Complements
A friend goes through a painful divorce. “That’s it for me,” he proclaims. “No more relationships!” Within a year, he’s remarried. “She’s nothing like my ex,” beams the excited bridegroom. Yet within another year, they’ve split, in circumstances that end up being pretty similar to those of the first marriage.
His friends express their condolences, but exchange knowing glances among themselves. They see what he can’t: that his relationships fail not because of the women he marries, but because he hasn’t changed.
We attract partners based on who we are. If we haven’t addressed our childhood traumas and expectations, we remain stuck in a pattern that attracts partners with complementary traumas and expectations – often without being aware of it in the least.
When Venus, the planet of relationship, opposes Mars, the planet of conflict (Dec. 12, 2024, 2:46 am PST), there’s a chance to recognize those patterns, and to try to diffuse them so that we attract the kind of relationships that complement our happier inclinations.
Cupid and the Eggshell
Mercury sextiles Venus this week (Dec. 12, 2024, 11:45 pm PST) at 06º58′ Sagittarius and Aquarius. And although it’s a light, fast-moving transit, this is an enormously creative and playful combination, pairing Mercury’s delight in language with Venus in Aquarius’ love of doing things differently.
Maybe you grew up like my siblings and I did, putting on little plays in the back yard, pretending to be rock stars, inventing complicated games that took place on our bikes. There’s something satisfying, inspiring, and restorative about this kind of creative play. Consider the Sabian symbol for Mercury, 7 Sagittarius, Cupid knocking at the door. Not just creativity, but perhaps romance could be on offer. Venus, meanwhile, is on 7 Aquarius, A child born of an eggshell. There is more than one way to be “born,” or to be creative, and trust Aquarius to come up with something truly unusual!
This little transit, light as gossamer, is a magic moment for a good talk and a day of light, unstructured fun with your partner; use it to open lines of communication that will help as Venus opposes Mars on the same day.
What’s Eating You?
My husband likes to say that we don’t really know what mood we’re in on a given day until we have our first interaction with another person. It’s true! I can have been up for a full hour, made my breakfast, listened to a podcast, and not be aware of being in any particular mood. Then he gets up and we start chatting, and I find myself commenting in the most heated way about some story one of us is recounting. Then I catch myself and wonder, “Geez, where did that come from?”
Mars turning retrograde in Leo on. Dec. 6 has kindled its share of aggravations and scratchy impatience. There may have been more than the usual number of days when we wake up “on the wrong side of the bed,” as the old saying goes – grouchy, not really knowing why.
The Gemini Full Moon (Dec. 15, 2024, 1:02 am PST) squares Neptune, fully illuminating whatever it is that’s really eating us. Mars made the first of three oppositions to powerful Pluto on Nov. 3 (and is headed for the second one on Jan. 2, 2025), and big, hard changes and conflicts have come our way since then. If you’re not aware of how much anger you’ve been carrying around, this Full Moon will open your eyes.
But what follows this revealing Full Moon, with the Sun and Moon square Neptune, is the potential for insight and healing. Gaze up at the Full Moon and lose yourself in its beauty and magic; let it speak to you. Let it tell you what mood you’re in, and help you figure out why.
Unsticking Yourself
You know how it feels to stand up after you’ve been sitting still at your desk for a couple of hours, or to awaken groggy from a long, deep nap, or to redirect your focus after being intensely consumed in a task? That’s approximately the sensation of Mercury stationing direct (Dec. 15, 2024, 12:56 pm PST, 6º23’ Sagittarius) after a vexing three-week retrograde period that began on Nov. 25. At last, the signal light turns green, and it’s time to shift gears and move forward.
But it’s not as cut-and-dried as that. Even after Mercury gives the go-ahead for forward motion, you’ll probably need a day or two to let your mind awaken, stretch, and focus, and to let matters that have been stuck have a chance to unstick themselves.
Writing and images © 2017-24 by April Elliott Kent
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