Dear Reader,

I hope you're warm and well and that you're able to keep yourself grounded by connecting with nature and things that bring you joy. Scorpio season can plunge us into the depths of our being and leave us feeling naked and vulnerable, but it can also return us to a deeper source of nourishment and trust we didn't know we needed.

As we're crossing over into the darkest, coldest time of year, I'm finding comfort and contentment in seemingly small wonders that lie hidden in plain sight: Tits snacking on sunflower seeds, cracking them open one by one like little kernels of delight. Trees glowing in otherworldly reds and golds and bushes bursting with berries. The grey heron standing still and tall on the river bank.

How are you experiencing this time of year?

Where are you finding comfort and contentment?

Resting in the heart of fall

The beginning of November features a major seasonal crossroads in the cycle of our year. At Fall Cross-Quarter, the Sun reaches the middle degree of Scorpio in the tropical zodiac, marking the midpoint between Fall Equinox and Winter Solstice in the Northern Hemisphere. This year, the precise moment fell on November 6, 11:21 pm Central European Time (convert to your local time).

At the height of fall, nature's light and colors are fading, leaves are wilting and falling, and the old year is dying. It's a time when something in us, too, must die for new life to be born. When we descend into darkness and decay and are asked to let go and make ourselves lighter as we feel our way into the unknown.

Fall Cross-Quarter is the “Waning Crescent Moon” and “dusk” of the year, when light gives way to darkness and we close in on the longest night of the year. Because the light outside is growing dim, the light inside our homes and hearts becomes all the more pronounced and precious.

We take time to make our homes cozy and enjoy the warm glow of a candle or fireplace. It's a quiet time of listening, when we grow in desire to dream, daydream, muse, meditate, and divine. To honor and transform memories of the past and to reconnect with parts of ourselves that have been buried or forgotten.

Fall Cross-Quarter is also known as the festival of the souls. It's a special, deeply mystical time of year when the veil between the worlds is thinning and the gates to the otherworld swing open. When we're invited to connect and communicate with the spirits of those who have passed and to celebrate the wisdom of our ancestors.

Scorpio helps us to remember that death is part of life

The middle of fall coincides with the middle of Scorpio season, when the Sun moves through the sign of the Scorpion (October 23 – November 21). Scorpio is a fixed water sign, ruled by Mars, planet of passion, and signifies a season of letting ourselves fall into the hidden depths of our inner life. It gives us permission to feel what's difficult and intense and the courage to go to the places that scare us.

The word passion finds its root in the Latin pati, meaning to suffer or endure. Scorpio teaches us that to follow our passion, we must be willing to trade comfort for connection and touch the parts of us that live in the shadow. We must be with ourselves fully and turn towards the darkness, so that the ghosts that haunt us can become pathways to our loving presence.

The challenge that Scorpio brings is not to dwell on and get stuck in painful feelings but rather to move through them to the other side and let ourselves be transformed in the process. Scorpio is here to help us embrace the ongoing cycles of death and rebirth and to remember that there is no end without a new beginning. That what we lose will be returned to us in a new form. That the wheels of life keep forever turning.

Are you a child of mid-fall, having been born during Scorpio season?

If so, how does it inform you?

Line engraving by Sidney Hall from *Urania's Mirror*, London, 1825. Restored by Adam Cuerden.

Finding beauty in a difficult life

We can learn a lot about befriending difficult feelings from spoken word poet Andrea Gibson. Having been born with the Moon in Scorpio in the third house of communication, they're known for their emotional honesty, vulnerability, and truth-telling and describe their work as “encouraging people to have their feelings”, “no matter how stormy”.

Their poetry is a kaleidoscope of feeling, an exploration of the depths of depression, love, fear, anger, anxiety, awe, amazement, heartbreak, and grief. By giving us permission to feel all of our feelings and find “joy beneath our struggles”, their poems can help us travel through difficult times, “turn wounds into highways”, and uncover the strength that lies within us.

Since their cancer diagnosis three years ago, they've generously shared their reflections on life and death and their desire “to form a loving relationship with [their] mortality.” They've come to see mortality as “the seed of our joy” that “blooms a beautiful life”, saying that, “there is something [about death] that helps us live the way that we were supposed to live”.

If you need more of Andrea's medicine in your life (I know I do), you can check out some of their interviews here, here, here, and here.

Here are some lines from a poem they wrote about beauty in a difficult life. You can listen to the entire poem (and other poems) here. It's called “Every Time I Ever Said I Want to Die” and was published in their most recent book, You Better Be Lightning.

[…] a difficult life is not less
worth living than a gentle one. Joy is just easier
to carry than sorrow, and you could lift a city

from how long you’ve spent holding
what’s been nearly impossible to hold.
This world needs those who know

how to do that. Those who can find
a tunnel with no light at the end
of it and hold it up like a telescope

to show that the darkness contains
many truths that can bring the light
to its knees. Grief astronomer,

adjust the lens, look close. Tell us
what you see.

Energize your creative spirit with the Sun and Mars

Mars, being the ruler of the Sun in Scorpio, is the presiding deity of this cross-quarter. With the Sun being in Mars' sign (Scorpio) and Mars being in the Sun's sign (Leo), the Sun and Mars are closely connected even though they're not connected by an aspect.

