By Tarot.com Staff

Astrology, Mercury, Scorpio

Mercury plunges into the depths when it enters passionate and private Scorpio. Mercury is the planet that influences how we think and communicate, but while it moves through this watery sign, our thoughts mix with our feelings and inspire us to ask questions and get to the bottom of what’s happening in our lives…

Ideas, conversations, and people who are shallow or superficial have no power during Mercury in Scorpio. Instead, this is a time of depth and intimacy, and can be a very effective period to talk about difficult issues regarding relationships, money, and mortality.

When Mercury is in Scorpio

Scorpio thrives in the dark — the realm of secrets and lies, questions and answers, death and transformation. It is an extremely inquisitive sign that is never satisfied with what is simply lying on the surface. Scorpio knows that the real treasures are found when you dig a little deeper, so while mental Mercury moves through the sign of the Scorpion, we all start asking more questions and searching for hidden meanings … but we may not be happy with what we discover…

When Mercury travels through Scorpio, it’s like Mercury is shining a light on all the darkest parts of ourselves. We become more aware of our fears and desires, and the ways that others’ lives impact our own. We can bond in much more intimate ways because we’re able to discuss topics that are normally off-limits.

But Mercury in Scorpio brings out the skeptic in all of us. While it may feel like we’re searching for something wrong in every situation, it’s really about emphasizing our negative thinking to get positive results. By eliminating information and ideas that don’t serve our needs, we make room for those that will.

Our minds are also more suspicious when Mercury is in Scorpio. Because it’s a time that emphasizes secrecy and privacy, we’re quick to assume there are things going on that we don’t know about. But if we push too hard to try to get to the truth — which is very likely under Scorpio’s persistent influence — we risk creating long-term issues of intimacy and mistrust. That said, Mercury in Scorpio does have the potential to foster greater intimacy as well. Because we’re more willing to ask the really hard questions, we might finally get the answers we need to grow closer in the process.

Mercury Retrograde in Scorpio

When Mercury retrogrades through the sign of Scorpio, issues of honesty and intimacy arise. Secrets and lies we’ve been trying to hide are exposed, or we may experience yet another fallout from a previous deceit or betrayal.

A key quality of any Mercury Retrograde is that it offers us a second chance to correct errors, reconnect with people, and absorb information that we didn’t get the first time around. Doing this in dense, dark Scorpio, however, requires us to stay calm in what can feel like threatening situations. This is a time to learn that thoughts and reality are not the same thing. We can and should question facts and conclusions that come from the things we see and hear.

Tarot.com is Part of the Daily Insight Group ©2018

Your Planetary Tracker for December 11 – Venus In Scorpio

(Southern Hemisphere)

By Tarot.com Staff

Astrology, Scorpio, Venus

The black widow. The mistress. Skeletons in your romantic closet. Secretive about money and love. A sexy, magnetic, deliciously irresistible intimate encounter. A healing and transforming bonding experience. Venus in Scorpio has the power to elicit all of this … and more.

Astrology considers Scorpio to be a tough placement for beautiful and sweet Venus. Scorpio isn’t concerned with superficiality, and prefers chasing after a transcendental kind of love. The Scorpion likes to get below the surface to examine issues of power, fear, sex, and desire. When Venus is in Scorpio, Venus trades in social niceties for digging deeply and sparking needed change.

When Venus is in Scorpio

Venus is about relationships, and is sociable, friendly, and affectionate. Scorpio is about passion, and likes to dive headfirst into love. This means we’ll crave meaningful and intense experiences when Venus is in Scorpio. Depth and intimacy become more important, urging us to trade in frivolous flings for long-lasting romance. Love can border on obsessive when Venus is in this sign, compelling us to go all-in when it comes to matters of the heart.

Venus in Scorpio is a time when we’ll want to shine a light on the shadows of our relationships. Those nagging thoughts that we’ve been pushing aside to make peace? Well, they become impossible to ignore when Venus and Scorpio get together. It’s a time to go beneath the surface, find the truth, and hold it up to the light of day. We’ll try to figure out what we can do to make it work — or if it’s time to let go. This transit gives our relationships a major reality check, whether we want one or not!

