The New Moon this month occurs in the sign of Scorpio (0°) on Thursday October 23^rd, at 2:57 pm (PDT) and is accompanied by a potent partial Solar Eclipse at 2:46 pm.  Depending on your weather, this eclipse will be visible in most of North America.  Scorpio is the archetype of the Mysteries of sex, death, regeneration and rebirth, and is associated with the planet Pluto.  Scorpio is a Fixed Water sign;“Fixed” meaning it is a sign that resonates with the heart of the season.

Death and rebirth can be a messy, cathartic, moving experience.  Allow yourself to ride high on the currents of your emotion during this New Moon.  Let the currents take you and rock you and leave you a blithering mess, fetal on the floor if it feels right.  Scorpio, amongst other things, is about death and grieving.  Whether that be the death of a part of ourselves, a relationship that you know its time to release, or remembering and missing a loved one that is no longer on this plane.  Resist the temptation to make it all neat and dignified, and by the book.  Let’s face it, Scorpio is the shadow realm, don’t be afraid of the dark.  Scorpio is a witchy, freaky, down and dirty archetype that invites us to shed our skin, dig into the dirt with our hands, and release whatever is keeping us from growing.  We then come up on the other side, revivified, regenerated and yes, reborn.  Don’t fight the shadow; move into it.  Open yourself to Ereshkigal and surrender, because it’s futile to fight when it’s time for something to die.  It is simply another part of the cycle.  No new life can come unless you allow yourself to dissolve into the comforting womb of the Dark Mother.

One of the most amazing rituals I ever attended was a Samhain Keening ritual.  For those who are new to this word, Marion Webster’s definition of keening is:  “A lamentation for the dead uttered in a loud wailing voice or sometimes in a wordless cry.”  Lit only by candles, we all sat cross-legged on the floor, and were invited to keen the loss of something or someone dear to us.  In some shadowy corner of the very large circle, one lone voice tentatively began gently moaning in a soft low whimper.  Then another voice joined in; followed by another, and another; until the entire space was filled with the expression of grief for what was lost to each person in the room.  The individual voices united and became a glorious chorus that reached a unified crescendo, and then softly died down as if on cue.  It was cathartic.  It was intense, bone chilling, and beautiful as we all sat there and witnessed the deep connective humanity that we all share.  The ritual concluded with a “Rebirthing canal”, everyone got into two lines, facing each other, and making a bridge with their arms with the person in front of them, which each one of us passed through, held in trust and in the powerful magic of being supported and seen at our most vulnerable, our most raw, and our most human.  As each individual passed through the canal, the High Priestess and Priest stood at the receiving end, welcoming them back home.  Powerful, potent stuff.

Every New Moon is Unique

This New Moon is a rare and potent day delivering not only the New Moon, but a solar eclipse.  And, both the Sun and Venus will enter the dark and mysterious realms of Scorpio on the same day.  Just two days later Mercury stations Direct, and Venus, newly minted in Scorpio will enter the heart of the Sun, known to the Babylonian Astrologers, as cazimi.  She is being tempered and reborn in the flames of the Sun’s forge, undergoing her transition from the Morning Star to the Evening Star after she emerges anew.  When a planet is cazimi, its archetypal energies are purified and exalted.  In Sumerian myth, the goddess Inanna is connected to the planet Venus, where her sojourn to the underworld and back is reflected by the transits of Venus in the sky, where it sets in the west as the evening star, and rises again in the east as the morning star, completely disappearing and then suddenly reappearing in the sky.  When the planet is invisible it is said that Inanna is in the underworld.  Inanna’s main myth is the Descent of the Goddess, and describes her perilous journey to the Underworld and back.  The tale is deftly woven with Scorpio imagery, and elucidates the meaning of the energies that are unfolding.  Below, the painting by William Blake is a wonderful illustration of our New Moon in Scorpio/Eclipse; complete with crescent moon, heart symbolism, and the feminine reaching up and out of the darkness in a posture of and courage and triumph.  It is aptly titled: The Great Red Dragon and the Woman Clothed with the Sun (1805-1810).

Scorpio is always about the hidden areas of life: sex, death, and rebirth, but this New Moon is like a double underlining in red on the rebirth theme.  Wherever you have 0 degrees of Scorpio in your chart is the area in your life that will be regenerated, and where you can expect to see a shift. This transformation will probably have you on your knees in some way, literally or figuratively, facing something that both harrows and renews.  Rebirth, regeneration and the healing of wherever you carry your deepest wounding always follow this harrowing.  We all carry a deep or hidden wound in our psyche somewhere.  This is our chance to really see it, clean it, and begin the process of authentic healing.

Guiding Goddess Archetypes

Hecate, Cerridwen, Inanna/Ishtar, Ereshkigal, and Persephone. 

Playlist for New Moon in Scorpio/Solar Eclipse Ritual

This is also a great playlist for Samhain!  Get these on Youtube, or better yet support the artists and get them on i-tunes for your library.

• Raising the energy: Song of the Stars - Dead Can Dance
• During the Ritual:   Samaya - Vas
• Surfacing and Closing:  Returning Chant – Jennifer Berezan

Release and Let Go Ritual for New Moon in Scorpio

• Small black candle
• Heatproof dish
• Pen and paper
• Sage for smudging

   What You Do

• Prepare your space.  Doing this sends the message to your subconscious mind and to the Universe that something special is about to happen.  Tidy your ritual area, smudge with sage, raise the energy.
• Ground and center using any method you are comfortable with.  A few deep breaths to quiet your mind are helpful.
• Write out what you want to release on the paper.  Pour all of your grief, anger, resentment – whatever you feel – through the words into the paper.
• State aloud, “I now release completely and forever any and all negative manifestations of  … I thank the Goddess for the lessons it/he/she has taught me, and I now let it go”.
• Feel the unwanted energy gently lifting from your body and psyche, and light the black candle
• With the candle’s flame, light the paper on fire, and place the paper in the heatproof dish and watch as the fire consumes and transforms what no longer serves your highest good
• Take your bowl of ashes and go for a walk and bury them somewhere off your property.  Alternatively, you can take them to a river or to the ocean (preferable when the tide is going out).  Ask the Goddess to take what you have released and transform it through her infinite regenerative powers into something new and appropriate for your life now.