The Wednesday Witch: November 2020 Astrology
November opens in the glow of the Taurus Full Moon that lit up Halloween with a spooky flare on October 31. This Moon, in a conjunction with Uranus and ruled by retrograde Mars in Aries, was predicted to bring a bit of mayhem. People were advised to be safe, which is always a good policy on Halloween. It is a special time of heightened magic and power. Most muggles don’t know what to do when the lines of reality and the Great Beyond get blurred. People may use the malleable boundaries to act out or become unsafe, which is why it’s important to know our pagan history.
The Wiccan holiday of Samhain, considered the Witches New Year, is celebrated throughout the world, under many names, as a time when the spirit world draws close. The world we see is not the only place. There are other realms and planes that we visit when we’re sleeping or in states of altered consciousness. Psychic people who see ghosts are usually tapping into the astral plane, which retains the memory of all that happens on this one. The astral is where entities, energy that has gotten stuck, reside in the forms of people or events that still hold a charge. Most people can’t see the astral plane in waking life, but on October 31-November 2, the veil between the worlds thins, and our access becomes more fluid. The dead who have moved on do not reside on the astral, but during this time it is easier to connect with them as well.
At Samhain we celebrate and remember the beloved dead. Those who have passed on, but live forever in our hearts. There are many rich Samhain rituals, and you can read about them in my latest e-book,Pagan Baby: All Hallow’s Eve (half off to Patrons with code). Pagan Baby is a great way to teach little ones about this powerful time, and create meaningful traditions that will sustain.
November pulls the blanket of night farther across the land as we fall back into daylight savings on Sunday, November 1. In the mystery of time keeping, we gain an hour but lose light, giving us more room for sleep and indoor activities. Daylight savings always causes confusion and accidents with waitresses reporting far greater injuries the day the clocks change. It's hard for bodies to adjust, and we find this difficulty represented in the sky with the Saturn square to retrograde Mercury on November 1.
Mercury went retrograde at 11 Scorpio on October 13, and conjoined the heart of the Sun on October 25, at the peak of the cycle. Unfortunately, the square with Saturn is active the entire first week of the month, which adds a challenging tone to communication. Confrontation with authority and establishment is likely so prepare your arguments and remember to listen for what's not being said. Mercury stations direct on Election Day, November 3, magnifying the potential for fraud and confusion around voting. The square with Saturn is exact again on November 6, indicating that acute tension and frustration around the outcome is likely to be a hot topic until Mercury returns to Scorpio in the evening of November 10.
This Scorpio season has brought the tragic conclusion to the battle that has raged over the Supreme Court, and all that hangs in the balance for reproductive justice and health care. On the side of justice and equality is Venus, who entered Libra on October 27, the day after Amy Coney Barrett's rushed nomination to the Supreme Court was confirmed. This travesty of justice was succinctly summarized byJamie Oliver:
“When Barrett is confirmed, a president who lost the popular vote will have picked a quarter of the federal judiciary and a third of the Supreme Court and his choices will have been rubber-stamped by a Senate Republican majority representing 15 million fewer than the Democratic minority.”
The failure of Democrats to stymie Barrett, as Republicans did withformer President Obama’s nomination of Merrick Garland in 2016, is one of the greater failures Mars retrograde has delivered. The fact that my nieces could grow up with less reproductive rights than my mother lets us know how much ground we’ve lost since Roe v Wade was passed in 1973. Venus will continue to weigh into the fray and fight for what is right, but a great blow has been dealt to the collective confidence in our political system.
Venus at 15 Libra opposes retrograde Mars on November 9. They face each other from the dead center of the sign. The opposition of Mars and Venus can unmask our desire, so we see it more plainly. But libio is often suppressed during Mars retrograde and passion sublimated. If you haven’t had a clear sense of what you want since Mars started maneuvering backwards in early September, this opposition will help you to know that part of yourself again. This alignment will offer clues for how to move forward once Mars stations direct on November 13.
Jupiter conjoins Pluto for the third and final time at 22 Capricorn on November 12. This massive mid-month movement signals the beginning of the end of Jove’s transit through the sign of the grumpy goat. After the intense tilling of the fields since Saturn entered Capricorn on December 19, 2017, Jupiter arrived on December 2, 2019, to plant seeds of good. These are no regular beans. Forged in the crucible of all we’ve learned and lost, each meeting with Pluto over the past year has magnified and empowered our intentions to salvage and improve what we could. How these topics are playing out for you personally was highlighted at the first conjunction of Jupiter and Pluto on April 4 at 25 Cap. The second meeting on June 30 at 24 Cap, offered insight into the nature of effort required to move up your mountain. The final conjunction on November 12 at 22 Cap, will provide whatever is missing to put the pieces in place before Jupiter departs for Aquarius on December 19.
