New Moon, New Era, New Opportunities
This year, the new Moon in Scorpio is part of a loose, rolling stellium involving the Sun, Mars and Mercury. Simply put, that is a lot of Scorpio, and Scorpio is the most intense and ambitious sign of the Zodiac. And well it should be. Scorpio is the sign that represents power, passion and purpose. This fall, we are now acutely aware of ours. We have a lot of opportunities now to create a greater, more masterful expression of them in and around us. Pray for the eyes to see these opportunities (and the grace that comes along with them), the ears to hear them, and the strength to be in the process.
And it is definitely a process. We are now in the 4th fiscal quarter and in the last waning vestiges of the annual harvest season. This time of year, we are called upon to plumb the depths of the universal mysteries in order to find the solutions we need in order to get through the coldest and darkest nights of the looming winter with the different members of our tribe. Complicating matters now is the degree to which the second year of the global pandemic has changed the way that we do that. Large segments of our world are tilting away from democracy and towards authoritarianism. The reckoning that began two years ago is now an inflection point. Our world is demanding that we figure out how to harness our resources and be a more powerful, more purposeful tribe.
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
Welcome to end of the harvest season, the ultimate goal of the great manifestation cycle that is the Wheel of the Year. Harvest season begins with Leo at Lammas, in late July and early August. As the smaller, faster, personal planets move into Leo, the sign of joy an regal splendor, there is a euphoria in the tribe coming together and celebrating all we have achieved together. In late August, as the planets move into Virgo, the sign of discipline and details, 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 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. Somehow, there is always something that doesn’t go as well as we would like.
Usually about that time, toward the end of October, 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, to rise to the occasion, and do it. A fixed, feminine, water sign, the domain of Scorpio is that 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 archetype of deep, soul-level transformation and change, metamorphosis and evolution. She is both the phoenix rising from the ashes, and the process by which the rising occurs. 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, and surf the chaos there.
So here we are, in the middle of a great national moment: a time of reckoning, an inflection point. While it is said that each generation must examine, and explore, commit or re-commit to its faith and its system of governance, the stakes have never been so high. Although we have all been working harder than we ever knew possible for the last two years, we are waking up to the reality that the real work has just begun. So be gentle with yourself and others, as this awakening is not an easy one, and it takes a lot to be truly present with this process. We are getting glimpses of what that next piece of the 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, the reckoning and the rebuilding. There are an awful lot of bridges to build and fences to mend. And it begins and ends with your heart.
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 and has awakened us 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 in our relationships. The first eclipse, a partial lunar, occurs on November 19th and involves the Sun in late Scorpio and the Moon in late Taurus. The second eclipse, a total solar, occurs on December 4th and has the Sun and Moon conjunct Mercury in Sagittarius. 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 term) in real time. 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 them, and wisely. Judiciously. And then let’s have calm, rational, adult conversations about the issues, and resolve them, or at least move the long arc of the proverbial 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, and some conventional wisdom about them:
November 4: Lunar Samhain; New Moon in Scorpio
November 5: Mercury moves into Scorpio
November 7: Daylight Savings Time ends
November 8: The 21 day Mercury retrograde shadow period ends
November 11: Veteran’s Day
November 19: Full Moon in Taurus, also known as the Beaver Moon, the Frosty Moon, the Hunter’s Moon and the Oak Moon; Partial Lunar Eclipse with the Moon at 27° Taurus and the Sun at 27° Scorpio
November 21: Sun moves into Sagittarius
November 24: Mercury moves in the Sagittarius
November 25: Thanksgiving Day
November 29: Hanukkah begins
December 1: Neptune goes direct in Pisces
December 3: New Moon in Sagittarius; Total Solar eclipse with the Sun and Moon conjunct at 12° Sagittarius
December 6: Hanukkah ends
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: November 4 - 5, 11, 19 - 21, 24 - 25, 28 - 29, December 1, 3.