Full moon in Gemini

This is exact at about 5:40 am GMT tomorrow morning, the 23rd November.

It's Jupiter's grand entrance into Sagittarius, just in time for Thanksgiving – he changed signs from Scorpio to Sagittarius just after the new moon two weeks ago, and this is his first lunation in Sagittarius since 2007. He spends roughly a year in each sign and will be in Sagittarius till December of next year.

Jupiter rules Sagittarius so this is a happy place for him to be! It's a real party vibe. Jupiter's about what brings us luck, so for the next year, there'll be great luck and benefit in doing Sagittarian things - i.e. expanding your perspective, via the open road and an open mind. This can mean travel, higher education, exotic philosophies or religions, new experiences. Exciting opportunities will be popping up.

So it's mostly great! However, Jupiter inflates everything he's associated with, and this can lead to too much of a good thing, especially in the sign he rules. Sagittarius can easily go overboard in its enthusiams, and become pompous and ideological. It can also be quite callous about peoples' feelings and sensitivities, mistaking impulsive, opinionated blurting for candour.

We'll be seeing all these over-the-top Sagittarian propensities at this full moon, which frankly looks like a head-melting scenario. We'll have a mutable t-square between the moon in Gemini, the sun, Jupiter and Mercury in Sagittarius, and Mars in Pisces. Optimistic and bouyant as Jupiter in Sagittarius is, his involvement here serves to magnify the stress.

A mutable t-square is a chaotic, neuron frazzling aspect, so things are going to feel jangled and all-over-the-place. This particular mutable t-square involves Gemini (information, communication) and Sagittarius (story / ideology / perspective) – so it's a conflict between different versions of reality. It looks confusing – reality, delusion, truth and falshood will be all tangled up, and it's going to be hard to know whose version of reality is true. There will be plenty of outright lying going on, as well as a lot of emotional manipulation.

The emotional manipulation part is courtesy of Mars in Pisces. Mars is about desire and aggression, and he doesn't work well in Pisces, which is about boundary loss and the unconscious. Mars in Pisces can be a spiritual warrior, but more often he's just passive-aggressive, slippery and manipulative. He's like a charismatic drunk who tells you his sob stories in order to seduce you and who ultimately wants you to “save” him – not a solid dude.

And Mars is squaring Jupiter, which is about going overboard and getting yourself into trouble via heedless enthusiasm. You put it all together and this full moon is a bit of an overboard headfuck. Don't believe everything you hear, because people will be spouting off some ludicrous stuff, and they may have conscious or unconscious manipulative agendas. Appeals to compassion and sentimentality are particularly suspect at this time. It's a good idea to stay critical and skeptical if someone is trotting out a “poor me” story. Ask yourself "What are they trying to sell me?"

Also "what am I heedlessly buying?" Be skeptical about your own opinions, unless your facts and reasoning are bulletproof (which is always hard to guarantee). The risk of self-delusion is very high these days. So often we believe what makes us feel good or what we have an emotional attachment to. We cherrypick facts to support our beliefs. We construct versions of the past to back up our personal narratives, disregarding everything that doesn't fit. It's unconscious dishonesty, we all do it in one way or another and it'll be more prevalent than usual about now.

Fortunately, Mercury (ruler of Gemini and dispositer of the full moon) is currently retrograde. Usually Mercury retrograde is a pain in the ass, causing difficulties with travel and communication, and now is no exception! But I still say it's fortunate here because Mercury retrograde allows us some space from jumping to erroneous conclusions or spouting off our ill-considered opinions. You can use it to rein in your communication and examine the information you're given. I think a bit of communication blockage can be helpful when there's this much pressure to jump the gun.

We'll be dealing with this nerve-frazzling, confusing, overboard, poor impulse-control stuff for the next month and a half. That means it colors the holiday season, never the most stress-free period at the best of times. I think the holidays this year look tough and the risk of over-the-top drama when you're hanging out with your crazy family is particularly high this year.

We have a lot of Neptune/Pisces stuff going on, with Neptune stationing direct the day after the full moon and Mars moving to conjunct Neptune in Pisces on the day of the new moon in Sagittarius (7th December). Meaning it'll be easy to slip into delusion, addiction and self-pity. Good boundaries are key – you'll have to keep a hold of all your discernment if you want to navigate this time without getting enraged or turning into a blubbering wreck at the holiday table.

Avoiding boundary-dissolving substances (drugs, alcohol) can't hurt, especially when you're in stressful situations. I know it sounds like no fun, but they can only make things feel worse at this time.

We'll also have some relationship turbulence as Venus opposes Uranus on the 1st December, just before moving from Libra into Scorpio. This is her third and final jolt from Uranus since September, and it makes for crazy on-again-off-again dynamics, instability and a lot of stress in relationships. But after Venus enters Scorpio on the 2nd December, we are headed for smoother sailing. Dynamics have been balanced and rebalanced and now they're either revolutionized or done. Either way, Venus is moving on.