Hey y’all.
Welcome to your Cycles of Time weekly forecast for the week of October 28 to November 3rd.
I’ve gotten an influx of new subscribers lately, so I wanted to say thank you for following, and welcome here! Thanks for coming along on this journey through the cycles of time, the wheel of the year, with me. I’m so happy to have you here, especially as we deepen into the darker, more introspective months of juicy and intimate content.
I got a message from a new follower that said “it seems you are a broad esoteric reader- an Occult Borg- assimilating all information into your own akashic records…” haha! Thanks Caleb, I really appreciate that framing! Occult Borg, at your service. I guess bringing in a variety of stories and myths to synthesize and learn from is one way of staying ahead of the AI bot curve!
Speaking of which, this week is jam-packed across the wheel of the year: we’re celebrating Halloween, aka Samhain, aka the witches new year, on Thursday. Cultures from around the world have celebrations of ancestors this time of year- Dia de los Muertos and All Saints/All Soul’s Days are celebrated on November 1 and 2. The intensity-filled Scorpio New Moon is also on Friday, helping us set intentions for the type of rebirth and transformation we’d like to manifest in our worlds.
On Sunday, an opposition that has been building between Pluto and Mars becomes exact in the last degrees of Capricorn and Cancer. The two so-called malefic planets will stays locked in an oppositional face-off for a full 6 months, due to a long Mars retrograde that’s about to begin, so this transit begins the beginning of a very long birth canal as we bring the Pluto in Aquarius era into the world, which some are relating to the fabled Age of Aquarius… we shall see. All we know is, like in birth, the only way out is through.
As I’ve mentioned before, Mars and Pluto are the two ruling planets of Scorpio. As we deepen into the season of the Scorpion and the witch, their positions in the sky across from each-other are certainly reinforcing themes of death, rebirth, tension, war, and secrets being revealed. Pluto at 29 degrees Capricorn is the grand finale of a long story of unveiling the underworld of structures in government, corporations, and celebrity. Mars at 29 degrees Cancer, the sign of his fall, is the final chapter of the story of the planet of fiery action being trapped underwater, kept under house arrest. As Mars transits into Leo and back again into Cancer over the coming months, we feel premonitions of a coming out party, like a hot-headed lion leaping out of his den after a long slumber.
This season of Scorpio is all about transformation, transmutation, and the death of the ego selves that we’re clinging onto out of comfort. It is time to be reborn, as individuals and as a society, and I think we can all feel it. (I don’t know anyone who’s having an easy or fun time of it right now… ) Its a time when many of us are truly starting to take the blinders off and begin to weave in all of the new information that has been revealed from the underworld (and will continue to be revealed over the coming weeks.). You’re brave, you’re smart, you’re strong, you’re kind… and you can do this.
In the Human Design and I’Ching wheel of the year, the sun is transiting through Gates 28 (the Game Player) and 44 (Alertness), Gates and Hexagrams that continue our theme of descent, merging with the other, and accepting the totality of existence, both dark and light.
So without further ado, here’s your forecast- it’s a truly powerful week ahead! I’ll keep sharing more content on my Instagram at astro.somatics and cyclesoftimepodcast, so be sure to follow me there too. Blessed Samhain, or however you choose to celebrate this deep time!
This week’s highlights (lot’s going on!):
Thursday, Oct, 31 eve - Friday. Nov 1: Samhain (prounounced Sow-wen), the cross-quarter holy day between the fall equinox (Mabon) and the Winter Solstice (Yule) in the Pagan Wheel of the Year
The Pagan origins of Halloween!
Fri, Nov 1: Scorpio New Moon
Fri/Sat, November 1-2: Dia de los Muertos,
Fri/Sat, November 1-2: Christian Celebrations of All Saint’s Day (Nov 1), and All Souls Day (Nov 2.)
