Via Combusta Scorpio New Moon October 26 Opens Into the Dark Half and Sets the Tone for Saturn in Scorpio 2012 - 2015

Photo: Willow

Scorpio New Moon conjunct Juno - October 26 at 2:56 p.m. Central Daylight Time

There's a bit o' spook in the air along with the smell of fallen leaves as we cross into the dark half of the year in the northern hemisphere. The Sun enters Scorpio. Cailleach takes the reins from Brigid. Persephone starts her sombre trek. The veils between the living and the ancestors, the light half and the dark half, become so thin as to be nearly non-existent.

Witchy origins rise to the surface at this time of year. We recognize each other quite readily now - on the bus, in the grocery store, passing on the sidewalk. A knowing glance. A subtle acknowledgement. The history laid bare. We know each other. We know. It's not so necessary to hide ourselves just now, camouflaged amongst the ghosts and goblins, creatures and spooks.

The Scorpio New Moon is a moon of underlying magic and mystery, crackling with alchemical possibility. Drink it in, and feel how powerful, how potent you are, distilled into this very moment on this very planet.

Photo: Willow

Feel the responsibility you hold for being so powerful. The weight that keeps you here, grounded, enduring. The unyielding limitations and stern restrictions you've come to respect and even love, keeping you on the straight and narrow. Keeping you from devastation, disaster, attack, exhaustion, injury. The borders and frameworks that contain you and your power, keeping you safe and keeping others safe from you. Holding you at your most concretely effective position because anything less would be less than you are.

At this Scorpio New Moon sextile Pluto in Capricorn, we step through a doorway - open for a limited time only and only to the wise among us - into the tone and themes of the Saturn transit through Scorpio when it will be in mutual reception to Pluto in Capricorn.

Every New Moon indicates something emerging: new emotional realities related to the sign in which it falls, as well as deadfall - dead and done emotional realities - to clear away during the Balsamic phase. Here, we step into a new layer of inheritance. Sacred gifts of the soul, of our ancestral and spiritual lineages, are bestowed upon us at this New Moon. We step more fully into their power and into the responsibility we hold for making good use of them from our strategic positions of influence on this planet.

Saturn, the planet related to strategic positioning, is at 21 degrees Libra, about to enter its retrograde shadow November 3, and will be exactly sextile Mars at 21 degrees Leo at the time of the New Moon. Mars in Leo (square Mercury-Venus in Scorpio) is at a potent distillation point, closing out its two-year cycle under the energy overlay of the lion. Explosively creative partnerships emerge out of this New Moon in Scorpio along with corresponding new levels of social and creative responsibility for bringing about the particular astrological Aquarian era future we wish to be part of.

This is the last Scorpio New Moon before Saturn ingresses the sign of sex, death, regenerative healing, hardcore soul drive, and metamorphosis October 5, 2012. Those who understand the seriousness of the times in which we're living and the level of responsibility it takes to truly get the job done get a head start here - almost a full year of extra time to put in our energetic prep work. With Saturn, it pays to be both prepared and unrushed.

Saturn in Scorpio will require:

Energetic responsibility. Absolute energetic responsibility.

Intricate, masterful restraint.

Decision-making based in perfectly-honed intuition. Heeding gut feelings and Scorpionic spidey sense, but waiting until we're absolutely sure of what they're telling us before acting.

A new level of care and caution with emotions, psyches and psychic space.

A much lower tolerance for baggage, unfinished business, emotional/psychological/sexual entanglements, and otherwise bullshitty behaviours.

A no-nonsense release of anything no longer vital to our long-term soul-level success. (Saturn would call those things "frivolous.")

A slower, more gradual timing for the merger of energy and resources, especially financial and sexual.

A deepened respect for our power and our influence on others, on the world, on the universe itself. A deepened respect for what flows through us, for what we're connected to, for ancestral context, and for how it works through us.

The understanding of our positions as change agents. The facilitators of structural metamorphosis.

Photo: Willow

As with the other 11 signs, under the astrological lens, everyone has Scorpio in one form or another. Because of its power, complexity, and extremes, Scorpio is an energy prone to misuses and abuses. It's the sign of "the occult," and there are many, many people being very, very irresponsible on this front.

