The serpent
shows the way
to hidden things.
Carl Jung
Carl Jung
The New Moon on November 13, 2023 is at 21 Scorpio
draws up something to be released.
We may be suddenly confronted with an intense emotion that is tied to a deep-seated pattern that distorts the lens through which we see the world. We are to face some issue of powerlessness likely related to Scorpio themes of relationships, sexuality, death or finances.
There is an alternative, a middle way, to handling the intensity where we do not unwittingly reinforce the pattern by either repressing the feeling or acting out from it. Rather than allowing the strong feeling to sit in the driver's seat of a situation, we are to make room in ourselves to feel all it stirs in us. Being present to its potency, its poison, we then let the feeling move through us, like a wave, until there is a clarity about what are releasing and a readiness to approach life in a new way.
New Moon Co-Ruler: Mars conjunct New Moon
Uranus oppose New Moon and Mars and Ceres
New Moon Co-Ruler: Pluto square nodal axis and sextiles the New Moon
Saturn stations direct square Mercury
Neptune trine the New Moon, Mars and Ceres
The New Moon is the optimal time each month to set an intention for what we will initiate and grow for the coming month. The area of our life that is primed for a new beginning is revealed by the nature of the house in our natal charts where 21 Scorpio resides. Those of us with Planets between 18 and 24 degrees of a fixed sign (Scorpio, Aquarius, Leo, Taurus), will likely experience more emotional intensity than others at the New Moon, and thus a greater potential for a transformative experience.
Snakes are sometimes
perceived as evil,
but they are also perceived
as medicine. If you look
at an ambulance,
there’s the two snakes
on the side of the ambulance.
The caduceus, or staff of Hermes,
there’s the two snakes going up it,
which means that the venom
can also be healing. Nicolas Cage
Life Force Surges to Remove Blocks that Impede its Flow
Unakalhai conjunct the New Moon Alpha
The New Moon illuminates Unakalhai, the Alpha Star in the constellation of Serpens, commonly known a The Heart of the Serpent.
Scorpio is related to animals that move beneath the ground, and are often associated with the dark and with transformation. The snake, or serpent, carries a venom that can kill, but its poison has also be utilized effectively in medicines and in initiatory ceremonies.
In mythologies worldwide, the Serpent is seen as primordial, raw feminine power. In Hinduism, there is snake of energy that lies sleeping at the base of our spine. With the light of consciousness, it awakens, unfurls and moves up the spine towards the pineal gland. This energetic movement is called Kundalini. When the snake, encounters blocks created by karma and ego, we experience intense emotion as theheat of the life force seeks to eradicate what prevents the snake from rising any further.
When the heart of the snake is activated as it is at the Scorpio New Moon, the life force within us surges and we feel the intensity of the blocks that prevent a free flow of our vitality. But if we identify with the block, the potency of the feeling and beliefs that accompany it, we only succeed in reinforcing and strengthening a pattern that ultimately depletes and robs us of our full vitality.
In the sky, the Serpent is held by Ophiuchus, the Snake Handler. We need to effectively be the snake handler, able to taste the bitter poison of the darker emotion that surfaces as rage, jealousy, anxiety, grief or ....We can easily imagine that the emotion, like tasting a bitter poison, will consume us and that it will be neverending in the grief it causes us. Yet, there is healing when we view the emotion as a wave: surfacing from our depths, gaining momentum as it swells with even greater feeling until it at last crests and crashes and subsides. By engaging an emotion in this way, we become the Snake Handler.
Welcome An Intense Focus
Sun, Moon, Mars, Ceres in Scorpio
Scorpio and the Month of November
Scorpio will remain a signature and strong force in our lives throughout November. A water sign, Scorpio is the deep waters that the sun’s rays don’t reach. The deep waters hold great power and when they are move to the surface, as with a wave or a tsunami, they come with an unwaverable in their force and movement.
Scorpio brings us in contact with something that lives within our depths where our core motivations, fears and drives reside. These needs and desires motivate our lives, but they can often go unexamined and unquestioned. For instance, if there is a young girl who talks constantly about horses, we generally don’t sit down and have a conversation to figure out why she wants to ride a horse. If we want to support her, we get her on a horse.
