Tag Archives: Scorpio

Let’s Talk about Mars and Pluto

It’s Scorpio season, a time of darkening. The sun moved into Scorpio on October 22nd. Scorpio season is one of transformation. In the Northern Hemisphere, the leaves are changing and falling, the air (for some) is getting colder, and there’s a holiday smack in the middle of it when people dress as ghosts and focus on death.

This Scorpio season, the big astrological story is an appropriately timed opposition between Mars and Pluto. You want it darker? Mars will be at the very last degree of Cancer, and Pluto at the very last degree of Capricorn. This will be exact on November 3rd, but we’re already feeling this, and this energy will be very present during the new moon in Scorpio on November 1st.

An opposition is like a culmination point, often with difficulty surrounding it, like the agonizing climb up last terrain to scale before arriving at the apex (I mean, I assume, I’ve never rock-climbed). Mars is the planet of action and drive, and Pluto is the planet of power. Cancer is a sign that’s about nurturing and the familial but also about tribalism. Pluto’s at the last degree of Capricorn for the very last time (finally) for hundreds of years, and Capricorn is a sign that is about power and structure, especially deeply entrenched structures, like capitalism and patriarchy.

So this opposition, which occurs right before Election Day in the U.S., signifies a struggle and ultimate culmination between actions and entrenched power. And with Cancer’s significations  encompassing both family and motherhood one on hand and tribalism and nativism on the other, we’re seeing two strands of aggression and activity. For many, this time is about trying to chip away at the patriarchal structures and people that have been and are currently trying to stymie the power of women in myriad ways, the most prominent being limiting bodily autonomy; for another bloc, it’s a fight to hang on to power, what they see as preserving their ideal version of this country, based on identification with whiteness, maleness, and wealth. 

No big deal, right? 

Here’s where we need to pull the focus in. A lot of astrologers have been pretty freaked out by the Mars-Pluto opposition and rightfully so (I started writing this before the Tr**p r*lly at the Garden, but that level of darkness feels very Mars opp Pluto). When we talk about the themes, we’re talking big picture, 40,000 feet type stuff. But in your own individual life, this really just could mean that you vote, in the way you plan to, and for a few weeks, you have to deal with some frustrating, disgusting, and anxiety-evoking news in the zeitgeist. It’s probably going to feel scary at its worst and mostly infuriating. It’s a good time to remember to set screen time limits and not doom scroll even though it’s going to be really tempting, with the Sun in Scorpio, a sign that is associated with obsession and compulsion. The shadow side of Scorpio wants you to allow yourself to dive deeper into a pit of rage and disgust. The more enlightened side wants you to trust your inner knowing and recognize others for exactly who they are, with crystalline precision and with no rose-colored illusions.

After the election in 2016, I felt totally untethered, as if I was waking up to an alternate reality. I could be a fool, or maybe it’s because I’ve since started taking Zoloft (shoutout to modern medicine!), but I don’t feel that way now. Will that change after November? Unclear. But even with all the absolutely horrific things happening in the world, I am hopeful. Is it because Pluto’s going to go into Aquarius, and we’ll all be able to upload our souls to the cloud and live eternally as part of some physics of the universe that we’re not even aware of yet? TBD!

This dark, fraught energy we’re experiencing now shifts in mid November, and late November gets easier, so hang in there and try to weather the current shitstorm until then.

New Moon in Scorpio

In the early morning hours (4:27 am EST) of Monday, November 13th, there is a new moon in Scorpio. New moons, occurring when the sun and moon are aligned, kick off new lunar cycles. We’re experiencing this new moon in Scorpio on the heels of the conclusion of the Scorpio-Taurus eclipses that began in late 2021. So it’s a chance to plant new seeds in the same areas of our lives that were undergoing cycles of beginnings and endings over the last couple years.

