The Astrology Of October 2021: Symbiotic Tension

Waaaaaiiiiiit one second! It turns out if we are going to bring everything back to balance we need to go back in the timeline and renegotiate how everything relates to each other. We might have cables criss crossed in the operators booth, as She was sucked into a tunnel in an old dusky who dun it, and no one is hot on her trail, she remains a sullen ghost with fading appeal drifting off the photograph face and into a dusty film that can and will be wiped off. But why? No one remembers. Only when we look at the contact confusion does any of the wire mess even ask for an explanation, but our jaws drop, gaping at the predicament like an interstate traffic jam cued up to a mountain tunnel with a too large truck trying to get into a too small hole. Everyone is out of their cars and kicking stones by the roadside, chatting about where they thought they were going and in the available chatter making flimsy connections that get lost in the ever expanding now. The aimless then break off into groups for a picnic on the other side of the median, but there’s nothing over there, and no one has anything to eat, so the stragglers are wandering back for a quick bite of make believe, as memories eject into the ether.

Aniela Sobieski

Back to the Operator’s serpent’s nest. If only the red wire could splice with the yellow then we might be able to put a couple people in consistent enough connect to squeeze a coherent thought out of them, but confusingly, there are no connections leaning towards all the connections at once and the noise drowns out the silence and vice versa. Arresting coherence of a social void with messages left unread becoming a black hole that sinks the stomach faster than concrete shoes. As long as the situation is equal on both sides of the fence, then we can suffer equal debts, and burn our bridges at both ends, dowsing the flames with midnight oil, we bring forth our do diligence, keeping our sights on the moving targets with a laser sighted blow torch, as wooden painted cartoon shooting gallery targets bob up and down the age old tavern scene while the honkey tonk piano spits its own teeth out and the road house rolls out the red carpet like a lolling tongue, hot on the heels of having a heart attack at how many hijacks are taking place all at once, in the same place, which is everywhere and no where, from the figment of your imagination to the possible futures floating in space.

Jordan Kasey

Standing up from a communication breakdown is a clear set of I dunno’s which permeate the narrative flow, begs the question: Do you think that every memory you have of a specific thing consolidates and collects gravity over time as something you know about and gathers into a sphere as an event in the timeline plane? Orbiting our wandering minds as we move along the chronology. A planet of spoons, a planet of camping, a planet of footraces, a planet of stripped screws, a planet of surprise guests, a planet of neighborhood cats, a planet of spilled wine, a planet of caught red handed.. They are like moving pictures upon mirror balls, flash images that emerge from the mist within then rise to the convex surface as the rounds roll into their lifters and vault against the harassment of paddles through pinball coursers, the bells and whistles haywire and the player throws their hands up and retreats, unsure of how they won once and lose now or occasionally vis versa.

Jenny Joyce

It’s ultimately the data rolling from the ticket tocker on the social issues with a certain algorithmic glow which blush and enchant those that gaze through the window at the many wonders mutating under glass. Can we get a read on the cultural temperature, can we take the pulse of the people? We might have to go back and rearrange our idea of medicine before we can effectively balance the books on the mess of information and come to a consensus that it makes no sense. Society and culture are not the same thing. We’ll never make healthy relationships out of law. Engage your memories. There was something before all this. Talk to yourself about how it used to be, ask yourself what was it like before, and sit fireside for a long talk, letting our memory tell you your origin story and how you got here to today, and then once you have a better idea of what was on the other side of the tunnel in your own past, call a friend and swap stories until nothing else exists.

