Keep the Home Fires Burning--November 2013 Transits

photo by Patricia Herlevi

For many astrologers including myself October and November offer turning points for the planet.  Carl Boudreau who practices mundane astrology, says that we reach a place of permanent changes, meaning, we won't be able to return to the old way of doing business.  And why would we want to when the old way of doing business feeds the coffers of the elite and destroys our health and the environment.  If you want a picture of the old way of doing business, watch YouTube videos on the tar sands fields in Alberta, Canada.  Then visualize the Earth Mother with  huge gouge in her side.

We jump start November with a Solar Eclipse on the 3rd (which I have already covered in another post).  On November 7, just four days after that momentous event, Jupiter goes retrograde and on the 9th, Mercury goes direct.  Jupiter is the planet of expansion and luck, among other things and it goes in a direction that causes us to go inward.  We will feel less of that need for outer expansion (give it a rest) and possibly we will expand in the spiritual dimensions.

With Mercury going direct in Scorpio, we will revisit issues we visited in the past few weeks and we will lost that concentration we had for our meditation practice (darn).  However, we still have a week to research, revisit, reedit, return to old projects or old jobs and do all the stuff that begins with "re".  Personally, I enjoy the time out Mercury RX allows us and when Mercury is in the water signs, it is a fantastic time to learn meditation or to improve a current meditation practice. When Mercury is in Scorpio, we can uncover a lot of information from our subconscious minds or for academic or journalistic research.  I'm actually wishing the retrograde was for 6 weeks because of the boost it has given me for my research!

photo by Patricia Herlevi

Other planets going direct in November include Neptune on the 12th and Chiron on the 19th.  Both of these planets have transits in Pisces and again, the theme of getting a meditation or spiritual practice going has resounded for the past few months.  Did you take advantage of this downtime or did you run around like a crazed chicken chased by a dog chasing his tail? All that frenzy will now hit you in the face as we move forward and plow ahead. Hopefully, you used the past few months to reassess your life, especially if you were one of the babies born in the 1960s when Neptune was in Scorpio, Uranus and Pluto were in Virgo and Chiron was in Pisces.  Your time to shine is now, but are you ready and did you prepare yourself spiritually during the past few months? True leadership takes discipline, but this fortunately, is a quality that the double-Virgo folks have.  Remember how when we were young and we desperately wanted to lay our hands on the planet and heal it? We wanted to lead humanity forward and wanted to bring real healing to the planet.  Now is our chance.

The Sun moves into Sagittarius on November 23 which takes us out of the inward Scorpio where we were able to focus on various projects and see the trees through the forest. When the Sun moves into Sagittarius we will lose that ability and also the ability to practice moderation.  However, with Jupiter (Sagittarius planet) retrograde, we might be able to have some discipline.  We will feel an exuberant spirit as we head to the holidays starting with the Thanksgiving holiday in the US, and all the religious holidays that make up this season worldwide.  We will either feel that there is plenty food and drink with indulgence high or we will feel that there isn't enough cans in the cupboard. A Sagittarius Sun is generous so remember to practice generosity during this time to make sure that the good food gets around the table and on as many tables as possible.  Now, there is a Sagittarius ideal.

photo by Patricia Herlevi

The Uranus-Pluto square remains in the background or foreground for people with planets at 9 degrees in Cancer, Capricorn, Aries and Libra, until November 16, so halfway through the month we will feel a sigh of relief. By the end of the month, we will experience a fire trine with the Sun and Uranus which is exact on December 1 and starts separating on December 5.  This will bring either warmth and enthusiasm or drama revolving around idealism, especially religious idealism.  Will we see heated theological debates? We might see a lot of exaggeration with foreigners or higher education or even academics spouting egotistical opinions and beliefs posing as facts.  Discern during this time because it won't matter how many letters someone has after his or her name, they are probably exaggerating.  Let's try our best not to act like pompous bores.

That's the round-up for November. And if any new transits catch my eye, I'll be sure to post them here.  However, I am researching the outer planets of the 1960s for a series I will post on this blog.  Did you know that a Neptune-Pluto sextile dominated the 1960s (1960-1970) with the widest orb at 6 degrees? We'll get to that later.  One of the crucial aspects from the mid-60s was the Uranus-Pluto conjunction in Virgo which was exact in 1965 and 1966.