OCTOBER 28 – NOVEMBER 3
SCORPIO NEW MOON (27th) TO FIRST QUARTER
NOW: MERCURY RETROGRADE PRE-SHADOW
COMING UP: FULL MERCURY RETROGRADE OCTOBER 31 – NOV 20
BELTANE (SOUTHERN HEMI) & SAMHAIN (NORTHERN HEMI)
IN THE BACKGROUND: CHIRON, PLUTO & NEPTUNE RETROGRADE
Can you feel the Mercury rising – literally and energetically?
It’s certainly been escalating and expressing via those intense bush fire winds we’ve been feeling and creating widespread havoc across the country yet again. There’s been a lot of celestial action this week also which has added fuel to the fire (element) and is certainly giving us a front row seat to the potential sh*t show that will be this summer, that’s for sure.
The underlying theme of this week: break the spells that keep you small and release all toxic habits, people and belief systems from your life.
It’s a beautifully clear, warm day here in Avalon today – ‘picture perfect’ you could say as I finish off this week’s note to you – but it’s decidedly deceptive because the truth is, not that far up the coast, people are evacuating their homes, wildlife is frantically scurrying for shelter and fire fighters are risking their lives yet again as fire engulfs and transforms all their realities.
As a country girl, I am well acquainted with the cycles of nature, animal management and the processes involved with living on (and relying upon) the land. I understand what it’s like to feel completely vulnerable to Mother Nature – for example, when She decides to devastate your property and threaten your livestock with flood or fire, I’ve been there, many times – and so I naturally empathize with every farmer out there who is doing it super tough plus having to watch their beloved animals suffering the same.
But let’s remember: when white man arrived here and decided to claim what wasn’t his, he was not greeted by aboriginals, cows, sheep and a kelpie. He was met by aboriginals, kangaroos and emus. Maybe a dingo or two lurking on a distant horizon, watching proceedings. Animals that had lived here for eons and were already adapted to the harsh terrain. Heart-hardy creatures attuned to the vibrations of the land and whose behaviors worked with the land, not against it. That’s why they are called ‘native’ and being nomadic, it meant they grazed and moved on, intuitively leaving the land behind them in a decent state and capable of regenerating itself for the next influx of visitors. Not polluted, suck-dried to the bone and trampled by hard hooves and root-ripping teeth.
If Yoda were here I’m sure he’d say something like, “A hereford in the desert (or the Amazon jungle for that matter), is a natural thing; not.”
I’m sure some people will get their knickers in a twist reading this, but I’m saying it anyway. Australia’s farming industry – the way it has operated up to this point that is – was always going to have a use-by date.
It’s now serious time for the entire industry to refurbish and adopt sustainable and conservation-focused climate-aware practices – if anyone is going to survive – because the weather is NOT going to ‘improve’, the land is not going to miraculously recover if we continue treating it as we are and the problem is not going to go away until the entire infrastructure is upgraded.
There are a few organic, sustainably-minded farmers out there – there was one such enlightened ‘man of the land’ on 60 minutes last week talking about this in fact – but one of the main problems (that he was addressing also), is the excessive land clearing that is still happening, to make way for beef farming expansion in particular. The CEO’s insist on calling it ‘sustainable land management for future economic, social and ecological benefit’ (or some other drivel), but it actually is just plain old deforestation and that is what is helping exacerbate climate change. Big time.
Poo is poo folks. Doesn’t matter how fancy you make it look or smell or whether you call it fertiliser or not; and we can all choose to keep flinging it around like ignorant monkeys, or we can put it to good use and start recycling it.
It’s not my place to tell you what to eat or how to live your life of course. All I want is to encourage deeper awareness and higher participation so that everyone (that is, all sentient beings and life forms) get the chance to continue their existence. By all means eat meat if you want, but please choose products that you trust are organic, sustainably farmed, cruelty free of course and (hopefully this will get introduced soon) ‘forest-friendly’ – meaning the meat you consume, has been produced ethically on all levels and most importantly, not at the expense of the planet. Not on land that has been intentionally torn apart and raped for the sole purpose of commercial profit.
To give you a statistic if you are still in two minds about all this – apparently close to 60 MCG sized fields, are being cleared every day up in the remote far NW regions of Queensland. Right now. For beef farming. That’s 60 Melbourne Cricket Grounds, every 24 hours.
