New Moon in Scorpio

Scorpio New Moon

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City Beyond the Tree by Margo Hoff

Scorpio New Moon

Ancient astrology texts give the fixed, watery sign of Scorpio a special status due to being the place where the Moon experiences her fall. Being the place where Fortune has her fall, Scorpio is considered zodiacal terrain where nothing can be exalted. When planets are considered to be exalted, they are elevated into the highest strata of fame and status within the dominant culture. Considering the current state of those in hierarchical positions of power and the value to be found by playing into the games of present political and popular power structures, the fallen quality of the Moon in Scorpio deserves honoring and embrace. Scorpio penetrates through the false gloss of superficial interactions, cuts through appearances, demands the honesty of the depths and the desire to go there. During a period in which people all around the world are simultaneously poised on the precipice of an enormous threshold, when the structures of civilization are being challenged and torn asunder when incapable of enduring, we need to drink deeply from the dark well of Scorpio.

The New Moon at 12º40′ Scorpio is exactly opposite Uranus retrograde at 12º47′ Taurus. The Sun in opposition with Uranus is the heart of the Uranus retrograde passage, when Uranus is as close to Earth in orbit as possible within its cycle and can be more intensely felt than normal. Uranus stationed retrograde on August 19 at 14º48′ Taurus and will eventually station direct on January 18, 2022 at 10º49′ Taurus, demarcating the lunation as dead center on whatever internal journey Uranus has been calling you to fully commit to. The tension between the Scorpio New Moon with Uranus in Taurus can be released suddenly, striking with revelatory force into a moment in which a completely new understanding or path forward becomes revealed. Uranus electrifies the fallen quality of the Scorpio New Moon, like an otherworldly vision of healing and mystery received while laying low, incubating.

In addition to activating Uranus, in the bigger picture the Scorpio New Moon is triggering whatever tension has been building up between the ongoing square aspect between Saturn and Uranus. The Scorpio Sun recently formed a square aspect with Saturn in Aquarius on October 30, and in the week following the lunation both Mercury and Mars in Scorpio will form a clashing square aspect with Saturn on November 10. The speed of change and dismantling within collective events has been feeling overwhelming and anxiety provoking to many, yet in keeping with the mythic connection many astrologers make between Uranus and Prometheus, within the suffering can also be found the seeds of liberation. Prometheus brought the creative potency of fire, the arts, and sciences to humanity, yet his story also necessitates a confrontation with hubris and questioning of what kind of civilization has been constructed by humanity with the gifts of Prometheus.

Indeed, Tim Addey in Seven Myths of the Soul wrote that Prometheus requires the soul to ask, “what am I not?” Addey stated that “the mystic’s initiation into the mysteries of Prometheus is the voluntary acceptance of the limitations of matter, not its rejection.” Like Prometheus, integrating and embodying the radical awakening of Uranus necessitates a voluntary sacrifice to bring its emancipatory vision into the incarnated world of limitation, suffering, and death. Within the shattering to collective systems wrought by Uranus in Taurus, by going within and finding our center amidst the chaotic tumult we may liberate our authentic values from their concealment within cultural conditioning. To follow one’s true path in the face of consensus conditioning necessitates the risk of abandonment and fears of experiencing shame and betrayal.

With Mars ruling the New Moon while at full strength within its watery home of Scorpio, there is enduring courage waiting to be seized like an ancestral sword long bound by stone, awaiting release. Make the space and time needed, no matter how painstakingly slow it seems to be taking, to allow the decomposition and putrefaction of Scorpio to work its magic on the ways in which the conditioning of consensus culture has led you to believe you need to live your life. Ask yourself what you wish to awaken in yourself and others, and what you want to bring to civilization from the soulfulness of your own inner depths. We are in a crucial time full of crucial choices that deserve the thought and contemplation needed to align our actions with our essential integrity.

Egyptian Scarab inscribed with hieroglyphs (ca. 1479–1458 B.C.)

Mars is as strong as possible at the degree he is inhabiting during the Scorpio New Moon, as he is in his own domicile, bounds, decan, and triplicity. Meanwhile, Saturn is also especially strong due to being in his own domicile and triplicity. The fact that both Mars and Saturn are so powerfully positioned amplifies the tidal force of the tension building between them as they prepare to clash on November 10. Mars and Saturn are the planets most associated with being tested and learning how to traverse periods of difficulty and strife. While Mars can incite pushing forward with passion and making things happen with direct action, Saturn can push back through restraint, slowing things down with contemplative containment, and erecting boundaries and defensives to keep the red hot heat of Mars at bay. Yet Mars in Scorpio is in the dominant position by being in the tenth place from Saturn, the first time all year that Mars has been engaged with Saturn through being in a superior square. Thus while Saturn may attempt to clamp down on Mars, the propulsive force of Mars will topple the towers of Saturn, especially those systemic structures which lack a strong foundation and capacity for flexibly adjusting to changing conditions.

Adding to the intense, explosive quality of the conflict brewing between Mars and Saturn will be Mercury, as the star of Hermes will enter Scorpio on November 5, the day after the Scorpio New Moon. Mercury will form a conjunction with Mars in Scorpio on November 10, with both Mars and Mercury simultaneously forming an intensifying square aspect with Saturn in Aquarius. As a result the days leading up to November 10 may feel especially charged, with an extended release in the following week. Mercury will form a tense opposition with Uranus in Taurus on November 13, followed by Mars forming an opposition with Uranus on November 17.

The union of Mercury and Mars can weaponize language as well as increase the capacity of Mars for being cunning and tricky when implementing strategy. It will be wise to avoid unnecessary conflicts and walk away when possible to avoid escalation. Yet when brought to bear on one’s inner depths, the penetrative force of Mercury and Mars in Scorpio can dislodge potent desires to express through creativity as well as through protective support of one another within community.

While Saturn in Aquarius will be extremely activated with all of its defenses by the charge from Mercury and Mars in Scorpio, the star of Cronus will also be applying toward a potentially integrative sextile aspect with Chiron, who is retrograde in Aries and mutually applying with Saturn. Saturn will not complete his sextile aspect with Chiron until November 26, allowing for an extended period of time to explore what sort of dialogue and relationship can be bridged between Chiron and Saturn. Adding to the complexity, Ceres retrograde in Gemini is also involved in the dynamic between Saturn and Chiron, as Ceres is applying toward a trine with Saturn and a sextile with Chiron (Ceres will sextile Chiron on November 8 and trine Saturn on November 14).

Thus both Chiron and Ceres are available for tending to whatever wounds and burdens we have been experiencing related to Saturn. We may need to make space for grief related to loss, issues of identity, and feelings of alienation or dislocation that we have been experiencing. Yet the harmonious aspects between Ceres and Chiron with Saturn can also help retrieve a deep sense of the inner treasure we may find within ourselves, buried underneath the accumulation of so much stress circulating within collective crises and personal difficulties. Relationships we may turn to involving secure bonds of attachment can be particularly helpful in exploring whatever medicine can be alchemized between Ceres, Saturn, and Chiron.

Doorways by Margo Hoff

We can expect the unexpected in the weeks following the Scorpio New Moon not only because of the activation of both Uranus and Saturn by transit, but also because we will be entering an eclipse season. Indeed, the lunar cycle beginning with the Scorpio New Moon will reach peak light with a Lunar Eclipse on November 19 at 27º14′ Taurus. Since this will be the first eclipse to occur in the fixed signs of Taurus or Scorpio, there will likely be important endings and beginnings in storylines taking shape in correspondence as we get closer to the eclipse. Pay attention for signs of what new stories may emerge in correspondence with eclipses in Taurus and Scorpio.

Another sign of changing narratives will be the entrance of Venus into Capricorn on November 5, the day after the Scorpio New Moon. Venus in Capricorn will begin activating a storyline that will have a long arc, extending across the threshold between 2021 and 2022. Venus will remain in Capricorn from November 5, 2021 until March 5, 2022 due to stationing retrograde in Capricorn on December 19, 2021. Tellingly, the first major aspect that Venus in Capricorn will complete with a planet besides the Moon will be a harmonious sextile aspect with Uranus in Taurus on November 18. Since Venus will be receiving Uranus into her earthy home of Taurus, their contact on the day before the Lunar Eclipse can help us find ways to relate and be more creative with the more explosive tension that will be released by the opposition between Mars in Scorpio with Uranus in Taurus on November 17. Venus in Capricorn knows how to play the long game, and while Venus can enjoy the lust of earthly delights in Capricorn she can also utilize boundaries to create the space needed for whatever she desires to gestate and birth.

6 of Cups by Pamela Colman Smith

Scorpio 2 Decan

The New Moon in Scorpio is in the second decan of Scorpio associated with the Six of Cups card illustrated above by Pamela Colman Smith. The image reveals the virtuous innocence of receiving through giving, which connects with the Sun and Jupiter being the rulers of the second face of Scorpio. Austin Coppock in his book 36 Faces ascribed the image of “An Apparatus for Mutual Distillation” to the second decan of Scorpio, describing it as a face in which mutual distillation within relationship allows for matters to be passed back and forth as in an alembic, “growing increasingly rarefied and potent.” Coppock wrote that while “it is easy to imagine these dynamics between romantic partners, all relationships which rely on trust and continuous exchange generate such circuits.”

Coppock’s description of ideal relational exchanges rooted in trust also brings to mind its antithesis of broken trust that unleashes overwhelming emotions and catalyzes separations and letting go. Twelfth century astrologer Ibn Ezra in The Beginning of Wisdom wrote that within the second face of Scorpio there “ascends a woman who has left her house; she is naked and has nothing on and she is entering the sea.” Austin Coppock described the second decan of Scorpio as warning that we need to be careful to whom we bare ourselves to, because the “virtuous circuit of exchange can become vicious in this face . . . the process of dual cultivation becomes one of mutual degradation, each destroying the quality of the other with each pass.”

Further showing the importance of separating from degrading relationships in the second decan of Scorpio, the Hellenistic text 36 Airs ascribed the Titan goddess Leto to the second face of Scorpio. Sister to the starry, divinatory goddess Asteria and mother to the twin lights of Artemis and Apollo, Leto’s presence in the face where the Scorpio New Moon will darken reveals the need to protectively nurture and cultivate whatever we hold most dear and wish to bring into the world. Leto had to flee and take refuge on an isolated island unattached to the ocean floor in order to escape the wrath of Hera, who had made all lands exclude Leto from entry due to her anger over the affair between Leto and Zeus.  It was said that the twin offspring of Leto would stabilize the new order of Olympian deities, and so her persistence in nurturing the birth of Apollo and Artemis was additionally a birth of a new collective age. In this time of great global shifts and collective thresholds, Leto is a fitting symbol for taking the necessary steps to give birth to the world you wish yourself and the generations to follow to inhabit.

