The Full Moon in Gemini, the last of 2024, exacts at 4:02am EST tomorrow, the morning of Sunday, December 15th — although it reached 97.9% illumination last night, a beautiful lunar halo seeming to reaffirm a valence already felt by many.

Affirmation might be a key word in itself, given the Moon’s conjunction to Jupiter in Gemini earlier on its way to waxing fullness, essentially a supportive formation between the two bodies of our solar system most associated with the dispensing of fortune.

The Moon flits about, triggering aspects among the planets quicker than any other astrological agent.  Jupiter, a planet for thousands of years associated with the showering of blessings, is in the most physical and astronomical of considerations Earth’s shield; its electromagnetic field prevents many an asteroid and space debris from touching terra firma.  I went years pointing this out before I saw any other astrologer do so, Diana Rose Harper since in more elegant fashion.

With Venus and Jupiter both bright in the night sky, and Mars rising just a couple hours after the Moon, we see the most central cast of the current astrology on display.  We’re coming off a week where Venus’ and Mars’ staring contest, from Aquarius to Leo respectively, highlights the tensions between harmony and strife, distance and closeness, cool disposition and the desired warmth of a central hearth.

The first decan of Aquarius is very much one that romanticizes the periphery, that puts a touch of venusian debonair in the ‘divine outcast’, that appreciates what sets one apart.  The first decan of Leo, which Mars still inhabits on its retrograde path back to Cancer, has much to do with emerging from the shell and choosing to embrace a willful centrality, an ardent shine.

This Full Moon in Gemini takes place across the 23° point of the Gemini/Sagittarius axis, and square to Neptune who is still lingering in the last few degrees of Pisces.  Mercury still retrograde in its debility of Sagittarius, ruling both the Moon and Jupiter, stations direct tomorrow, December 15th, the day of the Moon’s fullness — although this is unlikely to be felt as any kind of balm on confusion just yet.

A few things I mentioned with the the new moon two weeks ago that bear restating…

In Jupiter’s home of Sagittarius, Mercury flits between ideals, letting instinct guide, details swallowed up by a fiery compass whose inner mechanisms seem to defy the traditional navigator craftsman.  This can make for stunning displays of intuition and creativity, as well as brain fog and manic crash-and-burns from fervent idealism as the soaring arrow comes back to Earth.

In Mercury’s home of Gemini, Jupiter’s expansive pomp is blown about, a merry-go-round randomly changing directions, its horses’ paint chipping, their cast saddles randomly besieged by birds of doubt and restless scatter.  A planet known for blessings, and expansion untoward the ‘one’ path, is sometimes thrown into a beleaguered state when in a sign that contemplates always the ‘many ways.’

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In an era of compounding disassociation, digital deluge, and difficulty sorting ‘the creme’ from the Kool-Aid, this lunation may not provide many answers — over-stimulation and a plethora of possibilities abound — but despite Jupiter’s debility in Gemini since springtime, a hope holds that there will be positive outcomes even without the guarantee of a clear path forward per se.

Remember:

Sure, the way out is through, but there are often many different routes through.  You might elect one best, but maintaining flexibility first helps you see all the rest.

The earliest pulses of imagination we experience in this life are playful, not practical.  Treating your problems like an enduring puzzle, a game, is not just medicine — it’s a lot like what they really are.

One of the biggest reminders I’ve given myself and others born from observing and working with Sagittarius energy throughout my life and practice: the recognition that passion is not the same thing as compassion.  Our idealisms as people can so often turn into incidental, scorched-earth violence… running roughshod over what doesn’t conform to our often hyper-positive singularity of vision.

Empathy and compassion involve slowing down… having grace for others… and for yourself first.  To better achieve this right now, we might have to slow the warped merry-go-round… even if just for a moment, disembarking from the “mainstream strange-dream” as Kevin May always liked to call it.

Just some archetypal themes to look out for:

*adventurousness, high energy, mental and physical acrobatics
*juggling acts, choice paralysis, a plethora of roads to take
*is doubt just there to test our faith… or is doubt simply doubt?
*optimism enduring through confusing scenarios
*stories changing mid-chapter, 180° turns, tailspins etc.
*sorting the ‘real’ from the ideal
*have I been sold the ‘wrong’ dream?
*the desire to wake from fluctuating ‘consensus’ narratives we’re fed
*harmony and strife
*in the wake of Venus’ and Mars’ opposition, feeling at home vs. an outsider
*many different voices, all at once, one grand cacophony distilled into presence
*the desire to transcend violence, oppression, ruin; to wield an ideal among all ideals
*new information and realizations arising within, and course-correction to follow

Swim well stargazers!

—A.B.