Author Archives: Amanda Painter

You Are an Adult

by Amanda Painter, with Eric Francis

If you’re in the U.S., you’re likely gearing up for the Thanksgiving holiday later this week. For some, this means gathering with family (which may be enjoyable or tense, depending on the family); for others, it’s an opportunity to create new traditions with ‘family of choice’. But even if you do not celebrate this holiday, the astrology this week carries the same basic message.

Setting the stage — or the dinner table, to use another metaphor — the Sun leaves Scorpio for Sagittarius on Tuesday at 10:05 pm EST (3:05 UTC Wednesday).

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Regeneration, Healing and the Scorpio New Moon

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By Amanda Painter

There is plenty else going on in the world besides the calling out of sexual harassment and assault that needs our attention and energy. Yet, this is a huge topic at the moment — for good reason, given how much pain it has caused to so many people. If you’re finding yourself constantly triggered and exhausted, know that you are not alone, and it’s okay to take care of yourself and to seek help.

In the moment before regeneration; photo by Amanda Painter.

With a New Moon in Scorpio on Saturday, exact at 6:42 am EST (11:42 UTC), it seems the cosmos is asking us to consider where we go from here.

Hopefully the current spotlight on the lopsided sexual power dynamic has gotten you thinking — I mean really thinking — about the many layers of this issue in our culture; about how we got here and what your own role has been; and, perhaps most importantly, how to move forward into healing individually and collectively.

That’s a lot to take on. You might find that you can handle some facets of the conversation but not others. Or you might find yourself at one end of the healing process (for example, just beginning to identify how you’ve been hurt, or how you’ve hurt others), and it might seem impossible to envision getting to a place where you’ll feel better and can stand more fully in your life.

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In Search of (and Creating) Positive Momentum

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Editor’s note: this is the full PW members’ edition, featuring your weekly horoscopes, the Create feature, and more.

Dear Friend and Reader:

I wrote today’s column on Wednesday aware of a curious mix of emotions, and maybe you can relate: buoyed by some of this week’s Election Day results; numbed and exhausted by news of yet another preventable mass shooting here in the U.S. But let’s consider some of Tuesday’s good news for a moment, since it represents a direct response to everything that has unfolded in the wake of You-Know-Who’s election to the Presidency one year ago:

Danica Roem, center, is greeted by supporters as she prepares to give her victory speech on Tuesday. Roem is the first openly transgender state legislator to be seated in U.S. history. Although she discussed her gender identity, her core platform issues included jobs, schools and traffic congestion. Photo by Jahi Chikwendiu / The Washington Post.

Democratic candidates for governor in both New Jersey and Virginia beat out their Republican rivals (remember Chris Christie?), and Dems also won control of the Virginia General Assembly, in a direct backlash to the Trump Effect.

And New York City’s progressive mayor, who’d campaigned for Bernie Sanders — Bill de Blasio — handily won a second term. Mainers defied the state’s bully of a governor to overwhelmingly approve expanding Medicare for low-income adults (of course, Gov. LePage now says he won’t enact the will of the people).

And in Philadelphia, civil rights lawyer Larry Krasner — a longtime opponent of capital punishment who opposes police stop-and-frisk policies, and who has represented protesters with Black Lives Matter, ACT UP, Occupy Philadelphia and other progressive groups — has been elected District Attorney of the City of Brotherly Love.

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In Search of Positive Momentum

Shifting Focus: Mercury and Venus Change Signs

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This is one of those weeks when the astrological tone shifts slightly; think of it like putting on glasses with colored lenses, except these glasses go on your mind and emotions. What’s going on around you has not changed, but the tint of how you perceive it might.

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Photo by Amanda Painter.

In a world like the one we’re living in — constant political and natural crises; the internet dictating what we see, react to and believe; media whiplash with every cultural backlash — every ounce of deliberateness counts. Life is overwhelming, and many people feel the need to tune out, go numb and seek ‘entertainment’.

