New Moon, New Shabbat, New Era, New Opportunities
The moon marks beginnings and endings. Normally, the new moon falls in the sign in which the Sun is currently residing, and the full moon falls in the sign opposite the Sun. But this is no normal year. We had a rare Black Moon in July, and an even rarer Blue Moon on Samhain. As the moon rules the heart and the heart chakra, these transits, as well as the beginnings and endings they represent, have provided incredible opportunities to heal and open ours. This weekend, the new moon and the Sun are in Scorpio: the sign of politics and power, patience, passion, and purpose. There are many challenges before us now, on many levels. On a personal level, the biggest challenge is determining how to harness the best of this energy to better navigate the global pandemic, major economic changes, our participation in the national presidential transition, and the ongoing reckoning we have wrought. This is a time of healing.
Are you ready?
If you’re not sure, I can help.
It starts with your dreams and visions
and then you chart a course from there.
Here are some helpful insights...
The Spirit of Scorpio:
Politics, Power, Patience, Passion and Purpose
Welcome to end of the harvest season, the ultimate goal of the great manifestation cycle that is the Wheel of the Year. It begins in Leo at Lammas: in late July and early August. As the smaller, faster, personal planets move into Virgo, we get really clear on what needs to happen in order for us and our tribe to collectively bring in the best possible harvest. For all of us. Humans being humans, we tend to start with the low-hanging fruit, and as the astrological energy moves along, we get to the more love and labor intensive processes. At the Fall Equinox, when things move into Libra, we must first learn how to deal with more complicated topics and issues. This always involves a lot of careful, conscious, conversations and negotiations. With a lot of lovely people, who have varying degrees of foresight, emotional fortitude, self-awareness, situational awareness, communication skills, sophistication, and giving a shit. It can be trying. Contentious even. And sometimes it doesn’t go as well as we would like.
Usually about that time, things start moving into Scorpio, the sign that can be counted on to provide an object lesson in the right use of power. Scorpio gives us the strength, clarity, and focus to see what needs to happen next and do it. A fixed, feminine, water sign, the domain of Scorpio is one of great depth, meaning, and potency. Ruled by Pluto, the lord of the underworld, the realm of Scorpio is both the sacred and the profane. Scorpio is the goddess of transformation and change, metamorphosis; she is the phoenix rising from the ashes. Scorpio rules darkness, death and the afterlife, metaphysics, and the great mysteries that drive the world’s universal truths. This is a no-bullshit zone. When there is a lot of energy in Scorpio, things get very real, very fast. Scorpio cannot abide by or endure superficiality, and it wastes no time. When there is so much energy in Scorpio, we absolutely must find a way to start paddling into deeper waters.
So here we are, in the middle of a great national moment. We can see the light at the end of the proverbial tunnel, but also are acutely aware that our long national nightmare is not completely over. We are waking up to the reality that the real work has just begun, and we are getting glimpses of what that work looks like: finding the most loving and empowering place to stand, so we can play our part in the listening, the healing, the unifying, and the rebuilding.
The heart and the heart chakra are believed by many cultures to be the hardest things to open once closed. Not the head, not the mind, not the third eye or crown chakras. Only one thing makes the heart and the heart chakra close: the pain that results from trauma. We have spent a lot of time in recent years learning how to better listen, from a place of love and strength.
It takes incredible strength to listen and simply love. It takes even more to be the grown up in the room: to listen, to love, and yet not be dominated by either a wounded heart or the angriest voice in the room. It takes Scorpionic strength. In these moments, try to remember to not get caught up in the drama of it (yes, Scorpio rules that, too). Remember that things are usually better than they look and feel, remember what you serve, and remember to draw on the strengths of Scorpio: patience, passion, purpose, and power—especially the power of the Spirit world. It’s no accident that cultures around the world believed this to be the most powerful time of the year. The wall between the worlds is the thinnest now, allowing love, wisdom, and communication to flow back and forth with greater ease. Use it. And all the astrological resources available to you.
And there are a lot—a tremendous shift has occurred. For the better part of the last two years, there have been more planets in feminine signs than in masculine signs. This demands that we integrate male and female energies and bring them into balance. And that means applying the most practical, logical solutions with love, faith, intuition, and compassion. The integration process has been slowed in no small part by the sheer volume of retrograding planets during that same time. The big astrological news now is that most of them have gone direct. The only current retrograding planets are Uranus and Neptune. Granted, these are heavy hitters who are full of surprises, but it is definitely a tangible shift. Most important of these is the stellium involving Saturn, Jupiter, and Pluto has us awakening to our deepest wounds and our greatest gifts—as individuals, as families, and as a nation.
As the shadow period of these retrogrades falls away, what looms ahead are a pair of eclipses and the traditional holidays of midwinter: Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, the Winter Solstice, Kwanzaa, and the New Year. This means your optics and opportunities are now slightly different. This year, it’s much more about listening to your various communities and community members, because there is probably something important you are missing.
