NOVEMBER 2026
The Descent
November opens with the Sun still deep in Scorpio, where it's been since the 23rd of last month, and Mercury and Venus are both still moving backward through that same water. Venus has been retrograde since October 3rd, Mercury since the 24th — two planets working through unfinished business in the sign that least wants to leave anything unfinished. October's ancestor work is behind you, the altars mostly put away by now, but Scorpio doesn't let you close a door just because the calendar turned. The first week of November has the quality of standing at a threshold you already crossed once and are being asked to cross again, more honestly this time.
Persephone presides over this month, and her story gets told as a kidnapping, which it was, but the part that matters here comes after. She ate pomegranate seeds in the underworld — the number changes depending on who's telling it — and those seeds are what bind her to return every year. She was tricked into it. What she wasn't tricked into is going back, year after year, knowing exactly what waits for her there. That return is the whole teaching. Not the descent alone, and not the myth's more comfortable ending where she simply comes home to her mother. The part worth sitting with is that she keeps choosing the underworld even after she's free of it.
The New Moon in Scorpio on the 9th is this month's real hinge. A new moon in the sign that governs endings is a door that opens specifically so something can be put through it and shut behind. This is the week for banishing what October only helped you name — burn it, bury it, write it and tear it to pieces if fire isn't safe where you are. Four days later, on the 13th, Mercury and Venus both station direct in the same week, and whatever's been stuck in review since early October starts moving again, though not everything resolves cleanly just because two planets changed direction. Mars conjoins Jupiter in Leo on the 16th, and for a few days the mood lifts fast — confidence, maybe more of it than the situation has earned yet. Worth noticing before you act on it.
Sagittarius opens the door to fire on the 22nd, and the shift is not subtle. Scorpio's concentrated, held-in intensity gives way to something that wants room, wants to talk, wants the horizon instead of the depths. Two days later, the Full Moon in Gemini on the 24th asks you to put language to whatever you found during the descent — not the whole story, just the part that's ready to be spoken to one actual person. Gemini wants it said out loud, not journaled and left there.
Scorpio's water runs the first three weeks of November, and Sagittarius' fire finishes it. Persephone spends this whole month doing both at once — the going down and the coming back — and the astrology just happens to lay itself out the same way this year. The work isn't choosing one half over the other. It's staying long enough in the dark to have something honest to say once you're back in the light.
Reflect on: What am I still carrying from October that I haven't actually put down yet? What has this Mercury and Venus retrograde brought back for a second, more honest look? What am I ready to say out loud that I've only been willing to write in private?
Set intentions for: Using the New Moon in Scorpio to end something specific rather than endings in general. Letting Mercury and Venus's direct stations on the 13th move things forward without forcing a resolution that isn't ready yet. Meeting Sagittarius season's optimism with enough grounding that it doesn't run past what you've actually built. Speaking one true thing under the Full Moon in Gemini instead of keeping it in your journal where it's safe.
Rituals: On the New Moon, write down the one thing you're releasing — not a list, one thing — and burn it or bury it before the night's over. Set a small altar for Persephone with a pomegranate, a candle, and something dark enough to sit in shadow comfortably. When Mercury and Venus turn direct on the 13th, reopen one conversation or decision you tabled in October and take one real step on it. Under the Full Moon in Gemini, call or write to one specific person and tell them the true thing you've been rehearsing. As Sagittarius season opens, clear one drawer, shelf, or file that's been holding onto October's weight, and notice what it feels like to have room again.
Scorpio + Sagittarius
November moves from Scorpio's covered water into Sagittarius' open fire, tracing the arc from what has to be released to what becomes possible once it actually is. No eclipses fall in this window, but two lunations and a pair of retrograde stations do the same accelerating work — compressing into three weeks what might otherwise take a season to move through.
- Scorpio season is already three weeks old by the time November opens, and Mercury and Venus are both still retrograde inside it — Venus since October 3rd, Mercury since the 24th, both still working backward through the same water they'll station direct in on the 13th. The New Moon on the 9th is the month's real turn: not an eclipse, but a door that opens in the sign built for closing things, and it asks you to put one specific ending through it rather than endings in general. Death rules here, and the card's particular courage isn't in the letting go so much as in staying in the space right after — the stretch before you know what's next, which most people rush straight through. Scorpio doesn't rush. It stays in the room with what's already over.
- Sagittarius season opens on the 22nd, six days after Mars conjoined Jupiter in Leo — Sagittarius' own ruling planet catching fire before the season that belongs to it has even started. Two days after the shift, the Full Moon in Gemini on the 24th sits directly opposite the new season and asks you to say something out loud rather than just think it clearly, which is a harder request than it sounds like. Temperance rules Sagittarius, and her particular courage is mixture — combining what survived the descent with what's actually possible to build, rather than swinging straight from shadow work into unearned optimism. She's the reason expansion this month gets to feel steady instead of reckless.
November offers the full passage from ending to opening. Scorpio closes what's already finished with both hands, no half-measures. Sagittarius arrives to take whatever that release cleared out and actually move it somewhere. The month makes the case that a descent only means something once you're willing to say, out loud, what you found down there.
