A Confusing and Powerful Month of October

The Astrology of October features Saturn, Chiron, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto. Mars enters Sagittarius on Saturday, October 6th, squaring Neptune as it does, while Saturn draws closer and closer in connection with the mystical numinousity of Neptune as the month gets underway, forming its exact trine as Saturn enters Scorpio on October 5th. This first week of the month is therefore particularly fraught, confusing and shimmering with shape-shifting possibilities as unbridled illusion and even deliberately deceptive behavior take center stage, in contrast to the grounded practicality of cautious Saturn.

It has been for the past six months or even more that Uranus and Pluto have been prominent. The late Virgo New Moon from the middle of last month triggered their square just as it reached a second completion two days afterward, and then the September 29th Full Moon conjuncted Uranus and squared Pluto. The radical transformation symbolized by the dynamic alignment of these two powerhouse planets, strongly present for us in this fall timeframe, caps the symbolic effects that we have been feeling all spring and summer. Much as in the violently revolutionary sixties, we are in a process of discarding what no longer works for us, both as individuals and as a society, although old and outworn habits obviously die hard.

Chiron, the Wounded Healer has been in the mix with the three outer planets all this time, being at roughly the same degree of Pisces as Pluto occupies in Capricorn and Uranus in Aries, indicating that the painful necessities we collectively face are very alive for us now, as we attempt to modify existing potential outcomes. Venus is opposite to Chiron during the first weekend of the month, and we may find at this time even greater poignancy in the dislocation between our ideals and the reality on the ground. We win when instead of turning away we face our pain and come to accept it as a neglected but valued part of ourselves, for it is only in this way that we become truly free of its underground grip on our lives.

With Saturn moving into Scorpio, a Water sign, and thereby coming into alignment with mystical Neptune in Pisces, the Water sign that Neptune rules, we are far more conscious of our emotional nature than we have been thus far in the yearly cycle. Since the Sun is coincidentally moving into Scorpio this month as well, we are in for quite a ride. We have the stability of the earth ruler Saturn holding us down to do our inner work, and the watery fuzziness of the Scorpio-Pisces pairing to pull us into spinning circles of passional whirlpools that could instead flood us out. As we strive for balance between the rocky shore and the hard emotions that, though difficult to deal with, still we must manage to surmount and withstand, we win by riding the wave to its utmost and possibly beneficial conclusion – standing as firm as we can, aided by everything that we can bring to bear and by embracing a maximum of faith in ourselves and in our process.