Take your time to understand.
Don't just do something,
be there.
Marshall Rosenberg
The Full Moon on December 15, 2024, at 24 Gemini,
occurs as Mercury stations direct. Thought processes are turbo-charged, and we feel compelled to figure something out around a decision we need to make.
Positive change and opportunities emerge from being purposeful around where we direct our attention and how we incorporate intuitive hunches into our line of thinking. It is best to not prematurely jump to conclusions about where things are going and to remain open-minded, curious and flexible as the big picture continues to take shape.
Mentally, we may feel like we are trying to understand the ocean by running along its shoreline with a plan to define its circumference. Trying to fathom the fathomless, we actually have a chance of making headway. Our mind's energetic endeavors can spark fantastic insight and clarity about how different pieces we are considering will fit together. We are also vulnerable to mental overload.
To experience the benefits of the Full Moon, rather than the potential for overload, we are advised to anchor ourself to our breath and then be intentional about what we feed our mind. There is a feast of information and ideas our mind can overindulge on; it is up to us to filter out what is at best a distraction and at worst toxic to select what will nourish healthy and effective reasoning.
Full Moon Ruler: Mercury stations Direct
Fire Grand Trine: Mercury, Mars Retrograde & North Node
Mutable T Square: Neptune square the Full Moon
Irritation Triangle: Uranus quincunx the Sun & sextile the Moon
Mystic Rectangle: Pluto trine South Node, Mars trine North Node, Mars oppose Pluto
Full Moons are the peak moment of each lunar cycle when something in our life reaches a culmination point. The days leading up to the Full Moon bring increased momentum, activity and mounting pressure. At the Full Moon, emotions and tides run high. Something comes to a head, experienced as a crisis or breakthrough, and a desired resolution can be achieved. During the two weeks following the Full Moon, we are completing a month's journey and distilling the wisdom of the recent lunar cycle, so we are ready for the invitation that is presented with the next New Moon.
For those of us with planets between 22 and 29 degrees of a mutable sign (Pisces, Sagittarius, Gemini, Virgo), we are likely to experience the potential benefits or pitfalls of this Full Moon more acutely, which include a susceptibility to mental exhaustion and to having fantastic breakthroughs in understanding. There is a greater necessity to actively filter out distractions and to prioritize the time to digest and distill the wisdom from the various pieces of information.
The house where 24 Gemini resides in our natal chart provides us an indication of the area of life that preoccupies our thoughts. We are in the process of making a decision surrounding this area of life but seek further insight and understanding.
An open mind,
like an open window,
should be screened
to keep the bugs out.
Virginia Hutchison
Desire to See the Forest and the Trees
Gemini Moon/Sagittarius Sun
Our curiosity is piqued as we search for more information, facts and fresh perspective (Moon in Gemini). We instigate conversations to exchange information, wanting to glean something we don't yet know. Simultaneously, we are compelled to fit together the different pieces of information, to see the big picture and the wisdom that comes from this coherence (Sun in Sagittarius) so we can better navigate options and choices we face. We crave more detail, more facts and yet yearn to see discover picture they create once synthesized.
Recently, I was listening to an interview with Michael Lazerow, an entrepreneur in the media world. He said something confused me: We are not in a world of information overload. I could not make sense of what he was wanting to convey until a short time later, he said: We live in a world of filter failure. We are bombarded with information and communication of all kinds. What is lacking is boundaries and discernment. There is a lack of collective values, ethics, or cultural vision that inform what is expressed and broadcast. It is up to us individually to implement 'parental regulations' on ourselves to monitor and shape our consumption of words, images, ideas and news.
We are to give attention to our mental diet – limiting our access to information or conversations that function like caffeine, sugar or alcohol. Certain information can excite, agitate, or entertain but we need to curb what will deplete or exhaust us. Modern culture has fostered shorter attention spans and amplifies ADHD tendencies in its citizens. The Full Moon highlights the need for each of us to focus on our thought and to do practices that support concentration, such as meditation or mantra. In addition, we can look at how to better feed ourselves a regular diet of gratitude and positive thinking, and ways to consistently expose ourselves to information that uplifts, energizes and empowers.
Gemini rules the breath and our lungs. We are to have a practice of breathing so that our breath is better connected with our thinking, listening and speech. When our breathing is not in sync with our thinking processes, we can easily get lost in our heads, potentially unable to relax or sleep.
The planetary rulers of Gemini and Sagittarius: Mercury and Jupiter are in mutual reception – meaning that they are in the sign that the other rules: Mercury is in Sagittarius and Jupiter is in Gemini. Our minds are busier than usual, moving back and forth between viewing the forest and then viewing the particulars of a tree, looking at the individual pieces of information while trying to grasp a whole understanding. This can produce a restlessness, where thoughts begin to race and get confused. This lends itself to consuming more information than we can possibly digest. So, let's be mindful of not putting more on our plates than we can possibly get done.
"... be a filter, not a sponge." ~ Stephen Chbosky
Focused Attention Yields Clarity
Full Moon Ruler: Mercury
After 3 weeks Retrograde, Mercury stations direct the day of the Full Moon. We are primed to arrive at understandings around a decision we have been mulling over. There can be a big breakthrough or message we receive, but we need to take time to integrate the new information so we can discern the full picture. It is prudent to not give into a sense of false urgency. Rather than be impulsive, we can give ourselves the space to fully grasp the particulars of a decision and feel mentally calm when we make it.
Attention
is the most powerful tool
of the human spirit.
We can enhance or augment
our attention with practices
like meditation and exercise,
diffuse it with technologies
like email and Blackberries,
or alter it with pharmaceuticals.
In the end, though,
we are fully responsible
for how we choose to use
this extraordinary tool.