And that’s just in one of our Aussie states. Look at what they’re doing overseas in the US and in the Amazon. There is speculation that the fires that continue to burn the sacred jungle, were actually deliberately lit by those connected to the beef industry; to yes, you guessed it, make way for Mister McDonald. (Goddess knows his farm ain't all it's made out to be in the story books.)
Fair enough, we have been focusing recent attention on ocean pollution, the Great Barrier Reef and the undeniable devastation that Adani will leave in its wake, but the time bomb currently going off in the outback, needs equally urgent attention Mr Prime Minister. You need to take the potatoes out of your ears, stop running around handing out water to footballers at half time and get your freaking act together! Or you will find yourself out of a job.
All this rising to the surface of our collective awareness is exactly what you’d expect a Scorpio new moon would bring with it however, and this week coming is no exception to the pincered arachnid’s usual MO.
As I always say though, your perspective and your intention is everything, so just because it is Mercury Retrograde and just because it is a Scorpio new moon, doesn’t automatically mean you are stuffed. You can always choose where to place your energy, how to manage your energy and with whom you share your energy.
You can choose to manifest whatever reality you wish; if you believe in it enough. That’s what a rite of passage is after all – an invitation to step up and show yourself what you’re made of/capable of – and we are all moving through multiple ROP’s at present, make no mistake. The theme for this YEAR, has been “the dark night of the soul.”
From last week: "Scorpio loves an intense transformation, a good purge, so by the time She lands fully (today, Sunday 27th), make sure you have done your due diligence and cleared all possible slates because the numbers today encourage nurturing on the home front and making sure you feel balanced and happy. Simultaneously, a frustrating square between Mars (the war-loving rogue) and Saturn (the quintessential and disciplined peacemaker) followed by a Sun-Uranus opposition (spotlights and smash-me-open-expansion respectively), guarantees some in-your-face realizations and more than a few tears resulting from your needing to apply yourself with more guts and gusto than ever before."
How we meet challenge defines who we are as a true champion of Spirit. Meet the good and the bad, equally. Be the master of detachment. Sure this vibe coming in may be intense yet it does also lend itself to explosive-in-a-good-way kinds of encounters because the rush you experience after the holding on for too long and the releasing of the old and pent up, creates some of the most powerful shifts you can ever know.
Looking back on the week you just had, does anything resonate there? Did you notice more frustration, more delays, feeling more dehydrated and achy or perhaps restless sleep, irregular menses or your children running amok (more than usual)? Did you feel like you’d been struck by a lightning bolt from the blue, only to realize (after the shock dissolved and the clouds cleared), that you actually needed said thump otherwise you’d still be wasting away or wasting precious time and money?
Everything happens for a reason remember and there is no such thing as a coincidence. You are exactly where you need to be. We all are.
This week, try and channel whatever emotional turmoil you may find yourself moving through – because Scorpio is water and you will feel the tides turning within – into appreciation for each moment as a gifted (even if they are gory) catalyst of beauty and healing instead because without such wake up calls, you just remain stuck in the guagmire of your own making.
Without death, you cannot rebirth and without acknowledging your trauma, you cannot find your truth. Death and Transformation (the Scorpion), works alongside Higher Perspective (the Eagle) to create Awakening (the Phoenix).
Scorpio is a multidimensional sign with both a personal inner planet ruler (Mars) and a trans-personal planet (Pluto). Duality, next level. Scorpio in fact has not just one but three symbols or personalities, connected to it – the Scorpion, the Eagle and the Phoenix, with each representing the stages of light evolution. The journey of the ever-incarnating soul.
The Scorpion prefers to crawl, staying low to the ground, hiding in dark corners, lurking in the shadows and hanging with some pretty shady characters along the way that encourage and feed their inner rebel. He/she is prepared to sting and destroy if feeling threatened or maligned in any way and has absolutely no qualms about utilizing the fear factor attached to its appearance if that means it will keep unwanted visitors at bay; and give it the upper hand or emotional/mental advantage at the same time. This draws in the Mars energy and how Scorpio expresses itself on this plane. It’s the aggressive intensity of rage, outrage and relentless self-protection, the driving desire and overwhelm that comes when either injustice has occurred (or is believed to have occurred) or when they feel hard done by, deceived or betrayed. Even to the point where they risk getting hurt themselves. Hell hath no fury like a scorpion scorned; you get the picture.
The rise of the sacred activist that we are (at last) seeing now, is no coincidence my friends; this is the energetic influence of Scorpio, Pluto and Uranus, manifesting on the physical.
