The December Full Moon, the last Full Moon of the year, will take place Wednesday evening to Thursday, depending on your time zone. This Full Moon is in Gemini. This Moon, all over the world, has been called many things by many different people: it is the Mourning Moon, the Cold Moon, the Snow Moon, the Oak Moon. We are just before the Solstice—we are in the darkest time of the year in the Northern Hemisphere.
This is a Full Moon about mirrors and mirroring. Mirrors are all around us right now. In the forms of relationships, potential emotional triggers, and subconscious symbols. Interactions and insights right now take on a rippled, far-ranging meaning. For many of us, this time will feel psychedelic. All around us are very layered circumstances. All around us are heightened states. For as much as we are dealing with some very intense challenges, there are numerous reminders of how incredibly lucky we are. All around us are reminders of what we’ve learned; all around us is proof of all the growing we have done this year. At this time, we are being asked to transform by truly implementing the lessons we've learned. We must take action. We take the most possible care we can.
This Full Moon is asking us to remain in our utmost integrity, and that could be a struggle. There could be some very real contrasts between who we know ourselves to be, and the circumstances around us. How do we know we are in integrity? All of us have values, all of us have specific needs. Part of this will come in through our intuition. Part of us will come through in conversations. Take time to tune into your heart. Before communicating sensitive information, there could be some internal processing to do. Please be sure to have all the facts before responding to important situations. Pausing or asking for more time is good. Ask questions instead of deciding from projections. Many of us will be having to make decisions that echo deep patterns we have been working on healing. This could feel both painful and liberatory. Contradictions abound now.
This Full Moon will most certainly be an illuminating time: what we need to leave behind will make itself clear. What it is time to invest in will also become apparent; mindfulness and deep listening is encouraged.
This Full Moon could also feel conflicted. You could feel scattered and heavy. You could finally see where you need to go, or where you want to go, and simultaneously feel held back or be held back by obligations, despondency, or practical concerns. Deal with what must be dealt with, but also focus on what is most important to you. This is the time to begin to reflect on and wrapping up your year. This is the time to be clear about what is no longer coming with you into the future.
The lessons you’ve learned have been very deep, and have involved a lot of emotional healing. If deep-rooted patterns have come up for you to acknowledge, understand that they are coming up in order to be healed. We must revisit the sources of our pain in order to name and see them. We must look into the mirrors that are appearing for us. In order to allow in healing, we have to sit with our feelings and what that looks like will be unique to each one of us.
The Tarotscopes below were pulled for each sign. Feel free to read your Sun, your Rising, your Moon, or for any other archetype you feel called to explore. All of the spell suggestions are just that, suggestions: use your own intuition, and if you aren’t familiar with an ingredient, don’t buy or ingest anything you might be allergic to or anything you are unsure about. Take what you need, and leave the rest.
Aries
The 9 of Cups
This Full Moon could bring you mirrors that lead you to the most embodied version of yourself yet. And also…there could be some uncertainty you are feeling right now. That’s because in order to fully receive the rewards of showing up, you may need to distance yourself from relationships that make you feel misunderstood or unseen. That’s when it is time to boundary up, and/or remove yourself instead of spinning your energetic wheels. Can you practice truly seeing all the beauty you hold inside? Your emotional needs are valid and deserve acknowledgment. Find a way to connect to your internal toolkit so you remain in your most abundant vibration.
For those of you making big plans for next year, you’ve already got everything you need. It’s more about cultivating your existing talents, connections, and confidence than it is about chasing after something new. You really are closer than you think. This is most certainly time to shout what you are dreaming to the sky, the ocean, your journal, and to anyone who might be able to help. Don’t hold back.
The only responsibilities you have during this Full Moon is to yourself and your joy.
Suggested spell ingredients: moonstone, recordings of waterfalls, hibiscus, new emotional contracts, a wish fulfillment spell that encapsulates mind/body/soul, and dark chocolate.
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Taurus
The Emperor
This Full Moon could be a mirror into your most empowered self. When you are in your power, you know exactly what you need: more lemons in your ice water, more salt in your bath, and just the right amount of truth to keep you trusting. This Full Moon is really asking you to consider your plans, and what exact vibration of your personal power they require you to cultivate and stay strong inside of.
