December ends and begins with a New Moon, with the first New Moon arriving in the wee hours of the morning on the 1st of the month. (If you’re in the western half of the Americas, the New Moon will be exact in the final hours of Nov 30, however, for most of the world this New Moon kicks off the month of December and sets the stage for a Blue Moon at the end of the month.)
This is a Sagittarius New Moon that trines Mars just days before it turns retrograde. Thus, this New Moon underscores the importance of a long look at personal Marsy-ness (an important theme throughout the month and into the new year). The Sag New Moon also forms a square to Saturn, so certain endeavors related to vision, zeal, and expansive endeavors may feel a bit halted.
This lunar beginning really fits quite well with the themes of the Mars retrograde, which calls for slowing down and reconsideration related to ambitious impetus. While Mars eventually retrogrades back into the sign of Cancer, December’s portion of this process sees Mars solely (back) through Leo’s zodiacal degrees. The expressive energies of this sign, which include the type of confidence we have in our personal brand of energy (and the hunger for its visibility), are involved in some kind of inward turn during this backpedal.
Fiery, creative outputs, generative warmth, and personal pursuits will be redirected in some way. Are they seemingly put on pause or amplified in an unusual way? Either scenario is possible. Mars retrograde can bring frustration and issues with outlets for personal power, but it can also offer a space to step back, recollect, and redevelop goal-oriented actions. Your solar chart (along with your natal chart) further contextualizes where these reversals take place. Check out the horoscopes below for more on possible manifestations of this retrograde and other factors in December.
Oh yeah, we’re also in the midst of a Mercury retrograde during the first half of the month! Mercury doubles back in Sagittarius, digging the trenches for those aforementioned New Moon conditions. There’s lots to think and rethink this December. Big visions and questions of faith, spirit, high ideals, and the fiery zeal we bring to the world are all ‘up’ in some way this month. The Mercury cazimi occurs on the 5th (for Eastern Time Zones), so look for cosmic downloads and insight into Sagittarian visions around this time. Mercury makes its direct station on the 15th. As always, Mercury takes a minute to pick up speed, but before too long Mercurial processes should be back to normal.
Also on the 15th is December’s Full Moon in Gemini. Pisces planets really make their mark on mutable lunar cycles this month. With a t-square to Neptune and its dreamy outer planet frequencies, this bright Moon could light up questions about the truth, spiritual yearnings, and the devilish details of philosophical ponderings. Neptune’s influence also amplifies the potential for altered states (and ensuing confusion), so be mindful with your substance intake this holiday season.
The Sun moves into Capricorn on the 21st, marking the Winter Solstice and annual point of solar death and rebirth. Stillness, depth, and purity can be found in the quiet moments of this seasonal threshold.
And finally, the New Moon in Capricorn—Blue Moon in Capricorn!—slides in at the tail end of the year. This Sun-Moon conjunction on Dec 30 takes place at 9°44 Capricorn, which, at the moment is a very quiet spot of the zodiac. Save for a weak sextile to Saturn, this Moon is absent of significant planetary interplay and seems to hold space for that sleepy end-of-the-year energy. Use this lunation to quietly bid farewell to 2024 and prepare internally for the birth of new cycles that lie just ahead.
December 2024 Key Dates
Dec 1 – New Moon 9°33 Sagittarius, 1:21 am ET
Dec 5 – Mercury cazimi, 14°27 Sagittarius
Dec 6 – Mars rx, 6°10 Leo
Dec 7 – Venus enters Aquarius
Dec 7 – Neptune Stations Direct
Dec 15 – Mercury stations direct, 6°25 Sagittarius
Dec 15 –Full Moon 23°53 Gemini, 4:01 am
Dec 21 – Sun enters Capricorn (Winter Solstice)
Dec 30 – New Moon 9°44 Capricorn, 5:26 pm
December Horoscopes
sagittarius
Happy birthday, Sag! Your season arrives during the darkest days of the year, bringing light and warmth through the spirit of bright Sagittarian energy. Thank you for that!!