The Eagle frequency, as a predator personality and at the same time, the kind-hearted maverick who is always ready and willing to strike at a moment’s notice to defend the virtue of self and others, adds another dimension to the dynamic that is Scorpio. Eagle has a probing eye that can see and perceive what others may often miss and like the Mars warrior, Eagle is acutely aware of the subtle dynamics of power, control and manipulation. Eagle is in the underdog's corner.
This is showing up as those working in service as healers of all kinds/modalities, stepping up as leaders in their respective communities to show others what the path of the true earth guardian looks like. Because they see and because they have visions of what is coming, they are able to inspire others. Shamanic practitioners, take note.
The Phoenix personality is the transformational symbol of Scorpio; where we want to end up ideally after the cathartic waves subside and stop rocking us to our core. Myth tell us that at the end of its life, Phoenix built a grand funeral pyre and sacrificed itself to the flames, only to regenerate from the fire to hence fulfill the goal of this sign – that of finding emotional balance and learning that it’s not healthy to teeter on a psychological see-saw for your entire life.
This is the moment of reckoning and retribution that we all need to reach in our own time - the recognition that there is another way through and that we must all participate now in order to activate it. This is the moment we choose to break laws for what we believe in because we (finally understand) that enough universal lores have been broken.
The knowing that harmony and peace are there for the embracing, once you embrace (and love, forgive and unify) all aspects of yourself, suddenly becomes your truth.
The Scorpio nature cannot run from the destructive fires of its own emotional intensity – that is, deny its own karma – but in order to transcend the rites of passage in each lifetime and find the peace it seeks (under all the bravado and armory), it needs to realize that the secrets to immortality and resurrection, actually lay within that very fire.
Mars co-creates balance by offering its sacred fire essence to help warm up Scorpio’s wateriness, dislodge patterns of past (perceived and real) persecution and provide the heart-centered courage needed to enter the fire in the first place and allow themselves to become transformed.
A Scorpio new moon reminds us to transcend Whatever Is and to look beyond, for the magic in everything so keep calm, keep your claws in, clear out the kitchen and carry on!
You can do this week, so don’t give up on you! I haven’t! The best way is to deliberately channel whatever emotions come up for you, into something intense and physical because Mars does love a good release that results in an obvious shift in dynamic.
This week: More fun, staring tomorrow on Monday 28th with the dark moon (29th @ zero degrees) continuing in Scorpio. October is a universal #13 month (which reduces to #4), plus the Sun and Moon are at 4 degrees in Scorpio. To add further punch, Uranus – the planet of mayhem, madness and unpredictability – is opposite them both; again at 4 degrees (in Taurus). This triple 4 code (4:4:4) is an absolute firecracker of WTFAIDWML; whatthefcukamIdoingwithmylife.
So, what does all this mean and WTF ARE you doing with your life?
It means massive change is afoot. It’s time to take responsibility for ourselves, to look at our boundaries and whether they are working for or against us and it is high time to re-assess our values and what we stand for.
How are you showing up in this world and using your gifts to support positive change?
Are you ready to step up and into all your glory and be of full service, regardless of consequence?
Taurus rules the 2nd house in astrology, the realm of money and financial abundance and Scorpio rules money that is coming towards you (from others) so this combination heralds a big change in how you make and attract and appreciate money. It could signal a change of career to one that aligns more with your values and the conscious being that you are becoming. The Sun opposite Uranus now will open you to new ideas, new plans and new purposes, basically giving you a pro active boot up the backside so you can now create the positive changes in your life that you have been dreaming of. Be open to new ideas because, Uranus seeks freedom and liberation. If anything is restricting your flow or making you confined, shake off those shackles! The positioning of Mars, Saturn, Neptune and Pluto this week urge us to follow our hearts not our heads and to open ourselves up to the next level of spiritual experiences.
*drum roll* Mega activations all round! Remember that transformation creates abundance, so welcome the changes that arise with a sense of equanimity and gratitude, for the universe is showing you a ‘better’ and ‘lighter’ way, even if it is in a way that your conscious mind can’t compute all the time.
Use this energy to dive into (rather than attempting to fast-freestyle yourself away from) your darkest, dirtiest ‘inner’, because it’s when you dig down and get amongst all the festering fall out and psychological ‘dead wood’ still harbored in your heart and mind, that you finally find your truest and rawest power.
Feeling before freedom. Always.
