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National and global news has been…rough lately…to make a gross understatement. So when current astrology manifests in my life in ridiculous ways, I like to acknowledge it in appreciation. Especially when Mercury shows up in its Trickster guise in a fun-loving sign like Sagittarius.
Completely by accident, I ended up re-watching the original Back to the Future this weekend. I even happened to drop into the movie about 30 minutes in — about one-quarter of the way through.
I just realized this morning how absurdly appropriate this was to Mercury stationing retrograde yesterday at 7 degrees of Sagittarius, one-quarter if its way through one of the most forward-looking signs.
Sagittarius seems to get its forward-looking theme partly from the sense of expansion associated with its ruling planet, Jupiter: “outward” and “upward” and “more” all broaden perspective beyond the immediate present. Optimism, a typical Sadge trait, essentially means feeling good about the future.
Even the glyph for Sagittarius, an arrow aimed upward, describes the sense of a far-off landing place in contrast to the here and now — and our faith that we can follow our intentions to meet a future partly of our own making. With the Sun still in the depths of Scorpio through Nov. 21, currently the contrast feels distinct yet balanced between the immersive “here and now” of the Sun’s seasonal expression and the future-oriented tone described by Mercury.
Yet when Mercury shifted its apparent direction at roughly 2:02 pm EST on November 9, it set its sights astrologically backward. On November 19 it will re-enter Scorpio by the back door. By Nov. 29, when Mercury stations direct at 12:38 pm EST at 21 Scorpio, it will have traveled through the last third of that sign.
Retrogrades of Mercury can be especially fascinating when they cross over the border between two signs rather than stay within one sign, as adjoining signs are always the most different from each other. With the current Mercury retrograde, we have a description of the collective mental landscape and communication style moving from a dry, hot, flexible, and perhaps the widest-open and furthest-reaching expression to a wet, cool, stable, and perhaps the most hidden and closely contained expression.
Although it will take ten days for Mercury to shift signs and for the shift in tone to manifest, it could be an interesting thing to mark on your calendar and track. Particularly since Mercury and Uranus will oppose each other again on Nov. 19, describing the potential to be faced with “ah-ha” moments, left-field ideas, and unexpected insights. Both planets will be retrograding through fixed signs (Scorpio and Taurus, respectively) rather than the mutable signs Sagittarius and Gemini, where they recently opposed each other on Oct. 29.
It seems that whatever review process you’re now embarking on will be run through a values-check along the way. Not a bad idea, honestly, given how easily the stress of collective upheaval and individual struggle can compel us to make choices we might not consider during less provocative times. Survival can be scary. Fear is powerful. Survival-level decisions often can only be made one way out of necessity.
Even so, a values-check or a sudden “light-bulb moment” could serve as a welcome clue to previously unseen options on Nov. 20, as Mercury moves into a tight conjunction with the Sun and Moon. During the Scorpio New Moon those three bodies will be roughly one degree off from a precise opposition to Uranus in Taurus.
Speaking of values-checks, review processes, and sudden reversals: it is not lost on me that only hours after Mercury stationed retrograde on Sunday, several Democrats in the U.S. Senate voted for a House-passed stopgap package to end the governmental shutdown that “would fund multiple agencies and programs for the full fiscal year, and all others until Jan. 30, 2026,” according to Politco.com, which also noted that, “In exchange, Democrats have a commitment from the Trump administration to rehire government workers fired at the start of the funding lapse, and the promise of a Senate floor vote in December on legislation to extend expiring Obamacare tax credits.”
I won’t offer any opinions on this development, or on the promises and commitments upon which it was based.
I’ll only say that as Mercury stations direct on Nov. 29, and when it returns to its present position of 7 Sagittarius on Dec. 16, I’ll be curious to see what else we learn.
With that, I share these horoscopes for your rising sign and Sun sign, with the hope they help you to make constructive use of whatever you learn during your personal experience of this Mercury retrograde this month. I’ve specifically included the Scorpio New Moon in these interpretations, since it features Mercury so prominently.
May any process of review, revising, renegotiating, reworking (and so on) that you embark upon serve your highest good — no matter how squirrely things get.
With love,
Amanda
P.S. If I can support you through the current changes and uncertainty with an astrological consultation or some soul work sessions, please get in touch. And if you enjoy these horoscopes or find them helpful, you’re welcome to leave me a tip here as a form of energy exchange. Thank you for reading!
P.P.S. You’re invited to read these for your rising sign in addition to your Sun sign. Please comment or message me if you’d like help finding out what your rising sign is or why it matters.
