In terms of world events, November carries a considerable buzz. And there is an astrological logic to all this intensity.
We’re dealing with two types of tension this month. The first is a series of fixed-sign stand-offs. The New Moon hits as November begins, with the Sun and Moon at ten 1/2 Scorpio, and if your chart features this degree, the month has your name on it. Meanwhile, Mercury is trining Mars, which enters Leo on 11/3 while still opposed to Pluto.
This puts a deeply entrenched psychological tenacity into the air. It stems from Pluto, the planet of endings and beginnings. There is a sense of things being taken apart. Some kind of complete re-do is necessary.
David and Goliath
The Mars-Pluto collision is the main plot of a storied four-week period, one that mundane astrologers have had their eye on for a while now. An extreme emotional atmosphere is always to be expected when the planet of force (Mars) meets the planet of power (Pluto). Notorious for David-vs-Goliath battles, this opposition pits the planet of ego against the planet of breakdown/ renewal.
Especially if it triggers something in your own natal makeup — check your chart for the last degree of cardinal signs (Aries, Cancer, Libra and Capricorn)– you may encounter a make-or-break confrontation with an opponent of some kind. Something has to give. Your best bet is to look your opponent in the eye, literally or figuratively, and convey that you realize the epic battle you’re in.
This is the counsel encoded in fairy tales such as Rumpelstiltzkin. The heroine takes her power back, simply by calling the villain by his name. When we “name the devil,” we are bringing to consciousness what’s going on. This breaks the spell.
By recognizing the underlying drama during a power play, you’re sending a message to Pluto. You’re honoring the transit by telling the dark god that you acknowledge something has to “die” — that is, an inside-out, top-to-bottom change of some kind is inevitable.
Coming to a head
Collectively and personally, this is a lesson in ego death. It peaks the first week of November and plays out throughout the rest of the month. But for a fuller understanding of current dramas, we have to go back to the beginning of the cycle.
This month’s Mars-Pluto opposition hearkens back to 2020, when the two planets were conjunct. Events now are a consequence of what was happening then. Just as every New Moon is followed by a Full Moon, issues that begin at a conjunction are brought to a head at the following opposition. This month’s revelations are the blossoms of seeds planted four years ago. They will jar the world anew in January and April, when Mars & Pluto oppose again.
For the USA, this opposition is particularly poignant, as it marks a last hurrah of the country’s long, slow Pluto Return. For 15 years, the Pluto Return has overseen the death of something essential in the country self-image.
Wild card
Also this month, Uranus (drastic shifts) is squaring the US Moon (The People). The public, as a collective entity, is undergoing shock therapy. Like all Uranus transits, this one is cosmically designed to jolt us into a heightened state of aliveness.
Especially noteworthy is the fact that the country is heading towards its Uranus Return (2026-29). The cosmic goal here is to jolt the USA into remembering its original aliveness: the mood that prevailed when the country was born. A deeply familiar electricity will pervade the mass psyche, similar to the revolutionary foment that prevailed in 1776.
The planet of independence, Uranus is a wild card. Its transits can be visionary, or just wild and crazy. The only thing we can be sure of is that it is highly unstable.
Mutability to the Max
Overlaying the intransigence of fixity is a second tense stand-off, this time one of mutability. On 11/2 Mercury joins Venus in Sagittarius, from where they will run up against Neptune (11/9) and Saturn (11/12), as well as Jupiter (11/3 and 11/18). These three are provoking each other’s nervous energy, exaggerating their twists and turns. The mass vibration is skittering around like fleas on meth.
If you have Virgo planets natally, chances are you’ll be getting a Grand Cross: the astrological jackpot. Any revelations you get will not come gracefully; they will be squeezed out of you, forcing you to maneuver with
flexibility without becoming scattered. The gods know that stress can be a great motivating device. When we’re hit with the geometrical tension of a T-square or Grand Cross, we take decisive action to relieve the tension.
The energy in the air will run the gamut from heightened idealism to impassioned chaos, depending on how intelligently we manage them.
Mini-World
To pinpoint where this prickly vibration will play out in your own life, familiarize yourself with where Pisces, Gemini and Sagittarius fall in your natal chart. That coded map, and the transits to it, spell out your contribution to this world moment.
It’s able to do this because your own psyche is a mini-world, a microcosmic reflection of the Whole.