Linda Stone
The Intellect has Limits
Mutable T Square: Neptune square The Full Moon
Neptune is the planet of dreams, illusions and ideals. We can be led astray or become confused by facts that are not facts. Information may not be what it appears. We may not feel up to making a decision or taking action. Instead, we have the impulse to either escape, give up or ignore something requiring our attention.
If this is what is happening, then we need to slow down and listen. There is a message coming from a realm beyond our rational mind – through a dream, intuition, from nature or the divine. We can counter mental fatigue by focusing on our breath, observing the rise and fall of the breath in our belly. Through the breath, we can connect to our body, to the moment, to our heart, to nature, to what is present. Something is hidden in plain sight that we can see when we come present to ourselves.
Six Planets in Mutable Signs. The benefit of mutability is that it has us more adaptable and flexible than usual. The downside is that we can be easily distracted, or mentally scattered. The intellect is emphasized, but it can be easily overstimulated, leading to mental overload. Again, the antidote is found by giving attention to our breathing. Moving forward connected to the inhalation and exhalation of air will serve to slow us down and help us focus on what is most relevant.
Authenticity
Irritation Triangle – Sun Quincunx Uranus / Moon Sextile Uranus
We are itching for something new but anticipating change stirs insecurity. Irritability or indecisiveness may accompany this. Unexpected events remind us that we are not in control. We may look to resist changes or rebel against those whose agenda conflicts with our own. If we can hold that life is a grand experiment, then we can let go of preconceived ideas and do what is needed to open, adapt, adjust and learn.
We are more creative, open to new ways to solve things. We are willing to entertain a different approach and to step away from habitual ways of dealing with problems, plans and people. (Moon semisextile Uranus)
Love is the affinity
which links and draws together
the elements of the world...
Love, in fact,
is the agent of universal synthesis.
Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
Give Ourselves to What we Love
Fire Grand Trine: Mercury, Mars Retrograde and North Node
Fire is typically associated with momentum and decisive action, but this Fire Grand Trine is characterized by stillness and allowing the heat, the passion to build within us. Our minds are actively distilling and putting together what we have been reviewing and contemplating the last weeks (Mercury stationing and standing still). We are going back over past actions and reviewing the validity of desires we have (Mars is Retrograde). We are experiencing a reality check around our passion and interests to determine if the desire is still there. And if so, to recognize how what we desire may be different in some way.
Ready to complete its 18-month journey in Aries, The North Node supports us in regaining the confidence to better stand up for and speak up about what we believe in. We are reviewing now what matters most to us within a larger context (North Node conjunct Neptune). Neptune reminds us that there is something larger than ourselves at play. Our soul’s path does not operate in isolation but in conjunction with the people around us, with nature and the unfolding of the collective. Our confidence lies not only in a belief in ourself, but in our trust a force or presence larger than ourselves that informs and inspires the unfolding of our lives and the created world.
Let us give our attention to what will nurture our passion and love of life. Beyond the facts and the mind’s deductive reasoning, we are to be guided by what lights us up. The mind then can serve our heart's desire as it gathers, filters and distills information to arrive at the best way to move towards the fulfillment of our core desire.
A New Way to Handle Conflict
Mystic Rectangle: Pluto trine South Node, Mars trine North Node, Mars oppose Pluto
The Mystic Rectangle is made up of two parallel trines connected by two sextiles. Within the rectangle are two oppositions. The trines provide the blessings, the gifts that help us to resolve the tension presented by the oppositions.
Be curious about what is frustrating or angering us. Within it we can have insight as to how we give away our power. There is a journey of discovery we need to take before we are ready to take action. We seek a way to disentangle ourselves from looking for outer validation or needing to live up to another’s expectations. Rather than go out of way to keep the peace, we are more inclined to disrupt or ruffle feathers in the name of something important to us that we can no longer keep under wraps.
We are to exercise our creative and intuitive faculties (Mars trine Neptune) and draw from our earned wisdom around relationships (Pluto trine the South Node) to shift how current relationship dynamics where we get caught in overextending to meet other's needs of us. (South Node Libra/North Node Aries).
We may be feeling disempowered in a relationship, perhaps with an authority figure or someone who seems to hold power over us. We are to honor our anger without venting it on others or letting it whip us around. The heat of our anger, if we can be present to it, can help transform how we operate when do not get our way. Often it can feel like we have one of two options when we get angry: to fight and engage in a power struggle or to cave and yield to the other. A third way emerges where we can stand up for ourselves without alienating the other person or causing them to react in a defensive or offensive way.
Dynamic Change in Process
Jupiter square Saturn (August 2024 – June 2025)
Underlying the Full Moon is an almost yearlong dynamic which colors our experience of this time. We want to grow and feel greater freedom (Jupiter) and yet we find ourselves confronted with restrictions and limitations (Saturn) that prevent this. One moment, we are looking for freedom from restrictions (Jupiter) and the next we may assert that our commitments and responsibilities (Saturn) are what give our life meaning. Still, we recognize that changes need to be made so we feel good about the responsibilities we hold. Our spirit is looking for greater freedom and we are exploring the changes or adjustments we plan to take. This is a several month process where we sit with, explore options and ready to make needed changes.
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Webinar: Astrology of 2025
Friday, January 3, 2025
7:00 pm EST
$30
The 75-minute webinar will provide insight into the astrological dynamics of 2025 and what they might mean for you. This will include an interpretation of
The outer planets each changing signs
The Small Grand Trine between the outer planets
Pluto out of bounds in Aquarius
Mercury and Venus Retrogrades
The Eclipses and the Nodes in Pisces and Virgo
Jupiter square the Saturn/ Neptune conjunction
Note: On Scheduling page, find and select January 3 in the calendar provided so that you can register