November Horoscopes for Mercury Retrograde and the Scorpio New Moon
ARIES — Have you ever traveled to some far-off locale only to spend the first half of the trip taking care of a personal matter with someone back home? Physically you may have been seeing the sights and experiencing the culture, but until you could put your full mental and emotional focus on your surroundings, there was probably only so much you could take in. Once the unfinished business got settled, chances are you could engage fully and benefit from the shift in environment and perspective. Mercury’s retrograde this month suggests a similar experience, with or without an actual trip.
You appear eager to explore, learn, and seek new vistas. Yet while you put those wheels in motion, it seems you’ll need to revert your attention to a financial agreement or deeply personal relationship. Something is in need of renegotiation.
Around the Scorpio New Moon on Nov. 20, a surprise development relating to your deepest values or your income may challenge you to rethink the situation. You are no stranger to renewal, or to the strong feelings that accompany a cycle of surrender and resurgence. Think back to similar past circumstances where you had to renegotiate a close relationship or investment. What did you learn about yourself, and how did it change you? The lesson may be different this time, but the eventual effect should be the same: the runway clearing for arrival — mentally and perhaps literally.
TAURUS — Are you itching to aim high with your desires for your bank account or in your bedroom? You may indeed have reason to move in those areas with optimism, if you keep the needs and perspectives of any additional participants in view. Just be aware that Mercury’s backwards movement this month describes a need to revisit how and where you’re meeting partners of all sorts (platonic, romantic, business, therapeutic, etc.).
By “where” I don’t mean so much the physical location (though that could be a factor); more like: where are your minds in accord, how well are you matching up emotionally, and are your respective growth paths complimentary?
You’re about to revisit a process of radical self-reinvention and liberation that was in the works for a few years, and which you may have thought had completed this summer. When Mercury slides into alignment with the Nov. 20 New Moon in your opposite sign of Scorpio, it describes an opportunity for you to reflect on the ways the deep changes you’ve been experiencing are reflected in who you’re partnered with or beginning to encounter now. Curiosity to take these insights deeper could put you in position for the most authentic moves and mergers yet when it comes to shared resources and intimacy — and entire new worlds that could open up from there.
GEMINI — Have you ever gotten out of work and gone straight to a social event or a date, only to suddenly realize mid-sentence that you’d left some crucial responsibility or piece of a project incomplete or incorrect, and needed to go back to the office to take care of it? Or maybe you realized on the drive home how to improve it, and spent a few minutes before dinner redrafting it to make sure the next day would go smoothly? Even if you have not, I recommend using these scenarios as a metaphor this month. Mercury will be retrograding from your zone of relationships back into the part of your chart representing your daily work-life balance.
It appears a partner or friend may reverse their stance, or will serve as a (possibly irritating) reminder of some health or work habit you need to reconsider. At the Scorpio New Moon on Nov. 20, the signal should come through loud and clear — but it will be coming from within you. This is true even if the message feels shocking or seems to come from a colleague or work event. Pay particular attention if you find yourself doing something other than what you said you’d do that day. Same if you have an exaggerated reaction, or if everyday tasks and tech go sideways.
All of these possibilities would be pointing in the same direction: a key insight about yourself that’s been hidden long enough. Follow these clues as deep as you can, and the resulting self-knowledge should serve you well in all types of relationships going forward.
CANCER — You appear to have your mind on a particular matter of work-related mental or physical health, and have begun taking action toward addressing it. Yet it seems there’s still something about it that you need to understand better. While shifting gears at this stage could feel frustrating, especially if the health issue is longstanding and is impacting your daily functioning, chances are there are blessings hidden in any rethinking, delay, or hiccups that arise this month.
In fact, the Scorpio New Moon on Nov. 20 describes an entry point to a whole new mood about it all. For you, that chart reminds me of what’s called a “drift dive” in scuba: descending into the water column where there are deep currents, and letting them carry you over the vibrant, continually shifting vista of coral and fish without any effort. Translation: during this New Moon you’ll want to stay relaxed, playful, and creative, with as little attachment as possible to the outcomes of your adventures, experiments, and creations.
If you can do that, the current may carry you to insights that connect who you are, why you’re here, and what you have to express, expanding your previous notions of such. Also, an unexpected reaction from one of your social circles could prove inspiring. Remember what you learn. Carrying this insight forward into your daily work and service could be exactly what you needed in order to aim squarely at that question of health and function.