As the power found in the second face of Scorpio involves distillation and cultivation from intimate exchanges, the closeness of our relationships and the mutual support and love found within them will be the vessel to tend and drink from in the coming weeks. Let the darkness of the Scorpio New Moon bring you closer to the community and relationships needed to help bring forth the blessings and beauty of your lineages more brightly into the world.

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References

Addey, Tim. (2000). The Seven Myths of the Soul. The Prometheus Trust.

Coppock, Austin. (2014). 36 Faces: The History, Astrology and Magic of the Decans. Three Hands Press.

Scorpio New Moon

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roberta matta nascitur

Nascitur by Roberta Matta

Scorpio New Moon

The blackness of the Scorpio New Moon on November 14 beckons descent and falling into feelings, probing underneath surface appearances into material that has been obscured by shadow. Within the absence of lunar light, its regenerative darkness will be full of turbulent intensity due to the surrounding influences of Mars stationing direct and Mercury opposing Uranus. Scorpio is a place of willing confrontation with death and decay,  zodiacal terrain known for intensifying feelings of being alive as it simultaneously reveals the limits of our own mortality.  Lay your fears to rest within the dark waters of the lunation, surrendering to deepening while making space for necessary rest and reflection.

The New Moon in Scorpio is at the precipice of extraordinary change, as the forthcoming lunar cycle will culminate with a Lunar Eclipse in Gemini on November 30 that will prod us into a volatile eclipse season centered around a total Solar Eclipse in Sagittarius on December 14. Moreover, the lunation cycle initiated by the Scorpio New Moon will be the final lunar cycle to begin and end within the era of Jupiter and Saturn uniting in earth signs that began in 1802. Since we are only a month away from the epochal conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn in Aquarius on December 21, the seismic shifts across societal systems that will emerge in its wake can already be sensed within the sensitizing atmosphere of the dark Scorpio Moon. 

While the harmonizing sextile formed between the Scorpio New Moon with Jupiter, Pluto, and Saturn in Capricorn will open intimations of the coming new era from the swampy depths of Scorpio, the fact that Mars is simultaneously stationing direct in Aries will unleash jarring currents of agitation that can incite both anger and exhaustion. Mars has been retrograde in Aries since September 7, and so as it momentarily pauses in stillness we may feel overwhelmed by the build-up of its volcanic fire coursing through us. Mars stationing is a big deal due to it happening less often than the other planets: there will be many Mars related events and conflicts erupting during the days following the lunation we will need to navigate as mindfully as possible.

Make time and space to contemplate and feel into the new desires and directions that have emerged for you since the beginning of September. There may be aggravations and blocks frustrating forward movement as Mars barely moves in the week following the Scorpio New Moon, but at the end of November as we approach the Lunar Eclipse in Gemini we will be able to make substantial progress as Mars will kick back into accelerating forward. Rather than trying to force things to happen faster than they are naturally coming together, use the days following the Scorpio New Moon to center within your circumstances and ground into a sense of an effective strategy for achieving your goals over the next month.

Due to Mars moving retrograde in the past couple of months, it has already formed two different square aspects with Jupiter, Pluto, and Saturn in Capricorn since the beginning of August. While Mars will not complete its third and final square aspect with Jupiter and Saturn until January 2021 after Mars has entered Taurus and Jupiter and Saturn have entered Aquarius, Mars will complete its third and final square aspect with Pluto in Capricorn on December 23 a couple of days after the grand conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn in Aquarius. Since there remains to be a deeper potency to forge from our martial furnace in the final months of 2020, the greater clarity we can gain now regarding whatever has been stirred up by Mars in recent months, the more directly we will be able to set our freshly forged desires into motion in the months ahead.

Remedios Varo (1948) Cambio-De-Tiempo

Cambio de Tiempo by Remedios Varo

The New Moon in Scorpio will form while completing a supportive sextile aspect with Jupiter and Pluto in Capricorn, and is additionally applying to a sextile with Saturn in Capricorn. The sextile between the New Moon with Jupiter and Pluto is especially significant due to the fact that Jupiter and Pluto recently completed their third and final conjunction of 2020 on November 12. Previously, Jupiter and Pluto completed conjunctions on April 4 and June 30 and so there has likely been something significant you have been cultivating since April that is now reaching a stage of culmination. As Chris Brennan and other astrologers have noted, a couple of major correspondences with each union of Jupiter and Pluto this year have been spikes in cases and deaths related to COVID 19 as well as conspiracy theories about the pandemic and many other things. Presently in the USA as Jupiter and Pluto have come together for the final time both topics have returned to prominence with record breaking numbers of coronavirus cases and the unprecedented situation of a sitting President losing an election and refusing to concede due to false allegations of voter fraud.

Jupiter and Pluto form conjunctions roughly every twelve and a half years, including in previous years of immense volatility in society such as in 1968 and 1931. The present union of Jupiter and Pluto has been similarly disruptive as 1968 and 1931 due to it also being part of larger outer planetary alignments. While in 2020 we have Jupiter, Saturn, and Pluto all beginning a new cycle together, in 1968 we experienced Jupiter, Uranus, and Pluto ending and beginning new cycles together. In comparison, the 1931 conjunction between Jupiter and Pluto was in opposition with Saturn in Capricorn while Uranus in Aries was forming square aspects with both Saturn as well as the Jupiter Pluto conjunction.

When Jupiter and Pluto meet we must aspire to the expansive heights of Jupiter through incredibly intense periods of volcanic upheaval, breakdown and decay. It’s further typical for extraordinary power struggles to erupt over societal injustices, with numerous systemic issues of oppression in need of reform being exposed. While we necessarily are brought down into purgative processes of purification and catharsis when Jupiter and Pluto come together, we also gain the opportunity to form impactful alliances and fellowship to address the issues needing attention. While we must endure catastrophic extremes of corruption by those intent on gaining extreme amounts of wealth and power, on a personal level their synergy can guide us into inner depths to churn visions of imaginal ideas and essential purpose. While Jupiter combined with Pluto can kindle devotional focus to expansive work, it also requires us to nurture faith in the unknown while traversing a collective dark night of the soul.

Vitally, Venus in Libra is forming a catalyzing square aspect with Pluto and Jupiter during the New Moon in Scorpio. Venus will complete its square aspect with Jupiter and Pluto on November 15 and then will complete a square aspect with Saturn in Capricorn on November 19. The friction between Venus in Libra with Jupiter, Pluto, and Saturn in Capricorn will test relationship dynamics and expose imbalances of power and authority, bringing issues that had been lurking under the surface out into the open to be faced. Yet Venus can also stoke creative tension with Pluto, Jupiter, and Saturn that we can utilize through disciplined effort in crafting creative projects we have been slowly but steadily making progress on over time.

Finally, it’s notable that the asteroid Pallas Athena was exactly conjoining Jupiter and Pluto when they united on November 12 and was also nearby Jupiter and Pluto by degree during their two previous conjunctions in 2020. The presence of Pallas Athena with the tension building between Venus with Jupiter, Pluto, and Saturn brings all of the complicated mythology of Pallas Athena into the dynamic. While Pallas Athena is an upholder of law and order in civilization, her mythic origins link her further back to the divine goddesses of Cunning Wisdom and Justice whose power goes far beyond attempts of control by ruling empires. Above all, Pallas Athena brings the gifts of strategy and the kind of prophetic vision that can anticipate troubles and formulate effective strategies in response.

With Mars stationing direct and Venus clashing with the Capricorn trio of Pluto, Jupiter, and Saturn, the side of Pallas Athena that Demetra George likened to a bodhisattva will be relevant, as we will need to enter the fiery frey of conflicts erupting across society to revision a more equitable order. Indeed, Walter Burkett in Greek Religion wrote that Pallas Athena “is not an elemental force, but the force of civilization” who brings the “organizational wisdom” that can achieve a “just division of roles.” As we are collectively leaving an era of earth to enter a new era of air at the end of 2020, we can benefit from the intellectual weaving of Pallas Athena that can reorder societal systems of law and order to address the imbalances that have been exposed. Rather than falling prey to rage and destructive reactions as Mars dominates the week following the New Moon, let the lucid eyes of Pallas Athena center you so you can make the most effective response imaginable. In Greek Religion Walter Burkett cited the fitting proverb, “in league with Athena set your own hand to work.”

remedios varo Insomnio-1947-1

Insomnio 1 by Remedios Varo

The final major influence underlying the New Moon in Scorpio is the applying opposition between Mercury in Scorpio with Uranus in Taurus. While the tension between Mercury and Uranus will be very volatile, it will likely involve storylines and issues that have been developing for over a month. Mercury formed an opposition with Uranus for the first time on October 7, and then after stationing retrograde formed its second opposition with Uranus on October 19. It will be worthwhile to reflect back upon these previous periods to note what issues or patterns were jarred loose then and could be reemerging now. While there could be resolution experienced in certain circumstances, the propensity of Mercury for shifting storylines and Uranus for upending them could also coincide with new developments that move things in unexpected directions.

Since we are living in an incredibly polarized collective moment, especially in the United States of America, the combination of Mercury opposing Uranus with Mars stationing is potentially explosive. Do your best to not provoke confrontations more so than necessary. On a personal level, however, this same combination can bring about catalytic insight that reveals a glowing path to follow through the chaotic darkness that will coincide with 2020 drawing to a close. It may be helpful to make space for reflection, meditating, journaling, brainstorming, anything that can help get ideas moving, turning, and coalescing into new forms.

Soon after Mercury finishes its final opposition with Uranus on November 17, it will leave its retrograde shadow zone on November 19 when it will finally move beyond 11°40′ Scorpio.  Mercury stationed retrograde in Scorpio on October 13 at 11°40′ Scorpio, and has been traversing the entire range of its retrograde shadow zone that began at 25º54′ Libra since September 23. As a result, as Mercury is carrying forward the propulsive liberation of its oppositional aspect with Uranus on November 19 we likely will experience resolution or pivotal developments regarding narratives that stretch back all the way to the end of September. This is even more so the case due to Venus in Libra completing its square aspect with Saturn in Capricorn on November 19 as well.

