Transcribed using AI, please forgive mistakes.

[00:00:00] Hello, come back to the essential astrocast. I am your host, Veronica Peretti, and I'm happy to be back with you the last episode was on November 21st and I am recording this on Monday, December 9th and really hoping that I'm back on track. It's been really, I felt like I've been underwater.

I have been, doing a lot of childcare since our normal help is not available. last week, was trial by fire doing Most of it on my own and now I hopefully will, be a little bit more equipped this week. but it's a lot, you know, we've got Mercury retrograde, we've got Mars now retrograde, and I don't think it's just my personal situation that is making me feel underwater.

I think all of us are feeling a little bit underwater right [00:01:00] now. Just feeling like we don't really know Where to go? What we should be doing? Am I moving forward? Am I moving backward? How do I plan? Should I make plans? if you feel a little bit at odds and ends right now, I believe you are running with the pack.

There is a lot of heavy astrology. November was a doozy. I feel like November was nine lives. when Thanksgiving came the election felt like a million years ago. So I think we're all feeling lots of feelings right now. and that makes sense.

Mars is The planet associated with our motivation, our drive, our desire to go out and get what we want. when Mars is retrograde, it makes it harder to do that. for those of us that are good at getting ourselves [00:02:00] going, it can feel really disconcerting to not want to get up and go, or to not know what to do when you get up and go.

it can be really hard when you're just not sure if you should be making plans or what you're making plans for. And that's what I've been feeling. I think a lot of other people in my orbit have been feeling that as well. maybe that's not you. Maybe you are one of the rare ones. That is enjoying this Mars retrograde.

we've been feeling the lead up to Mars retrograde. Mars retrograde hit last Friday, but we were feeling the lead up for a long time. Mars retrogrades every two years. He retrogrades the least often. So I would say. Venus and Mars are the most intense retrogrades and they happen the least often.

Mars takes two years to go around the zodiac. every two years [00:03:00] we have a retrograde and when he retrogrades, it's a really long period of time that we feel the energy his retrograde is only two months, but the pre shadow and post shadow, we feel that energy and they're pretty long. We've been feeling this retrograde coming. now it's here. So just to go over the logistics of the Mars retrograde. Mars retrograde, began on Friday, December 6th, and it will go until February 24th. Much of this retrograde will take place in Cancer, but he is currently in Leo. Mars and Cancer is going to probably be a little more moody.

So Mars and Leo, at least he's got some fire. When he goes into Cancer, he really doesn't know. how to use his restless energy. So that will be [00:04:00] interesting. What's making this time really hard is that we have this opposition to Pluto. Mars is opposing Pluto while he has retrograde and because of Mars retrograde pattern this year and into next year.

We have three of these oppositions. the first opposition between Mars and Pluto was on November 3rd. So what were we all doing on that day? I was voting on that day. So Mars opposite Pluto was on November 3rd. And that was when Pluto was at 29 degrees Capricorn. And we talked a lot about that in previous episodes.

Mars was at 29 degrees cancer. 29 degrees is a crisis point. 29 degrees of cancer Capricorn. That's the divine mother and the divine father archetypes. So pretty intense stuff was kicked up with that [00:05:00] November 3rd Mars, Pluto opposition. We don't just feel these transits, particularly when they involve outer planets like Pluto.

We don't just feel them on the moment or the day that they occur. We feel them even a couple weeks leading up and a couple weeks after. And with this one, we're kind of in the orb of it for this entire process. Like period of time, November, December into January, because the next one will be January 3rd and then we will have another one, April 6th.

So we're really, in it with this Mars opposite Pluto. Some of the things we're seeing in the world are. mirroring what we're feeling in the sky. the energy from this transit is [00:06:00] playing out in the world. There is a lot of strife, a lot of discord. There is war, there is violence.

There is a lot of people not being able to direct their anger in a positive way. we saw last week this murder of the United Healthcare CEO, which is a really interesting story for a lot of reasons. It really has taken hold of the zeitgeist online with a lot of people expressing their disgust with the healthcare system here in the U.