Sun, Nov 3: Pluto in Capricorn opposite Mars in Cancer
Human Design/I’Ching:
Mon-Wed: Gate 28, the Gate of The Game Player
Thurs- Sun: Gate 44, the Gate of Alertness
This week’s themes:
Our masks and costumes allow us to connect with the wisdom that our ‘selves’ are influenced and made up of our ancestors, our roots, and other beings…
Stay alert to tricksters and mistakes from your past and and you’ll be treated with a beautiful future
The power of synarchy - joint sovereignty- that places you as a member of a larger team, instead of in a silo of your own making
Our Place in the Wheel of the Year
Medicine Wheel Direction:WEST (Water, Adulthood)
Wuxing Cycle Element: Metal
Pagan Season: Samhain
Zodiac Season: Scorpio (October 22-November 21)
Moon Phase: New moon in SCORPIO
I Ching Hexagram/Human Design: Gate 28 (Mon-Wed), Gate 44 (Wed-Sun)
28: Lake over Wind (“Test of Fate”) or the Gate of the GAME PLAYER
44: Heaven over Wind (Gou-“Coming Together” “Coupling” “Birthing”) or the Gate of ALERTNESS
We Start the Week Continuing to Play the Game in Gate 28
Last week’s Gate 50 encouraged us to put our ingredients, our disparate values and sense of self-containment into the cauldron so that it could all melt together. Then, over the weekend and into this week, Gate 28 invites us to embrace the alchemical transmutation, the newly merged reality, the bubbling brew- to decide not to recoil from fear of this unknown stew, and instead take a sip. We are in the time of drinking from life’s cup, playing the game, even when we’re not sure who will win and what the new rules may be.
Throughout Libra and Scorpio season, we have been deep in the world of the Splenic gates of the Bodygraph, gates that expose our fears. Last week’s gate 50 and 28, and this week’s upcoming gate 44 (The Gate of Alertness), are all deep fear-based gates. These past few weeks have presented us with energies and under-worldly journeys we must face and allow ourselves to be transformed by before we can reach next week’s Gate 1: The Gate of Creation, an energy that lives in our heart center and connects to our throats.
Surrounding the fall equinox, the portal between worlds is open, and the veil becomes thin. We are shifting from personal-focused months of life, growth and self-awareness to transpersonal-focused months of death, decay, and the awareness of our roots, our mortality, and our interconnection with the past and future in the form of ancestral cellular memories. Things get a lot more… complex at this time of year, realizing that our so-called “selves” are not so independent and contained, after all, but are instead amalgamations of subconscious, subterranean, and ancestral memories and inner knowings.
Whooo! I heard an owl hoot from the tree next to my hot tub the other night, a spooky sound amidst the wind blowing through the pine needles, and I’m realizing now that it’s appropriately spooky because it’s asking the question that we don’t know the answer to. Who? Who are you? Who, really?
When the veil is thin, we are tasked to answer the question “Who are you, really?”
Celebrations of Halloween, Samhain, and Dia De Muertos this week ask the same question, and allow us to convene with the multitudinous, complex versions of ourselves through costume, masquerade, ritual, offerings to the dead, and other means of peering through that veil that separates our distinct ‘self’ from the web of existence that makes us who we are.
I watched a movie the other night called “The Hitman”, a Richard Linklater film about a guy named Gary Johnson who went undercover (with different costumes and personalities), pretending to be a hitman for the New Orleans Police Department, sting operations where he would help arrest people who would rent a murderer-for-hire. The main character, based off a real person, was also a college professor of philosophy and psychology, and throughout the film the question “do you know who you are? what is the self? was asked frequently.
Gary Johnson acted as a fake hitman for 30 years, and within the movie, it showed his merging of his own ‘distinct’ personality with the characters he played, becoming more like the character he wanted to be like the more he played him. In the end, a moral of the story was “Be who you want to be- and be it with passion”
In the end of the film, Johnson tells his college class:
“I used to believe that reality was objective, immutable, and we’re just sort of stuck in a Plato-Descartes-Kant sort of way. But over the years, I’ve come to believe that the truth is created through the integration of different points of view, and there are no absolutes, whether moral or epistemological.
