Solstice Full Micro Moon ~ Stealth & Balance
27°28 Gemini @4:35UT (18^th) 19^th December 2021

“In art and dream may you proceed with abandon. In life may you proceed with balance and stealth.” ~ Patti Smith

Can a poignant Solstice Full Moon be radiant and bright, and still be astronomically ‘micro’? Well, yes, because Luna is currently the furthest away from Earth at the moment in her elliptical orbit, she is what’s known as ‘apogee’, or a ‘micro-moon’, the opposite of ‘super-moon’. Both super and micro, nearest and furthest, can animate the wild, weird and wonderful (within). Though the super is more obvious, the effects of a micro-moon tend to creep up on us and catch us unaware. This is therefore a ‘stealth’ Full (o)Micro Moon with far-reaching, undulating waves that appear to have been around for quite some time and, indeed, may be so deeply embedded that a surge rarely fully peaks (head’s up: April 12^th ’22), but instead spirals along in a sweeping, fractalising, emotionally distant but incredibly strong undercurrent that everyone subtly feels. Such a tidal pull, just as the Sun is about to come to stand-still (Sol = sun, Stice = Still), can also slow one down when juggling the changes that invariably come about when both Sun and Moon combine the mighty Love-Wisdom of mutable signs, wise Sagittarius and versatile Gemini respectively.

☆ Be patient. Change comes three days after Solstice, with the Christmas exchange of light between North and South. Try not to hurry or sleepwalk through opportunities that enable timely truths and intelligent information to enlighten and provide faith. While the escapist oblivion of a Solstice Sun and Full Moon in hard ‘T-Square’ to nebulous and mystical Neptune is a separating aspect, and therefore the influence is waning, it still suggests there could be a temptation to blur the lines of truth, vision, or reality in the days before the Full Moon, especially as it is also Saturnalia. It’s been noted how alcohol and drug consumption has dramatically increased since the pandemic. Be careful, some easily available mind-numbing is addictive – and toxic: know there are other ways to go beyond the pain of our everyday suffering.

☆ Just by looking at the distance of the Moon to Earth, for instance, the bigger picture can inspire a sense of optimism and mind-expansion and a determination to live in truth and beauty. This Gemini micro-Moon could also trigger an overwhelming desire to go that extra mile – and not just for oneself. Chatty Gemini’s kind word, a gentle gesture or helping hand can be helpful and healing to others in a non-judgemental manner. Gemini also brings out the playful and clever, tongue-twisters and party games. And with the Moon in an excellent and very tight ‘Trine’ aspect to Jupiter, which is the 27° Sagittarian Sun’s ruler, it indicates luck and ease could be on our side. In your chart, check 27-28° Air signs Aquarius, Libra, and Gemini, and see where fortune currently favours.

☆ In the few days before Solstice, the Sun aligns with the Galactic Centre, the part of the sky around which our Milky Way Galaxy rotates. This can only encourage the Sagittarian archer to aim far and direct his arrow towards the light, and hold the magic beam.

☆ A few days after the Full Moon we welcome the natural pause in our Earthly orbit of the Sun, on Tuesday the 21^st, as the emphasis of light heralds Sol’s longest day in the South, the ‘Great Yang’, a time for gathering friends and family and garnering creativity; with the longest night in the North a period of ‘Big Yin’, for curling up under the duvet to dream and stay warm.

☆ For those who hang the ‘do not disturb’ sign along with seasonal decorations, be aware that while rest is often necessary to recharge and realign at this time of year, communicative Mercury is this Full Moon’s ruler. And, wouldn’t you know it, for this the Solstice Moon chart, quicksilver Mercury is extra busy and somewhat bolshie. Currently fortified, with long convoluted histories, to the intellectually astute Mercury-ruled Gemini Moon; a no-nonsense, professional Saturn is working experimentally; plus dynamic Mars charging ahead (the latter, incidentally, continues to drive this planetary ‘locomotive’ shape chart taking us away from past (life) belief, until the awakening Full Moon February 16^th 2022).

There’s a fiery fearlessness to this particularly brave, driven and ruthless Mercury, at 8° Capricorn, able to articulate, recant, and express in a direct and wilful manner. The astral tip for a harmonious holiday season is selective seating arrangements; because festive cheer could too easily descend into division if we don’t all make an effort to be open and inclusive, no matter a person’s colour, race, sex, age, or even opinion.

☆ Harmonious relationship is Venus’s domain ☆
Venus Retrograde ~> Conjunct Pluto
Venus is the BIG STAR of this Full Moon. Goddess of peace, love and harmony, Venus currently rules just and fair laws, working contracts, and beautiful cuisine, decorations and manners. She has recently been dazzling seductively in the Western evening sky. Now the brilliant Venus stations to go retrograde, exactly as Luna culminates on a Solstice Full Moon. What a show stopper! Venus only comes to her ‘Still-Point’, in order to retrograde, five times in eight years, in which she traces a five-pointed Venus Star pentagram in the sky with a fascinating sky dance.

