December 2023: Horoscopes for Moderns
This 'n' that as the year nods off within with a burst of breakthroughs.
“When I was a boy I would have visions, now I’m too busy” —Dalai Lama
THE WINTER SOLSTICE occurs on the 21st of this month.
All of the Equinox and Solstice horoscopes are astrological high points. Each pulse that announces a new season sets a particular tenor in place for the three months that will follow.
But the Winter Solstice is different. Mundane astrologers often use the Sun’s ingress into Capricorn to take the temperature for the new year ahead. I’ve found this approach useful, so I’ll discuss a couple of key highlights in the chart.
A lovely Earth trine between the Moon and the Sun announces the winter in the Northern Hemisphere. I read this as an alignment between routine and intention, making a forward motion in a fresh direction effortless.
Or better put, our earthy instincts are aligned with the harmonious link between the Sun and the Moon. We’re literally in the groove of ‘the flow.’
A disruptive moment of truth occurs with the do-or-die link between the Moon and Pluto. This is the sort of square where you realize that if you don’t stop doing this or that habit, you’ll be dead soon.
With Venus opposing Uranus, a spotlight lands on relationships that need an overhaul or expulsion. (More on expulsion below). Ask yourself, is it possible that a certain person is metaphorically killing you in slow motion (Venus in Scorpio)?
The Moon conjunct Jupiter indicates a body-based degree of prescience. This establishes as we realign with what’s affirmative about being alive, despite how shitty things might appear around us.
Remember that it behooves the media to continually generate narratives of doom and gloom, as their ad revenue depends on their command of our eyeballs.
I recommend using this Promethean flash to make way for the upcoming Jupiter-Uranus conjunction on April 24 of the new year. What you seek is hiding in your own flesh and blood. A type of somatic guidance that’s as old as the planet. I’ll write more about this groovy conjunction next month.
But all in all, this is a promising Solstice. And yet…
In the Face of War and Genocide
I want to point you over to astrologer Jessica Murray’s stellar close read on the horrors occurring in Israel and Gaza. I’ve tried several times to take this event on from an astro perspective, but after reading Jessica’s essay, Ring of Fire, I realized I couldn’t add anything or express it as eloquently. Her understanding of geopolitics — as mirrors of cosmic seismology — is astounding.
Admit it! You know you’ll miss him when he’s gone
It’s ridiculous, given his chronic mendacity, to consider George Santos’ natal chart (there is no time available, and well, who knows if the date and year are correct). Still, I wanted to see what was posted on Wiki and did a chart up anyway.
My immediate takeaway is that the birthdate and year is accurate.
Consider the 29-degree Cancer Sun (the crab on steroids) with the ruling Moon conjunct Pluto in Scorpio. This is a double whammy, where severe hunger (late-degree Sun) cross-references to lunar deprivation and threats to one’s neonatal existence (Moon/Pluto Scorpio).
Santos started forging his unique spins on reality at a young age to ensure his survival, which, as the Moon shows, is inextricably tied to the death drive.
Rather than mature out of that complex, his childlike sense of entitlement (an issue for many Cancerians, who see themselves as deprived youngsters, regardless of their actual age) sustained his arrested adolescence. All of that shopping at Hermes and Sephora couldn’t fill his psychic hole.
Mars in Aries squaring Neptune is the proverbial Barnum Bailey aspect, where yarns of grandeur (or woe) dominate the narrative spun for a gullible audience (or constituents).
And Jupiter and Venus in Gemini revel in spinning larger-than-life whoppers. There’s a genuine gift for Mercurial grift with that combo. And the tricker or more outrageous, the better. As one of his relatives said, “It's always a pebble of truth and a mountain of lies” regarding George.
Jupiter in Gemini folks are the Zodiac’s premiere dilettantes. Consider all of Santos’ pastimes, hobbies, or former jobs — everything from house painter to bingo champion to drag queen and then — only in 2023 America — being elected to Congress.
Jump forward to tomorrow: Jupiter (law and order) opposing the mid-point of Santos’ Moon-Pluto conjunction seems a fitting transit for what looks to be a third-time-is-a-charm expulsion from Congress.
Goodbye, girl, we hardly knew you (I mean, literally, we really didn’t know who in the fuck you were).
But wait, there’s more: A final exhalation of gas amid the recent ouster procedures, a 15-foot inflatable balloon of Santos was spotted near the US Capitol this week.
Dispatch From Planet Cat
As I wrote recently, the feline forces that flow through the various critter vectors of Vashon decreed that it was time for me to get a new cat (or a cat to get a new human).
After I visited the shelter to meet the two black brothers, Raven and Rook, whom I’d mentioned earlier — and spent a couple of minutes with them — I realized, given their severe, unhinged kitten mojo, that my house would be shredded beef within a month. And so, on the spot, I started to consider other cats (I was sitting in a room with about fifteen of them milling about or perched on the furniture.)
While kender cats ping-ponged around the room, I caught sight of Venus (her ‘real’ name, decreed by the folks who’d put her up for adoption), studying me with curiosity from her lounging act on the couch — click, click, mind-meld. Instantly, the deal was sealed, and I made arrangements to pick her up two days later.
Having been in my space for three days now, she’s still overwhelmed by the radical shift in her environment. One moment, she’s purring and stretched out alongside my thigh, and then ten minutes later, she’s looking at me as if I’m an ogre wielding an axe. This tells me what short attention spans cats have. Something I wish I could emulate when I consider all the shit I obsess over within a 24-hour period.
Happy Solstice, everyone (and a big welcome to all the new subscribers who took advantage of my Black Friday arrangement. I appreciate everyone’s support).