Forecast for the Week of December 25th - 31st, 2022

Then Comes the Tide Change

Tide change is our theme of the week.

The Good:

Jupiter in Aries really does bring a fresh burst of energy. That coupled with the relatively quieter week (in terms of classic aspects between traditional planets) gives us a chance to get out bearings before the Aries/Capricorn squares later in the week start poppin' off.

The Meh:

With Jupiter and the Moon in Aries the volatility factor is cranked up a few notches. There's just more spark, more heat under our collars, more itch to get up and go. When the Moon moves through Aries we'll have squares aplenty (read: friction, speed, and maybe conflict).

The Oh Fuck Me:

If you're in a Mercury-ruled year (like I am), it's probably the Mercury retrograde you're thinking about.

I'm adamant that Mercury retrogrades are actually quite magical – though I'll be the first to admit that they come with their fair share of what feel like jokes that the Universe is telling at your expense. If you can learn to laugh about it, and tune into

please note: "oh fuck me" is my way of subverting the normalization of conventional beauty standards; I'm not at all suggesting these outcomes are guaranteed, or that everyone is going to experience these undesirable manifestation. Rather, that in the RPG of life, these would be the chaotic evil playthrough of the same energies described by the good and the meh.

Week in (wal)Nut Shell:

Jupiter is now firmly in Aries, set to zip through the sign in just 5 1/2 short months. This is the first part of a process that will culminate with Pluto's permanent entrance into Aquarius in January of 2024 (though we'll get a preview in the summer next year).

While Jupiter enters the fray on the Battlefield of Mars, the Moon makes the last of three rendezvous with Saturn in what I've come think of as the "Icy Cloud Palace" of Aquarius.

The Venus retrograde and Venus/Pluto conjunction that marked the end of 2021 get a do-over as we end 2022. We'll repeat that theme again with Mercury being the bookend-er of 2023.

If you missed the Jupiter in Aries post, you can get caught up down below:

Fast as a Strike of Lightning: Jupiter enters Aries

Jupiter flies through Aries. What’ll they bring for you?

bearryver.comBear Ryver

The overall pattern and current of the week flows in the direction of first figuring out where adjustments must be made, then determining the how/when/where and with whom parts of the equation.

Sunday: simmering volcano.
Monday: silent contemplation.
Tuesday: focus on integration.
Wednesday: cultivate imagination.
Thursday: fast friction.
Friday: back to the drawing board.
Saturday: purification process(ing).

Sunday the 25th

In terms of the pace of lunar aspects, this is a relatively quiet day with only 4 aspects, mostly late in the day. Still, it's a volatile day. The only aspects the Moon makes are to Mars, the Nodes, Uranus, and Chiron.

It's definitely a day of challenges.

Early AM (midnight - 08:00, PST):

There are no classical aspects among traditional planets.

Midday (08:00 - 16:00, PST):

3:33 pm - the Moon at 10° Aquarius trines Mars, still retrograde, at 10° Gemini

The Advantage(s) of Retreat

Mars, the planets of tussles and muscles, is retrograde and finally nearing His* station.

Late PM (16:00 - midnight, PST):

6:14 pm - the Moon at 11° Aquarius sextiles Chiron at 11° Aries
6:18 pm - the Moon at 11° Aquarius squares the Lunar Nodes

In my prep notes I wrote "the persistence of resistance." And sure, there's the kinda cliche 'what we resist persists' bit that you can tune-in to; but I'm also very much hinting at resistance as in political.

The Sun Surmises:

We really are the ones we've been waiting for. That means that the long-game visions for social and environmental justice we hold dear look like relatively small actions that move us closer in the direction of integral wholeness (aka health).

It's from that place that we naturally teach others what we've learned – often the hard way – by modeling the lessons put into practice. We're in the last 10 weeks of working through the lessons of Saturn squaring the Nodes. With Mars and Mercury switching directions over the next two to three weeks we're in the final phases of demolition and we're putting the plans together for the remodel project of...

