New Moon in Scorpio

We are about waist-deep into Mercury Retrograde, and it is your typical exhaustive frustration with technology, communication, and everything else that usually accompanies the three weeks of Mercurial chaos. Does anyone else feel that when Mercury goes Retrograde, we deserve time off to relax and wait out all the completely avoidable nonsense? If only. Unfortunately, that is not the way the world works, so most of us have to push through our daily personal and professional routines without giving in to the seething rage or mental exhaustion that tends to rise whenever the planet closest to the Sun does its little rewind dance in the sky. Fortunately, during all of this, we have an opportunity to pause and slow down thanks to the Dark Moon in Scorpio on November 20th, only nine days before Mercury goes direct.

Scorpio, as you know, is the sign of deep emotional transformation and transmutation, the Alchemist of the zodiac, if you will. Scorpio asks us to slow down, take a moment, and go deep inside ourselves while the world around us keeps spinning. This isn’t about avoiding reality or responsibility, but about making time for our own emotional needs. New Moons signify the beginning of the lunar cycle, and when you are in Scorpio, that energy typically asks you to go into the marrow of your emotions and see where the real work lies. What needs to be released so that you are no longer feeling drained, heavy, or stuck emotionally?

When you add this to Mercury Retrograde, you might find yourself breaking down when things don’t go as expected. Even the smallest hiccup can leave you crying in a puddle on the floor if you continue avoiding feelings long buried or forgotten, or actively pushed aside. That’s simply your body letting you know it can’t keep going without addressing some core emotional issues. And for that reason, Scorpio doesn’t always appear to play nice when we avoid, distract, or obfuscate our emotional reality, which is precisely what makes it the alchemist of astrology. Scorpio wants to help us find our emotional footing, and to do that, we often have to go deep into our feelings, past the point of discomfort, before we can really see what has been sitting in our own Mariana Trench of feelings. That is where we can choose to let it continue sitting there, polluting ourselves, or we can do a bit of cleanup. The choice is always ours. The universe is simply here to offer gentle, and sometimes not so gentle, reminders that our choices and perspectives belong to us. And if we find we are limited or held back, we often have to return to the source, to the self, and do some honest inventory.

Scorpio, the Emotional Alchemist

And while all of that emotional excavation would be enough on its own, this particular New Moon carries a little more weight than usual because of everything happening around it. With Mercury Retrograde still stirring up the past, this Scorpio New Moon acts less like a traditional fresh start and more like a deep internal review. Many astrologers are pointing out that this Dark Moon does not just initiate something new, instead, it asks us to revisit, rewrite, and rethink the stories we have been carrying, especially the ones we thought we had buried or outgrown without doing the real work to process and embody their lessons. This is an opportunity to really understand how our past has impacted our present, and what will happen if we keep those most private and hurtful emotions buried deep in the recesses of our psyche, and how that will impact our future if we let it. We may find buried treasure if we are brave enough, and we may finally understand why something caused so much sorrow, pain, heartbreak or frustration and how it’s rippled out, manifesting in our lives in ways we may not have realized. In Scorpio, beginnings do not come without endings, and endings rarely happen without truth coming up for air.

The Dark Moon is in Scorpio, which means its emotional waters are intense, concentrated, and sometimes uncomfortable. The Moon wants softness, predictability, and safety, but stinging Scorpio wants truth, shadow work, and transformation. When the Moon reflects Scorpio’s depths, we often meet emotions we didn’t know we were still holding onto. It can feel like crying in the shower or realizing there is some painful truth in a feeling we have avoided or suppressed for years. A Moon in this position does not weaken us. It simply refuses to let us keep pretending by bringing certain emotions to the surface.

And with this New Moon sitting at 28 degrees of Scorpio, right at the edge of Sagittarius, there is a real sense of being on a threshold. 2025 is a threshold year, it’s the Year of the Snake, and in numerology it’s the number 9, which signifies completion. It’s not surprising that so many astrological events have that symbolism and meaning. This degree feels like a final invitation to open the vault we locked long ago and release what has chained us to a past version of ourselves that we are finally ready to outgrow or let go. And all of this arrives right before the Sun shifts into Sagittarius, which means this moment is the final deep breath before the energy changes, but right now, this is Scorpio’s moment. Scorpio pulls us inward, into the water, into the dark, into the truth we keep tucked beneath the surface. What you release now lightens the load for the path ahead. This is the descent before the ascent in more ways than one.

The Shift toward Inward Exploration

There is also a strong emphasis on worth, value, and what we allow ourselves to receive. Scorpio sits opposite Taurus, the sign that rules resources, self-worth, and the material foundation we stand on. This means the New Moon is not only asking for emotional purification but also for a reckoning with the beliefs and patterns that keep us grasping at what drains us instead of choosing what sustains us. Several astrologers mention that this New Moon can be the opportunity where we’ve been seeking breakthroughs or shifts in what we prioritize, especially with Uranus agitating the Taurus side of the axis and pushing us toward surprising insight or uncomfortable clarity. Taurus rules our worth, our resources, our stability, and how we root ourselves into the world. Scorpio rules our shared depths, our vulnerability, the places where we come together or break apart. When these two signs work together in right relationship, they remind us that true stability requires honesty and true emotional depth requires a sense of inner worth. Taurus teaches Scorpio how to anchor. Scorpio teaches Taurus how to evolve. Together, they ask us to choose what sustains rather than drains and what feels true rather than familiar.

