Almanac – December '09

“Great things are not done by impulse, but by a series of small things brought together.”
-Vincent Van Gogh

Tips for almanac use: All the aspects can be felt in advance of the date of occurrence. It is good policy to view these as due dates for various energies and prepare accordingly for one’s context. Some slower interactions can be felt a month in advance, so it wise to read ahead and ritual up.

When we proactively manifest these symbols then the world doesn’t have to do it for us.

December promises to be crazy busy and demanding. We could fight the changes and resist, but we’d lose and pay a heftier price while doing the job later. Organization seems to be the major push, but with an optimization emphasis. The last Jupiter-Neptune hurrah is pulling us towards making upgrades, but the Saturn-Pluto drumbeat is weighing everything down, demanding practicality and functionality in all sectors of our lives.

Mercury sextiles Neptune on the 1^st, setting the stage for a very busy and strange day with some fanciful thoughts and (hopefully) inspired visions. But keep a level head.

Uranus stations direct, also on the 1^st, starting off a resolution period for that jittery and jumpy energy that has been lurking under the surface and stirring things up. Now is the time to work on solidifying the breakthroughs of the year; preserving the momentum of change, release, and following the flow.

Venus moves into Sagittarius on the 1^st, ushering in an antsy and adventurous yearning for newness. Unexplored territory may be endless, but cannot be revisited with equal satisfaction; so explore the edges.

The Full Moon falls in Gemini, also on the 1^st. This may heighten our awareness of the polarities that are so normal that they usually slip right under our radar. The idea, as always, is to find the middle ground in a mind that is built from duality and relativism. But this is difficult when things appear to the mind as one or the other and emotions are (as usual) involved in the mix. The focus is on learning from these dynamics and shifting our mental trajectories.

Venus sextiles Saturn on the 4^th, giving us a chance to adjust our relationships and values towards a more harmonious balance. This will probably require opening up to new mediums of fulfillment for our wishlists.

Mercury heads into Capricorn on the 5^th, keeping things busy by emphasizing reassessment and organization. Hopefully, the purging process has been ongoing and there’s more room for sorting and optimizing the availability and accessibility of our resources. This can be literal or rather figurative and internal.

Mercury conjoins Pluto on the 7^th, offering another chance to jettison the outdated and little used. Clearing space and letting go of fears and prejudgments is the goal.

Mercury squares Saturn on the 7^th, adding some perseverance and practicality to the ongoing pruning of our mental constructs. Self-criticality can be productive, just beware of self-condemnation and regret fantasies.

The Sun trines Mars on the 10^th, lending an optimistic flair to the mix. Confidence is essential because this vibration needs to be embraced or the opportunities can float right by. Avoiding both rashness and undue hesitation is recommended.

The Sun squares Uranus on the 14^th, bringing a greater craving for leaps of progress. This is attempting to process our rebellion at having to deal with things that didn’t originate with us but have become ours.

The Sun sextiles Jupiter on the 14^th, giving us some perspective on our own resistances and fantasies. This is asking us to find the perspective of an integrated self and make that vantage point a standard reference for our progress.

The Sun sextiles Neptune on the 15^th, creating a need for space and processing. Sometimes we have to stop thinking things through and just let them stew inside us before solutions can present themselves. It’s kind of a ‘stop seeking and ye shall find’ scenario. Surrender is required and faith helps a lot.

The New Moon is in Sagittarius on the 16^th. This lunation is akin to a fire of purification, but this year it will focus on tempering the awareness—burning off impurities through the power of realization. The messages are far clearer when we self-process this energy instead of seeking information about ourselves from less knowledgeable sources.

Venus trines Mars on the 17^th, fueling romantic and sexual fires and maybe the desire to acquire as well. Keeping things focused on the essentials is recommended: keep in mind that all the rest is at best a mere reflection of the internal connections and cannot act as a viable replacement for the real gifts of life; love and connection.

Venus squares Uranus on the 19^th, drawing tensions up to the surface, particularly in friendships and romance. Be cautious not to indulge rebellion over petty ‘principles’ and work towards greater authenticity.

