We already know that November is going to be an intense month for us in the United States. There is the election. There is an increase in illness, death, poverty, and violence due to the pandemic and the government. There are the cold, darkening days. And, we will experience a Lunar Eclipse at the end of the month, which brings us into our final Eclipse season of this long, heartbreaking year.

Eclipses are an opportunity to break patterns. Shadows come to the forefront, our unconscious is made conscious. We can look at the past with an awakened perspective. Realizations around thought patterns, histories, reflections, reactions, and projections will be heightened. This month we have the opportunity to use our discernment in order to shake off any unconscious programming. This month we have the opportunity to examine our own trauma responses, and to recognize those in others.

There can be a misconception that with change comes sudden comfort, not messiness. There can be a misconception that everything will get easier, will feel better, almost immediately after the change has been stepped into. In actuality, most change takes time and is uncomfortable and filled with uncertainty and grief, at least for a moment. We go back and forth, one step forward, one step back. This is a process.

The reality is that when we start advocating for ourselves, people will react. When we develop boundaries, when our energy and priorities shift, others will have opinions. Taking accountability results in consequences. All throughout this month, remember that. You do not see the flower the day you plant the seed. The ease, support, and joy on its way to you as a result of your different practices will take time to arrive. In the meantime, how are you creating your own ease and joy? What is stopping you from experiencing ease and joy, and receiving support? Maybe these questions are some of your work this month.

When a hand releases a grip, it opens—it becomes available to receive: support, clarity, visions. When a closed mind opens up to one different perspective, new worlds automatically appear.

Remember your power.
Remember your ingenuity.
Reflect on what is yours to heal. This includes ancestral healing.
Reflect on what you are responsible for and what you are not.
Reflect on who benefits from your distraction, your anxiety, your hopelessness.
Pay close attention to your energy.

Collaborate with this month’s lunar cycle. Make this month the month to tune into how your body, nervous system, and emotions. Be aware of what is coming up for you. Decide what you are no longer doing, or who or what you are no longer engaging with. Tie up loose ends, end old contracts. At the New Moon, reflect on what must be excavated in order to ultimately be archived, composted, or integrated. Create a plan. See what is bubbling up for you as we head towards the Eclipse at the end of the month. Clear any contracts, break away from at least one unhelpful response.

What support do you need in order to reframe?
What support do you need, in general? 
What is another perspective to take what is being shown to you? 
What is being cleared?
What does this process of change look like, feel like for you?

The Tarotscopes below were channeled and written by meditating on each archetype and pulling a Tarot card for it. You can read for whatever sign you feel called to: some read for their Sun, rising, Moon, or all three. Please note: If you don’t know if you are allergic to a specific herb, plant, ingredient, or essential oil use caution or consult with your herbalist, dermatologist, or doctor before ingesting or applying to your skin. Never leave a lit candle or flame of any kind unattended.

Pre-order the 2021 Many Moons Lunar Planner from Modern Women.

Aries
The Emperor

All of us are at the mercy of systems, rules, and regulations far beyond our immediate control—albeit in wildly different ways, depending on many factors. Anyone who did not understand that before this year has certainly learned that by now. This isn’t the time to take on the punishment of the government or white supremacy or the pandemic as some kind of personal failure. This is the month to get real about what you do have power over, sweet Aries, and make a plan to prioritize them.

Admit your deepest secrets. Figure out where you are limiting yourself with excuses. Where do you sell yourself short? Where are you reckless with your energy? What has been the primary function of any dishonestly you’ve perpetuated? Connect to self-discipline in order to recover your innate vitality. Look to leaders you admire to remind you of the qualities you also possess.

Life is hard enough: go easy on yourself as you regain your footing. Create opportunities to make it easier for you to step up in ways that reflect who you really are. Protect your power by standing in it.

Suggested spell ingredients: Eucalyptus, sunstone, a candlelit bath with St. John’s Wart and chamomile, exploring Jungian symbology, and 10 minutes every morning for 10 days after the New Moon spent in reflection on who you want to be.

Pre-order the 2021 Many Moons Lunar Planner from Modern Women.

Taurus
5 of Cups, Reversed

None of this is normal, and none of this is ok. If this needs to be repeated 20x a day as a reminder as to why you are feeling certain ways, then do so. When it all seems like too much to deal with inside, recognize this for what it is: waves of grief and anxiety that are perfectly understandable, completely normal response to the world. Recognize this as a sign of your humanity, not as a weakness.