The larger context in which this is all unfolding is that the USA is approaching its Pluto return, which means that one cycle is ending and a new one is beginning. Pluto corresponds to cycles of observable evolution--both gradual and cataclysmic. Humans generally prefer the softer, easier way, but when the old has reached its conclusion and no longer serves, a more drastic innovation may be necessary to move humanity forward. The familiar is comforting and people often avoid what is necessary for the development of our highest and best. In resisting the inevitable, we create a build up of tension.
We often see a fissure on the collective level whenever we have reached the end of one phase but the new has not begun yet. Society becomes split into three groups. Those who are clinging to the past order pit themselves against the ones pushing the vanguard. This is a binary opposition between these groups with the tendency to get locked into right/wrong thinking. There is also a third category. In the middle, an ambivalent sect, often paralyzed or apathetic, who don’t know or can’t engage. They hope to just ride things out until the storm passes. The third group can make a crucial difference in tipping the scales one way or another, but it often takes extreme circumstances for them to move. With cataclysmic change the polarization becomes so stark that it becomes impossible to pretend neutrality is an option. As Howard Zinn said, “You can’t be neutral on a moving train.” Whatever is ours to do, the Jupiter Pluto conjunction will provide the impetus to act.
Pluto’s cycles are 248 years long. The USA is poised to experience its Pluto return from 2022-2024, when Pluto transits 27 Capricorn, where it was at the founding on July 4, 1776. On a national level there are clear issues of hidden power, corruption, control, and domination active with Pluto approaching its inception point. The evolution of our country is in question. We’re in a moment of reckoning with the past and the future is yet undecided. The 2020 election is encapsulating all of these issues. We’re grappling with situations many of us never thought we’d have to face, as outlined by the recent New Yorker article on“What Can You Do If Trump Stages a Coup”, which references theHold The Line guide that reminds us a successful election should be free, fair, respected, and safe. When abusive people hold power, people subconsciously adjust to being abused. Can we even imagine what a safe election would feel like during a pandemic that has been so badly mismanaged? AChoose Democracy pledge reminds us:
Elections work because the public agrees to honor the results. Similarly, coups work only if the public honors them. When the public refuses to accept the coup as legitimate, coups fall apart. Refusal looks like millions of people using nonviolent tools to delegitimize the coup by demonstrating, resisting orders, and shutting down the country until democracy prevails.
This moment is a turning point: will we continue with the status quo and continual progress towards a more perfect democractic union, or will the polarizing forces cause a more rapid cataclysmic evolution. Section 2 of theHold The Line guide focuses on the period between Election Day, November 3, and Inauguration Day, January 20. It is possible for ordinary people to mobilize against authoritarianism, but we must act. Draw upon the resources unearthed by Pluto and Jupiter for hidden strength before the Saturn-Jupiter conjunction on December 21.
Mercury enters Scorpio on November 10, highlighting the lessons of the Mars retrograde cycle. Normally we call on Mars when we want to affect change. The drive, passion, and will that propels us through the universe is a force we rely on. However, that energy has been unavailable in the usual way since Mars went retrograde at 28 Aries on September 9, in a square to Saturn. For the past five weeks Mars has been moving backwards making things uncomfortable for the cardinal signs. Mars in domicile is incredibly effective, and Aries has a passion for power. Mars Rx are always a period of heightened frustration, when feelings of impotence and fear of failure may surface. A key facet of this retrograde has also been repositioning ourselves to power. There is so much that is out of our control. We’ve been drawn towards the small and personal individual actions because taken together add up to big change. Mars retrograde has forced us to surrender, but circumstances still demand that we act. We’ve had to explore what it means to keep showing up without guarantee of victory. Engaging from a place of retreat has taught us that we can be hurt, or in a state of hermitage, without abandoning the world. Mars stations direct at 15 Aries on November 13, just in time for the Scorpio New Moon on November 15. This lunation, a dark night of the soul if ever there was one, will seed everything we’ve learned from Mars’ internal process.