S. And one of the things that I thought was interesting, was the Mars Pluto is part of that. But also we had Venus conjunct Pluto last week. Venus is harmony and peace and [00:07:00] relationships, but it's also money. And Venus recently went into Aquarius and when Venus is in Aquarius, she can be pretty fierce and she's going to fight for the people.

Aquarius is always about, the groups of people. this is the second time that Venus has met Pluto with Pluto in Aquarius. One time last year. And this year, because they meet up every year. So it is our second time of Venus activating Pluto in Pluto's new sign of Aquarius.

if you've been listening to me for a while, you know it was a big deal that Pluto went into Aquarius then back into Capricorn and came back to Aquarius, went back to Capricorn. after this dance over two to three years, we are finally with Pluto in Aquarius for good for the [00:08:00] next 20 years.

And because Pluto just went into Aquarius for good. For good, what I'm saying for good for 20 years on November 19th, this is a pretty big activation, right? So we have Venus entering Aquarius and activating that Pluto, which is really getting settled in. he's now in Aquarius and he's settling in for 20 years.

He's putting the furniture where he wants it and he's putting art up on the walls. You know, he's really like, okay, we're home now. This is where I'm hanging out for 20 years. We've got to, we're going to get comfortable now. We're going to start to really make transformation happen in this part of your chart.

So wherever Aquarius is in your personal chart, that's where Pluto is making change happen. so it's pretty interesting, that this big new story occurred, pretty close to that Venus, Pluto conjunction, which was, last [00:09:00] week, on Saturday, it happened on Wednesday, but really the fallout of it, was the days after it.

So people were expressing, you know, how they felt about it, from an astrological perspective, we see what goes on in the collective mirroring the energy in the heavens. And we know we're living under this Mars opposite Pluto, almost like a cloud in the sky.

this week in New York, where I live, it's going to be cloudy and rainy for a few days. you know when you have those stretches of time where it's cloudy and rainy and you're just like, Oh, we just can't shake this weather. And I just can't wait to see the sun. I have spent a lot of time in Portland, Oregon, not recently, but In years past and years ago before the climate crisis got really real.

you would have winters in Portland where it just [00:10:00] drizzle and it would just nonstop drizzle. for those of you from the Pacific Northwest or have spent time there, you know, what that feels like, where it's just like weeks upon weeks of gray drizzle and people really have very serious.

seasonal defective disorder because of that nonstop gray drizzle. the Mars opposite Pluto just feels like this lingering gray drizzle we're not just feeling down, we're more like feeling restless and angry. imagine, having that, energy with you all the time in the background, like a background noise that you don't even know it's there.

You know, you go to the grocery store and they've got 90s pop music on and you don't really realize it's there. That's the energy of Mars opposite Pluto. But imagine that instead of nineties pop [00:11:00] music, it's whatever music you really hate. So it's just making you agitated.

So we're all living in this state of agitation. and we're going to be with this for a while, as I said, because we had the first opposition, November 3rd, we'll have the second one on January 3rd and the third one, April 6th, it will lighten up between January and April, for a period of time, but then it'll come back.

So that's the one big thing going on. We don't know the story or the motive of this person. they may have found him. I saw something in the news before I came on to record. But the point to me is not that one instance. It's more like the instance was a catalyst for this anger and disturbance to be expressed through TikTok Instagram and all the places that people have been expressing they're really, unhappy with the way things are.

And of [00:12:00] course, we just had this election and our political system is being primed to be dismantled, Changed, altered, whatever it is, you know, there's this, this feeling of burn it down. And I put burn it down in quotes, but there is an energy of burn it down in the air. And we're feeling that with the Mars opposite Pluto because Mars and Pluto are war planets.

Mars is the god of war and Pluto is the god of the underworld. So whatever is underneath the surface that is creating agitation. we're going to go to fight it. we're going to let it out and we're going to express it and then we're going to have anger and agitation and frustration and that's going to cause more anger and frustration because it's going to piss other people off.

