I just received the best news! My app has made it to the finals of the prestigious Media Excellence Award, in several categories. Wow! Winners will be announced at the black tie, red carpet event in Los Angeles on January 18. I am so honored to have made it this far, and of course, I plan to go. I can’t wait to shop for my dress. No matter what happens, it is such an honor…

It is birthday time for you, and you will feel in your element because many happy little planets including Mercury, Venus, and Saturn, along with the bright star, the Sun, will gather around you like little loving relatives that want the best for you. Having the Sun back in your sign means you will feel its warmth, and you will have more control over events than usual in December. You won’t likely have to make compromises, so state your ideas with confidence.

With Mars orbiting behind the scenes in your reclusive twelfth house, from December 9 to January 26, you seem happy to be secluded and working quietly on a project that still needs some tweaking before you will be ready to show it. If you have the kind of job that is strategic, where you direct others but are not yourself in the spotlight, you will enjoy this phase and work at a peaceful pace.

Take your time, look at everything closely, check flaws in your assumptions, and don’t rail against delays. It won’t help because Mercury will be retrograde from December 3 to 22. You began feeling Mercury’s approaching scrambled energy for a while already, starting two weeks ago, so for all practical purposes, you are already in Mercury retrograde soup. Here is a rule you must always remember: Mercury acts his wildest on the start and end dates of his retrograde. This means you can’t rush to outrun Mercury in the first days of the retrograde – by the time you are reading this, it is already too late. If you absolutely HAVE to sign an important paper, do so in the middle of the retrograde, not on the front and back ends – I call those the bookend dates.

Mercury is sure to affect your holiday shopping, so unless you are an energetic soul, planning to bake cakes and cookies for everyone on your list, you are better off buying gift cards for one and all. The one thing you should not buy is an electronic item, for Mercury rules electronics and machines with moving parts. That means buying a car or a kitchen appliance is out. Mercury retrograde will affect your judgment, which is likely to be off at this time. You may become forgetful, distracted, or rushed, so you may choose the wrong model, pay too much, or may simply buy a lemon. When we buy electronics during a Mercury retrograde period, we never enjoy the item as much as we assumed we would. This would be true of your recipient too. The whole point of giving a present is to make the other person really happy, so this year, let the person do the choosing of the gift she or he wants most.

The full moon of December 3 in Gemini, 12 degrees, will light your seventh house of marriage and partnership. Allow a plus or minus four days of influence. You may be eager to sign a business partner, agent, manager, or other person, but it would be better to wait. If you want to get engaged, that too would be better done on New Year’s Eve rather than during most of December. Here is one of the reasons I say that.

The problem with this December 3 full moon is unusual – Neptune will be precisely square (hard angle) to the full moon and Sun. Neptune is known to bring a hazy confusion when he manufactures his voluminous fog, covering everything in sight with a pretty mist, but that mist makes it impossible to see reality. The Sun rules your house of foreign people and places, and the moon rules your eighth house of other people’s money. If you must have partnership / marriage discussions in the first days of December, then you will need to ask many questions, and keep asking them until you have the answers you need. Between having misty cotton-head Neptune prominent and a screwball Mercury wandering around, early December will be maddeningly hard to tell the difference between what is real and what is Memorex. (That comparison is from a famous American commercial – it means what is real, and what is created for you, made to make you think is real.)

The big moment of the month will be November 18, when the annual new moon in Sagittarius will arrive. This new moon is found aligned with Saturn, so the mood is weighty. You may feel overwhelmed with responsibility and wonder if you have done everything wrong. No, you are on the right track, but Saturn is simply the trickster at this point, making you doubt yourself for a few moments. I guess Saturn thinks this tactic is motivating, but I have my doubts! There is no need to doubt yourself.

That queasy feeling might get more intense with everyone’s hardest day of the month, December 21, when the Sun and Saturn will align. Money will likely be especially tight on this tough day, but this would only be temporary. You may be reacting to the tension of the season, and of work, making you feel worn to the bone and in desperate need of sleep. If you try to push yourself all month, by December 21 you will wonder why your mood is so uncharacteristically gloomy – it’s Saturn when combined with lack of sleep.

