Early Tuesday morning, the New Moon in Scorpio arrives. We see the Sun, Moon, and Venus together in the second degree of Scorpio, the very beginning of the sign of fixed Water.
All three have just arrived, poised on the threshold. We’ve left behind the exquisite balance of the final decan of Libra, where all things are considered and held. In the first decan of Scorpio, we confront our hungers.
Mars, ancient ruler of Scorpio, is the planet of physical desire. Mars has appetites. Knows what he wants. Goes after it. In Scorpio, Mars becomes devious, manipulative, and cunning. This is a place of plots and counterplots. Much is hidden.
Pluto, modern ruler of Scorpio, is foundational. Pluto rules what is hidden not because we are hiding it, but because it is the unseen force beneath the visible world.
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On Earth, Pluto rules what is below the ground: coal, oil, precious metals, gems. In us, Pluto’s gaze fixes on our psyche in its innermost depths. Here we have desires we cannot admit to, as well as traumas our subconscious hides from us until we have the capacity to face them.
We’re in deep territory. These are places of power.
A key Scorpio skill is knowing what others don’t want us to know. The Water signs are all associated with intuition. Scorpionic intuition focuses on power, secrets, and how the two intertwine.
Notice both Mars and Pluto participate in this New Moon. Mercury at 22 Libra moves to trine Mars and square Pluto. Our perceptions, thought, and communication are influenced by both Scorpio’s rulers.
Of course, this New Moon is also an eclipse, a partial solar eclipse. Adding another layer of intensity and mystery, as if we needed more.
We’ve entered a field of chaos. What do we need to know?
First, this is not a time for setting intentions or doing any ritual work aimed at a specific outcome.
The next Full Moon, in the sign of Taurus, is also an eclipse. The forces in play are large and unpredictable. These weeks are made for watching, not for acting.
This creates an amazing opportunity for oracles.
Our modern world assumes everything can be known with the proper tools. Scientific research has made incredible strides in understanding how our bodies work and how they interact with the world around us. Engineering, the fabrication of new materials, and computers, engines of analysis, have transformed our lives and our planet.
This has come with a kind of hubris, a belief that with enough time and skill, we can decode it all. There’s even a definition of magic that says magic is simply aspects of life we don’t fully understand yet.
Pluto thinks this human belief we can know everything is kind of cute. Scorpio know it is fundamentally false.
From the Plutonian/Scorpionic perspective, we’re not big enough to know everything. Our brains can neither hold nor process all of it. Our psyches, too, our limited by what we can tolerate.
Rather than diving into a Mars-style we-can-do-it defiance, we can instead realize we’re part, only part, of a much, much larger whole. And we are in contact, in active conversation, with that Whole.
Oracles, in their myriad forms, all have the power to bring us more deeply into that conversation. An oracle allows us to ask a question and receive an answer.
The presence of Venus signifies the importance of relationships at this New Moon eclipse.
Perhaps during this eclipse time, we discover unknown aspects of existing relationships, face fears we have around relationship, or deepen our bonds.
Another way we can flow with Venus in Scorpio is to connect with the deep knowing of the world and the wider cosmos. Ancient peoples looked to oracles in weather, in the flight of birds, in clouds, in water because they knew we are all part of the same pattern, speaking to each other.
This eclipse, and all eclipse in this Saros cycle, fall at the South Node of the Moon. There is an alignment here with the past that includes our family, our ancestry, and the wisdom and challenges of our blood lines.
It’s an especially powerful time, therefore, to look back to ways of knowing our ancestors used.
A South Node New Moon eclipse inevitably brings up questions of karma. Let me share some thoughts I have about the role of the South Node in this way.
If you read about the South Node as a place linked to the past, you will find sources that say this is where we find our own karma. This can then be described as things we did wrong in past lives that will come back to haunt us in this one.
In my view, this is a mistaken and limited view of what karma represents, confusing it with the Western idea of sin.
Karma means consequence. We make decisions. Those decisions have consequences.
Whether our decisions are made with ill intent or the purest of hearts, whether we had a wide field of action or were forced to chose the best option in a situation where nothing was good, there are consequences. It’s not about being a good person or a bad one.
In addition, the karma we carry is not solely personal. We carry family karma. Ancestral karma. Societal karma.
I feel a more workable and accurate way to view the South Node is to say that it represents karma we may have the opportunity to resolve in this lifetime. It can be a gift.
Sure, this Scorpio New Moon eclipse might bring up material from anywhere in our lineages, including our current lifetime, that we might need to, or wish to, face. This is also a gift.
The presence of Uranus, conjunct the North Node and opposite the South, signals we’re in a time where fate itself might change.
But it’s a time to watch, listen, process, and increase awareness. Not act.
So what’s the plan?
Enter into this eclipse time with open awareness. Pay attention. It’s a time for wide, soft focus, not laser-like precision. We don’t know how the world might choose to speak to us. It’s worth keeping all our senses open.
If you have oracles you’re already familiar with, use them. Tarot, other styles of cards, runes, other forms of scrying, will all be powerful. If you don’t work with oracles like that, simply be open. What shows up for you? What do you notice? Paying attention to, and recording, your dreams is a wonderful idea.
Avoid settling on specific interpretations. Even if you’re an expert Tarot reader, this eclipse time calls for keeping an open mind.
When an eclipse portal opens, there’s too much information. We might get part of a message now, and the rest at the Full Moon. Or more ideas might emerge over the next six months, since eclipses are in play that long.
Remember oracles often seem vague, puzzling, and mysterious. The cosmos is not being deliberately misleading, but showing us the complexity and nuance of our world. If we force a quick, definite answer, we risk missing a much larger and more powerful message.
Becoming open to the mystery that is life, we align with the Sun, Moon, and Venus in Scorpio, with Pluto and Mars and Mercury, with Uranus and the Nodes of the Moon, as they offer gifts we unpack slowly over the months ahead.
The title and images are original Midjourney renders.