This Gemini Full Moon offers an unusual opportunity. Will you trade a known for an unknown? It’s not a simple question. In fact, it goes to the heart of our sense of security and abundance. We rely on muscle memory to make the day easier. We act and react out of behavior shaped primarily in childhood and modified along the way. Our lives wind up smaller than they can be when we continue to fall back on familiarity as a survival approach. Especially when it comes to relationships.
We have something called an intimacy threshold that is set in childhood. We learn how close to get to each other while still feeling safe. Your parents modeled their personal level of comfort setting. You adapted your own version through what you witnessed and then tried yourself. Mars squares Saturn this Full Moon. Squares require adjustment. Saturn applies consequences so you can select a better expression of feelings in words and actions (Mars). You get to trade in justifying what you do now but in return you build richer, deeper relationships.
Your expansion effort isn’t muscle memory yet. Which means you have to resist the temptation to measure your results too quickly as an excuse to fall back in to the familiar. It takes consistent effort to relate as the adult you are and not the triggered younger you. By all means, tweak actions as you go. Those changes aren’t fully set yet. Evolution replaces what no longer benefits with what does. It’s a slow process and Saturn so prominent in the Moon Cycle speaks to up to 27 years of unfolding. But in order to get the big payoff, you have to trade in the familiar. Are you up to the switch?
It’s a messy process. There is no clear straight road. It really hinges on paying attention to what you do and why you do it that way. Be careful of being very attached to your stories of the past. Each time you tell them you drop yourself back there, in the past, with less power than you have because you went through it. This Gemini Full Moon tempts you to tell the old story varnished over with new paint. It may look like evolution at a quick glance but it’s not. Mercury is square to Neptune, so we can tell ourselves lies and want to believe them. At the end of the day you can have more of what delights you or your list of excuses why it hasn’t happened. Lying to yourself is a sure bet to land on excuses over experiences.
When we deceive ourselves it leaks into lies we tell others. They don’t feel like lies in the moment. Still, those deceptive words can help identify your fears around getting what you want. They can point out what you wish was true. So pay attention when you find yourself rationalizing what you do. It reveals more than you realize. Then you get to choose to tackle the part of you that settles for untruth and get busy finding more solid ground to launch from as you grow.
This Full Moon has an aspect called a T-Square. This means the light pulls us in competing directions to get us to stretch. If you settle for deception instead of evolution, Saturn puts a higher cost to what you do. Remember, Mars square Saturn requires change. So you either dial up the lies and postpone the house of cards collapse, or you risk this learning curve and normal failures as you go. Either way. you give up something to get what you want. The question is do you want to feel safe or actually be safe?
A good lie will make you feel safe in the moment. The young part of you may not know you can face the consequences of an unpleasant truth. Start there. Work with that part of you. What does it need to trust a bigger Truth? If you choose the Truth, don’t lie to yourself about what it takes to face whatever is ahead. There are good and bad moments on a new path. Don’t let the learning curve convince you it is a mistake to grow. You benefit from what goes wrong because it teaches you. It’s not evidence you were better off the old way.
One way or another you give up something in order to arrive at the place you want to be. Make sure the tradeoff is worth it for the choice. The Cards and Stars will help.
Thank you,
Lisa Greenfield
TruthinHand.com
11/27 Gemini Full Moon Six of Cups
This card strongly connects us with our past, especially childhood. The theme of adulting is strong thanks to the dynamic T-square between the Sun, Mars, the Moon and Saturn. Expect strong emotions to be on deck in relationships. If you aren’t stirred up, someone around you will be. From dark to light, best to worst this Full Moon brings up feelings. What we do with those feelings is our power. You can literally do anything you want. Anything, if you accept there are natural consequences to whatever I do. This is not punishment for actions, although we can interpret it that way. It’s good old cause and effect.
