‘Life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re gonna get.’ Forrest Gump.
Isn’t that a clear truth of life always? Especially at holiday times and celebrations where our expectations may be coloured by the past, or simply by the desire for a relaxing peaceful time? Christmas is the time for giving and receiving gifts. Awareness of the energy we deliver and take on is also vital, especially this year when the festive energies are so fluid. Learning, discovery, openness, and more conscious freedom to be oneself are the prospective harvest of our journey through to 2024. Here are a few pointers to the potential gifts to guide your way.
For this whole period: Mercury retrograde in Capricorn & Sagittarius suggests taking more time when travelling, recognising that whether travelling or not, speed, pushing and drive do not necessarily get us where we want to be any faster. Time to take a chill pill. Be aware of using force.
On inner levels, Mercury retrograde suggests enquiry into any desire for learning, exploration and discovery, or the calling to travel and adventure. Where will you allow that to take you in 2024? Mercury stations direct on 2 January. Also, strongly active through this whole period: Blessing-giver Jupiter & Rainbow Bridge Chiron changing direction. Whatever has been gestating, seems chaotic or intangible, begins to open and become clearer as we cross the bridge into 2024.
25 December: Earth and water signs offer relaxation and pleasure (with a tendency to excess) with fire & air signs sparking up conversations, fun, and a potential for some sparky interactions. Some of us may feel a mischievous need to push a few buttons, to play disrupter! Isn’t that the way with families? Don’t tone it down if it’s there, but awareness of energy, i.e. being playful rather than hurtful, or of another’s particular soft spots, is wise. Communicator Mercury with Warrior Mars suggests there could be an unexpected sting in conversations and the potential of reactivity. Being awake brings with it the response-ability for how energy is delivered, not necessarily for how it’s received. Yet every interaction has the potential for more consciousness.
26/27 December: The Full Moon at 4 Cancer is at 00.33GMT on 27th. Full Moons always polarise energy. This one is in the sign of ‘mother’ and family connections, so can deliver a feeling of belonging, tribe, and rootedness, wherever you choose to be, even alone. A time to take it easy, allowing intuition to guide your direction, with emotional connection (especially to one’s own inner world) and forgiveness as your focus. Rainbow Bridge Chiron stations direct at 15 Aries, just hours after the Full Moon. We’re offered the opportunity to allow vulnerability to surface, to recognise our woundedness can be a connector as well as alienate. Feeling is healing; vulnerable sharing brings the possibility of our core human fragility being acknowledged.
Sacred Feminine asteroid energies open some deep earthy wisdom over these few days. Crone Hekate stations retrograde at 27 Virgo, gifting the discernment of when to be ‘hands off’ with uncomfortable situations, to allow space and time for natural shifts to occur. Asteroid of compassion and enlightened action, Tara, stations direct at 7 Taurus with Jupiter, offering the balm of comfort and healing.
29 December: Goddess of Love Venus moves into Sagittarius, firing up the desire for adventure and expansion. Venus in Sagittarius brings a fresh approach to having fun and enjoyment, connections and relating. Time to explore pastures new and wake up relationships that have become sleepy.
31 December: Blessing-giver Jupiter station direct at 5 Taurus at 02.40GMT, accompanied by a goddess of compassion and enlightened action, Tara. Jupiter in Taurus until 25 May and moving towards a meeting with Awakener Uranus on 20 April (an expansive highlight for 2024) wakes up our desire for stability, security, and the good things in life. Pleasure, comfort, money and physical resources, and our deeper values are highlighted, as is healthy connection to our senses, bodies, Mother Nature, and our Earth. Key focus through to April (especially from Uranus’s station direct in late January) are taking better care of our resources personally and collectively, amping up thankfulness for life’s simple free pleasures. It’s all about reconnecting and honouring our Feminine.
New Year: Fire energies call ‘party time’ but the Moon in Virgo with Black Moon Lilith suggests perhaps going too far for your current energy levels, and the need for discernment. The over-arching mood is towards a quiet pleasurable time with loved ones but if you love to party, be prepared for a wild one! There’s a definite tendency towards excess with Jupiter.
2 January: Mercury station direct at 22 Sagittarius at 03.07GMT. As above, travel, communications and connections are highlighted, as are the ways we think about things. Slowing down, allowing flexible space and time around arrangements is wise. Expect the unexpected.
From mid-January all planetary movement except for Awakener Uranus is orientated forward and outward – next phase of evolved self-expression. Mercury is on his retrograde shadow until 21 January, so we’re gathering up what’s been on hold or gestating since 22 November. Uranus stations direct at 19 Taurus on 27 January. All planets are in direct motion from then until early April.