This particular new moon has a volatile energy. It’s in Scorpio, a sign of deep intensity and transformation, which is ruled by Mars. Mars is also in Scorpio now and it’s sitting right next to this sun and moon combo. Mars in Scorpio can utilize its strengths, which is a good placement for concerted action. However, Uranus is currently in Taurus, opposite the moon, the sun, and Mars. Uranus, the planet that signifies disruption and revolt (among other more specific things, such as electricity and earthquakes), creates tension with our plans of actions. I noted in my Scorpio season post that even though this is the first lunation post-eclipses, it still has a very eclipse feel to it because of the Mars-Uranus presence. 

If we are deliberate about what we want to achieve this new moon, this Uranus placement is likely going to throw us some curveballs. Uranus is an outer planet, so its transits generally affect the collective more than the individual. While you are encouraged to plant new seeds and set intentions for this new moon, it’s against the backdrop of the wildness out in the world. 

With Mars and Uranus in the mix, you may be feeling anxious, like you can’t sit still. Practice mindfulness and breathwork, and as much as you can, try to just go with the flow. The universe may show you the new beginnings coming with this cycle instead of you carefully charting them out yourself.

To see which area of your life this new moon is highlighting, read below, first for your rising sign if you know it, then for your sun sign. And if you have any of the personal planets (sun, moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars) or sensitive points (the ascendant a.k.a, your rising, the midheaven, the IC, or descendant) on or around 20-22 degrees of a fixed sign (Scorpio, Taurus, Aquarius, or Leo), you’ll be feeling this new moon more acutely than most. (And if you want a reading, hit me up!)

Scorpio & Scorpio Rising: New moon, new you. The eclipses of the last couple years have likely been felt pretty majorly by you. Have you seen changes and evolution to your sense of self and your closest relationships over that period? This new moon, you can reflect on what has changed and the growth that you want to experience going forward. This new moon in your sign gives you the opportunity to set intentions for further evolution of self, whatever that means for you–getting more grounded, becoming more active through exercise, using your voice more to speak out for the issues you’re passionate about, etc. Now’s the time to set those goals.

Sagittarius & Sag Rising: New moons can sap our energy, and this one is particularly exhausting. You’re often on the go, exploring, traveling, and wanting to embark on the next adventure, but this new moon is an opportunity for resting. You may feel isolated, but embrace alone time during this new moon. You don’t always have to be on the move. It’s a great time to newly commit to or reinvigorate a meditation practice and journaling routine. Sleep and write about the dreams you remember to get more insight into your deepest needs and fears.

Capricorn & Cap Rising: This new moon is occurring in your house of friendships and community. You may have a new experience that leads to meeting new friends or building new relationships within a collective. This is also a time when you may feel a spark of motivation to more openly voice your concerns and raise awareness about the causes important to you. If you’ve been sitting on the sidelines with regard to issues you feel strongly about up to now, this new moon may usher in the desire to take action.

Aquarius & Aquarius Rising: During this time, you may be planting the seeds of a new career opportunity or starting a project that will ultimately bring you some public recognition. With new moons in the 10th house, at the top of your chart, it’s a opportunity to lay the groundwork for whatever it is you’re hoping to achieve in the public realm. You may have seen some changes in your career coincide with the eclipses over the last two years. With Scorpio in the 10th, you bring an intensity to your career and can do whatever you set your mind to. This new moon is a good time for setting intentions to help you get what you want.

Pisces & Pisces Rising: If a class or a new intellectual or spiritual pursuit piques your interest, explore it. With Saturn traveling through your sign for the next few years, if you do sign up for classes or a certification of some kind or an apprenticeship, your ability to master whatever you are learning is bolstered. Or maybe you’re already an expert in a topic, and it’s time for you to look for teaching gigs or ways you can share what you know. You may be asked to take on a mentoring or a tutoring role this new moon.

Aries & Aries Rising: Aries is rarely passive, but this new moon is about what comes your way from others. This can be in financial form; you may see some money paid out to you, or you may get a bill for something you didn’t know you owed. This can also be in the form of the emotional baggage we get from others, so people may be venting to you a little bit more or those you know may seem to expect more emotional labor from you than normal. If you start to feel out of control of situations and are experiencing a lot of nervous energy, focus inward and do whatever you need to do (exercise, furious journaling, lighting candles) to get zen. 