Speaking of which, this Scorpio New Moon is potent for another reason: contrary to popular belief and all the December 21, 2012 hoopla, there's a good chance the date for the end of the Mayan calendar is actually October 28, 2011 - just as we unfold into the new energetic and emotional realities indicated by this Scorpio New Moon.

A bunch of fools is currently attempting to bring about the "end of the world" on this planet - at least for those of us considered expendable collateral damage for the ascended, the enlightened, the awakened, the raptured, and the planetary/inter-planetary elite. And yet another bunch of fools is vociferously glorying about this magical and wonderful culling that will supposedly bring about their new age, their saving grace, their shot in the big leagues, their ticket out of here.

Neptune is currently stationing direct at 28 Aquarius (November 9). Chiron Rx is conjunct at 0 degrees Pisces. The wound is a wound of faith, of naivete, of belief, of hopes, of glossing over, of pedestal placing and pedestal sitting, of damaging ethers, of pseudo-spiritual blinders and manipulation. Neptune and Chiron now straddle 29 Aquarius, the degree that tips us into the astrological Aquarian era. Make sure you know where you're placing your faith and which version of the Aquarian era future you're supporting with the choices you make in your life.

All these layers make keeping the Scorpionic bullshit detectors perfectly honed and perfectly attuned coming out of this New Moon that much more important. And they certainly add an element to the level of responsibility required as we navigate our lives during these particular times.

I wrote about the themes of this Scorpio New Moon previously in conjunction with the Libra New Moon. I'll re-post it here because I feel this is an important time frame. From September 23, 2011: Upcoming New Moons in Libra and Scorpio - More Spice Than Sugar For the Next Two Months

- Via Combusta New Moon in Scorpio October 26 Conjunct Juno -

The New Moon in Scorpio October 26 deepens the process. Things move from the social to the energetically alchemical, and a big part of the process moves out of our hands.

The New Moon (2:56 p.m. CDT) is in full-on Via Combusta territory at 3 degrees Scorpio, which will be tightly sextile Pluto in Capricorn. The New Moon is also conjunct soul mate asteroid Juno, newly in Scorpio at zero degrees. Venus and Mercury will be closely conjunct each other at 21 and 20 degrees Scorpio respectively. This is certainly a New Moon with an edge.

Sextile Pluto in Capricorn, it is an energetic precursor to the upcoming period involving the Saturn in Scorpio - Pluto in Capricorn mutual reception (October 6, 2012 to September 18, 2015) and brings us into the tone of that time period - deep, soulful, serious, pragmatic, no fucking around.

This Juno-vibing Scorpio New Moon opens into the knowledge that finding a "soul mate" is only the beginning of the work. We're in some thorny, collectively karmic relational territory these days, and there are plenty of knots to be worked out ahead of your standard 'utter soul union bliss.' Aspects of unbalanced power dynamics are perpetuated through our interactions just by virtue of us being on the planet at this time, and we're challenged to consciously work them free together.

The relationships that deepen coming out of this Scorpio New Moon conjunct Juno have to be right, no doubt about it. We still have some time under Saturn exalted in Libra to get the balance right, but under Saturn in Scorpio, our energy will be restricted; our resources will be limited. Heading into Saturn in Scorpio, we cannot afford to take losses (including emotional/energetic/psychic losses) or to make bad judgement calls as far as the integrity and abilities of the people with whom we enter partnership.

It will not be easy to get ourselves out of the wrong partnerships, and it will not be easy to recover from the wrong mergers of resources and energy (particularly sexual energy) from here on out...

The extrication processes during Saturn in Scorpio are more likely to be difficult: turbulent, protracted, nasty, even so enervating and devastating as to be deadly. I've said this before, and I'll say it again: Make firm decisions about the people you have in your life now, and don't compromise your standards. Being a highly popular social butterfly spreading yourself over multitudes of acquaintances isn't going to mean much during Saturn in Scorpio. Only the relationships that truly pay dividends, soul-deep, are going to be worth the energy. Keep only the people you're absolutely sure about, and even then, work to create proper boundaries for all members of your social circle - including yourself. Good fences make good neighbours, especially under Saturn in Scorpio.

A major relational difficulty here is that with Pluto transiting Capricorn, the way things have been set up is corrupt. It no longer works. It never really did. The hierarchies are illegitimate. There is a detrimental power imbalance between men and women and the masculine and feminine energetic interplay. On a very many fronts, things are just plain wrong, and we have to change the course. All this must be consciously and mutually dealt with as mergers - business, love or otherwise - come about slowly and carefully, with full respect for the intricacies involved and the deep pitfalls to avoid. Trying to bring these combinations together fully before the power dynamics are reworked and the timing (Saturn) is right will only create more hurt and distortion.

