2:47  am  AHST  11/01/2024
     5:47  am    PDT  111/01/2024
     8:47  am    EDT  11/01/2024
   12:47  pm    GMT  11/01/2024

The influence of this New Moon cannot be overestimated. It is occurring at the day of cross-quarter, the halfway point between Equinox and Winter Solstice. Traditionally for centuries cross-quarter days signify a time when the seasons actually change. This particular one, coming as it does at the beginnings of the upcoming Winter season, has everything to do with the liminal area between light and dark, between conscious and unconscious, and between we the living and our ancestors. With the Moon at its darkest part of the cycle, the darkness is descending with tremendous depth on the Day of the Dead, or Samhain. This is our opportunity to make use of this descent, to look deeply within and find connections in our day and night dreaming that sustain us. Scorpio is a water sign, and rules the deep feeling part of our psyches, which almost always asks us to face our fears of annihilation and loss in order to reap the richness at the end of an Underworld journey.

This is a turning point in humanity’s development, hovering between chaos and a renewal of faith. The astrology of this chart is like a giant neon billboard sign, calling us to become aware of just what is at stake here. 

This New Moon forms only one aspect in the chart, it trines (forms a harmonious 120˚ angle to) Saturn in Pisces. Right from the start this singular message tells us that good hard work, on ourselves, in our lives and environment, is before us, and that the results could well be beneficial. However, nothing is automatic or guaranteed, this is simply the energetic “winds” that are blowing at the present time.

Most importantly, at this timing, Mars is forming a nearly exact opposition to Pluto. These two planets are the two rulers of Scorpio, Pluto being added after its discovery in 1930. Oppositions signify energies pulling in two different directions. In a person’s natal chart, this opposition often would speak to one’s personal will and desires (Mars) being pulled against by greater forces that are based upon higher, more spiritual principles. We see examples of this in politicians and billionaires who use collective power (Pluto) for personal self-aggrandizement. We have excellent examples nowadays of what this looks like.

This opposition, which usually lasts a week or two, will be in force up through January of 2025, since Mars will be going retrograde in December. In fact, using a standard orb¹ of 8˚ this opposition will last until January 20, 2025, Inauguration Day in the US! On that day, the Sun will be conjoined Pluto for its yearly conjunction. The greatest light and the planet of the Underworld will make a dramatic conjunction, a powerful and intense aspect of destiny at work.

Speaking of the Election in the US, on Election Day, November 5, the US will be having its Chiron return. Chiron, the wounded healer of the zodiac, is symbolic of the inherent wounds or karma we are all born with, that can’t be fixed, but must be worked in such a way that we are informed by them, changing the course of our lives. Chiron’s orbit is 49-50 years. The US has had several in its history, the last one being 1974, during the Watergate scandal, Nixon’s resignation, and the collapse of the largest bank failure in US history at that time. With President Ford’s pardon of Nixon, and the appointing of Rumsfeld, Dick Cheney, and George HW Bush, the Chironic legacy of the abuse of power was not resolved.

So here we are again. As so often in human history, going back thousands of years, humanity is facing yet another despotic takeover, the ever-present threat to any democracy—those who want to have power over others. Mars in opposition to Pluto is the perfect astrological symbology for what we are facing here in the US, and elsewhere in the world. Mars (personal power) versus Pluto (collective power). And at the 29 degree mark, this is not just this election, or this decade, but at the last degree of a sign, it is one of historical significance, one that goes far back in time, a “finishing up” of a meta-cycle.

There is a powerful Grand Trine (3 planets all in 120˚ aspect forming an equilateral triangle) in this chart, very nearly exact in aspect. It includes Mars in Cancer, Mercury in Scorpio, and Neptune in Pisces. This is a powerful connection to the deepest parts of our psyche (Neptune) an alignment with our conscious thinking awareness (Mercury) and our ability to take action (Mars). They are all in the element of water, so this aspect benefits those who are more accustomed to their internal landscapes. The rivers of deep feeling are running high, ready to spill over their banks. And they are a resource in times of great need or doubt. 

At a time when the population of this planet far exceeds the number of people who’ve ever been born, a crisis of not only ecological proportions, but also of spiritual dimensions is upon us. Pluto’s final exit from Capricorn resonates with the last time it was at this position, 248 years ago, in the years 1777-78 when the United States was still quite a tentative entity as a confederacy of states. Pluto going into Aquarius on Nov 20^th of this year begins a 20 year period of restructuring society in terms of the needs of the people. How we go about this inevitable transformation from tentative to collective strength will be a measure of our collective will and beliefs.

This is a good time to gather together and commune with each other, to do ceremony and light candles, or whatever suits your way of joining with the spirits, the unseen forces, the powers beyond our perceptions, that hold and contain us, to connect with those energies out of which we have all been born. 

¹A measure of the wideness of degrees that are still considered to be within the limit for naming an aspect between two planets.