Your Horoscope This Week: December 12th to December 18, 2021

The week ahead opens with a square between the Sun in Sagittarius and Neptune in Pisces — between the planetary body that represents our sense of self and the one that represents our ability to transcend our sense of self and experience something greater. Both mutable and traditionally ruled by Jupiter, Sagittarius and Pisces can come to see eye to eye but while Sagittarius sees independence as a sacred state of being, Pisces maintains that all beings are interdependent, no matter their position. This negotiation between the singular and the (significant) other is the gate we pass as we travel toward Venus retrograde and through the shadow that she casts under Pluto’s wing. Mars rides into Sagittarius on December 13, headstrong, while Mercury moves in Capricorn. There’s a prevailing pressure to keep up with work and maintain, even when our personal lives start to feel unmanageable. The square that Mars makes to Chiron in Aries Rx on the 18th bears that pressure down. If and when the stakes feel too high and unsustainable, it’s worth reminding yourself that most stakes are projections, most of the pressure we feel is self-generated, and one the most nurturing things we can do for our past and future selves is admit that one’s worth and value is impossible to prove. Better, then, to admit when we’re out for the count. Better to reclaim the time that we owe ourselves, the time we save for play. On the other side of these admissions is the Gemini full moon, a retrospective of all the moments in our lives when embracing our own duality only made us feel more whole.