The Astrology Of December 2023: Final Libation

December begins four days after a Gemini Full Moon with Mercury already having been in the shadow of retrograde for six days, the first day of the month seeing Mercury transition from Sagittarius to Capricorn, knowing that he’ll be returning over that sign border from Earth back to Fire in three weeks time with an Inferior Conjunction with the Sun at zero degrees Capricorn on December 22nd, just after Winter Solstice. We can clearly see that Mercury is up to some specific business here which keys in to the underlying structure of our lives, society and the fabric of reality itself. We might say some pivotal details contextualized by the moment which are also fundamental to the way in which things are put together are going to need some extra attention and particular kernels and clues will be circumambulated around until they are located upon the territories in question. We are arriving at December with our minds recently lit up subjectively, the buzz around communications and data transfer gone fully bright and emotionally lubricated in which paradoxes, optionalities, polarities and info packets got gamified while the planet which governs these attributes was beginning to detour amidst thinking enthusiastically and talking excitedly about where things are going and how amazing it will be once we arrive further down the line from where we begin our race to the promise land.

[Above Image: Casey Weldon]

Out of the starter pistol comes so many ideas and data cascades which after some digital fireworks and drunken chatter we find we need to land firmly in reality for some measurements of the actual infrastructure and once we dig mental hooves into rocky terrain strategic thinking and analysis of what really makes up the mechanisms of strategem dominates our attention. Our evangelical banter turns to discussions about how at the end of the day there are certain steps that must be taken if we are going to pass the various tests and get all the necessary components installed. We may find over the next three weeks that what we think everything hinges on is not as we at first expect and going back over the details to get systems ship shape and Bristol fashion is what restores us to convincing ourselves and others of the quest which we are on.

Serigne Ibrahima Dieye

The Sun and Mars remain in Sagittarius for the duration of Mercury’s first three weeks in Capricorn, so our attention and our actions are directed towards where we are excited about ultimately going, despite our thinking populated with technical details and mechanical engineering. Jupiter, still finishing up his retrograde in Taurus, is trying to understand of what value is the fertile substance we acquired in our lives back at the beginning of the Summer, and this final act of understanding what things, methods and plans we have at our disposal we gained and grew into Spring to Summer 2023 forms a basis for upcoming progress directs the Sun’s attention, Mars’ tactics and Saturn’s formalizations. In every case there is a focus on setting up ourselves later with what we hold right now. Since Taurus is ruled by Venus this is directed ultimately by Venus’ position. On December 4th she transitions from hanging around the South Node in Libra to Scorpio. A very sophisticated sense of cultural, social, relational and aesthetic equalization, balance and harmony currently valuing less over more and refinement over acquisition transitions to primal desires, animalistic attraction, deep relational intimacy, and instinctual values. This seems to go hand in hand with Mercury’s recent transition from what we are excited to talk about to what is really the case which we are obligated to quantify and organize around. The real deal and the raw and uncompromising. What part of life this subtle governance of how all the aspects filter through depends on your rising sign and depends of many subtleties within our nativities, but a quick sketch of where Venus is stirring your desires from an animalistic modality looks like this by rising sign:

Aries: shared resources, mutual investment, inheritance, intimacy, collaboration.

Taurus: Relationships

Gemini: Health, habit, labor, tasks

Cancer: art, sex, fun, kids

Leo: home, family, foundations

Virgo: communications, transportation, locality, associates, sequencing

Libra: personal resources, income, values, stuff

Scorpio: self, body, identity, agency

Sagittarius: internal, private, hidden, hermetic

Capricorn: social, public

Aquarius: professional, career

Pisces: long term, long distance, philosophy, spirituality

The larger flow through of aspects by rising sign looks like:

Aries: Instinctual desires of the shared, mutual and collaborative. Opportunities to expand personal resource basis. Excited about long distance travel. Needing to let go of internal stress and formalize private flow. Thinking about career structures. Domestic nesting and familial care.

Taurus: Intense relational intimacy desires. Substantial personal growth. Excited about collaboration. Formulating public presence. Thinking about long term strategies. Communications and sequencing resources.

Gemini: Desire productivity and enjoying carnal instincts to get things done. Behind the scenes planing and value increase. Excited about partnership goals. Building atmosphere in professional sphere. Collaborative infrastructure organization. Attending to personal resources.

Cancer: Desire raw experience of art, sex and fun or children intensity. Public and social basis growth. Excited about health and work. Formulating long term flows and philosophical parameters. Thinking about partnership structures and boundaries. Self Care.

Leo: Carnal pleasure in domestic lair and familial intimacy. Career baseline expansion. Excited about art, sex, fun and kids activity. Formulating an atmosphere of mutual investment. Need of privacy for mental health.

