Here we are already at Halloween, All Saints’ Day and All Souls’ Day. We still have time to create altars to honor the dead. Altars filled with marigolds, chrysanthemums, pumpkins, sugar skeletons, copal (incense), pomegranates, persimmons, pineapple guavas, candy, corn and cookies in colors orange and black (so Saturn!).
For esotericists and astrologers, Saturn’s Dweller on the Threshold (one side) and Angel of the Presence (the other side) are interesting Halloween characters. The Dweller (his job description is the same as St. Peter at the Gates of Heaven) looks quite like a gargoyle protecting sacred sites.
The Dweller stands at the door (threshold) of the sacred mysteries (Scorpio), the Wisdom Temple and the inner sanctums of churches built by Masons—who, trained in sacred architecture, built spires (prayers, stupas) reaching to the heavens. The stern Dweller turns into the compassionate Angel of the Presence when we have passed all nine Mars/Scorpio tests.
The Nine Tests of the Personality are given in Scorpio to build strength, discernment, character and wisdom, the disciple’s virtues. The last day of October and the first days of November are also times for forgiveness, reconciliation and rapprochement.
Forgiveness liberates us. While in the Bardos (transition between Earth and Heaven), after we give Charon the boatman a copper penny to cross the River Styx, reviewing our life and recognizing when we lacked Right Relations (non-virtues)—and the consequences of these actions—frees us from karma (past action).
When we forgive now, we are later less encumbered with grief and sadness concerning our missed opportunities to love. These are the real and inner spiritual significances of Halloween, All Saints’ Day and All Souls’ Day. (Note: Voting is Nov. 6. One of our important freedoms is voting. It’s the task of a free people. Please vote.)
ARIES: Your task for the next several years is to always act with Right Relations and harmony with all of the kingdoms. All interactions will be vivified when you do so. You will transform self and then the world. Often you battle your way through changes, other times you are the change. Your perception of enemies changes. They present challenges that, through conflict, direct you toward harmony and the Pathway of Peace.
TAURUS: There’s more work ahead, more responsibilities and a definite focus on health. Tend daily to health, right foods, adequate sleep, pure water, vitamins, homeopaths and daily exercise. Pray for the removal of all obstacles. Soon you will move into a period of creativity. Hindrances in the environment, in relationships—anything incomplete from the past—is coming forth for healing. There is much to do. You can do it all.
GEMINI: Concerns and the focus are on your daily life as well as your health. You are to seek a new sense of self through what you can imagine. Saturn will enter your house of sharing realities, intimacy and resources. Saturn asks what you are longing for. What are you seeing in relationships? What do you want, not want, hope for, love, and, in return, what gifts do you offer? Love empowers you. Love is a daily choice. It’s pure reason. It’s not an emotion.
CANCER: Cancer is about family and nurturing what we love. Venus retro is asking you what do you most value about family and why? You seek closeness with loved ones, teaching them new ways of understanding the world. For Cancer professionals, be careful in the world. Seek to bring harmony to all interactions. Research your genealogy in order to establish a deeper sense of family history. Include research on the town, city, state and nation presently living in. We are needed wherever we are.
LEO: It’s good to reach out to siblings and family, to walk about daily in your neighborhood seeking new friends, interacting with those living nearby, creating relationships that are social, communicative, sharing and encouraging of others. Leo is to radiate the light of the Sun. You are magnetic, attractive, illuminating the hearts of others. Leo is the heart of the Sun radiating the Sun’s golden light in the world. Soon the light shifts, changes into a new tone and ray.
VIRGO: A time of deeper discrimination and understanding the value of self begins. Notice all possessions, resources and gifts given through the years. You will realize some possessions have become burdensome. Begin eliminating what is no longer useful. Seek harmony through the artful placements of objects in the home, office and gardens. For the next months, take special care with your money. You may undervalue or overvalue self, others, objects. Call forth discernment, Right Seeing and Right Action.
LIBRA: You may become stricter in your thinking, defining for yourself who you are and who you’ve become. You may feel strict at home, attempting to order and organize the home environment. You might feel you’ve become much too serious. This is Saturn, the Gatekeeper, providing new disciplines for you to ponder. A long passage of time has come to an end. Old beliefs and separations disappear. You learn the truth about love and forgiveness. You love more.
SCORPIO: A new self-identity has been approaching, forming itself in ways that allow you to think of yourself as good, as an initiator, as one who loves (silently, perhaps), as one who deeply communicates (internally), researches, strategizes, and as one who will go far in their field and be successful. It’s good to be very clear with communication, allowing the found object of your new self to come forth. There’s a fire inside transforming you. Remain poised with all these changes.
SAGITTARIUS: You are not socially isolated. You’re being given a season of retreat and contemplation when purpose and things religious and spiritual appear. Observe and write down by hand all ways you are different from last year, two, five, 10 years ago. Withdraw consciously each day into an inner contemplation. This gives you time for observing, evaluating and understanding the changes. You are now to serve yourself with compassion and kindness.
CAPRICORN: You’ll both detach from groups and seek them out. The detachment concerns previous groups that defined your previous self. In the coming year you’re magnetized to groups with a higher level of consciousness and sense of purpose. You seek new communities. A leader of a group you could definitely be. However, you seek to be a more integrated group player helping to synthesize group vision. Right cooperation will be what you teach.
AQUARIUS: Soon new endeavors and responsibilities will appear. It’s recognized you’re the best in terms of leadership, achievement, vision, creativity and productivity—all new Aquarian gifts. Ponder deeply on what is asked of you. Can you function to your fullest capacity, full expression, bringing your uniqueness into the world? All of this implies opportunity, action, imagination, ingenuity, some opposition (others want to be like you) and personal creative rewards. Carry on.
PISCES: You’re beginning to understand life’s rules, something Pisces has difficulty understanding. You’re learning how to be more skillful with others and there’s still much more to learn. Follow all rules, respect all laws. This is most important for the next year. Take long journeys, learn new things, fulfill obligations (or don’t make them) and enter into a philosophy that helps and serves others. Stay in touch with loved ones.