Día de los Muertos - 1st and 2nd 

New moon- 13th (Beaver, Scorpio)

Thanksgiving - 23rd 

Full moon - 27th (Beaver, Gemini)

 

A note: This month, I will be supplementing the tarot reading with the Offerings Oracle, an Espiritismo deck which helps connect us with the desires of our good spirits and ancestors. This is a way that we can tend to our altars, beyond the confines of capitalism.

 

The name for the month of November is derived from the word novem, Latin for nine. This is because November used to be the ninth month of the Ancient Roman calendar. In today’s calendar, it is the eleventh month. Numerologically, this means we will be reaping the rewards of what’s been learned on our solitary journeys. We are in an autumnal period where we are prepared to shed what no longer serves us to make way for new growth. We will also be transforming other aspects of ourselves that we’d like to keep, but want to relate to in a new way that is more in alignment with who we’ve become. In a newer sense, we will be exercising our wills this month for moral strength and purpose. Rather than using sheer force, we will be cocreating with the wild aspects of our psyche.

 

For the new moon, we may want to focus on where we want to build our home, and what we are most passionate about. For the full moon, we’ll want to think about preparing shelter for the upcoming gestational winter period. 

 

Though this month is more dedicated towards our solitary will and goals, we will also want to be thinking about familial themes. The month begins with el Día de los Muertos, a Mexican holiday in which the lives of the ancestral deceased are celebrated. This reminds us that even when we are focused on individual growth, we are still supported by and in connection with our ancestors. At the tail of November, Thanksgiving will ask us to consider who is family, how we connect back to them, and where we want to direct our gratitude. We may also spend extra time on fostering a gratitude practice this month.

 

Energy of the Month: Reversed Death ~You Make Me Wanna Die by the Shivas~

 

Offerings Oracle: Rest - Tend to the altar of the self by allowing the self to rest and rejuvenate. For ourselves, for our ancestors who could not, so we can regain the energy and capacity to pursue our dreams.

 

Other Tools: Ritualizing grief, sacred burial, eulogy

 

In October, Death presented itself in our spirit sector. We likely made use of the opportunity to approach spirituality in a new way, including incorporating ancestor work. This month, we are asked again to work with Death in a more holistic sense. Where are we struggling to let go of old ways of operating that are holding us back? These are typically carried over from old versions of ourselves that leave us feeling unneeded, unwanted, on our own, and not treated well. Yet we feel attached to and even infatuated with the inner critic or coach that reinforces these old ways, perhaps because they serve as a defense mechanism, feel like a familiar companion, or feel necessary to get ourselves on track. We are encouraged this month to let go. 

 

Communal energies such as those experienced during el Día de los Muertos further encourage us to ask our ancestors wise and well to help us work through this. They see and value our work in being the intergenerational cycle breakers, and want to help us succeed. Letting go may make us feel like we have lost our heads and our hands–as though we have become senseless, useless, and unable to function. When we feel this way, we need to find and operate from our core –not the face we present to others. Not the self we have become familiar with operating for so long because we knew no other way of doing so. This is the version of ourselves that was on autopilot. We need to strip everything down to the essential in order to ground ourselves in the new life we want to bring to fruition. We must do this in order to really see and bring about the change we want to see in our lives. If we operate the same way, things will go on in the same way. It takes change to make change. 

Love: Reverse Page of Swords ~Eddie My Love by Brigitte Calls Me Baby~

 

Offerings Oracle: Service- Being of service to our community, our loved ones and our partners can help us get out of our own heads. Giving back will help us to foster reciprocal, non-extractive relationships with the good spirits of our altar and the land. This translates back to our love lives as well.

 

This month, we feel like we are stumbling in our interactions with love interests, partners, or loved ones. It feels as though we do not know when to use the sword or when to put it away back into its scabbard. The sword in this case could be our voice in expressing needs or boundaries. We don’t know when to cut through or away at an obstacle, use the sword in our defense, or put it away in peace. We have a hard time finding a middle ground right now between overzealousness or restraining ourselves. Right now, the impulse is to overcome this by way of willpower. We are very much caught up in our own thoughts, and trying to think our way to a solution. The issue is that we are trying to do all this on our own within the confines of our minds. Communication improves through practice with a partner. We have a responsibility to communicate with others–so that they may meet our needs and we meet theirs. 

 

We may also find that we thought we knew ourselves and others more than we actually do. We need to engage with another to see where our understanding is limited. Some notions may need to be explored and strengthened further. The other has the ability to see through this, to see our true selves. This is what makes us love them or the idea of them. We yearn to find acceptance and validation from them, and are waiting on it. In reality, we must first give these things to ourselves: clarity, acceptance, and validation. In terms of love–it seems as though our whole torso and mind is full of love, that we are very heartful. But we are also positioned like an upside down hourglass. This card in tandem with the Death card suggests that we need to finish filtering an issue from the past that is preventing us from taking a fresh approach in love. When we can do this, it will help ground us back in reality and alchemize our love efforts to gold.

 

Money: Queen of Wands ~Rich Girl Mood by Dounia, Kehlani~

 

Offerings Oracle: Moon- We are encouraged to work with the lunar calendar and her phases and cycles. Perhaps now that the eclipse has passed, we can slowly get back into a manifestation practice and moon ritual practice as well.