So that's the underlying energy that we've been working with. that's one piece of the puzzle. And the other piece of the [00:13:00] puzzle of what's going on right now, and I'm really giving you like big. Overview at this moment because I think so many of these intense things that we're seeing right now in the collective this weekend we had, this 50 year, rulership in Syria.

the rebels took over. I am not an expert in global politics and what's going on in Syria, but I listened to a few podcasts today about it and it was really interesting The people in Syria are really joyful, but also not sure of what's happening next. this is a global energy.

This is not just, something that you and I are experiencing in our personal lives. Of course, we are personally experiencing it. And depending on what planets are being, activated and touched on in your chart, you might be experiencing it more intensely than someone else or [00:14:00] vice versa. But there's an energy of what's going to happen next?

I'm not sure, but I'm having this big explosion of emotion at this moment. And that is very Mars Pluto, you know, Mars Pluto is reactive. And Mars in general is a planet that is reactive. It is not thinking about, the ramifications of this in 10 years. That is not Mars. So, that's a Saturn thing. That's not a Mars thing.

So that's, the energy we're working with. The other piece of the puzzle, the overarching energy at this moment is Jupiter square Saturn. this one is really interesting to me, because we're having this opening square of a conjunction that occurred in 2020.

just like the new moon, the moon meets the sun every month and they [00:15:00] begin a new cycle. When they meet in the sky, we have a new moon. when planets meet in the sky and experience a conjunction, we have a new cycle begin. And Jupiter, Saturn, those cycles are pretty important because they're 20 year cycles.

And we talked a lot about this back in 2020 because that was when they met up. So in December. 2020, December 21st, to be exact, you may recall that Jupiter and Saturn met up and it was what we call the Great Conjunction. the reason it's the Great Conjunction is because Jupiter and Saturn are like the bridge between the inner planets and the outer planets.

they're often called the societal planets. Jupiter and Saturn show us how we operate in society in our charts. Jupiter is about expansion. Saturn [00:16:00] is about restriction. So whenever Jupiter and Saturn get together, there's a compromise that has to happen. When Jupiter squares Saturn, the opening square, we experience we're, we're quarter of the way through this 20 year cycle.

So we're asking how is this going? What seeds did I plant in December, 2020, and how are they coming to fruition and what needs to be adjusted? What needs to be looked at? Where have things expanded so much that maybe they're out of control and need to be pulled back and reined in?

And maybe, where am I restricting so much and not letting myself expand? So, just honoring that, checking in, maybe go back in your calendar or journal and check in with what was going on at the end of 2020. What were you [00:17:00] thinking about? And how was it going? Whatever you were thinking about, whatever you were planning, this particular conjunction occurred at zero degrees Aquarius.

So this ushered us into what some people call the Aquarian era, which is not correct. I'm sorry, not the Aquarian era, the Aquarian age. Ages are an actual thing in astrology, and they're like 2000 years. So we are still in the Piscean age. But I would say that, homage to Taylor Swift, who just finished her eras tour, we are in an Aquarian era of sorts, because Jupiter and Saturn began this 20 year cycle.

at zero degrees Aquarius. And it also, you know, that was right before Pluto started this dance going in and out of Aquarius. And now we have [00:18:00] Pluto in Aquarius for 20 years. So we're in what I would call an Aquarian era, not an Aquarian age, but certainly an Aquarian era. And Aquarius is associated with all things having to do with groups, friendships, communities, the places where we feel like we belong.

But it's also the revolutionaries, the rebels, the outsiders, the people that feel alien, feel like they don't belong. They also are Aquarius technology, futurism, science. These are all Aquarius themes and we'll be working with them for the next 20 years with Pluto here. So I spent a lot of time today giving you the big picture.

I wanted to do that because I just kind of wanted to locate us because I know that everything feels really intense right now. And certainly that has a lot to do with the Mars retrograde, the [00:19:00] Mercury retrograde and the Mars opposite Pluto and the Jupiter square Saturn. Now, Jupiter squaring Saturn is not exact yet, but we're leading up to it and we're certainly feeling it.

These two planets have their opening square on August 19th, but they will meet again December 24th and then they will meet again, June 15th. because all of this stuff was in the air, particularly the Mars opposite Pluto, with the election and also the Jupiter square Saturn, because August 19th was when all of that crazy stuff was going on.

