Venus opposite Mars Retrograde & Neptune Stations Direct: Astrology of 11/30 – 12/6

Our current Mars retrograde in Gemini may have us in a swirling mass of timelines – our vital energy navigating, exploring, considering more perspectives and activities than usual – while Sagittarius Season signifies that we are compelled to vision, to be the storyteller of our lives.

This week, there is a potential rise in fantasy, fantastical thinking, and heart awakenings as we have Neptune stationing and forming an aspect to Venus.

In a mythic sense, it is as though the hero (ourselves) is on a vision quest during a significant crossroad in the plot. Feel into the drama of that! Perhaps it is distinctly relatable – maybe in a way that inspires levity and adventure, but perhaps the pressure is on more logistically & plans are being significantly disrupted or re-arranged. The moon is growing full, and will be full on December 7th highlighting the heart of the Mars retrograde with the Moon and Mars exactly conjunct then.

I read this upcoming illumination of the full Moon-Mars in Gemini as the possibility that a current perspective (Gemini) is penetrating (Mars) our very being – a curiosity has grabbed us, an exploration is awakening us. With emphasis!!

Full Moons always have the power to be disturbing (the light is all the way on, and sometimes what we see is a reckoning) just as they have the power to be celebratory and revelatory, as reveals can be like the hidden heart of our soul or of the universe itself peaking through a curtain – a new face of the mystery becomes known.

I think of a layer of the heart revealing itself this week – and our own curiosity, storytelling, and prayer as vehicles of this mystical opening. It is a great week for reflecting on how we’d like to embody the path we are being called to, how we’d like to meet the initiation/adventure/challenge we are being offered.

Welcome back! Or in case this is your first time here, I’m Sabrina Monarch and I’m a soul-centered astrologer. I love providing perspectives on the opportunities of transits and putting into words what the zeitgeist feels like at this moment in time, to support you on your path & open a dialogue between us and the cosmos. If you would like to receive these weekly forecasts to your inbox and be notified of upcoming educational opportunities, sign up for my mailing list here.

Watch this week’s forecast on YouTube, or continue reading below:

Here’s our week after a few announcements:

DRAGON OF THE MOON: AN EVOLUTIONARY ASTROLOGY INITIATION – STARTING FEBRUARY 2023

Previously titled the Evolutionary Astrology Intensive, this course is being offered again under a new name, Dragon of the Moon: an Evolutionary Astrology Initiation. This program is designed to give students a footing in their own astrological intuition and literacy, and we journey specifically into a deeper understanding of Pluto and the lunar nodes, and how to read charts from the perspective of the soul. We learn how to decode the inherent meaning or value in every experience we’ve ever had (as the soul explicitly learns through experience), and with this insight, also gain the power to make new choices and tell new stories. An understanding of Pluto and the nodes in the natal chart leads to a profound meditation on our deepest desires and inclinations in this life, and the personality structures we’ve created to secure those desires. By examining this material in a grounded, mythopoetic, compassionate space (of the program) we get to uncover new ways that we might relate to our deepest motivations in more life-enhancing ways. The natal chart can guide us into discovering how the story we’ve been living as a soul wants to continue. I have found these teachings invaluable as I’ve grown up alongside them and built my life in relationship to them, and I’m honored to share it with the amazing, tight-knit communities that form around this alchemical fire.