Death + Temperance
November's two ruling cards trace the same arc as its seasons — Death carries Scorpio's half of the month, Temperance arrives with Sagittarius to carry the rest, and the passage between them is the distance between accepting an ending and learning what to build once it's actually over.
- Death is the skeleton on the pale horse, banner raised, riding past a king, a child, a priest — no one skipped, no one spared by rank or protest. There's nothing cruel about the image. The rider isn't hunting anyone; the ending already happened before the card was ever drawn. This is the card's whole teaching, and it matters more than usual this month, with the New Moon in Scorpio on the 9th asking you to close a door on one specific thing rather than survey your life for everything that could theoretically go. Mercury and Venus are both still retrograde as this happens, both stationing direct on the 13th, so the timing lines up: name it, release it, and let the planets catch up to the decision rather than waiting on them to make it for you. Death's courage isn't in the releasing. It's in staying in the empty space right after, instead of rushing to explain what fills it.
- Temperance steps forward once Sagittarius season opens on the 22nd — one foot planted on ground, the other in a moving stream, pouring water between two cups without spilling either one. Where Death works through acceptance, Temperance works through mixture: taking what survived the descent and blending it with what Sagittarius actually wants to build, rather than swinging straight from shadow work into unearned optimism. Mars had already met Jupiter in Leo on the 16th, six days before the season opens, so some of that fire is already lit by the time Temperance arrives to direct it. The Full Moon in Gemini on the 24th asks for the same balance in a different register — say the true thing, but say it clearly, not as a flood.
Together, Death and Temperance teach November's central lesson. Death says: let the ending be an ending, all the way through. Temperance says: now take what's left and mix it into something you can actually carry.
IN THE VAULT
NOVEMBER 2026
W O R K B O O K
Step into November's descent with our latest workbook. This month brings shadow-banishing spellwork and sigil craft, Scorpio-to-Sagittarius seasonal wisdom, lunar ritual work, and tarot work designed to help you release what's already over and learn what to build once it is.
LUNAR LIVING
M O O N G U I D A N C E
Delve into the New Moon in Scorpio on November 9th and the Full Moon in Gemini that closes the month on the 24th, with Mercury and Venus both turning direct on the 13th in between. Explore these celestial influences to close a door in the dark, move forward again once the retrograde finally lifts, and say out loud what you found while you were down there.
DESCENT & RETURN
C H A L L E N G E
Four weeks that move the same direction the month does. Each week turns your attention toward a different part of the descent — the thing you're finally willing to name, the burn that actually releases it, the quiet that follows once it's gone, and the return that makes the whole trip worth taking. This isn't shadow work as performance. It's descent put to use, with intention and your own two hands.
LIVE WORKSHOPS
Tarot Talk
Deepening Darkness
November holds a quieter intensity. This is a month of stillness, integration, mystery, and shadow work, where what has been shaken begins to settle into deeper understanding.
The Tower disrupts what cannot stand, while The Hierophant asks us to examine the structures, beliefs, and traditions we turn to for meaning. Together, they create a tension between collapse and guidance.
The Three and Five of Swords move us through grief, conflict, and the sharp edges of truth. The Seven of Wands calls for resilience, for holding your ground even when it feels challenging. The Eight of Swords reveals the ways we confine ourselves, and the possibility of release through awareness.
This is a space to sit with what is real, even when it is uncomfortable. To integrate rather than rush forward. To find strength not in certainty, but in presence. Come ready to be still, to listen deeply, and to rebuild from within.
November 14
Healing with Tarot
The Still Point: Shadow Reflecting Light
November invites stillness, introspection, and safe engagement with the shadow. In this Healing with Tarot group, we explore hidden or disowned parts of the self with curiosity rather than judgment. Using Tarot, IFS-informed reflection, and mindful containment, we’ll practice staying present with complexity and emotion. This group emphasizes safety, pacing, and compassion as we enter the inner cave. Shadow work here is relational and gentle—focused on understanding rather than fixing. Stillness becomes a source of insight and integration.
November 18
BOOK CLUB
Join us this month as we venture into the mist-covered, gothic world of One Dark Window, Rachel Gillig’s haunting tale of ancient magic, unsettling bargains, and the shadows we carry within.
In the kingdom of Blunder, magic is both coveted and cursed—its gifts coming at a steep and dangerous price. When Elspeth Spindle is infected with the forbidding Nightmare, a monstrous spirit bound to her mind, she learns to survive by staying hidden and silent. But when her path crosses with a rogue highwayman seeking to cure the kingdom’s dark affliction, Elspeth is drawn into a web of prophecy, power, and forbidden alliance.
What begins as a quest to break a deadly curse becomes an exploration of identity, fear, and the thin line between monster and protector. As the Nightmare whispers from within and Blunder’s secrets unravel around her, Elspeth must decide what she’s willing to risk—and who she’s willing to trust—before the kingdom collapses under its own shadow.
This atmospheric, folklore-infused fantasy invites us into discussions of inner duality, moral ambiguity, and the ways we navigate fear and desire. Come ready to sink into the mist, walk the edges of the unknown, and embrace the dark enchantment of this gripping tale.
