If you were expecting some kind of sun sign nonsense, forget about it. This is real astrology for the real world. If it's real astrology for yourself that you want, you can get it by phone or in print. And if you need help deciphering the astrological glyphs in the graphics accompanying this article, see Astroglyphs: Astrological Symbols Guide. Please note: this forecast is expressed in terms of Universal Time (UT). Also please be aware that, while I never change a forecast once it's published, I do post errata to acknowledge typographical errors and the like.
If you love life, don't waste time, for time is what life is made up of.
-- Bruce Lee
 

All of December falls under the sway of Venus Max, a holdover from the previously described cycle that began back on August 20 and continues to January 8. As predicted, it’s a cycle that gave a boost to economic activity and the equity markets – both of which, also as predicted, ran into some turbulence in November. I still expect these pullbacks and setbacks to fade for a time, as the Venus Max up-trend resumes until the cycle comes to an end in January. Still, there are bound to be swoons even in a Venus Max – like around the 1st (when the Moon aligns with Saturn) and the 6th (Moon conjunct Mars), for example. (For that matter, the whole last week of December looks dicey for equities, under the aegis of the Mars quadrature to Saturn and all the geopolitical drama that entails.)

Now there’s Mercury Max too, beginning on December 1 and continuing up to January 9, 2012 – the day after the 2010-2011 Venus Max ends. It’s a combination of the two inner planets making their close pass to Earth at the same time, and that adds up to a huge emphasis on everything they represent: communication and finance, for example. Among the sort of things to be ready for during this and any Mercury Max: strikes and other disruptions affecting transportation and communication (e.g. postal, phone, mass transit, trucking, airline, shipping, dock and warehouse workers, teachers and all manner of media). With all the Mars action this month, some of this stuff is likely to go beyond peaceful protests – and that can mean anything from threats to outright violence.

Weather both terrestrial and solar (including geomagnetic storms) can play a part in the kind of breakdowns described here, but human effort (and sometimes malicious action) is a part of the mix as well. Power failures due to infrastructure breakdown and computer network disruptions caused by hacker attacks, software vulnerabilities and the like are also just a crossed wire or a keystroke away from a major mess at these times. In particular this time around, expect enhanced solar and geomagnetic activity throughout December, but most especially around the 20th. Auroral displays are beautiful, but zapped electrical and electronic systems and networks are not. The 1st, 10th, 20th and 30th - plus or minus a few days in all cases – look like notable target dates for these Mercury manifestations.

Speaking of the period around the 20th, the winter solstice total lunar eclipse at 29° 20 Gemini on the 21st (just a day after the Moon’s north declination peak) promises to be dramatic, if not downright amazing. In effect from the 18th through the 27th, this one features the solstice Sun in a rolling conjunction including Mercury, Pluto and Mars - all opposed by the Moon. The lunar perigee on the 25th and the Moon’s southward crossing of the celestial equator the following day amp up this particular lunar eclipse, signifying a period when sharp, strong and maybe even desperate action is called for to address a number of widespread crises and pressing dangers.

There was a day when I thought that by the time of this eclipse, we’d have hit the bottom of the latest economic hole. That was before I noticed that the Jupiter-Saturn opposition which signifies the turning point drags on (out of sign) until early 2012. (More on this in my forthcoming 2011 World Forecast Highlights.) With that in mind, and looking back on the process associated with the historic T-Squares of these past few years, I can see only spasmodic attempts to fix (or more accurately, patch up) the financial collapse that’s been ongoing for the better part of five years now. This isn’t really a change in the long term forecast, mind you. As I wrote in several of my recent annual forecasts, we’re not out of the woods until around the time of the 2020 Jupiter-Saturn alignment. For example, my 2010 World Forecast Highlights: "it takes until 2020 at least for the New World Order to get up to speed." Fits and starts are better than nothing, and at least the December 21 eclipse does look like a fitful start in the right direction.

It also looks like a time for a new round of storm and seismic headlines: magnitude 5+ earthquakes (in some cases accompanied by tsunami), volcanic eruptions, and powerful storms with high winds and heavy precipitation (with flood and landslide potential). As usual, these can happen anywhere – and will. But there may be some hints as to areas of greatest risk in the zone of visibility and astro-locality maps for the eclipse. North and South America are best situated to see the Moon get obscured by Earth’s shadow this time around, although East Asia gets part of the action: these are bound to be under the gun for storms of the atmospheric variety (as well as the financial and political sort).