The New Moon at 23 Scorpio on November 15, in a sextile to Jupiter, finds Mercury in opposition to Uranus in Taurus. The Scorpio New Moon always asks, what is dying to be reborn, and in doing so invokes the power of the Goddess Hekate, Queen of the Witches, Night, and the Underworld. Hekate is a guide through liminal space, and indeed, nothing is more disorienting than death. Humans need support navigating from one phase of life to the next. Scorpio knows that the inbetween is a place of deep magic precisely because nothing is certain. There are no guarantees. A certain kind of surrender is necessary to traverse transition. We invoke Hekate, or whatever form of the divine you connect to, knowing that grace always follows. Grace is amazing because it can not be earned, nor predicted, but it can be sought. The trinity supports the process: divinity grants grace, which fosters trust, that leads to greater surrender. Hekate shares many qualities with Mercury in psychopomp form. She is also present in the mythology of Pluto/Hades and the myth of Demeter and Persephone. Whatever underworld you are traversing, call on Hekate to lead you home. (I recently gave a presentation on these topics for theMythology Cafe at Vision Train. You can access the recording and slides on myPatreon). This is the last Scorpio lunation without the inhibiting influence of Saturn until 2023. Once Saturn moves into Aquarius on December 17, all planets in Scorpio will face a square from the Lord of Karma for the next several years.
The last week of Scorpio season poses some challenges for love when Venus in Libra squares Pluto and Jupiter on November 15-16, and Saturn on November 19. Whatever arises, it may be difficult to keep your mouth closed about it with the Mercury opposition to Uranus on November 17. The tone will change but not necessarily lighten when Venus enters Scorpio on November 21. At home in Taurus, Venus is out of her depth in Scorpio. Plunged into the darkness, she will feel her way along the path the Sun has just traversed, bringing sweetness and healing where she can. Venus’ passage means that the season of the witch lasts a bit longer, even as we move into Sagittarius season.
The Sun enters Sagittarius on November 21, and we begin the final sign of Fall. How quickly the seasons pass. Sag loves to make a grand entrance but with Jupiter in close proximity to Saturn, the next month might be remarkable for its somber nature. Sag season is home to many holidays and festivities, but the pandemic is putting a damper on such joys. In late October, the USA hit itshighest number of new casesof Covid-19 in one day,causing concern that holiday travel and gathering will worsen the situation. On the plus side, the Sun is fairly unencumbered as it gallops through Sag. As we search for answers to the spiritual and philosophical dilemmas before us, Sagittarius delivers us to a higher ground. The paradox of Jupiter in Capricorn is that this elevated state is rooted in the muck and mire of truth. Definitive conclusions may not be reached, but greater acceptance is possible. Sag understands the foibles of human nature, but enjoys the play anyway. And as Buddist teacher Thich Nhat Hanh reminds us,no mud, no lotus.
Venus opposes Uranus on November 27, adding a bit of flair and drama to the week leading up to the holiday of Thanksgiving in the USA. If there are political differences within the family, this alignment could cause an eruption during discussions. Venus in Scorpio is not going to play nice, so channel all your rage at the patriarchy towards supporting indigenous rights and sovereignty globally. There are many ways todecolonize your dinner and learn about theWampanoag side of the first Thanksgiving. If you can’t affect change within your own family system, this alignment encourages you to connect with others who share your vision for liberation. Acting strategically is effort better spent than acting out at people who can’t or won’t hear you.
The month ends with a powerful lunar eclipse at the Gemini Full Moon on November 30. Eclipse season creates a fated sense of events, and this is the first full eclipse cycle since the lunar nodes entered Gemini and Sagittarius on May 6. The North Node is a place of increase and reaching, where you can expect to see rapid growth and progress in Gemini over the next year. The South Node is a place of karmic loss and residue, where you can expect issues and patterns from the past to get triggered in Sagittarius. The first eclipse along this axis was on the Sagittarius Full Moon on June 5. Think back to what happened then for indications as to where and how you’ll be asked to let go in 2021.
This eclipse season will initiate us into the full spectrum of learning, as the Gemini Full Moon asks us to grow in the direction of its opposite. Venus passage through Gemini from April 3-August 7, and the retrograde from May 13-June 25, gave us a unique perspective on this area of our lives. How we want to be witnessed, and the mirror others hold us to ourselves were explored in fine detail. Many facts and points may have arisen, but if it felt like the universe picked up a stone and had you examine it just to put it down again, think again. These eclipses are going to make good use of them, wait and see.