Irresistible Venus coming to a halt bang-on the Micro Moon moment is timely poise, with the light of the purposeful Sun to help pin-point and illuminate how to express, reassess and take stock of all kinds of relationships, particularly those with colleagues and professional and working relationships, as well as those which are secret, those which/who share the same passion, and those that have stood, and will stand, the test of time, offering firm bonds and an unbreakable alliance – or not, as the case may be.

In earthy Capricorn, Venus can be as much a rock to rely on, or in the extreme have a harder heart, like the responsible boss married to the job. Devotion is integral through tough (skinned) initiation. Venus now has a chance to exercise her love and beauty to rework and repower Capricorn, the hard working sign of tradition and authority, discipline and responsibility.

Love Goddess Venus goes into a symbolic ‘underworld’ by the New Moon 2^nd January, where we can no longer see her. She then makes her inferior conjunction ‘Star Point’ 9^th January. All this shows how events around this this Solstice, leading to 2022, can align heart mind and spirit and soul, to reveal that love is the way for the year of Water Tiger

With Venus heading all the way back to 11° Capricorn by the end of January, there could be lots of (romantic) coming and going. Venus retrograde we can revalue, reworks, reorganise, and renew and re-estabilish by building – or pruning if not annihilating – the boundaries, blocks and obstacles we have in trusted relationship, shared goals, and career, to see what is needed to be reinforced, or, indeed, what is not valued, and calls to be or released. Venus in Capricorn conjunct Pluto connects to both the highest pinnacle of hard-won respect, and the obsessive, deepest darkest paranoid jealousy spectrum of loving relations, ones that often require the renouncement of ego for love, all of which may be nothing short of an initiation into renewal when faced with the pain of releasing all that no longer serves the honourable path of love.

Thus, as Venus starts her forty-days and forty-night retrograde retreat, she is in an extra powerful position conjunct Pluto – just as she was at the 11^th December, and will be at Xmas day ((!)The same day as the last Saturn/Uranus Square of the year where authority vs freedom has been a key issue), and another penultimate meeting March 3^rd. Whenever Venus and Pluto are together, the transformational power of love is heightened and intense. Know now that the love we have for all sentient beings, seen and unseen, changes the world.

The entire three/four-month period Venus is retrograde, including applying and separating shadow, is extended imho to early March because of the triple Venus/Pluto conjunction. Venus also conjunct Pluto in January 2020, December 2020 (think back now), and all the way back to December 2013; and will be also conjunct Pluto in Capricorn for a last time, January 1st 2023. (After that Venus will meet Pluto in humanitarian Aquarius for the next twenty years). Use these dates to compare how you are with the practical charms of Venus in Capricorn (we will talk more about Pluto in Aquarius another time). Suffice to say that seductive Venus in ambitious Capricorn means it is not always what you know but who you know. Venus in Capricorn conjunct Pluto can overcome the fear of commitment or partnership, and professionally schmooze and transform partnership into an organised but passionate and lasting affair that mellows and renews in time.

As Venus completes the Goddess’ sacred rose heart mandala in the sign of the Sea-Goat, Capricorn, for another eight years, we could learn that loving our demons can also take time – and healing. Note the Moon will be in her last quarter remedial phase when Venus kisses the heroic Sun, January 9^th, so symbolic of wise feminine healing wisdom and the devoted heart.

☆ This holiday and the entrance into 2022 could therefore be relationship intense in more ways than one. The Venus Star Point teaches that whatever challenges we have at work, in relationship, at home, school or wherever, the most important aspect of love is to love oneself and whatever we are doing; not in a puffed-up, ‘I’m the dude’ (or ‘dudette’) kind of way, though strutting that vibe does impress some (Think Venus in Leo), but with Venus in Capricorn an acceptance of loving the self and/or one’s work takes time – and effort – to achieve the exceptional results we would like to see for ourselves, that only we are meant to see and do.

☆ Interestingly, Mercury will go retrograde in January just before our next Full Moon, January 17^th. The heavenly messenger, trickster-healing-brother will retrograde back to the very same degree of Capricorn that loving Venus and powerfully psychic Pluto keep meeting, at 25° Capricorn. Thus the cosmic Capricorn dance of the past few years continues to focus upon the renewal of business and resources, but with heart and fairness. Whatever transpires over holidays, there will be magic to make and much to discuss for weeks to come!    

☆ With that I’d like to wish you all a very Happy Solstice – and all the astral holy days that follow. Because, after 87 Moon reports from me (!), agent 87, a.k.a. astro agent Dakini, its mission accomplished for raising the cosmic love vibration of Spiritual Esoteric Astrology in this format with the fabulous C*I*A: after almost 7 years, another mission calls.

It’s been a joy and honour to write the Full Moonlunar transmission. Thank you, lovely C*I*A readers for reading.
If you would like to remain connected, you can still find me on board here at the C*I*A as mentor and for consultations,
and at
www.astrodakini.co.uk

Meanwhile, may your holiday stars twinkle,

with love & light
Astro Dakini Agent #87
aka ©LauraBoomer-Trent