On the Erotic Ecliptic for October 2024

On navigating eclipse/election season and soothing our collective floating anxieties

goddess with scales of justice in neon pink

October 2024 Dates to Note

2^nd: NEW MOON/SOLAR ECLIPSE at 10 degrees of Libra (2:49 pm ET)

4^th: Venus in Scorpio trine Saturn in Pisces (1:04 pm ET)

6^th: Mercury in Libra square Mars in Cancer (2:37 am ET)

8^th: Venus in Scorpio trine Mars in Cancer (6:22 am ET), Mercury in Libra trine Jupiter in Gemini (8:23 am ET), Mercury in Libra opposite Chiron in Aries (10:36 am ET)

9^th: JUPITER STATIONS RETROGRADE IN GEMINI (3:05 am ET)

11^th: PLUTO STATIONS DIRECT IN CAPRICORN FOR THE FINAL TIME IN THE NEXT TWO CENTURIES! (8:34 pm ET)

12^th: Jupiter in Gemini sextile Chiron in Aries (3:31 am ET)

13^th: Mercury in Libra square Pluto in Capricorn (10:03 am ET), MERCURY ENTERS SCORPIO (3:23 pm ET), Mars in Cancer square Chiron in Aries (4:36 pm ET), Sun in Libra trine Jupiter in Gemini (11:52 pm ET)

14^th: Sun in Libra square Mars in Cancer (4:15 am ET), Venus in Scorpio opposite Uranus in Taurus (6:22 pm ET)

15^th: Venus in Scorpio trine Neptune in Pisces (8:49 pm ET)

17th: FULL MOON IN ARIES at 24 degrees (7:26 am ET), Venus in Scorpio sextile Pluto in Capricorn (8:30 am ET), VENUS ENTERS SAGITTARIUS (3:28 pm ET)

22nd: Mercury in Scorpio trine Saturn in Pisces (2:35 am ET), Sun in Libra square Pluto in Capricorn (10:15 am ET), SUN ENTERS SCORPIO: OFFICIAL START OF WITCHING SEASON (6:15 pm ET)

24^th: Mars in Cancer sextile Uranus in Taurus (8:13 pm ET)

28^th: Mars in Cancer trine Neptune in Pisces (8:31 am ET), Venus in Sagittarius square Saturn in Pisces (9:35 am ET)

30^th: Mercury in Scorpio opposite Uranus in Taurus (6:15 pm ET)

31^st: Mercury in Scorpio trine Neptune in Pisces (8:33 pm ET) SAMHAIN/HALLOWEEN

From Asheville to Beirut, the pre-eclipse energies are unfurling as I write this — it is already a moment of catastrophe and crisis. The proverbial October Surprise is that the entire month is riven with shock, awe, and confusion. We may have a new and different October Surprise every few days.

It would be enough that America’s most pivotal election season, perhaps our last real one in a functioning democracy, is taking place at the end of Pluto’s journey through Capricorn — enough for many intense news cycles. But this month into November ripples with planetary action that pierces the collective and forces us to contemplate all the ways in which we cannot go back to how it was before.

We cannot go back to capitalism as it was before. We cannot go back to patriarchy as it was before. We cannot go back to white supremacy as it was before. We cannot go back to empire as it was before. We cannot go back to pre-pandemic, before the Trump era life, to a world where all the collective trauma we’ve lived through does not exist. Yet I see people trying to pretend none of it ever happened. That’s a Libra season flex — smiling through some seriously awful shit and trying to compartmentalize it all away, or using one’s privilege to pretend that the worst crimes of an authoritarian regime won’t hurt one’s own family. This time, none of us will be able to fake it ‘til we make it. We have to lean into the rawness of our authenticity and the uncertainty of this moment — diving deep for that Libra shadow.

In your own life, wherever you are, notice where you are clenching against the fear of chaos and even necessary change. Take a deep breath into that part of your body, exhale slowly, and then inhale and exhale a few more times. None of this is easy, even if we are not personally in the floodwaters or the aftermath of a missile strike.

October is complex, fraught, and rich with relational energy that can transform us, moving us from crisis to chrysalis in the part of our chart ruled by Libra, especially if we’re willing to let ourselves be seen and emotionally vulnerable with others. There was a Solar Eclipse in Libra on October 14th last year, just a week after 10/7. In many ways this month’s eclipse speaks to that one, as a kind of answer to all that unfolded in the 12 months since. We will all feel this anniversary, no matter the particulars of our own personal politics.

