November 2021 Horoscopes

Writing horoscopes is a delicate task: they exist between the calendrical, objective transits, which can read like obtuse factoids (‘Mars is transiting your 6th house — watch out for trouble with coworkers, and strain on your body!’), and the subjective interpretation of the planetary significations of the astrologer at hand, attempting to get at some greater truth of the experience. My last batch of horoscopes took a poetic-prose approach to the transits, to allow for the reader’s own associations to take hold rather than to define themselves within astrological jargon, which may or may not be of interest.

In my own attempts to stay focused while writing for my master’s program, I’ve had a marathon of B-movie 80s horror playing in the background to keep me company: just predictable enough to ignore, and heightened enough that a 2 minute break can fill my need for distraction. In deference to the wisdom of these slashers and psychothrillers, I’m going full ham-fisted metaphor to describe the scary movie that is November. People love to associate ‘Scorpio season’ with “spooky season,” which — like, sure — isn’t wrong, and at least this time we have Mars in Scorpio, the sign’s planetary ruler, to back it up. Mars in Scorpio plays defense — and this is not to say it is a weaker position than the offensive position of Aries — but rather, the motivations are different behind the strike, though the effect is the same. Gore is unleashed by the hands of prom queens and kids who, when threatened by shadowy killers, become strategic and ruthless in their self-defense. Our villains, too, have something to defend (or avenge, in the absence of their ability to defend it in the first place): Mrs. Voorhees’ rampage against counselors just because her son drowned on the watch of some 20 years prior (spoiler); Zulawski’s ‘possessed’ Anna killing all who threaten to disturb her secret creature; Argento’s violent ires of the Three Mothers once their existence is investigated in Inferno. A friend of mine asked me, ‘it’s Scorpio season — isn’t this when we all get chaotic?’ The answer is no. The question then becomes, instead, how do you react in defense of yourself, or something you hold close?

This month, the transits are jump-scares and upsets of order, starting with the new moon on the 4th. We have a few signature transits for this month: Mars, recently having ingressed into its domicile of Scorpio, activates the tension of the yearlong Saturn-Uranus square by squaring Saturn on the 11th and opposing Uranus on the 17th. This combination of malefic showdowns is a long test of frustration, and not unlike when the killer comes to the idyllic town and upsets the order of the secretly villainous systems that allows for its perfect veneer — for example, Get Out uses a variation of this premise, and Wes Craven’s Deadly Blessing finds the killer upsetting the strict Christian community. The frustration arises from the feeling of ‘will anyone believe me?’ and having to wait for the situation to grow more dire before anyone does. The opposition to Uranus on the 17th and the partial eclipse full moon on the 19th are shocking twists and turns, which will be returned to like overproduced sequels next year with our following nodal shift to the Taurus/Scorpio axis. 

Venus enters Capricorn on the 5th, where it will eventually station retrograde in December, and is within a 4 degree orb of a sextile with Mars all month — though it never perfects. Here, there is a degree of being protective over the structures in your life that you value: the peaceful day, regular life undisturbed by masked forces. Come December, this experience will be rife with its own upsets and revealed secrets; instead of placing your self-worth in things that seem secure, let yourself enjoy this transit’s benefits without expecting permanence from it.

Aries

November is a play of tension between your agreements, handshakes with others and your public standing, and has this been defined by the rules of another group for quite some time? You are seeking to free yourself from these impositions, even if it looks like an upheaval in the ways you are providing for yourself. There is a seductive pull in relying on the structures other have built and the gifts you might receive if you linger a little longer. And when they are pulled away, or less glamorous than they seem, does surprise simmer into anger? And does the heat of anger feel good to you, or suffocating, like a room with no vent? Over the next year you’ll continue to redefine your priorities and values, defending the life that you see for yourself over the life that others had in mind. 

Taurus

Instinct is a crackling livewire in your mind - a useful tool, “follow your gut,” “trust your genius” - and this month, you are challenged by another to draw it out: do you act on your inner impulse, when you or someone you love is threatened? Intimacy with another is not about the walls surrounding you to keep it safe, but instead about the ability to let the doors open, to adjust to the cold, the heat, and moving through change together without venom. Trust your gut, but extend that trust out to the ones you care for the most — this will expand not only your world, but allow for any changes you feel, changes about yourself, the room to breathe as well. This allowance for chance and change for yourself and others will continue over the next year.  

Gemini

This is a matter of shifting through speeds and transversing through depths and air — like the slow dip of a lure into water and its speedy retrieval, only to be tossed back again. Freeing yourself from the depths of tracing the curvature of another, your body and work demands the attention you’ve been tossing towards others. This will lead to a total recapitulation of how you spend time alone, to find comfort in depths that once may have been to frightening to tread; this will give greater creedence to your ability to interact with others in all of your shades, not just from behind a mirror. All the while, you are thrown out and drawn in again by the beliefs of others, the worries of others, wheedling their way into your everyday — and do they have a place there, or will you defend the sanctity of your own perspective? 

