October’s New Moon: A Shock to the Alchemical Heart
The last few days I’ve been shuddering at how close and invisible rape and sexual assault is amongst my friends. I’m inspired by the way people of all genders have been speaking out, empowered and liberated, it seems, in coming to terms with some of the core trauma in our lives and culture. In situations like this, I feel very wary of using my own voice—more than anything, I want to listen, to really hear what other people are expressing, and to digest my own experience before saying anything.
Amidst this, astrology can sometimes feel superfluous. It’s a language of symbol when the truth needing to be touched is so basic and tangible. I fear that it can put me in a cold or objective frame of mind when what needs to be explored is closer to the heart or gut. And yet I always return to astrology, soothed by the way that it affirms and contextualizes whatever is going on, in the way that it engages my mind in conversation with my heart and gut. In that spirit, I offer these reflections.
A few big things have been going on over the last week—first, the Sun has been in an opposition with Uranus, which was quite precise on Thursday’s full moon. Second, Mercury is now separating from a conjunction with Jupiter, heralding Jupiter’s absorption into the Sun’s rays next week. As this has been going on, Saturn has been conjunct Lilith and the Galactic Center, perfecting a square to Chiron.
The Sun’s opposition with Uranus has brought a somewhat electric charge to the air. Uranus liberates us from the known, bringing change, innovation, revolution or rebellion. It’s associated with the Kundalini energy, which I experience as a buzzing in my perineum that dances to different parts of my body, spontaneously popping through blockages. It’s also called the Alchemical Fire. Sometimes these awakenings can be disruptive, activating difficult things from the unconscious and tearing down identity structures in such a way that leaves people out to sea. It’s thought to be a fundamental force of healing, psychic development, and the awakening of genius.
Since Uranus is retrograde, this process of awakening might have to do with returning to the past, as if something needs to be retrieved, remembered, or reclaimed. It might have to do with the nature of this electrical force itself, or it could relate to the unwinding of some memory held in our body and its associated identity. I’ve been experiencing regular, kind of intense pain where my wisdom teeth were and have had images in meditation of them being taken out of me. Monday night, sleeplessly contemplating how I may have contributed to this violence towards women, I remembered an afternoon at a water park when I was thirteen or fourteen, gliding my hands past women’s breasts and bottoms as I sped downstream.
Amidst this, Mercury, our cognitive, communicative faculty, sped past the Sun and then Jupiter, a force of enthusiasm and opportunity, as well as wisdom and tradition. Here are some poetic/meaningful things I’ve been experiencing:
-A reticence to speak, a fear of mansplaining, fear that I am or have been misusing my power in some way.
-Losing my earbuds, thinking that I would have to get new ones, thinking that silence was really nice, and finding my earbuds again.
-Finishing a notebook and waiting to start the new one intentionally.
-Abundant, meaningful information: a podcast that I will have to listen to twice.
-Noticing the way that authentic speech feels somewhat sing-songy, as if the real information is being transmitted underneath the words.
-Recognizing the lifelessness or defensiveness of a monotone voice.
-Hearing my own voice plop into a much deeper spot, and being unsure how it might stabilize there.
-Appreciating my higher registers, and noticing some subtle judgment about it.
-Conversations with authority, or serious conversations: ‘I’m sorry I did that..’ ‘We need you to take more initiative.’ As well as: ‘Is this legal?’ ‘Can we talk about this?’
-The still small voice and the safe space it needs to speak.
Mercury’s encounter with Jupiter sets the stage for a more substantial integration of this wise energy. The Sun’s absorption of Jupiter on Thursday serves as our yearly check-in with our maps, guides, and the sources of opportunity on our journey. Last year’s happened in mid to late September. Here, we might think of shifts in relationships with guides or mentors, the evolution or manifestation of a new opportunity, a change in a course of study or experimentation, a reworking of operating systems or guiding narratives, or a new sense of what lies on the path ahead of us. Leading up to this, there might be a sense that something is concluding or dying—when planets are just about to be met by the Sun, they are said to be old, in their final days.
This conjunction is happening in the Vedic Nakshatra of Swati, which is right next to the star Arcturus. Swati is given the image of a young shoot being blown by the wind—thus, we come to feelings of a fresh, innocent impulse for survival and success. This newness can also exist as a transition from one lifestyle to the next—Bernadette Brady calls Arcturus a pathfinder, aiding those who are settling into a new way of being. Dealing with the difficult winds of change naturally leads to skillfulness. Thus, we might tune into some of our own youthful or innocent strength in engaging whatever opportunities this Sun/Jupiter conjunction is blowing our ways.
As we progress towards the full moon, Saturn will enter a precise square with Chiron, the Wounded Healer, in the final pass of an aspect that has been present for the last year. Saturn could be considered to be the sturdy structures that keeps this young shoot firmly rooted, buffering it against the wind. Strikingly, Saturn is passing by the Galactic Center in a conjunction with Lilith, a symbol of the repressed feminine and the unrestrained erotic. Together, this forms an image of an upwelling of Chiron’s medicinal gold, the beautiful, healing power that can be yolked from our deepest wounds—especially around sexuality or the difficult aspects of the feminine experience.
In comparison to Uranus’ flashes of brilliance and breakthroughs, Chiron’s process is slower, a masterful depth of experience. This mastery has to do with becoming intimate with our pain and coming to a trustworthy sense of discernment. In this process, we create the philosopher’s stone. We find the broken-open heart that can transmute lead into gold and the nose that can discern it from pyrite.
To explore how all of this is playing out in your life, reach out for a reading! Learn more at astrologyally.com/readings