From the most recent run of this course, Kristen says: “I am a long time reader of Sabrina Monarch’s astrology writing. Her columns have been so insightful and helpful to me over the years that I think I started to just treat her words like she was receiving transmissions for all of us. Her work always feels alive and resonant and on point. So, recently, after a year where both my parents died and all manner of other loss had been opening up in my life, I decided it was time to throw down and take Sabrina’s Intensive Evolutionary Astrology course. And I am so very glad I did; it was truly transformative. I learned so much about myself, astrology, karma, and the human condition. Delving into Pluto and the nodes has completely shifted my sense of my chart and my life. I now have a more aligned and deepened sense of who I am and what kind of wave I’m riding in this life. The course is structured really well to build from learning planetary qualities to being able to read a chart intuitively on the spot. I’m amazed by how much I learned. In addition, I really liked the other people in the class. The class draws some amazing magical healing folks from across great geographical distances. What a gift! One of the best parts of the class, though, is observing Sabrina’s delineations of people’s charts. She has a way of finding the creative potential in every combination. She never sees anything as static or stuck; she doesn’t frame anything as negative. Everything is framed in terms of how your soul is evolving. Every challenge comes with medicine. It’s such a productive and encouraging framework that it yields what it promises – it helps us evolve, it brings out the best in us. This course provides ample opportunity for self-study, self-discovery, and healing. It helped me bring into view some hidden and atrophied parts of myself and begin aligning them with the parts that are working and in plain sight. I feel like I’ve got a much better sense of who I am at a soul level, and what I’m ultimately called toward in this life. And I made some new friends.”

Learn more and apply here.

Here’s our week:

November 30, 2022

Venus in 18 Sagittarius opposite Mars retrograde in 18 Gemini: 9:28 PM PST

It is rarer for Venus and Mars to form an opposition. Venus never strays too far from the Sun, but Mars during his retrograde does form an opposition to the Sun (this time, it will exact December 7), and currently will oppose Venus.

• There is a tension here between the will to explore options (Mars in Gemini) and the desire to pursue a vision (Venus in Sagittarius). With Mars retrograde in Gemini, we are already re-thinking our timelines: entertaining ideas, plans, or quests/detours that we don’t normally even consider! Depending on how we relate to this, this sense of interior novelty may be thrilling, delightful, frightening or concerning.
• With Venus in Sagittarius mirroring this experience by opposition, we are also re-imagining ourselves, our preferences, our values, what compels us at a heart level — especially when we place ourselves or imagine ourselves in a more novel environment/setting.
• The mutable quality of this transit (Gemini and Sagittarius are mutable signs) is further emphasized by Juno (goddess of unions, of soul contracts), the Moon, Neptune and Jupiter all in Pisces (also mutable) forming a t-square to this Venus-Mars opposition. As dreamers and creators, we may feel at some type of crossroad if our plans or visions of ourselves and of our lives are changing. The great freedom at play here is this quality of magical change that the mutable signs bring – a new chapter, a new era, a shedding.
• The tension of all of these possibilities (some more new and unfamiliar) also may reveal to us where we have had loyalty to particular dreams and visions, and if we wish to renew those vows (Juno) or if we are being disillusioned of who we thought we were or who we thought we were becoming.

December 1, 2022

Mercury in 22 Sagittarius square Neptune in 22 Pisces: 5:08 PM PST

• There may be a distinct sense that we are not in our “logical minds” and that we are approaching certain matters with a higher degree of fantasy, imagination, illusion, and/or creativity.
• This has me reflecting on the intelligence of humanity taking time and space for ceremony, trance, channeling – where we point our attention to a more numinous field of consciousness, and why we do this.
• One reason we do this is to consider our lives from an inspired or visionary perspective. Sometimes our sight is exaggerated: our wounds are agonizing, our shame is unbearable, our joy is radically overflowing, our hope is mountainous, etc — and this exaggeration reveals insights that we don’t normally create the space for in a more leveled/mundane/routine state of consciousness.
• When we have intentionally entered the trance state, we know this is happening. When the trance state muses US (it feels less voluntary, it creeps in), perhaps we can have the discernment to notice? And give ourselves the grace of space to integrate/internalize/make sense of our exaggerated impressions.

Venus in 19 Sagittarius sextile Saturn in 19 Aquarius: 7:09 PM PST

• Saturn in Aquarius can represent a certain architectural genius – a capacity to understand complex systems at a high level, and to concretely manifest ideals by creating the distinct pathways for them to come into being.
• Wherever we have been participating in the imagining of a better world or the construction of an ideal (such that it can become real), we may be at a critical phase where we are being called to be connected to our heart and the true desires our heart (Venus in Sagittarius). This is different than knowing what we are against and designing architecture that is defensive or destructive in nature. It is knowing what we are for, and leaning into that embodiment in a way that may be quite revelatory for us.