Remember to keep checking in with your highest integrity and asking yourself the hard questions because until every single one of us does this, on a daily basis, we will continue the patterns of old. And get some therapy, have a massage, spoil yourself in some way to support the releasing of the old. I’m around for shamanic sessions over the next few days if you haven’t had one before (or for a while), so do treat yourself because you not only deserve it, but it’s also a really good week for some ‘energetic maintenance’.
Swing your scaly scorpion tail with the pure intent to break free and create change because anything is better than living in fear or grief for the rest of your life – even a sharp whip across your budding consciousness if it’s gonna cut some cords and help you straighten up and fly right.
Tuesday 29th sees Mercury conjunct Venus at 27 degrees at Scorpio, which creates a bittersweet energy, almost like the lover scorned, making a last ditch attempt to redeem themselves before the inevitable (break up or extended farewell) happens. Hang out with those who mean the most to you today and don’t be afraid to say ‘I love you’, regardless of whether they are family, friends or your other half and you’re in the process of uncoupling (consciously). When we embody our divine heart and let (unconditional) love rule, we are more capable of accepting any and all endings as the beginnings that they are. Connection is connection after all.
This week we’ve Mercury Retrograde going full beam on the same day as Samhain (called Halloween in the northern hemisphere on October 31st and the beginning of winter) and celebrated as Beltane (in the southern hemisphere on November 1st and the beginning of summer). It’s all happening on this day.
A few quick words about Halloween if I may. This is a sacred day to honor our ancestors and give thanks for all they endured and created for our benefit. It is not smart to dabble with the underworld at any time unless you know exactly what you’re doing and have the experience to manage it, but on this eve especially, when the veils are so thin and almost non-existent between the realms, for the average Nancy Drew it is downright stupid. Don’t try and invoke dead spirits for a laugh or for Insta accolade, because you will open up a can of worms you don’t want (or even mean) to. The Witch’s New Year is best celebrated by showing respect for the dead and asking the ancestors for any wisdoms they wish to share that can help you. Light a candle, pray, offer thanks and love and then sit back and listen. They will communicate if they have something that you really need to know at this point in your life and most of the time, they will do that via dreamscape, not in public or on demand.
Stay grounded and leave the oujja boards alone.
With MR retrograding @ 27 degrees in Scorpio today, it’s bound to increase your interest in seeking (and then speaking) the truth, cultivating emotional intimacy via ‘baring your soul’ kinds of conversations and have you probing into matters of the heart that can be rather tender, vulnerable and yes, sometimes painful. Maintain a loving intent, be compassionate, listen, don’t react and pause often to allow others to be heard (as well as expressing your needs and views with love). This is a really good time to initiate positive change because Mercury is expert at gathering information and Scorpio loves a good investigation; just be mindful to not get all obsessive by over-researching and analyzing every single nuance. Resist the temptation to go too deep and dirty (as if you are determined to find something that isn’t even there), because you will only end up doing your own head in. You may also take mental casualties down with you as well and that’s always a hard place to recover from. Once something is said, it’s out there and hard to ‘un-know’ it. Understand the truth and allow new perspectives to filter through by all means because that helps clear up any confusion, but stay detached to outcomes and make ‘don’t take things personally’, your mantra this week.
Compared to Samhain, Beltane is a whole different ball game. This is an ancient festival focused on fertility, balancing and unifying the divine masculine and feminine and aligning with the Spring equinox. It’s also a gateway to the Summer energies that will soon come to pass for those of us living below the equator. Don’t forget Beltane, like all pagan festivals, is centered around the SEASONS, not the Gregorian calendar or any patriarchal wish list. If you want to do something for Beltane, grab some green and white candles, some fragrant flowers and light a bonfire to honor the creative forces of nature. Have sex, dance, laugh and loosen up – and if you feel any curious ancestors wanting to join you around the fire, acknowledge them and invite them to join you in the light. A juicy threesome between Venus, Jupiter and Sagittarius today also, can bring with it abundant showers of awesomeness and activation, so if you’ve done your work, released the past and embraced your sovereignty, then get ready to ride the proverbial magic carpet! Nudity is optional.
PS. Please try and refrain from buying Halloween paraphernalia and further brainwashing the kids with the wrong information about this powerful pagan festival. The goddess will be most appreciative I can tell you; as will the earth for your choice to avoid single-use plastic.
My overall advice this week: accept change, work with it and be your own best friend.
Blessings and love,
Denby
)O(