Challenge of the Week:

Imagine your life as the construction of a great big building or temple; you've been demolishing some part of the building since October, and you'll be starting remodeling work in the beginning of next May.

When you look back to October, what do you notice having come to a standstill, or needing to be completely redone?

Have something in mind? Great. Now look forward to next May. Considering what you're doing now and simply continuing the course you're on, what might you be doing next May? What do you want to be doing next May? If there's a difference, note it, and the things related to that discrepency.

Now, as you're looking forward to the next 5 months – what is it that you need to finish redoing so that you can just be "doing your thing" come summer?

For example, I began really building out this website, and slowly migrating what archival content I have from the old website. So for me, I'm thinking about what I would need to finish in order to have no more building out the new website left on my plate.

Make sense? Cool – now maybe you want to do the same for yourself?

Monday the 26th

There's only one classical aspect today – a Moon conjunction to Saturn. Then, 13 hours later, the Moon moves into Pisces.

It's a day for quiet, or even silent, contemplation.

Early AM (midnight - 08:00, PST):

There are no classical aspects among traditional planets.

But, Vesta sits on the Point of Thales, relative to the Moon's Nodes, at 11° . Ritualized focus, and the symbolic cleansing sterilization of fire can serve to help us integrate the lessons of the eclipses and the Nodes.

Midday (08:00 - 16:00, PST):

10:19 am - the Moon joins Saturn at 21° Aquarius

Like the last 2 years of Moon transits through the fixed signs you can confidently expect to feels in a bit glum. As in the weeks past my recommendation is to take your dissatisfaction seriously.

Ask it: what would you change?

See if there's anything actionable in there. If not, then you know that simply letting the feelings exist for a time and then allowing them to fade back into impermanence is the move. If there's something actionable, use some of the days later this week to investigate what it would look like / take / require / mean to you to go out there and actually do that thing differently?

Late PM (16:00 - midnight, PST):

11:33 pm - the Moon moves into Pisces

The next two days are a time for dreaming, intuiting, feeling, and traversing the internal realms.

What messages are there for you in your dreams?

Monday's More or Less:

Yeah, we gotta keep "staying with the trouble." No, it's not particularly fun.

Idk what to tell you that's different than the last couple weeks – we're still on our regimen of weekly doses of harsh reality checks, future fears, and grim prognostications.

Almost as if the turn of the century warnings about the future with respect to the environmental and social justice (what would happen if we neglected to urgent need to act and embrace radical paradigmatic shifts) has come to pass into the present moment.

Don't get sidetracked by how serious or seriously shitty shit is – at least not for too long. If you need to just put your head against the wall for about... 13 hours though, we all understand.

Tuesday the 27th

In terms of traditional aspects of the Moon, it's just the sextile to the Sun and a square to Mars. NBD.

All jokes aside, the day is relatively languid in pace, if not intense in terms of focus. The day has the potential to look outwardly slow, quiet, but in a simmering and brooding kind of way, whilst being potentially quite productive internally.

Early AM (midnight - 08:00, PST):

There are no classical aspects among traditional planets.

But the Moon at 3° Pisces sextiles the asteroid Hygeia at 3° Capricorn at 4:44am.

Midday (08:00 - 16:00, PST):

9:23 am - the Moon sextiles the Sun at 5° Capricorn
3:53 pm - the Moon at 9° Pisces squares Mars at 9° Gemini

This is the first classical aspect between the Moon and the Sun since the New Moon on the 23rd. The opening sextile always falls midway between the first visible crescent Moon and the opening, or first quarter, square.

By now, whatever this Capricorn lunation has in store for you should be coming into clear view if not form.

Ask yourself:

• What's been taking shape over the last 4 days?
• Where can you take that thing over the course of the next 3 days?

Late PM (16:00 - midnight, PST):

7:13 pm - the Moon at 11° Pisces arrives at the Point of Thales relative to Their* own Nodes
8:29 pm - the Moon joins asteroid Vesta at 11° Pisces

Questions / Challenges posed by the Moon/Vesta conjunction:

• What types of self-care can you ritualize now?
• How does your body help you tune-in to your intuition?

