New Moon in Scorpio

This is exact today (18th Nobvember) around noon GMT.

It looks beautiful and profound to me: very powerful, focused, healing and intense. But also potentially painful and uncomfortable. The depths will have to be plumbed this month; the fetid gunk cleared out, the blockages removed.

Scorpio is a probing, surgical sign. It has to root out everything that's false or rotten in order to effect healing and transformation. It's obsessive and extreme: all-or-nothing, life or death.

So this new moon ushers us into a month of intensity and extremes. The potential for transformation here is profound, but you can't expect it to be easy. Life-saving surgery is not easy.

At the very least, you can expect to deal with some heavy psychological discomfort this month. Don't turn away from it – it's there to show you something. Get to the root of it, find out what's really going on under the surface, excise whatever deadweight you're carrying around.

Scorpio's co-rulers, Mars and Pluto, will square each other exactly the day after the new moon. Mars is in Libra, sign of relationships and fairness, and Pluto is in Capricorn, sign of authority and the System. This square can get pretty ugly and brutal, so we can expect some violence – psychological or overt - to erupt, in close relationships especially. Ugly conflicts with bureaucratic institutions or authorities are also likely.

At the root of this tension are rotten old power dynamics which have to be exposed to light and air in order to be dealt with and resolved. It's an uncomfortable, deeply unpleasant process, but Scorpio won't let us skate along the surface.

Fortunately, Chiron in Pisces trines the new moon, amplifying the potential for compassion, forgiveness and healing. Chiron is about a wound that becomes a source of knowledge – and with Pisces, deep compassion for the suffering of all existence is involved.

There is also deep love on offer, courtesy of Venus and Jupiter in Scorpio (just past a beautiful conjunction on the 13th November). This is wonderful for relationships, as long as they're absolutely  committed. It's till-death-do-us-part stuff. Scorpio is all or nothing, so there's no room for waffling around or bullshit – superficiality just won't cut it. And with the Mars-Pluto square, any kind of manipulation, abuse or game-playing will be pretty obvious. There is no point tolerating any of that stuff or staying in relationships where it's a factor. It's depth, vulnerability and authenticity, or nothing.

The sky does not reward superficiality at this time. Neptune will resume direct motion on the 21st November, in beneficial aspect to Jupiter in Scorpio. This is a deeply spiritual influence supporting Jupiter in Scorpio's psychological excavation work.

Then Mercury will go retrograde on the 3rd December at the last degree of Sagittarius, conjunct Saturn in Sagittarius. Later that same day we'll have a full moon in Mercury-ruled Gemini, where issues around information, truth and lies will be highlighted.

This Mercury retrograde is a big deal – it will mark the end of Saturn's 2.5 year transit through Sagittarius, which was all about ideology, hypocrisy, and the necessity of walking your talk. I'll write about it closer to the time.

But for now, please understand that we are in a no-bullshit zone. This is a good time to excise things that do not support your health and integrity from your life.

Full Moon in Taurus

Ohara Koson

This is exact early tomorrow morning, 5:20 am GMT.

Taurus is about the earthly stuff we hold onto – our money and possessions, our physical body and sense of self, our habitual patterns and our values. It's a grounded, happy, sensual energy, but it can get stuck in ruts like nobody's business. It likes to clutch onto things and has a lot of trouble with accepting change and letting go – even when obviously necessary.

A moon in Taurus is about the desire for comfort, stability and security. But this full moon is opposite the sun and Jupiter in Scorpio, which are voracious, extreme, probing and crisis-driven – the opposite of comfortable and stable. So it's going to be pretty hard to stay stuck, much as we might want to.

In addition, Venus, the ruler of this full moon, will exactly oppose rebel planet Uranus to the minute as the full moon is exact. This is a little cray.

Venus is currently in Libra, where she likes to glide around like a fancy hostess, making sure everything stays pretty and polite. She shares the Taurean distaste for conflict and abruptness. With the exact opposition to Uranus though, there's bound to be a shock – the careful Libran balance and poise will be knocked sideways by some bolt out of the blue, and everybody's drink will get spilled.

So clearly it's going to be hard staying within your comfort zone this full moon.   Something is bound to come along to upset the equilibrium.

That something is likely to come from other people, and it's especially likely to have to do with love and relationships – recall we are still in Libra lunar cycle, and Libra is about partnering. The forecast for the new moon in Libra two weeks ago still applies, but this is the culmination.

Whatever shock you encounter, the best strategy here is to embrace it. Let go of your need for things to stay comfortable and safe, go toward what scares you, let yourself be changed by the encounter.

The north node is in Leo, which is about opening your heart – and the north node is currently disposited through the sun in deep, dark Scorpio, which has to face what's most frightening and painful in order to heal. So getting all outraged at having your feathers ruffled is absolutely unproductive here. Your feathers are supposed to be ruffled.

Neptune is beneficially aspecting the full moon, which means that something deeper is at work here. By accepting life on its own terms and sacrificing your pride to the larger design, magical things can happen. Try to have a little faith..

This song is so cheesy, but it fits. Here you go, you sexy thing. (I forgot to mention that the Taurus/Scorpio axis is SEXED UP. So this is definitely a full moon for freaky yet deep sex stuff, and if that's where it leads you, more power to ya!)

We're getting a beautiful Venus-Jupiter conjunction in Scorpio on the 13th November, and it'll trine Neptune. This is a great gift for relationships, and it comes ahead of a very beneficial-looking new moon in Scorpio on the 18th November. So I think after the relationship drama of the past few months, things are going to start feeling a lot better. Even if it's just your relationship with yourself! If you've made it through the past few months without cracking up, hang in there. Things are going to feel much more solid and deep soon.