The New Moon at 20’43 Scorpio is exact on Monday November 13th, 2023 at 4:27am EDT- marking Lunar Samhain and commencing a new Lunar Cycle that focuses on the depths, the Underworld and facing what is hidden in our personal and collective shadows. This Samhain Season is one for the books! We had Solar Samhain (when the Sun hits 15 Scorpio) on November 7th- opening the way for the Dark of the Moon to bring to completion the Eclipse Portal we are in (which began with the Ring of Fire Solar Eclipse on October 14th). And then we come to Lunar Samhain and the New Moon in Scorpio on November 13th.
Samhain is the Dark of the Sun or the Balsamic Sun- it’s the last part of the Solar Cycle before the Sun ‘rebirths’ itself at Winter Solstice. As such is it the Solar Gate of Death and Final Descent. I posted my Solar Gate Call for Solar Samhain which you can tune into if you are a member here- https://divineharmony.com/solar-gate-calls/
What is fascinating about this particular Samhain portal is that Solar Samhain on November 7th is followed the Dark of the Moon which leads us into and through completion of the Eclipse portal we are in. Lunar Samhain is always at the New Moon in Scorpio (which changes date each year)- so we have the Solar and Lunar Gateways bookending the Dark Moon of an Eclipse portal. In addition to all of this, we are in the final days of a Sun/Mars cycle. The Sun/Mars conjunction on November 18th starts a new cycle and we are currently in the end of a previous 2 year cycle that began on October 7th 2021. We are in a lot of endings of old cycles- end of the Solar Cycle, end of the Eclipse portal, and end of a Mars cycle. This makes this portal of time SUPER POTENT.
Death is part of life and death is not to be feared- but in our western culture we do fear death, along with getting old and having no power. As such we have created a consumerist, patriarchal culture that is addicted to immortality, eternal youth and overconsumption of resources material and otherwise. In our fear of death we have allowed the balance of life to be affected- and as such we live in a distorted, unnatural world.
This New Moon/Lunar Samhain portal can be powerful for facing fears and facing obsessions. I call Scorpio the sign of all the taboo topics of society- sex, death, money, power and control. These are things people are afraid of (running away from/shutting down from) OR obsessed with (chasing after/hoarding)- and the Scorpio initiation portal is a time to ‘walk through the valley of the shadow of death’ and face all the things we push down into the unconscious and/or project onto others. It’s exceptional territory for Shadow Work!!!
The ancient Celtic people actually saw Samhain as the beginning of the New Year. Many of the ancient indigenous cultures believed that the Dark of the Great Mother’s Womb came first and out of the darkness the Light was born. So the part of the Solar year that is the Darkest- with the least amount of Light and the Light waning (the Sun appearing to die or decrease in Light) was the beginning of the New Year. New life (the New Year) was born out of this darkness. It is in this Dark Womb of the Dark of the Sun that we can release the old and make way for the new. The conception happens in the Dark- we do not see it and often do not even know new life is forming yet until signs show. This is the territory we are heading into in this Samhain Season.
The New Moon is tightly conjunct Mars the God of Will and War and is also conjunct Ceres the Great Mother. All of these Scorpio planets are opposite Retrograde Uranus in Taurus- the Rebel, Revolutionary and Great Awakener. This Lunar Cycle looks to be one of sudden and unexpected change, liberation, freedom, as well as upsets and/or shocks we did not see coming. You never know what you are going to get with Uranus- he is the planet of unpredictability after all ;) With Uranus in Taurus there can be unpredictable and unexpected things happening in the financial market and/or the environment (possibly big earthquakes)- and with Ceres involved this can also impact food, the environment, mothers and children, as well as safety and security (personal, national, perhaps earth wide?). Add Mars into the mix and this can also play out in the wars currently being waged on the planet.
The New Moon forms a T square with the Sun/Moon/Mars/Ceres conjunction in Scorpio opposite Uranus in taurus with both square True Black Moon Lilith in Leo. If you widen the orb a bit this configuration forms a Fixed Grand Cross when you add in Hygeia in Aquarius. The fixed signs are the midpoints of the seasons. Cardinal signs start things- kicking off the new season. Mutable signs end things and transition into the next season. But fixed signs are FIXED in nature- they are the height and fullness of the season and they maintain the qualities and energies of that season. They are also known to be fixed, rigid and unyielding.
