We come into November with the Scorpio New Moon as the Sun conjuncts the Moon [8:47 AM EDT] on the 1st and truly engages the Scorpio motif for the month with an emphasis on cutting to the core, drawing upon the fundamentals, and intensely moving forward with a bare bones disposition.
Our approach may be no nonsense, an attitude invigorated on the 2ndof November as Mercury trines Mars and Mercury sextiles Pluto. With dogged determination, we may strip away from our lives what we now consider to be the superfluous and extraneous. We want to get to the very basics of our doing life, but we do have to watch that our approach isn’t so uncompromising that we act like Sherman’s March to the Sea with a scorched earth policy of burning everything in our path. This would be a time for a clearing out and cleansing of the non-essential but also a time to build up the necessary and significant.
After aspecting Mars and Pluto on the 2nd earlier in the day, Mercury exits Scorpio to enter Sagittarius [3:18 PM EDT], joining Venus in the Mutable Fire Sign. Our thoughts can broaden, as we take off blinders and look from a wider perspective. While Mercury in Scorpio might have sharpened our ability to dissect and get to the heart of any matter, Mercury in Sagittarius may be more uplifting, optimistic, and hopeful. Being in Detriment in Sagittarius, Mercury could have our thinking becoming too diffuse, incorporating so many factors that we lose sight of the key theme.
The volatility of these times may seem extreme on the 3rd of November when Mars opposes Pluto and Venus opposes Jupiter. Late in the day, Mars exits Cancer to enter Leo [11:10 PM EST].
Pluto being the higher octave of Mars, in adverse connection as they are with the opposition, there is the liability of extreme physical actions, acting out and violent behavior. A high energy configuration, it is necessary we maintain a grip on our physical energy and not allow it to ramp up to aggressive behavior. The influence of the Mars Pluto opposition runs through much of 2025.
The two ‘good guys’ of the planetary realm, Venus and Jupiter, in opposition increase the liability of extreme behavior. Everyone may want to be Number 1, take their place on center stage, and unwilling to brook any questioning of one’s position. This can be a dicey proposition with everyone liable to be jockeying for position.
In most of the States in the US, the 3rd is also the day when daylight savings time ends, and standard time begins again. Like a change in direction of the planets, this switch can be upsetting to our equilibrium, and might make us feel unsteady, which sometimes takes a day or two to adjust to the time change.
The entrance of Mars into Leo gives a thrust to our personal creative expressions. Coming out from Cancer, a Sign of its Fall where the physical energy of Mars is weakened, Mars in Leo gives us fire in our belly, a greater willingness to find those outlets where we can stand out and put our personal mark upon our individual world.
On the 4th of November the Sun trines Saturn. We could focus on creating solid templates for our projects. Getting rid of any excess, we would be able to concentrate on the truly significant and well organized. With our attention to our long-term goals, we might figure out a best practices approach to achieve successful results.
Following the US Election on the 5th, Venus squares Neptune on the 9th of November. No matter the election results, not everyone is likely to be happy with the outcome and with an outcome liable to be tainted by ensuing lawsuits and legal bickering. We need to be careful in our interactions at this time. People could be pontificating and may easily become disillusioned with those people whose opinions do not match their own. The divisiveness in the country is alarming and is unlikely to get better with the constant stirring up of extreme rhetoric.
After I had suggested that Trump would win the election based on his being the more likely of the two liable to assassination attempts, even people I have known for sixty years canceled me. They thought I was propagandizing for Trump when in fact I pointed out in the incoming Administration’s chart the Sun Pluto conjunction opposed by Mars, energy configurations that suggest possible physical violence against the President, e.g., assassination attempts. Trump, it seemed to me, and evidence suggests, is more liable to such violence than Harris.
The 11th of November has Venus exiting Sagittarius and entering Capricorn [1:26 PM EST]. Our consideration of contacts and those people with whom we might want to associate may focus on which people can help us realize our goals. While Venus in Sagittarius may have had us interested in people of foreign extraction or who have had a worldly experience, Venus in Capricorn can have us more interested in no-nonsense connections that benefit our ambitions.
Mercury square Saturn on the 12th of November might have us feeling blocked by our responsibilities and domestic demands. We could have a sense that what we want to do is curtailed by what we need to do. We need to be wary of putting blinders on and only seeing what is right in front of us. Depression can narrow our focus and dismiss the magic and mini miracles of these times of paradigm shift when things may occur in the most inexplicable ways. Our thoughts might be the impeding factor now, not the reality of a situation.