How much do you want to manage what another feels or expresses? Conversely, how much do you feel you have to squash your feelings in order to be acceptable? This is a long messy road and it starts with a core emotion. Be mindful of how you label what you feel. Mislabeling adds confusion. We get impatient because the soup of feelings doesn’t have just one ingredient. It’s soup! Which means you need to take time to figure out what you feel and how much of it is applicable right now.
This is reparenting at its very beginning. Which is a great place to start. Which can also feel a bit schizophrenic at times. There are more than one versions of you inside your intimacy framework. Some are younger than others. It takes time to learn what age you are with each reflexive response. Some people send you back into the youngest version of you. Others tap the teenager or young adult. What is the relational age of the you that drives your relationship responses?
Give up trying to get others to change in order to feel better. Those changes evolve as you learn how to integrate all the parts of you with the adult at the wheel. What matters more is your approach. Can you play with it a bit? This Gemini Full Moon is chock full of entertaining ways to address issues. As long as you face dealing with unpleasant truths, why not find a way to lighten the process, right? Be sure to include do overs when mistakes happen. Be accountable for a good effort but try again. Perhaps you want to find age appropriate rewards when you do the hard things. My inner teenager loves to goof off with no set agenda. Remember, you can do what you want. You just have to accept the consequences.
So construct your intimacy threshold thoughtfully, deliberately and with a sense of humor. Really, it ages better than any other body part. You can’t underestimate the benefits of some good belly laughs. They’re even better shared. So head in that direction and out of the confines of what was impressed on you in your youth. Feel your way.
11/28 Four of Cups
You can lovingly connect with another and then just as quickly be provoked, says the aspects today. This Four of Cups holds a promise of emotionally firm ground or defensiveness. While defensiveness is a popular reaction, it separates you from each other. When Cups are involved it is emotions that are walled off. Hmm, what are you actually defending against when provoked today and how much of it is true to the situation? Locate the story and your age in that story. Then be open to see how much is actually true today.
Mutable planets stack up to start this Moon Cycle. Which means you change your mind, a lot. The good news is you get to practice sorting which thoughts feel true and which ones just feel big. There is a difference. Remember, you are the adult now. You are not at the mercy of anyone, even though you may feel like you are. I had a choice to make. I felt angry and resentful because I had to make a hard choice and my first pass blamed the person who presented me the fork in the road. Hint, they aren’t the problem.
Even if their behavior is problematic, I can speak up and ask for what I want. I can walk away. Or I can decide in the scheme of things this issue isn’t a defining one and let it go. Spoiler alert, I spoke up for myself. Which one to choose is my work. There are also many versions of any given path. Why sit on the roadside building a fort when I could be down a new road experiencing new things. When do you need to speak up? What do you need to walk away? This sort of thought process reaps rewards today.
If you insist on defending a younger you against today’s difficulties, you are the one boxing yourself in to the least powerful time in life, childhood. Be kind if that’s where you start out. Just don’t stay there. Firmer and higher ground are just ahead with a little applied effort. Show yourself that you are worth your time.
11/29 Princess of Cups
Our inner emotional state is the focus today, with a little help from this Princess. Venus meets the South Node to help us sort out what we love currently, versus what we’ve loved in the past. A little emotional housecleaning may be in order. Expectations are a good place to begin. My colleague said that ‘expectation is just premeditated resentment’. Because the power to meet anticipated requests rests with something outside of you. While we do collaborate and rely on others for a healthy give and receive, you want the balance of power right first. Otherwise your expectations are just a breeding ground for disappointment and resentment.
You can ask for what you want or need. In fact, it’s vital to be able to do so. But this requires you let go of how they fulfill your ask. Are you ‘shoulding’ all over their efforts to get them to do it your way? Find a healthy exchange. It’s possible and you are the road to upgrade how you relate. So tune in to what you feel, how you meet your current desires and how well you work and play with others around what you wish for.
Like any good cleaning, you have to see what’s dirty first. Take a healthy look, gauge how well you accept where you start the process and then do what you can. Perfection is not required. Just a little patience, attention and care with the details and you’ll feel so good on the other side. Especially when you drop the need for it to look perfect in favor of feeling so right for you now.
