The Astro Weather for October continues the theme of shifting directions, enough to give all of us whiplash. And yet, it’s also a month that gets the train moving towards the larger shifts of 2023. We kickstart the month with our faith friend Mercury standing still and starting to move forward again, thus retracing for the third time some old territory.
So some themes that started in August, but may have gone into disarray in September, can now be revisited. With Mercury, the invitation is to test drive the ideas that percolated to the surface in the last couple of weeks but also have a ‘come to Jesus’ moment with some old rattling ideas that either need to be trashed or upcycled.
But the other heavy hitters in the shifting department in this Astro weather season are Mars, Saturn, and Pluto.
On Samhain/Halloween, our gumption planet Mars will stand still and do the backward dance in Gemini, only going direct in early 2023!
- Could this be the time we’re made to ‘eat our words’?
- Or sharpen our sword/pen to make our communication surgically precise?
- Or perhaps it’s when we can finally see through the bullcrap of the spin doctors (which we have plenty of!) and burst their bubble of confusion and mayhem.
With Mars in an extended stay in Gemini, a close examination of how much energy we use, spend, waste or gain through our communication would be beneficial. For most of October, Mars will be in a square dance with Neptune, so it’s good to stay awake, sharp, and rooted so as not to be taken by a wild tsunami of propaganda and misinformation. This honestly seems to be how the first decades of the 21st century have turned out to be: misinformation as a pollutant to our psyches.
Each one of us is responsible for our little piece of the collective beach where we must clean up the debris of misinformation plastics and propaganda shards of glass as we try to save the wounded seals and whales of our ability to imagine and create beyond the wall of constant fear that is the gas leak that has been going on non-stop for decades. The clean-up of the spewing of this collective shadow is both an individual and collaborative effort. Do your individual clean-up, get to know where you’re leaking your ‘stuff,’ and in turn, this fuels the collective efforts.
But let’s talk about Saturn and Pluto moving us forward into 2023’s Astro weather!
Those two will shift directions and start going forward after months of retrograde. It also means that each will be going through the ending degrees of their respective signs: Capricorn and Aquarius, and come March 2023, both will arrive at their new addresses.
Pluto will arrive in Aquarius, where it will stay until 2043, and Saturn will dive into the oceanic waters of Pisces, where it will swim until 2026. All of these critical shifts that inaugurate a new collective zeitgeist in March 2023 are also when Mars will finally leave Gemini and move into Cancer.
So October is, in a way, a harbinger of what’s to unfold in full from 2023 onwards.
Now I want you to think of this: when planets, especially the slow-moving ones, traverse the last degrees of a sign, there’s a punctuated sense of urgency in wrapping up the themes of that sign.
Think about when you’re about to move, and the last few days and hours are often spent madly packing and dealing with last-minute details. Before substantial changes, there’s always a rush of activity, thinking on our feet and making shifts.
So if you look back to Pluto in Capricorn since 2008 and all that we’ve witnessed around what governs our lives (i.e., government, corporations, sovereignty, etc.) I’ll bet you a latte that we’ll see some last-minute maneuverings in the musical chairs of heads of states and governance. But in your own life, take stock of what you’ve learned and experienced since 2008.
What substantial changes have occurred in your own sovereign SELF country?
As for Saturn, as it leaves Aquarius, it will square off with Uranus and the Lunar North Node in Taurus. It’s our last chance to learn something from the dance between CHANGE & RESISTANCE.
Since it’s a square between Aquarius & Taurus, we can think about ideas for the future, coming into shock with resources and or reimagining how we use resources to futureproof our journey ahead.
So as 2022 winds down, it’s an excellent time to take stock of your physical, mental, emotional, and energetic resources. Think of it as a budget spreadsheet for your energetic bank!
Look to where a leak may be taking place and fix it. With Mars’ extended stay in Gemini, you can refocus your energies and not let yourself waste them on distraction, misinformation, and FOMO (shadow aspects of the Twins.)
Mars retrograde is always a good time to rethink how you’re spending your energies because you’ll be able to quickly tell what either gives you energy and where the leakage is. And if these shifts weren’t enough, we also have the last Solar Eclipse in the axis of Taurus/Scorpio.
Come 2023; the eclipses will be taking place on the axis of Aries & Libra. So think about how we’ve been tackling the themes of resources (Taurus) and transformation (Scorpio) since the Lunar Nodes arrived in the Taurus/Scorpio axis in 2021.
The partial Solar Eclipse will be on October 25th at 2º of Scorpio. The changes that rise then may have been brewing since the Spring during that last eclipse season. I like to think of eclipses as wild cards, so stay nimble and light-footed.
An idea to meditate on during this eclipse window in October is this:
Truth is about unconcealing; it’s not about correctness.
Eclipses conceal something while revealing something that has until now been unseen. Think about how we can see things about the Sun only when an eclipse happens.
And lastly, in the coming months, here are ways in which you can honor Mars during its retrograde dance:
- Unless we work with Mars like a practice, it becomes the destroyer – turns against us and others.
- Where does your Mars get attention and need some disciplined care?
- What is it looking forward to? What makes it get up in the morning?
- What is your heroic assignment?
- What are you willing to fight for, protect and preserve?
- What is your bull’s eye that you are going for?
- What do you want? (Honor your desire.)
- Don’t practice ‘tantrum yoga’ – act your rage. Find the real target of your rage and make something good happen.
- Challenged by Mars? Ask yourself: What did this want to be before it became toxic due to suppression?
And a couple of meditative koans for the months ahead:
“Unless we have relation to the principle, we will fall victim to its negative manifestation. If we are not willing to fight when required, if we cannot summon up aggressive energy when it is appropriate, we will succumb to it in some other way.” – Edward Edinger
“… the American people tried to reestablish balance … shaming the masculine principle…leaving a huge chunk of it in the jungle so that it wouldn’t bother us at home. … Trying to bring about balance by squelching the masculine won’t work any more than squelching the feminine … Pushing Mars into the jungle of our unconscious results in frightening energy that fuels … increased violence in general.” – Karl Marlantes
During Mars retrograde, it’s part and parcel of our individual responsibility to engage with the Mars archetype in our lives. Notice your anger, frustration, energy output and input, and how we dance with the shadow within. Remember that in the myth of Ares (the Greek Mars), he had to learn to DANCE before he could do war.
So let’s step onto the dance floor and embrace the Mars within.
Photo Credits:
Main image: Drew Beamer – via Unsplash
Subsequent images: Michal Matlon, Anne Nygard and Engin Akyurt via Unsplash