Mars stations retrograde on the 20^th. This period will seek to revise and readjust everything that’s been covered since October 16th. Self-sufficiency is the goal, but in the energetic sense more than the physical. It’s not quite ‘following your bliss,’ but it’s not far off: courageously supporting our will when it’s appropriately aligned and supporting our higher self while challenging ourself to grow beyond anything that’s not. It won’t be the easiest of transits because things don’t always look so good when so brightly illuminated and magnified, and, when what you’re looking at is a mirror, it’s even harder. It will really push us all to step things up a few levels. Mars won’t be done with this territory until May 16th, so this sets an important momentum. Ritual up.

Venus sextiles Jupiter and Neptune on the 20^th, creating quite a flurry of social and romantic energies. Hopefully, we should really be enjoying the satisfaction of working through our old crap and are in a better place for enjoying connections with loved ones.

Jupiter conjoins Neptune on the 21^st for the third and last pass. (Previous 2: May 27th and July 10th). These conjunctions will have manifested very differently for different people. For many this will be geared towards further releasing disillusionment and the lack of openness to goodness that it engenders: Projecting the inequities of the past into the future is less than productive and is a rather reckless disposition; giving the benefit of the doubt should be the modus operandi. For others it’s more about bringing the anticipation of the Divine and the memory thereof down into this realm to sponsor greater awe of this creation and its intricacies. This will facilitate deeper acceptance of its apparent inequities and ultimately free one to self-actualize instead of bemoaning the lowest common denominators. But any which way, it’s an opportunity to align with the highest and maybe forego our obsessions with knowing that-which-can-only-be-known-through-distant-echoes. Get over it and get on with it.

The Sun moves into Capricorn, also on the 21^st, marking the Winter Solstice. This will ask to work with the contraction principle, which requires trimming down and restructuring for the sake of more responsible use of energy/resources. Opt for self-support and the cutting of slack over harshness and things will go more smoothly.

The Sun conjoins Pluto on the 24^th, drawing more things out for sorting, processing or tossing out. Choose to own what is yours; let go of resolution fantasies.

Venus moves into Capricorn on the 25^th, grounding the dynamic and asking all of us to further mature. Self-support while taking responsibility for our stuff is the idea.

The Sun squares Saturn, also on the 25^th, adding some tension to the day, particularly if people have been indulging projection and blame constructs. It could bring people closer or unnecessarily open old wounds, but it’s definitely good to handle this aspect with care, especially if surrounded by family.

Mercury stations retrograde on the 26^th, bringing old stuff out for yet more revision and reprogramming. This wants us to focus on our own growth and self-analysis. Teaching others is fine as a byproduct, but can at other times represent avoidance of one’s own integration and development processes.

Venus conjoins Pluto on the 27^th, pulling even more stuff out into view. This time it’s more about love and connection and safely purifying the hindrances and the waste.

Venus squares Saturn on the 28^th, pushing us into appreciation of these difficult times and lessons. What choice do we really have but to work with the dynamics? Hope for the best and respect the rest.

The Lunar Eclipse is in Cancer on the 31^st, closing out the year with quite some fireworks. This eclipse adds some heavy intensity to the ongoing Saturn-Pluto square which has been getting stimulated all month. This is really screaming at us to get rid of everything that’s weighing us down more than it’s serving us. It’s like trash day if trash day only came roughly every 8 years; you really want to make sure that it gets gone. This process need not be finished, but getting the momentum going is definitely needed. Then feel or look forward to the freshness of another lap around the Sun; celebrate it.

December really seems to be asking a lot of us. The challenge is that most of the current celestial lessons can never be fully learned or finished, and thus we have room to bemoan the lack of completeness and indirectly judge our existences and the entire construct in which they occur. It’s a slippery slope that gets one nowhere. It sounds overly simplistic, but what is required is to bring everything into the present: pull the past into the now for trimming and restructuring, and bring the visions of the future more into the energetic now of our consciousness. Maintaining our awareness in the present is the means to efficiency of being and Being.