11/30 Three of Cups
Do you notice a Cups theme unspooling here? What you feel matters. Our hearts have 5,000 time more magnetic pull than our thoughts. Which is why clean up here pays dividends in thousands of ways you never realized. Today we have challenging aspect with Venus and Chiron plus the Moon, Eris and Chiron. What it boils down to is the need to take a good look at where our expectations lead to disappointment, lead to defensiveness. It’s a domino chain you can stop before it gets started once you know it’s there. That is good news, which is the plus side of the Three of Cups.
The minus side is gossipy chatter. Even well intentioned friends and loved ones can project their fears on to your situation and try to talk you out of what you feel in the name of safety, practicality and maturity. Now don’t get me wrong, I’m absolutely a fan of mature assessment. But I don’t like pessimism dressed up as logic. Risks are always a part of life. The sweet spot is to decide which risks are worth taking in pursuit of what you love. Those are the ones that don’t sting as much when something fails. They hurt, but your courage on your behalf builds resilience and strength. Add that formula into your mix today and be brave in a smart way. This three promises good news when you do. Regardless of the results, you will feel better about your efforts.
12/1 Six of Wands
Mercury enters Capricorn today sextile to Saturn. This gives a more measured view of things. As one astrologer put it, Mercury in Capricorn observes more than it reacts. This Six highlights small victories. Seeing things accurately certainly counts as a victory in my book. Which comes in handy as the Moon, Pluto and Venus make a tense T-Square. It really is that choice of whether you approach a situation as an adult who can do amazing things or as a child who is dependent on outside circumstances full of resentment and fear.
Most of us are a patchwork quilt of adult and different ages of the younger us. And there is nothing like family to drop us back into patterns learned in childhood. The T-Square today invites us to pull up a chair and do a good review on the decisions in front of us at present. Where is a petulant 12 year old you trying to get a particular outcome even in the face of resistance. Now, overcoming resistance to achieve a goal is a healthy part of being mature. Digging in on a situation that isn’t aligned is not.
Mercury in Capricorn helps you take a closer look and see yourself more clearly. It can also observe key details from those around you. There may be places where interests align even while they don’t match up at all in other spots. Play with what works, adjust or discard what doesn’t. It’s about progress, not perfection. You can piece together a way forward that may not show you the whole path yet, but has promising milestones on the way forward. Take those as small wins and celebrate.
12/2 Four of Pentacles
This is the second four in our Moon Cycle. Two fours highlight solid relationships. Note, two fours add up to eight, the symbol for infinity. It also is a symbol for give and receive. The aspects today offer a lot of support to get things on a firmer foundation when we give up defending ourselves unnecessarily. It’s easier to see what we can do and even how to do it. There is something soul satisfying about the view of ourselves as capable, whatever is in front of us. One of the reasons for that is we have relationships we trust. We know we won’t be going through things alone.
If that isn’t your view, part of that is because you didn’t learn how to trust yourself first. From there, how on earth can you trust another, right? So in this change cycle with so many mutable planets, you can envision small options for expanded self confidence. Bite size is good.
Start with owning some of your story about untrustworthy people may have projection woven into it. Unpick those threads and get to the places where you can rely on a particular something. Small steps. Do be sure to give yourself credit for each risk you take. Do remember to tell your mind to make the smart risks first. It’s a solid start to those relationships that will get you through the tough times. They are there for you with a little investment on your part.
12/3 Temperance
The card of healing shows up today, right on cue. We need a few wounds kissed better. There are two paths through the energy of today. One is curious, investigating what comes up and what to do with it when it does. The other is that armed and on guard energy that makes you feel safe while keeping you isolated. Temperance says no rushing. No overdoing either. Slowly, surely find what makes you feel centered in your skin. Not protected, but centered. From here you can move in all directions.