In love, this involves creating right sexual relationships (Scorpio) with mutually held consciousness of the prior and current misuses and violent abuses of sexual energy. This especially involves abuses of women and the domination and control of feminine sexual power and knowledge. It also includes the damage done by the "too much, too fast, too often" mainstream sexual culture of the day. These misuses and abuses have become so energetically ingrained, hidden and accepted through millenia of cultural reinforcement, that it takes pristine focus and awareness within a sexual partnership not to repeat the dynamics in some form or another.

People are being kept from their full sexual power by false, mainstream-media constructed versions of sex, sexuality, beauty and attraction. But Scorpio is a sign that has the ability to make sex and the energetic interplay between people sacred and purposeful again. Issues start coming to the forefront out of this New Moon that will be on our plates during Saturn in Scorpio as far as the hidden energy exchanges between the sexes (and between those of the same sex).

The currencies of sexual, emotional and psychic energy as well as masterful Scorpionic healing abilities require conscious re-valuing and re-working, one interchange at a time.

We'll be working diligently on these intimate and highly complex issues throughout Saturn's transit of Scorpio into September of 2015.

In light of the complexities ahead, the decisions we make now must come straight from our souls, right from our core truth with no fibbing around the edges. There is very little margin for error now and there is a decreasing amount the closer we get to Saturn's ingress of Scorpio.

Allow the Scorpio New Moon October 26 to take you deeply into your intuitional guidance, the still place inside that already knows how the whole map has been laid out.

And don't be afraid. It all comes out OK, even if it doesn't.

Saturn, Mars and Venus in Libra and the Second Cardinal T-Square of the Summer

July 21 finds us with Saturn re-entering Libra - this time for the remainder of its transit until early October 2012.

July 26, it opposes Uranus in the fifth and final Saturn-Uranus opposition, this time at zero Libra/Aries, completing a 2.5 year cycle of oppositions that has rattled and shaken our structural realities to the point that they are now barely recognizable. A smooth and gradual transition it was not.

Between July 26 and August 20, Saturn will be moving to its third and final square to Pluto in Capricorn, also completing that cycle which began in November 2009.

So we have all these cycles completing at the same time as we're experiencing a second very powerful cardinal t-square - this one much longer-lasting - coming at us from Libra now instead of Cancer. Cycles are completing while we simultaneously have potent frictional impetus to actions initiated, new directions taken, new allegiances formed and underway - all in light of the stresses and difficulties of these transitional and transformational (for good or ill) times on Planet Earth.

The summer of 2010 is a big summer in the scope of things, to say the least.

Saturn in late Virgo has always been within range of these squares, but I was unable to call the configuration in late June a "Cardinal Grand Cross" because Saturn was not in a cardinal sign. It was an energetic Grand Cross - within degree but not by sign.

The cardinal t-square we experienced around June 26 (coinciding with the Full Moon Capricorn eclipse) involved the Sun and Mercury in Cancer opposing Pluto and the Moon in Capricorn squaring Jupiter-Uranus in Aries. Saturn in Virgo created the fourth leg - again, an energetic Grand Cross but not a full Cardinal Grand Cross. Virgoan details.

The Sun and Mercury are fast-moving planets, so the time frame of this initial cardinal t-square was very quick. An insanely intense energetic configuration in a tiny window of time - like a warp speed imprinting of energetic potential, with ripple effects for the next five years of cardinal squares but also for the next 2,000+ of the astrological Aquarian era. So you see why our full awareness and informed actions/decisions were and continue to be so important.

When Saturn re-enters Libra in a couple weeks, the Sun and Mercury will be out of range of their square from Cancer, but it will shift into full cardinal t-square alignment opposing Uranus and Jupiter in Aries and squaring Pluto in Capricorn.

Jupiter in Aries is stationing in exact square to Pluto Rx in Capricorn, increasing the potency of this energy and configuration.

