a new adventure begins

the november 2003 forecast

contact me at terry@terrylamb.net if you would like to have my latest forecasts sent to you automatically via email as they are published, free of charge.

go to past forecasts.

saturn and uranus are retrograde.

venus squares uranus	°' scorpio/aquarius	november 1
venus enters sagittarius	0°04' sagittarius	november 2
sun squares neptune	10°26' scorpio/aquarius	november 2
sun trines saturn	13°08' scorpio/cancer	november 5
uranus returns to direct motion (stationary direct)	28°54' aquarius	november 8
full moon lunar eclipse	16°13' taurus/scorpio	november 8
mercury enters sagittarius	0°00' sagittarius	november 11
venus squares mars	12°' sagittarius/pisces	november 12
mars trines saturn	12°54' pisces/cancer	november 13
venus squares jupiter	15°12' sagittarius/virgo	november 14
venus conjoins pluto	18°51' sagittarius	november 17
mars opposes jupiter	15°55' pisces/virgo	november 20
sun squares uranus	28°58' scorpio/aquarius	november 21
sun enters sagittarius	0°00' sagittarius	november 22
new moon solar eclipse	1°14' sagittarius	november 23
mercury conjoins pluto	19°06' sagittarius	november 24
mars squares pluto	19°09' sagittarius	november 26
venus enters capricorn	0°00' capricorn	november 26

all dates are based on pacific time.

although there are the usual planetary events worth noting in november, the big ones occur on november 8^th and 23^rd, when we have our next eclipses. this means that we’ll turn the corner on some of the old situations in our life and eliminate them, finally. this is the time of year for elimination anyway. the wiccan ritual of banishment, celebrated in the samhain (hallowe’en) celebration each year, is testimony to the importance of getting rid of waste and the power it holds for us. when our lives are crowded with objects, activities, or emotional baggage from the past, we have no room for new objects, events, and relationships. now is the time to cast off what we don’t need or want and create an opening for new opportunities. every year, the darkening light of the fall season symbolically suggests this process, but every nine years we have an emphasized focus on clearing and catharsis when the eclipses pass through scorpio-taurus.

the scorpio lunar eclipse

this is the theme of an eclipse in scorpio. just as the fires last month burned away dead wood from california’s landscape (and, very regrettably, people’s homes and lives with it), we must burn away what we don’t need. as with all energies, we can choose to use this one in our own way for our own good to the best of our ability — or we can ignore or deny the need to purify and nature will take its course along the path of least resistance that we leave for it (just like the fires did). it feels good to banish: who wants to keep poverty, the overgrown hedge, the worn-out clothes, the stacks of old magazines, and those extra pounds of weight? let’s get rid of them all! saturn will assist us if we let it (it trines the lunar eclipse). hard work — that’s saturn’s motto. scorpio is the sign of purification in preparation for the moment of transcendence beyond the physical at 0° sagittarius.

the big picture

we had our first eclipses in these signs in may, when some of us encountered life-changing crises in concert with the overall planetary line-up of the month. (see my may forecast.) this month’s events are in some way a continuation of the events of that time. they also tie in, in some way, to the events of 1998–99, especially july-august 1999, when 16° of fixed signs (taurus, leo, scorpio, aquarius) was last significantly triggered (principally by mars, saturn and uranus ), putting a tight squeeze on our lives. this was when the u.s. embassies in tanzania and kenya were bombed simultaneously (august 7^th), the first terrorist attacks to leave the classic al-qa’eda fingerprints of the multiple-hit event. over the coming few weeks, three major earthquakes also occurred, in mexico city, taiwan, and izmit, turkey. we can check our own records and memories to see what was happening in our own personal lives for clues to what we may experience now. (send me your anecdotes of what happened in your life in 1999 and what impact you think it may have now, and i’ll publish them anonymously on my site.)

uranus cranks up the volume.

uranus adds intensity to the process when its return to direct motion occurs on the same day as the november 8^th eclipse. this is a release of energy related to events and processes of the past 9 months. we would have gained a new perspective on them or recognized them for the first time around february 17^th. we would then have experienced developments around june 6 and august 24^th. they would be inspirations and personal changes through which we desire to free ourselves from burdens and encumberments.

after eight years (since mid-1995), uranus is in the final weeks of its occupation of aquarius. it slipped into pisces from march 17 through august 16, giving us a glimpse of what’s ahead in its coming seven-year sojourn in this last sign of the zodiac. now back in aquarius, we may feel a sense of urgency related to finishing up the initiatives we’ve left undone from its time in aquarius. we have until january 1^st to finish our hurry-up offense, then we’ll begin with new visions and innovations in a piscean vein.

the lessons of uranus in aquarius

on both an individual and a group level, uranus has to do with disruptive influences that “stop our world” so that we can get on our true path. because uranus moves slowly, it defines a peer group in terms of all those who have the same uranus sign placement (e.g., all the children who were born with uranus in aquarius). this group tends to flow and grow according to a similar thrust. that is, they will feel a similar purpose, translated in their own individual ways, to manifest a particular form of higher energy in human affairs. for instance, those born in the 1940’s with uranus in gemini have the purpose of communicating the truth (i.e., divine intelligence) to others, while those born with uranus in cancer are here to provide true nurturance and care, as vehicles of the universal mother energy, to those around them. obviously, not everyone fulfills the highest potential of this energy, but everyone does the best they can, and there are some people who do fulfill the highest form of the energy to carry us forward and help us all learn. there are personal lessons associated with each placement as well.

