While the collective remains intense in the lead up to the next two eclipses, this month’s chart is generally speaking one of the best that we’ve had in some time, with some marvellous Jupiter action throughout the month and peaking on the Boxing Day solar eclipse.

Sagittarius Sun conjunct Pallas Athena

This is a brilliant combination as the powerful but gangly Centaur combines with an equally forward moving and wise goddess of intelligence, strategy, refinement and focus. Sagittarius is a big energy normally, especially with Jupiter’s ruling planet in the last degrees of the sign. Brave, brash, boisterous, he and his ruler are full of big ideas, great possibilities and broad visionary horizons but sometimes he lacks finesse and subtlety.

Pallas is such a goddess, who can partially rein in the excesses of Sag, and increases his effectiveness with quality preparation, sublime focus and one pointedness, with clear vision and pointed intellect. She can also create a bridge between his masculinity and the deeper wellspring of the feminine, providing sensitivity, nuance and emotional intelligence to his urge to act on his beliefs and visions.

These two can allow us to get very effective in our ability to translate our visions into inspired actions.
The same also applies to our relationship development, through sextiles to Juno the goddess of marriage in Libra and, to the healing of the much maligned Medusa in Aquarius, through sextiles to her asteroid. 

Sun and Pallas Athena in a Healing Kite Configuration

The same application of supreme focus also makes December a significant month of healing. This kite, a grand trine with Chiron in Aries and Shiva in Leo, is bisected by an opposition to the healing goddess Hygeia in Gemini, who sits at the top of the Australian chart.

The grand trine brings some of the best of the healing and spiritual masculine archetypes in a potent and fiery three-way flow, supporting the transformative themes of this era and highlighting the ability of the masculine to both heal and undergo its own powerful evolution.

The opposition between Pallas and Hygeia also polarises and energises two related goddesses of spiritual knowledge and healing. In some astrological traditions Hygeia is considered as the healing face, one of many faces, of Pallas Athena. What they do share is the ability to direct Shakti or sacred power through the use of the mind, where words, mantras and intentions act as carriers for such power to elicit healing and awakenings in others.

Equally significant is the history between Hygeia and Chiron, once a student and teacher, and, between Hygeia and Shiva, through Hygeia’s connection to Lalita Devi, the goddess of sacred sexuality and a consort of the great Shiva! 

Moon in Capricorn is conjunct Pluto and Persephone

I did say things were going to remain intense! With the Moon sitting with this darker form of the sacred marriage, the goddess and god of death and rebirth and transformation, ensures that we have more psychic and emotional baggage surfacing to deal with. And yet this represents opportunities to reach into our deepest emotional resources, our core feminine, to affirm our commitment to do whatever we need to do to heal and transform. And, to re-emerge from another underworld journey with that much more emotional intelligence, empowerment and authenticity.

Once again, we receive support to the very same processes by the ongoing sextile with the Black Moon in Pisces, which many people know as the Black Moon Lilith. The latter’s passage through Pisces during this last 10 months is one of the reasons why our collective tolerance towards new ageism and spiritual bypassing has reduced significantly. Both the Black Moon and the convergence in Capricorn share the urge to challenge our naivete and unconsciousness, to face the deeper and often darker legacies of the past, in our bodies and lower chakras.

The gifts of this include the awakening and reclaiming of the so-called dark goddesses within us; of clearing the way so that greater Shakti can burst from our lower chakras and infuse our upper chakra spiritual gifts, while flushing many shadows off our hearts, to be able to love more fully, deeply, passionately. 

Jupiter goes into Capricorn December 3rd

Commiserations for the Sagittarius amongst us, as the growth filled gas giant leaves the fire realms of the Centaurs and goes into the slower, earthy realms of the Mergoat. And to be fair to Capricorns, who have had a particularly intense couple of years thanks to Pluto, then Saturn, followed by a series of fierce dark goddesses all joining up in the sign, it is obvious that you need a bit of a break and some more overt forms of support and grace!

Jupiter makes a grand entrance into the sign, accompanied by Venus and the earth mother Ceres travelling together in tight formation, a very loving, luscious, abundant and fertile combination, which in some ways encapsulates the energies of the Hindu deities Ganesh and Lakshmi. (So much so that I encourage everybody to create some form of abundance ceremony at this time, as we have done, and especially on the Boxing Day eclipse which peaks at 4:13 PM Sydney time)

Jupiter also trines Uranus in Taurus for the duration of the month, a fabulous and exciting combination of grace and electricity, growth and innovation, heightened freedom of expression and creativity and, an enhanced ability to move through even the toughest of periods with greater poise, confidence, optimism and capacity to learn from all our experiences. 

Mercury in Scorpio conjunct Hecate, sextile Kali in Virgo, trine Neptune and Black Moon in Pisces!

So, while Jupiter, Venus and Ceres are engaged in a lavish love-in, Mercury, the ruler of our minds and of communication, is on a deeper quest of learning through the realms of the witch-like goddesses. This is a time of connecting to deeper psychospiritual gifts and knowledge, of seeing past the popular and patriarchal stories about the dark goddesses and consciously reclaiming more of these faces of the deep sacred feminine.

These aspects were in place for the second half of November, which was particularly intense, partly because of squares between Mercury and Hecate with Medusa in Aquarius, a clashing that stirred much ancient toxicity and antagonism. This square is now separating, and Medusa is getting good support from the Sun and Pallas Athena, thereby lessening some of the grunge in the collective and giving space for everybody to breathe more fully!

Mars in Scorpio sextile Ceres, Venus and Eros, opposite Uranus in Taurus

Mars adds extra fire and passion to the joining of Venus and Ceres, while the presence of Eros adds a lighter, more fun loving quality to this four way combination. This is another brilliant mythological combination as Venus and Mars are the parents of Eros, who acts as a higher octave of both their energies, one that will bring passion, love and play and create enjoyable experiences for all involved. This is good for partying and other forms of having fun.

However, Mars starts the month in opposition to Uranus, a combustible, excitable and unpredictable dynamic which can support us to break free from stultifying conformity and encaging circumstances while encouraging our warrior masculine to express more freely.

The aspect also has a reputation for sudden outburst of anger and rage, accidents or attracting similar behaviour unexpectedly from others, so it’s good to avoid potentially dangerous places or people, especially if you are feeling a pressure cooking inside yourself threatening to peak!

Therapeutically though, this is a great transit for working with anger and rage in a safe container with dynamic forms of release work, like primal therapy of breathwork. Better to explode safely that have the universe throw something at you!

With love and blessings,

Daniel