Your December 2023 Horoscope Rebuilds Shaky Foundations

You gotta love Venus in Libra. Give the supreme mediator a few minutes in the sign of social graces, and she’ll have the worst of enemies shaking hands. On the exact day of Aphrodite’s arrival to the party, on Nov. 8, the Libra Fran Drescher and the rest of the SAG-AFTRA union approved a new deal with Hollywood studios, ending a long and contentious strike. Soon after, U.S. President Biden took a stroll with China’s Xi Jinping, a man he’s openly referred to as a dictator. Can we all get along?

On Dec. 4, Venus enters Scorpio, where she embraces a bit of a shadier complexion. Scorpio is the sign of truth out of lies, awakening out of heartbreak, love from pain. Here, Venus challenges us to go beyond surface amity and to risk real confrontation, for the sake of something real and lasting. This dark majesty doesn’t care if she’s liked.

As Christmas looms, and with it the specter of familial blowouts, you’re challenged to go in and do this, to represent yourself authentically, let things get ugly, and commit to working them out. With Mars in Sagittarius, the sign of a new tomorrow, all conflict is based on the possibility of a better 2024. Hang onto optimism, even and especially when it leads you into confrontation. Fully visible on Christmas, but officially set for Dec. 26, a full moon in Cancer rewards your efforts at dialogue and reconstruction. Get through a not-so-silent night, and you’ll be met with light, love, and new understanding with your family and loved ones.

As for your career and your conquest, honey, the world is not enough. A Sagittarius new moon on Dec. 12, aided by Mars and Mercury, invites ambition, chutzpah, and nerve as you look to 2024. And then, on the 13th, in a perfect one-two punch, Mercury goes retrograde in Capricorn, before sliding back into Sagittarius on the 23rd, not going direct until the first of January. Sagittarius lays out the plan for victory, which Capricorn then hashes out. How are we going to afford this? How do we make this last?

This is the fourth earth sign retrograde of 2024, dealing with finances and tangible realities. With Uranus still raging in Taurus, you’re no stranger to the volatile economic circumstances surrounding you. What do you need to feel organized, solid, and steady, no matter what wrenches the world throws at you? When Mercury retrogrades into Sagittarius on Dec. 23, you’ll be able to integrate the acquired data into your higher calling. Come retrograde’s end, you should feel grounded not only in the universal service of your dreams, but in the responsibility required to enact and sustain them. Take the sun-Mercury cazimi, in Capricorn on the 22nd, along with the Mars-Mercury conjunction in Sagittarius on the 28th, as key moments to bring your plans to synthesis.

Come New Year’s, all the planets, save Uranus, will have ended their retrogrades, and the world will keep turning. Would you like to be a part of its next incarnation? With the sun in Capricorn as of Dec. 21, plus Venus in Scorpio and Mars in Sagittarius, the shape of things to come is open to negotiation. Prove to yourself that you can work through conflict, and you may well take a seat among the power players. If anyone is going to be calling the shots, we’d prefer it to be you, rather than the current leadership. What are you afraid of?

Though horoscopes apply to sun signs, we advise that you read the horoscope based on your rising.

ARIES & ARIES RISING

It’s off to the races, as the month launches with Mars, the sun, and Mercury in Sagittarius, in your ninth house of expanding horizons. Not so fast, tiger. On Dec. 13, Mercury retrogrades in Capricorn, in your 10th house of realized ambitions, before sliding back into Sagittarius. You’re being offered a chance to evaluate where you’re going and why, and make any necessary edits before Mercury goes direct at the start of 2024. Take the new moon in Sagittarius on the 12th and the sun-Mercury cazimi on the 22nd to crystallize your dreams, shellac your vision board, and save your email drafts for post-holiday world domination. Come January, you’ll be the first to hit the ground running, and you’ll be grateful to have stacked out your plan of attack.

