Sagittarius III — The Horse’s Skull, according to Austin Coppock‘s naming conventions — begins on 11 December 2024 at 8:25 am EST. This makes nine days, nineteen hours, and 55 minutes. T. Susan Chang associates this decan with the Ten of Wands in the Tarot, and calls it The Weight of the World— from its associations with the Pamela Colman Smith image of this card, showing a man carrying a bundle of firewood on his back.

The Hellenistic calendars recorded by Cosmas of Jerusalem associated this decan with Anangke, “the goddess of the gods”, the profound and ineffable being who’ was worshipped by the gods as their principal deity. Never depicted (to my knowledge) in ancient Greek art as a human being, she’s often shown in the form of a serpent who coils about and crushes the cosmic egg. Her name means “Necessity”. While it’s a commonplace of modern theologies that God or the gods somehow lie outside of time and space, the ancient conception of the divine included the notion that it (or He, or She, or They) were full and co-equal residents in the cosmos with us mortal beings (who are subject to life, death and reintegration). The gods might be insubstantial and immortal — more like fiery creatures of soul than base matter — but they still dwelled within the permanent and impermeable barrier of the shell of the cosmic egg. They might be aware of the coils of Necessity pressing against the soft shell of the cosmos, but they could no more influence her actions than us humans can influence theirs.

Ironically enough, it’s only when the Sun is at 20° Sagittarius that he can truly be said to be in the constellation of Ophiuchus, the snake-handler. Symbolically, the Sun becomes a brilliant hot fire in the back of the left knee and calf of the figure that the Greeks associated with the physician-god Asclepius — whose temples were hospitals and where priest and patient alike worked with snakes for dream-incubation and healing. A few years ago, NASA made waves by claiming that the Zodiac should have thirteen signs, and make space for Ophiuchus in modern astrology.

Leaving aside the basic problem that astrology has never worked that way in two thousand years for a moment, let’s actually play with the question of whether “The Sun in Ophiuchus” is a symbolism worth considering. Given the recent fatal attack on the CEO of United Healthcare in New York City, it’s hard not to read this symbolism as a kind of dangerous snake-bite in the leg of the health care industry — and a caustic, cauterizing fire applied. Sometimes it’s better to lose the legs one stands on, than let the poison infect and rot the organs or the brain. Legs are lovely to have, but they’re also not strictly necessary to provide life or to remain useful — and similarly, the health insurance industry may make health care profitable and mobile… but medicine itself as a profession is worth far more to human society as a whole than the legs it currently stands on. One of the most ancient burials of a human being was of a man of advanced old age with improperly healed broken legs, but who still lived a long and prosperous life, well-fed and cared for to the end of his days despite being reduced to a crawl. He was a cripple who still lived a long and productive life as a valued and cared-for member of his community — but I doubt a caveman in prehistoric Iran was paying health insurance premiums.

The season of Sagittarius III doesn’t always align with the cycle of “New Moon to Full Moon before the Winter Solstice” — but this year the Full Moon before the Winter Solstice occurs on December 15 at 3:47 am EST, during Sagittarius III. This full moon (in Gemini), was used from the archaic period through the Hellenistic era as a signal to celebrate particular coming-of-age rites, some for girls like the bear-rites at Bauron near Athens, where girls donned bear costumes and left the toys and dolls of their childhood at Artemis’ altar… and others for both boys and girls like the archaic descriptions of the cheese-thief rituals at Sparta before the institution of its military dictatorship. Here, in a game reminiscent of Capture the Flag, girls with birch switches defended an altar piled high with wheels of cheese, and naked boys approached to steal the cheese off the altar without taking a licking. The Spartan military oligarchs ultimately banished the girls from the rites, though, and simply administered traumatizing beatings to the boys until they surrendered; by the Roman era, the stubbornest boys crawled away from these rites as permanent cripples, while the cowards became social outcasts for the rest of their lives.

It’s a powerful full Moon this time, since she functions for a while as the “head” of the constellation Orion — and Jupiter is acting as the head of Orion’s club. It’s a bit like saying “a woman’s intuition and mindset commands the bludgeon of the law.” In the context of the bear-rites of Bauron (and mindful of the excesses of the Spartan warlords) — it feels like an omen of a changing world.