Venus in Scorpio can also bring power struggles and money concerns out into the open. Subtle issues become more obvious than they were before. How money is spent becomes a focus in partnerships where financial resources are shared. This could also be a time when we have a stronger interest in making financial investments or decisions about loans, insurance, or other areas of our lives having to do with money.

Yes, Venus in Scorpio can be pretty heavy, but it can also be truly amazing. All of this intensity leads to a stronger bond, so if you’re up for the challenge both emotionally and physically, this could end up being a transformative and sexy time that ends up bringing you and your partner much closer together.

Tarot.com is Part of the Daily Insight Group ©2018

The Wisdom of the Buddha for December 10

To live a pure unselfish life, one must count nothing as one’s own in the midst of abundance

The Wisdom of the Buddha for December 11

What we think, we become.

Crack the Cookie for December 10

Crack the Cookie for December 11

Your Animal Spirit Guide for December 10 is The Black Panther

Your Animal Spirit Guide for December 11 is The Eagle

Your Karmic Number for December 10 is 8

Wealth, or even a few extra dollars, can be manifested soon after getting an 8. Thinking about money 24/7 means that you are not open to the signs that are helping you know where to look. You have a poverty consciousness because it was instilled in you at an early age. You are still holding on to those messages that you are poor in at least one way. If you need money to pay bills then ask the Universe for a project that will do exactly that. Also, work through your foot and root chakra issues. Those old messages about money are closing you off to whatever wealth is truly yours.

Should you hold on or move on?

Your Daily Karmic Number for December 11 is Two

The number 2 vibrates positively for you today. This is a time to embrace group projects and ask others for help. There’s a hidden opportunity waiting for you in working this way, versus trying to go it alone in self-sufficiency. The benefit may not be enormous, but it is significant enough to cause a shift a key area of your life. Pay close attention to those who reach out to help you voluntarily. They hold the key to your advancement. You can also ask those who aren’t outwardly offering their assistance – maybe they just assume you’re good on your own.

By Maria DeSimone

Astrology, Birth Chart, Money

Have you ever looked at your horoscope and wondered what all those funny degrees and minutes are all about? Well, you’re not alone!

One of the most confusing things about studying Astrology initially is getting a grasp on the mechanics behind a birth chart. In fact, before you read the rest of this article, look at your own birth chart so you can see what we’re talking about as we break it down into degrees and minutes.

Math phobics out there tend to see the degree circle and minute sign and break out into a sweat. No worries — you can relax: This is NOT advanced Calculus. In fact, after reading this short primer you’ll know exactly what you’re looking at in terms of degrees and minutes, no matter whose birth chart you’ve got in your hands.

 

Let’s start with decans

Let’s begin with an explanation of how many degrees fill the horoscope wheel. We all know that there are 12 signs in the zodiac, but what you may not have known is that each sign is comprised of 30 degrees. Each zodiac sign will have three sets of decans contained within it — and these decans all equal up to 30 degrees.

The first decan of any sign goes from 0 degrees to 9 degrees, 59 minutes and 59 seconds. The second decan goes from 10 degrees to 19 degrees, 59 minutes and 59 seconds. The third decan goes from 20 degrees to 29 degrees, 59 minutes and 59 seconds. This is true no matter which sign you’re looking at. Also note, there are 60 minutes in every degree, but we don’t use 60 minutes as a marker. Rather we go from 0 (and this is the 1st minute) to 59 minutes (which is really the 60th minute).

When you multiply 12 by 30 you get the magical number of 360. No matter whose horoscope you have in your hand, you can rest assured there are 360 degrees contained in it. No exceptions!

A fascinating parallel to these 360 degrees is that they represent one 24-hour day. Therefore, a birth chart in its entirety will represent the motion of one 24-hour day here on Earth.

