I have a particular fondness for Ungulates, our hoofed animal friends. Able to carry their entire weight of their bodies on the tips of their toes,  they are predominantly herbivores and pretty much go about their own business, trying to avoid being eaten as some other species’ lunch or poached for their beauty and magical powers. Three of the zodiac signs are Ungulates: Aries the Ram (that’s a sheep), Taurus the Bull (that’s a cow), and Capricorn the Mountain Goat, sometimes depicted in her mystical form as Seagoat. This New Moon lunation involves two of these magnificent beasts so it would be prudent to call on their strengths to maximize the power of this last New Moon of 2016. The New Moon on December 28 is at 8 degrees Capricorn (well, technically 7 degrees, 59 minutes, but I am rounding up to 8 degrees for conversation sake) and Uranus, who has been moving retrograde since July 29th will be stationing direct and moving forward on December 29 at 20 degrees Aries (Ram).

That this has been a year of challenges, surprises, upheavals, and emotional roller coaster rides of loss, betrayal, disbelief, horror, and just downright eye-popping madness is a given. It has happened. Exposure of deep undercurrents of the fabric of our lives can no longer be brushed aside or pushed under the rug to be dealt with at another time. You know the list. How all this plays out for you personally is personal. The Depression of the 30’s didn’t devastate everyone. Some people made their fortune at that time, for others it was just another day at their usual beach of ongoing difficulties, and for others it was the end of life as they knew it. My mother was born in 1919 and I remember asking her what the Depression felt like to her as the youngest daughter of a Russian Jewish immigrant family in the Bronx. She said they hardly noticed. They were poor before, poor during, and poor after. What they had they all shared with one another and it seemed like a time of just getting by. A client’s grandma had some extra cash then and was able to purchase a mansion on the Jersey shore for a song. Today it’s worth an entire musical score. It’s like that. Your circumstances are unique to your life situation and the experience of your incarnation this lifetime. You get to experience your life in any way you wish. Are you choosing your experience or letting the winds of life toss you about? Not are you choosing the actual events of your life but are you choosing how to experience the actual events of your life?

Shock absorbers – having an astrology reading, meditate with Cindy’s chakra-clearing meditations

A billionaire buffoon (you can put in your own epithets) enters the White House and millions flee their lands from terrorists in the guise of leaders and the streets of every town and city in America are flooded with the homeless, drug-addicted, mentally ill, and disenfranchised. It truly is the end of Kali Yuga, the culmination of the Plutonian era of complete degradation and dis-ease, with bright lights of hope, charity, compassion, and innovative breakthroughs scattered throughout the world. IT techies have cash to burn and healers are still questioned for charging for their work. Marketing is the name of the game, everyone is their own brand, and if you don’t want to play the game you had better have an alternate plan for living. Which part of it all you occupy and influence is yours and how you navigate these wild times is a complex and challenging-to-understand process that is unique to you. Knowing your astrological chart is a powerful tool to help you navigate the wild ride that is your life.

With Uranus moving direct (the station is exact on Thursday, December 29) in the

Ungulate-ruled sign of Aries, you have only to look at the horns of the Ram to get the image of how tough and strong these beasts are and how ferocious is their ability to literally beat their heads against something until it cracks. Mountain sheep begin head-butting as soon as they can stand. They like it. It gives them something to do with those glorious horns. Uranus in Aries says: you have a battering ram of intention and focus to bust through your own traps and limitations, to bust through and liberate yourself to an entirely new level of freedom. To each of us that means something entirely different. Where Uranus at 20 degrees Aries hits your chart, if it makes a direct hit to any of your birth planets or significant points in your chart (the ascendent, descendent, midheaven or IC-bottom of the chart) will show you where the battering ram will hit. I can guarantee you the ride has just begun. Buckle up because you will be taking action (Aries) to liberate yourself (Uranus) from whatever craziness you have convinced yourself you need to hold on to.

For fixed sign types – those with a lot of planets in Taurus, Leo, Scorpio or Aquarius or a predominant number of planets in the 2nd, 5th, 8th, or 11th houses – letting go is the opposite of what you do best. For fixed sign types the challenge will be in the letting go. I know because I have that configuration myself and the confrontation with the need to change has been so challenging I had to put myself into a flu coma for nearly week just to avoid the inevitable. It didn’t work. I seemed to have lived and I still have to address the necessary changes. So I am. Don’t have a clue if your planets are fixed or something else? Schedule a reading!

New Moons are time to initiate the NEW, which can seem confusing with this New Moon as it also falls on the last week of 2016. Humans made up the years so we can get some handle on the whole TIME thing. The Moon moves along in her cycles regardless of humans and how we choose to name our time segments. For most of the world we say 2016 is ending and 2017 is beginning but in other cultures these numbers are meaningless. Regardless of what you label

the times, with Mercury conjoining the Sun on the 28th and Pluto conjoining the Moon on the 29th as Uranus station direct, this is a powerful time of moving forward. Look at the Mountain Goat horns – streamlined for swift movement (the mountain winds just glide across those slick babies) and steel determination to scale the heights of their own goals. And if something needs to be poked off the path, this double-horned unicorn is the beast to do it. Where the New Moon in Capricorn at 8 degrees falls in your own chart will show you where you are transforming (Pluto) your communication (Mercury) to align with your goals (Capricorn). This area is where you are transforming your voice into full authority for you to address the challenges before you and move you along to the next peak of your journey. The image of the mystical seagoat reminds you to dip your tale into the waters of your emotional body. Follow your feelings to what is right and good for you. Capricorn seagoat insists that you follow your feelings before you take action. Like a seemingly sign-less crossroads on a mountain hike, you know which trail to take by following your intuition, your feelings. If you feel calm and good and expansive, follow that track. If you feel constricted and limited – don’t.
Mercury is still retrograde in Capricorn until January 8th. This week Mercury moves from 11 degrees back to 3 degrees Capricorn. Insist on clear communication and don’t let anything you need to say be left to the imagination. Clear. Concise. To the point.
Clarify all contracts and communications that have to do with the functioning of all the systems that make up the story of your life.