I know it sounds like a broken record about how powerful these configurations are, but they really are. Layer after layer, aspect after aspect. We're ticking the seconds off of an entire 2,000+ astrological era (Pisces) and transitioning into a new 2,000+ cycle (Aquarius). Intuitively, I like Carl Johan Calleman's date for the actual ending of the Mayan calendar - October 28, 2011. This seems to fit the intensity and the acceleration we're experiencing, indicated astrologically.

To be honest, I'm not sure if human beings will be around for the full Aquarian cycle considering the state of things currently and the direction things seems to be taking straight out of the gate (at least, the human beings who share aspects of my personal spiritual lineage and energetic reason for being on this planet). But we're here now, so present we shall stay, fighting for our right to exist on this planet despite those doing everything in their power to make things inhabitable for us here.

So they think they can do this planet without us, eh? Hmm...

We're personally invested in what goes on here. God is invested in us. What we do with our time here matters - especially, at this point, in what we do with others, the quality of our relationships. And Mars and Venus, soon to be entering Libra, are coming to the table within this cardinal t-square to bring that point to full awareness.

Mars enters Libra July 29, opposes Uranus in Aries July 30, conjuncts Saturn July 31, and opposes stationing Jupiter and squares Pluto Rx in Capricorn August 3. Whew! Seriously.

As if that action weren't enough, Venus enters Libra August 6 and does the same dance Mars did in the cardinal t-square configuration. It opposes Uranus in Aries August 7, conjuncts Saturn in Libra August 8 and opposes Jupiter in Aries and squares Pluto Rx in Capricorn August 9. Whew squared!

This brings us personally into the proceedings. We're not just along for the ride with the transpersonal and intermediary planets (Jupiter and Saturn) acting upon our lives. The personal planets are involved; we're invested. We want and need things to go a certain way here, in more ways than one.

With all the Libra influence, this especially involves our relationships. Considering the context of the times, we no longer have a lot of time (Saturn) to waste in relationships that do not truly honour us or meet our needs. There isn't much room for do-overs now. We're craving quality human beings and quality relationships that we can build upon, invest ourselves in, develop our full potentials within.

What this planet needs are people willing to commit to the sometimes difficult process of harmony-creation and love-building between two people that will start to bring things back to an energetic state of balance. Reaching for the fullest, truest potential of ourselves and each other within relationship, despite the difficulty of the circumstances. Our highest selves, interacting. Every break from that is a break in the chain that the planet (and we) cannot afford at this time.

It's time for a new level of maturity, respect and responsibility toward others.

Our relations, especially romantic love relations, have gone pretty far afield in many cases from the mutually supportive, soul-and-spirit-honouring interchanges they're meant to be. Many people have bought into the idea constantly advertised to us that sex and love are cheap, easy and expendable. Easy come, easy go. Run into a problem? Just toss it into the heap and onto the next. Fast food love.

Now with Saturn entering Libra, things shift. That type of interaction is no longer going to sustain - just as a diet of Big Macs or Whoppers will not sustain. Fast food love and sex will be seen as the toxic energy exchange they are, and we'll crave (and demand) something deeper, better, more befitting who we really are as human beings. Something we can count on. People we can count on.

Maturity, fidelity and seriousness - being serious about each other - are about to get very sexy.

All this summer Libra action is a precursor to the Venus in Scorpio retrograde this fall (October 8 - November 18) when relationships will either end or fuse. Be shed or merge. And we'll be left, post-retro, in a much more real, authentic and raw place from which to relate - soul-to-soul, heart-to-heart, no BS - just how Scorpio (mature Scorpio) likes it.

Pluto and Ceres will finally meet in conjunction during the Venus retrograde in Scorpio, adding to the mythological/archetypal layers and underlying intensity of this time period. We need to clear unfinished business. It's now or never. This is my hope - renewal and restoration in love matters for all of us this fall. The cycle completing and falling away.

We're building on the work of the Pluto in Libra generation here - their stripping down of relationship constructs past their prime, abusive control and power dynamics, and relationship set-ups that deprive us of love, intimacy and closeness while keeping us from reaching our full potentials, together, within them. Stripping the Neptunian illusions and delusions around love and love relationships that set us up so painfully for disappointment and disillusionment.

The relationship constructs going forward will be much more alchemically fluid, dynamic, catalytic - creating an energy that is above and beyond the energy of the two individuals within them. We're not going backward here to relationship dynamics that stifled our love and development in the past - we're drawing the solid, valuable aspects of relationship through time and space into our current relationships. We're moving forward, but we're not leaving any crucial basic foundational tenets behind. This is the conserving influence of Saturn in Libra.