Rishab Tibon

Mars opposite Chiron

Mercury square Pluto

Venus sextile Pluto

Mercury trine Jupiter

New Moon in Libra

-conjunct Mars

Pluto stations direct

Venus ingress Sag

Mars Cazimi

Mercury Cazimi

Venus conjunct SN

Saturn stations direct

Venus sextile Saturn

Sun trine Jupiter

Sun square Pluto

Jupiter stations direct

Mercury stations direct

Mars trine Jupiter

Full Moon Aries

Mars square Pluto

Sun ingress Scorpio

Venus square Neptune

Venus sextile Jupiter

Sun square Saturn

Mars ingress Scorpio

Mercury trine Jupiter

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Nancy Spero

Bones Of Contention: Libra Troubles

We might consider at the top of the month, with Mars bearing into Chiron from detriment in Libra, uncomfortable with standing out and upsetting the balance, while staring into the open wound carved out of the individual. We used to adore our hot heads and maniacs more, now we chastise them for what we once praised them for, insisting their opposite is more desirable, but a quick glance over the lore of the world will reveal we need various kinds of personalities present to pull the drama into action. The contrarian and uncompromising ones serve their purpose and we have to poke the sore spot with a hot iron in an awkward conversation to break the boil and let the blood flow out for a very sanguine series of show and tell. This, despite how sharp the language might get, is a medicinal process which ignites from a primary conflict and sets the scales swinging, whether we avoid it or not. We can get a clearer look at what is central to the issue within the relational realm as the Sun rolls up on the same degree a couple days later. Neither of these planets feel very comfortable being themselves these days, under stretches of sky home to crisis catalyzing crows and whispers behind the back and people coming around with mouths full of gossip, get ready to get offended and offend in turn, no matter how much you commission the cat to hold your tongue.

Jean Luc Cornec

Pretty much at the crack of October 1st Mercury, creeping backwards through the crowd and crawling on his hands and knees across the dance floor as if he lost a contact and everyone is asking if they can help him find it while also trying to stay out of his way, can by the shiny surface of the well polished shoes see the distorted faces of those who look down on him, and always have an understanding of what he thinks everyone is thinking of him. Libra is about relationality, diplomacy, fairness, equality, but as a social sign, also the dynamics of the creative cultural fabric— something that is extremely lacking in 2021, Saturn really doesn’t give a fuck how alienated we are, so all the great ideas the system is coming out with right now are absolutely indifferent to cultural collapse. Aquarius has no concern for if our communities fall apart, not Saturn’s problem. We should keep this in mind this retrograde, while Mercury goes back in the timeline to figure out what went wrong in the cultural interworkings and the balances of our relational affairs and considers what’s fair in the minutia and how we lost track of how we define justice and is considering the weighing of the heart against a crow feather or else our souls get tossed down the gullet of a crocodile. The discomfort Mars and the Sun feel in Libra and the turning back down the road to pick up lost keys that Mercury is involved in have to do with our torn cultural fabric, or fractured communities, our loss of creative medium, our hosting of social space. We’ve been hijacked and we are being controlled and programmed, flat out. We’re in a massive science experiment, for the betterment of the system and how it is imagining security for the collective. As the North Node is making its way slowly beyond polarized Gemini, we roll towards coming to grips with the ground and what it means to have to dig back into reality. As the balloon deflates we’ll feel both relieved as well as arrested by the reality, literally. There’s a lot of Venusian work ahead with placements about to pull us way more into Taurus this fall into 2022, and Mercury’s reverse investigation in Libra now begins our serious re-evaluation of wtf happened to us and how confused we’ve become over the past two years. The long, dark square with Pluto opens up the ominous realization that we’ve been lied to and very heavily manipulated. Pause the doomscrolling and think about how 2020-2021 fits into a larger historical context. What led us here, what precedents were set ten, twenty years past already, how will the future look at what has happened? Pluto played a pivotal role in the initiation of the pandemic back through 2020, with historical conjunctions of Saturn that reverberate historical occasions chained to human slavery and hard currency. The third decan of Capricorn is a place of heavy handed chess moves by power players, Pluto is an abductor and manipulator and Saturn in his home sign is the system. Despite all the division which erupted as the North Node tore through Gemini and the South Node flushed hope down the toilet since May 5 2020, there is much more afoot than public health, as bio-political security certainly has knew pathways plans for you you will never escape. Mercury is sleuthing through Libra with this in mind, trying to find the lost thread to where his friendships and relationships and how they weave into living, blood circulating, healthy system of exchange, having most recently had the arteries cut and cauterized by the emergence of the collectivist network. Glance again at Chiron in Aries, it’s not so easy to be an individual anymore, in fact you are wounded each time you stand up and defend yourself. Why? There is obviously a balance that needs to be met between autonomy and relationality, but for that to flow with healthy sanguine delivery of holistic humors, the Saturnian heavy Aquarian answer to Capricornian collapse must be made be balanced by thriving culture and organic community, not authoritarian post-capitalism. Culture first, community first, human health depends on it, or else we are more than sick, we are doomed.