With this powerful T square or Grand cross involving Mars the God of War, Ceres the Great Mother, the Dark Feminine Lilith and the Goddess of Healing Hygeia- I see some interesting and opposing forces at play. At best this New Moon conjunct Mars can be an activating point for seeing/facing/healing shadow- but Mars can be dominating, violent and intense and add in an opposition to Uranus and there can be some sudden, shocking energy in the mix.
With so much feminine energy in the chart (Ceres, Lilith, Hygeia) I feel that women and mothers have a unique role to play at this time on earth- due to their capacity to create and birth new life they hold an intimate understanding of the cost of life and death. In the Roman Sabine war it was the women who stopped the war by throwing themselves in between the two warring factions. When you have grown a baby in your body for 9 months and labored to birth them and then spent 18 years raising them- you do not take life lightly. You also do not take the killing of other’s people’s children lightly. Men and non-binary people can empathically understand this as well if they have open hearts- but there is nothing like the lived experience of gestating and birthing new life to give you a new understanding of sacredness of life and death!
The New Moon is conjunct the asteroid Hopi- which speaks to the native tribe by the same name- but it is also is a symbol for indigenous cultures and peoples. Martha Lang Westcott said that the asteroid Hopi represented “Native American peoples, culture, memories and behavioral inclinations; indigenous peoples; minority groups…territorial claims and disputes; attack or ambush perceptions; and deep-seated defense”. I find this fascinating as the current Israel/Palestine war is over territory. I also find this interesting in light of a pretty intense conversation I had today about Hawaiian sovereignty and the Land Back movement (I am part Hawaiian).
What is interesting is that the Sabian Symbol for the Sun/Mars conjunction coming up on November 18th is titled “American Indians making camp after moving into a new territory”. Dane Rudhyar says this degree is about ‘the ability to adjust swiftly to a new situation by tuning into its requirements”. He says “he who lives in harmony with nature, moving on as new needs arise, finds himself intuitively at home everywhere.” I personally am a gypsy at heart so I get this. I have moved A LOT and I can truly find myself at home in many places, countries, and cultures. I know there is wisdom and beauty to staying on a particular land and calling it home- and I also notice how humans love to fight each other over land and territory claims. I see our attachments to land “this is mine- we were here first” as problematic. But I equally find colonizers arriving and just taking land from others as problematic. Both/and.
Hawaii was violently taken by the United States, the same way the pilgrims took the land of the Native American tribes. The USA says it owns these lands- but the native indigenous peoples of these lands disagree. I really think the only way forward is for people to stop identifying with culture, religion and land- and start identifying with humanity, the heart and what it means to peacefully co-live on a planet together. When we fight over land or resources we become people who “want to dominate and enslave manifestations”. We also perpetuate the storyline of the oppressor and oppressed- and if you know your Greek Mythology you know that the oppressed eventually rise up, rebel and violently take power. Just like Saturn did to his father Uranus and Jupiter did to his father Saturn. I call this the Karma of the Father Line- as long as domination and control happens this karma keeps on playing out. The oppressor once was oppressed and becomes the oppressor. The oppressed eventually fight back to get power and become the oppressors themselves. I for one am ready for a new story line!
The intense conversation I was having was about what the Land Back movement meant for Hawaii. There are a lot of non-Hawaiians living in Hawaii (90% of the population)- renting and also owning land and homes. About 10% of the population of Hawaii is actually indigenous Hawaiian and I guess that probably less than 3-5% of those indigenous people actually own land and homes. Almost 50% of people who have Hawaiian descent do not live in Hawaii. This is because the homeland of Hawaii has been priced out for most Hawaiians- with wealthy non-Hawaiian people buying up the land and Hawaiians moving to the other places to afford housing. Apparently the non-Hawaiian people who have lived in Hawaii for a long time (perhaps having been born there for one or two generations but not having Hawaiian blood) get triggered by the idea of Hawaiians wanting their land back as it brings up anxiety about being pushed out and being homeless.
