Sugar spun is the “End of the Year”, fast and sweet and often too much of a “good thing”.
As December nears, we brace ourselves for the busybodied, time passing by in the blink of an eye with a sneaky-freaky ability to blindside. As if the Hell that was 2023’s Scorpio Season wasn’t overfloweth with collective grief and daily dread... As if the pressure of MEASUREMENT - in productivity, finances, goals - isn’t unnecessarily emphasized in the soon-to-be calendar finish-line… As if the accelerated to-do’s don’t teeter from over-stimulation to deafening emptiness with no balance between... As if the forced cheer doesn’t overwhelm while the pressure of parties, parties, parties all shoved into the short spurt schedule of one month’s time doesn’t make us want to scream.
To be honest, we don’t love the Holidaze even if generally we are merry gays. Of course we love friends and gatherings, especially involving food, so much that we created a separate Concoctionary Instagram for our cookbook zine - 100% of Etsy sales in 2023 go to Atlanta Solidarity Fund, which provides jail support to protesters in our hometown and it’s been a very intense year in the fight to stop Cop City. The irksomeness of the Holidaze is by no means just the concentrated commitments: there is a highlighted apathy and ignorance in American society as so many celebrate without a thought to the LACK that exists - of kindness, peace, equality, consciousness, compassion, resources, care - while the capitalist agenda of consumerism goes hard, harder, hardest, a rift of gluttony and greed (especially in this time of televised genocide).
Compounded with the End of Year pressure to ponder our own little bubbles - the meaning of our lives, how we’ve grown, where we’ve been, where we’re going - it’s easy to spiral just trying to make sense of it all. In the extended era of battling misinformation, categorization, judgment and other imperfect processes that encourage un-rounded concepts of the “truth”, perpetuated by agendas of the media and government, it is impossible to not feel burnt out. And in reality, many of us are already overworked, depressed and downright tired, struggling to stay afloat. I stress the suggestion to be less hard on ourselves, not to downplay any efforts; of course it takes honesty and effort to make space for what we need and want. We’re doing the best with our Time and it is very much a lie that if we changed this, this, and this we could do it all. It is okay to NOT do the most.
I personally would much rather take a moment to perhaps soften the lens I look through with more love, against all my ideals that I can never seem to catch up to. Instead of planning every moment to get back on even ground, I want to just allow myself to feel AND not necessarily take immediate action on those feelings… just process, gently. I don’t want to mull over what I need to be doing better; I want to know that I am enough as I am right now. And so are you. So are all of us.
The business of being busy is in full swing & luckily the Sun now hangs out in Sagittarius, warming the Astro atmosphere, allowing us to really connect.
Sagittarius is truly the life of the party who can both keep their cards close and coax the most shy of bystander into a relaxed rhythm with their chatty cheerful spark. Despite the Zodiac cliches, Sag has a rich private life and honors of rest/recharge. In Duality/Polarity with Air Sign Gemini, the Challenge of Balance, whether work-life, solo-social, sweet-sour, open-aloof, is either cured or conflicted with the persistent Sagittarius Pursuit of Truth. Due to the proximity of the new Astro Season and the next major lunation, we’ve delayed the Sag Museboard to fully focus on the Full Moon first.
The November 2023 Full Moon in Gemini has the potential to bring joy or drama. Maybe a bit of both.
11/27 FULL MOON IN GEMINI
Gemini is a master of leading a double life, a Mutable Air Sign who emits more than their famed social flow: their ability to read others can become a guide, helping us switch lanes into safety, avoiding inflammation or triggers to not fall into emotional sinkholes. Gemini energy explores the much needed many-sides-to-the-story, creating compassion towards others as well as ourselves when applied ardently. The upcoming Full Moon in Gemini on November 26 or 27, depending on your time zone, grants us an additional chance to reset restrictive views before we saunter further into Sagittarius Season and December’s pull in every which direction.
When full to the brim, a Gemini Moon can push perfection-driven desires to the surface, but their bright brainy chameleonic mindset can also unpack systems that harm us more than help.
Gemini’s delicate attention to detail has merit but their relentless desire to better themselves and their work can become obsessive. Why worship pantheons of pain when we can seek gardens of growth instead? This Full Moon may call for us to reevaluate our flight paths and let go of the harsh standards we set for ourselves and others. When we are hardwired to only see “short-comings”, every situation is doomed to limitation.
There is a grace to an Air Sign’s objectivity that isn’t discussed enough, mostly due to the fact that we live in a critical climate hellbent on finding flaws. When Air Signs have heart, this objectivity is ACCEPTING instead of FINGER-POINTING. Furthermore, drawing constant conclusions from basic facts often serves ill perspective instead of open exploration, especially when the conclusions are dipped in the ink of contempt.
Instead of overthinking and assuming, we can choose to listen. We learn so much when we can actually hear, feel, empathize… even if that’s just with ourselves.
But, because the November Full Moon can impact impulsive flip-flopping, we are susceptible to go from being in the groove to a big bad mood in 5 seconds flat. After all, laughing and crying is Gemini’s dual disposition.
And guess what? That’s okay! The bane of the Gemini-Sagittarius coin flip is to be caught in our mind loops and switch into frustration without warning. But just because this “polarity” can easily travel into an unfavorable place on the mind map, they also have the power of perspective to re-frame anything in a positive manner. The lesson of a Gemini Full Moon in Sagittarius Season is reviving the ability to float into friendliness, to ride alongside courageous care, when in conflict. Being fed up with the status quo is a blessing if it opens the opportunity to find a way to follow our hearts instead.
Gemini’s gift of discernment uproots what lies beneath responses like anger or apathy, a skill we could all use, even if it uncovers issues like insecurity and disappointment. In a sweet nod to Sag SZN, Femme Moon friend Murda Hill montaged Romy & Michele’s High School Reunion, an appropriate anecdote on how social shame from our Past drags down the potential of the Present. I also see the goofy duo as having Gemini BFF vivacity, driven by Sag wanderlust of learning; in their case - that validation from sources of growth and openness is much more fulfilling than status and hierarchy. It might sound silly, but we all have a sore spot affected by this. The more we ditch “cringe” and side with compassion instead, the closer to authenticity and happiness we will be. We deserve to prioritize play and passion, to infuse and enhance our lives with inquisitive tenderness once and to allow ourselves to really connect instead of keep walls up that only keeps love out.
With Gemini’s ruling planet Mercury in Retrograde from December 13th to January 1st of 2024, November’s Full Moon is especially opportune to consider what we do NOT want to carry with us into the New Year (tho rash decisions are not advised at the moment!)
While human obsession with change can be used for good, it is can also be used to mold us into something we are not. Yes, Full Moons are great for clarity around what we feel we lack or have too much of. Yes, it’s important to analyze what we can take off the proverbial plate. Neither realizations matter much if our values have been buried. Better to recenter with heart than get ahead with facades. In the spirit of Sag, considering the Truth underneath is the first step before implementing any change. What’s in our hearts shape what we have (or have not); the way our Mind chooses to view something or someone can completely change its position for positivity in our life.
The picture does not have to be perfect to be enough. The problem doesn’t have to be solved right away. Even though I’m absolutely prone to think about the “pie” of my Life and what’s missing, wanted, needed presses at me in the growing cold of Winter, before entering a New Year, I’m mostly just craving closeness and to be whole as I am, not the “should have, would have” of being trapped in my head. There is plenty of strength in just allowing ourselves to witness this world and help in the ways we know how. And more strength will be needed.