Follow the Moon: October 30 and 31, 2016

Water is life. This is the prayer emanating from the Sacred Stone Camp alongside the Cannonball and Missouri Rivers. Mni wiconi is how the people of Standing Rock say it. Water is the source and water is the necessity for life. In the struggle to maintain Native sovereignty, to claim treaty rights, and to protect clean drinking water, the people of Sacred Stone Camp and many other supporting camps in the same area have been standing up to the North Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL). Core issues. Core survival. The New Moon in Scorpio, the fixed water sign, supports giving attention to this struggle and all core issues of life and death.

Scorpio is the season to touch the bones, to get to the essence of things, including what makes life beautiful and meaningful. This water sign reminds us that only when we feel what is at stake can we begin to truly honor and value the life we’ve been given. In this season, exterior distractions fall away as winter approaches in the Northern Hemisphere. Pagans celebrate Samhain, sometimes known as Halloween, in this season. Samhain marks the end of the agricultural year and the beginning of a new year fertilized by the dark season of winter. Old pagan practices based on the agricultural year celebrated three harvests. The first was at Lughnasad, at the beginning of August, called First Fruits. The second harvest festival was held at the Fall Equinox or Mabon. And the final harvest festival was Samhain. The ancestors are invited to this feast as the veils separating the living and the dead are thin at the end of one cycle and the beginning of the next. The life force retreats into the ground waiting to freeze into stillness. Scorpio season invites us also to go deep under the surface. The question repeats like a heartbeat. What really matters? What really matters? We have time to get to know our answers during the Scorpio lunar cycle beginning on October 30.

It isn’t enough just to know what matters. After we sense into those answers, we must act to protect and honor those things. Justice plays a role in those actions. This year, Jupiter transits Libra, a sign concerned with equity and balance. Injustices are seen as a disruption to balance and flow. Near the end of this lunar cycle on November 24, Jupiter will form a square aspect to Pluto in Capricorn. As the ruler of Scorpio, Pluto is the planet of getting to the bones of what matters. Perhaps, it is time to see more clearly the imbalances in the systems and do something about them. This insight happens in all the areas of our lives from personal relationships to struggles to protect water and uphold treaties. During this Scorpio season, let water lead you to the depths. Let this be a rediscovery of what really matters.

Forecast for October 30 and 31, 2016

Moon in Scorpio
October 30—New Moon: Dreaming. This time of year I can’t help but notice my animal instincts. With shorter days, leaves falling, plants dying back, seeds falling to the ground, creatures get busy doing what they need to survive, whether that is getting the hell out of here, burrowing down, or growing more fur. I am a creature of nature too. I don’t have to think about it. I feel it in my bones. The season of death is here. In mystical traditions, Death is a teacher. The Death card in Tarot reminds us that everything changes. It also reminds us to reflect on what really matters, what is timeless in the face of change. When we know the answer to that question, Death gives us instinctual knowing about how to make life beautiful and meaningful.

I want to approach this Scorpio lunar cycle with the question, what really matters, and anchor myself in that knowledge. Remembering what matters gives clarity when life gets hard or choices are confusing. Scorpio has a way of bringing piercing clarity to such problems. As a water sign, Scorpio feels its way into knowing. Let feelings and instincts be a guide for you if you also choose this path of remembering what really matters.

This season also reminds us that we are not alone in searching for core truths. Scorpio is the season of the thin veils. It is somehow much easier at this time to contact the wisdom and connection with those who have come before us. This New Moon is particularly potent since it comes just one day before traditional Samhain, the Pagan holy day of honoring the dead. Mercury, the planet of communication is conjoined the Sun and Moon in the chart for the New Moon. Mercury, known as Hermes to the Greeks, was the psychopomp who led the dead into the underworld. In this season, Mercury helps us to go under the surface of the mundane world to get in touch with the unseen world.

Venus in Sagittarius conjoins Saturn. The austerity of Saturn is modified by the grace of Venus. We feel this influence in our relationships and in the causes we believe in. Beauty is a guide to truth. During this Scorpio season, when we search for immutable truths, Venus and Saturn ask us to trust this instinct of beauty. When we find the beautiful truth, there is a desire to commit with all our hearts.

Jupiter in Libra recently made a quincunx aspect to Neptune in Pisces, which is still influential as this lunar cycle begins. Again, beauty and grace play a role as Jupiter is in Venus’ own sign. Neptune is enticing. Jupiter is idealistic. There is a struggle between these two forces. Does temptation lead us astray as we seek what really matters? Or do we surrender preconceptions about what is meaningful? How do you open up with curiosity and nonattachment? There will be a period of waiting and letting go as we move deeper in this lunar cycle. It will be a journey. 

Moon in Scorpio
Monday, October 31. Traditional Samhain. There are two Samhains (the Pagan holy day celebrating the dead). Halloween is one of them. The other, what I call astronomical Samhain occurs when the Sun reaches the midpoint of Scorpio. This year, that will be on November 6. What is important to know is that the dead and our relationships to the unseen world open and deepen during the entire Scorpio season. Other potent moments are the New Moon (yesterday) and Full Moon (November 14). The older I get, the more important these connections to the ancestral realms become. Like a deep root, my connection to the unseen world anchors me in my life, helps me to remember what really matters. This is a gift that gives life beauty and meaning. The Moon happens to be in Scorpio on this Samhain. What if you approached the day as an oracle from the ancestral realm? All messages from the somber to the light-hearted are welcome. Sense into how deep, rich and mysterious life is. How does this knowing anchor you?

Contact Teri at teri@starsdanceastrology.com and visit her website at www.starsdanceastrology.com to learn about booking a reading of your chart.