If someone is critical of you on December 21, you will take the words too much to heart and overreact. Stay by yourself on this day, don’t ask for favors, and if someone is late paying you what is owed, take it with a shrug and have a contingency plan in place. January brings a much bigger month for financial management, so while this month might feel at times like you are living in a blender, better days lie ahead.

The headline news of December is that teacher planet Saturn will finally leave Sagittarius on December 19 or 20, depending on your time zone. I am splitting hairs – it’s either late at night or early morning. You have hosted Saturn in your sign since December 23, 2014, for three years. In that time, you took one or two big steps forward by accepting impressive responsibility. In so doing, you set off on an entirely new cycle, one that will carry you forward for three decades or more into the future by the experiences you have now, and the choices you make.

If you gave your heart and soul to the goal, you will now start to see the fruits of your labors. You have a new patina of authority, and others will accord you the respect you deserve. Saturn never sends rewards during his testing and tutoring period, but now that this period is ending, Saturn will leave a gift for you at the door, one that is material or spiritual in nature, as thanks for meeting his vigorous tests.

Usually you would feel liberated quickly after Saturn leaves your sign, but the new moon in Sagittarius of December 18 arrived one day before Saturn’s departure. That the new moon arrived arm in arm with Saturn in Sagittarius. Because a new moon has a long reach, you might feel residual effects of Saturn until the end of May, the time of the full moon in Sagittarius. Compared to what you’ve been through, however, the coming weeks and months will be fairly easy and straightforward for you to handle. You have grown up quite a bit over the past three years, no matter how old you happen to be. The magical truth about life is that we continue to experience personal growth no matter how old we happen to be, and we can continue to develop our talents as we go along. It is never too late.

Saturn has to enter another house, so on December 19 or 29 he will move into your second house of earned income. Before you stand on your desk with a bullhorn to shout to the world, “I am doomed! Saturn will now limit my income!” – wait. Saturn will give you a course in financial management. As is true of Saturn, he will not give you any more or less of what you need, but give you just the right amount. If you have very little to learn, you may not notice much of Saturn’s presence.

View Saturn as a high priced tutor who will work directly with you for three years, from December 20, 2017 to December 17, 2020 and teach you how to become more successful. While he is with you, Saturn will show you how to get bargains, how to properly trim a budget without jeopardizing the quality of the project, and how to negotiate better terms for yourself, even if you are a veteran at making contractual agreements. If you dream of owning a house or condo, you may be closer to realizing that dream than you assume. You will learn how to assess insurance of all kinds, and you will be motivated to put money aside for any number of reasons, for Saturn is thrifty and frugal.

You will learn about how to grow your hard-earned money through wise, stable investments, and hopefully, how to find a financial advisor with fiduciary responsibility to your portfolio. You will learn more about tax law so that you can make informed decisions about how to spend your money. If you want your own business, you will learn all the laws and standards you will have to be mindful of when you begin.

Saturn will coax you to save so that you can accomplish a big goal, so you may forego dinners out, movies, and concerts, while you save up your cash reserves. This money might be used for a down payment on a house, an investment in your business, or go toward payment of tuition to college or graduate school. If you are saddled with student debt, you might meet with a financial advisor who can give you ideas you might not have considered to more quickly pay down that debt. As long as you commit to working honestly and straightforwardly with Saturn, I feel you will leave this period much richer than when you entered it.

You seem to be a bit obsessed about money this month, because the full moon of January 1, 2018 will fall in Cancer and also bring news about money. At this point, you will be paying bills to finish out the year with a clean slate. The good news is that Mars will be in strong, helpful position to boost the effects of the full moon, so you may be receiving a big check within four days of this full moon. Mars is the natural ruler of your fifth house of creativity, so an artistic project may be the source of the money that you see as you start the New Year January 1.

Romantically, you will have the best time while Venus tours Sagittarius, December 1 through December 24. Attend holiday parties and be open to new types. Even though Mercury is retrograde, you can find exciting ways to improve your appearance. You can have a new haircut, a massage, or a facial, and women readers can look into new glamorous evening makeup. I would not advise plastic surgery in December, but most other things are fine to do now. You can buy a flattering new outfit too – it is electronics that I don’t want you to buy. Save all receipts and put them in the same envelope to facilitate an exchange should you need to go back to the store to make as swap.