Virgo: Enjoying raw experience of everyday reality. Substantial long term growth. Excited about trajectory of domestic activity. Formulating partnership atmosphere parameters. Thinking about creative construction, sexual mechanics and children responsibilities. Public and social saturation.

Libra: Uncompromising values and instinctual personal resource desires. Mutual investment material expansion. Excited about mobility and communications trajectories. Formulating health and labor flows and work atmosphere. Thinking about domestic infrastructure. Caretaking career generation.

Scorpio: Raw experience of personal desires. Relational baseline growth and increased partnership stability. Excited about personal resource activities and trajectories. Creativity and sexual flow formulation and parameters. Thinking about communications strategies and daily life infrastructure. Subjective experience of long term and wide scope.

Sagittarius: Primal desire for privacy and sanctuary or hidden animalistic passions. Expansion of work methods. Personal excitement and enthusiasm. Formulating a domestic flow state and foundational atmosphere. Thinking about personal resource strategy. Need for nest egg care.

Capricorn: Desire for raw and real public engagement. Expansion of creative practice and sexual satisfaction. Excitement around hermetic trajectories and private quests. Formulating an everyday sequencing flow state. Thinking about personal achievement and self discipline.

Aquarius: Desire for real career gratification. Expansion of baseline value in domestic foundations. Social and public excitement and activity. Formulating personal resource flows. Thinking about private and internal structures. Caring for health.

Pisces: Fixation on long term desires and philosophical infatuations. Substantial expansion of everyday sphere. Professional activity and career goal excitement. Personal flow state formulation and parameters of self and agency atmosphere. Thinking about public structure and social hierarchies. Nourishment via creativity, fun, and sex or caring for kids.

John Bellany

Venus being the ultimate curator of the zodiacal flow through until Jupiter ingresses Gemini in May means that what we resonate with, desire, value, are attracted to, take pleasure in, find satisfying, begets creativity, puts us in a romantic mode and so on is of focal import for the next months even if these foci are distributed throughout our life layers and take on a variety of archetypal forms from here to there. Until the 5th we can see what we would really like to remove from the mix to make for a less muddy symphony, and afterwards while she has stepped into Scorpio, our guts, loins, libido, instincts, obsessions, fixations, soul, survival responses and primal urges author the menu. Either way, you may proceed to a degree as if on psychedelics: move towards what you resonate with and move away from what is freaking you out and arrange everything relationally from there, as if decorating your life with its many components in a spatial distance map, an animal habitat of themes for you to lair within and slink around in stealth for best results. Or maybe the spinning of an aesthetic web which captures the prey of your deepest longings. Look to Jupiter for what you have to work with. What do you have of value, what good stuff have you acquired, what efforts are gaining momentum, what baseline layers are about and in what way can you groove with them. This is your web working medium. You may have a spider sense of turbulence up ahead on the timeline, as Jupiter is planning to conjoin Uranus in late Taurus in April while the Aries eclipse is blasting off. If you can tell which substances are glowing with radioactivity make some room for laboratory space around them to experiment with. You might be holding one card or another that could potentially blow up, and if it does you want it to be to your benefit, as the theme will be “opportunity via volatility”.

Frank Frazetta

This fertile and earthy yet radicalizing Jupiter then directs Saturn in Pisces as well the Sun and Mars in Sagittarius, so a lot of life right now is in these contexts of the raw and real we are receptive to and how that forms a basis of what we are excited about and where that’s headed. I’m passionate about X because its expanding in Y ways and could get crazy eventually so I want to flow steadily around XY and keep my eyes on a tomorrow of Z which are born of the XY mixture and energized by my mojo. Themes of releasing and letting go and simplifying how we make value judgements to be with the compost, manure and fertilizer of our existence has us mindful of how we irrigate the land, where natural drainage occurs and what the motivations of animals within our ecosystem means. Work the ecology to permaculture your narrative across all the life layers to increase vitality and meet your transcendental goals.

Casey Weldon

Mercury’s retrograde action, especially as it concludes in Sagittarius conjunct Mars after first sweeping through early Capricorn suggests that contractual infrastructure will be scrutinized around the deed to the territory and that going down with the ship in dedication to the project could have conflict baked into it from the get go. As this Mars conjunction is where the ratsnest gets untangled, in a place where Mercury is not necessarily known for maximum honesty but more hot air, and square to Neptune in Pisces, where details leak and security is not present, be careful around what was said, what had been previously agreed to, and realize that there could be confusion and projection contributing to tensions on the rise. It’s not a sealed deal to well into January, which will see Mars getting crafty to out-maneuver opponents once in Capricorn. In the meanwhile grab your readers to go back over the fine print, then your binoculars so you can see the navigation markers right and adjust your course to where you are excited to go rather than to a destiny someone maybe sold you only to see you journey off map or into a trap.