Others want so desperately to fix the pain around them, they forget to take care of themselves. And with the idea of ‘outrage du jour’ becoming almost literally a new outrage every single day, it can be hard to track how your own process of evaluating issues and responding to them — as well as how you relate to loved ones — might be shifting.

Which brings us to the astrological highlights of this week: both Mercury and Venus change signs this week. Mercury just left Scorpio and entered Sagittarius earlier today. Venus leaves Libra and enters Scorpio on Tuesday at 6:38 am EST (11:38 UTC).

Whereas Mercury in Scorpio might have had your mind acting something like a sleuth’s magnifying glass or a surgeon’s scalpel — focused on getting beneath the surface with strong intention — Mercury in Sagittarius could feel a little looser. OK, your thoughts and communication might feel a lot looser: shooting from the hip, an easier sense of humor and, perhaps, needing more effort to stay focused.

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Finding Strength No Matter How the Light Breaks Through

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By Amanda Painter

Every once in a while, if I’m feeling a little stumped for an overarching theme for one of these columns, I’ll draw a tarot card or an oracle card of some sort, with a question: what do readers most need to hear — what serves their highest good — regarding this week’s astrology? Sometimes it takes some meditation for me to see how the card offers a way in; such was the case today.

Acadia National Park; photo by Amanda Painter.

I think that’s partly because this week’s Taurus Full Moon — which is exact on Saturday, Nov. 4, at 1:23 am EDT / 5:23 UTC — has a busy chart. There are several strong aspects involved, most of which are already palpable — either in people’s personal lives, or reflected in the news (think surprises — including sudden tragedies, disruptions, confrontations or stalemates, and an urge to do something).

Even so, it can be tough to see the big picture of a particular astrology chart when there’s so much detail begging for interpretation. So I’m going to start by describing the card I pulled: the Nine of Wands from the Rohrig Tarot, created by Carl-W. Rohrig.

Traditionally, the Nine of Wands is associated with resolve and resilience, often in the face of roadblocks. Those themes can still apply with the Rohrig Nine of Wands, which carries the word “Strength” at the bottom. But this card depicts the theme differently: as a brilliant burst of white light that has blasted some sort of stone container open.

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Taurus Full Moon: Another Crest of the Wave

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With Eric Francis

We’re approaching another peak in the lunar cycle — the Taurus Full Moon (exact at 1:23 am on Saturday, Nov. 4). For many reasons this is a deeper event than it may seem on its face; it’s not just another lunation. Still, we’re talking about the Full Moon here, which typically comes with the sense of the emotional tide rising, the pressure to make decisions and a touch more than usual of the microwave-induced insomnia of our times.

For months now, every time the sky aligns in an particularly focused way, we see some kind of horrid event manifest in the world. While we cannot (and will not) predict additional crisis based on the Full Moon chart, there is a level of collective fear that when things get intense, something new will go seriously wrong.

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Of Rabbit Holes and Deep Dives

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By Amanda Painter

What’s the difference between merely falling down a proverbial rabbit hole and following your instincts to uncover a mystery, or to get beneath the surface of something in a way that changes you? The activities can look the same at the outset. Is the defining factor one of practicality — that is, what you do with what you discover, or how it changes you?

Installation in the 2011 Sacred & Profane Festival, Peaks Island, Maine. Photo by Amanda Painter.

Over the next couple of days, the prominent astrology seems to relate to these ideas, thanks to some very strong connections to the sign Scorpio.

First up is today’s conjunction between the Sun and Jupiter in very early Scorpio (exact at 2:09 pm EDT / 18:09 UTC). Jupiter magnifies what it touches, and the Sun represents your conscious awareness. So if you happen to be in a bad mood, feel wronged by someone or tend toward the darker side of life, this could be a reminder to watch out for overdoing the sharper side of Scorpio’s emotional palette.

Yet solar Scorpio is also the time of year when the veil between our world and the unseen realms is said to get thin and permeable; and Jupiter also represents things such as learning about topics remote to your usual experience, philosophical understanding and the ‘superconscious’. You might take a moment to notice what you’re being invited to dive into and explore, or to feel and sense more deeply.

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