This week marks the cazimi point in Mercury’s retrograde, and then on the 13th, both Mercury and Venus turn direct again.
This Mercury retrograde uncovers spaces where we have all-or-nothing, good-or-evil thinking. These are spaces where mistakes feel like they carry huge consequences and so we can build shame cycles around them.
Here’s the thing: the mistake isn’t the problem. The shame-based thinking is the problem.
This week is a good time to look for intuitive insights about where in your life you make mistakes into a commentary on your value. I would bet you a dime that you don’t do this in every area of your life, but that there are discrete places where you do this.
Healthy shame alerts us to a space where we can take accountability. Unhealthy shame centers our self-loathing in a way that can even become narcissistic.
So, this week, remember that you are a human and meant to be a human. If there is any space where you demonize mistakes, get curious about what needs are underneath that reaction. There is definitely a more effective way to meet that need than shame. Allow yourself to sit in the discomfort of the reaction. The New Moon is a good time to consider what needs lie dormant underneath any icy lakes of shame you’ve allowed to grow in your life. Check out where Scorpio is in your natal chart for more specific insights.
Photo by Gabriel Herter on Unsplash
Transits
For horoscope principles this week, I am primarily looking at the following celestial events:
Wednesday, November 4, 2026:
Venus retrograding in Libra sextiles Jupiter in Leo at 2:31am Pacific. The benefic planets have a small supportive aspect this day. This is the goddess of beauty and the god of expansion having a friendly moment. Even if you don’t feel this aspect, it is useful for manifesting recognition, harmony, and courageous interdependence.
Mercury retrogrades conjunct to the Sun in Scorpio at 6:24am Pacific. This is the cazimi moment in the Mercury retrograde that provides access to the lessons available to you during this retrograde. If you have been frustrated by delays, misunderstandings, mix ups, and mistakes, pay attention to the threads that connect these experiences and the shifts available to allow them.
Thursday, November 5, 2026:
Mars enters pre-retrograde shadow in Leo at 7:33am Pacific. Mars will be retrograde from January 10, 2026, until April 1, 2027, and the pre-shadow marks the space Mars will return to on April 1 (20’55” of Leo), at the end of the retrograde. This does not shift the energy yet, however it is worth paying attention to the way conflict, courage, dominance, action, and other Mars-related topics occur for you over the next couple of months. This has the tendency to give you an idea of the themes that will come up during the retrograde.
The Sun goes from human design Gate 44 (allowing interference to point your toward how to access and build the hive mind) to Gate 1 (allowing stagnation as a component of growing something new) at 8:00am Pacific. Gate 44 offers us a chance to contemplate ways that we are a fractal representation of the larger community and collective. What interferes with our connection to the collective is the path toward healing that connection. Gate 1 brings us deep into what is stuck and static in our lives. Through sitting with the discomfort of entropy, we can allow newness to grow.
Sunday, November 8, 2026:
The New Moon in Scorpio happens at 11:01pm Pacific. The Sun and Moon are joined at 16 (almost 17) degrees of Scorpio, which is a great time to contemplate the lessons of Gate 1. Scorpio is ruled by Mars in traditional astrology and Pluto in modern astrology, which are both planets of destruction and unafraid of shadow. Scorpio is associated with depth, transformation, secrecy, poison, sharp instruments, sex, death, sharp memory, power, and shadow. All of us have Scorpio in our charts. Consider where this shows up for you and how you can sit with the stagnant or stuck places of your life, allowing them to have a time of freezing over or destruction before new growth blooms. Here’s an image of the New Moon chart:
The Moon travels through Leo, Virgo, Libra, and into Scorpio this week; Jupiter continues in Leo; Saturn and Neptune continue in Aries; Uranus continues in Gemini; Pluto continues in Aquarius.
To follow the Moon transits and track how they impact your energy, subscribe at the paid level! These come out as the Moon transits through the tropical zodiac as part of the Moon Cycles Lab.
Horoscopes
These are the principles to consider for the week of November 2, 2026. It is worth taking a look at both your rising and sun sign horoscopes (visit astro.com to find your rising sign):
Aries: Codependence describes a relationship where both people center the challenges or of one of the people, to the detriment of both. Interdependence describes a relationship where both people are mutually supportive and also take responsibility for their own challenges. This week, your partners may be more needy and even self-critical than usual, and this gives you the “opportunity” to look at whether the way you enforce your boundaries is healthy or not. It only takes one person to end a codependence cycle.
Taurus: Relationship escalator thinking says that there is one right way to do partnership: forever. This kind of thinking can apply to all kinds of partnerships, not just romantic ones. This week, your habits, routines, and health have a boost of beauty, but you also may be tempted into all-or-nothing thinking about your partnerships. When you see mistakes, miscommunications, and misunderstandings in your partnerships, use it as an opportunity to release shame-based thinking, rather than a statement about your value as a person. Revisit what partnership means to you individually, outside of escalators.