Now, I find this to be a much more empowering way to go through life, this notion that if the universe is not fixed, then neither are you. And you really can become a different, and hopefully better, person.
Now, the one thing I know for certain, is your reality will change over time, in ways you cannot even imagine. And I urge you to be open for this transformation. If I have one piece of advice for you moving forward in this complicated world, it is this: seize the identity you want for yourself. And whoever you wanna be after this class, be them- with passion and abandon.
“It’s not too late to seize the identity that you want for yourself and chase what makes you happiest,” actor Powell says of the movie’s message. “If you feel like you’re stuck in life, if you feel like you’re stuck in an identity that’s not making you happy, just make the choice to change.”
This quote struck me as I watched it in the lead-up to Halloween, as I’m making a mushroom-witch costume and hearing of other people’s ideas for transforming their identities over the upcoming week (my favorite yet is a group costume of orca whales and yacht boys…)
Earlier in the film, Gary Johnson is portrayed as someone without much passion, a nerdy, loner guy who studied life more often than he lived it. He got into the work with NOPD because he was interested in electrical engineering and was hired to make and monitor wire taps, but when he’s thrown into the interpersonal side of the work, he has the chance to discover his own humanity- and change himself in doing so.
I go into this because it resonates with the Gate of the Game Player- if we stay in our silos, our isolation, our pre-existing sense of self, and don’t allow others in to shape and change us, we are not really playing the game at all, we’re just watching it. The Gate of the Game Player shows us the power in allowing mergers and dissolving our sense of boundaries, but the 64 gates of I’Ching never let you sit with energy for too long.
As the next gate, the Gate of Alertness, will show us: more complex than just letting in the totality of everything subsume our sense of identity for too long. The Gate of Alertness will show us that we have the power to choose who we want to be, rising out of the cauldron anew. We will always contain parts of our old self, and parts of our ancestors and our pasts, but we can also choose to learn from their mistakes and create a new reality for our futures.
The Gate of Alertness, the gate that the sun is transiting through during Halloween and Samhain and the new moon on Friday, encourages us to stay alert as we come to meet others in our journeys, whether that’s a new friend in this world or a ghost, goblin, or fairy from the other side of the veil. When the veil is thin, and when we are vulnerably dropping our leaves and composting into the soil, we can - and must- still trust our embodied instinct about what is friend- and what is monster.
Samhain, Halloween, All Souls, and Day of the Dead
The cross-quarter day of Samhain comes from a Celtic word meaning “End of Summer”. In the Celtic wheel of the year, there were only two seasons- summer and winter- and Samhain was the 3rd of 3 harvest festivals, representing the end of the light time of the year and the beginning of the dark time. The first two harvest festivals we have talked about already in the podcast- Lammas in late summer during Leo Season, Mabon on the fall equinox, and now Samhain. It was said in ancient Ireland that any food left on the fields after Samhain was a tribute for the fairies, and anyone who harvested after this holy day would be cursed by the dark fairies, who ruled the winter season and were known to be tricksters. Some myths say that the fairies are moving their homes during this time of year, and are therefore most likely to be encountered.
Samhain is a fire festival, just like its opposite holiday that happens in May, known as Beltane or Mayday. On that day, livestock were released from their paddocks out to pasture, and a giant community bonfire was lit to welcome the coming sun and the rising summer months. Likewise, at Samhain, a community bonfire was lit (often by the friction caused by a giant wheel rolling down a hill, which represented the sun). People would take this fire back to their individual homes to light their hearth for the cold winter months ahead. The bonfires of Samhain were meant to guide souls to the afterlife. On this day, Celts were also known to wear costumes to confuse spirits, and carve turnips to ward off spirits as well, traditions that were brought to America by Irish immigrants and evolved into the Halloween celebrated today.
