Star Weather Astrology Report 12/17–12/25
©2023 Ronnie Pontiac
Friends, we have before us a week where Mercury, retrograde until New Year’s Day, is rather active, suggesting delays, confusion, but also insights and opportunities to go back and fix mistakes. With Neptune dwelling in the degree of its station on the one hand disorientation, deception, and intoxication may be amplified, but also compassion, intuition, and mystical awareness. A good week for asking questions before jumping to conclusions. Seek to clarify communications, and travel with care as erratic and bewildered drivers and pedestrians may cause difficulties. Meditation can be especially helpful.
Saturday 12/16’s sun square stationary Neptune is with us through the first half of the week. Dreams may be insightful or haunting. Write them down to gain greater understanding of self in context. If you have to do precision work, or to communicate clearly, it might take extra effort. Seek clarification at the first sign of confusion. A better time for imagination and inspiration than for editing. Meditation can help intuition and clear the cobwebs of habitual thought patterns. As Gabriel Garcia Marquez wrote: “It is not true that people stop pursuing dreams because they grow old, they grow old because they stop pursuing dreams.”
Sun 12/17 Venus inconjunct Chiron is exact in the late morning and with both the inconjunction and Chiron involved could indicate issues around health both individual and collective. Women and creative people in particular can benefit from a more mindful approach to well being. With various contagions surging it’s a good time to take care for the sake of self and others. Socializing, music events, romantic rendezvous may have unexpected consequences if we choose to ignore the realities of the situation. We’re still in the grand finale of Pluto in Capricorn during which we have seen how exaggerated consequences can become. Take precautions at the level you are comfortable with and try not to be judgemental about others who may differ.
Mon 12/18 Mercury retrograde trine Jupiter is exact in the early morning. This can be a joyous and lucky aspect, bringing opportunities for success. The negative potential involves over-spending, over-indulging, and over-doing, also the sort of over-optimism that can get us into trouble. Take time to express appreciation and gratitude where appropriate. Heartfelt gifts needn’t break the bank, and small gestures of affection can help spread badly needed cheerfulness. A good time for contemplating and having conversations about what success really means.
Tue 12/19 only lunar aspects are exact. The Flower Ornament Sutra says: “All living beings are its roots. All Buddhas and Bodhisattvas are its flowers and fruits. By benefiting all beings with the water of Great Compassion, one can realize the flowers and fruits of the wisdom of the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas.” Practicing compassion includes understanding that the annoying and even destructive among us are nevertheless on the path to higher consciousness. We can show patience, as we would like to be shown patience when we are wrong. But discrimination is also a part of practice, helping us to avoid unnecessary suffering.
Wed 12/20 Venus opposition Uranus is exact about an hour before midnight. On the negative side this aspect can disrupt romance and creativity. We may be shocked by a sudden attraction to the strange and unusual. We may want to liberate ourselves from stale affections. But it’s also an opportunity to bring fresh perspectives and necessary change that can revitalize the Venusian areas of our lives. Women in particular may be irritated by the limitations forced on them by society and relationships that look to the past rather than the future. Dare to do something different. In extreme cases of suppression or repression there may be erratic outbursts or accident prone interludes. Look for ways that Uranus is inviting you to find new horizons that promise greater freedom. Sir Francis Bacon wrote: “Imagination was given to man to compensate him for what he is not; a sense of humor to console him for what he is.”
Thu 12/21 Mercury retrograde sextile Saturn is exact in the very early morning before dawn, followed by Mars inconjunct Uranus around dawn. The sextile can help us get organized, know when to stop, get the best out of learning and practice, and it’s good communicating about serious subjects, although with Mercury retrograde and Neptune so strong clarity may require extra effort. The inconjunction can be irritable, accident-prone, and erratic. Commute carefully. If ambition, libido, or anger are suppressed disruptive outbursts are more likely. With inconjunctions its important to make room for both sides of the aspect. Mars wants to use its energy to reaffirm what it wills, while Uranus desires change, liberation and new approaches. It may be difficult to get them both going at once. In extreme cases where one or both are suppressed there could be accidents, unnecessary conflict, and even violence. Inconjunctions can complicate health, so for example, this aspect could indicate sickness caused by doing what we want without any regard for the risk or consequences for others. The sun enters Capricorn at 7:27 PM bringing the winter solstice, the days now begin to grow longer. While many consider Capricorn a gloomy placement of the sun, it’s practicality and dry wit, organizational ability and forbearance, can help us avoid the negative side of the Mars Uranus inconjunction, Mercury retrograde and Neptune stationary.