Taurus & Taurus Rising: If you aren’t in a relationship but want to be, this is a great time for trying to meet someone. With Venus, your chart ruler, in Libra, you’ve got its benevolence on your side. People want to get a little deeper and find commitment, so get yourself out there. If you’re already in a committed relationship, this is a good time for deepening your bond with your partner. You may make a new discovery about yourself or have an aha moment that will impact your current relationship and inspire some new emotional connection between you. 

Gemini & Gemini Rising: Gemini is not a sign that is associated with deep, long-lasting commitment, but during this new moon in Scorpio, this is a time to get to work and set intentions for the everyday that can be sustained long-term. If you can deepen your concentration in the area of your work life, you may reap the rewards in the long run through process improvements or new ideas you implement now. If you’ve been having some health issues pull into focus recently, this is also a good time to commit to routines that address those, which could mean changing your diet, sleep patterns, or wellness practices.

Cancer & Cancer Rising: For Cancers, Scorpio rules your house of creativity, fun, and children. This new moon may initiate a spark of inspiration for a new creative project. This could be the time when you start writing your novel, in the dark early mornings in front of your SAD lamp. Dive deeply into your passions with this new moon. Explore your artistic side and your sensuality. This time could also represent the start of a new cycle involving your children, or you could find that you are welcoming children into your life in some way.

Leo & Leo Rising: This new moon brings new routines at home. They may be due to something that arises unexpectedly or it could be the result of planning you have done, but there’s a new phase in how you are dealing with your home and possibly your family. You could be setting new boundaries with your loved ones or taking on a home improvement project. Don’t let the Uranus-Mars tension and nervousness get the best of you. Your home life should be the grounding source of comfort for you, so with any changes that are happening now, try to take them in stride and relish the time you’re home and find strength in it.

Virgo & Virgo Rising: The new moon in Scorpio is in your 3rd house. Your siblings, if you have any, may be experiencing new beginnings or life changes, or there may be a particular focus on your communication and/or relationship with them at this time. You may also be kindling some new relationships in your neighborhood. This new moon offers you the opportunity to deepen your communication with your neighbors, your networks, your friends, and your sister(s). It’s also a good time to plan for a quick getaway locally if you’re feeling taxed or drained and need a break.

Libra & Libra Rising: With this new moon in Scorpio, the focus is on what you value, your resources, and how you make your living. It’s a time for looking at your multi-year plan for your finances, your job, and how you can build your savings. Venus is in Libra right now, so you’ve got your chart ruler in its domicile, which gives you an extra boost in this area. Venus rules that which we value, and Venus’s current placement is emboldening its strengths. This new moon, if you start to lay out how you want to make money and how you’re going to use those resources to achieve your goals, you’ve got Venus on your side for success that is sustainable.

For all: drink lots of water and get lots of rest! And take these horoscopes with a grain of salt; astrology is not fortune-telling, and these are just my interpretation of what’s going on in the current sky. 

Scorpio Season

On October 23rd, the sun moved into Scorpio, joining Mercury and Mars there. The Scorpio energy is potent.

Scorpio is about death and transformation, about intensity and depth. In the Northern Hemisphere, Scorpio season marks the time of the year when autumn steadily progresses toward its colder reaches. It gets darker, the leaves fall, and we fall back into standard time.

A fixed water sign, Scorpio can be symbolized by a deep, dark lake, seemingly still with a lot going under the surface. Mars rules Scorpio, which may seem counterintuitive because Mars is the planet associated with action and drive, but whereas Aries is the outward expression of that, Scorpio is the internal. Scorpios have ambition and drive, but they aren’t impulsive like Aries folks; they are more patient and focused. They lie in wait and then strike with precision when the time is right.

That doesn’t mean that Scorpios are all dark and brooding. As water signs they can be very sensitive and emotional but not necessarily emo. They want deep connections and have an intensity of feeling that can manifest in various ways, including profound love and righteous anger.

