The Astrology of December 2025: Over Ripe

The first week of December Mercury, having just turned direct in Scorpio, pings the much discussed Grand Water Trine consisting of Jupiter retrograde in Cancer, Neptune retrograde in Pisces and Saturn also recently direct in Pisces. Outer planet’s retrogrades don’t usually make much astrological news, operating more like tidal shifts than reversals of function or disruptions of the logistical goings-on, but the preponderance of retrogradation in November across an elemental super-structure laid a heavy backwater vibe out which we may have thought we drowned in. Jupiter has paused in his growth phase by December to spend the next few months contemplating what has been acquired, resourced, made abundant, expanded upon and gained since June of 2025. This exercise induces coherence of that which is nourishing our beings, that which we need greater servings of in our lives and by contrast that which we sorely lack.

Patrick Caulfield (also above)

Mercury, Saturn and Neptune are handling a lot of the contrast across the emotional spectrum, as Mercury is thinking about and scheming at obtaining everything we’re starving for and thus by nature also fixated on while Saturn and Neptune are still currently drowning in all that we ultimately must let go of to revitalize ourselves and initiate new lives. Mercury now direct means he has made some logistical corrections to how things can satiate over the course of November and we are readying to attempt to restart the chase-after-our-ultimate-goals engine. Saturn stationing direct days before December begins implies we are going to be obligated to be more constructive again rather than merely patiently waiting for blocks to dissolve. Here we get the prod to move along in the chronology, ready or not, get on with the big letting go of what hypnotized us for the past 15ish years a la Neptune, like a dog ordered to “drop it” by it’s master, we have to reverse our hold no matter what our instincts tell us to do otherwise, as we’ve been brainwashed in one way or another, by trauma, trend, time or even our own previous successes and need to quit the escapist routine and prepare ourselves to have entirely new ideas and partake in activities yet unprecedented in the months and years to come. Saturn is like a hard lesson lending parent planning on giving us the sink or swim treatment as he edges us closer and closer to the pool. Jupiter is done dealing out an abundance of opportunities until April so what we have to work with at the moment is simply what we have to work with at the moment, not what we might hope or expect to come in next week, or the week after. So once we’re pushed in the water our swimming lessons are what we must rely on, there’s no floaties being immediately thrown to us. I’m not saying you are definitely not getting that xmas bonus, but plan as if you are not and everything on top of that is a boon. It’s like having to take a risky weather window in sailing as your time is running out and you can’t stay as the seasonal weather is going to keep deteriorating until its more dangerous to remain. A leap is involved, and before that leap make sure you have the ship well organized and everything taken stock of and assessed well, cuz any day now you’re going to get your final chance at making way.

Paula Figueiroa Rego

We’re headed into the future, no doubt, with an abundance of Aries and Aquarius in the upcoming astro weather of 2026, both signs signaling the “new”, Aries by beginning things with spring-like initiation, sparking off, and Aquarius by insisting on progressing into uncharted territory, especially mentally. Venus then Mercury sextile Pluto as they transition into Sagittarius in December, so the pressure to move into the unknown, off map, and exist in the ongoing unprecedented power dynamics of tomorrow is even a bit inspiring at the moment; like when we tingle with anticipation drawing that Fool Card, but in this case maybe backed by the Devil. Additionally, Mars, Sun, Venus, Mercury and New Moon square Saturn then Neptune in Pisces from Sagittarius; squares sound alarms that “something must be done” in a moment of narrative tension. This likely relates to the energetic rousing to taking of risky weather-windows or else, as the vibe of the story picks up on the sense of adventure, questing for what might be gained versus languishing eternally in yesteryear where we are just zoning out zombified on whatever we learned to escape with into outdated fantasy worlds and now is not much more than a toxic stew killing us slowly to keep us calm rather than truly regulating our nervous systems in earnest. Although, we must again keep in mind that Jupiter rules both Sagittarius and Pisces and is himself retrograde though well dignified in his exaltation, so his major coherence of resources we’ve recently gained can be excellent at fueling hope for our most ultimate trajectory its still in a moment where growing more, getting bigger or taking on extra is not necessarily wise. Proceed but don’t over-inflate. Try to conceptualize how you can make real progress coming up by moving into the unknown, hope intact, but without naivety, as you’re avoiding overwhelm by not grabbing at at things which require resources you currently have no access to. You have likely gained considerably in the past few months, even if it remains somewhat mysterious or mismatched, how can those nourishment flows sustain this leg of the journey until the late winter updrafts warm conditions and excite the story into inevitable further activity?