Watch for restless or manic energy. Mars and Jupiter are in an awkward face off. This is like a puffer fish blowing up to appear larger and less vulnerable than it feels. Honest assessment of where exposure feels dangerous is a better use of strength. Not so you can armor up, but rather so you can ground yourself and don’t dig in defensively. When you give up defensiveness, you are relatable and preserve options that serve you well.
Find the true strength within you. No need to puff up to appear it, you already have some of it. Locate that and it is very healing indeed. Once you know it, you can’t go back to ignorance. Slowly and surely you build on what’s real and solid within you. That is if you stop long enough to be curious about your process and how to evolve it. When you are, amazing connections can come out of you connecting the inner dots. You’ll find they match up with all kinds of spaces outside of you.
12/ 4 Eight of Cups
When this Eight of Cups shows up the tide is going out. As Venus just separates from a square to Pluto, it may be you realize that you don’t want what you thought you wanted. Pay attention to how you interpret whatever happens. The Moon squares Mars which can bring up a knee jerk reaction or two. Go inside if it happens. What story do you have going? The combinations today can have us feeling like failure when really it’s a timing issue. We see what is on its way out but we don’t yet have a clear sense of what’s on its way in to replace it. Focus on process today. Let that be enough. It’s not a results kind of day, so don’t look for that. Unless you want to measure how well you assess and learn about how you operate when triggered.
12/5 Two of Swords
We have the ideal and then we have the real. This Two of Swords speaks to the tug of war that goes on in our heads bouncing between what we want to be true and what actually is. The good news is we learn through contrast. So when we sort out which is real and which is our ideal, valuable insight is ours to keep. Plus what we wish was true, can add to the map we use to navigate our world. Some of those wishes are waiting for the right actions to make them live. What risks will you take to move them from the unrealized to the realized column?
The Sagittarius Sun is uncomfortably communicating with Pluto. This means we must confront our underground programming that runs the story when we don’t pay attention. It’s a good opportunity to excavate where the power struggle within us winds up playing out in front of us. Which means when we integrate all the bits and bobs of you as you excavate the Plutonian basement, it makes long lasting change possible. Less time spent on unproductive back and forth, more time putting the gold of your desires and dreams to work for you. The first one keeps dreams safely in the ideal category with a list of reasons why they haven’t happened yet. The second one helps line up what comes next and helps you gear up to see yourself as worthy and capable.
12/6 Wheel of fortune
Neptune stations direct today after months of retrograde motion in Capricorn. The Wheel of Fortune promises reward for lessons learned and more lessons when you haven’t paid attention. It’s reasonable to believe you will have a mix. However, you may well want to tally up where you choose love and trust over fear to make sure you are in the plus column more than the minus. Fear attracts more to be afraid of until you face the fact that you can pull the teeth on those monsters in all kinds of ways.
The Moon trines Pluto today to help us face our projections and bring them down to right size with a little light. No matter the problem, if you are still here you have options how to tackle it. In fact, those challenges may well be your dare to be great moment. You never know. But imagining it as possible sure helps make facing them feel less daunting and more daring. Even those spots that don’t require greatness benefit from well-placed patience and a ‘good to know’ attitude. Remember what you give up about certainty gives you so much more in the adventure of life. It’s a trade off worth making in big or small ways today.
12/7 Queen of Wands
The aspects are green lights all the way today. This fiery Queen reminds us that we can inspire and attract what we want. All we have to do is practice it. Queens stand for the receptive feminine and wands are our intuition. There is also an element of right timing with this Queen. So the promise here is that when we pause long enough to really tune in to our intuitive guidance, things appear we don’t see when we fly down the road with our hair on fire. With so many green lights, it is tempting to stomp that gas pedal. But the reminder is there are lots of tempting sparks today. While you roll easily ahead, do keep an eye out for what lights you up in each neighborhood. You may be very glad you did!