Challenges for the Moon/Vesta conjunction:

• Maintain an intentional or ritual(ized) sleep/dream practice over the next few days (from now until the quarter, full, or next new moon).

Tuesday's TL;DR:

A fallow field isn't "doing nothing." It's actively resting in preparating for future productivity.

Spending time directing the demolition and reconstruction energy of Mars inward can be quite helpful if it's done with purpose and a clear intention.

Wednesday the 28th

Early AM (midnight - 08:00, PST):

12:31 am - Venus at 22° Capricorn sextiles Neptune at 22° Pisces
1:02 am - the Moon at 15° Pisces sextiles Uranus at 15° Uranus

Midday (08:00 - 16:00, PST):

2:04 pm - the Moon joins Neptune at 22° Pisces
3:24 pm - the Moon at 23° sextiles Venus at 23° Capricorn

Late PM (16:00 - midnight, PST):

4:42 pm - the Moon at 24° Pisces sextiles retrograde Mercury at 24° Capricorn

Wednesday's Word:

Weird. Weird is the word, y'all. The Venus/Neptune and Moon/Uranus aspects that define the morning bring yeah some moody romantic vibe that can seriously stoke the imagination, and also that could also manifest as some fucking confusing and slightly... unsettling interactions. The word glamor comes to mind, and I don't mean it in the fashion sense but in the Dracula sense.

This is the kind of day where things that seem odd and off really ought to be met with an extra bit of consideration. Things that seem too good to be true are almost certain to be so. And if they're not, you can simultaneously seize the opportunity presented and process with caution by saying something along the lines of "hey, I'm into this, can I have some more information so that I can consider my options?"

Thursday the 29th

Thursday morning might feel a little frenzied, frenetic, and perhaps even downright frantic.

Mercury stations retrograde today.

Early AM (midnight - 08:00, PST):

1:31 am - Mercury stations retrograde at 24° Capricorn
2:35 am - the Moon moves into Aries
4:11 am -  the Moon joins Jupiter at 0° Aries
5:58 am - retrograde Mercury joins Venus at 24° Capricorn

Thursday ties together the relational lessons of 2022 with the upcoming communication and logistics lessons of 2023.

Turns out that the future we want to build is going to include other people that we're going to need to communicate with.

The way that we do this will determine just what is possible. The retrograde coinciding with the Moon's first conjunction to Jupiter and square to the degree of the New Moon suggests that reconciling the desire to impulsively initiate big moves towards our big dreams with the pragmatic demands to go slow, to double and triple check the fine details, and to create space for things to organically develop is going to be key.

Sure, taking the time to write down your to-do list, or how long things take might seem like it's "not part of getting things done" until you arrive at the day when having a time audit on hand would help expedite an urgent decision.

Building in the "extra time" necessary to do those seeming "extra" bits of data collection is likely to save you time/money/resources in ways that you literally can't anticipate or predict today.

Midday (08:00 - 16:00, PST):

There are no classical aspects among traditional planets.

But the Moon at 4° Aries squares the asteroid Hygeia at 9:47 am.

Late PM (16:00 - midnight, PST):

5:20 pm - the Moon at 8° Aries squares the Sun at 8° Capricorn
7:17 pm - the Moon at 9° Aries sextiles Mars at 9° Gemini
11:54 pm - the Moon joins Chiron at 11° Aries

Just Jot this for Jupiter's Day:

Friday the 30th

With only two aspects today, this is one of the quietest days of the week.

Early AM (midnight - 08:00, PST):

There are no classical aspects among traditional planets.

Midday (08:00 - 16:00, PST):

There are no classical aspects among traditional planets.

Late PM (16:00 - midnight, PST):

6:52 pm - the Moon at 22° Aries sextiles Saturn at 22° Aquarius
10:00 pm - the Moon at 24° Aries squares Mercury, now retrograde, at 24° Capricorn

Bear's simple rule for Mercury retrograde: triple redundant double checks.