Sue Swale

All of the above planets moving across Sagittarius in December step upon the bends of the Nodes, encapsulating a particular moment of tension which advances the nodal story. The plot quickens with themes of less programmed more improvisational, less logistical more loose, less friction more flow, but in nodal fashion the significant fast forward squeeze adds its share of turbulence and more feelings that you’re being rushed into what you are not ready to yet hold and letting go of stabilizers you still need to keep your balance. In multiple ways this month looks like an exciting section of the larger story after a real backwater backsklide having us languishing in the past. We might imagine a character we thought to be a goner, drowned in an impossible quicksand somehow grabbing hold of a root and struggling out only to proceed through some rapids towards a destiny of more challenges with the promised land way on the other side in not only the end of this current installment but over in its sequel. But foreshadowing tells us that sequel has already been filmed and is rumored to be released immediately in the upcoming season. Getting there requires an effort of calm, alert attention. Keep your balance in between.

Marc Chagall

All this Fire sign activity is adding up, and along with the Full Moon in Gemini, December, despite being obviously tense and go-time inducing, has much more warmth, playfulness and festivity worked into it than October and November. Things get serious though as the train of inner planets march into Capricorn after their squares. Saturn is direct and also ruled by Jupiter; it’s time to progress in the chronology and go “back to the future” despite having to work with only what we currently hold, evoking spectrum of resource, envisioning ultimate ends and playing long games strategically for concrete results. It’s “back to the future” as what Saturn and the rest of the outer planets are attempting to do is clear out whatever needs to be concluded of our pasts so we have room for the next episodes of our lives to properly be enacted. We all caught a glimpse of what we’re moving into for the next many years during Spring and Summer 2025, so now that we’ve washed off that trrack temporarily, what do we notice standing in its way? The purpose of this autumn’s moody and gross over-saturation is to make that abundantly clear. What was exciting you in April or August 2025 which has since gone flaccid? Well, it’s not actually impotent, it’s just too inebriated on past libations to maintain an erection. Once we sort out what’s putting out our fire and drain the swamps we can get real traction, but we have to do some final shifting of concrete forms and some heavy lifting to get there. With Saturn direct and planets stepping through Capricorn its as if going after what’s worth going after requires some strategic realness, in metaphorical seamanship fashion— we still must go with the flow as the basis of our progress. Hold fast and know how much sail to let out at any given time to keep the boat propelled without being overpowered and susceptible to steering loss or full knock down from sudden squalls. You know the route to start, you were recently there, so despite the movement into the relative unknown, you can still navigate by feel.

Osborne Henry Mavor

Neptune also stations direct by December 10th, so the plot is set to advance back to where it had gotten to in spring-summer 2025 and continue onward past that point never to return to the old era at last. This allows us to imagine things we have yet to imagine in our lives. Collective consciousness will also be under a new and different spell. This is a notable moment in the conclusion of an escapist period where things are able to “go viral” and collective consciousness has been immersed together in streaming media. We maybe benefited by a possible catching up to speed of spiritual principles and learned about both empathy and relaxation, but we have to come to terms with our addictions to collective immersion and avoiding living our lives in various forms of zombification, as much has degenerated, slipped through our fingers, melted away, diluted and gone down the drain while we were preoccupied with the virtual, artificial, unreal or ambient elsewheres. As Jupiter is in Cancer ruled by the Moon there’s multiple kinds of stream-of-consciousness at play, and our dreams and impressions are giving us important subjective cues with lucidity as long as we can discern them from that which we’ve become hypnotized by. We must now separate the food from the drug. This is likely why Saturn says it must stop. If we are to have a lucid dream and govern ourself holistically we must see our intoxications for what they are. They are not nourishment. This can be confusing as the Moon moves quickly, so the process includes gaining our legit nutrients from something different each few hours, days, or weeks. We may have been on a series of short lived tangents over the past few months. We have to tap into the cyclical intelligence and sense like hunter gatherers. There is a season for everything, and it all will come around again in time. Simultaneously, we begin here to tune out the noise and gather focus, reclaiming our targets as we dispel the haze.