This is an interesting time for you: you are giving yourself more permission than ever before to settle into your own authority. This is a very interesting time for you, as you are moving backwards—connecting with ancient messages and ancestral journeys—as much as you are reaching into a future that will truly be your own. For those of you doing ancestral healing work, this is a wonderful time to examine patterns of power, dominance, abuse, or control in your family line. Meditate on how best to work on healing those. For those of you feeling inspired to strategize around the work of your life, it is a great time to make an action plan. You will see results quickly.
The world you are consciously building now will be the world you will be living in soon enough.
Suggested spell ingredients: sunstone, frankincense, seed magic, lemons, and permission.
Gemini
3 of Pentacles
Gemini, you couldn’t end this year without getting another Pentacle Tarot card! That’s because you’ve done so much work around…work! Around money, abundance, worth, self-worth, and what you value. The 3 of Pentacles arrives on this Full Moon to nudge your focus more firmly into what you have built this year. You’ve transformed all the behaviors—mental, emotional, spiritual, and physical—in order to inherently transform your relationship with yourself. Let this Full Moon be a mirror of all you have created.
Yes, you’ve made major progress within your career, your networks, and your calling. You made the choice to open yourself up again. You bravely opened yourself up to new ways of reframing abundance and to softer, gentler ways of relating to yourself when you were frightened, overwhelmed, or shot through with despair. As a result, you’ve seen important relationships bloom, and unaligned others wilt. You’ve opened yourself up to more abundance, which was obtained by putting yourself out there, with your whole being. And you’ve made magic: you’ve found spaces inside and outside of you that were waiting to be discovered.
At this Full Moon, a Moon in your Sun sign, give yourself a few hours, or a few days, to put words and vision, sight and energy over to what you are building. Most likely it is a lovely expanse of greens and golds and grays, full of both pillars and pathways. Let yourself have it all.
Suggested spell ingredients: pyrite, crocodile jasper, mint tea, wishes and dreams for community, and the energy of grass pushing through the earth on the other side of the planet.
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Cancer
6 of Pentacles
This is a Full Moon about receptivity. You will most likely be visited by generous spirits and you might be awakened by lunar downloads. Please take note of how exactly you receive. This could be in tingles, sensations, temperatures, or in poetry floating around on clouds inside of your brain.
This is a Full Moon to practice receiving: what you want to receive and what you need to receive are not the same thing right now. Taking what is rightfully yours is imperative. It may at first feel like a punishment because of guilt. This Full Moon wants you to remember that you too, are deserving. Sometimes that looks like taking back what you once gave away freely. Even if others do not like it.
This is a Full Moon about reframing what generosity means for you. Somewhere in between the total benefit of the doubt and locked down protection mode is the answer. When you decide to operate from a position of scarcity, that’s what is mirrored back. When you decide to operate from a place of abundance, the blessings flow through in many forms. Pay attention to who, or what, is showing up to help you.
Rebalancing is available now. To get what you need you must also: adjust expectations, give something away, hold firmly onto others, and keep other things moving. You’ve extended so much charity to others. Now extend that generosity back to yourself. This year has been a test like no other. Finish it out by proving to yourself how incredibly valuable and beautiful you are through your practice and actions.
Suggested spell ingredients: citrine, agrimony, lavender, rosemary, a spell for protection around feeling safe in receiving abundance where you must ask for one thing and must give one other thing away.
Leo
The 8 of Pentacles
Lovely Leo, what may be mirrored back to you at this Full Moon is about your work, your flow, your inspiration, your ideas, your tenacity. As many of you know, when I say work, I mean the work of life: your calling, your healing, your relationships, your family, your talents, your magic, your you. Please take the time at this Full Moon to examine any patterns or lessons that are coming up regarding transformation through work. This will show up through synchronicities, obstacles, challenges, and contented moments. This is a chance to really cement in different ways of healthier relating to that will positively impact the rest of your year, and your next.
This year found the fruits of your labors paying off in unexpected ways. It wasn’t always about your particular career achievements or dollar signs per se (although many of you Lions enjoyed both.) When you were brave enough to experiment, you saw results. How you were energetically working was refined. Keep refining the sparkling diamonds of the quality of your time, the quality of your work, and the quality of your beliefs around all of these. If you feel called to, spend time writing out all the patterns and themes that came forth as a result of your efforts this year. There will be some valuable information for you.