7 cups

7 of Cups by Pamela Colman Smith

Scorpio 3 Decan

The New Moon will be reseeded by the Sun in the third decan of Scorpio associated with the Seven of Cups card illustrated above by Pamela Colman Smith. The third face of Scorpio has an amplified alchemical quality that is well suited for the lunation coinciding with Mars stationing direct in Aries while Mercury opposes Uranus. Ruled by Venus and the Moon, it is a decan in which we must come to terms with the essential desires driving us through experiences of loss and decay that reveal the heart of the matter. In the image of the Seven of Cups each of the seven chalices holds an embodiment of a desire, such as fame, fortune, lust and other earthly powers. The veiled figure in the center brings to mind the burning desire of Sophia in gnostic texts to gain ultimate understanding, a desire that cast a shadowy veil that became the material world we traverse often overwhelmed by desire like the shadowy figure in the image. Some interpret the image as signifying that through discernment we may choose to follow the one desire that will bring clarity needed to make choices aligned with our inner values and desires.

Austin Coppock in his book on the decans 36 Faces linked the Seven of Cups to the third face of Scorpio through their shared meaning of becoming dominated by obsessive desires. Coppock ascribed the image of “A Crow” to the third decan of Scorpio, noting that the essence of this face involves the putrefaction of desire that leads to direct contact with the nature of desire. Coppock posited that through the loss of unfulfilled desire, the process of separating our desire from the external objects of desires brings the ability to reseed and regenerate core desires. Coppock wrote that the third face of Scorpio contains a “formula of liberation, for if we were not capable of laying our desires to rest, returning them to pure energy, we would be enchained forever, prisoners of what we once held dear.”

 In contrast, the Hellenistic text 36 Airs ascribed the curious deity Kairos to the third face of Scorpio. You are likely familiar with the term kairos referring to the opportune moment for something to occur that is not confined to the demands of chronological time. Yet Kairos in Greek myth was the youngest son of Zeus as well as the lover of Fortuna, an embodiment of luck and favorable opportunities. Kairos was seen as always moving with winged feet, carrying a razor or scales that represent the fleeting moment in which opportunity comes and goes, the moment we need to seize and not neglect.

The presence of Kairos in the third face of Scorpio points toward the importance of being in touch with the ripening of the moment during the Scorpio New Moon. The fertility of our destiny cannot be rushed or forced, and often relies on specific moments in which we realize essential elements of our past to reweave into the path we are following forward. Now that both Mercury retrograde as well as Mars retrograde are finished, as we turn toward an eclipse season on the horizon that also holds the grand conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter, we will be well served by taking as much time as needed to sort through all of the desires that have been stirred in recent months. May you welcome the fleeting appearance of Kairos and seize the moment that holds the next movement of your life.

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References

Burkett, Walter. (1985). Greek Religion. Harvard University Press.

Coppock, Austin. (2014). 36 Faces: The History, Astrology and Magic of the Decans. Three Hands Press.

New Moon in Scorpio

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max ernst in praise of freedom

Max Ernst (1926) In Praise of Freedom

New Moon in Scorpio

“Every development leads through the undeveloped, but capable of development. In its undeveloped condition it is almost worthless, while development represents a highest value that is unquestionable. One must give up this value or at least apparently give it up to be able to attend to the undeveloped. But this stands in the sharpest contrast to the developed, which perhaps represents our best and highest achievement. The acceptance of the undeveloped is therefore like a sin, like a false step, a degeneration, a descent to a deeper level; in actual fact, however, it is a greater deed than remaining in an ordered condition at the expense of the other side of our being, which is thus at the mercy of decay.”

— C.G. Jung, from Appendix B of Liber Novus (aka The Red Book)

The regenerative blackness of the Scorpio New Moon on October 27 (PST) comes in the days leading up to Samhain, the Day of the Dead, All Saints Day, and Halloween. In the northern hemisphere it is the season of embracing the increase of night and falling leaves by honoring ancestors and the living otherworld. There is a profound stillness to be found within the darkness of this lunation, an emptying as well as a reception of inner insight. The New Moon in Scorpio is exactly opposite Uranus in Taurus while its ruler Mars in Libra is in an exact square aspect with Saturn in Capricorn, marking it as a key gateway between all the diverse developments of 2019 and what is to come in the ending and beginning of a new year. The wet, boggy landscape of Scorpio is filled not only with decomposition and burial mounds, but also the fecund, fructifying growth that emerges from putrefaction. Issues from the past may emerge in need of laying to rest with the sanctity of funeral rites, yet simultaneously our inner senses will reveal burgeoning desires to be curious about and follow in unexpected directions.

The Moon has its fall in Scorpio, and so it’s further significant that the New Moon is only one degree beyond the exact degree of the Moon’s fall at 3º Scorpio. As a result, there is an extremely fallen quality to the Scorpio New Moon that can bring us low to the ground, like venturing into a depression under the earth with an intensity of underworld initiation. Scorpio is a place of obsession and fixating on plans of development, insisting on certain outcomes against all odds to such an extent that one can become flooded with emotional overwhelm when things do not manifest as desired. Since Venus will also be conjoining Mercury in Scorpio within the darkness of the New Moon, as Mercury is simultaneously stationing retrograde, it will be important to release attachment to controlling outcomes and instead flow with the trajectory of events with a willingness to modify plans as necessary.

The New Moon arrives at the heart of the Uranus retrograde, when Uranus is as close to our Earth in orbit as it gets within its cycle. Uranus stationed retrograde on August 11 at 6º36′ Taurus and will eventually station direct on January 10, 2020 at 2º38′ Taurus. This means Uranus will eventually station direct at the same time as the exact conjunction between Saturn and Pluto in Capricorn on January 12, 2020. As the Scorpio Moon melds into the Sun while opposing Uranus, unforeseen revelations regarding the path to follow into the unknown future may strike suddenly. Uranus electrifies the fallen quality of the Scorpio New Moon, like an otherworldly vision of healing received while laying on the ground, incubating.

Unlike the frenetic quality of oppositional aspects when Uranus was in Aries, the opposition between Uranus in Taurus with the New Moon in Scorpio cultivates a brooding intensification of inwardly directed senses. Rather than attempting to control natural surroundings, Uranus in Taurus promotes finding ways to merge the magic of nature and all of its constant changes into one’s creative process of invention. The scholar and philosopher Peter Kingsley has spoken and written extensively about the sacred ground of our inner senses and how we can become “a farmer in the unseen worlds” engaging in a “whole process of inner agriculture.” If you feel like giving up due to obstacles or nothing seeming to work out as planned, make space for quiet immersion within inner senses to discover guidance for the next steps to take from Uranus.

Magritte the fanatics

Rene Magritte (1963) Les Fanatiques

Mars in Libra rules the Scorpio New Moon and is beginning to separate from an exact square aspect with Saturn in Capricorn while applying toward a square aspect with Pluto in Capricorn. The influence of Mars will amplify frustration and anger regarding barriers restricting achievement of goals, as well as over anything feeling unjust or out of balance within personal as well as societal relationships. While resiliency and persistence will be necessary allies on whatever quest you have undertaken, it will do no good to try to fight your way through unmoveable obstacles as it will only achieve exhaustion. Mars in Libra needs to instead find ways to utilize the tools of Venus in order to manipulate power dynamics through intellectual invention and social charm.

The traditional astrological concept of essential dignities is worth considering in relation to the catalyzing square between Mars and Saturn, as Mars and Saturn are in mutual reception due to Mars occupying the exaltation of Saturn and Saturn residing in the exaltation of Mars. It’s further notable that this is reception based upon the idealized grandeur of exaltation rather than the grounded security of domicile. While exaltation correlates with peak experiences, whatever goes up to great heights can also fall from grace. William Lilly famously described angular, unimpeded planets in exaltation as signifying arrogance, haughtiness, and “assuming more to him than his due.” Thus it is worth contemplating whether or not you are trying to fight for more than your fair share of resources, or if you are becoming frustrated over not manifesting desired results due to setting your expectations too high.

While Saturn is strongly secure in its home of Capricorn, it is also undergoing an intense process of shedding and honing due to being in between the South Node of the Moon and Pluto in Capricorn. In contrast, Mars is journeying far away from its home with few resources in Libra, yet since it is in a superior position of being in the tenth place from Saturn it can incite a volatilized charge against the constraints of Saturn. It will be wise to avoid unnecessary conflict, as fights can quickly become amplified with viciousness. The friction between Mars and Saturn can be best utilized through hard work and determination applied to productive effort, releasing attachment to the inessential, using the tension to discern what you truly value the most.

Although Mars is lacking in essential dignity, the New Moon in Scorpio is in the most powerful degree range of the zodiac for Mars since it is in the domicile, face, and bounds of the red planet. Hellenistic astrologer Vettius Valens (2nd Century CE) described the first seven degrees of Scorpio where Mars has its bounds as “frenetic, tending towards anger, and a bold, free speaking style- the kind to say what is necessary at any given time.” Positively, the Scorpio New Moon can be supportive for doing what needs to be done to separate and protect yourself from negative, toxic influences. Since Mars is in Libra, however, a more measured approach of strategic intervention will be favored over impulsive, direct action.

After Mars persists through challenging square aspects with Saturn and Pluto in Capricorn during the waxing half of the forthcoming lunar cycle, it will eventually form a stabilizing sextile aspect with Jupiter in Sagittarius during the Full Moon in Taurus on November 12 that can help with recovering from conflicts and taking inspired action. As the waxing Moon will also unite with Uranus on November 11 just before reaching fullness, there is potential to liberate yourself from stuck places and ultimately achieve greater self actualization through maintaining courageous resiliency in the face of difficulties in the lunar cycle ahead.

Gustave_Doré_-_Dante_Alighieri_-_Inferno_-_Plate_7_(Beatrice).jpg

Beatrice with Virgil from Dante’s Inferno by Gustave Dore

The Scorpio New Moon has a quality of strange stillness and suspense due to Venus applying to a conjunction with Mercury, as Mercury is simultaneously stationing retrograde. Mercury will station retrograde on October 31 at 27º38′ Scorpio, moving backwards through Scorpio until stationing direct at 11º35′ Scorpio on November 20. It is always important to increase practices of mindfulness and pay close attention whenever Mercury is stationing, as we may receive early signs and messages regarding elements of life that will require focus, release, repair, as well as in depth research during the retrograde journey of Mercury. As Venus unites with Mercury on October 30 at the threshold of Mercury shifting retrograde, we may become drawn toward applying intense creative focus toward a project to develop in the month ahead as well as realize ways we need to make radical changes within certain relational dynamics with others. 

