Welcome to the October 2021 edition of the Cosmic Weather Forecast by Curtis Lang with Jane Sherry.
This Full Blood Moon week stellar energy signatures are flashing red and orange warning lights. People can get heedless, headstrong and potentially bellicose, and then we enter the sexy, spooky, and spiritual Scorpio lunar cycle of intense alchemical transformation.
We thank you for joining us on our journey as we continue to reveal the synchronicities between the movements of celestial bodies, the yearly transformations of the four seasons, and the continuous metamorphosis of humanity's collective consciousness, vital energies and emotional cycles. As above, so below.
Illustration of the universal correspondences of the cosmos, with the Anima Mundi at the center, "Integra Naturae Speculum Artisque Imago" (which means "Mirror of the Whole Nature and Image of Art"), from Utriusque Cosmi maioris scilicet et minoris metaphysica atque technical Historia by Robert Fludd, 1617)
“The stars are like letters that inscribe themselves at every moment in the sky," the Greek philosopher Plotinus explained. "Everything in the world is full of signs. All events are coordinated. All things depend on each other. Everything breathes together.”
This week we celebrate the Aries Full Moon and the Libra Solar Festival as we prepare to enter the season of Scorpionic transformations, characterized by powerful astral glamours, intensified emotional upheavals and amplified will forces characteristic of the sign of death and rebirth.
This month's Full Moon is known as The Hunter's Moon or the Blood Moon because in the Northern Hemisphere, traditional peoples hunted for animals to slaughter, and preserved the meat as security for the upcoming winter season when crops did not grow and snow covered the land. This seasonal Blood Moon should not be confused with the lunar eclipse Blood Moon.
The Full Moon at 27° 26′ Aries occurs on Wednesday, October 20 at 10:57 am EDT, or 7:57 Pacific time, opposing the Sun at 27° 26′ Libra, and Mars, which is conjunct the Sun at that time. Pluto in Capricorn creates a T-square to Sun, Moon, and Mars, all in Fixed Signs, creating an intense, inflammatory energy signature that ushers in a turbulent monthly lunar cycle which is sure to shake us up and alter our routines.
Star Chart of Constellation Aries and Surrounding Stars
Johannes Hevelius, Firmamentum Sobiescianum sive Uranographia
This Full Moon offers up a double dose of Mars energy. Pluto is considered to be the higher frequency of Mars energy by Esoteric astrologers. Mars represents the impulse to act upon our conscious desires. Pluto represents the impulse to act upon the drives that exist beyond our conscious awareness. Unconscious motivations arising from our karma, our inherited characteristics, our personal subconscious desires, and from the collective consciousness all find expression through Plutonic activity. At their highest level of expression, Pluto energies represent the impulse to action transmitted from our Higher Self, our Souls.
When Mars squares Pluto, the Soul's desire, our Higher Purpose, comes into conflict with our egoistic desires, and this creates blockages that builds up tremendous energy until a synthesis of these conflicting desires can be achieved.
In the external world, Mars square Pluto indicates a tendency to manipulate others to serve our own needs, and often manifests as escalating conflicts arising from long simmering tensions that threaten to erupt into outright confrontation.
This cosmic weather pattern will require us to manage potential confrontations and conflicts within ourselves and with others around us with tact and discernment so that we may maintain our equilibrium and manifest right human relations in the midst of stormy emotional upheavals. Much progress can be made in pursuit of our highest spiritual and material goals if we can harness this potent energy and channel it into constructive pursuits, active diplomacy and creative projects.
Tarot Trump VIII, Adjustment, from the Thoth Tarot, ruled by Libra
This Full Moon T-Square in Fixed Signs can indicate confrontations with others whose views and beliefs conflict with ours. We could suddenly have our emotional hot buttons triggered. Fortunately, the energy of the Libra Sun can act as a beneficent antidote to the harsh, potentially belligerent energy signature visible in this week's stars.
Libra is the sign of Balance, Justice, and dynamic equilibrium, and the Sun's placement this Full Moon offers us potential support for all activities designed to harmonize the discordant ambient energies unleashed this week.
The Sabian Symbol for this month's Libra Solar Festival is A Man Becoming Aware of Spiritual Forces Surrounding Him and Assisting Him. We can transcend the limiting mental viewpoint of the egoistic personality by pursuing our spiritual practices during this Full Moon week, and attain a broader, big picture perspective on any conflicts that arise in our lives.
If we can calm our minds and turbulent emotional bodies, we can connect with intuitive guidance from Higher Mind. This Full Moon week let us focus on our spiritual community and connect with our spiritual Guides and Teachers, who will pour forth the wisdom, grace and insight we require to navigate the stormy Cosmic Weather patterns this week and in the month to come.
The beneficent Libra Sun is trine Jupiter in Aquarius at the time of the Full Blood Moon this week, creating a feeling of optimism and an expansive consciousness, despite the difficulties presented by the Fixed T-Square. In addition, the Moon in Aries is sextile Jupiter in Aquarius, creating additional support for enjoyable mind-expanding adventures, deep research projects, and acts of selfless service for the benefit of those in need of comforting.