As for the lunar eclipse astro-locality map, a prominent longitudinal risk zone runs from the South Pacific through the western parts of the US and Canada, over the poles and down through Russia, the Middle East and the western India Ocean. In addition, there’s a horizon arc that skims northeasterly across the south Atlantic coast of South America, across the northwestern coast of Africa and through western Europe, Scandinavia and northern Russia; before turning southeasterly across eastern China, the Korean Peninsula and Japan and down through the South Pacific to traverse Papua New Guinea, skim the eastern coast of Australia and broadside the whole of New Zealand.

Whatever storm and seismic headlines are made during the December 18-27 geophysical risk window, some of the bylines are likely to come from these danger zones. And very likely, some of the financial and other geopolitical headlines as well. Notice that China and her three biggest trading partners all fall under these lines: the US, Japan and South Korea. Also there of course is North Korea, which has been kindling up a powder keg since the Mercury-Mars squares of November. There’s plenty more Mars activation in December: on the 14th (Mercury conjunct Mars, within a few degrees from the 7th through the 17th) and on the 29th (Mars squaring Saturn, within a few degrees of exact from the 23rd on to January 1).

I’ve already described the Mars sequence that began last month and continues into December as "a time of exacerbated ideological tension, of people in conflict over matters of principle – not calm, not peaceful, but strident and loud and coming out swinging . . . more threat and posturing than substance – but brinksmanship can easily slip over the edge, and probably will due to miscalculation during this string of Mars aspects." I think brinksmanship is the key word here, as I wrote last month: "it’s edgy, this Mars sequence; but it’s not Armageddon."

Armed conflict and riots and such are not the only focus for Mars factors like these. There’s also the havoc that comes from chance and carelessness: fires, crashes, explosions, accidents and the like are very much part of the whole Mars milieu.

Incidentally, don’t be distracted by the ongoing Korean fracas into thinking that’s the only place the Mars potential for conflict will manifest. As with all things astrological, this is planetary in scale an therefore planet-wide in scope. (Besides, some of those other Mars-related eclipse lines sweep across North America, Europe and the Middle East, as noted previously.) In short, no matter where you’ll be during the eclipse stress window, it’s a good time to have someone watching your back, and for keeping a sharp lookout in order to steer clear of trouble as best you can.

There are three notable planetary stations this month: Uranus turning direct on the 6th, plus Mercury going retrograde on the 10th and then turning direct on the 30th. Expect breakthroughs in science and technology all month long, Uranus spending the whole of December within the degree of its direct station point. A few days either way of the 6th, 10th, 20th and 21st will be key in these developments – which also speak of secrets being revealed, probably unintentionally in many cases.

In closing, having already covered the lunar eclipse geocosmic instability window, I’d be remiss not to mention the other major storm and seismic risk windows for December. These include the 1st through the 8th, associated with the Moon’s southward crossing of the celestial equator and lunar perigee on November 29 and 30, merging into the new moon on the 5th and the southward lunar declination extreme on the 6th. And then comes the foreshadow of the January 4, 2011 partial solar eclipse, which first starts stirring up Earth’s atmosphere, oceans and crust on the 28th, just as the lunar eclipse begins to fade way.

I’ll cover this in some detail in my (forthcoming) 2011 World Forecast Highlights, but suffice it to say for now that this looks like one of the more potent storm and seismic risk windows in many months. Of course it’s global in scope, but there are some astro-locality longitudinal risks running from Madagascar up through the Horn of Africa and across the Middle East into Russia – the latter two being areas of special focus, by virtue of falling in the eclipse visibility zone - up and over the pole to the Pacific Northwest coastline from Alaska down through British Columbia; as well as a horizon arc that stretches northeasterly across Great Britain and Scandinavia, to cross northern Russia before turning southeasterly across China and out into the Pacific to cross Papua New Guinea, eastern Australia and southern New Zealand, turning northeasterly to cross South America from southern Chile across Argentina and the northeastern coast of Brazil. The storm and seismic risk at times like this will always be worldwide, but these particular areas will likely host the more powerful manifestations of these disturbances in Earth’s skies, seas and crust.

SPECIAL FEATURE: This month's birthdays of the famous and infamous (with astrological birth charts)