SCORPIO SEASON 2024
Death, witchery and peering through the tattered veil.
A luminous glow emanates from deep water. Painting by me: D. Stapleton
October 22: Sun enters Scorpio until November 21
On Tuesday, October 22, at 3:15 pm PT, the Sun leaves peaceable Libra, the sign of the Fall Equinox, to enter the cool, watery depths of Scorpio. Scorpio Season is the enigmatic mid-phase of Autumn, where shadows noticeably lengthen. Fall’s beauty begins to surrender to signs of decay. Golden leaves are trodden into the earth, darkening, composting, and enriching the soil as it cools and yields less growth for the year.
When Scorpio Season arrives, reminders of endings surround us. It’s the Season of death, witchery, remembering ancestors and peering through the tattered veil between our world and the realm of our beloved dead. Summer’s elation is long behind us, and the harvest is gathered and stored.
We begin to turn indoors to contemplate, reflect, and turn within to be more quietly and intimately immersed in our depths. The skies darken, the rain pours down heavily, and we’re called outside and out of ourselves less and less.
Scorpio’s fixed water signature invites us to remember that much germinates below the surface while all is still cold and quiet. This mystery is the way of living things, the cycle of life. We must let the cool restoration of going still, doing less, and surrendering follow times of heat, activity and fiery output.
This surrendering includes our attachments to the outcomes of our efforts, knowing that these fallow times are passages of regenerating and collecting power. Scorpio consciousness teaches us to gather power receptively and magnetically, allowing what we seek to seek us. To be drawn toward us as we lie in wait, trusting the cyclical process of nature.
Lying in wait like scorpions under stones, we feel the vibrations from a long way off and learn to tune into ambient signals to make our move when the time is right—when the body knows—when we feel the moment upon us.
The Sun’s journey through Scorpio illuminates our inner depths. Photo by me: D. Stapleton
From Scorpio, the Sun will form a trine with Saturn in Pisces on November 4, an opposition with Uranus in Taurus on November 16, and a trine with Neptune in Pisces on November 18. These aspects indicate potential challenges and opportunities for emotional and transformative growth, illuminating themes of toil, disruption and the urge to dream a new reality that allows us to transcend the potency of our feelings.
Meanwhile, we compose ourselves, go still and quiet, to access a more profound magnetic power within our souls to steady us and help us weather Autumn’s dramatic yet cleansing storms.
The coiled energy of the Dark Moon sets psychic ripples in motion. Painting by me: D. Stapleton
November 1: New Moon at 9° Scorpio
November begins with one of the darkest lunations of the year: a New Moon in Scorpio at 5:47 am PT. Though the New Moon phase is technically exact early Friday morning, we can celebrate this lunation on Halloween Night, as by the time night falls on Friday evening, the Moon will already be moving away from the Sun toward the waxing crescent phase over the weekend.
In Scorpio, the Moon is in her sign of fall, a deep, shadowy psychic chasm where she carries us into fearsome emotional territory. This Dark Moon coincides with Samhain, or All Hallows Eve, offering the blackest night for the dead to walk among us.
Trine Saturn rx in Pisces, this shadowy Moon is infused with Saturn’s enduring patience and austerity, slowing us down to attune to the longer story arcs unfolding in our lives. We can ritualize this Dark Moon passage by lighting a flame, or a bonfire if need be, to remember those who have passed and to cast whatever secrets that hold power over us into the fire.
November 2: Mercury enters Sagittarius until January 8, 2025
As Mercury moves from the intense waters of Scorpio into the zealous fires of ranging Sagittarius, communication takes on a more expansive and philosophical tone. Mercury the Messenger will remain in the centaur’s sign until January 8, 2025, slowing down and doubling back during its retrograde that begins on November 25 at the beginning of Sagittarius Season to follow.
And so November begins with a mood of bold intellectual enthusiasm that may cool late in the month, testing our resolve and concentration to see through whatever we endeavour to learn, read, or organize now. Mercury’s upcoming retrograde passage will offer a way to revisit everything we begin during Scorpio Season, refining and redoing effectively informed by hindsight.
The first test of Mercury in Sagittarius’ enthusiasm comes on November 12, when he forms a square aspect to Saturn in Pisces. We may face limitations around this time, with Saturn’s restrictive energies pushing back to ensure we can sustain our endeavours and journeys.
As uncomfortable as this may feel, it’s a significant opportunity to listen to feedback and make necessary edits. A stitch in time saves nine, an adage that some Saturnian person probably coined.
