With four major planets retrograde, the Gemini full moon brings illumination to a liminal place while highlighting communication, information and introspection
The full moon in Gemini peaks early Monday morning on December 15th, making it the final full moon of 2024. The full moon marks a time of completion and harvest within the lunar month cycle and holds the essence of finality, illumination and endings/beginnings. This full moon is closing out a story of the past year while simultaneously beginning to set us up for the stories of 2025. The aspects of this full moon are in part letting us in on what’s to come yet in classic form, keeping us on our toes by providing more information than is necessary or relevant. (Sounds very Gemini, doesn't it?) Let’s dive in.
Full Moon In Gemini
The full moon in Gemini has a lot of communication and information coming our way. Quick witted and curious Gemini is the information seeker, student/teacher and informant of the zodiac. They are fast moving, very changeable, chaotic, creative and clever. This moon is highlighting these traits within and around us. The area of your chart where Gemini rules is an area in which you could be receiving information or alternatively be experiencing issues with communication. It is also an area in your life that is closing out a particular story. (The house itself will reveal what the story is.)
This moon is slightly deceptive and chaotic in nature so the next couple of days could be overwhelming and we're apt to overthink. The information we're getting is likely to be a mixed bag of truth and deception so we want to be questioning what we're learning and checking in with our intuition, not just our mind. This may not be malicious but simply that some of what's coming up may not be as viable as it seems right now and just wont end up coming to fruition. Only time will tell what we can use and what is just a red herring. Many planets are retrograde and wont station direct until the early months of 2025 so we are asked to get comfortable in this uncomfortable place until we eventually move into a time of decisive action.
Mercury Retrograde Ends
There are a few reasons we want to be really questioning the information and insights we’re getting at this time. The first is Mercury retrograde, which will end hours after the full moon peaks. This is positive however we’re still under the shadow of it for another 2 weeks. With the full moon being in Gemini, Mercury is the ruler of this lunation so it is extra influential at this time. The full moon beginning while Mercury is still retrograde implies we are still in a liminal and unclear state with our communication and the information that we are sharing and receiving.
But luckily, there is a clear pathway towards stronger communication and clarity as displayed by Mercury stationing direct the day of the full moon as well as its opposition to the moon. Mercury, like the sun, is in Sagittarius, the sister (and opposite) sign of Gemini. The Sagittarius/Gemini axis is one of knowledge and understanding. Gemini holds the vibration of curiosity and the obtainment and dissemination of information while Sagittarius represents the integration of that knowledge into wisdom. Sagittarius holds the vibration of expansion that comes from new information, the ways in which we are changed by what we learn and how we then go forward with new perspectives that shape our philosophies and world-views. We must take the time to integrate what we are learning, question it, seek out new perspectives and allow ourselves to grow and be changed by what we have come to understand.
3 Major Retrogrades: Tension and Reflection
This moon and the tension around it -- because there is a lot of tension right now -- is illuminating to us the path the lies in-between what we come to know and who it makes us. Gemini receives the information but then must travel through the process of reflection, integration and the discovery of even more information and perspectives until it can become Sagittarius – wise and philosophical due to what it has experienced and learned through Gemini. We are not yet in the expansion/wisdom stage, that probably feels clear. Things are super murky right now. Mercury retrograde ends the day of the full moon and then we enter the two week shadow period. Meanwhile, Uranus, Mars, and Jupiter are all retrograde until the early months of 2025. The heavy retrograde energy from two generational/collective planets plus the planet of personal ambition, war and conflict is making things very tense and confusing and many of us feel we are at a stand still or worse, sliding backwards. This moon is showing us a path forward and it is a path that involves all of that stalledness and friction. Retrogrades are crucial periods and are meant to be like this. They guide us into reflection, re-evaluation and allow us to see common or familiar things from a totally new perspective. We often feel we’re going backwards, just as the retrograding planets appear to be moving backwards in the sky. For both of these things, it’s simply the work of an optical illusion. It’s hard to feel that way when we are in the thick of it, but we have done this before and we know that the Universe has a way of sometimes setting us on the right path by first making us question everything we’re doing. Often this allows us to see perspectives and pathways that we otherwise wouldn't have if we hadn't started looking in obscure places as part of our last ditch effort to make something work. Creative solutions are key with this mutable, mercury ruled full moon.