Austin Coppock called this decan The Horse’s Skull, ought to remind us of our own metaphors for going too far into frenzied excesses — “beating a dead horse” has been an English idiom for almost as long as horsepower has been a measure of work completed: a single live horse is capable of lifting 550 pounds against gravity’s pull at the rate of one foot per second, at least according to a distant ancestor of mine, the Scottish inventor James Watt. By cracking the whip over (or on) the horse’s flanks, you might get another 10-30 pounds of lift out of the horse for a short burst. But a dead horse does no work at all — and no society last long which does not find ways to hand off the work of the world and of Necessity from one generation to the next, while simultaneously honoring the contributions of both children and elders. If the adults in the middle are dying or dead — that social order is not long for this world.

This decan belongs to Saturn, of course, and plays on the themes of the elder speaking stories as the fire dies down to its mutable embers. On December 11, Saturn is at 13° Pisces … but constellationally speaking, he’ll be pouring down from the water jars of Aquarius — the youthful Ganymede dumping out the elder with the bath-water. There’s a warning here, of course, as the Harness of Sagittarius II becomes the skeletal remains of a hard worker — and there’s an omen here of a social order that’s a little less “this is Sparta!” and a little more Logan’s Run (At least Saturn has taken his booted foot off of Ganymede’s crotch… thank goodness for small favors).

The Dodeks of Sagittarius III are Leo, Virgo, Libra and Scorpio. These two-and-a-half degree sub-sections of the zodiac sign recapitulate the performative aspects of a Sun-ruled sign, the analytical and studious aspects of a Mercury-ruled sign, and the mercantile creativity and genital secretiveness of signs ruled by Venus and Mars. Although the decan as a whole is under the rulership of Jupiter as a whole and the presidency of Saturn, the last ten degrees of Sagittarius are remarkably personal and intimate — and speak of the elder’s four-fold desire for respect and honor: first for their charisma and capacities as a leader, second for their accumulated knowledge and wisdom, third for their prosperity, and last but not least for their virility and desirability.

House Interpretations

The First House of self and self-presentation is Capricorn, with the Ascendant in the specific decan associated with the physician-god Asclepius (and also loosely connected with Akephalos, a mysterious deity associated with the constellation Orion). Saturn looks on from the dexter sextile of Pisces II — bringing trickery and falsehood to how you show yourself to others: don’t be too open with your opinions in coming days. The question of health and how you and yours gain access to medicine and medical professionals will loom large between now and the last twenty days of the year, and it’s worth paying attention to how matters unfold both in the murder trial and in the related topics of your own health plan. Make use of any benefits that expire before the end of the year, soon.

The WEATHER will be unseasonably cold and challenging.

The Second House of wealth and possessions is Aquarius, ruled by the inconjunct Saturn. With both Pluto and Venus in first decan, there’s no escaping some critical facts about your own financial picture. It may take some creative accounting to help free you from current debts and limitations, but it’s worth doing what you can before the end of the year.

The Third House of extended family and neighbors is Pisces, ruled by squaring Jupiter in Gemini II, and hosting pessimistic Saturn and dream-addled Neptune, both emerging from their recent retrogrades. Your holiday planning is going to involve a lot of give-and-take, and complicated negotiations that present a range of experiences: pie-in-the-sky impossible-to-achieve dreams will contrast with gravid, factually inescapable realities. Don’t let the day-to-day truth be sidetracked by overly ambitious, over-imaginative possibility.

The Fourth House of house, home and immediate family is Aries ruled by trining Mars and hosting the Moon simultaneously in the decan of Desire and the Third Mansion. Home and family will be a sparkling and cozily inviting space full of delights and merry — but it’s also likely to be a place of deep instability where you may not get to rest and relax as much as you like. There will be an abiding hunger to return to the home hearth, even as you divide your time between there and elsewhere.