The eclipses reveal; they educate and enlighten. They invite us to stop, to step back and to use a much, much wider-angle lens. They give us the big picture, in exquisite detail, ready or not. These transits require us to open our hearts and minds, our eyes and ears in order to see and hear more, to connect the dots better, to learn faster, and to show up differently. Especially now, when they are in Gemini and Sagittarius, the signs of magic and alchemy, of education, of enlightenment and of higher learning.
Regardless of our personal specificities, the generic point of this little astrological and astronomical exercise is the same: to develop greater skill at assessing the people and situations we encounter and making better choices (for both the long and short terms) in real time. And that happens by understanding and jettisoning the baggage your shadow carries on an individual level, and then working with your community to help jettison together what we carry collectively that no longer serves.
Communities and countries have their own birth and childhood traumas, their own psychological and societal shadows, and the same responsibilities to address them. But you cannot make good decisions about those shadows if you don’t have good information. Which brings us back to all those lovely stelliums and eclipses, waning retrogrades, and the upcoming holidays: they are and will be so revelatory. We have a much greater ability now to sort and sift through raw data, to do our due diligence and forensics, to find out exactly what happened in the past, what is happening now, what is really important, and what needs to happen next. So let’s use it, and wisely. Judiciously. And then let’s learn to have calm, rational, adult conversations about the issues, and resolve them, or at least move the long arc of the moral universe a little further towards justice. If you get stuck, call me. We’ll figure it out.
Calendar
Below are some of the dates where your opportunities for wizardry, magic, and alchemy will be the greatest.
November 14–Diwali, Lunar Samhain, New Moon in Scorpio
November 21–Venus moves into Scorpio; Sun enters Sagittarius
November 26–Thanksgiving Day
November 28–Neptune goes direct in Pisces
November 30–Lunar Eclipse; Full Moon in Gemini, also known as the Beaver Moon, the Frosty Moon, the Hunter’s Moon, the Oak Moon
December 1–Mercury moves in to Sagittarius
December 10–Hanukkah begins at Sunset
December 14–New Moon in Sagittarius; Penumbral, Total Solar Eclipse
December 15–Venus moves into Sagittarius
December 17–Saturn moves into Aquarius
December 18–Hanukkah ends
December 21–Winer Solstice; The Grand Junction of Jupiter and Saturn
Everybody’s natal (birth) chart is different. These differences reflect our individual souls: their journeys and evolution, their triumphs and their tragic flaws. As such, the specific impact of each of the following dates will hit each person differently. But there are some general themes.
Holy days, holidays, and astrological transits are opportunities for us to experience grace. But remember how grace happens: sometimes it comes through discomfort. The gifts aren’t always immediately apparent. All of the days on this list ask you to be more compassionate with yourself and others, to try and be more awake, and to be more open to synchronicity and messages from Spirit. On days when more than one astrological event, holiday or holy day occurs, know that the power of that day will be even more profound. The more events in a day, the more powerful that day is, and the more intentional you should be.
Again, in general, full moons are a good time for ending things, wrapping things up, conclusions, and closure. New moons are opportune times for new beginnings: starting a new chapter of some aspect of your life, tackling a new project, or launching something new. Retrogrades are always about slowing down and paying more attention to aspects of your creative, spiritual, and social lives. The eclipses always reveal: sometimes it is something others have hidden from you, sometimes it is things you have hidden from yourself, usually it is a little bit of both. To go deeper, look to the planetary signs and the houses they fall in, and, of course, to your natal chart. Or give me a call. I can help you with that.
Retreats, Rituals, Services, Ceremonies, and Journeys
Choosing the best day or days is a very personal thing. You have to feel your way into it. But there are some generic rules that can help you in your decision-making process. Full moons and new moons are considered the best, as are holidays and holy days. Full moons and new moons that occur during holidays and holy days are extraordinarily powerful.
Factor in a retrograde or two, and you pretty much can’t avoid leveling up and becoming a much more masterful magician. Especially around anything that has to do with your faith, your trust in it, your ability to serve your faith, and serve with it. Seriously.
With that in mind, the upcoming best days for deep, transformational experiences are: October 16, 22, 27, 31, November 1-3, 10, 13, 14.
The Mystery School Guidebooks
For as long as humans have traveled the earth, we have turned to the cycles and movements of the natural world and celestial bodies to guide us. Over time and across cultures, the art and science of navigation has provided powerful tools to ensure safe passage through the mysterious currents of life's more difficult moments. Now, by combining ancient practices with modern modalities, you can chart smooth and successful routes through the most important journeys of all: the integration of your internal landscapes, your relationships, your spiritual and professional paths.
The Mystery School Guidebooks are the culmination of my 30 years of dedicated research and practice as a business consultant, astrologer, and intuitive. I am currently offering six guidebooks: Mars Retrograde, Level 1 and Level 2; Mercury Retrograde, Level 1 and Level 2; and Venus Retrograde, Level 1 and Level 2, with more in the works. Each one is a magical combination of information and experiential exercises, designed to provide you with the tools that mean the difference between falling prey to your innermost demons—fears, outdated behaviors and belief systems, and long-buried traumas—and discovering, perhaps for the first time, greater joy in relationships, success in career, and increased self-confidence, access, and flow in your personal and spiritual lives.