If we surrender our intellectual fixations and egoistic desires and open ourselves to intuitive guidance, we can tune in to these positive stellar energies, and harness the formidable energy of the Fixed T-Square in the service of positive change in our inner and outer worlds.
This week's challenging and highly energized planetary alignments can also be successfully channeled into competitive sports, strength training, healthy sexual relations, and work requiring focused mental discipline.
Image of I-Ching Hexagram # 34 -- Justified Action
We must remain fearless, calm, centered and grounded in our faith in Divine guidance during the celestial storm. In this way we can make unprecedented progress on the path to the attainment of our spiritual and material goals and we can use our powers of discernment and our diplomatic skills to transform potential conflicts into opportunities for productive cooperation in areas of mutual interest.
I pulled a card from the I Ching card deck to obtain a symbolic picture of the energies of this Full Moon Fixed Sign T-Square, and that image is above: It is Hexagram #34, Ta Chuang, also called Justified Action or Great Strength. This hexagram, consisting of four solid yang lines topped by two broken yin lines, is associated with the months of March and April, which correspond to the sun sign Aries, emphasizing this hexagram's connection to this month's Full Moon in Aries.
"One with a gentle heart does not use strength to conquer," explains Master Hua-Ching Ni in his commentary on this hexagram. "Though his force may be strong enough to dominate weak or inferior people, he still follows the principles of righteousness."
"The use of force in a beneficial manner is the theme of Ta Chuang," Master Ni continues. "Pressing forward aggressively creates problems, while allowing nature to take its course brings calmness. Hasty or impulsive movement can be damaging. We must remember to proceed slowly in times when we need to reform ourselves or influence others. . .Energy should be gathered in the center so that one can become a positive transmitter or reservoir of energy and accomplish all things smoothly."
Spiritual practices such as meditation, Qi Gong and the use of crystals to collect and transmit healing energy are especially auspicious during this conflicted Full Moon week, and can help us center ourselves and ground the intense energies of the moment, so we become the change we wish to see in the world.
Star Chart of Constellation Scorpius and Surrounding Stars,
Johannes Hevelius, Firmamentum Sobiescianum sive Uranographia
Saturday October 23rd, the Sun enters the sign of Scorpio, which is associated with the planets Mars and Pluto.
During the Scorpio lunar cycle, which lasts until November 21st, the dynamic energy released during this week's Full Moon T-Square involving Mars and Pluto will be strengthened as we undergo a process of Scorpionic transformation that can hopefully create new opportunities out of inner and outer conflicts manifesting in our lives.
During this Full Blood Moon week and in the lunar cycle about to begin, prepare for emotional eruptions, reject astral glamours, compost decaying karmic patterns of behavior, and elevate your consciousness by piercing the veil of egotism with the Eagle Eye of the Scorpionic Adept!
Mars joins the Sun in Scorpio on October 30th, amplifying the assertive energies we encounter this Full Moon week.
On October 31st we celebrate the Festivals of Halloween and Samhain. Halloween, known as Samhain in the Celtic and pagan traditions, is one of the high and holy cross quarter days marking the seasonal turning points in our earth's journey around the sun.
Samhain is the point in the year between the Autumnal Equinox and the Winter Solstice and is an excellent occasion to honor the young and the old. Samhain is the traditional Celtic New Year festival, a time of endings and beginnings. At this sacred time of transition, the most powerful, numinous twilight of the year marks the opening of a portal between the earthly and spiritual worlds.
Ancient Celtic people contacted deities and ancestors at this highly charged moment of enhanced clairvoyance, and out of this evolved the Anglo-Saxon Halloween tradition of ghosts, goblins, witches and other shape shifting beings. For more, we offer you an article entitled Celebrating Halloween -- The Samhain Tradition.
We see a modern example of this ancient pagan tradition in the celebration of the Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) on November 1 in Mexico, where families honor the children and the dead with the offering of sweet treats. This holiday can be traced back to many Mesoamerican traditions such as the Aztec month of Miccailhuitontli, which means ”Little Feast of The Dead”, a holiday also honoring both small children and ancestors.
Día de los muertos, Tlaquepaque, México
Bala Manivasagam, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
The Scorpio season is a good time to connect with inner guidance, to honor all our ancestors and children in your lives and communities and to open to the invisible world. If you ever thought perhaps there are fairies, devas, and nature spirits, now would be the time to welcome them into your life and your home, offering them gifts and your love.
Now would be an excellent time to also approach the tempestuous elementals with offerings of love and honor for the power of Nature in all of her forms. Ask the Divine Mother to show us our mistaken ways and help us to live in partnership with the earth. Ask Her to show us better ways to work in harmony with the elemental forces for all of our highest good, and not just for the benefit of the few.
Many Christian holidays closely follow the pagan celebrations which marked seasonal changes, agricultural festivals and ancestor worship as well as appropriate times for visions and divination.
