Monday 12/4/2023: Sneak Peek at the Week; Neptune Turns Direct

‘Tis the season, and there’s magic in the air…

Highlights for this week:

  • Venus enters Scorpio on Monday
  • Venus trines Saturn on Tuesday
  • Neptune turns direct on Wednesday
  • Mercury trines Jupiter on Thursday
  • Venus opposes Jupiter on Saturday

It goes like this:

  • MONDAY: Moon is in Virgo, seeking refinement and perfection in exacting detail. Its first stop was an opposition to Saturn at 1:26 AM ET, adding gravitas to the Moon’s clean-up crusade. This morning, Venus is at the verrrrry end of Libra, after yesterday morning’s cathartic square to Pluto. Matters involving women, money, worth, and aesthetics may be at a crisis point, as in “White House warns Congress of urgent need for Ukraine funding,” posted at 11:15 AM ET. There’s an easy flow of communications, reflecting the Moon’s trine to Mercury at 5:12 AM ET and Jupiter at 12:32 PM ET. However, boundary-pushing action may spark a push back around 1:51 PM ET, as Moon squares Mars. One minute earlier, Venus exits Libra for a stay in Scorpio until December 29th. Now is not the ideal time for elective cosmetic surgery, as conventional astrological wisdom holds that Scorpio is not a comfortable place for Venus.  In Scorpio, Venus suggests a needs for depth and honor in social expression, which may be driven to extremes.  Those with Venus in Scorpio can be loyal to a fault (upside), and fixed in their values, sometimes obsessively, possessively so. Meanwhile, another clash involving someone’s need for details vs. someone else’s boundless enthusiasm may build this evening, as the Sagittarius Sun squares the Virgo Moon at 12:49 AM ET on…
  • TUESDAY.  After the dust settles, we have a full day of cooperation in the cosmic sandbox. Yippee! The Virgo Moon’s organizing drive gets innovative input from across the aisle, courtesy of a trine to Uranus at 3:44 PM ET. Aiding and abetting your ability to turn creative ideas into an actual business plan is a trine between Venus and Saturn — in effect all week, and exact at 5:51 PM ET. The caveat here is whether the creative ideas are based on anything real…with the rebuttal to that being whether it even matters. There are facts…and there are beliefs, as Avid Readers may recall from last week’s Forecast. What we are absorbing into our collective consciousness — perhaps — is how empowered beliefs can become, regardless of facts. More on that in a minute. Point is, it seems no coincidence that “rizz” should be declared the word of the year. Rizz” refers to chaRISma, a magnetic, seductive, spellbinding, intangible quality.
  • WEDNESDAY: Moon opposes Neptune at 1:16 AM ET, facilitating a dreamy escape or loss of direction. At 8:22 AM ET, Neptune turns direct, ending a five-month period of subtle focus on using your own dreams and intuition for guidance that began on June 30th.

A pause, while we discuss Neptune turning direct.

First, note that whenever a planet changes direction, it pulls focus in the headlines several days before and after. With Neptune, we expect an uptick in stories of music, drugs, oil, deception, oceans and spirits of all kinds. Here’s what was happening in the news on a past Neptune change of direction.

As Neptune begins to move forward, perhaps we begin to project our renewed ideals into the world…or give serious consideration to ideals projected by others. But we may need time to get back up to speed. Neptune often dissolves whatever it touches, including vim and verve. Neptune may refer to rizz, but it also refers to “meh,” as in this headline from today’s NYT”:

You’ll feel the effects of Neptune’s change of station more personally if you have a planet or angle at 24-27 degrees of Pisces, Gemini, Virgo, and Sagittarius.  What kind of effects? Oh…perhaps you are feeling somewhat bewildered…or less inclined to be in Type A personality mode (if you are normally a Type A personality). You may find yourself needing to express your creativity — even if you have never thought of yourself as a “creative” person.