Giuseppe Cesari

The lunations this month seem to speak to this by both encouraging and challenging us to connect our inner and outer worlds in a way which we have an appropriate circuit breaker in place to prevent system overload or short circuit, as in being unnecessarily overly effected when interacting with others. Emerging more and more into the offline world where people engage without private, digital buffers out in the open can bring with it newly developed nervousness we didn’t realize we had. It’s not anymore the days to drop by someone’s house without texting first, we’re not used to people catching us off guard or by surprise, but that is exactly what is changing, so get ready to interact unplanned. The Saturnalia-like inversion of social and cultural order which is potentiated in the holiday season, especially if festive impulse clashes with watery abandon, can create a kind of “what happens at the party stays at the party” dynamic, but these boundaries aren’t always clearly defined. We may have to manually make these parameters for ourselves as alternative realities, ephemeral activity, curiosity lures and unique scenarios ensue. There is no longer a norm, but there is a long term spell which although largely illusion, still has us immersed in what is essentially already history, so when you catch yourself doing something outside of how you’ve been scripted, there may be more epiphany in that than you realize, but ask your heart if it makes sense and make sure you’re consciously-aware-spirit-mind isn’t left open totally to excessive impact of other peoples’ absolute bullshit, but not by reverting to shielding yourself on the other side of a phone or screen.

Patrick Caulfield

Lastly, in reviewing the outer planets retrograde, direct and station sequences reveals where plots had hit over-extension by mid-summer in attempting to bring in our new lives and at what point on the timeline they plan to return to from mid-spring and pick up threads from earlier in 2025 to continue on with. I’ll put the dates below for you to review. We are going to where we thought we were going to but we are not bringing everything from the past with us. That being said, we might be bringing elements from the past we had not thought of or actively disregarded, which our recent feelings may have signaled actually that “I can’t live without X, Y or Z coming along with me” before we proceed. This all of course depends on how deep the delusion is that needs banishing and how initiatory you naturally are. Some will have found the past more challenging than the future and others vis versa. Either way, our individual job is to do the work of holistic health, for ourself and the general environs. We’re kicking the virtual habit literally or metaphorically, and the plane has begun its descent, we must become calm and awake but not all at once; we’re in the hypnopompic process and will soon be searching for coffee. Every chemical, pharmaceutical, toxin, narcotic, or delusion we infuse in ourselves actually still effects everybody and everything else. We get lucid together by getting lucid on our own. I wish us all luck picking up the thread, reinventing ourselves, reinvigorating existence and ending unnecessary nightmares which perpetuate false-fulfillment while undermining integrity and deep meaning.

Osborne Henry Mavor

Saturn RX: 7/13/25—11/27/25

-last time Saturn was at direct station degree: 4/6/25

-Moment of notable progression: 11/27/25

-Moment of notable overextension: 7/13/25

-Moment containing thread to be retrieved: 4/6/25

Jupiter RX: 11/11/25—3/10/26

-last time Jupiter was on degree of direct station 8/17/25

-Moment of notable progression: 3/10/26

-Moment of notable overextension: 11/11/25

-Moment containing thread to be retrieved: 8/17/25

Neptune RX: 7/4/24—12/10/25

-last on degree of direct station 3/13/25

-Moment of notable progression: 12/10/25

-Moment of notable overextension: 7/4/24

-Moment containing thread to be retrieved: 3/13/25

Uranus RX: 9/6/25—2/3/26

-last on degree of direct station: 5/20/25

-Moment of notable progression: 2/3/26

-Moment of notable overextension: 9/6/25

-Moment containing thread to be retrieved: 5/20/25

_____________________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Paula Figueiroa Rego

NOTES

12/2

-Venus sextile Pluto: Desire for motion, attraction to pursuits, love of adventure, value of holy grails collaborating with progressive unknowns and pioneering power dynamics