The New Moon and throughout November, we feel a fervent drive to accomplish one thing or another, but instead of letting the desire sit in the driver’s seat, we are encouraged to pause and turn our attention inward to contemplate the root of that desire. We can ask ourselves: where does this desire, this need comes from? How will having it met serve or not serve me?
Often, within a pressing desire that is accompanied by a strong feeling, there is a motivating fear and need to resolve a sense of powerlessness. If we take time to feel the desire, be curious about its nature and the cause of it, without simply jumping to satisfy the desire, there can be a new awareness and expanded perspective that can have us acknowledge that the fears that once gripped us don’t grip us in the same way anymore. We can make a new choice that has us act in a more empowered and effective way. "Rather than being your thoughts and emotions, be the awareness behind them." (Eckhart Tolle). We do not quiet nor act out from the feeling, but simply observe and hold space for it to move through us and open us to a new understanding of ourselves.
What has been hidden may suddenly be revealed. Scorpio is what lurks beneath the surface, and November may a month of surprising discolsoures both on the world stage and in our life. Things that have been kept in the shadows or in the periphery of our awareness may come front and center be seen for what they are.
The Scorpio New Moon
There is a sudden, eruptive quality to the Scorpio New Moon. Something may surface with a force, similar to a tidal wave. We have the strength, focus and determination to meet it, to direct its energy to achieve something remarkable.
By facing the truth of something, we can set ourselves free of its grip on us. Patterns that keep our vitality dammed up, can be dissolved. Perhaps we have patterns of numbing through substance or distracting oursevles with social media or we shy away from deep intimacy by avoiding an honest conversation. It is the opportune time to look to where we feed our own sense of powerlessness, and instead chose to 'power up'.
Right Use of Will
New Moon CoRuler: Mars
Mars conjunct the New Moon, Mercury, Ceres and Oppose Uranus
Mars is center stage throughout November. Mars is moving more quickly than usual, giving it velocity Mars is being solar powered, turbo boosted by the Sun’s light as it rides conjunct the Sun until November 24. This turbo boosts our drive, determination and the focus needed to get something done. Within this, the New Moon gives us the opportunity to discover a new way to approach something head on.
In Scorpio, Mars exudes great strength, amplifying its warrior nature and impetus to take charge. We have increased willpower to exert our influence to fulfill some ambition. The instinct for self-determination is amplified and we can be undettered in our efforts to achieve some goal. The key is having a ‘right use of will’ without becoming obstinate, bullheaded, or succumbing to power struggles.
We may easily feel restless, impatient, or volatile with this super-charged Mars. We are more easily triggered. To move in a good way, we can lean into practices that foster attunement to our emotional body and aware of where fear is being activated. It is less about minimizing the discomfort or intensity, and more about slowing down, creating space in our schedule to encounter our feelings and the accompanying insights that this engagement offers.
Mars is further emphasized through additional planetary alignments:
Throughout November, Mars is making planetary alignments which further strengthen our will to achieve what we set out to achieve.
In addition to the conjunction with the New Moon, Mars is:
Conjunct the Sun in Scorpio through November 24 - increasing determination and focus.
Opposes Uranus through November 14 – potentially bringing sudden, explosive disclosures and surprising events.
Trine Neptune through November 19 – offering deep insight into our motivations, offering a spiritual perspective.
Conjunct Ceres through December 2 – having us contemplate what nurtures and does not provide nourishment, especially related to food. We may have increased interest in shifting the content of our diet and examining labels for what is in our food. We may look at where we abuse substance and look to instill new habits for better nourishing ourselves.
Sextile Pluto November 19 -25 – giving us even more drive and determination to get done what we have set out to do.
Square Saturn November 22 - 27 – encountering restraint, or way we may be thwarted from forward movement. This can create great frustration unless we use the frustration as a cue to slow down, practice patience, and reconsider our approach. It is not about abandoning a particular pursuit but about being persistent, disciplined, taking things a step at a time, and not getting ahead of ourselves.
