This wasn't the letter I meant to write🐺🌑♏
I sense us circling each other through distance and time, no longer searching but hunting through the dark, solitary woods. Knowing we are not as solitary as they want us to believe.
“Numb the dark and you numb the light.” -Brené Brown
Hello.
This wasn’t the Scorpio season letter I was planning to write, furiously typing on my Notes app while Noah naps in the backseat. We were going to go on a walk by the river after I picked him up from daycare, he— wearing a Harry Potter onesie and cape, me in black, velvet overalls.
But here we are– him asleep, me tapping into a primal rage in the parking lot, fueled by hormones, patriarchy, and a deep, inner knowing of my power.
A fixed water sign, this Scorpio season (October 22nd- November 21st) reminds us what can happen when water is kept from running its natural course for too long. Dams break. Emotions rise. Shadows lengthen, evidence that for everything seen, there is the unseen.
I’ve been reading the novel Nightbitch, after seeing the movie trailer starring Amy Adams (out December 6th). While the brilliant comedy and satire have me laughing out loud with resonance, it’s instigating something else, too. A scent on the air. A feeling of other women at the limit of their fed-up-ness, refusing to swallow it down, soften their voice, or soothe what shouldn’t be soothed, what’s meant to bleed red. What’s meant to smell of iron and earth and life force.
I can sense us circling each other through distance and time, no longer searching but hunting through the dark, solitary woods. Knowing we are not as solitary as they want us to believe. We are not as injured, helpless, or dependent on the scraps we’ve been fed.
We know how to hunt.
We know how to run.
We know how to find each other.
We are the women who run with the wolves.
Our intuition goes beyond linear time, reaching through the veil to receive messages, guidance, and connection to a righteous rage that’s our birthright—powerful enough to break through structures and systems built to hold us captive.
Our bodies create. And so they know how to destroy. Mother Earth shows us they are two sides of the same coin.
Scorpio is the opposing sign of Taurus, the cycle of death and transformation that must occur for life to keep living. This Scorpio season, Mars is in Cancer until November 3rd (when it moves into Leo until January 6th), reminding us that rage can be protective. A mama bear’s instinct to defend her cubs is deathly. Our instinct to save our planet and save our souls is just as dangerous.
To the right people.
To the right situations and systems that only want us as disarmed damsels in distress.
Women are not only meant to carry the hearth light and leven the bread and kiss the boo boos. The mother is the crone is the witch is the woman who refuses to let any identity shrink her spirit. Her fierce. Her strength.
Her power to say no. Not anymore. Not again. I will not spend a second longer in complacency.
I will not spend a second longer in chains worn willingly.
Pluto will be spending its final passage in Capricorn until November 19th when it moves into Aquarius until January 2044, so we may be getting the last taste of what it feels like to embody outworn structures that no longer serve our material needs, career goals, and power dynamics within relationships. This is the final squeeze down the birth canal into a new way of being. We are ready and must trust the cycle of transformation always leads to rebirth.
Our affirmation this month is “I am reborn.”
Download your free copy of the Creative Contemplation journal and lunar calendar with all the monthly affirmations below!
Keep reading to learn how this season’s archetype, tarot cards, and creative inspiration can help you harmonize with Scorpio energy.
Archetype
The Avenger invites us to swiftly reclaim and avenge the parts of us that we’ve negotiated or bargained away for the sake of “keeping the peace.” For there can be no peace where there is no justice. Scorpio’s calm depths belie a roaring current demanding change. Movement. A widening of the river banks.
We must begin with ourselves to sustain sweeping, societal liberation from the systems that oppress. Where have you been “going along to get along?” What’s making you angry and what emotion might be just beneath that anger? Where can you reclaim your time, resources, energy, and power? Can you channel your frustration toward a cause or shift in dynamics that will benefit others, too?
In the shadow aspect, examine where your anger might be misdirected. Are you keenly focused on the root cause of your rage or lashing out at anyone near and dear just to let off some steam? Without doing the inner work to understand why we’re infuriated, we risk becoming bitter, resentful, and even less effective managers of our vital life force.
The second archetype that represents Scorpio season is The Destroyer. This cautions us to release the toxic bullshit we’ve been holding onto before it turns against us. Is there someone you need to forgive? Trust me, they have no idea how much anger you’re still harboring. It’s only hurting you.