This month finds you releasing harmful truisms you’ve internalized and used to punish yourself. Comparison, competition, perfectionism, and whatever else is used to keep us separate, disempowered: examine them as they come up. Set them down, sweet one. They aren’t yours to carry anymore. The pain does not define you—the space you carve out for your dignity, pleasure, and harmonious expression does.

If you choose to do this internal work, by the end of the month you will feel fresher. That’s what happens when you are the one writing your story. The universe rewards those who choose love with even more of it.

Suggested spell ingredients: Salt baths, lapis lazuli, motherwort, a playlist of your favorite Disco songs to bring levity and movement to your days, and time spent meditating or in your favorite yoga pose to quiet your mind.

Pre-order the 2021 Many Moons Lunar Planner from Modern Women.

Gemini
The Moon

Shadow work is your focus of the month, Gemini. Folks often equate shadow work with uncovering shame, unhealthy patterns, or trauma. We are told to meet the ugly unwaveringly, the unleashed demons head-on. That’s not the kind of shadow work this month is calling you to do though, angel.

The Moon Card was pulled for you, and fittingly, there’s a Lunar Eclipse in your sign at the end of the month. Cue big feels. Cue breakthroughs. The shadow work for you to activate is a deep dive towards your own jewels. Through the murk, until you can excavate the most glittering diamonds of who you are. All the greatness you’ve suppressed must now float. All the talents, and vision you’ve squelched down to make others safe, and yourself unassuming, must come up for air, must now take deep breaths. Goodbye, people-pleasing. Goodbye, avoiding rocking the boat.

These powerful qualities you’ve tamped down are now ready to be explored and shared. Use this month to shed, bring forth, and integrate. Take small actions in the key of magnificence until it feels natural. Living out loud can be scary, but not as scary as never trying at all.

Suggested spell ingredients: Black moonstone, mugwort, meals made of root vegetables, explorations in color magic, and handmade surprises for loved ones.

Pre-order the 2021 Many Moons Lunar Planner from Modern Women.

Cancer
The Hierophant

Sometimes, you forget how strong you really are, Moon Child. Sometimes, you forget all you’ve been through and all you’ve survived. Yes, it is beyond challenging now. Yes, your edges are frayed and so are your nerves. But you’ve done the impossible before. You’ve made it out of many dark nights that others could never comprehend surviving, and you’ve found a way to carry on with an even brighter glow.

November is a month for you to get back in the saddle of your spiritual practice. It’s a month that beckons you to consider the work of your life. What are you here to offer? What are you here to heal? What experiences do you most desire?

The timeline might have changed, circumstances may have interfered with, well, everything, to be sure. But you can't stop what is meant for you from meeting you. You can delay it by blocking your blessings, or taking the long way (which you love to do). As long as you decide to put one step in front of the other, there’s movement towards your soul’s actualization. Grieve, yes— but stop using shattered expectations as an excuse for why you can’t have what you need or embody what you intuit is on the other side of your fear. Start loving what is precious and beautiful about your life now.

Suggested spell ingredients: Cups of oolong tea to clear your mind, sensory stimulation activities, aquamarine, red roses by your bedside, and neroli oil.

Pre-order the 2021 Many Moons Lunar Planner from Modern Women.

Leo


4 of Wands

How can you redefine success? What can you celebrate right now? Who makes you feel safe? This month will be asking you to gather your optimism around you like a cloak, or a weighted blanket if you prefer. Ask your people and community for support around spreading optimism and solace, or to simply send cute cat memes.

This month is for calling in joy, friendship, art, inspiration, anchors, resilience, and hope. This is a month about integrating all the ways you need to be held, seen, and supported. In turn, you’ll forge clear paths to feel content in fostering different ways to connect and collaborate with the people, places, and resources you need. 

When you feel stuck, move your body. When you feel overwhelmed, access Spirit or prayer or a moment of deep breathing. Practice co-regulation with trees, the earth, poetry, music, or the sky. Remember what you must need to hear and tell yourself those messages. Write it down and tape it onto the wall by your bed. Record it as a voice note on your phone, trace it in the cold night air of the only November 2020 that will ever exist.

