Magickal Month- November

Magickal Month November
Magickal Month November

November was originally the 9th month in the old Roman calendar, but became the 11th month in the updated Julian and Gregorian calendars when January and February were added to the beginning of the year. Here in the Southeastern US, it’s finally getting chilly. We may have a few sunny, warm days here and there, but mostly it’s cool enough to wear sweaters and jackets. I’m writing this on October 29th, and as of yet, the leaves have barely even begun to change. Global warming is real, y’all.

I’ve been seeing lots of squirrels and chipmunks gathering food for the Winter. And blue jays have been hanging out too. The house wrens are still frequent visitors to the window in front of the sink where I wash dishes, and I hope they find a warm spot to winter! We’ve also had an increase in spider activity as they come inside on cold nights. I kind of love them, as they usually show up when I’m doing a lot of writing. So it’s all good.

We missed a lot of fun things in October due to being sick, but I’m hoping that that was the big cold for the season. Hopefully we can just be cozy without being miserable from here on out.

Lunations:
November 7- New Moon in Scorpio, 11:01am EST
November 23- Full Moon in Gemini, 12:39am EST

Astronomy:
Northern Taurids meteor shower peaks November 10th-11th.
November 16- Venus goes direct at 5:45am in Libra
November 16- Mercury goes retrograde at 8:27pm in Sagittarius
Leonids meteor shower peaks November 17th-18th.
November 24- Neptune goes direct 5:43pm in Pisces

Celtic Tree Month:
Reed (October 28- November 24): Introverting, withdrawing, connecting with the past and with spirit, ancestors, messages from the spirit world, culling that which doesn’t serve us, dreaming- but not planning. Seeking basic truth, finding direction, giving meaning and purpose to your journey, skill and direction, secret strength and secret motivations, seeing beneath the surface.
Elder (November 25- December 23): Endings and new beginnings, completion of the cycle, focusing on greater happiness and your heart’s desire, evaluating what you’ve learned over the last year, cutting loose ends, thinking about your dreams for the new year, judgment, transformation, death and regeneration, fate, the inevitable, exorcism, banishment, prosperity and healing, leaves and berries can be used for protection and breaking spells cast against you.

Holidays (non-Pagan):
November 2: All Soul’s Day
November 4: Daylight Savings Time ends
November 6: Election Day (GO VOTE!!)
November 7: Diwali (Hindu)
November 11: Veteran’s Day
November 16: Tolerance day- celebrating tolerance of all
November 20: World Community Day celebrating diversity
November 21: The Prophet’s Birthday (Muslim)
November 22: Thanksgiving
November 23: American Indian Heritage Day

Holidays (Pagan):
November5-6: Khalkeia- Greek festival celebrating Athena and Hephaistos for their gifts of craft and technology
November 8-9: Maimakterion Noumenia- Greek festival honoring all gods and goddesses
November 11-12: Greek feast of Aphrodite and Eros- celebrating love and passion
November 11-17: Anglo-Teutonic fast commemorating Hod’s (darkness) killing of Baldur (light) and his love Nanna dying of a broken heart- the dead were honored

Themes for the month: Family, gratitude, beginning of the holiday season, food, celebration, crafting (if you make presents for Yule), hunkering down as the nights get colder.

General activities for the month: Eating, eating, eating! Knitting, cooking, reading, building fires, spending time inside where it’s warm, putting the garden to sleep for Winter.

Herbs I’m using: Bay leaves (for prophecy, I do a lot of personal tarot work at this time of year while the veil is still thin from Samhain), Mugwort (opening your psychic senses), coffee beans (for the sacred brew).

Stones I’m using: Malachite (honoring the feminine- loving my body even when it hurts), lepidolite (soothes me during seasonal depression lows), ammonites (spiraling back into the past to work with ancestors)

Goddess of the Month: This month I’m really being drawn to work with the ancestors and my guides rather than a specific deity. It’s a weird time of year, where I tend to close down socially, but open up spiritually. So I want to honor the more immediate spiritual contacts that I work with and try to open further to them.

November 3 card reading
November 3 card reading

3 card reading:

Well, this month isn’t looking so hot on the tarot front. That’s OK, this reading is just giving us a heads up on what to look out for. Our future is always in our own hands, but now we have forewarning of some potential pitfalls.

First, we have the 6 of Pentacles reversed. So it looks like a bonus or gift that we were hoping to receive won’t be happening. This is a good warning to avoid planning your finances around this gift, and to make sure that you have enough to cover the necessities. It’s always a good idea to expect less, so that if you do receive surprise money, you can enjoy it that much more.

Next, we see the 9 of Cups reversed. So that means that something that we’ve been wishing for won’t be happening. This could refer to the bonus above, but it could also mean something a little more in the realm of emotions, romance, family, or friends. It seems like this month is going to have some disappointments. But that’s OK, we can weather it just fine, and maybe these things we’ve been wishing for will come to us in December.

Finally, we have the 3 of Wands reversed. So any plans that we begin now probably won’t work out. That’s to be expected. This is the dying time of the year, when we should be going within, getting cozy, and enjoying our family. It’s not a great time to start new projects. A better time to start something new would be around the renewal energy of the New Year, or the Spring energy of planting seeds. It’s best to just enjoy what you have and be grateful right now.

Our special guidance card is Eye. So this is a great time to sit back and wait and watch for good things on the horizon. Be clear-headed about the reality of your situation, and know that you’re seeing things as they really are.

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Lyric of Autumn
William Stanley Braithwaite

There is music in the meadows, in the air —
Autumn is here;
Skies are gray, but hearts are mellow,
Leaves are crimson, brown, and yellow;
Pines are soughing, birches stir,
And the Gipsy trail is fresh beneath the fir.

There is rhythm in the woods, and in the fields,
Nature yields:
And the harvest voices crying,
Blend with Autumn zephyrs sighing;
Tone and color, frost and fire,
Wings the nocturne Nature plays upon her lyre.

My personal tides: It seems like every year around now, I tend to get really introverted and introspective. I don’t really come back out of my shell until February or March. I’m wanting to completely get off Facebook for a while, but I also really want to work on NaNoWriMo and get some solid writing done. I’m kind of listless and bored and too sensitive to deal with people at all. It’s a weird time of the year for me.

My personal goals: Instead of focusing on 50K words for NaNoWriMo, I think I’m going to try and do 1 hour of solid writing each day of November. That way, I can feel good about what I DO accomplish, but without the pressure of that 50K mark. I also really need to move forward on packing/purging/getting ready to move. Our timeline is shortening by the day, and it’s time to really get serious.