Scorpio season coincides with a time of the year when many of us turn more inward. It brings us Halloween and the pagan holiday Samhain, when there’s a focus on the spirit realm and the veil between it and us. We decorate our homes with skeletons and ghosts (well, I do). It’s a time for being attuned to those rhythms of life and death, the underworld and otherworlds.

Lou Reed’s beautiful “Halloween Parade” is a perfect encapsulation of Scorpio season. He wrote it in the late 80s at the height of the AIDS epidemic in NYC. You go to the Halloween Parade, a jubilant event, and don’t see the people you know because they’re now dead. It’s poignant and brutal. “This Halloween is something to be sure, especially to be here without you.” RIP Lou Reed (a Pisces king).

As we move through Scorpio season, there are some notable astrological transits occurring over the next few weeks. Appropriately, it’s going to be intense.

As soon as the sun enters Scorpio on the 23rd, it’s forming a trine, or helpful aspect, with Saturn at 0 degrees of Pisces, and this is exact on the 24th. We start Scorpio season with some steadiness and seriousness, with a focus on creating structures and boundaries.

On October 28th, Mars opposes Jupiter, and there is a full moon and lunar eclipse in Taurus. This the very last lunation of the Taurus-Scorpio eclipse cycle that started in November 2021, wrapping up whatever cycle of new beginnings you’ve had in your life between then and now. The energy is heightened and expansive. There’s a push and pull between our drives/deepest desires and the need for stability.

On October 29th, Mercury meets up with Mars, making our thinking and our communication with others extra potent and possibly sharp-tongued. We may see our words sting or cut deep, even if that is not the intent. This weekend is a good time for being mindful and conscientious about what you say to others.

On November 8th, Venus moves into Libra, its domicile, where it’s able to best express its energy. Jupiter and Uranus are still in Taurus, a Venus-ruled sign, which will now be answering to Venus in Libra. The vibe is super Venusian, which is helpful, given some of the other astrology coming up. If you have a Venus-ruled chart (Libra or Taurus rising), especially, you’ll feel a little more comfortable and lit up once Venus goes into Libra.

On November 10th, Mercury moves into Sagittarius, a mutable fire sign, and squares Saturn. Mercury doesn’t love Sagittarius because Sagittarius thinking is very big-picture, broad-stroke, and Mercury wants details. Especially with the square with Saturn, there may be some frustrations around our desire to get answers and details and systems or big structures making that difficult, causing some conflict. As Mercury progresses through Sag, we’ll see amplified communication about big, lofty ideas, but for those of us who want brass tacks discussions with nitty gritty details, this may be a challenging time.

On November 11th, Mars, still in Scorpio, opposes Uranus in Taurus. Then on November 13th, there is a new moon in Scorpio, meaning the sun and moon meet in the sky, and as they do, they approach that Mars-Uranus opposition. The energy is volatile. Whatever cycle that the new moon is kicking off, Uranus, the great disruptor, is doing what it can to fuck up the best laid plans. This new moon, even though it’s not an eclipse, has an eclipse-like vibe to it. The sun then chases Mars for several days, right on its heels but unable to catch it until November 18th. That whole week is going to feel extra charged.

More to come as we approach the new moon in a couple weeks. Check back for your new moon in Scorpio horoscope, and happy Halloween to those who celebrate.

The Solar Eclipse in Libra & the Astrology of Late

This Saturday, October 14th, there’s an annular solar eclipse in Libra. Annular solar eclipses are the ones where the moon is at its farthest point from earth and it doesn’t fully block the sun, so instead of total darkness you can see the glow of the sun around the perimeter of the moon, making it look like a ring of fire. 

People generally seem to get a little nutty when the eclipses approach, even though they occur several times a year. But as human beings, we likely have some genetic instinct to freak out a little around eclipses. Can you imagine living in a time before there was an understanding of astronomy, and every so often, the sun just disappeared? It would have been terrifying! Eclipses are loaded with meaning and inspire both anxiety and wonder. 