Suggested spell ingredients: Champagne or fancy fizzy water, carnelian, a home-cooked meal, root energy magic, and swathes of silk (whether it’s a pillowcase, eye mask, or something else to help remind you of your soft power).

Pre-order the 2021 Many Moons Lunar Planner from Modern Women.

Virgo
3 of Cups

When we grow, when we trade poor habits for better ones or unconscious biases for awareness or become more like our most emboldened selves, we will lose people. Our relationships will change. We aren’t meant to be everything to everyone. We can’t take everybody with us as we heal.

This month will contain some full-circle moments for you, Virgo. Some loose ends will surface that need to be tied up, or altogether cut away. Relationship reveals and revelations will unfold. Awareness around your role in certain situations and dynamics may enlighten you or activate you, depending on the circumstance. You will be granted more clarification around who needs to be in your close circle and how exactly you’d like the energy of those unions to flow.

Communication is key. Resist the urge to overshare, fix, or do the work that simply is not yours to do. When in doubt, say less. When you need support, ask for it. See who shows up, and how. Be aware of how you show up too.

Suggested spell ingredients: Bamboo essence, pearl, silent morning practice meditations, time spent naming all the shades of green that you see in the nature around you, socially-distanced walks with old friends, and coffee or salt scrubs.

Pre-order the 2021 Many Moons Lunar Planner from Modern Women.

Libra
6 of Swords, Reversed

Libra, this month is first and foremost about slowing down. Some of you will yell: “I CAN’T slow down! I'm working my face off, and home-schooling, and looking for work, and organizing fundraisers and, and, and…” Or, some of y’all are saying: “I JUST got inspired after many months of anxiety and I am ready to GO! Slowing down will mess with my flow!” Ok. Heard.

The suggestion is to slow down, not stop. Slow down your mind to stop it from jumping to conclusions. Slow down your projections. Slow down the communication pipeline from your anxiety to your nervous system, your brain to your tendency to control or overextend your energy. This is a month for staying with what is actually here now. In the pause, you can recognize the thought patterns and habitual reactions that have got to go.

In the calmer, carved out space, you’ll be able to notice your thoughts better. You’ll choose to think of different ones. You’ll see others for who they are, and in doing so, grant yourself levity. You’ll be reminded of how far you’ve come. You’ll remember where you are ready to go. And you’ll have more space and strategy for how to get there stronger, safer, and with plenty of breathing room and laughter.

Suggested spell ingredients: 5 long, deep breaths for 5 minutes every day for the next 5 days, Celestine, Flowtime exercises, “Weightless” by Marconi Union, and cherry desserts.

Pre-order the 2021 Many Moons Lunar Planner from Modern Women.

Scorpio
Page of Pentacles

November is a month for digging deep. The depths are ripe for interrogation and integration. All month long you will be asked to follow threads, thoughts, intentions, and behaviors down to their root. Ask yourself “why?” enough times until you can parse out the origins of your most prevalent reactions, habits, or beliefs.

These excavations will help you figure out what stagnancy, trauma responses, or other influences must be shed. Don’t beat yourself up for certain shaky foundations that were built long ago: you were just trying to survive. Now, trust yourself enough to begin thriving.

Other themes that may surface by mid-month are the intersections of your physical health and your current callings. Questions around career, home, geographic location, and ancestral threads may all weave together as you sink into the worthwhile efforts of creating healthy structures that reflect your true self-worth. The more you can rely and depend on yourself, the safer others feel around you. Allow yourself to become a safe harbor as you consider the interdependent nature of your next phase.

Suggested spell ingredients: dandelion root tea, smoky quartz, 2 minutes spent every 2 days trying 2-to-1 breathing techniques, Sylvia Plath’s poetry in honor of your shared Sun sign, and drops of clary sage oil on your pulse points before bed.

Pre-order the 2021 Many Moons Lunar Planner from Modern Women.

Sagittarius
Page of Cups

In many folk tales around the world, physic health is restored to the one who extends their generosity to an ailing animal, an infirm elder, or a lonely wanderer seeking help in the night. Places you've ignored need your attention. Feelings that have been tamped down need you to honor them. Underneath it all lies spiritual restoration. . 