A man who has not passed through
the inferno of his passions
has never overcome them.
Everything that irritates us
about others can lead us
to an understanding of ourselves.
Carl Jung
Sudden Access to Deep Feeling
Uranus opposing the New Moon, Mars and Ceres
Uranus brings the sudden, the unexpected. There is a volatile, even explosive quality that Uranus initiates as it opposes the planets in Scorpio. Uranus desires freedom and will blow up whatever stands in its way. Scorpio is fixed water which is complex and dense. When this water comes to a standstill, or even freezes, it signifies that something in us has become rigid and fearful. Uranus catalyzes the movement of the water, liberating it from where it has become stuck. Our feeling nature is thus liberated. It may not initially feel like liberation. After all, the feelings became frozen because we felt we couldn’t deal with them. We can discover a new way to nurture (Ceres) ourselves in the face of intensity and fear. If we are suddenly inundated with strong feeling, it may initially feel like being poisoned, but some part of ourselves that has been closeted away is now available to us to be felt and integrated. Uranus allows us to witness, to see the feeling for what it is and support us in no longer being in the grip of it.
Insight into The Deep Change Taking Place
New Moon Co Ruler: Pluto square nodal axis and sextiles the New Moon
For the larger part of 2023, Pluto (Transformation) has squared the Nodal Axis (the past that we are ready to release and the future self we are to become). There is a sweeping and profound transformation taking place at the heart of modern society and our personal lives. As the square begins to wane and Pluto sextiles the New Moon, we may have deep insight into what we have learned, what we are releasing, and the person we ar ready to become.
Inner Sense of Authority Strengthened
Saturn Direct square Mercury and sextile Venus
On November 4, Saturn completed its 5-month retrogade and is now moving slowly, very slowly moving forward again. This can bring an awareness of where we feel restrained or held back. We are encouraged to turn our attention inwards (Saturn in Pisces) to reflect on this restriction and possibly how we curb our instincts in relationship to an external authority. We are identifying in what ways we have been overly compliant (South Node in Libra) and seeing where we are enmeshed with an other. We are ready to restore balance in our relationships by owning what is ours to own and by releasing what belongs to another (Saturn sextile Venus).
Sensitivities are heightened (Saturn in Pisces). In the days leading up to the New Moon, our mind may be overanalyzing a situation to the point of mental exhaustion (Saturn square Mercury). We have been discerning the pros and cons around something as we look to make some decision, but we can turn to our intuitive nature to assist us in discovering the proper resolution and movement (Saturn in Pisces). At the New Moon, Saturn strengthens our capacity to use our energy wisely and to claim a new sense of authority to accomplish what we have set out to do.
Our wounds
Are often the openings
Into the best
And most beautiful
Part of us.
David Richo
Cleansing, Clearing and an Divine Perspective
Neptune Trine Scorpio Planets November 13 - 20
There is healing and an expanded perspective that softens and opens us in how to move and flow with the energy that is building before the New Moon and in the days that follow. Something may knock us off balance or we may feel exceptionally triggered by something that catches us off guard. Neptune’s presence allows us to take the high road, to not give way to base impulses, try to get the upper hand, or fuel a power struggle. We are better able to sense and align with what will best serve our soul purpose
Neptune opens us to the nonmaterial - the everpresent and unseen. We are drawn to develop our connection to the divine intelligence which helps us to detach, to witness and allow the energy to move naturally through us (Neptune in Pisces). We can view our life in a spiritual context, remembering we are spiritual beings having a human experience. Aligned with our soul’s movement and what we came into this life to accomplish, we are less likely to get sidelined by emotions that can have us caught in a web of self-deception and illusion. There is a heightened capacity to disentangle from dynamics that keep us small and contracted.
Neptune's influence has us less in the grip of ego, more able to forgive ourselves, and align with a knowing that ultimately we are held a divine web of safety and love - even if current circumstances have us on edge. Neptune’s presence has us feeling our truth worth and our soul's desire to heal, learn, grow and to embody our full self. There is insight, clarity and intuitive understanding available to us as we look to release old patterns and look to move in a more connected and centered way.
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