New Moon in Scorpio

Oracle of Delphi

This is on the 11th November, around 6 pm GMT.

Something very deep and intense – and healing – is going on here. Deep emotional insight, deep communication.

And as Mercury is in magical, witchy Scorpio, conjunct the moon – this is not necessarily verbal communication. It's a knowing that runs deeper than words – a kind of chthonic snake-wisdom.

There is great potential for regeneration and transformation here. New moons represent pure potential and new beginnings, and this one is in Scorpio, the sign of death, rebirth, intensity and transformation – so it looks like a rebirth to me. A fierce jolt of magical, regenerative energy. A second wind, just when you thought you couldn't take much more of this “life” crap. Power and knowledge coming from a very deep, silent, internal source.

The sun, moon and Mercury will be conjunct in the mid-degrees of Scorpio. And aside from a tense-looking inconjunct to Uranus in Aries, this new moon is very well aspected – it is supported by Pluto in Capricorn (deep restructuring), Chiron in Pisces (the wounded healer) and Jupiter in Virgo (humility, service, attention to detail).

So there is absolutely the potential for deep psychological healing here – of yourself or others. Granted, Uranus in Aries inconjunct the new moon means there will likely be some shock and upheaval associated with this. But mostly it looks very profound and beneficial.

I keep thinking of Hexagram 49 from the I Ching in relation to this. It's about revolution, which is  compared in the hexagram to moulting. Shedding the past like an old skin.

I'm thinking also of the magical stones traditionally called serpent's eggs -- because there is really something very earthy, concentrated, snaky and Kundalini about this energy.

Or the Omphalos of Delphi, the ritual center that the Oracle of Delphi spoke her prophesies from. (She was also associated with snakes – her official name was “Pythia”: pythoness.)

Or the Black Stone of the Kaaba, the holiest of holies in Islam, and a very female (and sexual) looking power-object.

Yes, that is really what it looks like.

And here's a snake-dance for you, while we're at it:

Anyway, you get the idea. Deep, chthonic, witchy power. Intense, dangerous, secret, female – what the serpent promised to Eve. It's the kind of thing that can kill or cure - a pharmakon. But this new moon mostly looks like a curative to me.

I think this is a good set-up for recovering any energy or power you may have lost over the last while – especially if you feel you've hit rock bottom. Scorpio is a sign that needs to go to the absolute depths in order to regenerate and recover power. It is about power coming via the acceptance of degredation and pain, uncomfortable as that sounds. “The road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom”, per Blake. If you feel all cleared out and exhausted, this looks like your turning point.

Scorpio is also about purgation. What do you purge? Whatever drains your vitality - be it a habit, a situation, a relationship. Whatever dead (and deadening) crap you are still dragging around with you.

It has been a draining year for sure. I don't suppose it'll be getting any easier, so getting rid of the deadwood now is a good idea.

Neptune, big dreamy whirlpool headfuck planet, will resume direct motion on the 19th November, and Saturn is bearing into a square with Neptune, exact on the 26th. The Saturn-Neptune square is something we'll be dealing with into 2017. Saturn in Sagittarius demands fidelity to the truth – while Neptune dissolves the boundaries between 'true' and 'false'.

So this is some disillusioning, depressing energy - the big dissolve. More draining suckage.

You think you have solid ground under your feet? You think you're a solid character, you think you're incorruptible? You think you know reality from unreality? Ha!

We are written on water.

“so ingenious are the arrangements of the state of flux we call
our moral history are they not almost as neat as mathematical
propositions except written on water –” -Anne Carson

Keats's grave

What do you believe, what do you base your perspective on, what do you hold true and moral? My god, it's getting kind of hard to know anymore, isn't it?

Is there a design, a larger perspective in which your life has meaning? Is it something you can have faith in? Can you build a future on it?

And did you ever imagine your life would turn out like this? It must be some kind of dream, right? Could it get much weirder? Is there anything solid in this phantasmagoria?

I really don't know. What an interesting movie it all is though – if you have the stomach for it.

“No it's not going to clear up is it or make sense or come out into the open 
somewhere
this welter of disorder and pain is our life.” 
                                                                   --Anne Carson again

And yes it is -- it's our life and it's messy. I suppose it has to be.

Messy few months ahead: we are headed into a Uranus square Pluto redux this holiday season. The old dynamo of destruction will be forming a close square from December to February. These planets won't square exactly again, but this is a reminder of the pressure-cooker we've been through over the past few years.

Plus Mars and Venus will be filing through Cardinal t-square territory in Libra over the next month. This is a real firing-line, and I think it will be tough on relationships. And just in time for the holidays – what fun.

It doesn't mean things are gonna be awful. Just pretty intense. But they've been intense forever now, so big deal. You're not going to be bored, anyway.

Re. relationships: the north node finally moves out of relationship-oriented Libra, where it has spent the past 18 months, a few hours after the new moon. It moves into Virgo, joining Jupiter there.

The dispositors of the nodes, Mars and Venus, will be conjunct the north node as it shifts signs. This looks like a big alchemical wedding at the end of the long and bizarre fairy tale this year has been. It's a big deal; too weird and improbable to gloss over.

This is where you quit ditzing around and sort out your relationship karma – you get real about what you're doing, who you're travelling onward with, what you value. What (or who) you want to 'marry'.

It's a choice-point, maybe. A commitment. Fateful, not to be taken lightly.

Like this:

Anyway, it's not about anything or anyone being perfect – you must know that by now. 'Perfect' doesn't exist and if it did, it would be pretty dull.

It's about what you can work with and trust in – what is sturdy enough to go the distance, however uncomfortable it might sometimes feel.

(Most of the happily married people I know fight and bicker constantly. It's like harmony requires conflict and periodic blowouts. Notice there is a volcano behind the couple on that card.)

Anyway, this looks like a new start for real – or a decisive ending. Pretty heavy stuff, especially coming as it does exactly at the new moon – and a new moon in Scorpio to boot, a sign that is all-or-nothing, black or white, on-or-off. No bullshit, no pretending, no dithering, no leading anyone down the garden path. This demands radical honesty - with yourself first and foremost.

Re. the node change: the north node in Libra was about a need to attain balance, harmony, fairness, justice and right relationship. With the south node in Aries, this effort was undermined by knee-jerk rage and conflict. Selfishness and war were the path of least resistance. We've had 18 months of this and frankly it has been a pain in the ass.

Now we're moving on from this heavy focus on interpersonal relationship. With the north node shifting to Virgo (and the south node to Pisces), the arc of the story for the next 18 months is about attending to daily reality, staying humble and focused on the small stuff, taking care of others, keeping the whole show of everyday life running – even as reality dissolves beneath our feet.

This is the same theme as the Saturn-Neptune square that's happening over the next year and a half. The sky is really driving home this theme of the dissolution of what we took to be solid and secure. It applies to the collective and also to people in their little lives – which are microcosms of the collective really. I think it's fairly serious, sobering stuff, and it will be hard to navigate.

But it will be interesting, for sure. Interesting times.