We can read this narrative as one of cycles within cycles. The October 2nd Solar Eclipse at 10 degrees of Libra is the last of this series on the South Node for the next 18 years. On October 3rd 2005, we experienced the previous iteration of this exact eclipse degree a month after Hurricane Katrina, and before that, we experienced an eclipse at this degree on October 3rd, 1986. We’re revisiting these past cycles and the cycle of Aries/Libra eclipses from nine years ago, when the nodes were reversed in 2014/2015, in the lead-up to the dark MAGA era that we haven’t yet fully eviscerated. Can we eclipse it now, with our votes?

The current eclipse is conjunct Black Moon Lilith and Mercury in Libra — suggesting that abortion, women’s rights, and bodily autonomy will reverberate as radical calls to action during the weeks and months after the eclipse.

As I write this the chryon on my TV is blaring breaking news: ISRAELI ARTILLERY FIRES INTO SOUTHERN LEBANON. They’re calling the destruction of Hurricane Helene “post-apocalyptic” and saying it looks like Armageddon. Even though this eclipse season’s range only extends to about mid-month, we’re entering the pre-retrograde shadow of the upcoming Mars Retrograde in Leo/Cancer on the 5th, so we’re trading one kind of intense angst for another. Plus, we’re heading into a Mars-Pluto opposition that perfects on November 3rd — just two days before the election.

When we think of Libra we tend to focus on relationships, but one of the lesser-known facets of the Libra archetype is its ability to search for and find calm like a heat-seeking missile. People with Libra placements are always looking not necessarily for love or partnership, but for the sense of calm bestowed by that connection, where one can offload some of one’s own angst onto another person. This month’s calling and that of all challenging Libra seasons is always: where can we connect to and create a sense of calm?

In the midst of all of this, on the eve of the eclipse, we have the Vice Presidential debate between Aries Tim Walz, a normal human being and beloved football coach, and Leo JD Vance (AKA Vladimir Futon) — a sociopath made in a lab by Peter Thiel and the ghost of Father Coughlin, based on Commander Fred from Handmaid’s Tale.

The eclipse is widely conjunct Vance’s Moon and opposite Walz’s Sun and closely opposed to his Mars. We don’t have a birth time for Coach Walz – if any of y’all get to meet him at a rally, can you ask him? DYING TO KNOW THIS INFORMATION.

This debate is an anything-goes situation. Whereas it was fairly easy to predict Kamala’s debate win last month, this Walz/Vance match-up is a total toss-up. My money is of course on the Aries, but the eclipse is making it impossible to know what will happen. All I’m certain about is that Vance will unleash a firehose of lies that will not be fact-checked by the CBS moderators. I’m noting that the chart for the debate features Gemini rising, so Mercury’s conjunction to the eclipse is the most important element of the night.

I wish I could say that October’s cosmic intensity is frontloaded — that things will get calmer as we progress, but that’s not really the case thanks to Pluto’s final direct station in Capricorn for the next two centuries on the 11th. This is momentous for the Venn diagram of capitalism/patriarchy and white supremacy I mentioned earlier — a stark reminder that these forces are all born of the same source of dominance and will to power. Pluto’s final curtain call in this sign signals that yes, we can emerge from this era into something better, if we remember that each of us, when we vote together, are as powerful as any man who claims he wants to be “our protector.”

I want to say so much more about the vagaries of this wild month, but for now, I’m going to end with the Full Moon at 24 degrees pf Aries on the 17th. This lunation is very close in degree to the Great American Eclipse in Aries that took place on April 8th this year. The good news: this is the first non-eclipsed lunation we’ve had since early September. The not-so-great news? It’s conjunct Chiron and square Mars in Cancer, linking it up with the Mars-Pluto opposition already brewing. In short, this lunation is bristling with the potential for violence, so please take good care around the days leading up to it, especially if you have planets in the last decan of cardinal signs.

After I finish up the sign-by-sign forecasts for paid subscribers over the next few days, I plan to come back to this general forecast and add to it. Please read my WELL+GOOD forecast in the meantime, if you’re hungry for some Sun and rising sign horoscopes!

Also, just in time for Libra season, I’ve developed a new couple’s consultation called Erotic Energy Mapping for Couples. Here’s a description:

Erotic Energy Mapping is a unique hybrid of clinical sexology and astrology in which the erotic energy of the natal chart is explored in detail. In the couple's consultation, we use synastry and composite analysis to examine desire, sexual attraction, kink, sexual inhibitions or blocks, attachment styles, partnership patterning, and anything else you want to know more about. I will send you and your partner intake forms to send back to me at least 48 hours before the session.

You can book here or message me with any questions, or if you can’t find time on my schedule. I’m still offering 20 percent off if you show me a copy of your receipt for my book Sex and Your Stars: A Sexologist’s Guide to the Erotic Energy of the Zodiac. Scoop it up for savings!