Today’s New Moon Solar Eclipse in Scorpio, sign of passionate depths, merges with Venus on the far side of the Sun. It initiates a new chapter in the watery Scorpio realm of our charts, which involves a transformative death and rebirth-like release. Eclipses trigger powerful shifts of fate and fortune, which can begin unfolding a month prior and up to six months after the Eclipse itself. Solar Eclipses are like super-charged New Moons and open up new possibilities, pathways and storylines but when they’re aligned with the South Node they’re also likely to involve a shedding.
This Eclipse, which is conjunct Venus at 2 degrees Scorpio, occurs two days after the planet of love and attraction entered the heart of the Sun at 29 degrees of her own sign, Libra for the first time in 150 years. This shift in Venus’ synodic cycle signals a radical albeit incremental improvement in Venusian topics over the next 150 years. Women’s rights, gender and racial equality, democratic and social justice movements, fairer financial systems and the arts should all develop significantly during this period, although the process of advancement is likely to involve the aggravation of issues that are currently in dire need of balancing and correction. Venus and the Sun will make a final conjunction in Scorpio at 0 degrees in 2026, suggesting continued power struggles in these areas, however this Venus-Eclipse conjunction, which also trines natal Venus in the chart of Iran almost exactly, reinforces the significance of the move into Libra and suggests the potential for lasting social change in the long term.
Mars rules this Eclipse from Gemini, and as it slows down to station retrograde on October 31, it places intense emphasis on our thoughts, words, ideas and perceptions as we parse the stories we tell ourselves and glean the important facts from the data. In Scorpio we’re willing and/or able to delve deep, to research underlying dynamics and reflect on the mythical significance of our own evolutionary processes. As we consciously adjust our perceptions and direct courageous actions inwards, we create openings for insights that transform our view and offer us greater freedom. Mars, the god of sharp things, excels at cutting, pruning and surgery, and shares a similar impulse to its ruler Mercury who’s an expert in dissection and discernment. This South Node Solar Eclipse offers us an opportunity to change our minds, to eliminate malignant thinking, to release toxic patterns and ideas and eradicate the baggage that’s been blocking our transformations, and it offers us a new lease on life.
The Nodes of the Moon hold mythical significance in Jyotish tradition, as the severed head (Rahu) and body (Ketu) of the dragon-demon Rakshasha. Slain by Vishnu for stealing a sip of the elixir of immortality, amrita, churned from the cosmic ocean of milk that produced Venus and the Moon, immortal Rahu is ceaseless hunger, worldly desire and obsessive focus, while Ketu, eternally dying, is associated with the mystical processes of liberation that are derived from loss and the surrendering of our material ambitions. The Moon, which is exalted in the sensory pleasure-realm of Taurus, finds her fall in the deep, dark depths of Scorpio, and Venus too must work overtime to harmonise and achieve equity in the sign of passionate extremes and power struggles. There are quincunxes agogo on this lunation too, which further emphasise the confusion, discomfort and self-doubt we may feel as we work to plant the seeds of an unknown future in the darkness as we release dead weight. If we can find beauty in the fecund, albeit emotionally intense, subterranean caves and waterscapes of the psyche, and succumb to feeling, we find rich nourishment and abundance that activates the alchemical magic of Scorpio.
Scorpio is the sign of dragons, the occult and healing through confrontation with the wounds of the unconscious, and it rules evolutionary development in our response to fear and security. Pluto, whose name means ‘riches’ is the modern ruler of Scorpio. God of death and Lord of the Underworld, Pluto demanded a tax to cross the river Styx at death. Scorpio rules the ‘cost of life’ - the taxes we pay, literal and metaphorical to be alive, investments and other people’s money and the will to power. The magic shapeshifting symbolism of Scorpio, which encompasses the scorpion, spider, lizard, snake, wolf and eagle, represents a process of strategic sophistication in attaining true security, autonomy and abundance. Primal defence strategies give way to freedom in flight. It’s a powerful moment to consider the fears that are preventing us from becoming the soaring selves we imagine but also to consider our own concepts of power. In an almost identical story told by Kimberley and Celtic peoples, a contest for supremacy was staged by the birds, with the winner determined on the basis of altitude. Eagle, unsurprisingly proclaimed itself victor from high above its peers. But Wren had secured passage under the shelter of its wing, and darted above Eagle, declaring itself the winner. It’s a sweet reminder, both of the power of small things and of the potential we each possess to achieve the impossible. Birds have been reminding me to appreciate small beauties, to sing, to know that what we’re doing is enough, and to avoid becoming mired in feelings of inadequacy by trusting the prevailing winds.
Mars is still making its long square to Neptune, planet of flood, fog, delusion and deceit, healing and visionary imagination, until the end of November. When Jupiter retrogrades back into Pisces on Friday October 28, the tension and opportunities are amplified. Although the Greater Benefic rules Pisces, it’s moving through the final Saturn and Mars-ruled degrees of the sign and towards the planet of water, Neptune, signalling more wild weather, floods, hacking and internet scams, ideological violence, political delusions and large-scale deceptions. It’s also incredible energy for reworking and revising projects and ideas of imagination, for healing wounds of the mind and psyche, for meditation, art, writing and journalling. Mercury will join Mars in Scorpio on October 30 right before the action planet stations retrograde - the moment when its energy is most intense. The two are in mutual reception, which should help us channel the tensions into reflective and creative activities that produce insights. Expect surprising news of all kinds while Mercury and Mars hang out in each other’s signs.
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