As Mercury turns back to retrace its steps through the watery landscape of Scorpio, it will be entering its invisible phase in which it will play the role of a psychopomp guiding us into the insight we may discover in shadowy places and inner senses. Whereas Mercury will demand an unflinching examination of any cracks in foundational elements of our life in need of mending, Venus will be calling for us to embrace and integrate whatever core purpose brings inspiration. Venus will be increasing in brightness as an Evening Star, glowing radiant in twilight as she also becomes a stronger presence in our lives during the month ahead. Venus in Scorpio will be mutually exchanging signs with Mars in Libra through November 1, deepening engagement with new desires and interest in magnetizing support within relationships. Venus holds particularly potent desires within the final ten degrees of Scorpio she is traversing, as she has the resources of being in her own face and triplicity. Let Venus fertilize a fascinating mission for Mercury to undertake during its retrograde phase in November.

After Venus leaves the deep waters of Scorpio on November 1, she will enter the expansive territory of Sagittarius in which she will steadily make her way toward a conjunction with Jupiter that will complete on November 24. The co-presence of Venus and Jupiter in Sagittarius during November will be beneficial in synthesizing ideas and beliefs into a larger vision to build towards through our daily effort in spite of any difficulties we must contend with.

The_Vision_of_The_Valley_of_The_Dry_Bones

Gustave Dore The Vision of the Valley of the Dry Bones

The other major aspects of the Scorpio New Moon involve harmonizing aspects with Saturn in Capricorn. While Saturn is mutually applying toward a sextile aspect with Neptune retrograde in Pisces, the Scorpio New Moon is also applying toward a sextile aspect with the South Node of the Moon, Saturn, and Pluto in Capricorn. Meanwhile, since Mercury will be moving backwards through Scorpio, it will eventually form sextile aspects with Pluto, Saturn, and the South Node of the Moon in Capricorn in November. Saturn will complete its exact sextile with Neptune retrograde on November 8 at 16º01′ degrees of Capricorn and Pisces, making it an especially powerful season of Samhain to honor and commune with ancestors.

The karmic caravan of Ketu, Saturn, and Pluto in Capricorn has dredged up personal, ancestral, and societal issues in need of reparation during 2019. During the recent Libra season, this deep rooted material was stirred up and catalyzed through the Sun, Moon, Venus, and Mercury moving through the same square aspects with Ketu, Saturn, and Pluto that Mars is engaging during the Scorpio New Moon. While Mars is heating up and volatilizing all of the myriad strands of historical and contemporary injustice and oppression contained within the karmic configuration, on a personal level the harmonious aspects formed by the Scorpio New Moon and Neptune open an opportunity for dissolving old, restrictive patterns in order to reconfigure our relationship with the associated material and discern a new way forward. The gravity and weight of Saturn and Pluto coming together in a new cycle will be intensifying in the next three months, and so the Scorpio New Moon is ideal for making space to reflect upon ways to realign and flow in greater harmony with the currents of change taking shape.

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5 of Cups by Pamela Colman Smith

Scorpio 1 Decan

The Scorpio New Moon arises in the first decan of Scorpio associated with the Five of Cups card illustrated above by Pamela Colman Smith. The image appears desolate at first, as a despairing figure stares with fixation upon three spilled chalices. However, upon closer look there remain two upright chalices behind the figure, suggesting hope. There is also a river flowing underneath a bridge behind the figure, evoking the flux philosophy of Heraclitus that no one ever steps in the same river twice since the river is always changing as well as the person. It is a fitting image to associate with the first decan of Scorpio as it captures the fundamental nature of having desires within our constantly shifting world in which we must deal with the loss of what we desire most in the world.

Austin Coppock in his book on the decans 36 Faces ascribed the image of “A Jawbone” to the first decan of Scorpio, declaring hunger as its chief concern. Coppock synthesized the ancient textual images of this face around the constantly circulating cycle of desire, including consuming hunger, satiation, the loss of what one desires, and the competitive violence of pursuing desires. Curiously, the ancient Hermetic text Liber Hermetis described “a crab having wings” residing in the first decan of Scorpio, indicating that liberation may be possible once we face the compulsive nature of the cycle. The Hellenistic text 36 Airs of the Zodiac ascribed the Numphai (Nymphs) to this face, feminine nature spirits who reside in sacred streams, groves, and grottoes. The obsessive nature of this face brings to mind the figure of Dionysus who often ran with wild nymphs and whose all consuming desires incite dismemberment and rebirth. Fittingly, Mars is considered to be the ruler of this face.

The importance of following desires into a fully lived life, as well as the mysterious initiations and soul reckoning we experience as a result, was stressed in the depth psychological work of Carl Jung. In commentaries on Liber Novus (found in Appendix B of the tome), Carl Jung described Eros and Logos as “fundamental psychic powers that form a pair of opposites, each one requiring the other.” While Jung connected Logos with “ordering and insistence,” he described Eros as “dissolution and movement” as well as “desire, longing, force, exuberance, pleasure, suffering…” Jung declared Eros to be “a principle that contains a commingling of all the fundamental activities of the soul,” stating that it “is not form-giving but form-fulfilling; it is the wine that will be poured into the vessel; it is not the bed and direction of the stream but the impetuous water flowing in it.”

In the coming months as all things related to Saturn and Pluto intensify in correspondence with their approaching conjunction, we will all need to adjust to the reordering of numerous societal factors as cultural structures deepen into the process of breakdown and regeneration already underway. Within the darkness of the Scorpio New Moon, make a trip to the ever flowing stream of Eros in order to fill a flask of vivifying fluid to bring on the journey ahead. Allow the refreshment from the waters of the Scorpio New Moon to cleanse what needs to be purified and to arouse the passion needed to make life meaningful. There will be lessons of longing and suffering we will need to survive if we wish to help create the world we truly desire to inhabit.

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References

Coppock, Austin. (2014). 36 Faces: the history, astrology, and magic of the decans. Three Hands Press.

Jung, C.G. (2009) The Red Book (Liber Novus). Translated by Mark Kyburz, John Peck, and Sonu Shamdasani. Philemon Series. WW Norton & Company.

Kingsley, Peter. (2006). Return to Eternity: a transformational workshop with Peter Kingsley.

Lilly, William. (2004 edition). Christian Astrology. Astrology Classics.

Vettius Valens of Antioch, Book One. Rendered from ancient Greek into  modern English by Andrea Gehrz. (2016). Moira Press.

 

Scorpio New Moon: Fire from the Depths

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William Blake blasted tree and moon

Blasted Trees and Flattened Crops, from Thornton’s Pastorals of Virgil (1821) by William Blake

New Moon in Scorpio

Scorpio is known as a place of depths, deep feelings and desire to penetrate through superficial exteriors into the hidden core of matters.  Scorpio is also the zodiac sign perhaps most commonly associated with death and rebirth processes, those experiences called regenerative or transformative.  Yet Scorpio is also known to resist becoming vulnerable to the loss that comes with change, using any tactics imaginable to manipulate and control changing dynamics. The New Moon in Scorpio on November 7 comes at a time of tremendous changes within the cycles of astrology that indicate a necessity of surrendering to the elements of flowing flux outside our control. Jupiter, Uranus, and the lunar nodes are all changing signs in the days surrounding the Scorpio New Moon, while  about a week later Mars will also change signs at the same time both Venus and Mercury station and change directions. The sensitive, probing gifts of the Scorpion may be used within the darkness of the lunation to reorient plans within the shifts of both outer and inner landscapes.

For over a month we have been experiencing the liminal space of Venus retrograde, a time when our innermost values and desires mutate and bring about external alterations from transfiguration of inner roots. Within the darkness before the Scorpio Sun rises on the day of the New Moon, as the Dark Moon in Scorpio approaches its union with our hidden solar light, Venus will bring light into predawn skies as a Morning Star. Venus retrograde has returned not only to its heralding role as a Morning Star, but also has firmly established itself back into its home of Libra.

Thus the New Moon arrives in time to set intentions for the final week of Venus retrograde, a period in which Venus will only be moving about one degree before stationing in stillness. Due to Venus occupying its outwardly directed, airy domicile of the Scales, as well as stationing in close proximity with the beneficial fixed star Spica, the week of the waxing Moon following the New Moon can be used to actively gather whatever brilliant insights, ideas, and talents have been brewing and developing during the space of the Venus retrograde transit that began October 5.

At the same time Uranus maintaining its opposition with Venus retrograde will be amplifying the pace of developments and making everything more exciting, surprising, and ultimately liberating. Uranus retrograde returns to Aries the day before the Scorpio New Moon, bringing a torch of Promethean fire to the revelations arising in the final phase of Venus retrograde. Uranus has been in Taurus since May of 2018, and so its return to Aries will wrap up with finality the arc of narratives that developed across the seven year stretch of Uranus being in Aries that began in 2011 after an initial ingress in 2010 from the end of May through mid August. No longer under the rulership of Venus in Taurus, Uranus has now returned to being ruled by Mars in the fiery, independent, and impulsive sign of Aries. Uranian fires will bring the heat to needed to volatilize matters to a level that pushes us to take action to rebalance elements of life ready to shift in the final phase of Venus retrograde in Libra.

Scorpio New Moon

Shepherd chases away a wolf, from Thornton’s Pastorals of Virgil (1931) by William Blake

Mars in Aquarius rules the Scorpio New Moon while forming a flowing trine with Venus retrograde in Libra and receiving Uranus in Aries through a harmonizing sextile.  There has been an embattled dynamic involving Venus and Mars at times this year, with Mars in Aquarius previously stationing retrograde in range of square to the degree that Venus later stationed retrograde at in Scorpio, and Mars in Aquarius forming a square to Venus at the beginning of its retrograde in Scorpio.  Mars is now in a mediating position between the opposition of Venus and Uranus, which means the significations of Mars such as vitality, courage, protection, defense, assertion, and separating from undesirable circumstances are all strongly available to be used in negotiating the final phase of Venus retrograde.

Mars has been in Aquarius since May 17 (with a return to Capricorn in August and the beginning of September); we have had a long time to work with whatever aspects Mars in Aquarius has been making in our astrology charts, and we are now in the final week of experiencing Mars in the sign of the Water Bearer. Mars in Aquarius is able to use the airy placement to forge supportive connections and pinpoint areas of growth to focus on that can bring far ranging benefit.  Allow yourself to be surprised if necessary by whatever arises to demand your attention in the week following the New Moon.

Scorpio New Moon

Moonscape (1959) Kurt Seligmann

The Scorpio New Moon forms a flowing trine with Neptune in Pisces and a creatively harmonious sextile with Pluto in Capricorn.  These are deep aspects that promote our capacity to align with the larger changes happening across our global collective. Since its likely we may not agree or like what’s happening in many areas, we need to cultivate how to nurture ourselves and loved ones in personal spheres while at the same time not becoming overwhelmed by how the tides of mass change in the greater collective are swirling outside our control. The Scorpio New Moon supports the popular mantra of being the change you want to see in the world, taking the responsibility available to participate fully in the world in line with inner integrity.