Similar to other holidays celebrated at this time of year, like Dia de los Muertos, the Celts believed the veil between the world of the living and the otherworld of the dead was thin at this time of year, allowing spirits to visit the living. Halloween’s horror and fright may be a bit more embellished than its Pagan origins, but there was definitely a similar vibe- while it was a time to pay reverence to ancestors, it was also known as a time of cautionary tales- the spirits and monsters of the Otherworld were not always the friendliest, and you had to keep your wits about you. In Irish folk tale, Fairies resided in the Otherworld, along with goblins and other monsters, and they were said to come through at this time of year.
An article on Irish-American Witchcraft by Morgan Daimler states: “Because of this increased activity there are also many folk traditions around avoiding likely active spots or protecting against chance encounters. For example it was generally advised not to walk on the west side of a building or near water after dark, nor to travel alone at night as these were seen as putting a person at higher risk of negative encounters. People were also advised to carry iron, such as a nail, in their pocket when they were traveling as this served as ward against fairies and their interference. If you feel you are being misled or falling under fairy enchantment that needs to be broken, turning an article of clothes inside out is the usual remedy.
It’s also traditional to leave out offerings as a means to appease anything that may be wandering by. Milk or cream are traditional for this as is bread; there is no particular ceremony for offering it and I would suggest that a more casual approach is a good idea. Just be sure to give the best you can, as the fairies hate an offering made with stinginess.
Samhain is an important holiday and an important time for many people, pagan and non-pagan. The traditions around this time of year run deep into the past and are finding new life today. Often the focus we find in these revived traditions rests on connecting to the human dead, but it’s important to remember that the Otherworld being more active in our world is about more than just that. This is also a time when the beings of the Otherworld are more present in the human world not as the twee fairies of modern popculture but as the powerful and tricky beings of older folklore and myth. This isn’t a bad thing, anymore than the colder weather of winter or the bare harvested fields are bad things, but it does require a certain canniness to navigate.”
Samhain was celebrated by Celts, as well as other Pagan groups in the British Isles, and when Christianity arrived there, the holy day was converted to All Saints Day and All Souls Day. All Saints day is celebrated on November 1st, a day of honoring saints and martyrs who don't have their own feast day. In some churches, people write the names of loved ones in a "book of remembrance" to be prayed for. All Souls' Day is celebrated on November 2, and is a day of prayer and remembrance for those who have passed away, including friends, relatives, and strangers. People may pray, visit cemeteries, and give alms to commemorate the departed. Dia De los Muertos celebrates these two holidays as part of the Mexican festival.
Korea's largest national holiday, Chuseok, is celebrated around harvest time in September or October (depending on the Lunar Calendar), and is s also a time for Koreans to honor their ancestors. Around the same time, the 15 day Cambodian festival of Pchum Ben, acknowledges the line between the living and dead is at its thinnest, and spirits come back in search of living relatives, hoping to atone for sins from their past life. In China, Nepal, and Japan, the harvest festivals where ancestors are celebrated and revered happen a little earlier, in July/August
The tradition of remembering the dead around this time of year, the halfway point between the fall equinox and winter solstice, has many different cultural understandings, but can likely all be traced back to our human relationship with the natural world- this is a time when, in the Northern Hemisphere, the plants are dying and death is beginning to surround us, reminding us deeply of our own mortality- and the pasts that may haunt us.
Samhain and Halloween in Gate 44: Coming to meet the roots of our fears- and forgiving them
A fascinating similarity appears during this time in the Human Design wheel of the year, based on the ancient Fuxi cycle of the I’Ching. After transiting through Gate 28, the Gate of the Game Player, the sun travels into the Gate of Alertness (Gate 44) just in time for Halloween, Samhain, Day of the Dead, and All Saints/All Souls Day.
In the I’Ching, Gate 44 is known as Heaven over Wind, or “Coming to Meet”. The hexagram depicts the meeting of two forces, and emphasizes mutual respect and understanding, cautioning against dominance and promoting balance.
