December 7, 2022 at 10:08 pm Central—Have you ever heard of the arcade video game Centipede? I used to *love* this game. I pumped many quarters into my hometown Centipede in the early 80’s getting very good at it!
The game’s objective is to stay alive and blast all the segments of the descending centipede while clearing mushrooms the blasted segments leave in their wake. As the game progresses, it speeds up. In addition, spiders pop out from the sides and fleas drop vertically, threatening to squash your shooter. Scorpions move horizontally creating poisoned mushrooms. Just watching this video has my heart racing and my teeth clenching like they did when I used to play! 😬 😱
The first week of December feels like Centipede. Wednesday’s Full Moon in Gemini culminates right as everything speeds up, fleas drop and a giant spider comes for us from the periphery. Meanwhile, we’re just trying to stay in the game while putting out fires coming at us from every direction.
The Full Moon is conjunct Mars, the planet of action, or if we follow the analogy, our Centipede shooter. What’s more, the Moon illuminates the sky from the portion of Gemini ruled by Mars. So we have a double-duty action shooter at the moment which can energize productivity but also leave us feeling frazzled. Like playing Centipede, the adrenalin flows while the teeth are clenched.
Reactivity or responsiveness?
At the Full Moon, we’re halfway through the Mars retrograde in Gemini. Many of us can connect this transit to something in our lives that has stirred anxiety and agitated worry since Mars first entered Gemini on October 16th. This development can come to a head now.
In fact, the Full Moon in the second decan of Gemini corresponds to The Nine of Swords. When we pull this card, we’re literally waking up at night like the woman in the card thinking of all the things—or the one thing—going off the rails in our life. There’s a mental tension that will only grow as we spoon feed it worst case scenarios.
With Mars conjunct this Full Moon, it could be a time of popping the worst case scenario bubble. That might mean having a standoff OR a productive conversation with someone—we choose reactivity or responsiveness.
Taking the long-term view
One vote for responsiveness goes to the ruler of this Full Moon, Mercury in Capricorn, whose end goal is achievement, sustainability and discipline. Mercury in Capricorn decidedly takes the sting out of a hot-headed Mars and reminds us there are consequences to our actions. What do we want long-term in this situation? How can we take responsibility for our part in communication and/or business? In Centipede talk, this would have the player remain calm and utilizing past experience while skillfully controlling her shooter.
Bottom line? We only get better at the things we practice. If this Full Moon finds you dodging fleas, spiders and scorpions, remember that we can only pass a test if we take a test. The more times we accept a challenge, the better we’ll become at breezing through it. Life gives us plenty of chances to excel, but we have to put in our quarters first.