Total Lunar eclipse

Fri 2 Dec – Thurs 15 Dec

The fired up enthusiasm of an arched stallion may be urging you to celebrate the season just now, with Sun and Mercury in Sagittarius, but let’s not forget the retrograde now bringing Mercury to a slow and sluggish standstill around the 13^th. A retrograde period is best seen as a cycle, beginning when a planet begins to slow to a halt before traveling backwards through the zodiac as it did in November; and ending when it returns to the point where it first paused, early in the new year of 2012. However, during the cycle, a planet's energy is most powerful (and more likely to generate critical events of universal importance) when the planet makes a station: appearing motionless in the sky.

These stationary periods occur near the beginning of the cycle (when the planet first halts as it prepares to move backwards, as it did on November 24^th) and midway through the cycle when the retrograde planet slows to a stop before moving forward again. The direct station (when the planet halts before moving forward again) is the most powerful and can be used for maximum benefit. And that is what we are about to hit on the 13^th and 14^th of December. So anything before then will have Mercury at its slowest and subdued. However, those days, specifically the 14^th when Mercury is seen to move forward again, are available to be harnessed as a symbolic moment on which to strike a deal, have a ceremony or sign on the dotted line. Thereafter Mercury is seen to slowly pick up pace, symbolically showing the course of or unfolding of the intent or event you had on that day. Sometimes it can facilitate a step towards solving the problem or puzzle. Either the solution, or a move towards the solution, brought about later as Mercury returns to the point it originally stopped on November 24^th. With all this back and forth occurring in Sagittarius this time, issues around publishing and law, like the tabloid press legal cases in UK as well as ZAR’s Info Bill will be evident; that and expanding the horizons, so watch out for the travel delays at airports. Know when to hold your tongue too; is that tweet going to bounce back and trip you up like a foot in the mouth.

Currently our goddess Venus (in Capricorn) has an advantageous vantage point from which to spy out Mars (in Virgo) across the garden as they trine in the earth signs. This is a good time to focus on the material, practical departments of life, like work, income, health of the body. With Mars in Virgo take the opportunity to work out, if you don’t already and have been wanting to get fit. Venus in Capricorn favours dressing with status, the black outfit, professional or work attire, even if it means a smart pair of sandals at your surf stall. Or that green is the new black. So the more you keep it professional, and the more you have your eye on the ball, and on the goalposts, the Grail or the gold, the better your chances are of pulling off the achievement of your target, the target the archer in you aimed for in the ever-greener evergreens on the other side of the fence.

Let’s not forget the imminent eclipse of the Moon on the full moon of Saturday 10^th. Anyone with their Sun sign within a degree or two of 18 degrees Gemini or Sagittarius, and also (by square or 90 degree aspect) Virgo and Pisces, will be in line to feel the effects more directly as the Sun and Moon align with their natal (birthday) Sun position. That means people born on roughly the 10^th or 11^th of December for example, or 9^th – 10^th June; 11^th – 12^th September and 8^th – 9^th March. Let me know if you have any interesting experiences. Being a total lunar eclipse, people have been known to shut up shop and temple, retire indoors and engage in something auspicious for the duration of the event. But that’s up to you, time place and circumstance. Where were you at 14h30 GMT on the 10^th of December 2011?