The Scorpio New Moon also arrives at the same time that the nodes of the Moon ingress into new signs, with the North Node of the Moon leaving Leo to enter Cancer, and the South Node of the Moon leaving Aquarius to enter Capricorn. As a result while Saturn in Capricorn remains the ruler of the South Node of the Moon, the Moon itself becomes the ruler of the North Node of the Moon. We will be experiencing the lunar nodes as well as eclipses in Cancer and Capricorn for the next year and a half, an alignment that supports taking the responsibility to temper and structure whatever is needed to nurture and cultivate desired growth. Yet with the fast moving Moon as the ruler of the North Node in Cancer, we will be constantly navigating a waxing and waning of tidal forces rather than being led by the steady course of the Sun that had been ruling the North Node in Leo for the past year and a half.

It is notable that as the lunar nodes switch into Cancer and Capricorn, they immediately form a catalytic square aspect with the opposition between Uranus in Aries with Venus and Ceres in Libra. Ceres in Libra was waiting to embrace Venus as she returned from the underworld with her light as a Morning Star, and the involvement of Ceres in this dynamic nodal configuration amplifies the importance of nurturing the new growth ready to emerge from the past month of shedding and release. Yet the volatility of the cardinal square formed by the lunar nodes with Venus retrograde, Uranus retrograde, and Ceres suggests it’s not a time to force things to happen but instead make assertive choices aligned with the changing currents.

In contrast to Venus which recently re-emerged into visibility after a period of invisibility, Jupiter is on the threshold of going under the beams of the Sun into an invisible phase at the time of the Scorpio New Moon. Jupiter is co-present with the New Moon in Scorpio, at the final degree of Scorpio on the cusp of entering Sagittarius the day after the lunation. The co-presence of Jupiter with the New Moon in Scorpio brings a lift to the lunation, but most importantly the ingress of Jupiter into its fiery home of Sagittarius the next day brings a major boost of inspiration and hope.

Jupiter will be joining Mercury in Sagittarius, with Mercury shining brightly at maximum elongation as an Evening Star. Though Jupiter will be undergoing its own period of purification and rebirth and will not re-emerge in light as a Morning Star until approximately December 14, the return of Jupiter to its expansive home of Sagittarius serves as a fire kindled in the darkness bringing hope of victory where fear had previously clouded vision of possibility.

Scorpio New Moon

In Engelshut (1931) Paul Klee

Mercury in Sagittarius being at maximum elongation as an Evening Star in the darkness of the Scorpio New Moon signals that Mercury is crossing the threshold of its alchemical retrograde process as outlined by Gary Caton in his book Hermetica Triptycha: The Mercury Elemental Year. Indeed, in the following week on November 16 we will experience Mercury stationing retrograde in Sagittarius on the same day that Venus stations direct in Libra.  Mercury is at about eight degrees of Sagittarius at the time of the Scorpio New Moon and will return to this same area of Sagittarius while retrograde on November 27 when it will enter the heart of the Sun and be reborn at six degrees of Sagittarius. Thus just as we are wrapping up an alchemical, retrograde process of Venus we are entering another one focused upon Mercury. With Jupiter ruling Mercury in its own sign of Sagittarius, it promises to be a powerful Mercury retrograde for revisioning your life.

Mercury in Sagittarius is a quick learner, communicating with a rapid, adventurous spirit that asks the big questions and is willing to search long and hard for the answers. Mercury in Sagittarius is the polarity of its airy home of Gemini, and looks to Jupiter for guidance. Since Jupiter is also co-present in its own home of Sagittarius while also undergoing a purifying rebirth with the Sun, the upcoming Mercury retrograde in Sagittarius will be a time to shed outdated beliefs and regenerate an inspirational vision of how to find meaning in life.

Vitally, Mercury will be stationing in range of forming a square to Neptune in Pisces, so an important part of the process will be uncovering and facing illusions that have been operating under the surface of our perceptions. Though corresponding disillusionment may be difficult, the eventual reorientation towards the actual truth of circumstances will be beneficial in the longterm.  Interestingly, Mars will finally leave Aquarius and enter Pisces at the same time that Mercury stations retrograde in Sagittarius. This means that Jupiter in Sagittarius will be ruling both Mercury and Mars, with Mercury stationing in square to Neptune as Mars begins moving toward a conjunction with Neptune. There can be a corresponding dissolution of previous beliefs as well as powerful potential in imaginal realms to tap into.

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Scorpio 2 Decan

The second face of Scorpio is associated with the 6 of Cups card illustrated above by Pamela Colman Smith. In the image of the 6 of Cups, we find the child-like innocence of purely giving for the pleasure of giving and receiving the joy of witnessing gratitude upon the face of the recipient.  Fittingly, both the Sun and Jupiter are considered rulers of this face, revealing the restoration of expansive vision that may be found within the darkness of the Scorpio New Moon. Austin Coppock in his book on the decans 36 Faces ascribed the image of “An Apparatus for Mutual Distillation” to the Scorpio II decan, as it is a face in which the desires of Scorpio interchange in relationship:

The parties here [in the 6 of Cups image] are children and their affection for one another is natural and unconditioned . . . It is a vision of ideal exchange between two parties, poignant and perfect.

The dynamic suggested by the children is identical to the alchemical process of mutual distillation, wherein the matter passes back and forth between on alembic and another, growing increasingly rarefied and potent . . . Though it is easy to imagine these dynamics between romantic partners, all relationships which rely on trust and continuous exchange generate such circuits (p. 180-1).

As the Scorpio New Moon falls in the final phase of Venus retrograde in Libra, with Venus united with Ceres in opposition to Uranus in Aries and in square to the lunar nodes, attention to the dynamics within our myriad relationships will be of the utmost importance. This is the time to make use of whatever inner revelations you have uncovered about your relational patterns during the past month of Venus retrograde. The involvement of Uranus demands taking the risk to be authentic and honest in expression of true inner feelings. Moreover, by insisting on genuine interaction while being open to inner vulnerability, it will become possible to reshape relationships with regard to increased intimacy or increased boundaries, depending upon the dynamics involved.

The Hellenistic text 36 Airs ascribed the Titan goddess Leto to the second face of Scorpio. Sister to the starry, divinatory goddess Asteria and mother to the twin lights of Artemis and Apollo, Leto’s presence in the space of the Scorpio New Moon is a further symbol of the need for protective nurturance to whatever we hold most dear and is need of cultivation. Leto had to flee and take refuge on an isolated island unattached to the ocean floor in order to escape the wrath of Hera, who had made all lands exclude Leto from entry due to her anger over the affair between Leto and Zeus.  It was said that the twin offspring of Leto would stabilize the new order of Olympian deities, and so her persistence in nurturing the birth of Apollo and Artemis was additionally a birth of a new collective age.  Similarly, today we can also witness a war of ideologies spanning around our planet, as we can simultaneously sense the birth of a new era on the cusp of manifestation. Like Leto, take whatever steps are necessary to give birth to the world you wish yourself and the generations to follow to inhabit.

References

Coppock, Austin. (2014). 36 Faces: the History, Astrology and Magic of the Decans. Three Hands Press.

Scorpio New Moon: Mars & Pluto

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andrew wyeth dryad

Dryad by Andrew Wyeth

New Moon in Scorpio

New Moons are a time of darkness.  In alignment, we go within our own darkness and set intentions for the forthcoming lunar cycle as our Moon regenerates in the heart of our Sun.  Scorpio is a zodiac sign also associated with the dark and the hidden, as well as transformation.  We have been experiencing an intense period of Scorpio amplification and a collective catharsis in correlation that has brought attention to stories of misuse of power too often denied, including revelations around sexual abuse that further link to Scorpio significations of sex, power and control dynamics.  Scorpio brings to the surface what needs to be revealed for regeneration, and so we have been experiencing a collective purging necessary to bring more widespread awareness to the suffering caused by sexual predation.  Our entrance into the year long transit of Jupiter in Scorpio has quickly been bringing awareness to what’s been lurking in the shadows, and with Venus as well as the Sun and Moon now in Scorpio we are invited to dig even deeper.  The darkness of Scorpio is ultimately the nurturing kind, the rich soil lying fecund underneath us that awaits fertilization and the metamorphic reemergence of colorful growth.  It is vital to carefully cultivate the seeds you are germinating when the Scorpio New Moon arrives on November 18.

The influx of Scorpio energy has been magnified further by the sign of Scorpio forming a square aspect with the signs of Leo and Aquarius that the lunar nodes have been transiting through.  The Sun and the Moon both faced off with the lunar nodes in the week leading up to the Scorpio New Moon, while Venus and Jupiter are heading toward a square with the lunar nodes.   The Scorpio New Moon also forms a square with the degrees of both the recent Leo eclipses (Leo Lunar Eclipse on February 10;  Leo Solar Eclipse on August 21) as well as the Aquarius Solar Eclipse coming later in February 2018, further signifying a time of collective crossroads.  Planets squaring the nodes force their associated issues to be dealt with, and so the Scorpio activation has been exposing the misuse of power by those desiring Leo ambitions of fame and status.  The lunar nodes in Aquarius and Leo bring the opportunity to discover ways of being more empowered and passionately living life more fully while also respecting the boundaries of others.  The influence of Scorpio further points to the necessity of living from one’s inner authority of ethics, purifying and shedding the toxic conditioning elements of culture such as misogyny.

The Scorpio New Moon is particularly intense due to the closely applying square between Mars in Libra with Pluto in Capricorn.  Any exact square between Mars and Pluto at a lunation is extremely catalytic, but in this case it is even more powerful due to Mars ruling the New Moon and Pluto also having modern associations with rulership over Scorpio.  Mars in Libra is in the home of Venus and a sign that is in polarity to its own home of Aries.  Mars in Libra is the warrior and protector of social justice, but to achieve this Mars must find a balanced expression that requires restraint at times, more so than direct and impulsive action.  With Mars transiting Libra while forming a square with Pluto, anger and tempers will be quick to flare over issues of oppression.  In their dynamic Mars is in the superior position of being in the tenth place from Pluto and so in position to overcome Pluto.  However, there is an old Hellenistic astrology concept of “striking with a ray” which leads to the interpretation that the dominant power structure (Pluto in Capricorn) will strike back hard to impede social activists (Mars in Libra) from gaining ground.

