And So It Begins

Astro Notes for New Moon in Scorpio cycle (November 2-December 1 2024)

(These Astro Notes are in the better late than never file, delayed because I was on retreat at the start of the month. My apologies for the lag.)

For months I've been pointing to the period from November 2024 to July 2025 as a time of extraordinarily concentrated cultural change, signified astrologically by the fact that within those seven months every one of the slower-moving planets -- from Jupiter to Pluto -- will change signs, something that has never occurred before in such a short timeframe.

I believe this period can be understood as the final stage of the epic birthing process we've been in since Covid (and the historic triple conjunction in 2020 of Saturn, Pluto, and Jupiter) -- the last, messy, urgent push out of the birth canal that will deliver us into the dawning Aquarian era.

So here we go. It's November 2024, and our raft is entering the rapids. In just a few days' time, on November 19, Pluto will enter Aquarius, the first of the heavyweight planets to change signs. (Noticed any big changes lately?) Within seven months, Neptune, Uranus, Saturn, and Jupiter will have followed, and we will be living in a different world.

Pluto entering Aquarius, on its own, is a seismic event. We had a taste of Pluto in Aquarius for a few months in early 2023 and for seven months at the start of this year. But this time there's no turning back. Pluto will now stay in Aquarius for the next twenty years. During that time society will be reshaped in every conceivable way. (The contribution you personally will make to that process is signified by where transiting Pluto intersects with your natal chart.)

Aquarius represents the need for a breakthrough into a new and better world. The last time Pluto was in Aquarius (1778-1798) it coincided with the American and French Revolutions, which overthrew the divine right of kings and ushered in the modern period. The time before that (1532-1553) involved key phases of the Protestant Reformation that challenged the traditional authority of the Catholic Church. We are on the cusp of a similar period of revolutionary transformation.

In our times, we are fortunate that at the very beginning of Pluto's transit of Aquarius it forms an auspicious aspect pattern known as a Minor Triangle with the other outer planets Uranus and Neptune. This pattern is particularly potent from mid-2026 to mid-2028, a two year window that arguably represents humanity's best opportunity in any of our lifetimes to make a quantum leap forward.

In the short-term, however, the road looks considerably bumpier. Earlier this month, just before the US election, Mars moved into an exact opposition with Pluto. A Mars-Pluto opposition normally lasts no more than a week. But due to an extended period of Mars moving retrograde, this Mars-Pluto transit will be in effect for the next six months.

Mars is the planet of action and Pluto the principle of total transformation. Taking place alongside the movement of all the outer planets into new signs, this exceptionally long Mars-Pluto opposition suggests a time of rapid, dramatic, forceful change. We are being expelled from the birth canal, ready or not.

Bringing our focus back to this month's cycle, the Full Moon in Taurus on November 15 is in a close conjunction with Uranus, the great disrupter and awakener. This is a very powerful combination, bringing together the earthy, stable, solid energies of Taurus with the Uranian principle of sudden, unexpected, disruptive change. Something like an earthquake -- whether literal or metaphorical -- could result.

A few days later, on November 19, Pluto enters Aquarius and the light of the future will arrive. There is no going back now, we must dive headlong into the currents of change.

On November 21, the Sun enters Sagittarius. Sagittarius supports us to elevate to a higher perspective from which the particular events of our world can be comprehended as part of a much vaster unfolding. It invites us to 'go vertical' to access a realm of wisdom and higher meaning. No matter how we might be reacting to recent political events, Sagittarius season is our opportunity to reconnect with our faith in the cosmic order.

Whether consciously or not, we've been preparing for this moment all our lives. We owe it to ourselves to meet it with as much higher understanding as possible.