Lunar dynamics collide with Pisces planets this month, indicating there are some big pieces around family and home you’ll be working your way through. And while this may be a pretty pat holiday season prediction, I can point out some interesting threads involved in these experiences this December. Namely, it appears that whatever ensues around your family, homecomings, and reconnection to personal history this month puts some stress on your personal expressions, your identity outputs, and relational expansions.
In addition to (or, likely, embedded within all of this) are big questions surrounding your religious or philosophical framework. Perhaps family traditions and other aspects of your rooted existence prompt larger reassessments of moral or spiritual systems. Legal matters or academic purviews could be involved. However all of this looks for you specifically, you can expect birthday/holiday season scenarios to bring shifts to big-picture thinking. You’ll feel the need to reevaluate your understanding of life’s blueprint, to contemplate your relationship to a higher power, and put something on pause as you work out these grander perspectives.
capricorn
What all has been happening in the area of shared finances, debt, and power mergers, Capricorn? It certainly appears that significant adjustments (likely fueled by intense interpersonal explorations) are in the works.
Within our relationships are various channels of exchange. The give and take with another is generally not cut and dry and, when we look at what’s yours and mine and ours, both possibilities and pitfalls tend to emerge. The current Mars retrograde drives more of these pieces to the surface. You do have an opportunity to claim some power here, but a slowdown and steps backward will be involved in the process.
Overall, there’s a bit of murkiness throughout much of December. Something involving siblings, cousins, neighbors, or your local community environment may become confusing or challenging. However, the Capricorn New Moon at the end of the month offers nice point of clearing. During this birthday lunation, consider what newness you’re ready to cultivate in the new year. You’re signing off on a big chunk of energy and the second half of 2025 has some very different frequencies available for you to work with.
aquarius
Well, Aquarius, how does it feel to have Pluto, planet of deep, driving transformation, firmly back in your sign? Water Bearers are instinctually tuned to collective realities and you are bound to have a unique read on the vast cultural changes of our time. With Pluto’s presence in your solar first house, it’s clear that social transformations will be firmly embedded into your personal evolutions over the next couple of decades.
In terms of your immediate experience, the movements of the Red Planet are of special importance to where you are headed as you launch into the new year. As Mars reverses course in Leo, the sign opposite of your own, important relationships must be recalibrated. You may reconsider steps taken with a partner, go back over something you missed, or otherwise experience the necessity of falling behind in order to (eventually) get ahead.
Beyond this (or, potentially intertwined with these important one-on-one scenarios) is the money piece that’s been pulling on you for a while. This month, your creative gifts and community connections factor into the process. There’s something here to learn about personal resource, but you’ve got to swim through conflicting currents in order to find answers.
pisces
December’s (first) New Moon and Full Moon both ping Pisces planets, triggering big pieces you’ve been working your way through—for years. Identity dissolutions and reconstructions, questions surrounding faith, unconditional love, responsibility, and boundaries…gosh, there’s been a lot of watery pressure weighing on you, Pisces! 2025 sees both Saturn and Neptune out of your sign and into completely different territory, so you can look forward to being past all of this in the nearish future. But you’re not there yet. This month asks you to keep doing the work. Expect home and career to feature strongly into integrations and processes demanded through the holiday season.
The Mars retrograde can certainly be used as an opportunity to redirect in areas of health and self-care. Consider using the slow-down of Mars to take care of your body and build healthy habits. Just don’t be overly zealous in your approach. Pushing too hard, too fast could leave you injured, exhausted, or with another unfortunate health scenario to focus on. This is definitely a slow and steady wins the race kind of situation.
aries
Both Saturn and Neptune have been transiting the sign that precedes your own. Here, in the hidden dimensions of your astrological landscape, unconscious inroads are built and traveled. This December, key lunar passages interact with the clandestine realities of this ongoing story, drumming up hidden possibilities and pitfalls of your journey. Now, these two slow-moving bodies are on the way out of these waters (by spring of next year), so you can be assured the intensity of these obscure pressures is coming to an end. What is rewritten, undone, and finished during this period sets you up for a grand emergence that initiates in 2025.