Gemini: When we get extreme about our habits, especially related to our physical and mental health, we often end up on the nothing side of the all-or-nothing thinking. This week, notice any tendency to think you’ve handled your health or your habits “right” or “wrong”—that you’ve messed them up or nailed them. Consider what need that extreme thinking is trying to fill and whether there is an easier way to fill it. Your relationship to creativity and children is getting a boost right now, which could give you insight into an easier way to handle your habits than the shaming extremes.
Cancer: Parents often silence or shame children out of seeing children as an extension of themselves. That demonstrates that those parents also shame themselves. This week, notice spaces where it feels acceptable to you to criticize or throw shade on not just your children but also your creative projects. When you catch mistakes in yourself, the children in your life, or your creations, treat it as an opportunity to question the place of shame in your life. Your home and values have a boost of harmony, but shifting your relationship with shame can be beautiful too.
Leo: We say people talk a big talk to mean that they boast about potentials without following through. Right now, by contrast, you are talking a big talk from the heart and out of courage. As long as you speak from the heart and in alignment with your values, rather than only saying what you think people want to hear, what you say has power right now. It is also important to keep your private spaces private. Just because people know what you value does not mean they need to know about every mistake you’ve made or insecurity you’ve had, unless it is safe to share that. After you’ve courageously shared, renew your commitment to protecting what you hold private.
Virgo: When we are children, we assume that the communication habits, whether healthy or unhealthy, of our families are how everyone communicates. By the time we become adults, most of us have realized that the spoken or unspoken rules of communication within families are not universal, but they remain habit. This week, consider how your communication reflects your values, which are more clear to you than they usually are. You may be misunderstood more than usual right now, and this is an invitation to slow down and align your communication, especially with people in your inner circle, with what you most deeply value.
Libra: If we are willing to embrace them, mistakes are trainers to help us see beyond binary, good-or-evil thinking. But, when we default to shame around mistakes, especially mistakes around money or values, we can miss the opportunity to expand and learn from mistakes. This week, you are experiencing a boost from your social groups, even if you also feel conflict or judgment about that. At the same time, mistakes, misunderstandings, and delays around money and values may trigger old all-or-nothing thinking. If you can, allow yourself to be a human with a spectrum ways you engage with your values, rather than demonizing your mistakes.
Scorpio: One of the reasons many of us avoid vulnerability around sensitive issues is that sharing risks misunderstandings that matter or hurt. If people don’t know our deep secrets, it protects them from scrutiny. This can be healthy protection, and even spaces where we keep secrets from ourselves can be necessary protection, but when it creeps into repressing ourselves it can harm our integrity of self. This week, notice any spaces where you reject yourself or want to gloss over pain. If you are ready to accept parts of yourself that you have rejected in the past, do so with gentleness and let it be messy.
Sagittarius: Wisdom and intelligence are two different things, and both of them have inner and outer expressions. Intelligence is about acquiring knowledge, while wisdom is the ability to apply knowledge and experience toward practical judgment. This week, your social groups have the opportunity to experience luck related to higher learning travel, though this ultimately might bring up loneliness for you. If that comes up, consider how you talk to yourself. Think about the most intelligent and wise ways you have seen adults talk to children, and commit to implementing them in how you talk to yourself.
Capricorn: One of the differences between misunderstanding and manipulation is that the former is easy to correct while the latter tends to persist despite corrections. Honesty does not need to be cruel in order to correct either misunderstandings or manipulations, though. This week, check in with yourself about misunderstandings that may be happening with friends, whether it is you doing or receiving the misunderstandings. Look for any instinct to remind friends how they should act around you, and consider tendencies to think of people as with you or against you. If you feel lonely, allow it. In the midst of loneliness, this is a good week to receive support in your career and reconsider who you are as a friend.
Aquarius: When we are lonely, many of us try to escape the feeling by surrounding ourselves with activities or people. But, ultimately, most loneliness is a healthy signal that we are ignoring or rejecting a part of ourselves, which is something we are best suited to solve ourselves. This week, revisit your personal ethos about partnership and when loneliness comes up, take it as an invitation to revisit your partnership agreements with yourself, rather than distracting yourself from it. Also, notice any rigid thinking you have around your career. Consider how you can allow yourself to be fully human instead of Winning or Losing at work, and remember mistakes do not define you or anybody else.
Pisces: One of the common ways people become absorbed into cults is by finding something that genuinely betters their lives. Then, we develop a consensus bias, where because other people agree with us, we become suspicious of people who have found something else that betters their lives. We start to believe we are Right and other people are Wrong. This week, notice if this Mercury retrograde has brought up challenges to that kind of all-or-nothing thinking. For this New Moon, consider how you can allow your belief system to be nourishing to you and also see how other peoples’ beliefs might be healthy too, even if they are different.
To find out specifically how these transits apply to your chart, get your natal chart reading here. We go through your human design and astrological natal charts as well as the impacts of any major transits happening. It’s the best!