If you are someone who tends to power through discomfort, like me, the Dark Moon in Scorpio might feel like the universe gently tugging on your sleeve, asking you to stop pretending you are fine. I will be honest, I am the sort of person, through both nature and nurture, who keeps moving no matter what. For much of my life, that was how I survived. I learned early on that we do not live in a culture, society or global civilization that is conducive to giving us time to rest or, at the very least even momentarily pause when things in our life fall apart. Maybe that’s why I’m so drawn to ancient cultures and indigenous communities around the world because I’m so tired of spinning so fast just to keep up with the rapid pace of life in modernity. You are expected to pick up the pieces with dignity, silence and carry your pain without bothering others. Head up, smile, do your job and do it to the best of your ability, no matter what is happening around you.

When my mom died suddenly, it all hit me at once. Everything I said I would eventually get to, all the things I promised myself I would change or address or fix that I never had the time or chance to just stop. She died on a Monday and I had to work that Friday because I had the kind of job where calling out sick was not an option. If I did not show up, I was letting down hundreds of people and there was no one who could replace me on such short notice. So I swallowed my grief, pushed it down, hid it under a smile and laughter, and did my job because I had no choice. Having no choice when my whole world had just been upended catastrophically was the nail in the coffin for a career that made me feel like I was never good enough, mentally, emotionally and physically for years. I was done. I think of Dory in Finding Nemo singing “Just keep swimming” and while it can be good advice in general as far as forward momentum and optimism, sometimes, you need to stop and just let yourself be in the hardship so it doesn’t become a sort of ghost that haunts us until we are forced to face it. I know I’ve had to learn this the hard way.

But here is what I learned from pushing through when every fiber of my being wanted me to stop and be with my grief. You cannot outrun your emotions, no matter how hard you try, no matter how much you want to, and no matter how impossible life or work makes it feel to actually process something. What we push down always resurfaces. What we avoid waits for us. Something will eventually force the reckoning. That moment was mine. And I know I am not the only one who has been in a situation where you had to keep going before your heart had even caught up. And now that I am unwinding from the intense and relentless tension of those fifteen years, so much is coming up. I am facing things I did not realize I had buried or ignored, not out of fear or refusal to look at it, but because I simply didn’t have the time or space because life kept piling more and more on top of me. I am feeling things I pushed down because I had to prioritize survival now coming up to the surface, and now I am taking my time to untangle and address the very things I avoided because life had other plans. It is humbling, uncomfortable, and strangely liberating. Anyone else relate?

And all of this arrives right before the Sun shifts into Sagittarius, which means this moment is the final deep breath before the energy changes. Scorpio pulls us inward, into the water, into the dark, into the truth we keep tucked beneath the surface. Sagittarius wants movement, exploration, clarity, expansion, and the relief of open space. This New Moon sits right at that threshold. What you release now lightens the load for the path ahead. What you acknowledge now becomes the fuel for the next chapter, once the light cracks open again.

Water, Water, Everywhere

The New Moon in Scorpio is influenced by a Grand Water Trine that started in early November and peaks around November 17th. Jupiter moves through Cancer, Saturn moves through Pisces, and the Sun and Moon come together in Scorpio, creating a triangle across all three water signs. Because water’s domain is emotional, healing, intuitive, unconscious and heavily influences how we process feelings, having a grand trine during a Dark Moon in Scorpio adds a layer of gentle support to the internal work we are being called upon to face. It is not the flood of overwhelm that water can sometimes bring; it is the tide that carries you rather than pulling you under.

The Grand Water Trine can be thought of as giving us the permission and support to really dive deep. Release comes more naturally. Honesty feels less aggressive. When we actually sit with our buried feelings or unexamined pain, it may feel more like a release and a relief than a fearful exploration of what we’ve buried or kept sealed deep within our psyche that’s keeping us from moving forward in one or more aspects of our lives. So let the water gently wash in and support whatever needs to be examined, cleansed or cleared and ultimately released.

Because the New Moon sits so late in Scorpio, right at the threshold of Sagittarius, it carries the feeling of a final descent before rising into a wider horizon. The Grand Water Trine supports this moment by making it easier to let go of whatever has kept you tethered to an older version of yourself. It creates a gentle but persistent flow that moves you deeper into truth, deeper into feeling, and deeper into the parts of yourself that you have outgrown but perhaps never fully released. The trine works with the New Moon to create a pocket of emotional clarity, a moment when you can see yourself honestly without collapsing under the weight of what you discover. It is not here to drown you. It is here to lift you toward whatever comes next once the light returns. A Water Trine can make emotional healing feel less like drowning and more like being gently lifted by a tide that knows exactly where we need to go. It is support, even when the work feels heavy. It is movement, even when we feel stuck. It is flow, even when we are certain we have turned to stone. Damn, I am really going all in on these water metaphors, huh?

Emotional Clarity through Introspection

So if you feel heavy, raw, weepy, overwhelmed, out of sorts, or strangely alert to feelings you thought you had moved on from, you are not doing anything wrong. You are right on time. Scorpio is not here to punish you. It is here to alchemize you. It is here to help you look at what you have been carrying, decide what still belongs, and choose what you are finally ready to put down. And Mercury Retrograde is working alongside it, pulling the threads loose so you can see the full pattern instead of only the pieces.

This New Moon is an invitation to be honest with yourself. To slow down long enough to actually hear what your inner world has been trying to say. To notice what hurts, what needs tending, and what no longer has a place in the life you are building. The universe is not asking for perfection. It is asking for participation. It is asking you to meet yourself where you are, without judgment, without the need to hide or explain away anything that bubbles up from the deeper waters.

You get to choose how you move forward from here. And the beauty of Scorpio season is that once you choose, once you acknowledge the truth of where you are standing, the transformation that follows is not forced. Change, as always, is inevitable.