Cancer

Your month is not unlike realizing the beautiful group you’ve hitched your wagon to are revealing different layers, hidden fangs, sumptuous beliefs which throw into question your own ability to create something of your own volition, to realize your own creative vision by tapping into your own lust for life. The degree of generosity in which you find yourself enmeshed, and its concomitant standards — does it feel as you think that it would? And if not, is there a way to alter and grow your relationships, friendships, networks without staking them through the heart? And what seems like it might be a slow path towards a garden of love — would it be enough to sink into every moment like a sweet appreciation, instead of accumulating them as proof of your own worthiness? It’s that kind of passion, that kind of slow smile that makes your friends, your siblings, your street corner seem more beautiful — to let love become immutable in the midst of chaos. 

Leo

Have you seen the movie Society? It’s a body horror movie about nepotism, the grotesque expectations of family and status. Like our protagonist, there may be shocks in what becomes expected of you — tensions against standards you must meet in your work, your family, your partnerships — maybe it’s best to just cut your own phone line for a bit, sit back, and let yourself have a sweet faraway dream. What might surprise you about all of this is that in the end, it’ll be you that has the authority. You are committed to the dreams of your partnerships, a beautiful everyday, so much that does it feel like everyday you are laying foundation — and if this is the case, let slowness be the key, and let any upset that rocks your world let it show how sturdily you’ve been crafting. 

Virgo

There is a burst of energy in your world, one that grinds against the routines you have for yourself; it is a business, a calling of all of your commitments and sideways obligations needing your attention — but does it make you feel more creative in your attempts to answer every call, to still make plans of relentless pleasure? It will feel more like a marathon, shouldering stress and assignment — some of which you’ll begin to question, a total change of opinion regarding your higher goals and far-reaching interests — and this is okay, for with each break you give yourself, you will find a new resolve. Perhaps even if you don’t allow yourself the time you need, there will be a surprise opportunity, a chance meeting from someone unexpected that reminds of you of the solidity of sweetness. By the end of the month, you’ll find yourself warm in your home, finally able to curl away, at least for a bit.  

Libra

There is a change in your relationship between your own values, your own finances, and the bedrock of others’ -- but it is you that is cutting ties, taking yourself out for dates, making your own resources work for you in the face of others failing to do so. You are finding a new energy to defend your own values, your own needs, and what it might look like to step into unknown territory, taking only what you can carry with you. Do you begin to look more keenly at yourself, more proud in your abilities, and do you look more familiar to yourself? This question of what you need and who you find yourself to be is not resolved, and is instead full of its own minefields and surprises —  but it is with challenge and question that you become more known to yourself.

Scorpio

Have you always conceived of your individuality as rooted in idiosyncrasy — that to be yourself, you must embody difference and follow your personalized alterations like a rule book? Your ideas of who it is to be yourself are changing, and you should allow yourself some slack in just existing as you are. It is you that actually has the power over this — to defend your right to the banalities of existence, than to grind yourself against the expectations of ‘who you are’ that you set yourself. Part of this comes from a revolution in how you approach loved ones, people you are interested in, and there will be a surprise here, meeting someone just around the corner, that helps you to understand the distinction between difference as a rule, and difference as an acceptance of its ever-changing form. 

Sagittarius

This is a a beautiful time to be persistent and intentional in your time alone, to let yourself awake in a few short weeks from a long, vampiric slumber (it sounds better this way, doesn’t it? Like your skin will be satiated with rest, your nails long and ready to draw out from the world all of its curiosities.) It might feel like a challenge, just because you’d had promised you’d be at that party, you make a commitment to being connected, and it seems like it would be so fun — but it grows grating at times. It is okay to be grumpy, it is okay to withdraw to allow that to shake out. It is to this place of solitude, of taking yourself seriously — as in, your self’s needs seriously, that you will return to over the next year. Do or do not practice the apologies you’ll think you’ll need for doing exactly what it is that you please. 

Capricorn

Meeting a new group of people and finding your place within them can be like a trick mirror: you allow yourself the luxury of seeing yourself differently, but you must allow yourself to recognize your own changes or paths that have brought you here. There is a total reworking of your creative, flirtatious world in this sense, too, and opportunities will strike you from your own desires, though they hold their own secrets and hidden clauses. For someone who is so solid in themselves, do you tire of surprise, or are you allowing it to render itself as familiar? It is as if the frenetic energy of all of those around you is leading you toward an inward weaving of contemplation, an interplay between creating a solid landing space for change in your life, saving up money for the sea-changes you’ve come to expect, and actually allowing shocks to behave as they should: unpredictably. 

Aquarius

Your home is your sanctuary, a place of protection and the battery you need to face the world, and you are making changes to it, outfitting it for optimal comfort against the barrage of the outside world. In this in between, it is important to find places, people, and byways that can help you find that same token of safety if your own locks need updating. In your work commitments and front facing persona, the effects of someone else throwing a wrench into plans affects you directly, and you can find support in your networks. But this is not the time to second guess yourself, although it may seem tempting, and perhaps you know, even in silence, the truth of your reliability. 

Pisces

Your idealism has tasked itself with the challenge of creating realism in your ideas going forward, of solidifying roads before you can let the dog off the leash and let it run fast ahead. Within this, there is a change in between belief and opinion with your local community and your higher ideals — you have the information to change what others believe, but this ground is in itself changing. Is it time for you to move, or are you seeing that values are not deeply shared past the cosmetic surface? There is opportunity, too, to play at the idea of expanding your network, of at least planting those seeds so come new year, they might actually take. Belief and opinion make up more of your inner self that can be easily seen, and it is in moments of solitude that you are able to write your verses and put them to your own tests.