12/4

-Full Moon in Gemini: subjective cycle culminating in curiosity, multiplicity and exchange

12/6

-Mercury trine Jupiter: Stealth logistics surrounding fixation on what we’re starving for harmonized with contemplation on abundance and lack status of what nourishes us in the context of that which has been gained over the past few months

12/7

-Mercury trine Saturn: Stealth logistics surrounding fixation on what we’re starving for harmonized with obligation to let go of old immersions and go with the flow out of overwhelm and escape towards initiation of new activity

Marc Chagall

12/8

-Mars square Saturn: the tactics and maneuvers of obtaining ultimate ideals and holy grails clashing with the obligation to let go of old immersions and release ourselves from outdated nostalgias and escapist saturations

Fernand Léger

12/10

-Neptune stations direct: A step forward in the conclusion of an era which began in 2011/2012, typified by streaming media, weed gummies, netflix-and-chill, marvel movies, binge watching, doom scrolling, Tik Toc dances, influencers, viral media generally as well as proliferation of empathy and an ability to imagine outside the scope of our direct existences which widened the scope of many peoples horizons but now has outlived its purpose and leaves us all having to come to terms with addictions and the need to kick habits and gain footing in a degraded reality where much solidity has regretfully slipped through our fingers as we awaken somewhat atrophied. The above describes the macro but can be applied metaphorically to our personal lives as well. Where in your life did you get carried away by the virtual or become exceedingly hypnotized or misled?

-Mercury opposite Uranus: Stealth logistics surrounding fixation on what we’re starving for contending with the final adjustment made to the physical baselines of our lives in this current era. What constant of reality ultimately must be changed to proceed, especially in terms of being safe, stable and resilient.

12/11

-Mercury ingress Sag: Logic, language, communication, analysis, ideas and information on an enthusiastic trajectory, adventure or pursuit for ideal goals or ultimate holy grails. The logistics of setting our sights on the prize.

David Flemming Sharpe

12/13

-Mercury sextile Pluto: Pursuit, trajectory, adventure, goal oriented logic and language , eyes on the prize ideas collaborating with pioneering pressures and pushes off map into unknown mental territory

12/14

-Mars square Neptune: Tactics and maneuvers relating to seizing and obtaining goals no matter what clashing with the conclusion of an era and facing up to a diluted and polluted reality which has to be moved on from

12/15

-Mars ingress Cap: tactics and strategy combined, especially in territorial awareness, chess-like maneuvering

12/17

-Sun square Saturn: focus, vision and attention toward closing in on ultimate goals clashing with concluding dissolve of deluding fantasies from an era draining away

Nonnie Preston

12/19

-New Moon in Sag: inception of subjective cycle, seeds of manifestation quietly and contemplatively sown in the narrative soil of ideals and pursuits of the ultimate. Set within the seasonal reverberation of Kronia/Saturnalia: pre solstice inversion of social and cultural order. Festivities accompanying the broad night and gate of excarnation. Impressions of animal and even human sacrifice from deep human psychological inheritance. Gambling, feasting, gift exchange and effigy parades.

12/20

-Sun square Neptune: Focus on ultimate goals clashing with total dissolution at the end of an era

-Venus square Saturn: Desire for ultimate pursuits no matter the cost clashing with the obligation to let go and go with the flow, especially in the context of concluding old stories that have finished running their course and are losing hold

12/21

-Sun ingress Cap: Focus on concrete reality, territorial advantage, hierarchal structures, status, long term strategy, historical and traditional establishments. That which is enduring punctuated by the longest night and greatest darkness. Also, an awareness of thresholds at the moment of excarnation gateway openings, exit to the underworld passages.

Francis Ferdinand Maurice Cook

12/24

-Venus square Neptune: Desire for ultimate pursuits at all cost in narrative tension with the dissolve of an era and the dissolution of a whole reality

-Venus ingress Cap: value of territory, love of structure, creative construction, satisfaction in architecture, desire for status

12/30

-Mercury square Saturn: questing logistics and enthusiasm inflated logic clashing with obligation to let go and flow in the context of progressing through the end of an era coming to conclusion