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.