Tamara de Lempicka

Tough stuff. What else could we expect Mercury to be thinking about nearly paused on the pivot square to Pluto in Capricorn. There’s big, terrifying shit jarring our minds. This particular square is very significant to the sequence of configurations dancing around Pluto in a dark ballet December through March, as Venus turn’s retrograde on Hades warped star, only to join Mercury and Mars back around the underworld’s despot again throughout the winter. Here it gets personal. The Great Chronochrators shuffle around the hell hole the last two years reshaped society towards the totalitarian and ushered in more manipulation than we could have thought possible. The inner planets now take their turn at the yawning abyss bringing the drama home to heart and hearth. Hmmm… Jupiter will be in Pisces meaning we’ll be free to mingle for it, and the North Node will be in Taurus meaning we’ll be trying to wrench pleasure from real experience once again. What will happen? Mercury’s retrograde right now is busy authoring the foreshadowing text while Venus and Mars are in each other’s signs. The elastic snap back of 2020-2021 tension is likely going to give more than a few folks whiplash and splatter many of us against walls as our desires re-engage to drive us forward through unknowns. We might go on some serious war path’s to return to a place where life is enjoyable enough to go on living. Contemplate this now. Mercury is thinking it over with seriousness. Wait a second… how does this all relate?

Hannah Huizenga

Luckily as Mercury is trine to Jupiter he can probably understand how the checks and balances fit into the emerging format, and find some navigational agility. Mid month the Sun gets to harmonize with what positive perspectives Jupiter offers within the new structures as well, and aligns our objectives with our opportunities for growth. Great for us personally as well as the expansion of technocracy, so watch for the hijack, a phrase you should tattoo on your inner eyelids because there will be one every time from now on. The Sun jams himself against the same alarming square Mercury starts the month with on the 17th, but moving much more quickly, it’s more of a momentary clear reminder how deep of shit post-capitalism and ‘going direct’ and solutionism has got us all in as a human family trying to relate to our environments and everything in it. Adjust your motives accordingly. Mars’ turn is next, trining Jupiter on the 18th then squaring Pluto on the 22nd. How the fuck are we going to get out of this mess and get to be with each other freely and celebrate our love for each other with creativity and class ever again? What the fuck do we have to do? Mercury trines Jupiter on the 31st moving direct having brought some forgotten clues to work through exactly these questions. Spoiler alert, by this point Mars has recently ingressed Scorpio. Covert fucking animal warfare because we can’t take it any more has us ready to murder. The only way out is through. No more Mr. Nice guy. This is the kind of ok I had a lovely dinner I’ll excuse myself for the evening now, although it’s unfortunate those things you said and next thing you know someone is waking up with a severed horse head in their bed kind of thing— on the dramatic end, and these are the tactics I must follow because I’m an animal and I’m being threatened on the very real and instinctual level. Our guts are not going to deal with the intellectual prisons Saturn is laying out quite as politely as our minds. Ironic that the “anti-intellectualism” which characterizes America was propaganda explicitly designed to rouse the disenfranchised working class to fight the axis powers in Europe so soon after returning home from WWI. The simple worker with a heart of gold who would do anything for his family cum G.I. Joe emerged as an archetype pit against the Classical music loving, art collecting, highly literate, progressive, environmentalist Nazi. As multiple configurations which were present during WWII are coming back around again we are seeing a reboot to this tension. Let e remind you that this was even back then propaganda designed to manipulate people into waring with each other. Our ideas of the macho laborer being an anti-intellectual threat to the collective are rooted into geopolitical intelligence subterfuge from the time of Fascism. As vax mandates, pipeline pushes, Amazon towns, union battles and nurses replaced by the National Guard spiral into labor revolts right on time for the Taurus eclipses to kick off, remember, watch for the hijack. Recall before covid remember the buzz around colonizing Mars so we can have outposts close enough to mine the astroid belt for the rare minerals we need for smart phones and electric cars? That was too sci fi to process pre pandemic. How’s it sound now? By Uranus in Gemini, Neptune in Aries and Pluto in Aquarius in 2025 I guess we’ll all find out.

