Starcodes December 6, 2019 Heather Roan Robbins

This weekend we can enjoy the energy of the season, marvel at the twinkling nights, and still feel the world shifting underneath. The planets push us towards a tough growth spurt this coming year; as Saturn and Pluto in Capricorn grow closer to their mid-January conjunction, we get more and more uncomfortable with systems that chafe, whether it’s a job that no longer fits, a family matriarch that controls, or a government which isn’t working. Many long-standing conflicts will come to a head over the next few months. But Jupiter has just entered Capricorn and prepares us to improve the situation in the year ahead.

But meanwhile, on top of those deep, tectonic-plate-shifting, aspects, comes layers of impatience, curiosity, and seasonal frivolity. As the holidays approach we’ll need both time in in the thick of the party and moments of deep solitude as both our introverted sides and our extroverted sides are pumped up; extraversion is encouraged by the Sun in outgoing Sagittarius, while Mercury and Mars in subterranean Scorpio, and Venus, Jupiter, Saturn, and Pluto all in serious, tradition-loving Capricorn, call us inward.

On Friday and Saturday, the mood can be direct, impatient, and honest under an impulsive Aries Moon. Mercury and Mars, both still in Scorpio, add a sting, extra curiosity, suspicion, investigation and a need for moments of solitude. Mars stays in Scorpio until the new year and continues to pressure us to investigate, detect, and stand our ground. It can also entrench opinions unless we choose to investigate our own personal prejudices. We may also savor secrets. Whether it’s a secret present, a project we don’t want to share while it’s in the early stages, or a suspicion that we’d like to hold onto because it is part of our identity.

On Sunday and Monday, the Moon in earthy Taurus can slow us down and encourage us to think about what we really need and don’t need for the next step in our life. We can assess what is needed both quickly, for the holidays, and long-term, for where we’re going in our next chapter.

The general mood improves when Mercury, organizer of our mental switchboard, finally leaves brooding Scorpio where it’s been since October 3 and joins the Sun in Sagittarius on Monday. It normally spends three weeks in a sign, but because of its retrograde cycle, did the…