With all of these holidays this week focusing on this being a time of year when it is most possible to come to meet our ancestors, the I’Ching title of this gate feels quite fitting! The human design title “Alertness”, also feels appropriate, as it is a time to keep our wits about us. Although we are meeting our ancestors, our pasts, our roots, and our fears, we must take care not get swept up in them or to repeat the mistakes of those who have come before us. Because the veil is so thin as we witness summer turn to winter, we must stay alert and utilize the cellular memory of our bodies, our deep instincts based on successes and failures in the past, to be alert to the world around us as it changes shape and form.
A translation of the I’Ching reads:
“Coming to Meet. The maiden is powerful.
One should not marry such a maiden.”
The Human Design and Astrology project The 64 Doors calls Gate 44 “The Gridworker”, stating:
With intuitive awareness of whether the past is worth repeating or not, the Gridworker knows when history is about to repeat itself. Not only does she know where humanity is going if we keep repeating the same patterns and expect things to change for the better, she also senses where we are off course and how we can center back into balance and synarchy through true teamwork.
I’Ching scholar Jose Johnson writes: “According to Confucius, ‘when meeting contention in another, it would be wise to examine oneself.’ Temptation calls us to find external solutions to our internal problems. So change if you must, but make sure that you are not jumping out of the frying pan and into the fire.
The I Ching cautions against snap decisions based on emotions. As the old saying goes, “if it seems too good to be true, it probably is.” We live in a society that has become obsessed with quick fixes or the next big thing. We suffer from “shiny object” syndrome because we lack patience and perseverance. When things get tough, it’s easier to look outside for a solution than to look inward for what we can change about ourselves. New techniques, strategies, or relationships are sexy. Hard work and consistency? Not so much.
This is a good time to examine all the people in your life and ponder why you are connected to them. Look for the higher purpose in all relationships. Consider what this shared journey is teaching you. Don't judge people by their appearances. What lies beneath our outer appearance is what counts most. Form ties with intelligent people who support and share your own intelligence. Connect with like-minded souls. This may not be the best time to solidify a relationship or business partnership. Instead explore why people come together or don't come together in the first place. Coming together must be free of ulterior motives.”
For anyone living, no matter how much they respect that life and death are both parts of the cycle of life, there is a certain instinctive fear in coming face to face with death. The power dynamic between the dead and the living, the past and the present, is a potent one, filled with respect and reverence but also the desire to move forward and keep improving upon what has been left to us.
'Coming to Meet' stresses cautious navigation through power's temptations, focusing on restraint and principled actions amidst challenges. During this season of death, there is a union of forces, but we must practice mutual respect and understanding, working as a team with our pasts instead of battling with them or merging with them completely.
Human Design expert Christe Inge, who I reference often on this podcast, calls Gate 44 “The Pattern Interrupter”, with the energy for practicing forgiveness and and learning from mistakes, knowing that every moment holds the potential for healing and transformation.
She writes “With this knowing, it can guide others to break painful patterns from the past. It uses those patterns as a way to learn, grow, and, most importantly, forgive.
On the “negative” end of the spectrum, Human Design Gate 44 is the energy of being afraid to repeat mistakes from the past and using those mistakes as a “reason” to not move forward. This internal resistance to the mistakes of the past actually prevents the ability to transform, learn, and grow.
….mistakes really are just a part of life and that the past only has the meaning we give it. And, even more profoundly, there is actually no reason to revisit the past if it isn’t for the specific purposes of moving forward. What really matters is now and how we are using the energy that is available to us.
And in the cases where revisiting the past is helpful, it must be done with compassion, forgiveness, and grace.”