When you look further into the 30 degrees contained in each sign, there’s even more interesting significance. Certain degrees are believed to hold greater meaning in a birth chart than others. These degrees are commonly referred to as Critical degrees.

For the Cardinal signs (Aries, Cancer, Libra and Capricorn), the critical degrees are 0, 13 and 26. For the Fixed signs (Taurus, Leo, Scorpio, Aquarius), they are 8-9 degrees and 21-22 degrees. For the Mutable signs (Gemini, Virgo, Sagittarius, Pisces), they are 4 and 17 degrees. Do you have a planet or sensitive angle in your chart at any of these degrees? If so, you can expect more of a focus in that area of your life.

 

Working with anaretic degrees

Furthermore, 0 degrees of any sign is considered a critical degree due to the karmic nature of being at the beginning of the sign. It is said that whatever planet or point is at 0 degrees will be in the early stages of learning lessons related to that point. Conversely, if a planet or point is at 29 degrees of any sign it is called an Anaretic Degree, and it symbolizes karmic completion related to that planet or points energy.

It is possible that if a person has a birth chart with many planets or angles at the Anaretic Degree he or she is a very old soul. There may be a sense of urgency or need to finish up something related to that planet or points energies as well.

So, what happens if a planet is at 29 degrees and 59 minutes? We saw this example recently with the much anticipated birth of the royal baby. He was born when the Sun was at the tail end of Cancer — 29 degrees and 59 minutes. If he was born just a short time later, the Sun would have ingressed into 0 degrees Leo.

Cancer and Leo are very different energies! This is why knowing the degrees and minutes together of a planet or point is so vital. It helps us determine where a planet or point truly is astrologically. A planet at 29 degrees 59 minutes of any sign is still in that particular sign. Not to mention at a critical degree.

Tarot.com is Part of the Daily Insight Group ©2018

Daily Cosmic Calendar for Monday, December 10

Long-term readers of this calendar know that every so often the cosmos ceases its usual relentless bombarding of Planet Earth. That’s the scene right now as the recent celestial provocations temporarily dissipate in favor of mostly encouraging lunar aspects. The moon parallel power-of-positive-thinking Jupiter (7:05am) is the initial success-booster followed by supportive, 60-degree constructive link-ups from the lunar orb in Capricorn to wounded-healer Chiron in Pisces (11:26am) and now a little speedier-in-forward-motion Mercury in Scorpio (12:39pm). Complete odds and ends in a good mood during a void lunar cycle that starts at 1:28pm and ends 2 hours later when the moon enters airy Aquarius (3:41pm). Group projects, team sports, community fundraising drives, and global causes close to your heart and philosophy of life are strengthened with the moon transiting the eleventh sign of the zodiac. Tune into major investment plans as Monday night morphs into Tuesday morning in sync with the moon making its monthly union with Vesta (forming exactly at 12:45am tomorrow).

[Note to readers: All times are calculated as Pacific Standard Time. Be sure to adjust all times according to your own local time so the alignments noted above will be exact for your location.]

Copyright 2018 Mark Lerner & Great Bear Enterprises, Ltd. 

Astrology.com

Daily Cosmic Calendar for December 11

Following the important monthly lunar conjunction with Vesta in Aquarius (12:45am) — energizing investment planning as well as safety-security matters, insurance rates and coverage, and soul-sister ties — the cosmos reverts to the disagreeable nature it had for the first eight days of this month. Mercury makes an adjustment-requiring, 150-degree liaison with outside-the-box rebel-leader Uranus (3:39am) while the sun forms a tension-generating, 45-degree tie to Vesta (11:22am) and Ceres confounds Chiron via their connection of 135-degrees (1:29pm). Ambiguity and irritability are temporarily in the driver’s seat even though the moon attempts to make things right by contacting benevolent Jupiter in a constructive, 60-degree alliance (6:35am).

[Note to readers: All times are calculated as Pacific Standard Time. Be sure to adjust all times according to your own local time so the alignments noted above will be exact for your location.]

