ASTROLOGY FOR THE WHEEL OF THE YEAR: Samhain

While no longer the mathematical midpoint between the autumnal equinox and the winter solstice, Samhain is a time at which we celebrate the symbolic passage from the point at which daylight and nighttime were equal through the increasing darkness toward the longest night of the year. It is the witches’ new year, the ending of one cycle and the beginning of the next. It is a time when the veil between the worlds is said to be thin, when we honor our beloved dead and the inescapable truth that death is part of Life.
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This year as the Sun sets on October 31, the Moon in Virgo is in the Waning Quarter phase, surrendering its light and moving deeper into shadow. It is also separating from a trine with Uranus in Taurus. Sometimes the process of letting go of what is no longer necessary for our journey leaves us trembling, shaken and unsettled as we part ways with what is no longer ours to carry.
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The Sun in Scorpio is separating from a square with Saturn in Aquarius. What comes into view as you move beyond the places you never thought you would pass? Sometimes the only way through the barricades of rigid ideology is the swim deeper beneath the surface into the depths of where our established logics no longer hold.
Mercury in Libra is applying to a trine with Jupiter in Aquarius. How can you practice your most generous communication—both speaking and listening—with the living and the dead? What becomes more possible when you not only speak in a voice that is already more than your own but listen that way as well?
Venus in Sagittarius is conjunct the asteroid Juno, the Queen of Heaven and wife of Jupiter. You may find that as we move farther into this dark season, you long for the commitments capable of holding the wildfires of your passions. To whom are you devoted, and how do you sustain the blaze of love and desire within the partnerships to which you are committed?

May you release what is no longer yours, dive deep beneath any unyielding formations of your rational mind, practice listening and speaking in ways that are larger than any individual self, and devote yourself to love that can carry you through the long nights ahead. Blessed Samhain.
 
[Image 1 reads: Astrology of the Wheel of the Year Samhain 31 October 2021 in gold letters on a dark green background of flowers and stars. Image 2 shows the chart for sunset on 31 October 2021 in Columbus, OH.]