I think that we're not really gonna know the whole story on what all of this means, in terms of the election and how it's playing out and what it's going to look like. But I think one of the things that. You know, I, I've talked about it before, but Pluto and Aquarius is going to ask us [00:20:00] to evaluate and reevaluate our relationship to technology and our human brains were not meant to take in so much information so quickly all the time, 24 hours a day with updates constantly harassing us via notifications.

It's going to be an important time to check in with your use of technology, your news app, social media. I'm being careful about not freaking out about everything politically. my mother in law loves watching The View, so we watch it together sometimes because she comes to help me with Jeremiah.

And I really feel like Whoopi Goldberg had some great advice. She said, I'm just going to get my popcorn and I'm going to sit and I'm going to watch and I'm going to see what they do. And then I'll know how to react. I thought that was [00:21:00] wise because we don't know exactly what's going to happen.

Of course, we know. Some things, but we don't know everything. And because we, all of this happened with all of these planets doing their things, many retrogrades pre shadows of the retrogrades, et cetera, you know, just take a beat, take care of yourself. Check in with what you can control and know that we're just not going to know.

we're just not going to know. we're certainly not going to know until January 20th. and then the days after that we'll know more. these cycles, these transits, They're not going to unpack themselves until April and then June. April for Mars opposite Pluto, June for, Jupiter square Saturn.

Okay. So I gave you a lot [00:22:00] of overview today. We're already 26 minutes in. This is obviously a long episode. but I just felt like that was really important to locate us in this moment. these are two very, very big life altering transits that we're living through. And if it feels like there's this undercurrent that feels uncomfortable and you can't shake it, well, That's what we're working with.

but there's some good news this week. So let's get to the good news. It is still Sagittarius season. One of my favorite seasons, not only is my husband is Sagittarius, but it is the season of the holidays. We put our Christmas tree up yesterday. It's the season of joy and indulgence and having another cookie and drinking another.

glass of your favorite beverage and just really being with friends and family and experiencing all of the pleasures of life. So remember Sagittarius is about expanding our horizons. it might be [00:23:00] traveling because that's a very typical Sagittarius hobby, but it also can be expanding yourself in all ways.

reading a new book, studying a new thing, working with a new tarot deck, working with astrology, working with anything that really expands your mind, expands your understanding of the universe, your philosophies on life. These are all things that make those sad planets happy.

So last week, we had the sun meet mercury, and this is what we call a mercury Kazemi, which brings a moment of clarity that was on December 5th. last Thursday. It also means that we were at the mid way point of Our, retrograde because mercury is retrograde. Mercury will go direct on Sunday, the 15th.

Venus entered [00:24:00] Aquarius last week, which I already talked about because Venus, joined Pluto last week. some other things going on this week, we've got Venus again. She is still in orb of that conjunction to Pluto. So fairly close to Pluto, not super close, but we're still feeling that Plutonian energy.

And Venus is going to oppose Mars. Mars, is still in orb of his opposition to Pluto. So Thursday the 12th is a very tense day. Venus conjunct Pluto opposite Mars, can also be a little bit sexy.

It can be a time where you feel more attracted to your partner. So that's exciting, but it also can just make tensions higher and make irritability higher. The good news is that right after that transit on the 13th, we have Mercury [00:25:00] sextiling Venus, and that is going to turn down the temperature on that tension because when Mercury and Venus work together like that, they're in complimentary signs.

So they're in Aquarius and Neptune. Sagittarius. When they're working together, even though Mercury is retrograde, this can make for more harmonious relating and peacemaking. So that is really nice and that makes the weekend a little softer. early in the week, we're probably going to be feeling the lead up to that Venus opposite Mars, but then it softens over the weekend.

And then we have this beautiful full moon on Sunday, the same day that Mercury goes direct. the moon will be at 23 degrees Gemini on Sunday opposite the sun we have a full moon when the moon is exactly opposite the sun and the whole face [00:26:00] of the moon that faces us here on earth is illuminated by the sun's rays.