Andrew Wyeth carry

Carry by Andrew Wyeth

One of the keys of the Scorpio New Moon is to discern how to flow with the currents of power for the greater good.  It is an opportune New Moon for making intentions with regard to long term goals and where you want to place your daily focus in expending energy and initiative.  In natal charts, the aspect of Mars square Pluto can be challenging in terms of having grandiose vision and ambition and then being faced with all of the barriers to overcome in the process of manifestation.  These barriers involve both external and internal issues, and similarly the collective experience of this transit brings to the surface whatever has been in the way of achieving goals and developing plans.  Realizations can emerge more easily than normal regarding what we need to separate from and sever with regards to our desires.

Notably Mars is exchanging signs with Venus in Scorpio, as Mars is in the home of Venus and Venus is in the home of Mars.  This further means that both Venus and Mars are in signs that are opposite their domicile placements of Taurus (Venus) and Aries (Mars).  The influence of Venus in Scorpio makes the drive for justice with Mars in Libra more obsessive and more willing to penetrate to the depths of current circumstances.  Venus in Scorpio is forming an integrative sextile with Pluto in Capricorn, and so there is a higher lesson available in terms of how to change our own attitudes and behavior to have greater integrity as well as how to engage and listen to others coming from different perspectives and backgrounds more effectively.  However, in reality this combination will more readily lead people into heated conflict and so keep this in mind when navigating difficult situations.  When Mars and Pluto collide like this at a Scorpio lunation, there are explosive undercurrents to deal with.

Andrew Wyeth Wind from the Sea

Wind from the Sea by Andrew Wyeth

We make our way through Everything like thread passing through fabric: giving shape to images that we ourselves do not know.

–Rainer Maria Rilke, born with Jupiter in Scorpio

Another massive influence over the Scorpio New Moon comes from dreamy Neptune, as it will station direct as the Moon begins to wax in light on November 22.  Planets stationing saturate the astrological atmosphere with their influence, particularly in the case of Neptune as it will open awareness to aspects of reality normally invisible or veiled to “normal” modes of mundane perception.  Neptune has been moving retrograde since June 16, and so it is worthwhile to reflect back upon the past five months of Neptune’s backward movement.

As Neptune stations we can feel a dissolution of interior complexes and exterior structures, and an opening of awareness to a sense that we can be perceiving through a focus of consciousness that is different from our past. It can feel like we are opening to a message outside our known reality, as Neptune is a far-out planet bridging our solar system to what revolves beyond, or it can feel like a current rising from deep within our depths. We can experience moments of realization within a flood of former boundaries dissolving, yet the tendency is to fall back again into the security of the old reality instead of following the seemingly mystical call we fear is merely an illusion.  Confusion and disorientation can engulf us when we look to our former self image to provide stability, as under these waves we feel the superficial structure of its facade.

Making all of Neptunes significations even more impactful is the additional transit of Jupiter in Scorpio applying to a trine with Neptune in Pisces as it stations.  Since Jupiter’s rulership connects it directly into the Mars and Pluto square, we will be more likely to feel enough passion and motivation to set sails in the direction the Neptunian wind and current is leading us.  Jupiter will form its first exact trine with Neptune on December 2 as the Moon waxes toward the upcoming Gemini Full Moon.  As I wrote recently on the trine between Jupiter in Scorpio and Neptune in Pisces that will be a dominant influence in the year ahead:

“Like a Bodhisattva willing to return and return again in order to help enlighten and liberate others, Jupiter in Scorpio will support persevering through uncomfortable truths in order to engage the world wholeheartedly and to compassionately serve the greater good.  Jupiter in Scorpio will support testing and probing our beliefs, discovering where we are truly being mindful in the moment and where we have been led into deception.”

Andrew Wyeth trodden weed

Trodden Weed by Andrew Wyeth

Venus is important to reflect upon at the New Moon not only because it is co-present with the lunation in Scorpio and applying to a square with the lunar nodes, but also because it has entered it’s liminal phase of invisibility, disappearing from morning skies under the beams of the Sun.  At this point in her cycle, Venus is on the far side of the Sun from us slowly approaching her Superior Conjunction with the Sun that will eventually occur at nineteen degrees of Capricorn on January 8, 2018.  Since Venus is heading toward a union with our Sun that will occur in close proximity to Pluto in Capricorn, there is a degree of foreshadowing happening in terms of Pluto being tightly bound to the meaning of the Scorpio New Moon.  As Venus descends into the underworld of her invisible phase, we may notice elements of past Venusian attachments stripping away while other elements of Venusian desire begin to take on greater prominence.

Finally, it is important to realize that we have the waxing half of the forthcoming lunar cycle to bask in the glory of Mercury shining bright as an Evening Star on its way toward a union with Saturn near the degrees of our Galactic Center.  Mercury will ultimately station retrograde close in timing with the upcoming Full Moon in Gemini, but within the darkening twilight of the Scorpio New Moon the Star of Hermes continues to bring illumination.  While this is a strong phase of Mercury for reflection and integration of recent experiences, we have also already entered the “Mercury retrograde shadow zone” of the zodiacal terrain that Mercury will later return to retrograde a second time, ultimately moving back through again a third time.  Therefore, its a good idea to check out the range of the upcoming Mercury retrograde from thirteen to twenty-nine degrees of Sagittarius and how it impacts your natal chart, and beginning to sense if you can feel what changes are coming with the upcoming retrograde movement and what elements of your life with become an important focus of attention as we head into 2018.

7_cups_RWS_lg

7 of Cups by Pamela Colman Smith

Scorpio 3 Decan

The New Moon falls in the third face of Scorpio associated with the Seven of Cups card illustrated above by Pamela Colman Smith.  In the image each of the seven chalices holds an embodiment of a desire, such as fame, fortune, lust and other earthly powers.  The veiled figure in the center brings to mind the burning desire of Sophia in gnostic texts to gain ultimate understanding, a desire it is said that cast a veil whose shadow became the material world we traverse often overwhelmed by desire like the shadowy figure in the image.  Some interpret the image as signifying that through discernment we may choose to follow the one desire that will bring clarity needed to make choices aligned with our inner values and desires.

Austin Coppock in his book on the decans 36 Faces linked the Seven of Cups to the third face of Scorpio through their shared meaning of becoming dominated by obsessive desires.   Coppock ascribed the image of “A Crow” to the third decan of Scorpio, noting that the essence of this face involves the putrefaction of desire that leads to direct contact with the nature of desire.  Coppock posited that through the loss of unfulfilled desire, the process of separating our desire from the external objects of desires brings the ability to reseed and regenerate core desires.  Coppock wrote that the third face of Scorpio contains a “formula of liberation, for if we were not capable of laying our desires to rest, returning them to pure energy, we would be enchained forever, prisoners of what we once held dear.”

While Coppock pointed out that many older images associated with the decan hold the symbolism of drunken, uncontrolled desires of a ferocious and violent quality, I am most intrigued by an image in the Liber Hermetis that contains “a human body and the form of a he-goat, holding eggs hanging from a thread in both hands.”  The eggs strung by thread suggests to me a meaning we can find in the final face of Scorpio that involves the fertility of destiny and the ripening of the moment.  Along these lines, it is further fascinating to consider that the ancient Hellenistic fragmentary text 36 Airs ascribed Kairos to the third face of Scorpio.  You are likely familiar with the term kairos referring to the opportune moment for something to occur that is not confined to the demands of chronological time.  Yet Kairos in Greek myth was the youngest son of Zeus as well as the lover of Fortuna, an embodiment of luck and favorable opportunities.  Kairos was seen as always moving with winged feet, carrying a razor or scales that represent the fleeting moment in which opportunity comes and goes, the moment we need to seize and not neglect.

The Moon rules the third face of Scorpio in the triplicity rulership scheme, lending added potency to the New Moon and unlocking the gates of this decan’s meaning.  The square from Mars to Pluto brings the fires of urgency to the moment so that we will be ready to take action when the opportune moment arises.  The time has come to let go of what has come to pass, opening fully to the soulful desires felt within the presence of our quiet contemplation.

Joy is inexpressibly more than happiness. Happiness befalls people, happiness is fate, while people cause joy to bloom inside themselves.  Joy is plainly a good season for the heart; joy is the ultimate achievement of which humans are capable.

— Rainer Maria Rilke

References

Coppock, Austin. (2014). 36 Faces: The History, Astrology and Magic of the Decans. Three Hands Press.

Rilke, Rainer Maria (2006). Letters on Life. Edited and translated by Ulrich Baer. The Modern Library Classics.

Scorpio New Moon

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beau-v-tree-branch-cloud

photograph by Beau Vandendolder (2016 all rights reserved)

New Moon in Scorpio

Just feeling human
the way a cloud’s a cloud
tinged with blue or
walking slow across the sky or
hastening,
but not a Thursday cloud
formed for the anxious glance of Thursday people,
simply a cloud, whose particles
may fall Tuesday, just as well,
on anyone’s spring hair, on any
taciturn winter buds it chooses
and no one say no. Human,
free for the day from roles assigned,
each with its emblem
cluttering the right hand,
scroll of words in the left.
Human, a kind of element, a fire,
an air, today.
Floating up to you I enter, or you
enter me. Or imagine
a house without doors,
open to sun or snowdrifts.

— Denise Levertov, “Today” from To Stay Alive 

Water flows inexorably and like our desires will dissolve blockages in the currents of its path.  Scorpio like all water signs in astrology is inwardly directed, magnetic, receptive, and capable of allowing life and events to take shape according to natural cycles instead of focusing upon speeding up the timing.  The watery nature of Scorpio symbolizes its capacity to tap deeply into the psychic and emotional content of its environment, as well as its ability to merge and transmute with external relationships and sources of power.  Scorpio is distinct among the water signs, however, in its fixated nature and its association with the heated, aggressive, divisive, and willful force of Mars.  The apparent paradox of a cold and wet sign such as Scorpio being home to Mars, a planet whose temperament in astrology is considered to be excessively hot and dry, becomes clear when contemplating concepts such as yin and yang.  There is a line in Zhāng Jièbīn’s Lèi Jīng which can be translated as the generation of qì inside water is precisely true fire.  This relates to what we can also find in the symbolism of the yin and yang image, in which yang is found within yin, just as yin is found within yang.  Scorpio as the nocturnal home of the nocturnal planet Mars in astrology signifies the deep essence of our fiery nature we can discover within.