With Mars retrograde in Leo and Mercury retrograde in Sagittarius, fire sign energy is in a process of review. These reversals, therefore, flow harmonically through your own sign. This may look like redos with children and your greater vision or, perhaps, reconsiderations with a lover that involve an examination of moral concepts.
Also in December, your fiery ruling planet turns retrograde, prompting you to call your energy back. This personal restitution seems to fit well with the work Saturn and Neptune are moving you through. Yes, these regressions are not particularly natural for your personal brand of fiery power, but periodically slowing down and stepping back serves its purpose. Big advents lie ahead. In the meantime, you can rest, replenish, and allow for slow contemplations of where you are and what you want.
taurus
Pluto’s re-entrance into Aquarius moves personal evolutions through very visible areas of your life. With the Lord of the Underworld powerfully placed to drive developments in the 10th house of your solar chart, your public image, reputation, and larger ambitions are now up for long-haul changes. Get ready to mine your depths—and bring your treasures out for public consumption.
Now, Pluto is here for some time (as in the next twenty years), but important triggers for this big work emerge in December and in the early space of the new year. As Mars’s retrograde carries the warrior planet backward through the opposing area of your chart (and in opposition to Pluto), you can expect to be thinking deeply on the dynamic between public and private aspects of your life. You may be asking yourself, what redevelopments in my home space can support the work I want to claim in the world? How do situations at home challenge my public ambitions—and what boundaries can be put in place with family members to help me create what I desire in the professional arena? Whatever variation of these dynamics are real for you, Taurus, they offer clues to the metamorphosis that is upon you.
gemini
This month prompts consideration (and possibly confusion) regarding career matters. When it comes to your public presence and big-picture ambitions, you’ve been through some big changes over the last few years, Gemini. You’ve been called to develop, explore, enhance—and let go! Lunar activations in December drive old and new pieces of this work into the open.
Mirrored realities are a theme for you this month. There’s a dynamic, likely with a significant person in your life, that offers you the chance to see something in yourself. An experience of back and forth, review, and reflect is involved here, as well as some consideration of what you need to find expansion in tandem with another.
We all know you are gifted when it comes to the word. You have a talent for speaking easily, for engaging conversation, information gathering, and playing with communicational exchange in a light-hearted, endearing way. As Mars turns retrograde on Dec 6, you’re called into a review of some of these aspects of yourself. How do share your incredible inquisitive talents with the world? Are there ways you need to re-evaluate your communication strategies? You have the chance to see something important here.
cancer
Mars’s retrograde takes the fiery planet (back) through the signs of Leo and Cancer, making this an important journey for lunar babes such as yourself. December’s portion of the retrograde involves the backtrek through Leo, lining up important personal recalibrations in the beginning of 2025.
Issues relating to what you earn and how you spend your resources are tied to deeper components of self-worth. With the first and second houses of your solar chart experiencing primed for the backtracks of Martial regressions, personal value is likely to be up in some way. Boundaries are often a Cancer issue and Mars certainly has his role to play in the demarcation of personal territroty. Perhaps personal solidity is the long-run outcome for this retrograde?
In addition to all of this, you’ve been doing some long-term processing related to your belief system. The religious or spiritual framework, belief system, or other theoretical container you use to makes sense of the world has been, somehow, both softened and solidified in recent years. This month puts new pieces into the stew that’s been stirring in your philosophical pot.
leo
Financial considerations have been up for awhile, Leo. Personal property, debt, inheritance, or other interpersonal money mergers and dissolution have been clouded and confused and, while you’ve been pushed to take responsibility, you’ve also felt awash with the complexity of these navigations. This month pushes more of these pieces to the surface—and calls you to consider how you can use your sunny superpowers to strategically support efforts to sort it out.