As someone who is Hawaiian I know that part of the Land Back movement is literally about giving the land back- and this person I was having the discussion with told me that was not what Land Back meant it meant reviving land and community stewardship informed and guided by indigenous ways. They were implying that if you owned land in Hawaii and were not Hawaiian that if you lived aligned with Hawaiian principles you could keep your land and did not have to give your land back. I reached out to a scholar/activist Hawaiian friend of mine to find out if the concept of Land Back for Hawaiians has changed (I have not lived there in years) and she said this to me-
“Most Hawaiian activists are interested in getting the actual “land back,” hence the slogan. A lot of post colonial and indigenous scholars have criticized the “decolonize” movement as diluting the aims of decolonization by portraying the concept as mere metaphor (decolonize the mind, education, research, etc.). The same holds true for land acknowledgements and other initiatives that do everything except give the land back. My analogy is that it is as if I were to steal my neighbor’s car, then put signs up all over the neighborhood about how great my neighbor is and how sorry I am, but continue to drive the car and not let my neighbor drive it much less give it back.” (Quote from Dr. Laura Dunn)
So if the Land Back movement is about giving the car back- what does that mean for the 90% of people who are not Hawaiian and live in Hawaii? Another friend on Facebook pointed out that it is an interesting conversation about using a metaphor- Land Back meaning honoring the indigenous cultures- and the embodied reality of that meaning its not just about honoring them they actually do want their land back. I honestly have no idea how to navigate this or find the right path forward- but let me tell you it’s a VERY triggering conversation as I found out today in my discussions online (I had no idea this person was a non-Hawaiian living in Hawaii btw- I probably would not have engaged in the conversation had I know that).This is a very sensitive discussion with a lot of nuance as one of my friends pointed out- and the fact that the new 2 year Sun/Mars cycle incoming activates a degree that is about this discussion is fascinating to me and makes me think that in this coming Mars cycle these conversations will be up BIG TIME.
This degree being about “The ability to move on when it is time to do so” can also be about finding new foundations and resources with ourselves to anchor into when we are forced to move on. The shifting ground beneath us requires that we also shift- both within and without. To be honest this degree makes me think of climate migrants- people who are forced to move due to changing environmental factors and disasters that make their land inhabitable- as well as refugees who flee their country due to war and religious persecution. ‘The ability to move on when it is time to do so’ can speak to both literal moves and also symbolic ones- are there situations, relationships, ideologies and beliefs that it is ‘time to move on from’?
The Sabian Symbol for this New Moon is ‘Obeying his conscience, a solider resist orders’. WOW! Rudyar goes on to say this degree is about ‘a readiness to face the results of a refusal to follow the authoritarian patterns of an aggressive society’. YES PLEASE! With the Eris North Node conjunction happening right now (October 21st for Mean, November 27th for True) we have revolutionary astrology on tap. You can learn about this conjunction in my blog here- https://divineharmony.com/astrology-blog/eris-conjunct-the-north-node-awaken-all-heart-warriors/ But in this I feel a growing movement of people who are ready to take a stand against colonizer, consumerist, patriarchal culture.
To be clear when I say patriarchy I am not talking about men- but about a quality of consciousness that seeks to hold onto power and resources and seeks to conquer death and control life. This desire to conquer death and control life actually throws off the balance of life. We only want to conquer death when we fear it. This rigid fearful consciousness has brought humanity to a standstill in their evolution. From a scientific perspective stasis is a precursor to death- if we stop growing and changing we die. Humanity has been stuck and in stasis from a consciousness perspective for a good 5000 years (the time patriarchy has been around) and somethings gotta give.
For me this New Moon degree is about ‘the ability to align with the Heart and Inner Authority’ despite conflict with outer authority, tradition and patriarchal culture. Are we ready, as a humanity, to obey our conscience? Will we resist orders when they go against what we know to be true and right? This takes a lot of inner strength- but let me tell you Scorpio season is one of the best to find inner strengths you did not know you had within you!