Let this Full Moon protect and expand your sense of focus, discipline, and commitment for all the ways you show up for yourself and your vision. What you put into your dreams is what you’ll most certainly get out. Make a solid plan for this bright new upcoming year.
Suggested spell ingredients: rainbow colored candles, a workspace clearing, a massage, and Buffy Sainte-Marie on repeat.
Virgo
The World
This Full Moon could be bringing up mirrors around your work in the world. Namely, where your work ends and where you begin; how success is defined professionally, and personally. It could be time to put your emphasis on what living successfully means to you and why. Once you are clear about that, you’ll see instances of your definitions everywhere around you.
Virgo, you may be feeling the end-of-year wrap up particularly acutely. You got the World card: an archetype about profound integration and wholeness, ending journeys, and the insights that only the passing of time can give. Be clear about what the true themes of this year were for you, not what you wanted the year to be about—what it actually was. Reflecting on this will show you how much you’ve grown.
The lessons you’ve learned will help position the beginning of your next, best year yet. Write them all down and offer them up to fire, tears, and to the earth. Thank all that have witnessed your profound walk into wholeness Don’t forget to thank yourself.
Suggested spell ingredients: earth, roots, boundaries, time magic, petrified wood, and black salt.
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Libra
5 of Wands
Libra, this Full Moon could be a mirror of what is imbalanced in your realm of fire. This realm includes the ego, spirit, and creativity, as well as your very identity. Things are getting rearranged right now, and as a result, you could be feeling a bit tumbled. Do you know that it is ok to not be ok? Do you believe that you are just as deserving of love and acceptance when you are a work in progress? When you aren’t quite capable of “doing it all”? It is true: you are entirely deserving. For you right now, part of attaining balance means truly loving and accepting whatever tension, shakiness, or process you are in. No. Matter. What.
The 5’s in the Minor Arcana denote a conflict or challenge—internal, or external. It is something we all must go through in order to be transmuted into greatness. It could feel like the universe is forcing you to declutter your soul. Now every aspect of your identity—your behaviors, gifts, fears, talents, motives, successes, idiosyncrasies—are out of the closet of your life and up for review. Don’t ignore or throw away parts of yourself because it makes you feel uncomfortable. Give yourself patience as you sift through all of it. At this Full Moon, let resolution be a dialogue, not a stand off.
This year has been a major one for you in every single sector of your life. Allow yourself space to give yourself over to your process. It is an integral part of wrapping up this year.
Suggested spell ingredients: Rihanna on repeat, rest with extra pillows, rose quartz, dandelion root tea, the art of biting your tongue, and a spell that summons support from your personal angels.
Scorpio
4 of Wands
This Full Moon could be a mirror full of insights around your authentic connections. Notice who you let inside, and who you kept out in the cold. Extend this noticing to different aspects of yourself: what parts of yourself are allowed to show up to the party, and why? What shunned parts of your psyche need an open door? Extend a warm fire of acceptance to the parts of you that feel shy to show up.
Another way to respond to 4 of Wands energy is to celebrate this year’s triumphs by gathering with your loved ones—RSVP to every invitation you can. Host gatherings to delight your favorite people.
This is the last Full Moon of the year, the last Full Moon of the decade. Much is being shown about the value of following your fire, around showing the world who you are. Around the artistic value of integrating the shadows and the light. Around what sustainable success looks and feels like. Let all the parts of yourself show up, especially the ones—those wild and tender and ignored and unique glints that are pure you—that need some extra acknowledgement.
Suggested spell ingredients: carnelian, hematite, holly, fir tea, red candles, an altar to every single last part of what made this year remarkable, and a cozy gathering with your most important people.
Sagittarius
7 of Swords
This Full Moon could be highlighting what you need to take back before the end of the year, and the end of this decade, is over. Your time? Your resolve? A dedicated space to meditate, a dedicated hour to dance? It doesn’t have to get too deep. Or, maybe it does. Maybe the awareness, focus, and discipline the universe is asking you to step into will seep into your cells and help you turn a metaphorical corner. Do not forget you are in the middle of an upgrade. For this entire year you have been. How you communicate to yourself through this awakening matters—it is an integral part of this process.
