December’s new Moon is at 20˚ Sagittarius on December 12th. The Sun and Moon conjoin in the 7th house, highlighting our partners in love and business. The ascendant lies in Gemini and the human mind is reaching to connect and understand new ideas on this Sag new Moon, which can help build new business and work in our significant partnerships. Unfortunately, speedy Mercury, the ruler of the ascendant, is bogged down in the Capricorn mud slowing and nearly stationed retrograde poised to move backward through zodiacal signs during this lunation. When Mercury is retrograde all the significations of Mercury can be disrupted. Travel, communications, messages, speech and understanding can go awry during these times.  Also, when Mercury is retrograde we must retrace the degrees we have already traversed. We go back in time and either revisit past issues or new issues arise which have a similar theme to the past.

The preceding full Moon on November 27th had a strong Venus in Libra close to the Ascendant but she was conjunct the South Node of the Moon, a very difficult point for her to navigate through. The luminaries were in the 2nd and 8th houses and Mars was conjunct the Sun and opposed to the Moon. They formed a T-square with Saturn in the first degree of Pisces.  This was a very heavy full Moon last month. Challenges with debt, loans, children, cars and transportation surrounded this full Moon in Gemini. Being in Gemini, we could have had dual issues confront us! Issues of spending more than the coin purse can dole out on this year’s cyber Monday is a regular holiday occurrence. This years property tax increases and inflation make that a stronger proposition. The holidays are emotional family times, there is much joy, but always old tensions can crop up and drama ensue during a normally joyful time. Be prepared to revisit some of that holiday drama during these next few weeks.

The final notes of positivity for this Sag new Moon are that the Moon separates from Mars by time of this lunation. Mars is in the 6th house, where he joys and shares a bit more in the holiday cheer and takes his knife away from the charcuterie board. The luminaries do not see Saturn and are therefor relatively free of malefic entanglement. Venus is in Scorpio and free from the South Node. Normally Venus is not comfortable being in Scorpio it is her sign of detriment. This month though as she passes through this challenging sign she sees Jupiter across from her in Taurus and is amplified! Lastly, Mercury is in trine with Jupiter during this lunation and hope changes hands during Mercury’s retrograde motion. While there is drama resurfaced for this lunations the Saturn and Mars are not directly involved and both benefic planets are seeing each other. The lesson learned from this Mercury retrograde will not be learned at too great a cost and our  7th house partnerships can rest now strengthened with the Suns passage through Sagittarius complete.