The eclipses, astrologically, mark a time when major events unfold. However, as I’ve written before, even though we may experience some major life changes around eclipse time, much of that depends on our specific birth charts. Some eclipses will be felt more deeply by you than others. Most people don’t experience jolting, life-altering events between 4 and 7 times a year, every year of their lives. Generally, personally, we tend to see themes play out in our lives over the entirety of an eclipse cycle (the 1-2 year period when the eclipses take place in a set of opposite signs). There are milestones and changes but they are a little more fluid and gradual.

During this Aries-Libra eclipse cycle, which began in April, the same themes I wrote about during the Aries full moon are the same ones that will play out in a more protracted way between last April and March 2025. To see if this particular eclipse may strongly affect you, check your birth chart to see if you have any personal planets (sun, moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars) or angles (ascendant aka your rising, descendant, midheaven, or IC) on or around 21 degrees of Libra, Aries, Cancer, or Capricorn.

In the world at large, though, eclipses are usually accompanied by some big news. And this time seems to be no exception. This week has been tumultuous and scary on a geopolitical level. However, there’s been a lot going on astrologically beyond just the coming eclipse on Saturday (and there’s a lunar eclipse in Taurus on October 29th), so I did want to call out that the intensity of this moment is not solely related to the upcoming eclipse. 

Last Sunday, Mars, the planet that represents action, drive, and aggression, formed a 90-degree angle with Pluto, the planet of life and death and transformation. The aspect the two planets were making (called a square) can be a tough one, marked by some conflict and usually a turning point. Definitely some parallels between these significations and global events.

Pluto, which had been retrograde since May, also stationed on Tuesday, at 27 degrees of Capricorn, which is exactly the same degree of Pluto in the US’s chart, and is now direct again. It’s the last gasp of the US’s Pluto return. Mars gained strength on October 12th, when it moved into Scorpio, a fixed water sign and its home base, where it can utilize its resources. Mars in Scorpio is about precision, intensity, and stealth.

On the 13th, Mars makes a helpful aspect to Saturn in Pisces. When Saturn, the planet of structure, discipline, and responsibility, is boosted by Mars and both are in water signs, this could be a time for building emotional support structures, both for ourselves personally and for the the community. This is especially important with everything that’s going on. 

Between the Mars and Pluto activity and the two eclipses, October is a wild month astrologically, and as they often are, the skies are a reflection what’s happening here on planet Earth. It makes for interesting days ahead. Hang in there.

Big Eclipse Energy

In my post about the eclipse in Aries a couple weeks ago, I noted that while eclipse cycles usually herald transformations in our lives, individual eclipses may not bring big changes immediately. And here I am eating my words because this eclipse was pretty monumental for some. The Aries eclipse had friends of mine giving birth, finding out they were pregnant, getting job offers, and getting engaged. Eclipses also often signal endings, and I said goodbye to my beloved 17-year-old cat, who let us know it was finally her time to go, after two years of being treated for small cell lymphoma. She was elderly and had been sick with a chronic illness, so her death was not a shock, but it was the end of an era.

And now we have a second eclipse looming. There will be a lunar eclipse at 14 degrees of Scorpio on Friday, May 5th. This is the final Scorpio lunar eclipse of the Taurus-Scorpio eclipse series that began in late 2021, so you may see themes that began in your life in late 2021 or early 2022 culminating now.

Scorpio, a fixed water sign, is ruled by Pluto, the planet of death, rebirth, transformation, compulsions, and hidden things. On Monday, May 1st, Pluto stationed retrograde. In its initial dip into Aquarius, it only made it as far as 0 degrees. With Pluto stationing shortly before the eclipse, it will likely intensify the changes that come about during this eclipse, and Pluto and Scorpio aren’t short on intensity to begin with. It could bring some deep emotional catharsis and uncover some deep hidden truths that we either haven’t seen or have been intentionally ignoring. The eclipse is also opposite Uranus, currently in Taurus, which adds to the potential for jolts and shocks. 

Hang in there, and get plenty of rest over the next few days!