Mars entered Libra Saturday—an energy we're just beginning to get acquainted with, but which we'll come to know intimately in the coming months (including through a long retrograde). It's a complex placement for Mars, whose expression can swing the arms of (Venus-ruled) Libra's scale from one extreme to another, calling for patience and diplomacy as we relate to each other.
In fact, those qualities are always worth practicing any time we approach a Full Moon (the Gemini Full Moon is Tuesday, December 17). This monthly opposition between the Sun and the Moon heightens emotions and reactions between us and our partners, coworkers and friends—thanks to the light of the Sun (consciousness) projecting onto and being reflected back by the Moon (the subconscious). In other words, we see something about ourselves reflected back at us by others, and that can be provocative in relationships.
The Gemini Full Moon is exact at 4:28 am EST Tuesday, with the Sun in late Sagittarius and the Moon in late Gemini. With the Sun very close to its annual conjunction to the core of our galaxy, the sense intensifies that "there’s more to this life" than what we usually perceive. It stokes an urge to explore—whether distant lands, inner worlds, a new corner of your neighborhood or the bounds of your perception.
The Moon won’t get to Gemini until 1:40 am EST on Sunday, December 15 (it enters Taurus today, December 12, at 3:40 pm—making the weekend excellent for taking sensual breaks from your Christmas shopping for beautiful things, and then for extra fun, balancing your checkbook).
Once the Moon is in Gemini, it loses some of its sensual-emotional flavor and detaches a little into an airier mode—better for talking about anything at all. The emotions get filtered through the mind, and could just as easily go one way as another. That tendency is worth noting, as the Full Moon will be in aspect to an asteroid (Juno) and a centaur planet (Nessus) that are conjunct in Aquarius.
In Aquarius, both Juno and Nessus speak of crystallized social expectations around relationships (especially regarding jealousy, marriage, sexuality and abusive behavior), which we've internalized from endless conditioning—and the potential to give them a push and update our files. The Gemini Moon is trine these two objects, suggesting ease—and that you could just as easily stay set in those patterns and cling to those social expectations as not.
Or, you could use the mutable-sign energy of Gemini and Sagittarius to light a fire under these expectations; melt them, evaporate them, shatter them, morph them— whatever works. The Sagittarius Sun is also in a helpful aspect to Juno and Nessus (a sextile). You have to make some conscious effort to use that energy. But if you’re willing to take what you’re learning with the broader perspective and fiery spirit and bold calling offered by the Sagittarius Sun, you might find your choices are not only truer to who you are, they make the world a little larger for you to explore.
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