Abanindranath Tagore

As stated, Venus’ activity feeds through the rest of the whole array, and we will find her opposing Uranus, trining Neptune, sextiling Pluto and after ingressing Sagittarius applying to square Saturn. Desiring impact, meaning, rawness, profundity, depth at the cost of going beyond social niceties goes through the motions leveling eye to eye with unstable ground, harmonic accord with a total plunge into escapist depths, and a going hand in hand with the dark, labyrinthine corridors of a corrupt society and haunted world. From another perspective, what we are attracted to from our animalistic needs sights revolution within basic commodities, immerses effortlessly into the all permeating and collaborates with an endgame sleuth to checkmate as punctuation this last round of financial oppression since the recession of 2008 and come out up a rung on the ladder by hook or by crook. Urgent basic deviance, complete lack of restraint and fearless facing of the phalanx. There’s many ways to spin it, but the puppet strings of mundane themes animate the context pumped through out darkened hearts and the bile saturating the sponge is in transition to a tonic of acceptance, an elixir which amphetamizes us to flash state and artemesial pupil dilation. Jupiter’s direct station on December 30th at 9:40pm eastern, in mutual reception with Venus now at 1 degree and 31 minutes of Sagittarius says something like, wake up, grab your bugout bag, its about to be 2024, there’s a lot left to be done if we’re getting out of here, here’s some coffee, toast, and a micro dose, let’s go. And the locomotive slowly grinds into motion with some steam puffs, as it rolls forward with metalic squeelings we feel the chug a chug a chuga chuga chuggachuggachugaa choo choo and the momentum of movement, inertia and velocity spikes up our receptors and the world takes on an altogether different aesthetic; even the most mundane thing suddenly is laced with potential.

Jean Delville

But there’s enemies in our midst. It’s a mystery train. The atmosphere is sodden. It’s a downpour outside, and if we are going to keep our lanterns lit we need to take care not to allow the dampness to fizzle us out. People argue around us, over who will reach the finish line first. Liquidations are occurring. A little of this becomes a lot of that. If you are willing to let go of some slack you can really stack up your assets. Ponzi schemes are afoot, and floods of real value, but you have to be receptive, perceptive with all your senses, even your intuitive and psychic faculties. Those with more experience will benefit. You carry in your body the meaning of things. The end is only the beginning, but its still just the beginning of the end. You can’t separate the two, and overhear someone say beginding in a nearby hushed compartment. Maybe words here are no good. Look at where people are looking at to find out where they intend to go and anticipate their moves. You can also use this principle to fake people out, if you have to. Trends here are lit like sky climbing fireworks. You see the red sparks fall into the papers and burn as headlines and hot take phrases. There’s philosophy elsewhere, we can still have of it, we can go seek it out and find it, for our own delight if for nothing else. By this principle we must depoliticize, lighten the scales of judgement, or we go no where under the leaden, judicial weight. The train kept a rollin’ all night long. But that’s a January story.

Michael D O'Brien

The two lunations to grace December are the 12th’s New Moon in Sagittarius and the 26th’s Full Moon in Cancer. The Sagittarian lack of Moon opens up potential for a starry night if free of clouds in a traditionally Saturnalian sector of sky space. The all-morphicness and poly-formal quality of what we now experience as holiday season buzz in the consumerist and fossil fuel dependent westernized world. Chimeras of various sorts emerge from echidnal wombs as strings of blinking lights and other phantasmic decor— but the archaic world would have flipped the script, inverted the class hierarchy, sacrificed real humans or effigies to the scent of roasting pig flesh, the tumbling of bone dice and exchanging of esoteric gifts while sticking it to the man as a form of pressure release. The bestial dragon pole dancing round the ever turning axis of the world gone cold while the ghostly gates cracked ajar suggest you don’t have to go home but you can’t stay here, forever that is. For now warm yourself around the celestially roofed campfire where resolutions are conceived in the hypnotizing play of flames and aphyxio-stimulating smoke globs that choke you out like copper toned alchemical rabbits. Contemplation ensues over apocalyptic end times celebrations and final longest nights of where you wish to go no matter fucking what and even if it kills you you’ll get there in the end, so mote it be, as in context of the truly monstrous otherwiseness of existence you really don’t have anything else to lose. Since life on earth is in essence only one big funeral pyre than you might as well pour what’s left of the gasoline of your limited qi upon the inspired blaze of your daimonic dedication.

