The New Moon in Scorpio is known as the Lunar Samhain, a connection abundantly clear this year. Arriving Wednesday, November 11 at 12:47 pm EST, this New Moon carries the power for deep change, new beginnings, and transformation of our most inner selves.
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I do not always include Sabian symbols, but the symbol for this New Moon is impossible to ignore: A woman draws aside dark curtains that closed the entrance to a sacred pathway.
So much in this image reflects the patterns of this New Moon. First, the woman. We are said to be living in a time of resurgence of the sacred feminine. While I hope this is true, I would love to see clearer signs than the very mixed messages culture, politics and religion continue to send us. Scorpio, as a Water sign, is feminine and often holds the most negative projections placed on women: scheming, underhanded, filled with suppressed and toxic anger, vengeful, deviant. The medieval astrologers called Scorpio “the accursed sign” and it still gets a bad rap today.
Next, the dark curtains drawn aside. Scorpio is nothing if not shadowy. Can we, at this time in history, pull aside the Shadow surrounding these negative projections? Can we reclaim what has been buried, accept the unacceptable, and channel that power in creative ways?
This New Moon says yes. Mercury at 15 Scorpio (the Samhain degree) sits with the New Moon. While the Moon is dark, we still have the power to see. Intuition, dreams, visions and deep insights will be available.
The next closest aspect to the New Moon is Jupiter at 18 Virgo, a sextile offering positive, optimistic support and expansive energy, wrapped in Virgo’s meticulous care. Jupiter says, we can do this!
Uranus, the sudden revolutionary, forms an awkward inconjunct to the New Moon, and also to Jupiter, which creates a yod pattern. Yods want the awkwardness resolved, and Uranus will be pushing for something new and unexpected. A clue to the answer lies in Libra, the sign opposite Uranus in Aries, and stronghold of Venus. Venus herself has just moved into Libra. The sacred feminine appears again.
The New Moon receives energy from Chiron the wounded healer, sitting in mystical Pisces. To resolve Shadow issues, we need to look squarely at where we’ve been wounded, and find healing. Chiron is opposite Jupiter, suggesting that healing must be part of our move forward.
At this New Moon, we cannot shy away from what is difficult, no matter how … well … difficult that is. This New Moon falls at 19 Scorpio, called “the accursed degree of the accursed sign.” Say what?
The whole concept of ‘accursed’ is intriguing, evoking as it does an inescapable doom. At this New Moon, we may face questions about the balance between fate and free will, and/or between projection and reality.
It’s not entirely clear what makes 19 Scorpio so accursed (at least, it’s not clear to me). 19 Scorpio is said to be the position of Serpentis, but is Serpentis the brightest star in the constellation Serpens, or a fixed spot in the sky that never precesses? Serpens is, of course, a snake, or perhaps THE snake, long associated with darkness, deviance, and negative views of the feminine––as well as transformation and healing.
So how do we handle our New Moon wishes and intentions in this shadowy space?
As always, check your birth chart to see where 19 Scorpio falls. Which House, and which planets and points are affected? This New Moon has a big “hot spot” in the late teens: Sun and Moon at 19 Scorpio, Mercury at 15 Scorpio, Jupiter at 18 Virgo, Uranus at 17 Aries, Chiron at 17 Pisces. Even Pluto at 13 Capricorn beams in transformational power. So, anything in and around those degrees in any sign will be affected. My New Moon Wishes page can help you connect this New Moon to your birth chart.
This New Moon is about power. Not power-over, domination, coercion, or manipulation, despite the association of these qualities with Scorpio. This New Moon, with the intuitive insight of Mercury, the optimism and careful structuring of Jupiter, and the revolutionary shove of Uranus, is about creative power, about agency in the world to be who we are, to bring into being the full force and energy of our being, without shame.
At this New Moon, informed by messages we receive from the fruitful dark, we plant seeds of memory, to always remember who we are. We plants seeds of transformation, to release everything not-us so we can embrace the yes-us. Whatever our gender identity, we plant seeds of the sacred feminine, source of all seeds and all growth.
When we do, we push aside dark curtains barring our way from our own sacred path. When the Moon is New, she is dark, so there is no promise here of immediately stepping onto a brightly lit highway to success. Instead, we are offered the gift of patience, and the ability to walk into the dark wood and find it beautiful.