The Fifth House of children and hobbies, entertainments and leisure, is Taurus ruled by squaring Venus in Aquarius, and hosting tumultuous Uranus upsetting the last season of preparation before the holidays. The Lot of Fortune is also here, along with the Imum Coeli; together these three objects (one physical, two intellectual) represent the upsetting of the usual norms of the impending holiday season. The Imum Coeli indicates that there’s great contentment to be found in acting with gracefulness and hospitality, and doing what you can to deliver what cheer you can both for yourself and your kids, as well as to visitors and friends. But the Lot of Fortune also warns against overindulgence — be aware, and WARY, of the ways in which this season is not like the previous ones. Uranus in particular promises upsets to the usual spiritual traditions of the season. Be grateful for your kids and for your hobbies, even so: find happiness in the moments of pleasure that do come your way.

The Sixth House in which we look after employees and maintain our own health is Gemini ruled by opposing Mercury — but hosting Jupiter in a relationship called Mutual Reception. The conditions of their alliance are murky, with Jupiter playing the role of a nominally generous but patronizing and stingy employer, while Mercury plays stingy and parsimonious bean-counter in a back room. It will be December 26 before these two finally see eye-to-eye and find a way to make generosity and impoverishment balance their accounts: don’t overdo it between now and Boxing Day!

The Seventh House of relationship is Cancer, ruled by the Moon in the aforesaid Third Mansion. Desire will be the watchword of many spouses this holiday season, with a wide range of wants and longings. With the Descendant in Cancer II Mother and Child, it will be difficult to deny your spouse anything they want… but even so, keep it within reason: sometimes cutting the big burrito into smaller chunks is better than providing the whole enchilada.

The ruling Sun trines the Eighth House of obligations and duties, as Mars begins his retrograde in Leo I The Spotlight. The warlord’s retrograde will continue until February 24, 2025 — concluding at 17° Cancer and not returning to 6° Leo again until early May 2025. Settled obligations and completed duties will likely rear their ugly heads again like the Lernaean Hydra. These issues are likely to overflow into other parts of your life, even into areas which you thought were walled off from conflict, and legacies you regarded as completed and resolved will be opened and re-examined. It’s the events in your life in October 2024 which may shed the most light on what will be subjected to ongoing conflict.

Virgo is the Ninth House of travel and higher education, as well as public religious programming. With ruling Mercury managing their territory from the square even as they face their personal challenges of detriment and retrogradation (even while in mutual reception with Jupiter), it’ll be a miracle if any flight or train leaves on-time, or any professor submits grades to the registrar in timely fashion (or that they’re recorded accurately). It’s worth analyzing the results you get from displays of piety, though — sometimes a lot of little prayers get answered more readily than the big ones made rarely.

Libra ruled by trining Venus forms the Tenth House of career and reputation. The South Node moves toward its appointed departure from Libra into Virgo on January 11, 2025 — just a month from now. It still promises that there’s one more crapload to be dumped on your honor and reputation before the winter solstice — and whether it’s some new project to be completed before your holiday time off stars, or a new expectation that you’ll work without overtime on New Year’s Eve, or some last-minute reprimand in your permanent file… one way or another, there’s an expectation that you’ll grit your teeth through the injustice of it.

The Eleventh House of friends and associates is Scorpio ruled by squaring Mars retrograde, and hosting the Midheaven and the Lunar Apogee — both invisible and insubstantial, but mathematically significant. Duty and obligation, familial legacy and the bonds of laws and rules may cause you grief and trouble in coming days, but being a generous friend and helping others bend (or break) the norms will earn you the right kind of reputation. Stick to advice wherever you can, but remember that in the right circumstances, words are weapons of mass deconstruction.

The Twelfth House of loneliness, challenge, and long-term vision is Sagittarius, ruled by the opposed Jupiter retrograde in mutual reception with Mercury retrograde and also hosting the Sun. Dying embers can be refueled to bring the fire back to life again. Injuries sustained now can be healed. It’s easy to get caught up in the details of daily living, and the challenges of your personal experience. Don’t believe every terrible story you tell yourself.

Horoscopes by Rising Sign

Decan I of any sign (usually covering the 21st of the month to the first of the following month) is free to all visitors; Decan II is only available to Patreon and Ko-Fi.com subscribers; and Decan III is available to Patreon, Ko-Fi, and MailChimp subscribers.

I recommend reading your Sun sign, Moon sign, and Rising sign for best results. I write them with rising sign in mind, but several people have told me they find that they do better with all three.

As a courtesy to people preparing for Christmas, and in honor of certain events in my own life, these horoscopes are provided to the public.

