I’ve been getting phone numbers wrong, remembering wrong dates for appointments, and forgetting friends’ birthdays. I’ve been forgetting to save things having written them on the computer, and forgetting to send things I thought I had sent. (Mars is retrograde every two years for 2 ½ months, appearing to go backwards for the distance of about half a sign. This year, that distance includes the first part of Cancer in December, and a bit of Gemini through January.) During the last month, especially from 15 November, we’ve been continuing to trawl through emotional issues around home comfort, and personal health and wellbeing, quite possibly going over old issues - again! We have plenty of time to sort family issues out, as our actions continue to stir the Cancer pot until May 08.

Solving old family problems

Perhaps this time we will be spending long enough sorting things out, that the situations will be healed at last. All it takes is realising that old situations began in the past, and those origins may not be alive in the present any more, except in our memories. It is insisting on looking at memories instead of relating to NOW, that keeps old reactions alive. The thing to notice, when confronting a memory with someone, is whether your emotion is a reaction from the past (habitual and uncontrolled), or an up to date response to the present (awake and intelligent). If you are responding from your up to date self, you will be able to solve old problems and heal old hurts. But if you are still in reaction-mode from the past, you will not be able to change anything. This is all much easier to say than to do!

New relating

I’ve been hearing of lots of relationships that started in the autumn and turned out to be not what they seemed. Last month the New Moon squared Neptune and we were misreading signs so that they coincided with our ideals or desires. This month, the New Moon squares Uranus and we are grappling with loss, where the lesson is independence. The important thing about being in love is that the other person is triggering our capacity to feel the love that is in us always. We have the opportunity to remain in touch with that feeling independently of the person who started it off. That way, the love that has been triggered flows out to everyone, including oneself.

This experience may be not just about relationships, but also the misreading of signs in work or business, or any situation involving our emotional needs or desires. If we make the personal growth and changes, regardless of the outside circumstances, we may find that things are not so bad out there after all. But it is a confusing time, so it’s best not to expect clarity for a while.

Last month . . .

Through late November and early December, Mars was very close to connecting with Uranus. We were prone to breaks in the focus of our energy, so that, in the middle of carrying out one activity, we might have a feeling, or thought, that has us branching out towards something new, and forgetting to complete what we were doing. Generally, our minds are ahead of our actions, so perhaps that’s why I think I’ve done whatever it was, and only later discovered I didn’t complete the action. The interference could be coming from old emotions – and this is where that New Moon in Scorpio showed up.

Whatever House in your birth chart has Scorpio in it, that would be where last month’s New Moon focussed, to complete any unfinished business arising in that area of your life before Pluto (who rules Scorpio) moves into Capricorn in January. Pluto is still in Sagittarius, and it’s about getting to the base line beliefs that help to create our life the way it’s been. Were we to be completely in the present and open to our life’s process, we would experience much more flexibility and growth. It is our out-of-date beliefs and desires that limit our ability to recognise and follow the opportunities life offers.

This month
- New Moon in Sagittarius

Sagittarius climbs the mountain of discovery that leads to understanding. He cannot do this when tied to someone else’s beliefs. We can only understand from our own viewing point, so the task is to expand our view to include what others see from theirs, which enables us to understand why they think and feel as they do. This expanded view can only be seen from further up the mountain, and we need to do the climbing - the searching - ourselves from our own inner truth. This New Moon is in harmony with Neptune and the search is for our own spiritual connection, which reveals to us our true highest priorities. Mercury and Chiron point out the healing potential in our communications with each other this month. Our job is to stay calm, and keep focussed on a win-win solution, rather than being right.

. . . an exciting thought.

Jupiter will be crossing Pluto’s position on 11 December in the last degrees of Sagittarius. We will have been feeling this energy pressuring us to do more, be more, achieve more, for some weeks, and it only begins to fade on 19 December, when Jupiter enters Capricorn and we see what’s real. It’s a window for inspirational ideas to reach humanity, so make the most of it in the area you feel most excited about. It is all there for you and possible - whether the ideas you get are relevant at the moment, or not, will become clearer after mid-December, and January offers opportunities to manifest your plans. Any work your have put in will bear good fruit. If you have been avoiding the work, you may find your harvest is less than you hoped.

Jupiter is emphasising this transforming energy like the crest of a wave that washes humanity into the next 230 years or so, the next time Pluto will be in Sagittarius. The crest of a wave collapses on the shore, and we will have to make our own way doggedly after that. That next phase, of Pluto in Capricorn for about 16 years, suggests the transformation of our practical living, the operation of business and finance, and all things material. The ideas that are surfacing now are the tools we will be able to use to live more in harmony with the earth. So allow this energy to take you as far as you dare to think – it is a force from the centre of our Galaxy, and is bringing the seed ideas of a new understanding of life.