In November, what goes around comes around, but don’t expect to get any of it unless you’ve already got too much. November will be a month of start/stops, halting steps and bada bing bong release, as we have us a series of stations (planetary standstills). When a planet stands still, it is because it is in the process of changing direction, and for the time of its station, the activities and energies that we associate with that planet come to a resting place as well. This gives us a moment to pause and consider, just as it gives ready-to-change conditions in our life an opportunity to precipitate into a new form. The computer glitch that surfaces just as Mercury, Mars, or Uranus stop motion, or the argument that flares up when Venus grinds to a halt—we all know the drill...For I say unto you: it would be easier for a pollywog to translate The Hunting of the Snark into Ojibway than it would be to explain the complexities of just the Mercury retrograde in Scorpio… These stations are of particular note as we look forward eagerly to a period of new beginnings associated with the start of a new Mercury cycle and a new eclipse chapter in life. Even more, these are couched in the Grand Beginning that we feel as we commence the new Earth Great Year
(beginning December 21, 2012). We are eager to get out of the gate and put some of the plans we’ve devised into action.
Will they work? Are our insights accurate? Is our vision happening? First on our list is what feels like a station—
the New Moon Solar Eclipse on November 3. Just as with the Full Moon (Lunar) Eclipse (October 18),
we experience an energetic disconnection that resorts our priorities and allows new ones to come in.
What stays needs to be there for another 5½ months, until the next eclipses. While the October 18 eclipse anticipates the Nodes’ movement into Libra-Aries, the Solar Eclipse at 11°16' Scorpio continues the transformative process we began last November,
key-noted by Saturn’s drive toward responsibility and the rewards of perseverance.
As the energies dissolve around us in the dark of the Moon, we are led to stand still so we can observe the
intense inner activity that gives birth to our next chapter. Thankfully, the Autumnal eclipses are of a
forward-looking nature, allowing us to move away from the past. On November 6, Jupiter, the Big Wheel, makes its retrograde station, commencing four months of backward motion in Cancer. This will be a hugely powerful experience, as Jupiter reveals
hidden truths, unleashes the power into the collective, and releases us from the bondage that comes of suppressed
awareness. There is a special blessing that comes in the midst of the ensuing turmoil, as Jupiter graces us with the
good outcomes and miracles that pour forth while in its exaltation sign Cancer. Think of Jupiter as a Sugar Daddy who
comes and stays for a yearlong visit. We may not like all the things he tells us about the world out there, but he
brings gifts just for our special needs all the same. Mercury’s New cycle starts on November 1, and we can commence our
new activities then. All the same, we’ll feel a pause and then a relieving release as the Celestial Trickster resumes
forward motion once more on the 10th at 2°29' Scorpio. Action brings clarity, and if we are tired of being inactive and confused, we are in each other’s good company. Our clarity will be greatly enhanced once Neptune returns to forward motion on November 13. Since June 7, we’ve been wandering in a fog that we barely knew existed. Now as we emerge, we are inspired to take action, and we see what was obscured from us. We got clues around February 20 and August 26 (in addition to June’s date); now we see the light and can proceed with radiance and insight.
On November 19, we reach the ultimate healing moment (in our current saga), when Chiron turns forward at 9°07' Pisces.
This is the peak moment of change, when an improvement somewhere in our life gives us something to feel really good about.
We saw the situation turn a corner in early September, with steady improvement since then. Watch for this trend toward wholeness and connection to others to continue.
On November 20, we enter our latest (self-)love story in earnest when Venus goes into her retrograde shadow—
the zodiacal turf over which she later travels backward. She does so in rational Capricorn, and we feel like any relationship worth building is worth building right—with care, thoughtfulness, patience, and respect. So long as care does not become fear, thoughtfulness remains authentic, patience does not waver, and we respect ourselves, all turns out well in the end, next Winter-Spring. Where we are out of balance with this approach—in a hurry or looking for an easy time, we will learn.
Mercury has been busy activating most of the planets during its retrograde. With a set-up period October 6–8, the real action begins November 1, when all things converge in one grand crescendo of the cosmic light orchestra. With so many planets harmonizing at the same degree regardless of sign (9°)—a string of pearls threaded by Mercury as it adds its brightness to the Sun—this is indeed an auspicious day when many new powerful initiatives will commence, although at first hidden from view. The Sun also makes these connections, for simultaneous en-lightening. Watch for dynamic changes surrounding what happens as we burn off the dross from our past. The tone changes after November 20. The Sun enters Sagittarius to lift us out of the primordial goo of Scorpio that fertilizes our foundation. We are flung free into the sky, a spark on the breeze. Although the currents still buffet us, we have less baggage to weigh us down. Events around us feel customary, and we engage in the rituals of shared feasts with extra gusto because loss has reaffirmed our gratitude for what is precious to us, and we are seeing the world with new eyes.
