Welcome, one and all, to the season of the witch.
Fresh off the heels and horns of the full Aries harvest moon, October sees us under the spell of the scales and balances — and the diplomatic, sugar baby sway of Libra.
Jupiter, aka Jeffrey Lebowski, planet of luck, optimism and drinking at breakfast is retrograding in the sign of Taurus through the end of the year.
But the planet slowing down does not mean that our luck has run out — rather, we need to be more cautious about where we pour our energy and spend our time especially in the realms relative to Venus; finances, creativity and self-investment. Proceed with caution, but do proceed.
The month is highlighted by a solar eclipse in Libra on October 14th. The Mercury cazimi (sun and Mercury conjunction) in Libra on October 19th is a high time for golden leaves of clarity, insight and inspiration to come wafting along the autumnal breezes like a Taylor Swift video montage.
This alignment and alliance between the planet of communication and the solar star of the show equals divine messages and shadow projects taking a tentative step into the spotlight. The cazimi offers us a portal to the possible.
On the 23rd the sun moves into the shadowlands of Scorpio, priming the stage for a full Hunter’s moon lunar eclipse in Taurus on October 28th, darkening the sky when the veil between worlds is at its thinnest.
Earth priest Nick Cave recently wrote to a woman in the throes of grief and the terrible beauty of a world that keeps turning.
“We need fierce souls with flaming swords that lay open the world to the truth of things – our perilous and impermanent mutuality, our ferocious resilience, and our acute and heartbreaking preciousness,” Cave reminded her.”
As the sign of partnership and the blade of justice, this is the imperative of Libra and the flame to tend to the winter ahead. Lay bare at all costs the truth of what is, and kneel before the common blessing of the mutually felt.
Wishing you every manner of happiness and measure of change in the dimming days to come. Read on to learn more.
ARIES (March 21 – April 19)
You are burning through the ether of who you were and gestating the ghost form of your next live birth, Aries. You’ll need new allies to support this incarnation and a pocket full of gumption to see it through to fruition.
As a kind of infernal talisman I offer you the words of apex Aries Kathy Acker who writes in her novel, “In Memoriam to Identity,” “I’ve been returned to earth violently; I’ve a duty to myself to survive and to see what is. I have to deal with the truth, with nothing else.” Who can you trust with the truth you carry?
TAURUS (April 20 – May 20)
Look alive, Taurus. Mars takes up residence in goth-hearted Scorpio in your seventh house of partnerships this month. Mars is the masculine counterpart to Venus, your planetary ruler and Scorpio, as the sign opposite to you on the zodiac wheel has the most to teach you. Love need not be life or death nor alone/together.
This transit is here to show where you can take action or surrender swords while also illustrating that there is no straight line nor even divide in any relationship. In the words of the essential and inimitable James Baldwin, “Love does not begin and end the way we seem to think it does. Love is a battle, love is a war; love is a growing up.” Find your fight.
GEMINI (May 21 – June 20)
The season of the witch is nigh, Gemini. No sign is more poised to receive revelations than you. As you are ruled by coyote-hearted, trash-talking, sonnet-singing planet Mercury, the cazimi on October 19th will be especially auspicious for you. Look out for lightning bolts of poetry and the bones of your next great opus to come a crashing and a knocking.
Mercury is not only what we think and speak but how we move — take to the footpaths, the sidewalks and the back streets as often as you can this month. Movement is an act of creation and under these skies, for you, everything you see is an omen and ever step you take a seed.
CANCER (June 21 – July 22)
Happy scales season Cancer! I recently sat under the full moon in a circle of strangers as we all wrote letters to our own inner children. It was at once both an intensely personal and wholly communal experience. Writing to my past in the presence of others reminded me of what I am made from and for.
With the eclipses hitting hard in your fourth house of home and ancestors and eleventh house of community, I encourage you to visit the past with an archeological lens, see what can be extracted, what tea can be made from those tangled roots and offer the artifacts and the cup to the people you’ve waited your whole life to know.
LEO (July 23 – August 22)
Venus, planet of getting laid and paid is giving its final feline yawn in your sign this month, Leo, before passing the torch to Virgo. This torch will lend light to your second house of wealth and worth. This is an excellent time to streamline your savings, manage your champagne tastes, and find ways to feel good for free.
This transit also highlights more heady and less tangible expenditures; how are you spending time, the only currency you can’t buy back? If an invitation isn’t a f–k yes, let it be a hard no.