Let bygones be bygones. Particularly the ones you’ve been using as a way to torment yourself. If scenarios are coming up with those around you, try to remember two things: it isn’t about you and everyone is doing the best they can. Accepting those facts may make your next moves clear. Remember: it’s always ok to back away from any scenarios where people cannot listen, or cannot try as much as you are. If cord cutting is called for, than cord cutting must happen. This extends to parts of yourself. Some unhelpful habits must be released at this Full Moon.
This year has brought you many opportunities to refine your thoughts, your beliefs, and how you communicate with the greater world. In many ways, you’ve never been clearer about who you are, and what you need in order to flourish. Use your clarity to take the next best steps on your own authentic path.
Suggested spell ingredients: black or watermelon tourmaline, lemon balm tincture or tonic, a cord cutting spell, and Boundaries & Protection by Pixie Lighthorse.
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Capricorn
The Hanged Woman
This year has been all about the gifts you received as a result of going deep. The more you’ve invested in paying attention to your interior, the easier things have been flowing in your external. The infinity loop of interior and exterior energetics has been a strong spiritual tether for you: learning how to balance this has been the truest cosmic homework imaginable. Your Full Moon mirror might bring up some lessons around ease. It could be time to experiment with less pushing, and more allowing.
When in doubt: do nothing at all. Meditate. Practice surrender.
Before you feel the need to take action, ask yourself about your motives. If you are doing it out of the impulse to control, the impulse to distract, or out of a feeling of scarcity: hang back. Tune into whatever is coming up inside. Give it love, give it space, give it reassurance. This is a very potent time for you to gain other perspectives about what is most important to spend investments of time on. You only need to put the majority of your energy around the activities that are truly soul-centered. When you realign your priorities in this fashion, you will be surprised by all the answers that sing to you.
Suggested spell ingredients: a float tank appointment, time spent upside down, a class you’ve never tried, snowflake obsidian, sage tea, and a spell that prepares you for your own particular enlightenment.
Aquarius
Justice
The end of the year is bringing up themes of alignment. Justice can be about righting wrongs. And for you, this means extending the sense of fairness and equity you have for others to yourself. Having a strong sense of morality means nothing if you aren’t able to give yourself softness and space to, well, be human.
This year has brought you deep lessons around your own particular life path. Your truth, your alignment might have been in stark contrast to the expectations of society, expectations from family/loved ones, and expectations of who you would be as your most idealized self. That could give you some uneasy feelings that certain scenarios aren’t as resolved as you’d like them to be. Accepting some messiness could be part of your Full Moon magic making.
Right now, you are your most aligned self. You’ve made a lot of very important decisions around who you are, and who you are not. Do not let the metaphorical, and perhaps actual, bruisings you’ve been through this year take up all the space in your end of year reflecting. Do not let any distractions take away the fact that you are, more than ever, holding the truth of your power.
Suggested spell ingredients: a spell for protection that includes rosemary and some form of artistic symbol, desert rose stone, at least 2 days over the next week resting as much as you work, and a very tangible investment in your future self via your intuition.
Pisces
4 of Cups
Pisces, on this last Full Moon, all your resistance mechanisms could be coming up for you. They could register as irritation or dissatisfaction, or show up as looping thoughts. They could turn up as attachments to certain people, places, websites, or things that remind you of all you’ve yet to achieve. You’ve carried this energy for the last few lunar cycles, and it is a clue that you are on the verge of a breakthrough. Be careful not to let this avoidance permeate all the gifts of the present moment. Be careful to be vulnerable with yourself about what you truly need now; be careful not to deny yourself what you truly need.
There’s nowhere else you need to be.
Accepting that you are in a moment of endless opportunities will grant you relief. Space will help you make any important decisions. A lot will move for you. For the rest of the month, focus on emotional regulation. Understand as you undergo deep emotional healing, there will absolutely be some jagged moments. Healing is hard. This was a huge year for you, full of challenges and full of lessons around love. Give yourself the love your spirit needs as you open up to the possibilities you know await you.
Suggested spell ingredients: a forgiveness meditation, mimosa tincture, cinnabar, and a song you create using glasses filled with differing amounts of water.
Written by Sarah Faith Gottesdiener
Sarah Faith Gottesdiener lives and works in Los Angeles. Sarah is an artist, designer, writer, teacher and Tarot Reader. Sarah’s artwork and designs are based in the spiritual, feminist, and mystical. You can shop her intersectional feminist line of clothing, accessories, art and paper goods through her store, Modern Women or on the HausWitch site here.
