Astro Forecast 10.17.24: A Hunter's Moon Brought To You By Mars and Pluto
Astro Forecast 10.17.24: A Hunter's Moon Brought To You By Mars and Pluto
Finally, the planets are gaining momentum and speeding us toward long-sought answers. We might not like what we find.
What is happening?!
It is October 17th in this foul year of your Lord 2024, coming to us from a country and world that may exist in a different iteration sooner than some people expected. One of the few things that ever kept my attention in the realm of scholastic science was the concept of falling velocity, which, in stupid astrologer terms, is the concept of mass increasing velocity, or speed, the longer or farther it falls. I recall my friends and I testing this theory on the last day of middle school by simultaneously chucking our books from different floors on the same side of our building to see which one hit the ground first, though it ended up being far less cool than it had sounded in Mr. Menad’s class. (Evidently we needed more height to play with than the four story concrete block that held myself and my pre-teen peers captive.)
The idea of falling velocity is enough to clench even the most relaxed of asses, because it means the closer we get to destruction, the faster the destruction commences. I had a heights thing as a kid, and watching footage of people sky-diving both repels and confuses me; how the hell do they get that footage? How do they have time to do stupid human tricks in the air with smiles on their wind-quivered faces as they plummet to their fucking deaths? Additionally, what sort of parental gauntlet produces people so keen on dying expensively?
Falling velocity means that sky divers are increasing their speed from the moment they yeet their crazy asses out of an airplane, at least until they reach terminal velocity, a concept which also befuddles. Terminal velocity, you see, is an equation that illustrates how falling velocity will eventually plateau and cease acceleration. This sounds, to me, like gravity getting too comfortable in his workday and then going, “Eh, good enough. Cocktail time.” Gravity is clearly not committed to his role in this company, and I don’t understand how he’s kept his position for this long, but I digress.
Looking back at the astrology of the year/years/decades prior to this hellish moment gives me clenched butt vibes and has me pondering velocity some thirty-five years after I learned of it. I’m not sure when humanity hopped on our own spiritual airplane and strapped ourselves with parachutes; perhaps millennia ago. Once we boarded and put on our gear, our death leap could have occurred at various historical cliffs; maybe imperialism, or the Industrial Age, or disco…the answer varies depending on the company you keep. One thing humans the world over can agree on in 2024 is that we are falling; speeding hell-ward through the stratosphere toward an ignominious, wet ending.
Astrologers have been crowing about this period for a while, mostly because of some very rare, outer planet aspects with dire historical correlations to the French and American Revolutions, The American Civil War, WWII, and other periods of human upheaval and unrest. The outer planets most often aligned with paradigm shifts, destruction, and chaos are Uranus and Pluto, and both of those dickheads are entering air signs very soon which will exacerbate destruction in order to facilitate revolution. We have only just exited eclipse season and are dealing with our first post-eclipse full moon, but she is still very connected to Mars and Pluto by virtue of zodiac sign (Aries) and aspect (a square to Pluto upon perfection). If our spring and summer felt like a moment of anxious suspension, much like the point of a sky dive where some asshole with a camera still has time to film, autumn is the point in which we begin acceleration. The end of 2024 is a speedy descent, but none of us can see how dangerous the landing will be for a bit - we have to wait to get below the clouds. By then, of course, it may already be too late.
Why would this affect me?
Pluto is a harbinger of our fate. If ever there were a time to get fatalistic, or apocalyptic, or to go completely non-verbal and hide in a cave, the final three months of 2024 are probably a good starting point. The global West has been in an election season since 2019, because The United States has the dubious distinction of influencing everyone’s modern human experience from the fiscal to the political, and my country is really gunning for the “Fiddle Whilst Everything Burns” award that usually goes to European madmen and authoritarians. Americans learned from the best, I suppose. If this all sounds overwrought, consider the following:
We have witnessed not one, but two assassination attempts on a presidential candidate in the span of three months, and barely any of us cared. (Trending hashtags after the first assassination attempt included #youhadonejob, which is actually sort of funny.)