Fri 12/22 sun conjunct Mercury retrograde is exact in the late morning, then Mercury enters Sagittarius at 10:18 PM. Sun conjunct Mercury has a tendency to put more ego into our communications, ego might override logic, for example, so again, take care in conversations. Mercury leaving Capricorn for Sagittarius may bring more of a sense of holiday cheerfulness and sociability. Mercury in Capricorn since 12/2 may have caused a gloomy mood, pessimism masquerading as reason, and sometimes a sense of loneliness and dwelling on the negative. Mercury in Sagittarius can accentuate Jupiterian qualities such as hospitality, joviality, and a cheerful optimism about what is possible.
Sat 12/23 only lunar aspects are exact. As The Flower Ornament Sutra says: “The knowledge and wisdom of Buddhas are in all beings’ minds. All beings, by discarding all their false discriminations and deluded notions, will finally attain the Ultimate Enlightenment and become Buddhas.” These days we are inundated with fact and fiction, propaganda and theories, but what if it’s okay to not know? How about simply enjoying the humble joys of living for awhile?
Sun 12/24 sun sextile Saturn is exact mid-morning, helping us to get organized, simplify and streamline. Meditation can help us understand what areas of our lives need more or less attention. A good Sunday for reading, practicing, and resting. Enjoy something traditional to celebrate Christmas Eve.
Mon 12/25 Venus trine Neptune is exact in the morning bringing a little extra love and compassion to Christmas day. Ladies and creative people, it’s your time to shine as Venus finds beautiful ways to express the mystical and compassionate side of Neptune. Christmas movies or tales might be especially enchanting. As Audre Lorde wrote: “The sharing of joy, whether physical, emotional, psychic, or intellectual, forms a bridge between the sharers which can be the basis for understanding much of what is not shared between them, and lessens the threat of their difference.”
As of Christmas we are now 25 days away from Pluto entering Aquarius. When Pluto changes signs we can feel the turning of the gear of generations. Up until 2008 society experienced a time of rapid expansion of tech and wealth. For example, in the early days of Amazon, AOL, Dell and Apple the stocks of those companies often split several times in a year, creating wealth for those who invested in them. New companies seemed to acquire value with very little justification. Luxury and optimism pervaded the areas most involved with the evolution of the world we now inhabit. Even the Y2K panic couldn’t deflate the hot air balloon of Jupiter’s endless optimism. But then Pluto shifted into Capricorn and the world economy nearly collapsed and has never fully recovered. All the typical conditions of Pluto in Capricorn appeared: economic failures and malaise, supply chain disruptions, failure of trusted institutions including businesses and government, a pandemic that caused lock-downs, old men in power trying to hold power at any cost, polarization and demonization of the other, a widespread pessimism and fear of the future. The shift from Jupiter ruling Pluto to Saturn ruling Pluto was dramatic. Saturn’s task is to bring Jupiter back to earth, to disperse the hot air, to reveal the facts behind the wishful thinking. But just as Jupiter could go too far, so can Saturn.
As of 1/20/24 we move from Saturn ruling Pluto to Uranus ruling Pluto, another very dramatic shift. The task of Uranus is to unleash the new: new tech, new generations, new and shocking displays of the failures of Saturn. For those stuck in pessimism and the emotional poverty of Saturn, who cling to the past and approach the future with trepidation, it may be a difficult time. But for those who embrace change it may be a time of exciting opportunities.
Certainly Pluto in Aquarius will have its down side. Some of the negative possibilities include violent revolutions that can get out of control when Saturnian institutions refuse to make way for new approaches to inclusivness, for example the American, French, and Haitian revolutions, which occurred with Pluto in Aquarius. Bureaucracies driven by statistics and by what is best for the majority, with a disturbing tolerance for collateral damage, can be typical of Pluto in Aquarius, which was in effect when industrialization changed the world. New technology can be destructive as it sweeps away the past without regard for those who may be harmed.
Aquarius is all about the rebel, the diverse, the rights of individuals. For many the end of the stultifying atmosphere of Pluto in Capricorn will be a relief. And yet, especially in the first several years of the twenty year sojourn of Pluto in Aquarius, the electric quality of amped up energy in the air may be disturbing. We have already seen so many iconic aspects of 20th century culture fade away, and that process will now accelerate as 21st c. culture defines itself more aggressively. It will be good to be open-minded, and to cultivate a readiness to learn, and to support the new. I take a look at some of the themes of this new era in my most recent interview with Jeffrey Mishlove for his New Thinking Allowed show. You can see it on YouTube here.