November brings the drop of the other shoe. October was a time of clearing and cleansing. Rapid fire, we were discarding old ideas, items, habits, rifts and conflicts. We were removing the obstacles to the peace that lies in our core, centering to be still as the hurricane of events blows around us. There is a big showdown taking place in the political arena that is matched in less evident ways on all other levels of manifest form, from our personal life to relationships to our psyche.
It’s time for change. It’s the time of the face-off between old and new, and November serves up just the right courses for our passage. As we move through the eye of the needle, we shape-shift and shrink ourselves so that the slit becomes a wide tunnel. In so doing, our helpers appear from the shadows, whispering in our ear, nourishing us with the food and nectar of soulfulness, until we emerge into the light on the other side. November feels very much like October at its start. We are part-way through the eclipse passage. The first occurred on the October 18 Full Moon, another waits to dislodge us from our false moorings on November 3. In the lunar cycle (month) that ensues, we will rise up into new radiance and vitality, reborn in the true spirit of
Scorpio’s transformative process. We burst forth from the spark of the noblest urge within us, advancing into the
consciousness presented by the North Node tested and proven by its truth-revealing connections with both Mercury
retrograde and Saturn since mid-September. In the face of these proofs, we are coming to accept things we only hoped
(and perhaps feared) were real. This means we must change. So with the help of Saturn, Mercury, and the eclipses,
we are squeezing through a birth canal of beautifully crafted co-creation (even if we can’t appreciate it yet).
This goes for what’s happening on the world stage. Although there are some who would hold us hostage with their egos
under the guise of lofty ideology, we can rise above that to model a world of soul-centered compassion and caring for
each other. The reason for the squirming among the obstructive forces is that the energies of love and compassion
have never been stronger—perhaps about to prevail. It is a grand drama on a global stage. Is this the last stand of the
opposition to harmony? Not likely. But with an encircling kindness, enough hearts will be able to dispel the fears that
enshroud them and keep them in separation. Little by little, good will prevail. This struggle comes to us because of
human-created imbalances that are brought to the surface by Uranus’ square to Pluto. There are seven of these from June
2012 to March 2015. However, the biggest events do not come at the times of the exact squares, so much as at the times
when the Sun and other planets ignite their underlying volatility. This is the corporation or other large, powerful entity (Pluto) confronting the power of the individual (Uranus). Human social structures must serve the good of humanity, or they will cease to exist because they are out of harmony with the intrinsic order of the Metaverse. We can see these forces seeking balance throughout this time as we observe the flux and flow of events. Pythagoras founded a philosophical and religious school in Croton and was the head of the society with an inner circle of followers known as mathematikoi. The mathematikoi lived permanently with the Society, had no personal possessions and were vegetarians. They were taught by Pythagoras himself and obeyed strict Aquarian rules. The beliefs that Pythagoras held were
(1) that at its deepest level, reality is mathematical in nature,
(2) that philosophy can be used for spiritual purification,
(3) that the soul can rise to union with the divine,
(4) that certain symbols have a mystical significance, and
(5) that all brothers and sisters of the order should observe strict loyalty and secrecy. Pythagoras noticed that vibrating strings produce harmonious tones when the ratios of the lengths of the strings are whole numbers, and that these ratios could be extended to other instruments. In fact Pythagoras made remarkable contributions to the mathematical theory of music. He was a master musician, playing the lyre, and he used music as a means to help those who were ill. Well you can turn me to salt, dye me blue, and let the cows lick me into the homunculus of remorse, whence I will go about the countryside ejaculating Pythagoras' name through kitchen windows. And the people will say, 'Look out, it's him again.' And, typically, there will be those among them who will say, 'Let's kick him to death.' And still others will countermand them, saying, 'No - let's just maim him and send him on his way.' Citizens and townsfolk, can you not see the sign around my neck? LOCK UP YOUR DOUBTERS: SHE IS RISEN, LIKE THE WOBBLY ROD OF MAN AS IT DOWSETH THE FLUIDIFEROUS CHALICE OF THE EMPERESS!