We are unable to go longer than a month without a mass shooting or weather event killing people, and we remain as yet unfazed. Not only are we unmoved and unwilling to change our habits in order to stem such mass casualty events, but certain portions of the population believe that such events are caused by government officials. It is an easy progression from the popular notions that Covid-19 was a psy-op and horse de-wormer defeats viral infections, I suppose, but it’s still pretty disheartening.
Birth rates and marriage rates have plummeted across the globe at the same time that economic inequality, suicide rates, and infant mortality has soared.
Trust in all public institutions, from schools to courts, is at an all time low.
War. Lots and lots of war.
If the war, tornados, guns, and poverty don’t kill you, one of our beefed up superbugs, or perhaps just our regular, run-of-the-mill viruses, will certainly give it a shot.
Did I mention that people living in 2024 think politicians can control the weather? Never underestimate the ability of Neptune and Pluto to convince people of crazy, delusional shit.
Our most remote, chilly, and wayward planet has been retrograde in Capricorn for a bit, but on October 11th he stationed direct in Capricorn for the last time any of us will live. This is because Pluto is both distant and slow, causing him to marinate in each zodiac sign for 16 to 20 years, which allows generational shifts and revisions to play out slowly and sneakily. Only historians will fully grasp the consequences of each Plutonian vibe shift, because astrology is the same as every other human endeavor in that hindsight will always contain the clarity that we would kill for in our present moment.
Pluto entered Capricorn in 2008, and when we consider the broad reality of the last sixteen years with the archetypal traits of both our underworld god and that funky little sea goat of the zodiac, the unsavory aspects of our modern age come into clearer focus. Pluto is a planet of power, dogma, control, and destruction - he is representative of the Greek Hades, who cannot be avoided by any creature on Earth, no matter how much they wish they could. In this way, Pluto also represents the inevitable, the cyclical, and the karmic manifestations of existence. Like our own puny deaths, Pluto rules over all the destruction and transformation that comes with having a consciousness, not because he’s evil, but because the universe hates entropy and somebody had to do it. Hades, quite literally, drew the short straw.
Capricorn is one of the task masters of the zodiac; a saturnine sign that believes in it’s goaty bones that toil and sacrifice are things which elevate human beings above animals and toward the realm of the gods. Represented by The Devil in tarot, Capricorn is a feminine Earth sign that believes everything must come after material security and the cementing of status. While that often results in people who are very good with money and other practical matters, Capricorn is also a sign that can enslave others to her material desires, which of course, are ultimately desires for safety and security. This is why self-enslavement and shallow wants are so poignantly depicted by the chained nudists of The Devil, illustrating the notion that by becoming slaves to materialism, we doom ourselves to mental, if not physical captivity. Capricorn loves nothing more than to get to the top of a mountain in order to look down at everyone else, everyone who didn’t work as hard, or as long, as Capricorn did.
We can look back at 2008 and see, through the clarity of hindsight, how we solidified our own material enslavement over the past sixteen years. Pluto kicked off his last transit with The Great Recession, but instead of demanding change and accountability, society chose to lean hard into workism as an exit strategy. The ascendence of social media and digitization of the workplace fed more fuel to materialism by allowing people to monetize pets and hobbies as a way to ‘side-hustle’ out of the economic quagmire that our own ruling class, by virtue of their decades long push toward de-regulation, essentially engendered. Instead of demanding that business and government serve humanity, humanity pivoted to serve government and business, first by turning our homes into nothing but assets with the founding of AirBnB (2008), then, with the monetization of our vehicles and time by Uber (2009), and Lyft (2012), and finally and perhaps most egregiously, with the mutation of our time, hobbies, pets, and appearance into income generators by Meta, Twitter, and TikTok. We mechanized our lives in order to serve the machines that were invented to serve us, and have become slaves to soulless algorithms in return.
