A December Month of Review, Reconsideration, and Looking Within

This December month is a wild and a wooly one, with two inner planet retrogrades, Mercury and Mars, in the signs of Sagittarius and Leo, while Venus and the Moon are out of bounds in the Sagittarius New Moon that begins the month. The Gemini Full Moon also aspects Uranus, Neptune, and Eris for a heady stew there, at mid-month. What can we surmise from all this unsteadiness? With Mercury in backward motion or recovering for the entirety of December we would first think of introspection and review leading to potential readjustment, wherever the Sagittarius sign lands in individual charts. It is of course interesting that we have the fresh start in Sagittarius singled by the New Moon there at the very beginning of December, while we have also the ongoing Mercury Retrograde in this same region of the zodiac telling us “not so fast!” It is additionally the case that Mercury, at 20° of Sag in retrograde motion lies in close forming trine to Chiron, the Wounded Healer, located at 19° of Aries. This implies that inner wounding, the unresolved residue of early childhood trauma, is likely to emerge this month to slow us down still further as we introspectively meditate on where in this life we are heading, and to what end.

Chiron is also standing nearly dead still in these December skies, at 19° 22’ of Aries on the first day of the month and at 19° 00’ on the last, stationing to direct motion on December 29th. Such a slow-moving Chiron is a stronger presence of his archetype of painful process, with also the potential for healing. The recipe for handling our own individual wounds – at whatever stage of dealing with these we find ourselves in – is to pay loving attention to the dark places buried away deep within our psyche, welcoming the fragments of lost and hurt child within us to the table of our mature assurance and more settled awareness of our own self-worth.

When Mars retrogrades on December 6th at 6° of Leo, another Fire sign, along with Mercury’s backward sojourn through Sagittarius, he remains in somewhat wide opposition to Pluto, newly in Aquarius, which is another red flag for harmonious living during the course of this volatile December month. Mars-Pluto can represent deep-seated passion coming to the surface, perhaps in the form of anger suddenly exploding. There is also an indication of long-buried emotions of another sort bubbling to the surface to temporally confound us, until by a process of self-inquiry we can come to better understand ourselves in the depths of our being. Mars moves backward to 2° of Leo by month’s end, so quite closely opposed to Pluto, and will thereafter continue in his retrograde for another seven weeks, into late February.

The First Quarter Moon of December 8th – the phase that Dane Rudhyar called a “crisis of action” – can be a volatile moment in any lunation cycle and perhaps especially so in this one, because the Moon in mid-Pisces is conjunct Saturn and square Jupiter in Gemini with the Sagittarius Sun closely opposed to Jupiter. This promotes the contrast between optimistic forward thinking versus the limitation of existence as it is, implied by Saturn in square. We can dare to dream and yet not feel at all convinced that we can make of our idealized vision a concrete reality. Venus is also newly in Aquarius in this quarter Moon configuration, and conjunct Pluto, bringing up – once more – transformation in the depths of our awareness in this instance regarding our relationships and our values.

The Full Moon of December 15th is also a rather potent lunation and incudes the Mercury station to direct motion. With Mercury standing dead-still in the sky, the usual symptoms of the retrograde, namely missed connections, misapprehensions, and mechanical breakdowns, may very well still be with us, along with the occasion for meditative introspection about life goals and worldview. Mercury slowly straightens out over the remaining two weeks of the month. The Sun and Moon at 23° of Sagittarius and of Gemini, respectively, closely aspect Neptune at 27° of Pisces, making a T-square, and also Uranus at 24° of Taurus and Eris at 24° Aries. These outer planets coming in make this second half of the month a time for cosmic thinking and visualizing, perhaps a time of asserting an idealized vision of future philosophic landscapes that might be possible. There could be unexpected events and surprise enlightenment with Uranus highlighted, as well as Neptune’s other-dimensional lack of focus on the concrete resulting in confusion or self-deception. With Eris featured as well in this Full Moon, there might be renewed determination to articulate and act strictly out of our own bottom-line principles and values.

The Capricorn Solstice of December 21st is an important configuration and an indication for the year ahead. There is a nice Venus-Jupiter trine in the mix that day that suggests things being maybe not so bad, and, as well, we have the Moon directly opposed to Saturn in this early morning chart and a powerfully placed Pluto. These could indicate transformation and limitation for the 2025 year, with needful lessons to be learned.