This month, you have the opportunity to tend to the places inside and outside of you that require the presence of your golden heart. Your inner child could have a lot to say about how to facilitate specific healings around relationship matters. Daydreams, nightmares, meditations, and therapy sessions may all offer up solutions or closure. Are you brave enough to listen?

Throughout the month, remember that any different path forward requires vision, alignment, change of behavior, and emotional intelligence. Being able to acknowledge, hold, feel, transmute, and reprogram your emotions will be key. Take any and all chances to widen into compassion. This is heart magic only you can make.

Suggested spell ingredients: Rose of Jericho, rose quartz, light pink and dark red candles to add love and passion to your next ritual, pieces of ruby chocolate to add sweetness to your days, and recordings of rainforests and windstorms to enhance your own natural watery energy.

Pre-order the 2021 Many Moons Lunar Planner from Modern Women.

Capricorn
7 of Swords

Goodbyes often come with grief. Getaways often feel bittersweet. Even when you are making the right decision. Even when where you will eventually end up is way better than anywhere you've been.

Whether it is a move, the rejection of others’ projections, breaking free from a particular past life’s grip, or reclamation of your time and energy, this month is asking you to take some bold actions. Be careful not to get snagged on avoidance, other people's opinions, or fear-based stories. No one else is living your life. Don’t let harmful influences live in your head and heart rent-free.

Certain decisions may feel particularly difficult to make. Don’t get hung up on thinking everything needs to get solved now. Figure out what is most important to move forward on and cut the cords you must. Zoom in: how will this help you break old patterns? How can you choose clarity instead of comfort? Pause. Honor your truth above all else.

Suggested spell ingredients: Wild sage, bumblebee jasper, exercises that literally turn you upside-down (cartwheels, somersaults, handstands, or Downward-Facing Dog poses), mint tea, and some chapters from On Love by Alain de Botton.

Pre-order the 2021 Many Moons Lunar Planner from Modern Women.

Aquarius
8 of Cups, Reversed

All month long you will be asked to heal from the ways you most frequently betray yourself. When you do not allow yourself to receive the beauty you offer to so many, you betray yourself. When you solely rely on external validation, you betray yourself. When you readily use someone else’s cruelty as fuel for punishment, well, that’s self-betrayal too.

Take some time to look back during the first week of the month. Then fix your gaze forward around mid-November’s New Moon. Write a list of your big dreams: your list of "some days” and “one day.” All the things you know will require time, patience, flexibility, effort, vulnerability, and help. What do they all have in common? Most likely, they all require a commitment to your vision. They all reflect the essence of what it is you are in the process of transforming into. They require you to finally, finally, Forgive Yourself.

Soon enough, there will be movement. First, you must stay put with some particular situations for long enough to glean their lessons. Circle back to the scene of the crime with another perspective, with helpers, with support, with the knowledge that this will never happen again—you will not let it. Know that longed-for-change is on the other side of some inner work, make the choice to never abandon yourself again.

Suggested spell ingredients: sprigs of dried lavender, amethyst, an outfit of entirely metallic or bright colors to reflect your own shine to the world, a meditation on clouds and all their forms, and time spent listening to the songs you loved from adolescence to help you remember where your heart started to grow.

Pre-order the 2021 Many Moons Lunar Planner from Modern Women.

Pisces
Wheel of Fortune

One aspect of maturation is fully accepting that “This Is It”. There’s not another planet to wake up on, though you may visit them in your dreams. There’s no one else to be but you. Nowhere else to go when you are completely and fully “Here, Now”. Creating fully from this space of embodied presence and acceptance is your task this month.

November marks a turning point for you. The Wheel of Fortune always suggests a pivot. The spider spinning her web can’t predict what its final form will be. But, she can start at the center and add one thread at a time. The spider understands that eventually, her focus will grant her rewards.

In this time of great unknown, don’t let self-doubt, distraction, or other people’s anxieties stop you from taking a chance. Tap into your source. You are the container for much creativity and magic. Trust fully in the movements you make as you weave a web of self-acceptance that will allow particular gifts to glimmer brightly in the dark.

Suggested spell ingredients: Willow essence, labradorite, the documentary about Bruce Lee 'Be Water’ by Bao Nguyen, sweet orange and lemon balm oils, and love notes you write to yourself and post throughout your living space to never forget how beloved you are.