December 3, 2022

Venus in 22 Sagittarius square Neptune in 22 Pisces: 11:12 PM PST

• Venus-Neptune contacts can have us be prone to fantasy. A difference to meditate on between negative fantasy and inspired imagination could be if there is a sense of diminishment or eschewing of value when we engage with these particular dreams. Sometimes letting go of parts of ourselves, or some of our regular preferences, is like dipping into a sparkling ocean and having a whole spiritual bath! Other times, we’re just kind of drunk or lost in the sauce and maybe tossing out something important. It’s lovely to surrender to life, and to the dream – but we want to consider/discover how we are in relationship to life, doing this.
• Even in our most routine, conditioned, day-to-day lives we are acting out dreams (often ones that don’t even belong specifically to us, but are cultural/ancestral also). There can be some opening here for paradigm shift to see or really feel the stories we are living in the way that we are relating to our entire life.

Sun in 12 Sagittarius trine Chiron in 12 Aries: 11:13 PM PST

Neptune stations direct in 22 Pisces: 4:15 PM PST

• Neptune is stationing direct while in aspect to Venus, which could be profound in the sense that this overwhelmingly mystical/enchanting/mesmerizing/disorienting planet is channeling messages through the heart (Venus).
• The more I discover my own heart, the more I realize the heart is both radiant and compassionate and majestic as well as beastly, guarded, and thorny. Our heart holds pain and grief as it also holds the depth of our capacity for love.
• Neptune relates to healing and disillusionment, and so there may be a quality at play of certain hardened/crystallized layers that surround our heart being invited to soften. Heart medicine or heart awakenings can be soft and graceful but they can also be painful.
• Consider if you have a prayer for your heart or if there is a way that you are being invited to internally realize or move that prayer through your being.

December 5, 2022

Mercury in 29 Sagittarius square Jupiter in 29 Pisces: 11:05 PM PST

• Mental activity with the earlier Mercury-Neptune square is prone toward more exaggeration, boundary-less-ness, and “illogical” qualities. This is emphasized again, but perhaps with less dissolving now (from Neptune) and there can be more emphasis on storytelling, belief, and the bigger picture (Jupiter).
• There is an element of convincing, persuasion, and belief that we really get with this combination. Our discernment here can be whether we are trying to convince ourselves of something, whether we have allowed ourselves to be convinced of something, versus of if we’re inspired! 
• I’ve noticed, for example, that my mind can tell very convincing disaster stories, and a lot of the time, it’s more enjoyable to live my life NOT from those narratives of how a particular adventure will be the catastrophic end of me. It’s not about recklessness, on the other side of the pendulum – but valuing my life and story enough to cut some of the narration that’s diminishing quality of life.
• As a point of self-reflection, it comes down to the stories we are telling and weaving – being able to track our thematic assumptions, predictions, biases, and reflect on what stories are both more true and more helpful.

December 6, 2022

Mercury enters Capricorn: 2:08 PM PST

Mercury will stay in Capricorn until February 11.

• After a week that highlights so much fantasy and visionary/creative thinking and processing, Mercury in Capricorn will bring in a wave of pragmatism, sober accounting, methodical energy.
• This COULD dampen down some excesses and some flights of fancy, but it could also be about anchoring in or manifesting the visions we’ve encountered lately. After the abundance of harvest – we process, preserve, skillfully perpetuate.

Thank you for meditating on the transits with me! If you would like further guidance, I have been increasingly focused on longer-term experiences in the form of Dragon of the Moon: an Evolutionary Astrology Initiation and my higher level course METEORITE for alumni – helping people form a depth relationship to their natal chart and personal transits over time, to develop themselves, to be in their power, and to reach their goals, all through the soul-making lens of evolutionary astrology. I would love to support you in building your relationship with astrology. Dragon of the Moon is currently open for applications and METEORITE 2022 is currently in session.

Find me on Instagram @sabrinamonarch, get on my mailing list to stay apprised of all upcoming offerings and events, and I’ll see you again soon!

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With love,

Sabrina Monarch