Thirteen Entries for Your Autumnal Almanac
September 30: Venus Enters Libra – The planet of love meets the sign of relationships, with predictably amorous results. Love ’em if you’ve got ’em, folks. Also: Plant above-ground crops.
October 1: Mercury enters Scorpio – Mercury in Scorpio will hypnotize you with its wordssssss….or punish you with its invective! Also: Plant tomatoes, peas, and beans.
October 6: Harvest Moon 13.43 Aries – Reap what you’ve sown – but wear heavy gloves: there be sharp and broken things hidden in the fields… Also: A barren planting period.
October 13: Venus trine Neptune – “But love is blind and lovers cannot see / The pretty follies that themselves commit; / For if they could, Cupid himself would blush.” See, Shakespeare knew his aspects. Also: Plant root crops.
October 21: New Moon 28.40 Libra – a spectacular grouping of Sun, Moon, Venus, and Mars in Libra, all sextile Saturn: a sweet convergence of love, money, stability, and self-discipline. Also: Plant beans, peas, squash, sweet corn, and tomatoes.
October 22: Sun conjunct Mars – You can drive your Mars, or he can drive you. So plot your course, gas up your car, and get yourself behind that wheel. Also: Sow grains, hay and forage crops. Whatever the heck those are.
October 23: Sun enters Scorpio, Mars enters Scorpio – The beginning of an intensely passionate couple of days featuring impossibly brooding and swarthy Heathcliffian types and the smouldering, pouty vixens who love them. Keep your smelling salts handy. Also: Plant leafy vegetables.
October 24: Venus enters Scorpio, Venus conjunct Mars – Goodness. Is it getting warm in here? Also: Start seedbeds. (So that’s what the kids are calling it these days!)
October 25: Jupiter square Saturn– Santa Claus meets the Grim Reaper. Hilarity ensues. Also: Clear and plow, but don’t plant. (If you know what I mean.) (And I think you do.)
October 28: Mercury turns retrograde (12:16 pm PST at 25 Scorpio) – God help us all. Also: Plant tomatoes, peas, beans, and anything else that you don’t mind having to replant again later, when Mercury is direct.
… and turns direct November 17. And after a decent interval – say, a couple of weeks – you can repair your printer, your car, your washing machine, your lawn mower, your secret agent decoder ring, and everything else that mysteriously malfunctioned during the retrograde period. Also: Plant root crops and perennials.
October 29: Neptune turns direct. Daylight Savings Time ends. Remember when love was blind, way back on the 13th? Consider this lasik eye surgery day. Also: Kill poison ivy and clear land, but don’t plant.
November 5: Full Hunter’s Moon 12.58 Taurus. Hunting, gathering, shopping – same difference. Be canny about what you “hunt” this full moon – follow both instinct and common sense. Also: Rake leaves and make compost.
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