It’s December and in a few weeks, this year will come to a close. Did 2023 work out the way you’d hoped or planned? Did this year fulfill all your dreams and expectations? Did you make good use of your experiences? Did you allow yourself to grow and benefit from the gifts the year brought you?
As you close the door on one chapter of your life and open the door to unexplored territory and new experiences, take a look back at yourself and your 2023 journey. How will you take what you’ve experienced and learned and use it to help make the coming year, 2024, your most meaningful year ever?
This year ends with a Mercury retrograde experience. Beginning on December 13th and ending on January 1st of 2024, the retrograde Mercury will give us a chance to review our year (and our lives!). Mercury is the planet of communication, so please check and re-check, and then check again all plans, appointments, and reservations. Please remember that during Mercury Retrogrades, it’s a great time for introspection and personal “re” work– reflection, retreat, review, reinvention. Since Mercury rules communication, transportation, and contracts, when it’s retrograde, all manner of mistakes and misunderstandings can occur. If you can, please hold off on buying (or leasing) any big-ticket items and wait until Mercury goes direct before making any big decisions. Please practice patience with compassion, remember to focus on the big picture, go easy on yourself and others, and accept that there will be delays, so please factor in extra time in your schedule, and above all, please don’t take anything personally.
Your message this month comes in the form of a quote or affirmation that will help you analyze and understand the experiences of this year and the value you received from them. By so doing, you’ll learn how to use your 2023 experience to energize yourself, your hopes, wishes, and dreams in 2024.
FOR ALL OF US:
“In a world where you can be anything, be kind.” Ann Angel
“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, concerned citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.” Margaret Mead
“I love you, my sister and brother, whoever you are– whether you worship in your church, kneel in your temple, or pray in your mosque. You and I are all children of one faith, for the diverse paths of religion are fingers of the loving hand of one Supreme Being, a hand extended to all, offering completeness of spirit to all, eager to receive all.” Khalil Gibran
THE EMPEROR (March 21 – April 20) “I am only one, but I am one. I cannot do everything, but I can do something. And I will not let what I cannot do interfere with what I can do.” Edward Everett Hale
THE EMPRESS (April 21 – May 20) “I do not accept any absolute formulas for living. No preconceived code can see ahead to everything that can happen in a person’s life. As we live, we grow and our beliefs change. They must change. It’s important to live with this constant discovery and be open to this adventure in heightened awareness of living. We must stake our whole existence on our willingness to explore and experience.” Martin Buber
THE LOVERS (May 21 – June 20) “Within each of us lies the power of our consent to health and sickness, to riches and poverty, to freedom and to slavery. It is we who control these, and not another. What have you consented to?” Richard Bach
THE CHARIOT (June 21 – July 20) “You’ve got to do your own growing, no matter how tall your ancestors were.” Irish Proverb and “What you do now, not where you come from is what matters most.” Anonymous
THE SUN (July 21 – August 22) “If you expect the best, you will be the best. Learn to use one of the most powerful laws in this world; change your mental habits to belief instead of disbelief. Learn to expect, not to doubt. In so doing, you bring everything into the realm of possibility.” Dr. Norman Vincent Peale
THE HERMIT (August 23 – September 22) “Nothing is lost upon a person who is bent upon growth; nothing wasted on one who is always preparing for… life by keeping eyes, mind and heart open to nature, people, books, experience… What they gather serves them at unexpected moments in unforeseen ways.” Hamilton Wright Mabie
JUSTICE (September 23 – October 22) “We are as full of potentiality as we are of impotence.” George Santayana and “It is our duty as men and women to proceed as though the limits of our abilities do not exist.” Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
THE MAGICIAN (October 23 – November 21) “I learned this, at least, by my experiment; that if one advances confidently in the direction of one’s dreams, and endeavors to live the life which one has imagined, you will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.” Henry David Thoreau
THE WHEEL OF FORTUNE (November 22 – December 21) “It is enough simply to pay attention and trust the process: Whoever comes are the right people. Whatever happens is the only thing that could have happened. When it starts, is the right time. When it’s over, it’s over.” The Daily Guru
THE WORLD (December 22 – January 19) “Though the seas threaten, they are merciful. I have cursed them without cause.” William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”
THE STAR (January 20 – February 19) “Pay attention to the way that you talk to yourself. Would you talk that way to anyone else? Do you berate yourself for being stupid, sloppy, forgetful or insensitive? Do you watch yourself with interest, respect and compassion? The wise person stays alert to their self-talk and lets go of judgements that don’t serve them. Be wise.” The Daily Guru
MOON (February 20 – March 20) “Youth is not entirely a time of life; it is also a state of mind. Nobody grows old by merely living a number of years. People grow old by deserting their ideals. You are as young as your faith, as old as your doubts; as young as your self- confidence, as old as your fear; as young as your hope, as old as your despair.” General Douglas MacArthur