T-Square, Neptune Sun and Moon
This moon is challenging and the t-square with Neptune is a major reason why, besides the aforementioned aspects. Neptune is the planet of illusion and deception but also spirituality, unconditional love and compassion. There is an emerging energy of collective compassion coming through the awareness and confrontation of conflicts and hurt within the collective. Neptune is opening our hearts and attempting to unite us, which is important as it will move into self-focused yet determined Aries in March. It's important that during Neptune's stay in Aries we utilize the raw action power of Mars to assist and unite the collective not further separate ourselves from one another through hyper-individualization. With Neptune bringing a fog communication is hazy and many of the things revealed or learned during this lunation could very well be false. There could be manipulation at play or we could simply be overwhelmed with information to the point of pure confusion. We want to lean into the higher frequencies of Neptune which means leaning into its watery and spiritual nature. Listen to your dreams and intuition for clarity and embrace your creative and spiritual practices to see what insights and downloads come from there. Neptune is also conjunct the North North in Aries so this is giving us an arrow pointing to the direction we should go in – which is following the essence of Neptune in Pisces, particularly in its highest vibration of unconditional love, compassion and spirituality.
Signs Most Affected
The signs most affected during this full moon are Gemini, Sagittarius, Pisces and Virgo – all the mutables. This moon is not just mutable ruled but we have major activity in the mutable signs. In Gemini we have the sun and Jupiter, in Sagittarius there is the moon and Mercury and then in Pisces we’ve got Saturn and Neptune.
Mutable signs are adaptable, flexible and changeable and taking on such traits will assist us the most as we move through this lunation. Likely, this lunation will require that flexibility and openness from us. The energy right now is – honestly – messing with us. Things are so up in the air, there is a good deal of overwhelm and a lot of the opportunities we’ve been looking for are on hold. Things come in and come out, we get messages and signs for one thing only to discover that thing is not very real. This is a frustrating and frankly a triggering time, especially for mutable signs and Gemini placements. This moon is letting us in on a secret, telling us the way of moving through this time with the most ease – through taking a note out of Gemini’s book and being curious, open and super flexible. Do not hold on to anything too tightly and allow lots of room to pivot. At this time, you do not need to have clarity of the path forward, allow yourself to be in the information gathering stage and remain malleable, as many of the things right now are becoming.
Insight from the Tarot
For anyone interested, I did a tarot reading on this full moon for greater clarity.
Card 1) This is the place of current events. The card for this is the 3 of Swords, which is recognizing that this time is tense, painful and tender. We have been hurt and we are hurting but we must realize that these wounds are not new. Yes, they have been triggered by newer events but these holes and sores have long been here. 3 of Swords is a card we dread because it means feeling the pain we have pushed down and have spent so long running from. But it isn't until it catches up with us that we can begin to heal it. Avoiding these things will never make them go away. Many of these collective wounds have been put out in the open even in the past couple weeks. They are not new and its time that we dealt with them so that we don't keep perpetuating the same pain. This means opening our eyes and seeing it. Which brings us to card two…
Card 2) In the place of what to let go of we have Justice reversed. This is about not continuing to close our eyes to the injustice around us and in our society. Justice RV wants us to wake up, to take off the blindfold and see the things that are not, and have never been, okay. We can only change that which we are willing to acknowledge.
Card 3) In the place of what to embrace we have the Queen of Pentacles. This gives good advice for this time to drop into the body and the heartspace. Gemini and the Swords suit are intellectual and mentally active. We must balance this by being in our body and listening to the intuition of our senses. This is also about connecting with and honoring the earth and the earth within us. There is a path towards greater sustainability that we are being encouraged to embark on. Queen of Pentacles is about wellness, balance and fulfillment. These are things we are all entitled to yet most of us on planet earth do not have. How can we invest in these principles in our own lives and within the larger collective? There is not a clear answer or a clear path but that is the question we are meant to be mulling over and investigating.
Card 4) Advice is the Page of Wands which is to just start moving. The pages are like Gemini – childlike, curious, open-minded and students of life. As a page we do not know what we’re doing, we likely don’t have much of a plan and we certainly feel out of our depth. Yet, we bring with us inherent wisdom. In the fire suit, this is the wisdom of our body and heart. It is our instincts and the pull of our energy that guide us in the Page of Wands. We must go where we are called by our heart to go, even if we don’t know how to get there or what the journey requires of us. This is asking us, like the Queen of Pentacles, to connect with our heart-space. What does our heart have to say? Have we been checking in with it? Or has the mind gotten so loud lately that it's drowning out what our tender and wise heart has to say? The advice, plainly, is to follow a new, heart-led beginning; to trust our heart and the feeling of aliveness that comes when we move in the direction it calls.
Card 5) For the outcome position the card is Two of Cups reversed. This is heavy shadow work and while I feel that this pertains to us individually it is deeply connected to shadow work as a collective. Big changes are needed in the collective in many ways if we are ever to be a well and healthy society. The things that have been hidden and pushed to the depths, lurking below the surface causing pain, destruction, perpetuating evil, are emerging from the shadows now and we are forced to confront them. The courage to look at the it and to hold tenderness for ourselves and others is crucial. Mirrors and reflections are everywhere and everyone and its through these portals that our personal and collective shadows move into the open so that we can finally get to work healing it. It's all information that informs our next steps and illuminates the path we most need to take as a collective.
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