I hate to be a Debbie Downer but have to let everyone know that yes, another Mercury Retrograde is coming up in December, and just in time for the holidays!

But first let’s take a general look at the first week of December. Right now we’re in the last quarter of the Moon phase, which is usually a great time to wrap things up instead of starting something new. I always feel like I should be wrapping things up in the last phase of the moon anyhow, and sometimes the night or two before the New Moon I can feel extra tired, so in case you do as well, know it’s not just you!

The New Moon at 13 degrees Sagittarius (who’s keyphrase is “I see a goal. I reach the goal and then I see another.”)  will be on Sunday the 5th at 12:36 pm EST. After that will be a great time to start a new area of growth and expansion as Sagittarius is all about growth, traveling to new places, higher education, and in general, seeing the Big Picture! However, we must be careful as Mercury will already be slowing down by that time. I would suggest that you try and get all packages out in the mail for the holidays and bought before Mercury goes Retrograde on December 10th at 7:04 am EST. Not that disasters will happen if you don’t, but even as an astrologer I’ve tried to tempt Retrograde periods by doing things that traditionally you’re “not supposed to do” and will not the best results. Sometimes I think of Astrology as a “For best results, please do X by X time” kind of philosophy.

For those of you with planets in early Capricorn or Sagittarius you may feel this Retrograde more than others as Mercury will start moving backwards in the sky at roughly 5 degrees Capricorn, making its way back to around 19 degrees Sagittarius, and on December 30th at 2:21 am EST will stop its Retrograde motion and begin to move Direct again. So look in the area of your chart where Mercury will be traveling during December and you will find what area you may have the Ghosts of Christmas Past come visit you!

The “shadow” of this Mercury Retrograde began around November 22nd, so the time between that Monday and December 10th may provide clues as to what issues will be revisited during the actual Retrograde period.

Also important is that we will be having a lunar eclipse with our Sagittarius Full Moon this year, coinciding almost exactly with the Winter Solstice, the darkest time of the year in the Northern hemisphere and the time which signals a transition to brighter days ahead! This Full Moon Total Lunar Eclipse will also be very important given that Mercury will be going retrograde very near the point of the eclipse as well! Synchronicity at work in the stars!

You will be able to catch this total lunar eclipse if you are in South America, Europe, parts of Africa or Eastern Asia (including Australia!). The lunar eclipse of June 26th of this year heralded in Big Change for the Summer months (and it did provide that!) and so there’s no reason not to assume that with this upcoming eclipse even closer to the Winter Solstice, this will mean Big Change in the area of your life where 29 degrees of Sagittarius and Gemini are in your chart!

It may seem as though all of the excitement is happening in December and not in the New Year of 2011, but not to worry! Eclipses come in twos (sometimes threes) so there will be another Solar eclipse in Capricorn on January 4th to start of the New Year with even more change!

It should be noted that this Lunar eclipse on December 21st starts off a series of Eclipses in the signs of Sagittarius and Gemini, while we only have two more eclipses in the Capricorn/Cancer polarity, both solar, one in January (Capricorn) and another on July 1st, 2011 (Cancer).

Many of you might have noticed that the Cancer/Capricorn eclipses brought in BIG changes around either Career/Jobs and/or Home life. As I might have mentioned a couple of years ago, I find eclipses in Water signs to bring change that can be hard to stomach (especially so with Cancer as it rules the stomach!) so I am glad that we are moving towards a Fire/Air combination of eclipses in Mutable signs which hopefully should bring an easier type of change to deal with, given that Mutable signs tend to enjoy change more than Cardinal or Fixed ones.

Ok, so with now less than two weeks before our friend Mercury Retro comes to town to stay for the holidays I suggest everyone get cracking and get the to-do list done! Then you can relax in front of a fire during the Merc Retro holidays, reflecting on 2010 and the changes you’d like to make (or will be made for you) in 2011!