LEO — Have you ever tried something a bit riskier, more creative, or more adventurous than your norm simply because someone you consider “fun” inspired you — or because someone who rubs you the wrong way got the better of your ego when they did the thing like it was no big deal? I suspect that most of the time you incorporate experiences like that and build on them. But once in a while, maybe you second-guess yourself? As Mercury retrogrades this month, it looks like some doubt or a bit of “revisionist history” may creep in regarding what you were thinking recently.
Don’t let this shake your pride; you’re not wrong for thinking this way or for trying the thing and expressing yourself. It’s just that you may need to reacquaint yourself with where your sense of safety and security actually stems from. Is it your family? Or is it more that your early childhood experiences, whether supportive or harrowing, enabled you to connect with an inner reservoir of strength early on?
Whatever your conclusion, pay close attention to how “at home” you’re feeling around the Scorpio New Moon on Nov. 20. You’re set up to remember a core lesson with deep emotional resonance — likely for the purpose of rewriting an old story that on longer reflects what you’ve learned about yourself. An unexpected (yet maybe familiar?) surprise in a professional setting could be exactly what you need in order to recognize what has changed in you. That should get your mind back in the game of living life out loud.
VIRGO — Your motivation to feel freer in yourself and more comfortable in your living space is gearing up. Yet, as Mercury begins its retrograde, you might experience some friction around this. Imagine you’ve just walked through the door of your home after running an errand, but then second-guess whether you locked your car doors. When you go back out to check, you realize you’d left something of value on the back seat that you’d forgotten about. Keep that scenario in mind if a seemingly disruptive worldview or provocative spiritual insight begins challenging (again) how you think about something on a deeply personal level. The sensation may intensify around the Nov. 20 Scorpio New Moon.
Luckily this ground has been worked over pretty well the last few years, suggesting a feeling of fine-tuning and incorporation rather than disorientation. If you can allow your awareness of physical sensations to give you hints about your deeper emotions around this matter, you may finally crack open a frame of mind that’s been rather stuck for a long time. True, it probably served you well for years. This can make the thought of releasing or changing your point of view feel threatening, rather than like the opportunity for liberation and coming home to yourself that it actually is. Your opinions can sometimes feel like they’re engraved in stone.
But what happens if you see your attitudes and conclusions more like your hometown than Moses’s stone tablets? Suddenly they become familiar places you can investigate repeatedly, trying new routes to see where they lead, rather than a set of rigid mandates. And like driving around your town, understanding how your experiences and emotions have shaped how you think — and reclaiming your power to choose a new route — will always expand the area you call “home.”
LIBRA — More than most signs, the big, wide world is your neighborhood. This may be more a state of mind than an actual fact of frequent travel, but chances are it’s a bit of both if circumstances allow. Currently, even if you’re not gearing up for a trip by gathering information and lining up logistics, you certainly appear motivated to communicate with everyone around you about some of your grander ideas. You have the energy to engage others in accomplishing something meaningful — especially if you listen carefully to others’ responses.
Yet as Mercury retrogrades, your thinking may shift. Something needs to be reconsidered, which could feel incredibly irritating at first. Stick with this review process no matter how much you’d rather push forward. Over the next several weeks, your attention will likely shift to the very personal topics of money, emotional resources, anything else you consider privately yours, and perhaps even a particular emotional current you feel flowing around these things and how you feel about yourself in response. Anything in this realm that you rarely talk about or share is in greatest focus.
As the New Moon arrives on Nov. 20, it may become suddenly apparent that an agreement with someone needs some unexpected renegotiation, based on what you’ve been learning about your relationship to what’s long been “yours alone.” While this could feel disruptive, it could also very well result in a more stable rebalancing between you and this other person. With these insights should come even greater peace of mind and freedom of movement in the coming months.
SCORPIO — Are you feeling called to rethink how you express a core value? For example, generosity is one of your most remarkable qualities, yet it’s also closely tied to your self-esteem. Meaning, you may have a history of finding it difficult to locate your self-worth independent of how much you can give to others, and to the world around you. Mercury’s retrograde looks like an ideal opportunity for you to understand that dynamic better.
Have you tied your sense of worth to something that is “yours” but not actually “you”? Once you make that distinction clearer for yourself, you should find it easier to stand in who you are and freely use (or give away) what is yours — without feeling like your very existence depends on it.
During the Nov. 20 New Moon in your sign, a particularly personal insight in response to a surprising individual or event may be your key to understanding this whole month. An eccentric choice, swerve, or bombshell may simply be a sign this person is revisiting a deep inner reconfiguration process of their own, and not an attempt to cause chaos for you. In other words, it’s likely not about you. However, you can still use any surprises as inspiration to take stock of just how well resourced you are. Listening carefully to your intuition during the New Moon and again on Nov. 29 could offer key clues to help you connect additional dots — and continue living your values with less cost to yourself.