12/8 The World
One of the meanings for this card is to stay within your patterns as new worlds open up. Except the aspects say something different. By all means, build on existing patterns but don’t let yourself be stuck doing what you’ve always done, the way you’ve always done it. That is a missed opportunity for sure. You may feel grumpy at being asked to step outside your comfort zone. You may want others to accommodate you to make life easier. We’ve all been there. Use the time as practice to find healthy interdependence as a sweet spot. You do you, even the grumpy or irritable parts, and let the others do them. It’s not where you start, it’s how you finish.
Today is good practice for holding the tension when things are less than ideal. Wait for timing and access to line up better. Your time is well spent surveying the bigger playground before you rush out into it. That’s a great way to make the actions you do take work in your favor with less opposition as timing lines up. It also helps you assess who you want to play with and how to best do just that. Control is not helpful. Being in command of the whole you is. Practice…
12/9 Nine of Wands
The Moon conjuncts Venus today and opposes Jupiter. This can bring forth rich deep shared emotions. Or it can devolve into theatrics and drama to avoid those deeper feelings. Drama is how we hold a story we don’t know how to handle. So we tell the story and get others to witness the big emotions without really experiencing them for ourselves. We use our power to stir up reactions in others as an escape from dealing with our own. This Nine is the number of spiritual mastery.
Which means logic is less helpful than intuitive hits and unexpected right or left turns. If big emotions come up, maybe a particular song helps you embody the feeling for the length of that song. Try it or your version of that. Once you experience the power of the emotion without being overpowered by it, you’ve broken the proverbial four minute mile. See what exercise pops into your brain to help lasso the whirlwind of feelings and bring it to earth. This Nine says you are better at than you know, if you just try.
12/10 Justice
The Scorpion Moon opposes Uranus not long after sunrise today, to pull up sudden reactions and impulses. It may feel like someone popped the lock on all those unexpressed feelings. There is a relatively quiet day for aspects, so we have plenty of time to let those unaired emotions get daylight. Justice is about setting a confused life in order successfully. It literally says you can have harmony even when you aren’t perfectly balanced. In fact, this card reminds us that we don’t strictly measure our in and out breath to keep them exactly the same length. So why do we expect our emotions to conform in any way?
What is healthier is to pull from the mastery of yesterday and find your particular way to awaken the fun feelings that are natural balance for the difficult ones. To the extent you feel sad or angry, that is also the capacity you have for joy and pleasure. Work on integrating all those emotions into the mix. They will expand how much good comes with the less appealing ones. It can all balance in the end, the very thing this card stands for.
12/11 Nine of Pentacles
Whoohoo! This is the second Nine in the Moon Cycle and heralds contentment and co-operative endings. Since these weeks are about what we give up to get something better, what a great omen to end the cycle. We evolve, little by little. Just like the seed that sprouts, then buds, then flowers and back to seed again, your process unfolds. To everything it’s season. As we head into the Winter Solstice in the Northern Hemisphere, we have a visual representation to let go of the old and take a rest before blooming again the proverbial Spring.
It feels a bit unnerving to live in open space as you give up and clean out the old clothes of your childhood. You wore those roles, habits and relationships for a long time. Now you get to choose a whole new wardrobe that shows your inside to the world on your outside and feel strong enough to do it. With a little polishing you might find you delight in how well you show up authentically. In fact you can collect rewards for your risk. It’s the reward of a well-lived life. That is always available for you, so grab it. Can’t you feel how true it is now? Choose love and smart risk over armor and fear. That is the mastery this Nine promises. You make it real every day.
Hands On Fun…
If you want to take good care of yourself this Holiday season, check out my post on Substack. It’s a little insight to keep family drama from dimming your light and joy this season. And on the plus side, it helps connect you heart to heart with those you love. Wishing you a wonderful holiday season.
P.S. Tomorrow is Giving Tuesday. Do check out my favorite spot to give, the young adults make a world of difference, inspired by a heart centered leader in Beth Ryan. Stepping Forward LA is making a meaningful difference in so many lives. See what I mean here and by all means join me this Giving Tuesday.