Don't be overly literal and literally do things six times.

Unless the consequences for fucking up are really high. If you're going to buy a car under a Mercury retrograde (which I've done, and it's been great), go ahead and read those confusing lines in the contract six literal times.

The extra ten minutes spent is worth knowing that being hurried and careless wasn't the reason you got yourself into a future mess – and that's the worst-case scenario. Best case? That triple redundant double check is the ounce of prevention that prevents the need for a pound of cure in the first place.

Venus Votes:

Use this day to rest and recover from the last couple of big busy days. Harness whatever burst or surge of energy or passion that's coming through right now to investigate the viability of your wishes for the future.

The difference between a dream and a goal is plan. Mercury's retrograde can help you work out just what that plan in.

This ties in to the overall theme for the Capricorn lunation / lunar cycle which you can read about in the post below:

Fortnightly Lunacy: Capricorn New Moon 2022

Fortnightly Lunacy is coming back from its long hibernation. Some of you may remember them from 2021. If you do, thank you for your patience. The new platform should allow for Fortnightlies to come closer to manifesting in reality the way they appear when gifted by the Muses.

bearryver.comBear Ryver

Saturday the 31st

The last day of the years goes out the way it came in – with a Venus/Pluto conjunction at 27° Capricorn.

The lessons we've learned about relationships in the past year – and the unhealthy patterns we've laid bare and excavated – pave the way for a new way of communicating and collaborating in 2023.

Early AM (midnight - 08:00, PST):

2:58 am - the Moon at 26° Aries squares Venus at 26° Capricorn
4:43 am - the Moon at 27° Aries squares Pluto

If you're up at these hours, and there's relational tension afoot, don't brush it under the rug. And remember that you don't have to dig into things if you're not equipped to handle the aftermath of processing.

You can ask to put a pin in it, or to come back when you're better resourced. But if you did that, say last December, remember too that doing/saying nothing is also a choice.

Midday (08:00 - 16:00, PST):

9:08 am - the Moon vaults up into Their* exaltation in Taurus

There are no classical aspects among traditional planets at this time though, and they aren't any for the rest of the day. We don't consider this a void Moon around these parts, but it does indicate that the Moon/Venus square is the primary energy for the day, and that the rest of this very last day of the year is one that requires less direction and more reception.

Late PM (16:00 - midnight, PST):

6:39 pm - the Moon at 5° Taurus trines the asteroid Hygiea at 5° Capricorn
9:29 pm - Venus joins Pluto at 27° Capricorn

You've heard of energetic hygiene, but what about relational hygiene? What do you need (Moon) to clean up (Hygiea) in your relationships (Venus) in order to eliminate toxic patterns (Pluto)?

...just cause there are no traditional aspects among classical planets doesn't mean nothing is happening.

Saturn's Summary:

Congratulations! You survived 2022.

May your 2023 be a year that bestows you with blessings beyond your wildest imagination. May you have all the resources necessary to receive, enjoy, and keep those blessings. May you have the time and community to multiply and share those blessings for the healing and liberation of all beings.

*A note on gender and the planets:

I've got a personal practice of planetary devotion and view the planets as beings. You certainly don't need to adopt or hold the same view.

You can read more about Bear's thoughts on gender(ing) and astrology by clicking here.

As always, I hope these words find and serve you well.

If there's any way I can be of service to you in creating opportunities for grounded growth or embodied empowerment, please feel free to reach out to me at contact@bearryver.com; or, book a session at: bearryver.as.me

Bear Ryver is a professional astrologer helping his clients hone strategies for grounded growth and embodied empowerment by bringing them back to the BASICS. Winner of OPA’s Most Promising Astrologer in 2018, Bear has lectured at conferences like NORWAC and ISAR. He holds certifications in Hellenistic, Electional, and Horary astrology, and specializes in Intersectional Astrology. He was a teacher for the Portland School of Astrology, and has volunteered as a mentor for AFAN. When he’s not talking stars, or pulling cards, you can find him climbing rocks and playing guitar.