Copyright 2017 Mark Lerner & Great Bear Enterprises, Ltd. 

Astrology.com

Calendar of the Moon
10 Ruis/Poseideion

(Note: These next five rituals are meant to be performed one after the other, on five consecutive days. Since this is the month that is often cut short, this rite will not be done every year. The House should check the year’s calendar and see if all five days are included in the year; if not, do not do any of these rites, and save them instead for another year. Do not start this cycle only to stop in the middle, for that would be terribly bad luck. Instead, continue with more of the Elder Tree Month invocation days until the Solstice.)

Day of the Underworld I

Color: Grey
Elements: All
Altar: Upon a ragged grey cloth set a vase of dried thistles, some oil of rue, a chalice of water and vinegar, and a box of remembrances from dead people.
Offering: Whatever the Gods tell you.
Daily Meal: Fasting tonight, until the next morning.

Underworld Ritual I

East Caller: Spirits of the East, Powers of Air!
We invoke you as the chill winds that blow
Ashes into our eyes,
Dust into our throats,
And cold into our bones.
Strip us clean, winds of winter!
Leave us bare of illusions
And empty of thought.
South Caller: Spirits of the South, Powers of Fire!
We invoke you as the funeral pyre,
Burning away all the trappings of life,
Blackening what is bright,
Destroying what is ephemeral,
As we are all ephemeral.
Burn us clean, fire of transformation!
Leave us clean grey ash in the air.
West Caller: Spirits of the West, Powers of Water!
We invoke you as the salt tears that fall
As we mourn the passing of all things.
For all things run down the river of time
And we do not see them again.
Wash us clean, tears of mourning!
Leave us foam on the waters
That slowly ebbs to nothing.
North Caller: Spirits of the North, Powers of Earth!
We invoke you as the cold earth of the grave,
Frozen around us,
Pressing us down into the depths,
Blotting out all air into stillness.
For we must learn the peace of the tomb
If we are to truly understand the joy of Spring.
Leave us to rot under the Earth
Until it there is nothing left of us.

Underworld Invocation I:

Now the Sun is overwhelmed,
And we are left alone to die
With all the faded trees,
The wasted flowers,
And so we also fade and waste –
Our birth, our youth, our prime,
Our proud excess, our cosmic fall:
Now ended all, and we are left with the mean prize
Of poverty and dull decline,
To fill the silence between the ticks of time.
Whither fled our strength
And our ascending leaves?
Whither fled our laughter
And our foolish golden bells?
Where now stand those scaffoldings of fire,
Those limbs of light wherein we played?
All are now pulled down,
Our lean possessions shrunk
To fill a little box,
And all our senses, our delights,
Turned pale and leached of taste,
Paled to a scentless draught that rusts the heart
To a mere foolish ticking clock.

(All should be silent for the space of ten heartbeats, and then the following chant is started in a whisper:)
Chant: The brain must break,
The bone must crack,
The blood must clot,
The heart must stop,
The flesh must rot.
(The chant is repeated until it dies away, and then the chalice is passed in silence. Each takes a single sip, and then it is placed back on the table. Leave in silence, with heads bowed.)

[Pagan Book of Hours]

Calendar of the Moon
11 Ruis/Poseideion

Day of the Underworld II

Color: Grey
Element: Earth
Altar: The altar should be the same as the night before, with the vinegar water replenished if necessary. Something made of rotting flesh should be placed on the altar, for scent.
Offerings: Whatever the Gods tell you.
Daily Meal: Fasting tonight, until the next morning.

