December is alive with skittering restlessness. Planets in Sagittarius (fire) are coming up against Mars in Gemini (air) as well as Neptune and Jupiter in Pisces (water). The resulting energy field is hot and searing, like steam.
As all these mutable planets bump into each other, we’re likely to be buzzing around like molecules in a heated beaker. So let’s make all that movement mean something.
Sagittarius is always on the lookout for wider meaning. Its edginess stems from a desire to learn.
Tug o’ War
The first week of the month is activated and agitated by Venus and the Sun opposed to Mars, now retrograde. The Sagittarius duo is hot and high-minded; Mars may make it into a crusade.
Sagittarian campaigns need not be religious or ideological, but they are charged up with power and emotional clout. When they enter their tug-of-war with Mars (12/1-8), the ego – our own or somebody else’s – must be accommodated.
Whatever we’re promoting during this period doubtless comes from the heart (Venus), but our personal attachments may be complicating our effectiveness. In order to crack this nut, we must face the fact that our cause may run counter 
to what somebody else wants.
Or what another part of ourselves wants. The psyche is a complex beast.
Mutable mash-up
The other series of mutable mash-ups this month involves the squares between Sagittarius and Pisces. Mercury and Venus, in late Sagittarius as the month begins, are dancing around a 90-degree angle with both Jupiter and Neptune.
This exacerbates the bustling instability we are all feeling. Idealistic impulses – for a better relationship, a better life, a better world – are heightened by Jupiter in Pisces, which infuses our hopes with something closer to utopianism. This is a heady mix, more emotional than rational.
Transits like this can be inspired – even ecstatic — when handled well. But they can be disappointing or even delusional in the absence of psychological balance.
With Neptune this strong, we are tempted to escape from anything that feels flat or boring. At the direct station (12/3), these stirrings may crescendo into a disdain for anything that fails to measure up.
Soulful details
The human tendency is to project this discontent upon our life situation. Work or relationships may feel intolerably ordinary. Attending to practicalities and technical tasks may feel tedious and oppressive. The unglamorous demands of life may feel enervating.
This does not have to be a problem. Neptune is trying to get us to notice those strictures that are unnecessarily limiting, superficial or pallid. These can be enriched with a few inspired tweaks.
Intuitions may arrive now about ways we could make our daily routines more soulful: flowers in the workspace, music while exercising, a meditation before the newsfeed.
Spiritual crisis
Essentially, however, these transits (12/1-29) have nothing to do with the particulars of our circumstances. The crisis here is spiritual. It is the Earth plane itself that feels unsatisfying right now.
Once identified as such, the crisis doesn’t have to be debilitating. It’s no more or less than the great paradox of corporeal life: that we are souls temporarily confined in bodies.
The transits are urging us to find imaginative ways to accommodate it.
Solstice
After the 21st, we’ll feel a decisive shift. The Sun moves into Capricorn on the sacred Solstice, joining Mercury (Dec 6th) and Venus (Dec 9th). Jupiter will have re-entered Aries on the 20th. The month that started mostly mutable ends up mostly cardinal.
Enough dithering around. It’s time to take the initiative and exercise leadership. Perhaps over others; definitely over ourselves.
Image sources:
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