We’ll be taking a deep dive into emotional waters this month, as the New Moon in Scorpio and Mercury make a flowing trine aspect to Neptune. This is a fascinating, interwoven chart that speaks to the power of emotion. As we dive, we will be brought face-to-face with our deeply-held beliefs and how they can be in conflict with the beliefs we hold intellectually.

This is, of course, where we trip ourselves up repeatedly — when deep emotional imprints and the beliefs that resulted from them somehow manage to hijack our behavior. We eat that unhealthy food, hit the gas hard to run a red light, unleash our anger and resentment, or blurt out words we can’t take back. The kind of thing that leaves you shaking your head wondering how the hell you could have done that.

On the other hand, we might try to stuff down the fear/embarrassment/shame/grief/guilt/regret. To get it out of our consciousness by rationalizing our behavior and/or projecting blame onto others. We all do it sometimes. But that’s just the kind of thing that’s not going to work too well this month.

Before I finish interpreting the chart, let me take a paragraph to give the astrologers and astrology students an explanation of what I’m looking at.

The New Moon conjunction falls in the ninth house of a chart cast for Washington, DC (predictive for the nation) with Mercury in a separating but still close conjunction. Scorpio’s rulers, Pluto and Mars, are both in Capricorn, in the twelfth for the WDC chart, which has Capricorn rising. The Uranus-Pluto square is back in orb, and being activated by Mars and Jupiter. Neptune is closely conjunct the South Node, trine the New Moon and Mercury, still in orb of a square with Saturn, and is the most heavily-aspected planet. Jupiter is the only planet in Air. It is in mutual reception with and sextile Venus, and disposits Saturn, which, of course, in turn disposes the rulers of Scorpio. I am hopeful that this means Jupiter has enough strength to spell the triumph of reason and ethical behavior over the more violent signatures in this chart.

So sub- and un-conscious forces are strong as we go into November, and we’ll want to keep that in mind in our dealings with others, because when we are confronted with deeply-rooted beliefs, it can be difficult if not impossible to change them using reason.

Many of you are probably familiar with the studies that have been done showing that people tend to get even more attached to their beliefs when faced with information that contradicts those beliefs. Here’s a good article about it. It’s kind of discouraging that humans can act so irrationally, but there are some ways of getting through to people that can lead them to change erroneous beliefs.

One of those ways appears to be improving self-esteem. From the article linked above:

“One avenue may involve self-esteem. Nyhan worked on one study in which he showed that people who were given a self-affirmation exercise were more likely to consider new information than people who had not. In other words, if you feel good about yourself, you’ll listen — and if you feel insecure or threatened, you won’t. This would also explain why demagogues benefit from keeping people agitated. The more threatened people feel, the less likely they are to listen to dissenting opinions, and the more easily controlled they are.”

So you might want to work on your self-esteem this month, and help others build theirs. Self-esteem is not the same thing as self-inflation and ego. There is an entirely different emotional tone to self-esteem — which is based in a knowledge of our inherent worth — than there is to an ego-based need to consider oneself better than others. That tone involves the feeling of compassion, for both self and others. A recognition that we are all here to learn, and so we all make mistakes. If we can forgive ourselves, if we can work to foster an environment where people feel emotionally safe, we will all benefit.

One lesson we are offered from Neptune’s 14-year transit through Pisces allows us to recognize the spiritual foundation that underlies all reality — the fact that we are all connected with each other and with all of Creation. It doesn’t matter whether you believe in a single creator, many creators, or, as I do, consciousness as creator. Even if you believe in no creator at all, there is this undeniable fact, as expressed by Neil DeGrasse Tyson:

“We are all connected; To each other, biologically. To the earth, chemically. To the rest of the universe atomically.”

With Neptune trine the Scorpio New Moon and Mercury this month, we have an opportunity to dig deeply into our own minds and hearts and experience that connection first hand. This is a wonderful aspect for the mystic and the artist — and we all have at least a little of each within us.

Scorpio’s rulers in Capricorn remind us that we have a responsibility to create our reality. No, no, I’m not going all “The Secret” on you — victim-blaming, or telling you that you can have that red Mercedes in your driveway tomorrow morning if you just concentrate hard enough. But while people can be, and often are, victimized, we are not born victims. We are born creators, and this world we live in is shaped by our own choices and the choices of 7 or so billion other humans like us.

And our choices *do* make a difference — both to the larger world, and to our personal spiritual journey. Tapping into our power as creators means working on ourselves, training our minds, opening our hearts and constantly evaluating our choices and their results. If we are drowning in shame and feelings of worthlessness, we won’t be able to do this work. So being able to forgive our wrong choices, to investigate and root out the deeply-buried indignities, insults and misapprehensions we all accumulate in life that have twisted our perceptions, is an important step in our personal growth.

If you want a good place to start doing the work of healing shame and low self-esteem, I would suggest the books of Brené Brown. And it always helps to have access to the insights in your birth chart — that itinerary for the life your soul planned. But plans can go astray, or simply change. The chart does not determine your fate, but it does tell you how to keep aligned with your soul’s creative energy and its dream for this lifetime. If you want to know more, contact me for a consultation.

And for those of you who were wondering, no, I’m not going to predict the outcome of the election. I am going to suggest that you step into your power and responsibility, and help create that outcome by voting!