The Full Moon on the 15th of November when the Sun opposes the Moon [4:28 PM EST] is also the day when Saturn ends its four-and-a-half months retrograde cycle and turns direct [9:20 AM EST]. With the Full Moon also impacting Uranus with the Moon conjunct Uranus and the Sun opposed Uranus exact on the 16th, unexpected situations could trip us up and raise questions of stability and our security. This is a time when we need to engage the Taoist sentiment of ‘bend like a reed or break like an oak’. Adaptability and flexibility are essential characteristics during the paradigm shift in which we are operating, and this weekend with heightened energies suggests we be willing to shift and change as circumstance and conditions warrant.
The 18th of November has the Sun trine Neptune and Mercury opposed Jupiter. There are times when we need to draw upon our faith and a belief that everything happens for a reason, even when we don’t understand what the reason might be. Today is such a day, a day for us to draw upon our acceptance of forces greater than oneself. The Mercury Jupiter configuration is also a Mutual Reception with Mercury being in the Sign ruled by Jupiter, Sagittarius, and Jupiter being in the Sign ruled by Mercury, Gemini. Mutual receptions heighten the influence of the two energies, and in this case of the opposition, we need to avoid blithely assuming that everything will go our way with a degree of over confidence and over optimism which may not be in accord with conditions. There can be a great deal of talk, but it would be wise for us to include moments of reflection and contemplation and not get carried away solely by good feelings.
Pluto ends its transit of Capricorn on the 19th, a transit that began back in 2008, interrupted briefly during the spring of 2023 through the 1st of this past September when Pluto entered Aquarius and provided a prelude to what we might encounter over the next twenty years. When Pluto first entered Capricorn back in 2008, we experienced the global financial system in process of a meltdown. When Pluto exited Capricorn to enter Aquarius back in the spring of 2023, we experienced several banks going under or taken over. Shall we experience something similar as Pluto completes its transit of Capricorn this November?
Certainly, we are at an end of a particular phase and about to enter a new phase. When Pluto last transited Aquarius back in the late 1700s, humankind experienced both the American Revolution and French Revolution, and inventions that presaged the Industrial Revolution. Since cycles repeat certain patterns, this transit of Pluto in Aquarius may have people rising up against the powers-that-be and inventions that bring us more fully into the Technological Revolution.
As the Sun exits Scorpio to enter Sagittarius on the 21st of November [2:56 PM EST], the Sun sextiles Pluto. With a thrust of exuberance, now would be a time for us to consider our future options and alternatives to the ways we have been doing life. We can broaden our reach, expand our horizon, all with a sense of purpose and true meaning for whatever we might choose to engage. We can be buoyed in our confidence, no matter how crazy things may seem to be in the world-at-large.
Taking a proactive approach to life with the understanding that we are co-creators with the universe unfolding would allow us to carve our own path, all the while keeping aware of the signs along the way. We do not need to be solely reactive to life with life doing us, but instead could engage life, initiate our projects, and move ahead with a willingness to adapt to changing conditions.
Friday the 22nd of November begins the holiday week of Thanksgiving in the US. The 22nd has Venus sextile Saturn. With the start of the end-of-year holidays upon us, we might connect with old friends, people from our past with whom we have had little contact. This would also be a good time to get our house in order, physically as far as our home and work environment and figuratively as far as budgeting our expenses and determining the monies to be spent for the holidays. Reconnections with old friends can also provide a good mirror for us to reflect on where we were and who we were when we were last in contact with them. Each of us has changed. We have all gone through an alchemical process whereby going through the challenges and fires of these recent times we have transformed into a new sense of being.
The final Mercury retrograde of 2024 begins on the 25th of November and has Mercury retrograding through Sagittarius until December 15thwhen Mercury turns direct. Murphy’s Law of ‘whatever can go wrong could go wrong’ is engaged again. Coming during this holiday period, it would be wise for us to have contingency plans in mind. Travel plans may be disrupted, miscommunications rampant, and computer issues a factor. We might have to realize that matters are often out of our control, and we need to accept that situations may not go according to our plan.
November 2024… no matter what, essential to lighten up…