There is a lot going on as we head more fully into a summer, fall and winter that bring our relationships right to the forefront.

Saturn in Libra July 21 will be just the beginning.

Full Moon in Libra - It's Not All Venusian Lovey Dovey, But We'll Do Our Best

Today the Moon is in Libra all day moving to fullness at 8:25 p.m. MT. This Full Moon happens within the cardinal t-square formation with the Sun in Aries and stationing (so very potent) Pluto in Capricorn.

Coming from the Moon's conjunction to Saturn Rx at zero Libra early this morning, it's going to take some sustained effort on our part to stay on an emotional even keel today and over the next few days.

The scales are dipping very low and then swinging higher in a rapid see-saw dynamic right now.

We're just past the midpoint of about two weeks of rapid, energetic spikes and voids with lots of aspects going on one day, making us feel as if things are finally smoothing out and getting on with it, and then an immediate dip into a much more difficult void period. Yesterday was one of the bottoming-out dips, and today we see more movement, lifting our spirits and emotional states a bit. Tomorrow, another dip, and so on. This pattern should ease up by early next week.

This see-sawing has a definite wearing effect as we're emotionally up, then down, up, then down, like water freezing and thawing in the cracks of a rock. Just as the rock will eventually bust apart, we'll eventually break down whatever deeply ingrained and crystallized stuff Pluto has its sights set on, but it sometimes feels as if we're going to break along with it.

At this point, we're being forced to go so incredibly deep in such short time frames that it's often impossible to be aware of what these dynamics are even working on. The collective dynamics being brought to the surface seem to have only the most tenuous root connection to the personal, at times. It doesn't seem fair (Libra) somehow that we're having these massive processes going on through us, being ripped up through our DNA, when we haven't had an opportunity to consciously deal with the issues - or couldn't deal with them effectively due to their collective nature. "It's not just my crap to deal with, dude!"

This has the effect of making things feel even more out of our control, which can lead to exasperation, overwhelm, loneliness and morale-erosion. It's a struggle right now, and we just have to keep our heads above water however we can, helping others do the same.

The dispositor of the Libra Full Moon is Venus in late Aries, so we have to fight to stay alive emotionally here. Stay active, keep moving, bob and weave.

Pluto is stationing retrograde at the moment on 5 degrees Capricorn, heading retro April 6, so it's all but standing still from our perspective on Earth. There's even less room for avoidance now as we stew in the Plutonic juices, keenly aware of the destruction we've just witnessed, lived through and are now expected go BACK over to make some sort of sense of during Pluto's retrograde (April 6-September 14). Pluto seems to have even more potency in our conscious, day-to-day lives when it's retrograde, and this is going to be an intense and challenging retrograde period, as we head to that partial lunar eclipse exactly conjunct Pluto Rx this summer.

As far as some context on the increased intensity and velocity we've been experiencing and the extreme emotional ups and downs:

I was reading Robert Phoenix's excellent site and found some information from a gentleman named Carl Johan Calleman on the Mayan calendar. Calleman puts the end date of the Mayan calendar at October 28, 2011 and says the December 21, 2012 date is phony and was set so that the birthdays of the originators of the modern Dreamspell version of the calendar would be given the the “master numbers” 11 and 22. HA! Hilarious.

The October 28, 2011 date makes more sense to me, considering the increasing intensity of astrological aspects and energy. It sort of boggles the mind how deep we're going and how fast things are flying, and 18 months until the "official" era-shift feels like more of a fit to me. Not to mention that this means the official start of the "Aquarian Era" begins during Scorp season! Sounds about right, all things considered, no?

From a purely astrological standpoint, there is debate over where the boundaries of the sidereal constellations actually lie, so it's probably impossible to set an exact date for the point when the Vernal Equinox moves from the constellation of Pisces into Aquarius.

There is some grounding relief ahead, though:

Venus enters a sign of its rulership, earthy Taurus, on March 31, and Mercury follows April 2. This should have the effect of smoothing out the wildly swinging emotions and moods after a whole lot of feisty Aries within that pressurized cardinal t-square.

Venus and Mercury in Taurus will trine Pluto in Capricorn just as it stations retrograde, and this will help solidify things considerably, grounding the intense Plutonic vibes and easing the spikes and voids.