This week, a full Aries moon holds hands with Mars and Pluto as they pull us into our descent. Much like the lunar nodes of eclipse season, this moon wants us to spend the next two weeks finding balance along the Aries/Libra axis, which is the line of tension that runs between individual agency and collective responsibility. The Underworld ruler’s run in Capricorn had us ascending a mountain of greed in order to look down on the collective; to hoard as much money and power as we could at the top of our individual mountain and damn everyone else to extinction. Now that we are exiting two decades of grasping, the generational planets are hitting the fast-forward button and forcing us into a new place. This full moon marks an acceleration point in our descent, and we only have so much time left on this lunar axis to answer our own existential crisis - do we leap out, fall, and crash all on our own, or do we hold hands with our brethren and make shapes in the sky before the inevitable occurs?
When do I have to deal with this?
Mars and Pluto, working through the Hunter’s Moon, will grab us by the short and curlies until at least December, and this famously aggressive, often devastating transit will only grow in power as we near the perfection in November, so check your chart for any gnarly indications. These would include any planets in the late degrees of cardinal signs, particularly anything on the Cancer/Capricorn axis. If you know your rising sign, check the house placement of Pluto and Mars to see which area of life their destructive man dance is likely to affect.
MON 10.14 - SAT 10.19 - The Sun Squares Mars and Brings Us Manly Aggression at a Moment of Venusian Upheaval
Mars in Cancer: P.T.A. Mom Who Scares the Shit Out of Other P.T.A. Moms
Sun in Libra: Affable Bartender Who Gives Great Advice Whilst Own Life is a Dumpster Fire
Venus in Scorpio: Magnetic, Unnerving Occultist Obsessed with your Deepest Secrets
Uranus in Taurus: Environmental Activist Willing to Down Power Grids and Block Shipments of…Anything
Our sun stands in for Apollo/Helios and represents our most ideal archetype, a golden god who revels in his own perfection as he plays his stupid little lute, and when he squares to the rougher, more bloodthirsty Ares, they each chew up the other. On Earth, this could translate to more humiliation of public figures (likely men) and more aggression from violent, vengeful opposition (also likely men, or women who are defending a rigid ideal around family or domesticity.)
Further confusing the archetypal gender dynamic is a Venus opposition to Uranus, which is a classic harbinger of kink, affairs, sudden break-ups, or an expansion of sexual intimacy into more taboo realms. It looks like some of us will release pressure via conflict, and the rest of us will do it via naughtiness. We are certainly seeing the intersection of masculine domination and sexual violence explode into public consciousness with several recent, high profile assault cases, which might be an outgrowth of Venusian comeuppance as our lady planet meets every destructive outer planet to plan her vengeance.
TUES 10.15 - FRI 10.18 - Venus Trines Neptune; High Tide Washes us in Romance
Neptune in Pisces: Brilliant, Generous Painter with a Loft and A Drinking Problem
Venus in Scorpio: Magnetic, Unnerving Occultist Obsessed With Your Deepest Secrets
You can imagine the sort of hijinks these two get up to when they’re both enjoying themselves; think Ouija boards, oil pastels, and a bathtub seance with fellow hedonistic creatives.
Follow the muse and seek both creative and romantic expression, even if those things aren’t your true north. Sure, some of us may whip out our canvases and notepads, but this aspect could just as easily be utilized watching movies, reading novels, or writing notes to friends and loved ones with no purpose other than showing them you care. Poseidon and Aphrodite inspire poetry and submersion when they harmonize, and you might be surprised at the things you are able to create in this moment.
WED 10.16 - SAT 10.19: Hunter’s Moon in Aries Says To Hell With Emotional Regulation While Venus and Pluto Get Freaky
Venus in Scorpio: Magnetic, Unnerving Occultist Obsessed With Your Deepest Secrets
Pluto in Capricorn: Sexy, Amoral CEO Who Has Killed People For Being Inefficient, Annoying
Moon in Aries: Meditative Earth Mother Who Has Finally Fucking Had It
Mars in Cancer: P.T.A. Mom Who Scares the Shit Out of Other P.T.A. Moms
This is the part of the week in which we need to be very, very careful. Expect increased violence and outbursts when dealing with adversaries or disagreeing with colleagues and associates - even the most circumspect individuals lose their sense of balance when an Aries full moon takes hold, thanks to the intrinsic impulsivity of the youthful war god who rules it. This is not a moment for confrontation if we can help it, especially when dealing with any of the cardinal signs, because they are going to feel unhinged until at least Monday, Oct. 21st. Limit physical risk-taking this week; Mars loves to cause accidents with fire and sharp objects, and he is just getting started.
