The frog's month

October is a month of going back for things. Venus turned retrograde in Scorpio on the 3rd, and for the rest of the month she walks backward through the rooms we usually keep closed: old loves, old debts, the price we once agreed to pay for being liked. Nothing here is a disaster. It is a review, and reviews are tiring mostly because they are honest. The first turn is the new Moon in Libra on the 10th, a quiet start that asks for one clean decision rather than a list of them. The middle of the month is the steadiest stretch. On the 16th Mars, in Leo, makes an exact trine to Saturn, and on the same day Pluto turns direct in Aquarius after months of moving backward. Effort finally has a structure to lean on. If there is a shelf to build or a plan to finish, build it that week. Venus squares Pluto on the 20th, and jealousy, control and old power games get one last loud rehearsal. Watch the rehearsal. You do not have to join the cast. Then the month changes key. On the 23rd the Sun enters Scorpio and meets Venus, on the 24th Mercury turns retrograde in Scorpio, and on the 25th Venus slips back into Libra. The full Moon in Taurus on the 26th lights up what you own, what you earn and what you are simply tired of carrying. Late October is for slowing down on purpose. Reread before you sign. Repeat the question before you answer it. The frog has spent many autumns at the edge of the same pond. Every year it looks the same, and every year she finds something in it she had missed.