Astrologers have written excessively about the symbolic resonance of Scorpio with the season of Fall, and while this association with the depth and fertile darkness of Scorpio fits, the issue remains that in the Southern hemisphere the season of Scorpio is at the fullness of Spring.  The important concept here is that Scorpio is a fixed sign, meaning that it supports stabilization, even if the stability of the Scorpion differs from mainstream conceptions of being stable.  The seasons of Spring and Fall are extremes of life and bloom, death and decay, that we experience in between the season of equinox and the season of solstice.  Although these seasons are associated with the “Fixed” signs, they are temporary and transitory like all of the changing nature of our material world and we must witness their loss and passing like everything else.  The persistent, persevering nature of Scorpio and its ability to penetrate into the emotional and psychic undercurrents of its circumstances is one of the sign’s greatest strengths.  However, its fixed nature is the source of the Scorpion’s shadow we are familiar with, in that fear of losing the source of one’s desire leads to controlling behavior that can ultimately drain the vitality out of their connection.  The lesson we experience in Scorpio is in letting go and having a healthy level of non-attachment with our desires. This does not mean being detached, but rather embodying the intimacy of Scorpio without the fixated obsession of manipulating the object of one’s desires.

The Scorpio New Moon on 30 October 2016 is conjoining Mercury while in trine to Neptune in Pisces.  It’s ruling planet Mars is exalted in Capricorn and separating from a square with Uranus.  Significantly, in the past lunation cycle Mars moved away from a conjunction with Pluto in Capricorn and then formed a last quarter square to Uranus in Aries.  During this period Mars has been out of bounds by declination, and in fact has been out of bounds since August 2016.  Mars out of bounds is wilder and more rebellious, which dramatically exacerbated the catalytic square between Mars and Uranus that occurred in the Dark Moon preceding the New Moon.  At the time of the New Moon in Scorpio, however, Mars is finally at the threshold of leaving its out of bounds status.  The Scorpio New Moon supports accessing ambition from within that has been limited by past restrictive patterns of thought and emotion.  Any recent jarring, explosive experiences can be used to untether us from how we have held ourselves back.  The desires emerging with the Scorpio New Moon call for nurturing and cultivation, and allowing ourselves to be guided by unleashed instincts and impulses.

beau-vandendolder-sound-trees

Photograph by Beau Vandendolder (2016, all rights reserved)

The trine between the Scorpio New Moon and Neptune in Pisces gives emphasis to the imaginal realm of Neptune that has been in harsh aspect to the hard reality of Saturn in Sagittarius over the past year.  The darkness of the Scorpio New Moon invites allowing dissolution to occur while opening to the feelings emerging from within.  Neptune in Pisces is conjoining the South Node of the Moon in Pisces, and will become increasingly close to the South Node of the Moon over the course of the next month.  In the collective unconscious there has been old conditioning beliefs and dreams exposed that the luminaries uniting in Scorpio can cleanse, and as we purify ourselves from the corruption of external conditioning misaligned with our authenticity, the resilient fecundity of Scorpio can aid in realigning with distilled essentiality.

The Scorpio New Moon supports nurturing belief that our cherished dreams and visions are possible to manifest, no matter how many wounds and barriers we have struggled through over the past year of the square between Saturn and Neptune.  With Mars in Capricorn finally emerging from its recent contacts with Pluto and Uranus, there is activated drive and will force available to inject into building the ideal life we wish to live step by step, action by action.  Unfortunately in our global collective, the wildness of Mars empowered in Capricorn and triggered by Pluto and Uranus has coincided with horrific destruction, violence and warfare in world events, leading many to experience a dark night of the soul.   Nonetheless, we can draw from the potency of Mars in the final decan of Capricorn to persist with determination on our own path, utilizing the mutable placement of Saturn in Sagittarius to shift and mutate structures as needed to accommodate the unavoidable change happening.

beau-v-tree-branch-stretch-river

photograph by Beau Vandendolder (2016, all rights reserved)

The transiting North Node of the Moon in Virgo forms a sextile with the Scorpio New Moon, signifying an ability to discern purified choices resonant with our arising vision of meaning.  The North Node of the Moon is further bound to the Scorpio New Moon through its ruler Mercury forming a sextile to the North Node and a conjunction with the New Moon.  Mercury in Scorpio is at beginning of its synodic cycle with the Sun at the New Moon, and further in trine to Neptune and the South Node of the Moon in Pisces. There is a deep presence to be found within the volatility of Mercury, and though it may feel difficult to articulate the full extent of our perceptions it will be worthwhile to make space to descend into internal streams of sensations that may only be able to be transmitted through nonverbal and extrasensory mediums.  As the Moon waxes toward the Full Moon in Taurus that will arrive on 14 November, Mercury will remain invisible from the sky as it swiftly moves through the entirety of Scorpio, capable of soaking up and translating the emotional undercurrents surrounding us.

beau-v-fall-tree

photograph by Beau Vandendolder (2016, all rights reserved)

And virtue? Virtue lies in the heroic response to the creative wonder, the utmost response.

— D.H. Lawrence

Although not in actual aspect to the lunation itself, one of the most powerful elements of the Scorpio New Moon is the new phase conjunction between Venus and Saturn in Sagittarius (the last conjunction of Venus with Saturn was on 8 January 2016 at 12 degrees of Sagittarius).  Venus combined with Saturn pulls us into the bare bones of reality and demands we become serious and committed to developing the foundational supports for the vision of what will bring us pleasure and a sense of harmony.  Saturn and Venus together is also about allowing to decay and putrefy whatever needs to now become decomposed to allow for change and new birth.  In his essay on Saturn entitled On Senex Consciousness, James Hillman in his typically verbose style illuminated numerous connections between Kronos-Saturn and Aphrodite-Venus, such as Saturn’s link to fertility and agriculture, prosperity and materialism being a feminine mirror to the earthiness of goddesses.  Hillman also connected the Saturnine trials that result from Venusian affairs, and the difficult feelings that can come from a meeting between Saturn and Venus:

The hidden connection between falling-in-love with the dazzling seduction of foam-borne Aphrodite and the seed and scythe of old senex is not easy to discern.  But how else account for the terrible cruelties, the vicious eat-or-be-eaten fights that break out of the most translucently lovely love affairs?  And, when Venus departs, Saturn returns with brooding melancholy, devastating loneliness feelings of ugliness- even psychic crippling or suicide.

— James Hillman, On Senex Consciousness

The new phase between Saturn and Venus beginning at the time of the Scorpio New Moon is not about debilitating cycles of feelings and thoughts, but rather is about taking complete accountability for one’s presence within one’s myriad relationships in the world.    Saturn together with Venus points to the karmic effects of feeling drawn toward and deciding to commit to a desired person or outside source.  By choosing one to focus upon, there is a resulting detachment or rejection of others necessitated by our decision to commit exclusively.  The Scorpio New Moon asks us to choose wisely, to align and merge with those most capable of receiving and understanding us, deciding to collaborate with those most able to support us with interdependent and balanced equality.  Saturn and Venus want us to seize life and create opportunities for peak experiences whose impact will continue to reverberate within.  Saturn is containing a volatile Venus, as Venus will have recently crossed the threshold into being out of bounds by declination at the New Moon.  The wild side of Venus will be further amplified by it forming a trine to Uranus as the Moon waxes in light, remaining as a rebellious out of bounds planet all the way through the upcoming lunation cycle.

cups05

5 of Cups by Pamela Colman Smith

Scorpio 1 Decan

The first face of Scorpio holding the New Moon is associated with the Five of Cups card illustrated above by Pamela Colman Smith. The image appears desolate at first glance, with a figure full of despair staring with fixation upon three spilled, empty chalices on the ground. However, upon closer look we notice that there are still two upright chalices behind the figure, suggesting hope.  In fact, the two remaining cups could be deeply fulfilling despite the grief over losing the other three cups. We can also notice a river flowing underneath a bridge behind the figure, bringing in the ancient flux philosophy of Heraclitus that no one ever steps in the same river twice since the river is always changing as well as the person. As a result, this card is a fitting image to associate with the first decan of Scorpio as it captures the fundamental nature of having desires within our constantly shifting world in which we must deal with death and the loss of what we desire most in the world.

Austin Coppock in his book on the decans 36 Faces synthesized the images found in ancient text associated with this face around the repeating cycle of desire, including consuming hunger, the satiation of desire, the loss of what one desires, and the competition and violence that surrounds pursuing the desired. Coppock concluded:

In this decan we are brought to confront the cycle of hungers which are the price and pleasure of incarnate being. The object of desire always skirts the edges of this face while its inhabitants give chase. Some gain the object of their desire, some fail. All come to know hunger again. Though this may seem a particularly tortured decan, it is merely one which exposes a hard truth. Confronting the cycle, we are less bound to it, and less blind, than if we ignore it.

— Austin Coppock, 36 Faces, p. 176

Mars rules the first face of Scorpio, and since Mars is in the third decan of Capricorn ruled by the Sun, while the Sun is in the first decan of Scorpio ruled by Mars, there is mutual reception through decan between the Sun and Mars at the Scorpio New Moon.  This brings more of a connection between the Scorpio New Moon with the square formed by Mars in Capricorn with Uranus in Aries.  While a square between Mars and Uranus can bring unexpected, shocking loss, it can also spark incredible individuating growth through the toil of adversity.   Mars in hard aspect to Uranus can also bring revelation into the cycle of desires we have been circulating.  Through facing our desires fully without denial, we develop awareness for which desires to continue pursuing and which desires are not in our best interest to regenerate.  The Scorpio New Moon beckons the release of attachment to whatever desires are not manifesting in our life in the moment, while embracing all elements of our actual reality with full presence and passion.

References

Coppock, Austin. (2014). 36 Faces: The History, Astrology and Magic of the Decans. Three Hands Press.

Levertov, Denise. (2013). Collected Poems. New Directions.

Hillman, James. (1970). On Senex Consciousness. Spring: An Annual of Archetypal Psychology and Jungian Thought.

Wilms, Sabine. (2016). Randomn Thoughts on “Water is Yin, Fire is Yang.”  Happy Goat Productions.