I leave you with the Star Sparks degree for this New Moon and the Sabian Symbol full text for this New Moon and the upcoming Sun/Mars conjunction. With Uranus opposite all the Scorpio planets I feel a radical and revolutionary energy ready to be anchored and embodied. It is up to each of us to bring it all the way down and in and see it all the way through.
Blessings…
~Harmony
STAR SPARKS
by Ellias Lonsdale
Scorpio 21 A pair of glasses with no lenses in them.
We can see whatever we need to see without any help from anybody else or any secondhand opinions, points of view, rumors going around. We don’t want to be influenced by apparent and seductive ways to impose models, ideals, standards. We want life rough, direct, strictly our way.
Because we are so utterly intent upon carrying through with this uncharted perception, this unmediated awareness, we will do exactly what we set out to do. Instead of making peace with the broader collective versions of what goes on around here, we will stick to our guns and face the consequences of being so adamant and relentless.
The strength we gather from being so authentic to ourselves is tremendous. We get to see straight and to be so on fire with our truth that our inward soul can manifest in action and in life the way we feel it and know it to be. There are no filters, no go-betweens at all. Few can be this starkly on with core awareness in these times.
The dilemma we face arises whenever we need to see how others view life or somebody else needs to see as we do through us. There is no verbal and no ready made tool to convey or translate between this interior gaze and anybody else’s version. Usually, we become isolated, set apart to such an extent that we become a law unto ourselves.
Yet in balance this is the way it has to be. Even if we get swept away with ourselves that is the path we must follow, in order to break through to original, innovative discoveries which arise in this fashion and not in any usual tracks. We have our priorities clear. The only thing to do is keep on with our intense obsessional track and let it become either a failed mutation, as most are, or one of those rare openings into a whole new way of seeing, understanding, and being with the truth, the bare stark reality. We risk everything for the chance to be crazy enough to see through every disguise and makeup right on time.
SABIAN SYMBOLS
by Dane Rudhyar
NEW MOON DEGREE-
PHASE 231 (SCORPIO 21°): OBEYING HIS CONSCIENCE, A SOLDIER RESISTS ORDERS.
KEYNOTE: A readiness to face the results of a refusal to follow the authoritarian patterns of an aggressive society.
As a person finds himself involved in activities which are traditional in his particular culture — and in many instances in all societies at this stage of human evolution — he often faces a conflict between his own individual sense of value (his conscience) and the demands of society. The conflict may be most typical in terms of the armed services — thus this symbol. In it we find the individual asserting his own values, though he cannot escape the consequences of his decision. In such a case he has to be quietly ready to face these consequences, whatever the cost.
This is the first stage in the forty-seventh five-fold sequence of phases in the great cyclic ritual of activity. The issue it presents is clear. Society in this situation seems to be all-powerful; yet the individual need not be spiritually bound, even if imprisoned. He still can display INNER FREEDOM and prove himself an “individual.”
THE ABILITY TO ALIGN WITH THE HEART/INNER AUTHORITY (DH)
SUN/MARS CONJUNCTION DEGREE-
PHASE 236 (SCORPIO 26°): AMERICAN INDIANS MAKING CAMP AFTER MOVING INTO A NEW TERRITORY.
KEYNOTE: The ability to adjust swiftly to a new situation by tuning in to its requirements.
He who lives in harmony with nature, moving on as new needs arise, finds himself intuitively at home everywhere. He does not make demands upon life, for he has identified himself with the great rhythms of the biosphere and he functions at peace with what they produce. This is the message of the American Indian culture which European invaders so wantonly and meaninglessly destroyed nearly everywhere. Western man has lost faith in life because he wants to dominate and enslave manifestations.
This represents the first stage of the forty-eighth five-fold sequence in the cycle of experience. It brings to us a message we greatly need today — the message of peaceful adaptation to nature, and through adaptation, of EFFICIENT FUNCTIONING in all life situations.
THE ABILITY TO MOVE ON WHEN IT IS TIME TO DO SO (DH)