SAGITTARIUS — You know how ducks seem to move placidly across a pond, but below the surface their feet are paddling madly? It looks like you have an opposite situation going on: your mind is lit up and your physical energy has kicked into high gear, yet as you express yourself and make bold moves, you may be feeling like something just beneath the surface is moving at a slower pace or urging you to quietly focus inward.
As Mercury stationed retrograde in your sign on Nov. 9, did your perspective shift regarding some matter you’ve only recently decided or put into action? Take particular note if you identify with the decision or desire very closely. Appearing to reverse course may feel uncomfortable if you’re concerned others will question your convictions or how well you know yourself. However, this promises to be an incredibly useful process for you. It’s not every day you get a guided tour of your blind spots.
The Nov. 20 Scorpio New Moon looks like just such an opportunity. The key to using the New Moon well is to heed and address any surprise disruptions to your health or your workplace without settling only for their surface meaning: such events this month are a symptom or signpost alerting you to a core need, desire, or piece of yourself you’ve apparently forgotten about or repressed. Once you become aware of it you can reclaim it. Reclaiming will help ensure your actions moving forward land exactly where your conscious thoughts intend.
CAPRICORN — What sort of impulses have you been feeling so far this month? Have you taken a moment to really track them? I ask because it looks like the next month-plus could feature a sensation akin to antsy-ness. Not in a “bad” way. But the cause, and how to address it or express the energy, could be hard to pin down. If you’re feeling frustrated and aren’t sure why, try a long walk, run, or other vigorous activity, preferably outdoors where you can get a more expansive view of your horizons (such as from a mountaintop, rooftop, or across a large body of water or field). As you do, notice whether a solution emerges from seemingly out of nowhere.
Around the Nov. 20 Scorpio New Moon in particular you should get some clues, as Mercury leaves the area of your chart describing the parts of yourself that are most hidden from you. The image describes information about unconscious urges, desires, and irritations being carried back into the open — specifically into some kind of social or community space that would welcome your gifts and talents.
Even if this sounds slightly uncomfortable, it’s good news: these people will likely remind you that sharing feelings and thoughts is essential for relationships of all kinds to be able to keep flowing, growing, and finding their own level, just like water. Reacquainting yourself with that sensation might offer just the insight you need to reinvent some habits of self-expression — and connect with someone who’d love to help you out.
AQUARIUS — Have you ever watched a scene in a film or TV show where a kid eagerly runs outside to play with their friends, only to have the parent call them back in before they’ve even made it down all the stairs, reminding them to take out the garbage or feed the dog first? November’s Mercury retrograde might feel a little like that. It’s like your thoughts have been making a beeline for the freedom and connection you find in your favorite group activities, and in the ways you can connect to your sense of social mission, but suddenly some unfinished responsibilities call you back into the “house” of your professional world.
Does something related to a career goal need to be revised with an eye toward taking out some metaphorical garbage? Do you need to rethink how you feed your calling in life?
Come Nov. 20, Mercury merges with the Scorpio New Moon to intensify the message. Insights at this time should help you to connect the dots between your more worldly aspirations, the work you’ve been doing to get clearer on your values (or shore up income), and how your physical and emotional health supports or hinders your daily work and ability to be of service. Sensing into those connections should also ease the way if something related to your sense of security unexpectedly needs to be revisited to be able to move forward with a goal. What transforms for you in the process will be well worth taking public.
PISCES — Recent steps you’ve taken onto a bigger professional stage seem to have inspired you to keep moving in this direction. Yet while you continue taking bolder action, your mind appears drawn to do some backtracking in the coming weeks as Mercury retrogrades. This looks less like the typical Piscean need for regular, self-protective withdrawal from others’ energies and more like a need to go deep before you go big.
To use a metaphor: something about this reminds me of traveling abroad and focusing all your exploration within a single city, rather than taking one of those far-ranging tours where you’re in a new city or country every other night. Immersion has a way of changing us more deeply. But we don’t notice how much until we return home and go to work, and realize that we’re approaching life from a decidedly new perspective.
There’s some matter of personal philosophy, spirituality, or meaning and purpose you’re being called to revisit, revise, or reclaim. You might need to confront some surprisingly stuck opinions along the way. As Mercury aligns with the Scorpio New Moon on Nov. 20, you’ll likely feel palpably how regenerative this process can be for your thinking — and, in turn, for your sense of who you are and what you’re able to birth as a creative being. This will translate to greater inner stability as you push out further in new ways in the coming months.
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