Dear Readers,
As the fastest moving planet in the zodiac, the Moon spends only two and a half days in each sign, cycling through all of them every month. Only rarely do I write about the Moon other than when it’s full or new, because she moves so fast and the connections she makes with other planets change so quickly, but I thought I’d begin with our closest celestial companion for a while because she sets a tone, and that tone is embedded in my writing whether I mention it or not. She’s subjective, reflecting the sun’s light in our individual lives, so my experience of the Moon will be different than yours, but the underlying tone should feel similar and give us an opportunity to reflect on what, for example, a Leo Moon feels like for each of us.
The Moon speaks to our primary emotional needs for safety, security, and nurturing both of ourselves and others. In birth charts, she can refer to one’s mother or relationship with mother. She presides over our daily rhythms, including our mood. The link to “mother” explains much. In an ideal world, our mothers would have provided these things for us throughout our childhood and adolescence. For us to feel safe in the world then, our Moon needs to feel nourished and nurtured—and for each of us, that need can feel very different, but “feeling” is the operative word. The moon also seems to act as a repository of memories, with feelings rooted in these memories.
Today, the Moon is in Leo and will be until Sunday evening December 3. It’s cold and rainy here and predicted to be so through the weekend—hard to associate with Leo, but maybe it’ll warm us up to do so. Leo is the sign of fixed fire—high summer in the Northern hemisphere. I’ve written a fair bit about it over the last couple years, particularly this summer when Venus was retrograde in Leo for an extended period of time.1 So, what does a Leo Moon feel like? On the light side, we can feel playful, loyal, creative, and childlike. Leo is the sign of the performer. I think about the innocent “look at me” way children naturally express their creativity and need to be seen and adored. When they aren’t given the attention they require, they can be demanding and selfish. People with strong and healthy Leo energy are warm and generous. They project and invite others into their radiance. Under a Leo Moon all these things are available, but there’s a dark side too. We all have unmet emotional needs, and we can find ourselves feeling peevish, like a neglected toddler if they’re ignored. Creativity and play, along with nurturing the creativity of others are often just what the doctor ordered.
On Sunday evening, the Moon will shift into Virgo, just in time for the work week, when precision and efficiency matter, then Libra, where balance is the name of the game, and style and diplomacy come to the fore, then Scorpio where we dig deep to heal—and on it goes. As we approach the solstice and shortest day of the year, when darkness takes over from the light, the Moon gains more prominence in our lives. Now is a good time to follow her movements and machinations.
As I write this evening, the Moon is in a happy place, feeling empowered by the Sun and Mars and well supported by Jupiter, but by tomorrow evening, those relationships will have changed and others, like a healing trine to Chiron and a rebellious square to Uranus will have formed.
We can think about the Moon as the first layer of the sky story, always shifting and changing the underlying tone. In a way, the Moon acts like a messenger. Differently than Mercury, the official messenger of the gods, she’s subtle, like a touch on the shoulder and a whisper in the ear as she connects with each of the planets in turn, passing on news from one to the next. “Pssst… The Sun and Mars are getting a little too righteous over there in Sagittarius…” or “Pluto is really putting Venus through the mill today, can you help?”
Mercury and Venus move quickly too, and both are “in the news” over the next couple weeks. Mercury generally spends between 14 and 30 days per sign, not counting retrogrades (hint). Early this morning (Dec 1), he moved from light-hearted and fun-loving Sagittarius to hard-working and practical Capricorn. Here, he’s strategic and methodical. He both wants and takes his time thinking things over. Scrolling through the days in my astrology software leading up to December 12 when Mercury will station to turn retrograde, I see almost exclusively frictionless aspects.
Yes, there’s a retrograde coming, but as previously noted, retrogrades are opportunities. The issues arise when we’re in a hurry and want to get somewhere, then Mercury’s trickster side comes out and trips us up. The idea is to slow down and listen to the rule of re’s.
Right now though, he’s at 0° Capricorn in a sextile with Saturn in Pisces. This provides gentle structural support for our Mercurial projects. What are our priorities and how do we plan to address them? Whether we need to focus, get organized, create or enforce boundaries, Saturn is here to support our practical plans.
As the connection with Saturn wanes this week, the first of three trines with Jupiter in Taurus builds (first exact on December 7). Mercury will soon go retrograde and back through this same part of the sky before turning direct and going through the trine one more time. Oh joy! This should bring an optimistic note to our thinking and communication. We’ll be more capable of seeing the big picture, more broad-minded, more curious about other ways of thinking, other belief systems, cultures, religions, and philosophies. Perhaps we can take a wide view of the holiday season and imagine the wise men of the bible seeking the messiah. The idea of a quest for higher knowledge and understanding feels appropriate for this time of year.
The downside? A little too much of all the above. We could be long-winded, overconfident, arrogant, or self-righteous. The risk of this is higher than it might be otherwise because Neptune is stationing to go direct on December 6. Whenever a planet stations, its significance is more pronounced, so while it’s not directly connecting with either Jupiter or Mercury, there will likely be a Neptunian fog in the air, making it more challenging to track our thoughts, intentions, and behaviors. On the positive side however, Neptune adds oomph to our imaginative and spiritual pursuits and can assist in dissolving concretized beliefs and dogmatism—a good time to take note of dream imagery and visions.
Backing up to catch up with Venus, we find her in the last degrees of her home sign of Libra. This past Wednesday (Nov 29), Venus crossed over the South Node which felt like a warmup for the square she’ll be making with Pluto early Sunday morning. The Venus part of us likely lost, or was asked to relinquish or sacrifice something. It could have been a relationship, something we valued, or even a dream; and while it may have pained us, it was something we needed to leave behind to lighten our load. I’m thinking about times, while traveling, that I’ve left a well-loved pair of shoes or traveling clothes folded on a chair in a hotel room, sometimes to make room in my luggage for new treasures. When Venus squares Pluto, the effect is similar only deeper. With Pluto, we could be dealing with dark, deep, intense, or even taboo issues related to our relationships, aesthetics, romance, sexuality, or women that we’ve buried in our subconscious or unconscious. With Venus in Libra, I can imagine that we might be shown how we’ve betrayed ourselves to keep the peace in relationships or compromised our values to fit in socially. We may be asked to look at the messiest side of any of these things as they emerge from the depths, demanding our attention. To note, this aspect will be in effect through most of next week.
Finally, December 12 brings the New Moon in Sagittarius squaring Neptune and Mercury’s station retrograde. Here we find emphasized the imagination and connection to spiritual realms alongside the fuzzy fogginess that often accompanies it. At the same time, Mercury’s station demands that we slow down and pay attention to practical details. While Neptune might inspire flights of fancy, we’re better served to do our best to stay grounded and realistic with an eye or an ear open for messages, signs, or synchronicities from beyond the earth plane that act as beacons or cairns along a foggy path. Mars is also connected to the New Moon, but wider than it’s been. We’ve seen enough fiery zealotry lately and grown weary of it. Perhaps at this New Moon he’ll offer us a Sagittarian booster rocket of optimism and wisdom. We could use it.
Recently, I’ve had the pleasure of meeting and consulting with several new readers. It’s such a treat to put names and faces to the email addresses on my list. If you’d like some help understanding how the current astrology relates to you personally - like all that moon stuff, to better understand yourself, or how to navigate the tides of change, I love doing private consultations.
If interested, please email me: camelliablossoms@gmail.com
Happy December!
Cami