there are two main thrusts that i see in our collective growth process with uranus in aquarius. the first is the universal recognition of the power of groups to influence everything from the environment to government and an understanding of how to work with that to create good. the second is the power of the urge for freedom, especially the freedom of self-determination. while glaring problems still remain in this area of human evolution, we are more acutely aware of them than before, and we can continue to solve them with this greater knowledge. the world also evolved in more palpable ways, the biggest perhaps being the growth of the internet, creating a whole new universe called cyberspace. (this is one of uranus’s classic capacities, to create/reveal new universes where none existed before.) what we choose to finish up in this time will carry the threads of these purposes in some way.

uranus on november 8^th

uranus being designed to shock and disrupt in order to jolt us into higher awareness, we can expect some startling events to take place on or around that day. add the eclipse, which also presents life-changing energies, and we have a critical day in a critical time. this also happens to be the time of the “harmonic concordance”, when a grand sextile (if you use chiron) forms in the heavens over a few days’ time. (a grand sextile occurs when six major planets are placed at roughly 60° intervals around the chart, so that a hexagon is formed.) while this is a wonderful time, it’s important to put it in context.

first, grand sextiles occur once every few years. the last one was in july 1995. if we use the angles, they happen even more frequently, because then we only need five points evenly spaced at 60° apart, not six (such a one was heralded a few years ago in january). second, grand sextiles are a double-edged sword. true, there are nice energies with all the trines (forming a star of david) and sextiles, but a chart with this many harmonious aspects does not compel us to action. there are, however, three oppositions which are forming at the time of any grand sextile, and it is just as true now. these are dynamic, powerful aspects, and they provide activation that can be used harmoniously through the trines and sextiles if we so desire, but we must be motivated to do so, and that’s the key. often, we are not sufficiently motivated to act under easy aspects. how many of us decide to take care of a problem when it is not bothering us? finally, while this is a great time to gather and chant, pray, or meditate, what time isn’t a good time to do that? do we need an excuse?

however, the real action is in the t-squares made by two of the oppositions, involving mars, jupiter, and venus-pluto; and mercury, uranus, and the transiting nodes (eclipse points). uranus, motionlessness at this time, signals the direction of powerful forces in our direction. so it is a time of great promise. the i ching counsels us that times of shock are times of great power, so times to take great care in how we use our energies. if we can act and speak with reverence during this time, we can potentiate the effects in a positive direction. i don’t think we’ll have to worry about being motivated to accomplish something. that will take care of itself with the strong energies of this chart, not the least of which is the eclipse. an eclipse, especially a lunar eclipse, is usually felt immediately as a directive, which we then have at least six months to further before a new directive is given. in this case, since the next lunar eclipse occurs at nearly the same degrees, we get about a year to make changes and fine-tune them.

how does this affect our lives?

we are likely to feel that we are turning the page to a new chapter in our lives, and we may choose to empower a new process if we so choose — to turn over a new leaf. we may feel shot from a cannon by a new realization or urge to act, and we will enhance our process if we temper this with the wisdom of the other, less impulsive parts of our nature. we will have a year to adjust our path and recover from wrong turns, so it’s better to plunge intrepidly in than to hesitate on the sidelines if we lack confidence in our inner voice. think of this as embarking on a new adventure. even if adventures involve risk and take us into unfamiliar territory, we know that we will feel fully alive and grow wiser and stronger for the experience.

the aftermath

just as it is symbolically represented in the zodiac, scorpio’s transformation and purification gives way to the transcendent experiences of sagittarius with the solar eclipse on november 23^rd. because it is unlikely that we will finish our scorpio work in the two intervening weeks between the eclipses, the solar eclipse sets the stage for ongoing enlightenment experiences. this means that every time we purge ourselves of a bit of “baggage”, we will feel a release and upliftment process — literally en-lighten-ing ourselves. if we choose to shed our baggage like so much weight, we become profoundly clear. it also invests power in the future, because nature abhors a vacuum, and what we clear away will soon be replaced by something else that we only need guide into place.

it’s important, then, to think about what we really want to empower — what is a great thing that we want to create? what’s missing from our lives? then, what can we remove to make room for it? answer these questions sincerely, and we have the power to change our lives, the world if we want to, in a potent positive direction.

other planetary events of note

there are other significant events this month as well that add to our process: first, watch for a foreshadowing of november 8^th’s eclipse events on november 1^st, when venus squares uranus. venus enters sagittarius on the 2^nd, out of its detriment, but now moving toward a square with mars (so don’t elect to start something during mars and venus hours, roughly 1-5 am and pm every day), which occurs on november 12^th. while others may say that this is “bad for relationships”, it’s only bad for things started during these hours, of any nature.

however, our social relationships are in for a dramatic shift, as venus continues its interactions by squaring jupiter and conjoining pluto, on the 14^th and 17^th, respectively. this means that we will deal with issues of honesty, independence, and confinement in our relationship life in some way or another. on the 24^th, mercury adds its power to our understanding of what’s happening in our lives at a deeper level. this is part of a larger pattern that was established in august and september, when mercury squared pluto three times during its retrograde transit. i call this the “gotcha” transit, because it was during this time that u.s. president bush’s prevarications hit the radar, while simultaneously they had to admit that they needed the u.n. and the broader international community that they so arrogantly scorned since coming into power. we can expect more events in this vein at this time. in our own lives, our cleansing and clearing process will potentiate the trigger points for higher awareness that already exist in our nature, points that can be more easily activated in the coming months.

finally, on the 26^th, mars makes its waxing square to pluto, tying in with events on or around january 25^th for us all. this certainly involves the state of the union address where bush knowingly misled the public about iraq and wmds. it also involves the certain movement that the u.s. was making toward war with iraq at that time. accordingly, we can expect further fall-out related to this, as well as to the ongoing war.

december promises further clarification of what’s been happening both in our own lives and in the larger world of public and international affairs. may your november be filled with peace, joy, and health during this exciting time.