Sorcery

Years in the past, on the eve of my first ebook launch, a really profitable colleague suggested me to shed extra pounds, positing that my bodily attractiveness would assist promote the ebook. From a strictly sensible standpoint, this recommendation wasn’t fallacious. Magnificence is a robust software, and on this extremely visible age not even a author can keep away from the general public eye.

Venus is the astrological image of this sort of magnetic magnificence, the siren name that brings others shut sufficient to understand what else we have now to supply. Venus expresses herself via the intense plumage, lovely colours, and fascinating kinds that entice the attention. She is current in all of the methods we fascinate others and pull them into our orbit, from the engaging ebook cowl to the attractive writer.

Venus’s sextile to Pluto later this week (Dec. 28, 2023, 10:00 pm PST) asserts, like my colleague, that magnificence is energy. However as Venus trines Neptune (Dec. 25, 2023, 9:15 am PST), she reminds us that magnificence transcends the bodily; that the enchantment of soulfulness, gentleness, and empathy make for highly effective sorcery; that probably the most irresistible pressure of all is pure love, unconditionally supplied. And that even when the duvet shouldn’t be conventionally lovely, what’s inside has the ability to attract us in.

Refuge

Looking forward to this Full Moon (Dec. 26, 2023, 4:33 pm PST), a reader expressed concern about its Sabian image: 5 Most cancers, An car wrecked by a practice. It’s an alarming image, if learn actually. And occasionally, the symbols can play out that manner. However how possible is it that we’ll spend this Full Moon in a automotive with the headlights of a practice bearing down on us?

No, the Sabian symbols extra usually appear to faucet right into a collective dream – and as after we interpret goals, we have now to tilt our heads and squint at these symbols to search out their message.

Perhaps this dream merely represents the person (the car) vs the collective (the practice). That’s a fairly apt picture for the Full Moon in heat, clannish Most cancers reverse the Solar in Capricorn, the place Pluto’s lengthy march has hardened us to 1 one other, leaving societal ties brittle. With a harsh world bearing down, seemingly caring little about us, the one smart response is to take refuge in our little Cancerian household pods.

The Most cancers Full Moon tasks a luminous imaginative and prescient of residence, our cozy refuge, and our nurturing relationships with the creatures who share that place with us. It doesn’t matter whether or not it’s a farmhouse within the nation, an condo within the metropolis, a camper van, or a yurt. If your own home shelters and protects you from threatening forces, if you happen to really feel secure and nourished there, that’s what issues.

At Play

To observe a toddler – or for that matter, an grownup – at play is to know what they think about for themselves. Play is a gown rehearsal for the long run we visualize. Follow it lengthy sufficient and it turns into a actuality.

Mercury, nonetheless retrograde in Sagittarius, makes a sq. to Neptune (Dec. 26, 2023, 11:42 pm PST) and a conjunction with Mars (Dec. 27, 2023, 4:31 pm PST) this week, all on Sabian image 25 Sagittarius, A chubby boy on a interest horse. Taking part in on his imaginary Sagittarian horse, the little boy may think himself a soldier, a knight, a jockey, or Don Quixote.

Mercury sq. Neptune highlights the battle between the place we are actually and the place we think about ourselves ending up. And the conjunction with Mars is a reminder that the gulf between them can solely be breached with motion. It’s not sufficient simply to visualise our future – we have now to take steps to make it a actuality.

Luck

Why do some folks appear to be so fortunate? Astrologers affiliate Jupiter with luck, and positively there appears to be a component of fine fortune within the lives of these with Jupiter or its indicators, Sagittarius and Pisces, distinguished of their beginning charts.

I don’t significantly imagine in destiny, however I do imagine in luck. There are some individuals who appear to have a miraculous capacity to deflect unhealthy fortune and entice wealth and assist. Then once more, I believe that will come right down to an accepting, cheerful perspective.

We get a few days this week to place that to the take a look at. Because the Solar in Capricorn trines Jupiter in Taurus (Dec. 27, 2023, 7:28 am PST), luck asserts itself; see if you happen to can seize a bit because it goes by. These with the strongest will and the best confidence will possible do greatest, however this cosmic windfall is accessible to everybody. The week ought to convey luck to our Leo planets and homes, dominated by the Solar; and in case your birthday falls throughout this week, you possibly can most likely anticipate a bit one thing further in your stack of cosmic birthday presents.

Pounding the Pulpit

I grew up in a tiny farm group, possibly 100 yards of asphalt street from a small church. My mother and father weren’t spiritual, however my grandmother was, and we had been despatched to companies every Sunday as a result of it was vital to her.

I loathed the companies; a lot yelling and pounding of the pulpit. Why, I questioned, did God rent such indignant representatives? It didn’t make me really feel nearer to heaven – it made me really feel like God himself disapproved of me, personally.

I think about the red-faced minister was honest in his beliefs. He actually was adamant in them. However the distinction was sharp between his fireplace and brimstone sermons and the pious hymns that punctuated them – to not point out the candy grandmother who needed me in that pew.

Mars squares Neptune this week (Dec. 28, 2023, 2:15 pm PST) on the Sabian image 26 Sagittarius, A flag bearer. The indignant minister (Mars in Sagittarius!) of my youth actually “bore the flag” of his beliefs. However his Mars is in in battle with delicate, spiritually conscious Neptune, a reminder that after we’re championing a trigger, yelling gained’t win others to our standpoint. All of us have our personal beliefs, our personal religion, which are expensive to us. In the long run, touching hearts wins out over pounding the pulpit.

Thrilling Stranger

You’ll be able to love somebody for a really very long time, assume you understand every part there’s to find out about them… after which at some point, they shock you. They use a phrase you’ve by no means heard them use, or share an anecdote you’ve by no means heard. And identical to that, it’s like being in love with a completely totally different individual.

When Venus is in Sagittarius (Dec. 29, 2023, 12:23 pm PST via Jan. 23, 2024), enchantment lies within the novel, totally different, or overseas. After we’ve memorized each sq. inch of our houses and each quirk of the individuals who share it with us, we could also be craving new meals, new firm, or only a change of surroundings. Sagittarius is a vagabond signal, too, and Venus on this signal likes to journey. Combing via different folks’s travelogues on social media, you would possibly swoon with longing.

Whereas Venus is in Sagittarius, although, we are able to acquire enjoyment from the unfamiliar with out venturing removed from residence. Attempt cooking a brand new, unique dish. Study just a few phrases in a overseas language. Pore over maps and plan future adventures. And hold your eyes and ears open for these completely satisfied little moments when a cherished one in all a few years out of the blue turns into an thrilling stranger.

Open Up

Retrograde since Sep. 4, Jupiter stations direct this week (Dec. 30, 2023, 6:40 pm PST). As somebody born with Jupiter retrograde, I’ve had a front-row seat for its strengths and weaknesses. On the plus facet, there’s sturdy confidence in a single’s personal beliefs; on the draw back, a resistance to the teachings and recommendation of others.

When Jupiter turns direct by transit, the arrogance we gained via its retrograde season makes us extra open to exterior opinions and enter. Make a journey, enroll in a course, host a ebook membership. Share your personal ideas, however welcome what the remainder of the world thinks, too.

Writing and pictures © 2017-23 by April Elliott Kent

For extra on this week’s planetary information, learn my weekly column!

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