TAURUS & TAURUS RISING

Last month, we warned that your relationships may challenge you. This month, they can liberate you. When planets cruise through Scorpio and Sagittarius, they enact a metamorphosis through your seventh house of public visibility (Scorpio) and your eighth house of unions (Sagittarius). You are being asked to turn over the illusion of independent mastery, and to become part of a bigger whole. Venus enters Scorpio on Dec. 4, drawing you to those alluring and powerful figures who hold in their hands the keys to your destiny. In Sagittarius, Mars, the sun, and Mercury show you where these collaborations could lead you in 2024, so long as you’re willing to surrender your outdated plans and ideas. Let yourself be hunted, valued, and wanted — and stop forcing the agenda.

GEMINI & GEMINI RISING

It’s time to be out in the world, on your terms. The surge of planets in Sagittarius hit your seventh house of others, with a triumphant Sagittarius new moon on Dec. 12. After everything you’ve been through, it’s time to leap into new social adventures, unburdened by your old baggage. To help negotiate the terms of your new debut, Venus spends most of the month in Scorpio, in your sixth house of the body and boundaries. What incarnation would you like to take so that you can face the masses with authenticity and power? Push your limits when it comes to others: Show up to parties alone, ask someone you admire to be your mentor, join a writers’ group, ask your rich friend for help with your bills. You’ve changed. So should your relationships.

CANCER & CANCER RISING

Last month, we recommended that you get grounded in home projects. This month, with a firm footing, you get to launch. Mars is in Sagittarius, in your sixth house of the body and boundaries, giving you a clear sense of drive and destiny. This is what I do, this is how my skills should be applied, and this is how I should be compensated. The feared Mercury retrograde, launching on Dec. 13, begins in Capricorn, in your seventh house of others, before lurching into Sagittarius. You’re feeling new clarity about your personal value, and how you want to be deployed in the world. This will lead to some inevitable editing and restructuring of your relationships. Who gets the message, and whose fault is it if they don’t? How are you betraying yourself, or misrepresenting yourself? On the 26th, a full moon in Cancer beams glory and godliness into your home sign. You’ll be ready to receive it. Are the people in your life in it to win it, too?

LEO & LEO RISING

On Dec. 4, Venus enters Scorpio, in your fourth house of home and family, while the other personal planets light up Sagittarius, in your fifth house of creative expression. It’s time to take all the pain and uncertainty of the last few months and turn it into something beautiful. Start with a home makeover: Rip down anything that no longer represents who you are, and make your domain into a vessel of truth, goodness, and beauty. We know that the Mercury retrograde, starting on the 13th, will hit Capricorn, in your sixth house of work, before sliding into Sagittarius. Don’t concern yourself with what you do, what it looks like, or how it will all work. Just do something. Arrange flowers, collage old magazines, edit your manuscript, anything! You need a creative release valve, however inelegant it may be, so that new ideas, inspirations, and awakenings have a means of getting unblocked.

VIRGO & VIRGO RISING

Sagittarius rules your fourth house of family, roots, and psychological structuring. Driven to the realization of one’s spiritual and ethical purpose, Sagittarius grounds your chart in a mission, a path, a calling — the same calling which likely drew you out of your childhood bubble and to the big city. Take December to get clear on this ethos, and to return to who you are. From Pisces, in your seventh house of others, Neptune and Saturn continue the public makeover, changing how you present yourselves to others, what is given and what is held back. Throughout the month, they’ll consult the planets in Sagittarius, asking you to return to your core and ensure that it’s represented. You have a chance to start the new year from the ground up, feeling clear and whole in what you’re about. Invite the people in your life to get to know you, all the way to the roots.