Underworld Invocation II

We are the stricken, dying with death,
Shrouded with weeds, wrapped in our loss,
Silent we wait, clouded by tears,
Torn by the wind, ragged with mist.
Where we are wounded
There is no healing.
Where we decay
Nothing is sound.
Ravaged by night, abandoned by day,
Silent we wait, shadows of grey.
Old in our broken houses of flesh,
Old among ruined pillars of Sun,
Old as the halls to which we descend,
Old as this dark that does not end.
Call: Tonight we go under the ground.
Response: Tonight we are as corpses in the Earth.
Call: On this night, and the next, and the next, we are dead.
Response: On this night, we feel our bodies as they rot.
Call: On this night, we praise the worms and the beetles.
Response: On this night, we learn about the grave.
Call: On this night, we learn that Earth is silence.
Response: On this night, we learn that Earth welcomes us home.
Call: Receive us, Guardians of the Gate!
Response: Receive us, Lords of Death!

(All kneel before the altar for a long time, meditating on rot and decay. The chalice is passed, and all take a sip. Then all rise and leave in silence. That night, each should place under their pillow some dried weeds, or a handful of earth from a graveyard, for a reminder.)

[Pagan Book of Hours]

Calendar of the Sun 
10 Yulmonath 

Sedna’s Day 

Colors: Blue, green, white
Element: Water
Altar: Upon cloth like the Arctic Ocean place a long net, many tangled skeins of thread, combs, and the figures of seals and walrus and fish.
Offerings: Comb the skeins and weave them into the net for Sedna.
Daily Meal: Fish.

Invocation to Sedna

Far to the North, in the coldest of waters,
Where the hunters survive by fish and seal,
A poor fisherman had too many children,
And his oldest daughter refused to wed.
So he bore her out into the cold waters,
And threw her overboard to her death.
Yet she clung to the boat, he cut off her fingers,
They fell into the water and became the seals and fish.
She sank to the bottom, where she became Sedna,
Queen of the Northern Oceans, Mistress of the Water,
With hair so long that it wraps through all the waves
Yet she cannot comb it, without fingers. So it is
That when Sedna becomes wroth, the waves pitch
And toss about, and there is no food,
For it is all caught in her hair. Shall we then take up combs,
And do the work of the angakok, on this one day?
Shall we honor Sedna, Lady of the Sea,
Victim turned Ruler, lost child become Queen,
And give her aid in her extremity, that the seals and fishes
May be many in the waters? Come forth, those who would
Comb out her hair, and with it your troubles,
Your conundrums, and all that is tangled in your life.

(Each comes forth and takes a tangled skein of thread and a comb, and sits before the altar to comb it out. As each finishes, they say, “Be well, Lady,” and weave the straight skein into the net. Those who cannot untangle theirs before the bell of Akte must leave it, and say, “I will take up this burden next year, Lady,” and give extra libation to Sedna in private, on their own.)

[Pagan Book of Hours]

Calendar of the Sun 
11 Yulmonath 

Day of the Snow Queen 

Color: White
Element: Air
Altar: Upon cloth of snowy white place many snowflakes, silver branches, a cup of clear alcohol in which has been placed a piece of dry ice to give off mist, and a knife of glass.
Offerings: Spend time in the cold, enduring her kiss.
Daily Meal: Frozen dishes.

Invocation to the Snow Queen

Hail to the Snow Queen, Lady Winter!
Hail to the cloak of white across the fields,
The treacherous ice on the road
That threatens us as we ride,
Creator of beauty on every window,
Sharp icicle that falls with lethal force,
Crystal of fairness that reflects the Sun tenfold,
Bitter winds of death that freeze the body
And free the soul to ride the circling blizzard,
We hail you, Heart of Ice, in this your season!
For you are the cutting edge of survival,
The one who tests us, and our skill.
When we fail to learn the lesson
Of the King of Frost, your consort,
We are left to your tender mercies
And gathered to your deathly white bosom.
Have mercy on us, Lady of the Snow!
Teach us that we must band together for warmth,
And teach us with a lesson less than fatal.

(One comes forth with the chalice of steaming alcohol, and another with the glass knife. The knife is dipped into the iced drink, and touched to the palms of each who will hold theirs out. Then the alcohol is poured out as a libation.)

Song: Snow Queen

[Pagan Book of Hours]