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Mark Maggiori

By Fire Light: Mars Laced Lunations

October’s Lunations light up the sky with unintended fireballs being both keyed to an uncomfortable Mars in Libra holding his tongue then lashing out only after offended and trying to balance the scales with an eye for an eye. The New Moon in Libra arrives on the 6th conjunct the planet of conflict, surgery and severance in the sign of balance and harmony. For things to actually be equal there’s some critical issues with the crux of Justice. It might be more injurious than we think. Here we incept the quiet and contemplative seeds of an emotional cycle that blooms on fire in Aries by October 20th, while Mars is between his trine with Jupiter and square with Pluto. We are going to fry our circuits figuring out that we must be an individual to be able to properly relate with others. We have desires and impulses of our own, as well as skills and modes of action. It’s just true on a natural and biological level. We are not all homogeneous collective automatons of the neoliberal network. In nature we have differences that allow for our participation in valuable relationship with one another and everything. This simple fact is a burning issue in 2021, not really convenient for the authoritarian narrative and the call-out culture which it has weaponized for its purposes. With Venus moving into ultimate trajectory driven, idealistic Sagittarius just after the New Moon and Mars leaping the fence into primal hunger driven Scorpio by the end of October we can guess that growing our Yang back is inevitable, and we’ll be aware of the Yin which it seeks to join with and our passions flood in to render this yearning un-ignorable. A Mars laced double feature projected upon the Moonscape of October means there will be blood, as burning emotions and cutting exchanges is likely unavoidable, so get situated in your most diplomatic poise to lessen the impact and rouse some confidence around your impulses and ready yourself to wield some autonomy for the sake of everyone involved.

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Wassily Kandinsky

Pin Point The Balance: Double Cazimi

This month offers two conjunctions with the Sun, the Mars Cazimi on October 8th, and Mercury’s retrograde conjunction with the Sun on the 9th. Cazimis, meaning “in the heart of the Sun”, are brief events amidst longer periods of combustion. For weeks our critical action, in the case of Mars, and our analytical communication, in the case of Mercury, is being outshined by the Sun’s light and is seemingly non existent. Although, for these short windows of tight conjunction Mars first and then Mercury are perfectly aligned with the Sun’s focus, meaning what we are trying to do and what we are trying to say finds very true expression as it syncs up with our motivations and objectives. It’s like a moment of truth or realization in a longer more difficult process of purification, reset, skin shedding and rebirth. As we burn away how we used to act and used to think we come across new tactics with Mars and remember old logical components with Mercury. This is certainly a pile up, but as Cazimi’s happen quickly, its probably more a sequential chain reaction. The Sun is uncomfortable in Libra, it can only express itself through the push and pull of others, so this is a period of focusing on sorting out relationships. Mars introduces new relationship activity which severs certain outdated relationship ties which in turn triggers remembrance of things we lost, dialogues we dropped, information that had been buried and so on. This is uncomfortable territory, as reflected in the recent oppositions to Chiron in Aries. How do we act as ourselves without hurting people around us? We’ll find out here as getting to the heart of the matter brings insights to what justice and fairness really mean in practice rather than ideals we could have previously imposed on ourselves and tip toed around for too long.