VIRGO (August 23 – September 22)
When Venus moves into Virgo on October 8th you may be tempted to kill the thing you love by being too close to it, by studying the flaws before the form. As a guide for this transit I offer you the story of famed glass sculptor and fellow Virgo, Dale Chihuly. Early in his career the artist suffered two serious accidents that altered his creative course; a car crash that left him blind in one eye and a shoulder injury that made it impossible for him to hold a glass blowing pipe.
Undeterred, he began directing a team of assistants to execute his crystal visions on a larger and more prolific scale. He recalled, “Once I stepped back, I liked the view.” I wonder, dear Virgo, if a similar change in perspective and a willingness to accept the imperfect assistance of others might bring about an accidental renaissance in you.
LIBRA (September 23 – October 22)
Happy solar return, Libra! With the sun and Mercury and a powerful eclipse in your sign this month, the emphasis is on casting full and cutting free a truer version of yourself. People pleasing, the Achilles heel you lean on most often, is a kind sort of cowardice as focusing on the needs of others excuses you from doing the work of the self. It won’t do because what the world needs is not the diluted, the diplomatic or the decaffeinated.
You are in control of the finite resource of your life, what a terrifying and glorious thing to accept! In the words of Ralph Waldo Emerson (a Libra rising) — “Make the most of yourself….for that is all there is of you.”
SCORPIO (October 23 – November 21)
By month’s end, the sun, Mercury and Mars will all be shining, howling and knife fighting in your sign, Scorpio. You are always a powerhouse and this holy trinity only amplifes your influence. Yet, what is your rallying cry and who are your recruits? In a recent interview with Vogue Magazine, Angelina Jolie revealed, “After I went through something where I was hurt, I had a therapist ask if I would try wearing a flowing garment. Sounds silly, but I assumed that pants and boots projected a ‘tougher’ look, a stronger me. But was I strong enough to be soft?”
Are you strong enough not only to be soft Scorpio, but to receive softness from others? I’m betting you are brave enough for both and ready to stand like a noble warrior in loose linen.
SAGITTARIUS (November 22 – December 21)
I recently heard a story from the mouth of a Sagittarius about Albert Einstein (who himself had a Sag moon). After being interviewed at his home, Einstein requested that the journalist in question call him to read the article aloud before publication. The writer agreed, asking Einstein the best way to reach him. The wild haired genius rose from his chair and grabbed the phone book to look up his own phone number.
When the journalist asked why Einstein didn’t know his own number by heart he replied that he never memorized anything he could look up. I hope you’ll take this rule as a lesson archer — travel light in mind and body to make space for the essential and the ephemeral.
CAPRICORN (December 22 – January 19)
After sixteen long years, death daddy Pluto’s reign in Capricorn is coming to a close. Pluto karmically clears the detritus of the old ways in service of a new way of being. What will be coming out of that fertile earth and cracked egg shell for you, Capricorn? You are a sign that endures, one that makes gains through losses, revelations through devastation and often seems to age in reverse.
With the sun and Mercury in Libra squaring Pluto in this final countdown I hope the weeks ahead leave you feeling like a recently orphaned oracle, born anew, alone and buoyant with hard-won wealth to share.
AQUARIUS (January 20 – February 18)
Happy cuffing season Aquarius. In the realm of partnership, is there a part of you that is mistrustful of ease, of acceptance? That craves and even creates chaos as a means to avoid intimacy? Do you go silent or sideways instead of stepping closer? The new moon eclipse in Libra highlights your ninth house of expansion and higher consciousness; the cazimi on the 19th up-ends the stale story you’ve been selling yourself about your capacity to connect.
How deep could you go — and how far out would it be — if you thought of intimacy as a frontier to explore rather than a rampart to uphold?
PISCES (February 19 – March 20)
Legendary musician, power Pisces and doomed drinker Townes Van Zandt surmised his life’s mission as follows; “I’d like to write some songs that are so good that nobody understands them. Not even myself.”
I suggest you take up Townes’s mantle (not habits) this Libra season, pull something unknowable out of the strange wilderness of your heart and offer it up on the altar of collective interpretation.
Astrology 101: Your guide to the star
- The 12 zodiac signs
- What are the astrology houses
- Here’s what each planet represents
- Sun, moon and rising signs: Get to know your Big 3
Astrologer Reda Wigle researches and irreverently reports back on planetary configurations and their effect on each zodiac sign. Her horoscopes integrate history, poetry, pop culture and personal experience. She is also an accomplished writer who has profiled a variety of artists and performers, as well as extensively chronicled her experiences while traveling. Among the many intriguing topics she has tackled are cemetery etiquette, her love for dive bars, Cuban Airbnbs, a “girls guide” to strip clubs and the “weirdest” foods available abroad.