 

The Queen of Wands shows up to remind us to foster the inward part of our relationship with manifestation and money; the attitude that supports the wealth we are seeking to call in. Rather than win the lottery and lose it all, what we’re looking to do is build the stability and knowledge required to maintain an adequate sum. We are encouraged to note the ways in which we are creatively wealthy, confident and secure within our own being–without worrying about how much others have in comparison to us. When approaching financial decisions, we want to feel selective, cool, and collected. We want to tailor an approach that feels right to our unique values, and remember to make room for an element of fun. After all, this is part of the financial incentive.

 

Death informs this card in several ways–it reminds us to enjoy ourselves while we are here, and what we have acquired we cannot take with us. This card focuses mainly on the individual relationship with money, however we are also mindful of wanting to save some wealth for the future, to assist those who come after us. Our choices become based on our core values as such. In embodying this card, we have a firm grip on what we want our financial life to look like, and how we want to act on it as well as defend it. We are entering a state of flow and receptivity. The Queen builds up her ideas and gets them into sharper focus, before they become fully engendered into the persona. 

 

Work: Reverse Queen of Pentacles ~Queen of Pentacles by Cary Grace~

 

Offerings Oracle: Gratitude- Adapt a 7 day gratitude ritual, attached to something you practice as a regular part of your routine (drinking coffee, for instance). See how life starts to feel after a full week of this practice.

 

In work, our sense of self worth is challenged. In American culture in particular, work as a system can feel oppressive. We accept this because it is associated with gold and grain – but how do we quench our thirst for life, and where do we find enjoyment? We go through a cycle of emotions and perceptions in regards to work – we view it with suspicion and shame when we lack it, and idealize those who seem to have perfect security and status through it. All the while we know that in our current capitalist system, wealth is a zero sum game, where some of the populace must ultimately take on the consequences of plague and ruin. Against this, we try to build a fortress.

 

It may help to see the system from a macroscopic lens, so that we can challenge our thinking in regards to ourselves. Where might we be internalizing oppressive values and inflicting them on ourselves? Where are we giving away our power? Where are we not setting up boundaries at work because we are not recognizing our inherent value? Where are we not recognizing that our time, health, and wellbeing are important, or that we are deserving of dignity and care? Where are we embodying insecurity, whether that’s accessing what we need to survive, or feeling like our self worth depends on what others think of us and our status? Perhaps we feel we fall short because we aren’t a main provider in the family, or we don’t have a high enough career status. Is this a genuine need, or do we have all the essentials? November is a good time to question limiting beliefs that may be pushing us towards or keeping us in jobs or dynamics that are not serving us. There is an opportunity here to shed old values and identities, to allow ourselves to undergo an initiation or renewal and rebirth.

 

Health: King of Pentacles ~Live Well by the Palace~

 

Offerings Oracle: Enter a trance state and meet with your good spirits in the astral realms. Some things can only be known beyond the veil.

 

Additional Tools: Nature, Detailed Manifestation, Discipline, Routine

 

Healthwise, we have the full support of our ancestors and our good spirits. They have differing opinions on the road to be followed, but there is a common consensus when it comes to our health and wellbeing. Health makes us free, wonderfully breathing, blessed and cleansed. It allows us to live well and reap what we sow. It allows us to take our lives and our futures back, and expend our energy into what we are becoming. The King of Pentacles looks far out into the future, and is clear sighted. He is confident in his ability to physically manifest what he envisions. 

 

The king is grounded and sturdy in his older years, and looking out for his long-term health. He has a strong grasp on the parts of his health he is responsible for, and cocreates with the cards he’s been given. The king sees the value of a holistic approach to health, and the careful balancing of physical, mental, and spiritual health. He is well equipped by his lifestyle in this pursuit. He takes care with where to exert his energy, reviews and makes changes to his routine as need be, and shows up continually for his practice.

 

The king gazes intently, slowly, with the intent to savor as much as possible out of life. This provides the motivation necessary to build a consistent and disciplined practice; one that will lend him regenerative power. Rest and rejuvenation is a part of this practice. Taking on physical challenges and witnessing growth is another. Experiencing nature and understanding how we live in reciprocity with it, and seeing the preciousness of life is a third. He is focused on experiencing physical goodness and enjoying the state of bodily existence. Health grants him the freedom to pursue life in the way he sees fit.

 

Spirit: 5 of Pentacles ~Truth by Alex Albert~

 

Offerings Oracle: Sun - Sun bathe, work with solar colors and flowers. Stretch your arms up to the sky as the sun pours strength, energy, vitality, and courage into you.

 

Additional Tools: Ancestor Work and Offerings, Love

 

This November, we may feel riddled by imposter syndrome, internal battle, feeling dumb and defenseless. We may feel heavy and weighed down by the earthly experience. This sensation affects and becomes entwined with the spiritual experience.We feel stuck in the earthly to do list, the need and the struggle to manifest. We feel rather human, limited, and flawed. We feel vulnerable and forget we are not alone in our suffering. As though the things we’ve built could easily slip away. But we do have resources – beginning with our strongest ally (the self), community, our ancestors, and our practice.

 

Overcoming this kind of pain can strengthen us into fighters. Like Pandora’s box, we have flaws, shadow and darkness that we are trying to hold in so no one finds out about them. What we must realize is that everyone has these qualities. It is okay to open the box and let our dark parts (as well as our bright parts) shine. We can have faith in ourselves when we do this. This is more reflective of the truth, and will allow us to better access truth. We are ennobled when we consider there are a million paths in life. Which future do we want to lean into before we die? Even negative thoughts, habits, or experiences could be turned into valuable lessons. The key is in working and trying to love, so that compassion and love can preside.