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William Blake

Moth To Flame: Venus in Sagittarius

On the 7th, the Moon just beginning to wax once more, Venus ingresses Sagittarius and takes up an evangelical approach to desire, focused on specific high minded pursuits of mythological proportion. In Sagittarius she is on an utterly romantic quest, in pursuit of adventure, motivated by exotic aesthetics, and prefers her relationships to be in motion, the exaggerated flings of chance meetings with the perfect other while traveling the world and the subsequent cinematic sequence which ensues to find realization of that holy grail in love. This adds the fire to the fuel necessary to cause boundary crosses described by the discomfort, realizations and harmony re-adjustments happening all this month in Libra. To further that theme, Centaur Venus requires both truth as well as space in relationships so if she isn’t getting that in correct measure then well, cue the stuff described in Libra: uncomfortable relationship negotiations. With Jupiter in Saturn controlled Aquarius ruling Sagittarius we are seeing now the feedback of the macro into the micro, or the world story feeding back into the personal story that characterizes early late 2021 and early 2022. The trope of romance divided by the machinations of war machines and political disruption and re-organization is embedded all across the foreign film section of the movie rental selection pool. The Netflix of the future will have many of these titles available set in this current pandemic, and whichever other ones are coming down the pipeline.

William Blake

I might also keep your eyes peeled on fashion the next few months, as we first get a mess of instigatory activity in socialite and soiree attending Libra with Venus in energy infectious i.e.e trendsetting Sagittarius, while she is getting ready to retrograde in late December, which means redefine our tastes, as well as the North Node in Taurus, pulling craftspeople and artisans forward into the mix. If you are interested in the value of aesthetics and wonder what’s next for material culture, keep your read on the pulse this fall and winter, especially as it looks like it’ll probably pop and spray all over come spring.

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Balthus

About Face: Turning Direct

Finally, the other notable theme afoot in October’s skies is the preponderance of planets stationing direct. Pluto just after the New Moon on the 6th, Saturn stationing next on the 10th just before Venus sextiles him in a sense of collaboration, Jupiter stations direct on the 17th as the Sun squares Pluto, as if alarmed by deep concern, and Mercury stations direct close to opposing Chiron the following day, communicating in balance with a wounded sense of individuation. There are cultural, relational, social, justice, diplomacy, and equality issues with strings attached to everything all October, but the trend of so many planets turning direct is many of the stories held back all of 2021, in the gear lock of Saturn square Uranus, are all going to start progressing here and beginning to take new ground. Stationing means there is pause, a wide spread coming to the present, so we can be with what is actually what, and then move forward into a plot that has developmental potential. 2021 has been a real wheel spinner with grinding gears and draining batteries that makes the obligation to upgrades and innovations in society and our personal life constructs blaringly obvious. Yeah, I know, I know, I’m trying my best, what more can I do, has predominated the summer after the brief respite of spring. Late July the lubrication brought about by Jupiter in Pisces ran out, and we were left to burn our transmissions and exist within the stalling smoke of unfinished business, unready to remove our training wheels. Now that we turn to fall with a collection of sore parts and bruised relationships, the only way forward under unclearing skies that portend more technochratic totalitarianism is to pop our selves out of our depression in low gear and trudge ourselves toward our desires. The popping and trudging comes in November, but the realization of what’s next, the dawning on us of what we have to do to proceed with ourselves happens over October’s tricky negotiations with lovers, friends, neighbors, family, ancestors, animals, field, forest, earth ocean and even AI, who now takes a seat at the table. Where do you place yourself amidst all these factors? What do you desire? What attracts your attention? Why? What do you value about life? What’s missing? Why? Who can assist you in filling these gaps? And how might you assist them? How do we create culture and community rather than suppress and divide it? Beings in mosaic of being, human and otherwise.