Good Morning!

Wake up with a vision on your mind? Today’s steady Taurus Moon can facilitate your efforts to materialize it, especially if it relates to creature comforts and sensual pleasures. The Moon made an easy connection to Neptune at 7:30AM ET — that’s the vision thing. It pushes forward without interference all day, making another easy connection to Pluto (empowerment; transformation; depth of perspective) at 7:52PM ET.

The big news today is the Sun’s move into the earthy, ambitious, “make it happen” sign of Capricorn — at 11:49PM ET. This is the Winter Solstice  — the time when light begins to push back against darkness — and prevail. Unless you live in South Africa or anywhere else south of the equator, where they are celebrating the first day of summer. What’s it like having a serious sign like Capricorn associated with bikini weather, I wonder???? In any case, with Capricorn, we move from ideas (Sagittarius) to practical application. What will we build?

Here’s what you need to know about the first day of any season from an astrological point of view. The first day of each season (Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter) corresponds with the first day (or first degree) of Aries, Cancer, Libra and Capricorn, respectively. Got that? Good. These four signs are called cardinal signs of the zodiac, with “cardinal” here suggesting (from the Latin root of the word), “that on which something turns or depends.”  Cardinal signs take action. They initiate. Nothing happens without action. And action leads to necessary change. As in a change of seasons — suggested by solstices and equinoxes. Clear?

The first day of a  season is prominent in our culture, right? We make a big deal over it — yes? In Japan, the first day of each season is actually a holiday (holy-day)! Isn’t that wonderful?

In astrology, we observe that planets that are at the first degree of a cardinal sign (Aries, Cancer, Libra & Capricorn), tend to pack a more powerful, prominent punch. They suggest ACTION which leads to CHANGE — prominently. The first degree of all four cardinal signs is known as the ARIES POINT — just to confuse people who are not professional astrologers. Got that?

If you have a planet or angle at the Aries Point, you can expect that the energy of that planet will demand prominent expression in your life. Your friends and family — and perhaps the entire free world — will notice it. William Shatner was born with the Sun at 0 Aries — what a pioneer.  “To boldly go where no man has gone before”? I should think so — and the whole world knows him for playing that role.

This should be a good week for retailers, as holiday shoppers are likely to be feeling especially generous, courtesy of an easy connection between Venus (money, beauty) and Jupiter (expansion) that will be exact on Thursday at 5:03AM ET. If you haven’t checked everyone off on your list and you’re looking for a gift that is truly unique and valuable, consider gifting them with a personal astrological consultation. I’ll put together a custom-crafted gift certificate for your Special Someone with my very own hands — and will include a few Really Useful 2016 Mercury Retrograde Bookmarks, too. Did you know that the first Mercury Retrograde of 2016 happens on January 5th? You would, if you had one of those bookmarks on hand…

Christmas Day dawns on Friday, along with a Full Moon in Cancer. For some reason the lamestream media is feeling a need to tell you that we haven’t had a Full Moon on Christmas since 1977. Far more important, if you ask me, is the fact that Uranus — the disruptor of the status quo — turns direct on the 25th at 10:53PM ET. Uranus refers to revolutions, rebellion, seismic activity, innovation, genetic mutation, accidents, aviation, space travel, technology, astrology, uranium and genius, to name a few. In Aries, Uranus suggests a need for self-reliance, favoring an entrepreneurial spirit. Watch for movement, flashes of genius and/or illumination, as well as shake-ups in the headlines on these areas as we get closer to Christmas.  In your own personal world, consider how your genius insights and notions of freedom can be applied outward. Surely you’ve been feeling an intense buzz about making a break, especially if you have a planet or angle around 17 degrees (just over halfway through) Aries, Cancer, Libra and Capricorn, yes?

Your Moon voids for the week: Tuesday 9:26AM ET until 9:31PM ET; Thursday 3:04PM ET until 12:26AM ET on Friday (will Santa get a late start?); Saturday 10:36PM ET until 5:31AM on Sunday. Stick to routine matters on those days — and roll with whatever twists, flakes and “crises” derail your efforts to move forward in a straight line. Example: the “crisis” that erupted over at the DNC headquarters on Wednesday and Friday — during a Moon void.  Thanks to a security breach in software provided by the DNC, staffers working on Bernie Sanders’ campaign had access to certain voter data that had been culled by the Clinton campaign (and presumably vice versa, though we have not had any reports about Clinton staffers doing so).

The DNC responded by cutting off the Sanders campaign’s access to the software, which contained data that had been culled by Sanders’ staffers. Sanders fired staffers, then filed lawsuit against DNC. DNC relents; no word on whether software vendor gets to keep working with the DNC. Perhaps nation begins to wonder why the Democratic debates have been held on weekends, when few people are watching…and contemplating which candidate might benefit the most from that lack of exposure. There was a debate on Saturday — did you know?

Fun fact: Debbie Wasserman Schultz, the chair of the DNC — who also co-chaired Hillary Clinton’s campaign run in 2008 — has her Mercury at 17 Libra. Thus it was directly impacted by the weekend’s Mercury-Uranus-Pluto clash, suggesting disruptive information/revelations/juicy dirt. Interesting to see how the spotlight is shining now on Ms. Wasserman Schultz’s mindset and communication...here’s a link to a blog she recently started about “clean cooking” — clearly her mindset about some things is changing.

Other disruptive news involving communication and travel — both Mercury-ruled topics — happened in Vegas around the time of Mercury’s exact square to Uranus. Did you hear how Miss Universe pageant host Steve Harvey accidentally crowned the first runner-up Miss Universe — instead of the actual pageant winner? Took over five minutes to fix that one…oops. Just minutes earlier, there was a shocking traffic incident right in front of the hotel that was hosting the pageant. Wondering how planetary patterns were impacting the horoscope of Las Vegas…(yes, it does have one).

Gotta fly. Busy day today.

Thank you for reading this forecast.