Capricorn: Be sure to hold some of your personal emotional resources in reserve during the next ten days — but it’s going to take all your physical resources to get through this season from an economic perspective. How’s that side-hustle going? Wouldn’t it be better to make some of your family-oriented Christmas presents instead of buying them? Are there ways that you can combine trips for both work and personal need? Remember that some needs to be held back so you can deal with the long-term obligations that keep cropping up.

Aquarius: There will be justified criticisms of your approach to financial solvency, but your creative approaches to whatever the current challenges are will also bring value, even if your relatives provide only critique or unrealistic solutions. You may need to scale back plans for a full holiday lighting display at home, but you will likely find contentment in a more graceful approach to the season anyway. Put your hands to work in artisanal ways, whether in kitchen or workshop or studio, every day in this decan. A spouse may be wrestling with some difficulties that arose in October; help them understand the problem is unlikely to be solved before mid-May.

Pisces: Family matters come to the front of your attention as Saturn the source of long delays and obstacles, and Neptune the shaper of imaginative possibilities, both go direct and deliver you into the frustrating and contradictory hands of neighbors, friends, and local community matters. It’s going to be difficult to get time alone to work on your own creative projects — and you’ll find them (inappropriately) unsatisfactory even when you do get to work on them. Relax, though; it’s likely that what you need to get done for specific deadlines, will be completed in a timely fashion. Your family will be generous about accepting “rain checks” and “works in progress” as long as periodic visible effort is expended on their projects, and you know how to work at a feverish pace when it’s called for, anyway. Professional courtesy will require you to check in under one of those high-intensity lamps that always seem to be in police interrogation rooms — but the conversation is likely to be healthy and favorable rather than intended to sweat a confession out of you. Keep your cool and all will be well.

Aries: Household matters are unstable, but it’s the desires that family awake in you that bring good things to you and yours. Seek to promote health, wealth, and happiness at home, and goodness will follow from those decisions. Your financial life is not as stable this year as in other years — find ways to make the season meaningful, without indulging every tradition of the past. In community spaces, you’re likely to make valuable connections, but when you’re alone you’re likely to drop into the maelstroms of despair. If you have travel plans coming up or a new collegiate semester, collect any documentation in physical format. Expect at least one family interaction to go better than expected, and at least one dialogue with a child or ally to go off the rails at the worst moment. Avoid making your spouse’s employment a place of difficulty or a point of contention in your own life.

Taurus: These ten days will bring great contentment and ease, provided that you find ways to express gratitude for the current expression of the season, and don’t give in to despair or frustration over how parts of your routine are upended. You have more resources than you’re used to to celebrate, but not enough to celebrate in as grand a style as you’d like — and your spouse, significant other, or business peers are obligated in ways that are going to be difficult for you to countermand. Home may be a place of some argument and difficulty for the next several months as Mars completes his retrograde in your fourth and third houses. The Moon promises you all sorts of delights while you’re alone, but presents the bill at inconvenient times when you’d be easily embarrassed in front of friends.

Gemini: Your daily habits should be under a microscope, as should what you do for routine health maintenance. Check in regularly with your spouse or significant other about what their stories are regarding present-day obstacles and limits; they’re facing challenges and obligations that may feel overwhelming. Your big-picture generosity and graciousness could provide a much needed boost. That said, your own private thoughts about your hobbies, your kids, may be going through a cycle of contentment-gratitude-upheaval as you consider how your life is changing and will change. Friendly interactions in your own home’s privacy will help light a fire under you to bring about great things, but your workplace is likely to be subject to significant restrictions even as you have to break or bend policies or come up with imaginative solutions to other people’s problems. Travel or self-directed certifications in new subjects of study would be helpful to you.

Cancer: Relationship matters take center stage — but it may not be with a spouse or significant other. Rather, look to your workplace to understand the spark a colleague working from home is prepared to hand off to you. Is it an idea for a new business of your own? A combined project that launches both of your careers and reputations? Be alert for ways in which you can each be the parent of a “baby” (human or passion project) by cooperation with another. Your finances take a significant hit, but both your friends and creative approaches to your obligations and duties can help get you back on track. Travel plans, no matter how unambitious, are likely to involve restrictions that keep you closer to home than conceived.