LIBRA & LIBRA RISING

The main event: The Cancer full moon on Dec. 26, in your 10th house of realized ambition — a rapturous culmination for all you’ve launched into the world, a cliff from which you can view the vast horizon which awaits you in 2024. You have until Christmas, then, to get your ducks in order. Venus enters Scorpio in your second house of self-worth and finances. Peel off the dead layers and embrace a streamlined new you. Apply that approach to your finances, work structure, and habits. With Mars in Sagittarius, in your third house of communications, you’re best served filling the quiver and firing off your arrows, one by one. Invest in a fancy 2024 planner and map it out. Pay your taxes early. Do whatever you need to get the fundamentals in your life clear and organized so that you can be in fighting shape for what comes next.

SCORPIO & SCORPIO RISING

You took a lot of hits last month, weathered tempestuous emotions, and endured one relationship awakening after another. That’s enough of that! No more limping around through the wreckage — it’s time to make something of all this. Venus will be in your home sign for most of the month; take strength from Venus in Scorpio and let yourself be unlikable, confrontational, and fearsomely confident. With Mars in Sagittarius, in your second house of self-worth, you’re done looking back and apologizing. A new and uncertain year is upon us. It behooves you to take the reins, even if it makes you the villain.

SAGITTARIUS & SAGITTARIUS RISING

That was one hell of a Scorpio season, wasn’t it? But, as it is written, from the ashes you’re reborn and ready to launch a new era. With Mars joining Mercury and the sun in Sagittarius, you’re ravenous for adventure, excitement, and world domination. To ensure the sustained success of this rush, you’ll need balance. The planets in Sagittarius will square Neptune, in Pisces, in your fourth house of roots and psychological grounding, revealing the weak foundations worth monitoring. The Mercury retrograde begins in Capricorn, in your second house of finances, on Dec. 13, before lurching into Sagittarius on the 23rd. You won’t lose any momentum by organizing your taxes, or taking an extra day to edit an email. Watch out for your blind spots so that you can go a hundred rounds come 2024.

CAPRICORN & CAPRICORN RISING

You’re likely to blame much of the month’s blown fuses on the Mercury retrograde in Capricorn, which starts on Dec. 13 and rages until early January. But that would be too easy. Instead, look to Mars, currently in Sagittarius, in your 12th house of the unprocessed and unexpressed. Something is burning inside of you, aching to be unleashed, and it will register its wrath in physical calamities, temper tantrums, and unexpected conflicts. Mercury retrogrades are an excellent opportunity to knead out the tight knots, to whisk out the lumps in the flour, to say it right, in the words of Nelly Furtado. View the advent of Capricorn season on the 21st, and a sun-Mercury cazimi on the 22nd, as the finish line. Confront all that you’re afraid to do, or say, and find an avenue of release so that you can own your desires and ambitions, and absolutely conquer them, come Capricorn season.

AQUARIUS & AQUARIUS RISING

Get out and get inspired. With Jupiter and Uranus both retrograde in Taurus, in your fourth house of roots and stability, we know you’re not feeling grounded. Something’s not fully cooked under the surface. Now’s as good a time as ever, then, to throw yourself into the future. For most of the month, Venus will claim her throne in Scorpio, in your 10th house of ambition and public life, while Mars lights it up in Sagittarius, in your 11th house of network and audience. You should be hosting salons, forums, debates, performances, and other spectacles of engagement. Take in inspiration. Let yourself be seen. You’re meant to be a bastion of wisdom in the year to come. Now’s the time for your big social download, before you reflect it all back to us come Aquarius season.

PISCES & PISCES RISING

After an extended summer retrograde, Neptune goes direct in your home sign. Meanwhile, the planetary rush in Sagittarius awakens your 10th house of ambitions and career. The gloves are finally off. The question is: What needs to be achieved, and what needs to be felt out? Consider it a negotiation between tangible goals and a more ambient awareness of who you are and what you’re into. As the planets surge through Sagittarius, they come into a combustive square with Neptune, offering you time and space to contemplate 2024. How much of it needs to be mapped out and worked, and what should be left to intuition? Just because Capricorn season starts on Dec. 21, doesn’t mean you have to do this by the book. We want you to set the future on your terms, in your style. Trust yourself to go at your own pace.