The Astrology of November 2019:
Liberating Through Intimacy
We begin November with Scorpio in command, sign of death and rebirth, who confronts us with our shadows. She holds the power to transform our challenges into wisdom, if we’re willing to expose ourselves, baring our hidden truths to make way for greater intimacy. Scorpio helps us face our shame and mistakes, liberating them into the light of awareness. Under her influence, we can convert our obsessions into freedom, self-loathing into love and acceptance, traumas into strength, healing, and service. This is not the time to be complacent or to allow unconscious drives to govern our actions. Powerful liberation and conscious awareness are ready to emerge if we truly examine what’s wrong and begin the hard work of making necessary changes.
Mercury retrograde in Scorpio occurs for most of the month, deepening our waters. We’re now barreling toward January 2020, when Saturn and Pluto will form their first exact conjunction. So much is falling away. If we resist change, the crashing waves will pummel us. Scorpio is teaching us to surrender, allowing the shifting tides to lead us to the beautiful unknown.
Mercury Retrograde in Scorpio
Mercury stations retrograde in Scorpio, October 31 until November 20, submerging us further into the underworld. We’re now taking time to explore and reexamine our depths, revealing our shame and wounding for the sake of greater intimacy. We have the chance to heal our communication with others—becoming more honest, courageous, and clear in stating aloud our fears and desires. This is the pathway to inner liberation and forging deeper, more meaningful connections. While many fear Mercury retrograde, it’s actually a potent chance for reflection, and for opening our intuition, magic, and psychic abilities.
Conversations with intimate friends and partners are ready to jostle our fears and stuckness so we can let them go. Veils are lifting, our ego identities dissolving, allowing us to inhabit greater joy and interconnection. The more we face ourselves, the more we can work together in truth, harmony, and love.
Venus Enters Sagittarius
Venus enters Sagittarius on November 1, bringing a beam of gold light and expansion to our love lives and creative pursuits. Our hearts can open to adventure and new experiences as we take a break from Scorpio’s fixed passions and clinginess. This transit is a bright light cutting through the intensity of the past few weeks as Venus has moved through Scorpio.
Mars Squares Pluto
On November 5, Mars and Pluto, Scorpio’s two rulers, form a harsh square, bringing explosive energy. Heated confrontations are possible, as well as eruptions of anger and destructiveness. The ultimate purpose of this transit is to strip us bare—to show us where we’ve allowed external authority, patriarchy, shame, or self-doubt to inhibit our evolution. If anything blows up, it’s so we can release the past, making way for authentic new alignments.
Taurus Full Moon
The Taurus Full Moon arrives on November 12, unsticking us from long-standing ruts. The Moon is trining Pluto in Capricorn, and we’re positively supported in transformative, yet practical work. Where do we need to adjust the structures in our lives? Make new agreements or commitments? Change the way we relate to finances? With Mars squaring Pluto, we may be working through old traumas, passions, or anger. But with Mercury trining Neptune, we’re also finding gentler ways to communicate, even within ourselves. We’re becoming more authentic and confrontational, yet also kinder, simpler, and more forgiving. The planets are helping us work through all sorts of fragility, becoming more honest with ourselves and others—owning our mistakes while understanding that we’re all basically good. This work is ultimately leading to great change in the world—each of us adding droplets of awakening to an ocean of collective change.
Venus Conjunct Jupiter / Mars Opposite Uranus
On November 24, Venus and Jupiter conjoin in Sagittarius. Love is expanding, while unexpected events may change our lives and directions. Revolution is possible, as we hold compassion in our hearts and confront our aggression, fixations, and passions. We can dislodge from rigid perspectives and circumstances while our hearts fill with joy, hope, and optimism.
Sagittarius New Moon
An enthusiastic Sagittarius New Moon arrives on November 26, raising our gazes from deep shadow work to the limitless horizon, where new adventures, curiosities, humor, and joy await us. Scorpio is the necessary precursor for Sagittarius—we must honestly investigate ourselves in order to work together as a collective to form ideologies and frameworks that bring us together rather than tearing us apart. We have the chance now to look at our beliefs, seeing where they’ve led to fundamentalism, dogma, or divisiveness. With Chiron trining the Moon, this fresh start is imbued with healing. We’re becoming more open, fearless, and direct, and at the same time exhibiting compassion and kindness toward others. After doing the work to dismantle our fragility, we now have a better chance to establish genuine dialogue so we can work together to establish a more caring and egalitarian world.
November Summary
The astrology of November is marked by Scorpio’s pulls into the deep waters of intimacy, honesty, and shadow work. Mercury retrograde in Scorpio is lifting veils and encouraging more genuine and fearless communication. We can now reveal our hidden selves—our traumas, fears, and desires—in order to liberate from stuckness and internalized oppression. Scorpio’s intense confrontation with our secret layers always precedes the bright light of Sagittarius, when we join together as a collective to determine our shared ideologies. This month, the more we surrender to the undertow and the tides of change, the more we’ll open to the expansive joy of the Sagittarius Sun and New Moon, which arrive toward the end of the month. We’re doing profound work to improve our relationships with ourselves and others, healing longstanding traumas so we can join together to create a better world. We’re mending divisiveness and establishing more loving belief systems as we look toward the Sun and the bright mystery of what’s to come.
Among the fallen leaves and skeletons of trees, may we feel confident in our vulnerability, owning our traumas and fears, without shame. May we become more mature, within ourselves and our relationships, so we can liberate and establish a kinder, saner new paradigm.
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