Leo: There’s a host of issues that you’ve been putting off and delaying over the last several weeks, and the time has come for you to deal with them and complete what you’ve avoided. Some of this will require you to be an expert in the spotlight or to engage in conversations about your recent projects; some of this may require you to enter into argument with people who don’t respect your studied and careful opinion; and yes… you may lose friends over this. However, there are opportunities for you to be the sort of detail-oriented raconteur that you can so easily be — and your tales and vignettes are likely to provide deep healing to those on whom you shine. Some of this storytelling will require you to be a creative critic of the worlds and realms in which you have a deep and scholarly knowledge; some of it will require travel which will be dull and slow. However, you can count on the next ten days bringing a new kind of gratitude to your professional reputation — a bit of minor celebrity may accompany that.

Virgo: Your self-directed learning may hit some unexpected communications and marketing snags as you work on developing a personal business or side hustle. There’s some rules that you have around marketing to friends or family, and some of those rules are going to have to be broken, especially if Uncle Eugene broaches the subject about what you’re doing for work these days. He had it coming if you decide to verbally cut through his perceptions of you with some rock-solid professionalism. All the same, it may be time to turn a critical eye on what you know, what you think you know, and what you definitely don’t. In day-to-day operations, you know a lot, but there’s some gear and resources that would make your job a lot easier. Then there’s the holiday stresses this season typically puts on your spouse, significant other, or business partners — are there ways you can relieve some of this stress by taking on particular burdens yourself? I’m sure you’ll think of something… especially when a long trip or new class suddenly drops into your to-do list. Don’t worry — this will be fun!

Libra: Trouble mounts in your life, but matters currently at play are likely to resolve by mid-January. Some financial piggy-banks may have to be broken in transformative ways, but the results are likely to result in better familial communications and a brighter light that brings healing and wellness. There’s a new focus on home and where you live. It’s time to break your expectations of what brings you happiness — you need not be such a deep critic of what has come before; bring out your old resources and put them to work for you. You can’t do as much as you would like, but you still have visions of what will come forward. Try to fulfill a spouse’s wishes and desires, but expect some daily travel routines will have to change.

Scorpio: Your mouth has a lot of potential to get you into serious trouble with your friends this week, but similarly it’s the way you both break unspoken rules and expectations and norms that brings upheaval to your social and romantic calendar. Your hobbies and pastimes will bring both contentment and gratitude, but promise upheaval in your regular romantic or professional relationships — and you might find yourself making an enemy in the next ten days if you don’t manage daily habits well. Financial matters are relatively secure even if you don’t have the funds that you’d like to have going into the end of the year. However, a thorough review would be recommended nonetheless. Expect to engage in a long review process between now and April over your professional obligations; come prepared to demonstrate expertise.

Sagittarius: Your communication skills and visionary skills these next ten days will be top-notch, but more skilled at expressing what came before than in providing true insight into what comes after. Be swift to lean on your history, and slow to deliver strong opinions that are unlikely to work well. Your body may experience some stresses around financial matters but focus more energy on familial situations and the resources needed to make effective, creative choices in your neighborhood. Home is likely to be a place of chilly restriction and overly imaginative opinions; your own desires gnaw at your belly but a cycle of good results lies ahead. Keep pursuing your own revolutionary changes in health management, and give your spouse or significant other some room to grow. Travel will prove difficult for some time yet; loneliness or a need for isolation is coming to an end.

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If you want to read some of my astrologically-oriented poetry, the largest collection is called A Full Volume of Splendor and Starlight, available through my Etsy shop, and containing poems and hymns to the planets, constellations, decan deities, and Moon Mansion angels. While not astrological, Festae contains hymns to some of the older Roman gods and spirits from the calendar created by Numa Pompilius, the second ancient King of Rome.

I use iPhemeris for my charting software, and screenshot it to make charts. I want to thank the team that develops iPhemeris for the addition of Terms and Decans to their charts. I also use Hugh Tran‘s Physis typeface to craft logos for this blog, as well.

I use Christopher Warnock‘s The Mansions of the Moon as the basis of my Moon placement delineations, and Austin Coppock‘s 36 Faces for much of my planetary delineations. Neither gentleman endorses me.