  • WEDNESDAY (CONT.): Moon trines Pluto at 8:50 AM ET and then goes void for the next three hours. Roll with the twists and flakes,  and that includes sleeping through your alarm, as I did during last Friday’s morning Moon void. Crises that crop up during Moon voids are often much ado about nothing, usually resolved once the Moon regains its focus. Chill! At 11:34 AM ET, Moon enters Libra. Fairness, balance, and people-pleasing in relationships are the agenda for the rest of the work week. Moon travels without interference until around 11 PM ET, when it squares Mercury. Whereas Moon in Libra may miss what’s going on right under its nose (given its focus on lofty ideals), Mercury in Capricorn needs to bring those ideals down to earth. And therein lies a potential conflict.
  • THURSDAY: Happy Hanukkah! Mercury in Capricorn’s achievement-oriented needs get a boost from a trine with Jupiter in Taurus, exact at 11:08 PM ET. This is the first of three Mercury-Jupiter trines we’ll have between now and the end of January, as Mercury turns retrograde next week. We may see expansive news in publishing, sports, court opinions, and foreign affairs. Moon is well-supported today by two sextiles to Mars (at 6:15 AM ET) and Sun (at 6:36 PM ET). The words “urge to surge” come to mind, and that’s fine…though…once Mercury turns retrograde, some of what has been agreed to may require a rethink.
  • FRIDAY: The Libra Moon travels with no contact to the other planets throughout the business day, perhaps putting a diplomatic agenda into overdrive. Catharsis and/or a power play arrive around 8:05 PM ET, as Moon makes its weekly clash with Pluto…and then goes void for two and a half hours. At 10:34 PM ET, Moon enters Scorpio, demanding depth and substance,  after the Libra Moon’s back-and-forth…
  • SATURDAY: and the Scorpio Moon’s desires may be fulfilled! Moon trines Saturn at 1:33 AM ET, offering a realistic point of view. Moon meets up with Venus at 9:23 AM ET and opposes Jupiter at 10:41 AM ET. The downside potential is overconfidence, promising more than can be comfortably spent. Meanwhile, Venus opposes Jupiter at 10:34 PM ET, supporting generous impulses, including shopping ’til you drop. If you have planets or angles around 6 degrees of just about any sign (paging Liz Cheney), you are personally affected by the connection between the Lesser and Greater Fortunes (Venus and Jupiter, respectively). If you try your luck on the lottery, let me know what happens.
  • SUNDAY: A surprise arrives around 12:03 PM ET, as Moon opposes Uranus. We are approaching the end of the lunar cycle, a time to wrap projects (and presents) initiated on last month’s New Moon. This includes BACKING UP YOUR FILES in preparation for Mercury’s next retrograde (on December 13th), and SHIPPING PACKAGES you hope will arrive on time and unscathed.

Reminder: if you’re looking for a fun stocking stuffers or Hanukkah gelt, these zodiac coins, complete with a handcrafted 2024 Sun Sign Forecast are still available:

And now, the news…

…which I was not able to get to last night because another writing project required attention.

Over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend, we had the sobering, militant discipline potential of Saturn square Sun-Mars, a status-quo preserving Taurus Moon and a potentially healing square between Mercury and  Neptune. In Gaza, a temporary cease fire was negotiated:

Meanwhile…

Neptune turns direct at 24 Pisces. The Sabian Symbol is a purging of the priesthood.” How interesting that Pope Francis made news last week for doing just that.  Neptune has been on this degree since November 18, and will remain there until Christmas Day. Add its symbolism to the wake of last month’s Sun-Saturn square (always an alert for cuts and losses, especially involving leaders of state and business), and we see in the headlines the exits of several significant senior citizens who made an impact on the world, for better or for worse.

Not that old, but essentially purged:

In other news…

Let’s follow up on predictions made in last week’s forecast. Who made headlines, just as astrology anticipated?

Exhibit A:  “Jailed Putin critic Alexei Navalny faces news charges.”

Navalny said he had been charged under article 214 of Russia’s penal code, which covers crimes of vandalism. “I don’t even know whether to describe my latest news as sad, funny or absurd,” he wrote in comments on social media on Friday via his team. “I have no idea what article 214 is, and there’s nowhere to look. You’ll know before I do.”

Exhibit B:  Liz Cheney is everywhere. Her horoscope is in an especially expansive phase, and though I didn’t know that she was writing a book, it’s no surprise that she did. It’s out this week — just in time for Jupiter to cross her Taurus Ascendant and square her Leo Sun (which it will do again in January), with sneak peeks and press junkets starting last week (as Mercury at the Aries Point activated her Moon and Saturn). Of particular interest: “‘Bait and switch’: Liz Cheney book tears into  [MAGA] Mike Johnson over dishonest pro-TFG January 6 legal brief.” Remember, MAGA Mike was unanimously elected Speaker of the House by his fellow Republicans, and it’s too bad Cheney’s book wasn’t released before that happened.

Exhibit C: it is rumored that ousted Speaker Kevin McCarthy may leave Congress altogether “in the coming weeks,” and if he does, it will be in sync with the third pass of transiting Saturn to his t-square among apex Saturn, Gemini Ascendant, and Sagittarius Moon. On his second Saturn return, we’d expect a new lease on life. Here is his horoscope.

Meanwhile…

Patterns driving the news over the weekend included a reality-based sextile between Mercury and Saturn, and a square between Venus and Pluto. The latter suggested extremes involving women, art, values, and money. Pluto refers to transformation and empowerment.

I’m not quite sure what sparked WaPo and the NYT to start taking the threat of a potential second TFG presidential term more seriously. Was it…

In any case, this op-ed by neoconservative RobertKagan was published in the Washington Post:

And over at the NYT, a pundit-packed podcast posits, “Are we all authoritarians at heart?”

Elsewhere…

These headlines are sponsored by Neptune’s dreamy, sometimes fabricated, escapes: