A Mystical, Difficult and Confusing November

The Astrology of November features an eclipse plus Mercury, Venus, Chiron, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto. Mercury of course is in full-on retrograde as the month begins, stationing to direct motion on Sunday the 10th and only escaping its retrograde shadow on the 27th. Most of the month will therefore represent a time of missed connections and mechanical breakdown, where you might have to do the thing three times to get it right. This is an excellent opportunity to turn inward, to journal, and to experience your authentic self.

The Uranus-Pluto square is very much with us as well, being exact on November 1st in an extremely volatile configuration that includes retrograde Mercury in conjunction with the Sun, so that we are at one peak of the entire retrograde period. Both the Sun in its forming eclipse and Mercury are in close aspect with Chiron, Pluto and Uranus, with Mars is opposite Chiron and trine Pluto. The implication is that we will start off the month of November with a bang not a whimper — or perhaps with both at once.

The Solar Eclipse and New Moon taking place on Sunday, November 3rd, is kind of a big deal, with this same configuration highlighted by the eclipse degree which is in turn in close conjunction with Saturn as well. Meanwhile Mercury has slipped a couple more degrees backward and is conjunct the nodal axis. Since the energy of an eclipse lasts longer, for as much as six months, we are in for a very intense end-of-year period. It is quite significant to note that the Uranus-Pluto square, coming up for yet another exact hit in the spring, on April 21st, is triggered by the November 25th Last Quarter Moon and the December 2nd New Moon, as well as by the chart for the New Year. A tough early going for 2014 is definitely presaged, and this puts quite an interesting spin on the next dates for economic policy show-down on Capitol Hill, which are January 15th and February 7th. It is also increasingly obvious that major changes in political realities in this country and for the world in general are vitally necessary for the health of the planet and for ourselves.

It is interesting to note that Neptune is also highlighted in recent lunations, and comes up again as Mercury stations on the 10th in exact trine to Neptune, and with the Last Quarter Moon of the week of Thanksgiving, taking place on November 25th. Neptune in its own sign of Pisces represents a necessary turning to the spiritual side; this is an otherworldly dimension of higher reality that is also a confusing side as far as business as usual is concerned.

Alongside the collective changes that we can all see coming down, there are personal ones that are perhaps even more urgent, and that we can witness in the development of in our own individual lives. These, too, peak over this intense season between the ending of one climactic year and the early going of the next. Uranus and Pluto have a total of seven exact hits of their square, with the after-effects lasting until very nearly the end of the decade. These next two, counting the current month of November and April, 2014, are the fourth and fifth, and in some ways the most intense of the lot of them. We are all caught up in the fires of transformation, exploring the places in our lives where we are stuck in some dysfunctional way. And these stuck places, while they must indeed eventually yield in favor of our continued spiritual evolution, do not yield gracefully.

Only consciousness provides a way forward, so that we owe it to ourselves to be as aware as possible, as consistently as possible, for the sake of our children's children, and for ourselves.