This mutual reception began when Mars moved into Leo on November 4 and will end when the Sun leaves Scorpio on November 21. But their dynamic will continue until the end of the month, because as soon as the Sun enters Sagittarius, it will apply to a harmonious trine with Mars, which will peak (go exact) on November 27.

The Sun-Mars field is a burst of dynamic energy that can help us overcome fear, self-doubt, and feelings of inadequacy, take bold action, and move forward with confidence on what matters most to us. We can use Sun-Mars to clarify our passions, get in touch with our creative power, and find the courage to shine and fully become who we are here to be.

This energy seeks and needs an outlet. To wield it wisely, we must ponder our relationship with power and get honest with ourselves about what motivates us to act and how we use our will. We're asked to stay rooted in our integrity and generosity, align our actions with our ideals, and use the energy in service to the greater good.

Embrace the struggle of transformation with Mars and Pluto

Mars is now separating from its opposition with Pluto in Capricorn, which peaked (went exact) on November 3 while Mars was still in Cancer. Mars opposes Pluto once every two years, but this year we'll get three oppositions due to Mars retrograde, so what would otherwise be a two-week-long transit will be in effect for six months.

Mars will turn retrograde in Leo on December 7 and form its second opposition with Pluto, by then firmly in Aquarius, on January 3. It will then retrograde back into Cancer on January 6, turn direct in Cancer on February 4, re-enter Leo on April 18, and form its third and final opposition with Pluto on April 27.

The Mars-Pluto field unearths deep-seated fear, frustration, anger, resentment, and rage that has been relegated to the shadows and that we would rather not deal with, but that we're meant to struggle with at this time. It calls us to “hold the mast”, weather the storm, and dig deep to connect us to a well of inner resources we didn't know we had.

With Pluto, known as the “higher octave” of Mars, surrender and self-awareness are key. Mars is our individual will, while Pluto is the will of our higher self. Mars-Pluto confronts us with experiences that are intense and often painful, but ultimately here to help us heal and transform our lives by aligning our desires with the desire of our higher self.

We can use Mars-Pluto to shift how we express our anger and desire, to get in touch with what we want to change in our lives and the world, and to reflect on how we go about changing it. Mars-Pluto gives us an opportunity to notice where we give our power away and where we're afraid to lose it.

The Mars-Pluto oppositions will be a lot more personal for you and could signify a major transition in your life if you have any planets or angles in the last degrees of any of the cardinal signs (Aries, Cancer, Libra, Capricorn) or the first degrees of any of the fixed signs (Taurus, Leo, Scorpio, Aquarius). For the rest of us, we'll be most impacted by Mars-Pluto across the Cancer-Capricorn and Leo-Aquarius house axes in our birth chart.

Turn wounds into poems with Mercury and Mars

While Mercury in Sagittarius is now separating from its cross-quarter trine with Mars in Leo, their dynamic will be prolonged due to Mercury retrograde. When Mercury turns retrograde in Sagittarius on November 25, it will start to apply to Mars again and come within one degree of an exact trine before it stations direct on December 15.

Trines bring gifts. When Mercury, planet of communication, and Mars, planet of action, combine harmoniously in fire signs, we're supported to speak, write, and communicate in ways that are open, honest, spontaneous, playful, inspiring, and freeing.

Following in the footsteps of Andrea Gibson, we can channel Sun-Mars and Mars-Pluto into writing and “make a poem of the pain”. Writing can connect us to what's inside of us and help us explore, express, and release our feelings. Mercury in Sagittarius is also a gifted story teller and together with Mars, it can help us tap into the power that lies in the stories we tell about ourselves and the world.

Horoscope for Scorpio Cross-Quarter on November 6, 2024 at 11:21 pm CET

Overall, we're dealing with some intense energies that require self-awareness and self-honesty as we're moving through the heart of fall and toward the end of the year. With the Sun-Mars mutual reception, we're supported to tackle something we've been afraid of before and find our way forward with confidence, compassion, and courage. With the first of three Mars-Pluto oppositions, one of the most powerful transits of the year, we might be dealing with a dramatic change somewhere in our lives. We can turn to Mercury, the messenger, to help us process, articulate, and attend to these changes and the feelings they bring up in us.

Are you ready to enter the heart of fall?

What are you passionate about?

What are you finding when you turn within?

What are you learning from your feelings?

What holds you through your hard moments?

What are you willing to lose?

What are you ready to release?

What feeds your soul?

What guides you to the other shore?

I invite you to take these questions on your walk or into your journal, your dreamtime, or any other kind of creative or contemplative practice, either solo or with others. I hope they tickle you and help you weave yourself ever more deeply into the mysteries of fall.

What this time of year is good for:

Going on walks, watching the sunset, telling stories, having tea with your bestie, knitting scarves, taking naps, carving pumpkins, cooking your dead relative's favorite meal, finding a picture of an ancestor you feel connected to and putting it on your altar, keeping a dream journal, reflecting back on the year, letting something fall away that's no longer alive in you, putting gardens to rest

Until next time...

I very much look forward to writing you again at the start of Sagittarius season, which marks the transition from fall to winter in the Northern Hemisphere and heralds a time of inspiration and hope. The precise moment of the Sun's ingress into the sign of the Archer falls on November 21, 8:57 pm Central European Time this year (convert to your local time).

In the meantime, I'm wishing you a beautiful rest of fall wherever you are!

Time to welcome all your stormy feelings at Scorpio Cross-Quarter