New Moon in Scorpio: Manifesting forgiveness
I love the story arc of the Human Design gates since entering Scorpio season. We ended Libra season with distinct, individual elements that are being weighed out on the scales, and as soon as Scorpio season began, we threw them into the cauldron (Gate 50) to be melted down into a cohesive, merged stew. Then we entered the sphere of the Gate of the Game Player, where we were encouraged face the fear of this melting pot, and embrace the totality of existence, and the immortality that arises from finding a continuum with our pasts, futures, shadows and lights. Next, the Gate of Alertness (Gate 44) reminds us that we can’t get too comfortable in the boundarylessness of the depths- we must use our inner wisdom, our cellular memory, our embodied senses- the parts of us that sustain, even when our boundaries are disinigrating into the spooky scorpion’s void.
This New Moon is happening in this gate took, when the moon meets the sun in the energy of Coming Together with Alertness, so that we can drop the power plays and work as a team with our pasts. This new moon, think about the tapestry of your past and your future, your ancestors and your children. Use your senses to smell out the patterns between the two, and see how they can work as a team. Consider how you can stay alert through the upcoming months, so that you do not fall into old subconscious patterns and repeat the mistakes of your past. This is a perfect new moon for recognizing the power inside you, the power to reach into the void, and receive messages from the otherworld, to manifest a different outcome for your future.
A major path toward rewiring in this way, especially when it comes to our subconscious and ancestral traumas and mistakes, is finding the bravery to come together with the roots of our fears, the mistakes of our pasts, and just sit with them. This season reminds us of the deep memory and history associated with the emotions that rise to the surface. They show up from the depths during this time of year up so you can reintegrate aspects of yourself with memories of the past. And then, once we come together with them, the next step is practicing forgiveness.
The topic of forgiveness has come up with me personally last week- with this season, I have found a deep recognition that I am holding on to a lot of blame, shame, and guilt, for both myself and other people’s past mistakes. My partner asked if I had heard of the Hawaiian Ho'oponopono prayer- a simple yet powerful Hawaiian mantra of “"I'm sorry. Please forgive me. Thank you. I love you" that can help with forgiveness, reconciliation, and healing. I told him I had heard of it, but certainly never practiced it. He reminded me gently that practice is prayer, prayer is practice- it needs to be spoken aloud, embodied. So, for the past few days, I have been practicing it- toward myself, and also toward others in my life, both alive and dead.
This new moon is a wonderful time to manifest the dreams you have for your future, and do so without forgetting your past, blaming it, or repeating patterns that no longer serve you. I invite you to welcome a practice of forgiveness into your heart, knowing that the rest will follow.
Hawaiian Ho'oponopono prayer
The prayer:
"I'm sorry. Please forgive me. Thank you. I love you"
How to practice:
Start by taking a few deep breaths with your eyes closed, then slowly repeat the mantra to yourself about 7 or 8 times
What it does:
The mantra helps you acknowledge and take responsibility for negative thoughts, actions, or emotions, and transform them into positive energy
When to use it:
You can apply the prayer to any negative event in your life, such as traumatic past events, destructive thought patterns, family dynamics, or daily annoyances
Use the energy of Scorpio season and the Gate of Alertness to find forgiveness for yourself and/or others, somewhere in the continuum of your life story, so that you may work with be more ready to move into a new narrative. By working as a team with your past, this Samhain/Halloween season of ancestral reverence doesn’t have to be overcome with fear or made light of and brushed aside. It is important work, this end of the harvest. We are laying the garden beds to rest for the next several months, and similarly, we may lay our regrets and fears about our pasts to rest too, allowing our selfhood to shine like a dewdrop on a spiderweb, an interconnected tapestry of life.
This week, I invite you to be gentle with yourself- this work is deep and powerful, and can bring up a lot. Stay hydrated, well rested, and eat nourishing foods. Maybe tread lightly by taking on a few less social obligations, devoting a little more time to yourself, your family, and your roots.
Happy Samhain, Halloween, Dia de Los Muertos, or however you choose to celebrate this time of year. Blessings to your beautiful, complex pasts and to your beautiful, complex futures.
Photo of mycelium
All my love,
Alison
The Roots of our Fears: Samhain, the Scorpio New Moon, and the Season of Forgiveness