So this is going to be an interesting new moon. It is a full moon in Gemini. Gemini is ruled by Mercury. Mercury is going to be stationing to go direct later that day. So whenever the planet stations, that's when we feel it most acutely. we're really going to be feeling Mercury's energy on Sunday because the full moon is being ruled by Mercury, who is stationing to go direct.

What's cool about this, Is that it might offer you a new perspective a new way of seeing something that you've never been able to see before, because that's the beauty of mercury retrograde. Mercury retrograde helps us see something from a new point of view that we [00:27:00] wouldn't have been able to see otherwise.

It encourages us to slow down and reflect. when we slow down and reflect, we catch our mistakes. We catch the places where we were on autopilot. we can fix it. improve it. Or edit it. I really like this full moon. I think it's going to help us. take a new perspective on things.

The sun will also be in an in conjunct to Uranus, which I don't always talk about in conjuncts, but I thought this one was interesting because Uranus encourages us to do something in a new way. It encourages us to, have a breakthrough and experience freedom I think this is going to be more of a mental thing because it's Gemini and Gemini is associated with our thoughts.

It's an air sign. So it's associated with our thoughts and self expression. this might be more of a [00:28:00] mental thing for you. But I do think there's going to be some shift in perspective, how we see something, how we understand something, how we, speak to ourselves because mercury is retrograde.

There's an internal energy when mercury is retrograde. So this might be about your own self talk. This might be about your own, your inward experience. this is a full moon that is in a wide conjunction to Jupiter. So that expands whatever is coming up with this full moon. And Jupiter is, of course, in Gemini.

So being ruled by that station in Mercury. And it's also in a square to Neptune. So the full moon is in a wide, T square with Neptune. And that can make things feel like you're walking through an illusion, [00:29:00] or maybe you're feeling a little delusional. Neptune messes with our understanding of what's real and what's not real and might encourage us to escape reality, whether that's through, just checking out and going on vacation or getting absorbed in social media, or whether that is, binge watching something or meditating there could be good ways of escaping reality, but this full moon in a square to Neptune, it's not exact, but I would just say, utilize that energy.

So instead of zoning out, Marathoning, selling Sunset or whatever it is, although there's so much good Bravo right now. So please go marathon some Bravo cause all the shows are really good right now. Most of the shows are really good right now. But utilize that energy to help you see things in a new way.[00:30:00]

That squared and Neptune will help you. Get out of the rut and the sun in conjunct Uranus will help you get out of the rut. So when we think about something the same way, or when we do the same behavior over and over again, if someone does this to me and then my response is this, and I always have that same response, that groove in my mind, that neural pathway gets Worn very well.

We have the well worn path in our neural pathways. So when we have a lunation like this, a full moon, where we have this encouragement from the mercury retrograde, and we have the encouragement of Uranus, we have the encouragement of Neptune to see something differently. Let that be an invitation to be really self aware of where you're falling back into patterns.

And [00:31:00] this will give you an opportunity to see where you might be blocking yourself so you can create a new pattern intentionally. So I really like this full moon. I'm Looking forward to it and Hoping that we all use it to our advantage. So I know this is a long episode So I'm going to close to wrap it up here we've got My Year ahead workshop is coming up.

So stay tuned for details on that. So every year I do a workshop called dictate your feet an astrology workshop to welcome The year ahead this year, it's 2025, that is going to be on January 5th at 2 p. m. Eastern. on zoom be on the lookout for a sign up link if you want to be the first to know make sure you're on my newsletter.

You're in my community, my email community. So you can go to veronicaperretti. [00:32:00] com and sign up for the newsletter at the top of the page. then you'll be the first to know about my year ahead workshop, which is so much fun. It's my favorite thing to teach all year. I'm going to wrap it up there.

I hope you have a wonderful week. Happy full moon and Gemini. Take good care of yourself. Remember, we've got Mars retrograde, which means that We're all feeling a little tired. We're all exhausted. We all feel a little bit, lacking our normal motivations. So give yourself the gift of rest and take care of yourself and I'll talk to you next week.