Sacred Scorpio New Moon: Nov 13
The Moon joins with the Sun to renew itself at 20°44 Scorpio at 4:27AM ET on Monday, November 13, 2023. This Scorpio New Moon is eclipse free for the first time in several years. Huzzah! We completed the Taurus-Scorpio eclipse cycle at the Full Moon on October 28th, but we’re still in the midst of finding our way through the dark.
Scorpio season initiates us into the mysteries of life from October 23-November 22. Scorpio rules the private areas of the body and is connected with sex and death. Powerful intangibles that we experience but can never fully understand. Scorpio desires intimacy but fears vulnerability. It has a capacity for resilience but can become manipulative when things don’t go their way. Secrets are the purview of Scorpio and so is transformation. In fact, it is the only astrological sign symbolized by three different creatures: the Scorpion, Eagle, and Phoenix.
Scorpio’s three symbols represent different stages of development along the Scorpio axis. The Scorpion conceals itself, hiding away in private, nurturing resentments and then striking when the time is right and their prey is unguarded. This is the hurtful, vengeful, attacking form of Scorpio that people fear.
The Eagle is Scorpio’s capacity to engage with philosophy and wisdom traditions that elevates it above their base survival instincts into the sky realm of higher thought and spiritual pursuits. The Eagle has a discerning eye and superior vantage point from which to observe life below. It is detached but completely present. This is the cunning and shrewd form of Scorpio that sees what’s happening beneath the surface. It is a master of defense because it catches the crucial details that other people miss. The eagle is Jupiter’s bird and reacts strategically and effectively. It does not lash out but has a calculated reason for its every action.
The death aspect of Scorpio comes in many forms. They may face annihilating circumstances in their lives and experience ego death or loss of identity time and again. The strength of Scorpio is that they can be destroyed yet somehow rise again. This is the form of the Phoenix. A mythological creature that originated in Persia and Egypt and was recorded in Greek mythology. The Phoenix is an immortal birth of red and golden plumage, connected to the Sun, that cyclically regenerates every 500 years. In some stories the Phoenix bursts into flames and dies from combustion. From the ashes a new Phoenix is born.
In your chart, the house with Scorpio on the cusp represents the areas of life where you will go the distance, sometimes going to extremes, and can be disinclined to compromise. It's also where you’ll undergo these processes of crisis, elimination, and renewal. You may have been led through it during the Taurus-Scorpio eclipse cycle from Nov 2021-Oct 2023. Now that the eclipses have passed, we can begin to set intentions and plant seeds in the land that has been thoroughly excavated and purged over the last two years.
Things have been particularly intense since Mars entered Scorpio on October 12. Especially the last several weeks as it's been traveling close to the Sun, preparing to make its conjunction, which occurs every two years. The last Mars-Sun conjunction was at 15°05 Libra on October 8, 2021. It was a difficult time, especially for Libras, that highlighted what was out of balance in our lives. It also revealed the ways we try to keep the peace at expense of ourselves by hesitating to disrupt unfair situations or subjugating our will to make others happy. Mars in Scorpio doesn’t have those kinds of reservations.
Mars is unapologetically powerful, direct, and to the point in its sensitive water sign. But it is also coming to the end of a pattern of behavior in this area of life. Planets die and are reborn in the heart of the Sun. This meeting marks the completion of one cycle and the start of the next. Scorpio season is a time of reaping and there is a strong sense of endings as we move towards the New Moon. Mars is in a Phoenix phase and everything that is not serving it is getting purified and obliterated by solar rays.
The Mars cazimi at 25°37 Scorpio at 12:41AM on November 18, is in itself a little death. Something new will be born in this area of life, which you will spend the next two years exploring.
The Scorpio New Moon is in opposition to the great awakener, Uranus, at 21°04 Taurus, adding to the unpredictable nature of this lunation. We could experience a breakthrough in an area of life we’ve felt stuck, but the process might feel destabilizing and destructive. When we can’t rely on material conditions to be consistent, we can always turn to spirit. Magic teaches us that engagement with the sacred is a prerequisite for spiritual growth.
The Scorpio New Moon asks us to consider what is sacred. Development which is not informed by spiritual principles does not actually sustain us long term. The sacred is a form of divinity and gives us an experience of the transcendent. It could be a person, place, thing, animal, rock, or body of water. Anything really that facilitates a spiritual experience. Cultures differ on what is considered significant and meaningful, but universally the sacred connects us with something greater than ourselves.
The sacred is a concept that has been applied differently throughout human history and is itself in a process of renewal. The 1970s feminist revival of spirituality in the West was influenced by the many indigenous traditions that hold all of life to be sacred. The web of relations in which everything is essential and all of life is imbued with divine intelligence.
Western materialist mindset separated the sacred from the mundane, and in doing so created a class of Others that could be objectified and exploited. Protect the Sacred is a slogan used by Native American indigenous communities mobilizing against attacks on their natural resources and holy sites.
The New Moon is in conjunction with Mars at 20°44 Scorpio, indicating a sting or painful piece we are wrestling with. Mars demands we account for what we hold most precious. It asks what we will show up to defend. As my planetary magic teacher, Nina Gryphon, espouses, the sacred has a moral significance because it requires us to act in accordance with what maintains and upholds its integrity. In treating the sacred as special we demonstrate our respect and reverence and silently request that others do the same. We communicate to the world that this matters to us.
Mercury entered Sagittarius at 1:25AM ET on November 10th, encouraging us to explore and define these concepts for ourselves. This is a great weekend to dive into the spiritual and philosophical aspects of these esoteric concepts. November is Indigenous People’s Month and an excellent time to investigate what land has been considered sacred in your area and how it is treated now. The sacred always has cultural and historical significance that connects the past to the present.
In Massachusetts, the United American Indians of New England (UAINE) have gathered on Cole's Hill in Plymouth, above Plymouth Rock, to commemorate a National Day of Mourning on the US Thanksgiving holiday since 1970. “It is a day of remembrance and spiritual connection, as well as a protest against the racism and oppression that Indigenous people continue to experience worldwide.” This year the 54th Annual National Day of Mourning will be held on November 23, 2023.
The Scorpio New Moon will not feel like an easy ending, but it will open the door to a world of magic. Engage with this portal of transformation. Throw all of your deepest grief and most heart wrenching sadness into the void.
Mourn for all lives lost in war and conflict, especially those in Israel and Palestine. Use this lunation to connect with the inner wisdom to take the action needed to bring about a different outcome than we’ve ever seen on Earth. Scorpio will never give up until it finds an answer. It has the capacity to make a way from no way and a passage where others see only a wall. So do we too on this moon.