there will be no place to go to avoid the stench of a civilization rotting to its mores. When, or if, you figure out the real meaning of Christmas, and stop buying it from Madison Avenue, you will find the clause in Santa Claus is identical to the small print on your credit card contract. Merry Chistmas.”
A sullen, Sagitated Mercury can act like a pedantic party-pooper sometimes. But wait! –another Big Shift is on the way. Remember that we are in eclipse season. Pray for a clear night, because the solstice Lunar eclipse will be a total eclipse, with the beginning of umbra visible in northern Europe, the middle in North and South America, and the end of umbra in Japan. This eclipse is another wild ride, an episode reflecting an unsettled state of affairs appearing in the headlines, and in the pedestrian affairs of us ordinary folks. Eclipses affect us not all the same; consult an astrologer if you are curious about the symbolism of this ultra-Full Moon in Gemini and its association with your natal chart. What will be evident, if not experienced directly, is scattered and frantic activity akin to a high-wire balancing act on multiple, interconnected wires with several important connections to make, and some trick questions to answer, before the relative safety of the tower is reached.
Prediction: pompous preening and righteous wordplay stir up feelings and polarize populations. Will the Koreans pull more players into the volatile mix? Maybe the middle-east crisis will take a drastic turn on the talk of some negotiators? Elephants and Donkeys could polarize into a war of words so strident that a congressional crisis ensues? Wherever two or more sides are trying to make sure that one way is the only way we will find fountains of forceful emotions fueling the furor. What comes to a head, however, has the chance of coming to a resolution.
Weirdness and time-twisting tangles of rush-slow, stop-go accompany the Mercury station on the eve of New Year’s Eve. This tumult of re-running and station-waiting makes the daze after Christmas heading into 2011 particularly trying. So why not chill out and make some quality time with yourself and your cherished loved ones? The spirit is the season, this year energized and amplified symbolically by the goings-on of a cacophony of planets pushing and shoving, challenging each other to be excellent or get out of the way. So let us “be excellent”, as Ted might say to Bill, to our self, our allies, and yes, even to our enemies. This is an extra-intense completion to another turn of the cosmic wheel, and if we are learning anything, it is to take ourselves less seriously and love more, not less. Happy holidays and Happy New Year!