Conversely, Venus and Pluto make this an interesting moment for sexual exploration and new kinks as they form a sextile between Scorpio and Capricorn, the quiet perverts of the zodiac. These darkly feminine signs loathe anything shallow or easy, so if chaining your loved one up in a dungeon and forcing them to submit to intense questioning with a riding crop has been on your bucket list, this is the weekend to get it done. To be fair, we might all need a pressure release immediately following this enraging lunation, so wipe off the cuffs and get to it.
Cool, what does the Tarot say about this?
Ten of Coins reversed indicates resource squabbling on Monday, 10.14., and a companion pull of aquamarine may be encouraging us to gentle our communication style if we want to get around resource conflicts. We might also want to utilize the dreamy, creative qualities of aquamarine to make a case for more generous attitudes around wealth and other resources.
On Tuesday, 10.15, The Magician reversed warns of con men and carnival barkers who use lies to convince us that we need what they are selling. Companion pulls of Three of Cups and Rhodonite point to emotional connections and groups, so if a bunch of your friends are calling bullshit on someone who just entered your life, or are skeptical about some new philosophy or idea that has taken hold of your consciousness, listen to them. They’re probably right.
Five of Wands reversed on Wednesday, 10.16, indicates personal reluctance to get involved in communal conflict, likely due to internal strife or a quiet reorganization of beliefs. We don’t accept justifications on blind faith, and that’s probably a good thing. There may even be some back-tracking and mind-changing going on with people who initially embraced combative situations. Pink tourmaline is an optimistic heart protector, and its presence underscores a new need for consensus over conflict.
The Chariot rises on Thursday, 10.17, in tandem with our full moon in Aries and a big hunk of protective black tourmaline. The Chariot has correspondence to the water sign of Cancer, which is ruled by our lovely lunar satellite, and our moon is currently transiting Mars-ruled Aries. This mutual reception might tamp down some of the shadow aggression of the full moon while simultaneously helping us find our agency and self respect, because it means that our feminine moon is working closely with a very aggressive and masculine Mars. We have an opportunity to direct something in a newly balanced and mature way.
The Moon show up on Friday, 10.18, accompanied by a ruby zoisite, and it looks like there may be hidden things still bubbling to the surface as a result of this lunation. Ruby zoisite is a stone that supports massive internal shifts; spiritual awakenings, moral quandaries, and complete turnabouts in how we view people or situations. The Moon, though, is a Piscean, 12th house card that deals in illusions, deception, and the hard truths that we hide from ourselves. It seems likely that news bulletins and community discussion will continue to unearth disturbing new truths, but that we will be unable to confirm their veracity. We remain in a limbo where truth and fiction are too intertwined to be aptly deciphered, but our individual moral recalibration continues apace.
On Saturday, 10.19, Strength and an emerald show us where our salvation may lie; by leaning into the verifiably loving people of our inner circles. This major arcana has solar implications as well as Leo associations, and it hints at well-deserved admiration and respect coming our way. Strength shows us that we can succeed on the merits of our morals - we can be persuasive without resorting to sneakiness or aggression.
The Emperor reversed and a purpurite crystal pull on Sunday, 10.20, are cautioning us about dogma and overly dogmatic authority figures in what may be a little amuse bouche to our upcoming Mars/Pluto conflagration. Given the timing of our full moon in Aries, ( the corresponding zodiac sign to The Emperor) three days prior, we might see a domineering authority figure overstep their boundaries and create a ripple-effect of strife. Purpurite is a stone of resource intuition and is often used to facilitate financial or real estate transactions, so it is possible that whatever dogma The Emperor launches at us on Sunday will involve material resources. It is up to us to trust our intuition and see through the charade.
Visit @alectochaos on IG for the full, wordy breakdown and video of each card pull, and to get the jump on the Mon - Wed card pulls. If you are into that sort of thing.