With Mars retrograde in Leo and Mercury retrograde in Sagittarius, fire sign energy is in a process of review. Redos, reconsiderations, revisions, and restitutions may be involved with your children, your lover, and in recreational endeavors or creative processes. However these pieces are organized in your own experience, adjustments of self, identity, and purpose will need to be incorporated into this re-sorting.
Can you work your Leo magic into pulling in resources from those who love to see you shine your light in the world? This Mars retrograde continues through late February and it’s an important journey for you, Leo. You’ve got to take a good, long look at how you express your power, how this benefits you, and where it doesn’t. This process may show you how to develop something in the way of a protective container that serves as an energetic vehicle for your superpowered Leo light.
virgo
Who you are, where you live, and who you are with are core components of life. During the holiday season, we often find these sometimes disparate pieces of our lives pushing against each other and, this year, the cosmic realities seem to have decided you will be delivered important processes at these intersections. Circumstances with a partner may involve some tension. Making room for this around the New and Full Moons could be of benefit.
With your ruling planet retrograde through the middle of December, it’s extra important to read the fine print this month. Returning to old projects (perhaps particularly those that help you put your home in order) is a great use of Mercury’s retrograde energy. Mercury cazimi on the 5th could bring clarity, potentially about a deep pattern or other personal psychological exploration.
Pluto’s journey through Aquarius brings restructuring to daily routines and health habits. This is a long process and you’ve barely dipped your toe in, Virgo! With all of this in mind, December could be a good time to begin consciously directing such transformational currents. Conaiswe what life adjustments you might be able to make to help support your body and other daily processes, and allow for out-of-the-box thinking as you approach these questions.
libra
Saturn and Neptune in Pisces have created an unusual ebb and flow in the tides of your day-to-day life, Libra. You’ve been dealing with changes to your body and health or, possibly, caretaking for someone else. Or, perhaps, you have been dealing with a boundary issue at work or in the throes of finding balance between boundlessness and the responsibilities of life on the mundane plane. Whatever the specific scenario has been, it looks like daily tasks have been confusing, heavy, or murky for a while. You may feel some extra stress around this area of life this month, so be sure to give yourself some space to swim in these waters. With Mercury retrograde half of the month, this is extra important. You’ll want to be extra planned and prepared, yet also ready to be flexible when necessary.
Social connections are so important to you, Libra. You probably have a lot of friends, a wide network, and various groups that fill your life with interpersonal exchange. Currently, the ambitious (and, I’m sure, charming) energy you put forward into creating community is up for review. During this Mars retrograde, you may feel some of your relationships tested, prompting modifications in your relationship to group energy. All of this will ultimately help you better understand something about your capacity for leadership and put together the pieces of what you need to do to turn your dreams into reality.
scorpio
December puts pressure on pieces related to children, lovers, and recreational endeavors. Financial realities seem to feature strongly into these pressures. Perhaps you are sorting out the details of shared resources with a current or soon-to-be ex-partner? Or, perhaps, holiday expenses will test your ability to find flow and fun with seasonal experiences. You may be able to glimpse an ending and new beginning with something you’ve been wrangling within this department, though the journey there could be a bit uncomfortable.
Mars is Scorpio’s traditional ruler, making the Mars retrograde particularly important for those born under your sign. To add to the significance, Mars begins his retrograde in angular territory of your solar chart, where public realities are emphasized. Expect big (yet, also, somewhat introspective) negotiations of career possibilities and big-picture goals. Things involved in your social standing, such as your marital status, your professional title, and your reputation, are all called up (and back) with this transit.
Important things are in the works, Scorpio! You know how to use the energy of Mars strategically and the coming months call for just this type of calculated consideration.