A few days later, Mercury opposes Jupiter in Gemini, with both planets in mutual reception at 18 degrees in each other’s domiciles. Themes of growth, abundance and achievement through unusual or unexpected alliances may come to the fore for many of us now.
Take note of Mercury’s connections with Saturn and Jupiter, putting a pin in anything that comes up during these dates. The Messenger planet will revisit these activating aspects two more times at the beginning and end of December.
November 3: Mars enters Leo until January 5
Scorpio Season begins with its planetary ruler, Mars, finishing its journey through sensitive and protective Cancer. Emotions run high during this period, often overwhelming us personally and collectively. Then, on November 3, Mars leaves Cancer, for now, and enters regal Leo. Mars’ shift pulls the emotional tone out of the swampy waters of reactivity into the fires of righteous passion.
The Warrior planet will remain in Leo for the rest of the year after November 3, turning rx in this sign on December 6, moving back to Cancer on January 5, 2025, and then entering Leo again on a direct course from April 17 - June 17, 2025.
Mars does not form any significant planetary aspects in Leo during the remainder of Scorpio Season, which suggests its power will move forward with bold, unchecked, and unchallenged momentum until some considerable cosmic developments occur during the Sagittarius and Capricorn Seasons to follow.
November 11: Venus enters Capricorn until December 6
When Venus, the planet of love and pleasure, moves from adventurous Sagittarius into practical Capricorn, we may become more serious and focused on commitment in our relationships and creative endeavours.
Until December 6, Venus’ travel through the wintry land of the austere goat invites us to consider which connections, investments, and projects have “good bones.” Venus does not make significant planetary connections during Scorpio Season, allowing us to establish depth and gravity in love and creativity for the duration.
However, when we get into Sagittarius Season, she will form many aspects with the outer planets, hinting that the foundations we lay now have potent, long-reaching transformative potential. For now, she steadily traverses Capricorn’s mountain ranges, climbing slowly and methodically, seeking connection and a stable place to establish her desires.
A Full Moon that is at once fertile and unsettled bears unusual fruit. Painting by me: D. Stapleton
November 15: Saturn stations direct, and Full Moon at 24° Taurus
Saturn stations direct at 6:20 am at 12 deg. Pisces after stationing retrograde at the end of June this year. Since then, we may have felt a delay or a need to be more methodical and deliberate to stay on track with our routines and efforts. As Saturn’s path through Pisces rolls forward again, it’s time to return to a more significant project that requires us to make sacrifices and be very disciplined about completing.
It’s important to note that Saturn stays on a direct course through Pisces until entering Aries on May 24, 2025. Saturn then turns rx in Aries on July 12, 2025, re-entering Pisces on September 1, 2025, and turning direct in Pisces again on November 17, 2025.
What we’re working on now is in one of the final phases of achievement that will wrap up in late 2025, so it’s important to note where Saturn has been in your chart since March 7, 2023, to affirm where this cycle is showing up in your life. Is there anything you committed to back then that’s coming back into focus?
Later, the Sun and Moon enter polar dialogue on the same day, forming November’s Full Moon in Taurus. This abundant Moon highlights a time of nourishment, restoring our strength and encouraging us to ground ourselves in earthly pleasures.
A Full Moon in Taurus is typically abundant, stable and uncomplicated, yet this lunation conjoins Uranus, the planet of change and disruption, bringing surprises and a yearning for freedom. This conjunction underscores the Full Moon’s exalted fertility with a fluctuating signature, ensuring we harvest unusual fruit that rooted and germinated back in the Spring.
November 19: Pluto enters Aquarius until 2043
On November 19, an era ends as Pluto leaves Capricorn for the last time. No one alive will see Pluto’s return to the sign of the resolute goat, as Pluto’s orbit through the zodiac takes around 250 years to complete.
For the last couple of years, Pluto has been alternating between going retrograde and resuming direct motion over the sign boundary between Capricorn and into the first degrees of Aquarius, giving us a thematic preview of the new phase we’re entering until 2043.
This liminal period of transition from an era of extreme power and death-rebirth cycles unfolding in the realm of material growth and structure is giving way to a new era of exploring extreme powers and death-rebirth cycles unfolding in humanity’s sense of meaning, purpose, and identity.
All of these facets will continue to be tested, along with the collective censuses of reality that underlie our societal laws, agreements, and contracts with each other. This will be an ongoing metamorphosis and the topic of deep enquiry as Pluto continues on course.
Well, that’s all for now. Happy Halloween, and enjoy the rest of Scorpio Season and the month of November.
Cosmic tidings,
Debbie