In the Christian tradition, November 1 marks All Saints Day, honoring those who martyred themselves for the faith.
On All Saints Day we commune with those who have gone beyond the veil, and who have bequeathed their visions, blessings and writings for their children and all who follow in their footsteps, over the centuries.
On November 2, All Souls Day, Christian tradition honored all the dead, and in some Catholic churches the names of each family's dead were placed on altars for one month of prayerful remembrances during Daily Mass. On that day, we also honor our ancestors and all the dead who have crossed the threshold.
Uranus and Moons, photo courtesy NASA
On November 4th, Sun and Moon in Scorpio are opposed by Uranus in Taurus, creating a feeling that the irresistible force has encountered an immovable object. This collision of Titans can result in unexpected radical transformations. We would all do well to work to resolve any inner and outer conflicts in our lives prior to this combustible New Moon, which could otherwise energize unwanted escalation of negativity.
The Sun in Scorpio squares Saturn in Aquarius at the New Moon creating a challenge to our sense of self worth at just the time we are encountering the conflicts generated by the Sun/Moon opposition to Taurus. Rather than allowing Saturnine feelings of dejection to depress us, or simply giving up in the face of obstacles, the New Moon is the time to double down on our best efforts to overcome any and all restrictions in our lives. We can all enhance our sense of self-worth through good works in the face of resistance.
Mercury enters Scorpio on November 5, reinforcing the strong Plutonic and Martian energy signature that seems to increase as the lunar cycle progresses.
Scorpio is the sign of alchemical transformation, which consists of the three part process of putrefaction or dissolution, purification and awakening.
For the alchemists, who represent the Western mystery school tradition, putrefaction represents the first in a series of transformative steps that result in the perfection of the psyche.
Putrefaction is the “black step” ruled by Saturn and by Scorpio, when the alchemical material, the initiate’s psyche, is decomposed into its various constituent elements, air, water and earth, or into the mental, emotional and physical bodies. The putrefaction process is thus analogous to the process of Death. On a psychic level, putrefaction represents the “Dark Night of the Soul”, when repressed memories, karmic debris and psychic blockages rise to the surface prior to a process of releasing.
The second stage of the alchemical transformation involves releasing outworn, outdated, unhelpful emotions related to recurring reflexive responses to people, places and events in our lives that manifest as negative habits and relationships. This releasing work involves a purification of the physical, emotional and mental bodies through some form of spiritual practice and psychological therapy.
The red sun rising over the city, the final illustration of 16th-century alchemical text, Splendor Solis.
The third stage of alchemical transformation is the awakening, the rebirth of a psyche unburdened by the dead weight of karmic triggers such as past injuries, toxic emotions and mistaken mental maps of the world.
The Scorpionic season of the year is when we can all begin to make substantial progress in our inner work of personal alchemical transformation. The darkening of the light outside corresponds to increasing light within. Now is the time to rededicate ourselves to our spiritual practice, and renew our efforts to transform our own inner raw materials, our karmically conditioned patterns of dysfunctional, egocentric behavior, into the gold of expanded intuitive awareness and loving compassion. This is the month we are challenged to unearth new wisdom found in the shadow side of life.
It is our sincerest wish that we will each light up the skies, in each home, in our own way with hope and new visions for the new year as we enter the last quarter of the seasonal cycle and begin to close out the old. It is our hope that on Scorpionic Festival Days, and in the days to come, we can look within, find the light inside of each of us and illuminate our place in this world. Let the red Sun rise!
There is a beautiful culinary ritual that corresponds to the alchemical, Scorpionic phase of the yearly seasonal cycle that Jane and I like to celebrate. That is the preparation of sauerkraut. For more information, read our article entitled, Lactofermentation, Putrefaction and Scorpionic Transformation.
We like to think that this kitchen craft work can focus our attention on the positive aspects of the Scorpionic season's challenges and opportunities. Gardening and kitchen chores constitute a powerful spiritual practice. When we are attentive and aware, the Goddess presents Herself!
Jane in our garden plot in the Historic Bethabara Park, Winston Salem, NC
Photo by Curtis Lang
Jane and I send you our love and Reiki blessings this Full Moon week, and we affirm that you always receive the grace and guidance you require to achieve your fondest spiritual and material goals.
photo by Jane Sherry
Can you find another market like this?
Where,
with your one rose
you can buy hundreds of rose gardens?
Where,
for one seed
get a whole wilderness?
For one weak breath,
a divine wind?
You've been fearful
of being absorbed in the ground,
or drawn up by the air.
Now, your waterbead lets go
and drops into the ocean,
where it came from.
It no longer has the form it had,
but it's still water
The essence is the same.
This giving up is not a repenting.
It's a deep honoring of yourself.
When the ocean comes to you as a lover,
marry at once, quickly,
for God's sake!
Don't postpone it!
Existence has no better gift.
No amount of searching
will find this.
A perfect falcon, for no reason
has landed on your shoulder,
and become yours.
Photo of rose from Reynolda Gardens, Winston Salem, NC, by Jane Sherry