New Moon in Scorpio

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New Moon in Scorpio

Night Creatures (1965) by Lee Krasner

Scorpio New Moon

The New Moon in Scorpio on November 11, 2015 envelopes the setting of intention within the deep waters of Scorpio.  Scorpio is the home of Mars, also associated by modern astrologers with Pluto and the soulful source of our desires.  A Scorpio New Moon compels us to dive into desire and feel the whettening of appetite for that which enflames our passion from within.  Scorpio is a fixed sign, and though Scorpio holds potential for transformation at a core level, Scorpio also involves fixation and refusal to let go of an object of desire.  For example in relationships, Scorpio can erupt in emotional manipulation that attempts to control and keep the desired partner at all costs.  While one can give advice to release attachment to desires that honest reflection reveals are no longer fruitful, when under the sway of Scorpio resistance can be futile.  Even though we know from experience that the realization of certain desires do not bring us genuine fulfillment, we flow with the desire nonetheless wedded to memories of fulfilled desires that brought essential satisfaction.  Wherever our current desires are leading us, in the darkness of a Scorpio New Moon we can tap into a visceral feel for our inner passions.  With the New Moon conjoining Mercury and in sextile to both Jupiter and Pluto, we will have amplified ability to probe deeply into the foundational undercurrents of our desires.

This New Moon is pivotal for numerous reasons, in part because it follows shortly after the cross-quarter marker of the Sun passing fifteen degrees of Scorpio, marking the mid-point of Fall in the northern hemisphere and Spring in the southern hemisphere.  This New Moon also comes with Venus having entered her home sign of Libra and separating from a conjunction with the North Node of the Moon, as Mars the ruler of the New Moon is applying closely to a conjunction with the North Node of the Moon.  Soon after the moment of the New Moon the true calculation of the lunar nodes will shift from Aries and Libra to the South Node of the Moon being in Pisces and the North Node of the Moon being in Virgo, ending the twenty-one month journey that began when the lunar nodes entered Aries and Libra in mid-February 2014.  Furthermore, the lunar cycle beginning with this New Moon will bring us the first exact last quarter square between Saturn and Neptune in their current cycle, as at the time of the following Full Moon they will enter an exact square.

Mercury in Scorpio is also in an important transition phase as this new lunar cycle commences, closely conjoining the New Moon while combust the Sun.  As the New Moon waxes toward it’s first quarter phase in the following week, Mercury will enter the heart of the Sun at its superior conjunction on November 17.  The superior conjunction has a different symbolic meaning than the psychopomp underworld association of Mercury uniting with the Sun while retrograde at the inferior conjunction.  In our current phase of Mercury, the angelic messenger is soaring into celestial realms on the far side of the Sun from us, creating openings for an onrush of epiphanies and insights.  As our minds can feel overwhelmed with a lot of information to process, slowing down enough to take in our full perception will help access the penetrating inquiry available with a superior conjunction of Mercury in Scorpio. Mercury uniting with the Sun in Scorpio can delve to the bottom line dynamic of any circumstance with brutal honesty, and it is likely secrets and hypocrisies will be revealed.

Mercury in Scorpio is further magnified by the Scorpio New Moon conjoining both the geocentric North Node and South Node of Mercury, as well as the heliocentric South Node of Mercury.  Considering that Mercury in astrology directs the discerning functions of our consciousness, this nodal activation of Mercury by the New Moon in Scorpio can unveil the roots of our perception and its connection to our current patterns of communication.  We can gain increased understanding of our underlying desires leading us to perceive and communicate in our current state. As the heliocentric South Node of Mercury is also activated, there is deep inquiry also available on a collective level into the shadow side of society and the underbelly driving current mass movements of feeling.

Carl Jung from his Red Book

from The Red Book (Liber Novus) by Carl Jung

Mars in Virgo rules the New Moon in the sign of Mercury, while the New Moon is conjoining not only Mercury but also the South Node of Mars.  Mars is further electrified by applying closely to a conjunction with the North Node of the Moon at the time of the New Moon.  The North Node of the Moon is Rahu, the desirous head of the dragon hungry to devour our Lights at the times of eclipses, and associated in evolutionary astrology with the leading edge of our desire nature that propels us forward in our development.  As a result this New Moon is ideal for harnessing burning desires to focused intentions formed with Mercurial attention to detail and planning for martial action.  As the South Node of Mars is also activated, it is yet another indication that we can come to a more holistic understanding of our current desires, including our dark side so to speak, the unconscious influences on our conscious will force.  It will be a potent New Moon from which to launch a new initiative of pure intent.

The potency of the Scorpio New Moon to fuel expansive new vision is further seen in it being sextile to both Jupiter in Virgo and Pluto in Capricorn, and by it facilitating the polarity of Chiron in Pisces opposing Jupiter in Virgo through the New Moon being trine to Chiron and being sextile to Jupiter.  In particular, if our hearts have been set upon a desire, goal, or vision for a length of time while withstanding numerous setbacks, our patience and determination could be rewarded with an associated breakthrough with the inception of this New Moon.  We may notice a lot of restructuring and realigning of organizations in our environment in correlation, and we likewise have the opportunity to restructure our home environment, work environment, and even our inner psychology.  If you have a tendency to intellectualize and rationally detach from circumstances, make more of an effort to emotionally center and be present in your body so as to attune to the ever changing moment of the material realm.  This New Moon holding stabilizing, fertile aspects between Jupiter, Chiron, and Pluto in water and earth signs suggests we can reorient toward being better able to manifest a more expansive vision for our life.

An additional ingredient to the generative capacity of this Scorpio New Moon is that Venus has returned to her home of Libra, and is separating from a conjunction with the North Node of the Moon and applying to a sextile with Saturn in Sagittarius.  Venus in Libra is outwardly focused and her beauteous gaze will be focused upon relationships that will support and help to stabilize the endeavors fueled by our desires.  The sextile from Venus to Saturn corresponds with opportunities to structure our environment and build a foundational form that will be able to buttress our desires for Venusian pleasure in the face of any inclement weather on the horizon.  As a result, this New Moon supports taking direct action to protect what is dear to our hearts and to create the necessary related structural reinforcements in our life, and could prove difficult for those procrastinating or spending idle hours in escapist pastimes.

Saturn square Neptune

from Spectropia; or, Surprising Spectral Illusions (1865) by J.H. Brown

Saturn square Neptune

During this lunar cycle the Saturn and Neptune square will be building each day until it culminates at the time of the upcoming Full Moon in Gemini.  Hellenistic astrology techniques suggest that Saturn in Sagittarius is in the superior position of this square and will overcome Neptune in Pisces, but there is an important additional development in the coming lunar cycle:  Neptune will station direct in Pisces on November 18, a day after Mercury unites with the Sun.  Neptune stationing gives it added emphasis and potency at this time, and the superior conjunction of Mercury in Scorpio happening at the same time could tap us into other realms of perception that go beyond the limitations of Saturn.  While Saturn may be in the superior position in its square to Neptune, our Saturn constructs of reality will be vulnerable to becoming dissolved in the waves of Neptune.

If we are carrying a dream and vision of pure heart that we are capable of manifesting with determined effort, then the solution to the tension created by the square between Saturn and Neptune will be to make sure we are responsibly attending to all facets of what needs to be done to achieve our goal.   Saturn and Neptune are forming a last quarter square suggesting that the bigger the dream and vision the better, as the energy of this aspect calls for a reorientation of how we have been constructing our reality.  The last quarter square between Saturn and Neptune does not automatically spell doom for big dreams, but it does spell doom for any illusions we have been under the influence of.  This includes illusions of being smaller and more limited than we actually are, which is why trying to play it safe at this time is not a real solution to the challenges brought forth by Saturn in square to Neptune.

There is likewise a strong possibility of becoming disillusioned with past belief systems, with society, with humanity, with others in our relationships, and even with ourselves as the Saturn and Neptune square builds in intensity each day.  In particular those who have been dishonest and cloaked in lies, secrets, and hypocrisy could be revealed.  Bearing in mind the meaning of the last quarter square between Saturn and Neptune, famously called a “crisis in consciousness” by Dane Rudhyar, this disillusionment is a fundamental aspect to a reorientation process underway that in this case is opening us to the interplay between our Saturnine structures and the transpersonal realm of Neptune.  This is also only the first exact last quarter square between Saturn and Neptune, as we have two more coming in 2016.  When there is a such a powerful repeating aspect in astrology, oftentimes it is the first aspect that feels the most chaotic and unsettling.  The point is that we have a long road ahead of us involving this square and as the structure of our consciousness and belief systems begin to shift in correlation, we will begin to recenter and stabilize in our newfound perspective.

Scorpio II Decan

Six of Cups by Pamela Colman Smith

Scorpio II Decan

The Scorpio New Moon is in the second decan of Scorpio, a decan ruled by the Sun and associated with the 6 of Cups card in tarot.  It is an auspicious sign that the Sun governs this face since we are at a New Moon, meaning that our Lunar Light is regenerating in the rays of our Solar Light.  In the image of the 6 of Cups, we find the child-like innocence of purely giving for the pleasure of giving and receiving the joy of witnessing gratitude upon the face of the recipient.  Astrologer Austin Coppock in his book on the decans 36 Faces ascribed the image of “An Apparatus for Mutual Distillation” to the Scorpio II decan, as it is a face in which the desires of Scorpio interchange in commerce with another:

The parties here [in the 6 of Cups image] are children and their affection for one another is natural and unconditioned.  The pleasure signified is thus that which accompanies the expression of passion unencumbered by pretension or decorum.  It is a vision of ideal exchange between two parties, poignant and perfect.

The dynamic suggested by the children is identical to the alchemical process of mutual distillation, wherein the matter passes back and forth between on alembic and another, growing increasingly rarefied and potent. The laboratory technique of mutual distillation can be embodied, as well. A whole category of Taoist sexual energy practice, referred to as dual cultivation, involves exactly this exchange between partners. This process combines and distills the sexual energy both parties possess, resulting in a finer nectar than either could produce on their own. Though it is easy to imagine these dynamics between romantic partners, all relationships which rely on trust and continuous exchange generate such circuits (p. 180-1).

Coppock further discerned that in order to cultivate mutual satisfaction in relationships we must have trust, intimacy, and vulnerability present. Noting the image by Ibn Ezra for the Scorpio II decan, who described “A woman who has left her house; she is naked and has nothing on and she is entering the sea,” Coppock suggested that we need to be careful whom we open ourselves bare to, because the “virtuous circuit of exchange can become vicious in this face . . . the process of dual cultivation becomes one of mutual degradation, each destroying the quality of the other with each pass” (p 181).

As a result this is a New Moon in which to embrace honest communication and vulnerability with those you wish to deepen bonds of intimacy.  As the square between Saturn and Neptune is simultaneously building, we may need to navigate some toxic exchanges with others at times as glass windows of illusion are shattered.  At the same time, this New Moon holds some beautiful aspects to deepen our most important relationships with each partner opening to a fuller realization of the reality and desires of the other.  The Full Moon that follows at the end of November carries momentous, breakthrough astrological aspects, and so we are now at a key moment of inception to launch new work filled with deepening collaboration from.