This is also a reminder to notice if you’re becoming the “no” person when others share their ideas, hopes, aspirations, or dreams. Are you denying your own visions and longings and unknowingly sabotaging others, as well?
This monthly guide takes hours of preparation, meditation, and writing. It is 100% human-generated (no AI here!) and made with love. Please share this newsletter or become a paying subscriber. 💖
Creative Inspiration
Read 📚
Nightbitch is so many things– comical, enraging, enlightening, fantastical and yet grounded in a reality many of us would prefer to ignore. Read it with your mom friends and non-mom friends. And then go see the movie in December!
Now’s also the perfect time to read anything by
you can get your hands on! I never knew how much I liked fantasy until I read The Ten Thousand Doors of January and couldn’t put it down. Alix writes magnetically, pulling you into worlds running parallel to our own with strong, determined female characters, magic, mystery, and powerful instinct. I highly recommend The Once and Future Witches and Starling House as well.
Listen 🎧
To this amazing playlist by
! I couldn’t stop listening to “Dark Side” by Bishop Briggs.You can also check out last year’s collaborative New Moon in Scorpio playlist here.
Have you heard episode two of the Heartbeats podcast yet?
Join my conversation with musician, writer, and entrepreneur Dio Oduwole as we dive into the creative process, how to shift self-sabotaging mindsets around art and making money, and the importance of silence and service. Watch or listen here to learn how to conspire with the universe to achieve your dreams and be of service.
Move 🕺
One of the healthiest ways to release or express anger is to let it move through our bodies. Make it physical. Literally go for a run, throw darts at a dart board, take a kickboxing or boxing class, try a hot yoga session, or simply dance it out in your living room to one of the playlists above.
When animals experience trauma, they engage in a “shaking” reflex that allows their nervous system to return to baseline. Emotions are fleeting when we let our bodies release them.
Make 🖌️
If moving doesn’t suit you–make something with your hands. Pound (knead) a loaf of homemade bread, throw some paint on a plastic tarp (and then dance in it?), yodel at the moon and record it, make animal noises with your little ones, or rip up some old clothes and make something new out of them.
Tarot Reading
The Tower is still coming through strongly as a persistent energy. Are we working with it or resisting it? Can we trust the liberation that comes with dismantling habits, beliefs, or situations we’ve outgrown? The Tower suggests we are clinging too tightly to old identities and so there’s a build-up of force, or electricity looking for an outlet. We can choose to cooperate and become the outlet or we can ignore the signs and risk an unexpected blowup. Either way, transformation is here to serve our evolution.
The King of Swords
Clarity comes with destruction. Lightening can be blindingly bright. Once the air clears, and the dust settles, notice what’s still standing. Who’s still around you? What values are still intact? What core elements remain? The Tower can lead to a crystal clear shift in perspective if we allow ourselves to know what we know.
Breakthrough
I love the light coming from the solar plexus on this card. Traditionally The Justice card, this rendition is all about self-empowerment, shedding old skins, and taking up space. It’s recognizing the power we seek is always within, no matter how often we’re told otherwise. What breakthrough do you need to allow? What’s already breaking down to make room for something new and how can you set a clear intention to support the transformation?
Notes from Nature
This month’s theme for our nature journaling is “Noticing decay and decomposition.” I’m still putting a pause on live/recorded nature journaling workshops (for reasons I’ll explain soon!) but wanted to share a few prompts for you to continue your own exploration.
What’s breaking down in nature? Is it a pumpkin on your front porch? A scattering of leaves on the sidewalk? Dried flowers on the table?
What do you notice when you peel back the layers and get to the bones of the landscape around you?
What is still true when the colors start to fade or the outer layers fall away? Within and without?
New Moon Blessing
May you allow your rage to point your feet in new directions. May it warm your heart with purpose and passion. May what you destroy become fertilizer for new life. May you trust the clearing away, the peeling back, the bones of your body and your life to hold you through the uncertainty of what’s to come. May you use your intuition to sniff out others who are howling at the moon and join them in calling for a revolution.
All my love,
Mariah
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Resonating with much you express, lots to mull & reflect on , thank you 🙏
“Are you denying your own visions and longings and unknowingly sabotaging others, as well?” This!!!