Steven Rendall

Contemplating what we’re ultimately jazzed on in a world gone wild culminates in Cancer as if we’re born again. Fantasies of what could-be in an endless satiation loop of vampiric need look to the resources at hand and the way in which the good stuff flows with an awareness of what it takes to be generated across the celestial threshold and feed a world flooding to fecundity, dogstar blazing, Cerberus bribed, Charon paid off, canopic ointment en-jared, cooling waters evoked, the fountain of ambrosia and abundencia there to be quaffed from, refreshing the thirsty new world. Well, well. The seedlings need moisture and nutrients if they are to sprout and those on the journey to a final destination must take libation upon the pilgrim’s road. Take heed: Venus, Jupiter, Saturn and the Full Moon and the Sun lighting it all being in yin modality signs while the only thing happening in fire is Retrograde Mercury conjunct Mars square Neptune makes for a swampy drunken episode where some unfortunate, derailing shit got declared. To avoid this seek Gaia’s milk and the clear waters of truth. Direct your inner grail quester to the sanctuary spa rather than the brothel bathhouse. Mercury has the capability to correct when in retrograde, but is extremely embattled in this moment. Making sense of it is not necessarily available, thus the upwelling of Cancerian light. Go for feel good not parasitical feeding. Balms abound galore, but the ability to sort well is absent. The Sun can see how one territory is more advantageous than another, so take the high ground where possible. Imbibe yes, if you don’t you’ll not be nourished, but do so in a reputable establishment.

Casey Weldon

Notes by Date:

Mercury in shadow: already in the technical tripwires

1st:

-Mercury ingress Cap: strategic analysis, territory exchanges, boundary communications, structural thinking

2nd

-Mercury sextile Saturn: strategic and structural thinking with flow state form and ambiance parameters

3rd

-Venus square Pluto: refined and reduced diplomatic values and cultural desires in tension with final stages in hierarchical ominousness, fear fortifications and traditional obsession story

4th

-Venus ingress Scorpio: animalistic desires, passion attractions, intense intimacy values

5th

-Venus trine Saturn: intense desires and instinctual passions in harmony with loosened control and atmospheric parameters strategy

7th

-Mercury trine Jupiter: strategic, constructive thinking in harmony with coherence of methodological expansion of baseline substance security

-Sun trine Chiron: enthusiastic focus on energetic trajectories harmonized with uneasiness in direct autonomous action

Serigne Ibrahima Dieye

12th

-New moon in Sag: quiet, contemplative seeding of manifestation cycle in energetic trajectories and inspired goals

13th

-Mercury RX Cap: begins process of rethiking strategies, structures, territories

16th

-Sun square Neptune: focus and attention clashing with high saturation state, unreal permeability, fantasy flow

-Mars trine Chiron: tactical maneuvers towards long term trajectories harmonized with healing of direct, autonomous action

-Mars becoming visible again in am: return of vitality, energy, yang expression, capabilities

21st

-Sun ingress Cap, solstice: attention and focus on territory, strategy, fortification— most yin moment of year

-Venus opposite Uranus: passionate desires, attraction to intimacy, instinctual values challenged to balance with experimentation and change in the baseline substances, regular methodologies and organic rhythms

22nd

-Inferior conjunction Cap: clues at the center of the excarnation gates, territorial info key

23rd

-Mercury rx regress Sag: rethinking and correcting process switches to long term goals and energetic trajectories

25th

-Venus trine Neptune: animalistic desires and intimacy relations harmonized with fully permeable high saturation state and all encompassing fantasy immersion

26th

-Full Moon Cancer: culmination of manifestation cycle in the nurturing, care, resource flow, generative modality

27th

-Mercury RX square Neptune: rethinking and adjusting or correcting the course of energetic trajectories and goals based on enthusiasm in tension with fully permeable high saturation state and all encompassing fantasy immersion— fantasy interfering with targeting goals

-Mercury RX conjunct Mars: rethinking and adjusting or correcting the course of energetic trajectories and goals based on enthusiasm fused with tactical maneuvering towards holy grails

28th

-Mars square Neptune: tactical maneuvering towards holy grails in tension with fully permeable high saturation state and all encompassing fantasy immersion

Delcroix

29th

-Venus sextile Pluto: primal desires and intense urges in collaboration with hierarchical powergames, shadow structures, conspiratorial chess moves, threshold initiations, and the ominousness of the ending of a historical era

-Venus ingress Sag: desires, attractions, values of long term trajectories and noble goals

-applying to square Saturn: the above in tension with flow state forms and strategic atmosphere and ambiance parameters, obligations to let go

30th

-Jupiter stations direct: shift from wide scope cohering of what makes up our worlds to beginning to grow and expand ourselves again

Serigne Ibrahima Dieye