Time to Return: Celebrating Fall Cross-Quarter
Dear Reader,
I'm writing to you from my kitchen, snuggled up in my chair with a cup of tea and a candle. I went for a morning walk by the river earlier today, and just like the day before, there lay an air of magic over the whole landscape. Leaves were swirling in the wind, glittering in the sun, and crunching under my feet, and it felt like I was being carried through a portal.
How are you experiencing this time of year?
What are you noticing in your world?
The heart of fall
The beginning of November features a major crossroads in the solar year. At Fall Cross-Quarter, the Sun reaches the middle degree of the sign of Scorpio in the tropical zodiac, marking the exact midpoint between Fall Equinox and Winter Solstice and the middle of the fall season in the Northern Hemisphere. This year, the exact Fall/Scorpio Cross-Quarter falls on November 7, 5:36 p.m. CET (convert to your local time).
At the height of fall, the days have grown short and are growing shorter still as our home star keeps lowering its arc across the sky. Fall Cross-Quarter is the 'Waning Crescent Moon' and 'dusk' of the year, when darkness is prevailing over light. We're moving deeper into the dark half of the year, with the light retreating and nature slowing down and turning inward.
Emptying out and letting go
We're being called to go within, rest, relax, unwind, and dream, and to feel our way through the dark. It's a time of dissolution, when we're looking back at the dying year, composting its lessons and distilling its wisdom. It's a time of letting go of dead weight to become lighter and more spacious. It's a time of closing out the old year and dreaming the new year into being.
Scorpio, the scorpion, is a fixed water sign and signifies a season of emotional depth. Belonging to Mars, the principle of severing and cutting, Scorpio promises a season of self-honesty and cutting back what no longer feels alive in us. Scorpio season is here to call us deeper, to awaken our sensitivity, and to help us find the strength to stand in our heart and feel our innermost feelings.
Are you ready to enter the heart of fall?
What is fall teaching you?
What is dissolving in your life?
What are you distilling?
What was this year about for you?
What are you putting to rest for the winter?
You can take the questions sprinkled throughout this post on your walk or into your journal, your dreamtime, or any other kind of creative or contemplative practice. I hope they tickle you and help you weave yourself deeper into the mysteries of fall.
What this time of year is good for:
Cooking with fall vegetables, roasting pumpkin seeds, putting our gardens to bed, going for walks, gathering leaves or acorns to decorate our homes, gathering trust, finding beauty in decay, dream work, divination, journaling and reflection, meditation, mystical poetry, herbal baths, rituals of release, connecting with ancestors, moving sadness and grief
Taking brave new directions
This year's Fall/Scorpio Cross-Quarter features the Sun applying to a conjunction with Mars in Scorpio, which will perfect on November 18. Mars, being the ruler of Scorpio, is the presiding deity of this Cross-Quarter, and having Mars with the Sun is empowering the Sun with Marsian qualities of strength, courage, and passion.
The Moon in Virgo is picking up the separating opposition between the Sun and Jupiter in early Taurus, signifying warmth and confidence and the need to expand how we express ourselves. The Moon is also leaning into the applying opposition between Sun-Mars and Uranus in late Taurus, activating a spirit of freedom and breakthrough and asking us to stay true to what feels most alive in us.
Horoscope for Fall Cross-Quarter on November 7, 2023 at 5:36 p.m. CET
The Sun-Mars-Jupiter-Uranus field asks:
What in your life has become stagnant or stuck?
What is being revealed or awakened?
What is worth fighting for?
Where are you being asked to take a necessary risk?
Until next time…
I very much look forward to writing to you again around the time of the Winter Solstice, which marks the beginning of winter in the Northern Hemisphere and heralds a time of new beginnings. It falls on December 22, 4:28 a.m. CET this year (convert to your local time).
In the meantime, I'm wishing you a beautiful rest of fall wherever you are. May you be blessed with deep trust and courage in your life.