Your biggest time for love this month will come at the full moon December 3, when you will announce to the world your decision about the future of your love relationship. The choice will be clear, to commit forever or to leave. Neptune will veil reality, so be aware that your vision may not necessarily be accurate – the stars in your eyes may alter your vision. Be sure you know your partner well before committing.

You will have another stellar day for love – Saturday, December 16 – when the mighty Sun and Uranus, planet of surprise, will cook up a fun experience, and the joy of it all will be that you won’t expect any of it coming. You might drive out of town to a party quite spontaneously too, and if you get invited, it’s a perfect weekend to go.

By the new moon in Sagittarius, December 18, your mind will clear, and you will be much closer to envisioning your ideal future. Once you can see the future like a little movie in your mind, you can make that film materialize, dear Sagittarius. Soon, in the New Year, you will begin your new life, and it will be an exciting one indeed.

There will be lots for you to cheer about in birthday month, dear Sagittarius. Several planets have migrated to your sign – the Sun, Mercury, Venus, and Saturn, and soon, the new moon of December 18 – giving you lots of control over events.

Things will improve even MORE in late January when Mars enters Sagittarius too, to stay from January 26 to March 17. This is the first time in two years you will be able to host Mars in your sign. Once there, Mars will help you successfully launch key ventures and form new and close relationships in love and in business too. Although you’ll be anxious to get plans and projects off the launch pad now, you do have to wait, for if you act now, your timing will likely be off.

Mercury will be retrograde in Sagittarius from December 3 to 22, so you will feel this particular Mercury retrograde period more directly than most. Mercury in retrograde brings indecision from clients and management, backtracking on projects, and it is not a favorable time to sign contracts, to buy electronics, and to launch a new product or service – and that’s just for starters. Many couples choose December to get engaged, and if you do, do so on New Year’s Eve, December 31, to get past difficult aspects that will be at play earlier in the month.

The new moon, December 18, will come with an entire entourage – the Sun, Mercury, Venus, and Saturn, all in Sagittarius, which is a lot of energy to be moving through your own sign. The most important planet near the new moon will be taskmaster Saturn, the planet that teaches hard work and that taking on responsibility is the key to happiness. It seems likely you will shoulder a bit more responsibility after this new moon arrives, in the days and weeks after December 18.

You probably feel that you have had enough of Saturn during the past three years, and you did. You only have a few more of Saturn’s tests to go. Ironically Saturn will finally leave Sagittarius on the following day December 19 or 20 (depending on your time zone), not to return in Sagittarius until 2044. In an unusual twist of fate, the new moon will extend Saturn’s reach, so you may have some new elements in your life to adjust to now until end of May. Saturn has made you tougher, stronger, and leaner – able to deal with anything life throws your way.

You must admit that you learned a lot and are proud of what you accomplished since Saturn first came knocking in December 2014. The new moon this month of December 18 might give you one more test, but this tends to be truer if your birthday falls on December 18 or within a plus or minus five days. You are very close to being free of Saturn’s limitations and to breathe a sigh of relief. You are now about to take on more in life, and you are ready. Think back to where you were three years ago and see how far you have come.

December 21 won’t be anybody’s favorite, when fears about running out of money may leave you feeling overwhelmed. Saturn will now have moved to your second house of earned income, and will teach you to get the most from the money you earn, by cutting waste, negotiating well for yourself, and by being realistic about how you spend, save, and invest.

In love, you have a major advantage, for Venus will be in Sagittarius from December 1 to December 24. Venus teaches the value of not trying too hard – let your natural charm speak for you, and you will likely draw others to you.

One day when you should avoid all romantic interaction, whether that is a first date, or spending time with your long-term love, will be December 1, when warrior Mars will oppose Uranus in your house of true love. Something that you say or do, possibly quite innocently, could blow up and create a complete meltdown between the two of you. People you around will be fragile on this day, and you might be too.

New Year’s Eve brings the transiting moon to Gemini, so let your partner take the lead – it may well turn out to be more fun that way. The full moon is on its heels, January 1, and may find you opening a beautiful, valuable gift, just for you.